628 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
[SEpr. 9, 
Plants growing in it are not unlike animals placed 
among food of excellent quality, frozen so hard 
that they cannot bite it. The action of such alkaline 
matter as is obtained by burning is immediately to 
render soluble that which was insoluble, and so to 
convert the vegetable food actually stored in the 
ground into a form on which plants can freely feed, 
The true plan of clearing and preparing such land 
is to fire all the vegetation, standing if possible, in 
order to save labour, but at all events to fire it and 
distribute the resulting ashes over the surface of the 
spongy peat, which forms the soil; the operation 
being followed by ploughing and such other operations 
as will suggest themselves to every farmer, * 
It is known to many farmers, though not to every- 
body, that skilfully ‘reclaimed peat is among the 
richest of all soils. Peat, indeed, and wood-ashes, 
properly mixed, form a manure equal to that from 
cows. An interesting instance of this effect is men- 
tioned by Dr. Dana, with which these remarks may 
be concluded :— 
manure made by any animal, walking either on two legs 
or on four, gs; he 
uses not a shovelful of their manure, but selling that, he 
uses peat and swamp muck, mixed with his spent barilla 
one part of spent ashes to 
three of peat, dug up in the fall, mixed in the spring. 
After shovelling two or three times, it is spread and 
ploughed in. The effect is immediate, and, so far, lasting. 
The effects of these spent ashes alone on sandy loam are 
excellent, it makes the whole quite ‘salvy.? ”” 
THE KILLOGIE; 
A SUBSTITUTE YOR FERMENTING MATERIALS IN HOT- 
BEDS; AND FOR PIPES, FLUES, &C: IN. HOTHOUSES. 
¢ 
* But, connected with the killogie, as applied to heating 
Vineries, I must say something of the construction of the 
rape-house and border, for early forcing especially, but 
for the finer sample of Grapes at all seasons, u 
any gardening book, and under the head « Grapes’? I will 
_28 some will, no doubt, think this quite 
unconnected with the killogie, and consequently foreign 
only entreat suc 
very wellin its way, 
but as I have proved it to be a much better way to drain 
the top of the Vine-border, I should dispense with any 
drainage under, and, on the contrary, put a foot thick of 
clay, grout, or puddle, to keep the moisture in the Vine- 
angle of about 30° to meet the rays of 
the sun at nearly right angles, and after securing excellent 
and some crack compost, you will no 
doubt think as I haye done often, that such a man is 
. Strange enough, he could clearly see the 
necessity of the steep roof, yet ever and anon had a mote 
in his eye in looking at the Vine-border, not to see the 
imperative necessity of holding its face equally well up to 
the rays of the sun. Surely there need not be any argu- 
ment about this, for whoever intends to grow Grapes well, 
must place the Vine roots in a warm medium, at least 
perfectly free from chilling and excessive rains, frost, and 
snow, for these are assuredly fatal to fine Grape-growing ; 
and what more simple method could be devised than 
raising the Vine-border high and dry to meet the summer 
sun ? and by thatching its steep surface during winter you 
change the climate entirely; for as far as that compart- 
ment is concerned, there is ‘no winter in the year; 
for when the winter rain and snow-water, so ruinous to 
the roots\of exotics during their period of rest, are effec- 
materiel for Grape-growing, as renders it almost entirely 
artificial, and places success nearly altogether dependent 
upon skill, and not upon seasons; and though it may be 
no easy task to get prejudiced persons out of the old 
beaten track, yet I fearlessly assert, and that from exten- 
sive observation and experience, that it is impossible to 
earth—the roof only can dry it, and nothing else, and the 
fire, if necessary, which it seldom, if ever, will be, will take 
the chill off ; it would be perfectly ridiculous to have hot- 
water pipes under a Vine-border where heat of such 
coarse quality would do, and where the supply is only 
trivial, and that but for a short time. 
Enormous as the building and labour in erecting such 
a Vine-house as the above section may appear, I must tell 
the readers of Gardeners’ Chronicle that there are 
vineries in Sir Simon Clarke’s gardens containing in their 
cross sections as much bricklayer’s work as this, and 
nearly as steep Vine- borders, and the crops of Grapes you 
have reason to know as well as I were first-rate, 
But leisure fails me. In conclusion, therefore, I beg 
leave to say that it will be found an excellent way to 
warm a bed of earth, to kindle a fire under it in vaults 
7 feet high; and to prevent water lodging in the 
Vine-border, I would give it no quarter there at all, from 
the time people take up their Potatoes till they begin to 
plant them again in March, by having wooden shutters 
6 feet by 4, supported on rafters, forming a roof per- 
fectly waterproof. No more complaints of cold wet subsoil 
or bad drainage,—no more talk of your Vines losing root 
in the winter—the earth, as well as the other elements of 
fire and water, for Grape-growing, are, or may be, now at 
your command. If, therefore, the Vines are cold or hot, 
Tich or poor, wet or dry, the media in which they are 
placed, as regards both branch and root, being now of 
27 FE 
ROUND 
TEVEL 
your own choosing, the blame or credit arising from the 
culture has you for its author and its end.—A. Forsyth, 
Alton Towers, 8th August, 1843. 
DOUBLE FLOWERS—THEIR ORIGIN. 
Tux inclosed specimens appear to me curious, as in 
some degree connected with the origin of double flowers. 
They consist of plants of the Gentiana amarella, found in 
a wild state, covered with abortive buds, or rather minute 
double flowers. Tach head consists of innumerable small 
petal-like purplish scales, having in their centre a tuft of 
still smaller green scales. A plant covered with these 
little heads not infrequently bears, especially near the top 
of the stem, one or two more perfect flowers. B 
examining these, a series can be shown, by which the 
stamens are seen to become deformed, and gradually to 
pass into small petals and scales. ‘The pistil also can be 
traced, becoming more and more foliaceous, The change 
in the pistil has been effected in several flowers, whilst 
the stamens have remained nearly perfect. In the same 
manner I have observed in double Violets and some other 
garden flowers, that the pistil, contrary to the general 
rule, is metamorphosed before the stamens. In other 
semi-perfect flowers of the Gentian, the divisions of the 
corolla and the number of the stamens, with their fila- 
ments flattened, are increased ; in others, besides the five 
ordinary stamens, in an imperfect state, the divisions of 
the corolla are partially converted into stamen-like bodies : 
if this conversion had been effected, the flower would have 
become apetalous. In a Bladder-nut (Staphylea) grow- 
ing in a shady wood, I last summer noticed a similar 
fact, namely, that the petals showed a tendency 
to form additional stamens. The plants of the Gen- 
tiana bearing the little tufts are generally, but not 
always, dwarfer than the perfect plants; their leaves 
are less pointed, and the entire plant is much less sym- 
metrical. The much greater number of the imperfect 
flowers on one plant than are ever produced of the perfect, 
shows, I presume, that the metamorphic change must be 
determined early in the plant’s life. Except in their 
small size, less beauty, and in the occasional presence on 
the same stem of flowers in different stages of monstrosity ; 
these purple tufts seem to be essentially similar in their 
nature to the double flowers of Horticulturists. 
The plants of the Gentiana in both states grow mingled 
together on a very hard, dry, bare chalk bank ; but those 
with the abortive flowers grow on rather the barest spots, 
where it was surprising that anything could grow. You 
state in your “ Theory of Horticulture,” that the origin of 
double flowers is not well understood. Some have attri- 
buted it to excess of food; but the dry chalk bank surely 
was not too rich a soil ; and I may mention that late last 
autumn, I found on an adjoining field of wretchedly sterile 
clay, great numbers of the Ranunculus repens, producing 
semi-double flowers, some haying three, some additional 
rows of petals. The partial or entire sterility of double 
flowers is generally attributed to their doubleness ; but is 
not this putting the effect before the cause? It is wellknown 
that plants (and indeed animals, as I could show by a 
series of facts) when placed out of their natural conditions, 
become, often from apparently slight and unintelligible 
causes, sterile. How many American plants fail in pro- 
ducing pollen in this country ! the anthers of the Persien 
and Chinese Lilacs, as I observed this summer, are as 
destitute of good pollen as if they had been hybrids. 
Other plants produce good pollen, but are defective, as it 
appears, in their ovules, as their germen never swells, 
Linnzeus has remarked that most Alpine plants, when 
cultivated in the lowlands, are rendered quite sterile. In 
most of these cases, we see that sterility is compatible 
with long life and health. Is it, then, too bold a theory 
to suppose that all double flowers are first rendered by 
some change in their natural condition, to a certain de- 
gree, sterile; and that their vessels being charged with 
organizable matter in excess, (which would he greatly 
formed by high cultivation,) it is converted into petals— 
the organs which are nearest in their morphological nature 
and position to those whose functions are checked? Is 
there any shadow of truth in this theory, or is it an abor- 
tive one, as are the buds of the Gentiana?—C. Darwin, 
[We can only say that this is at least as reasonable an hypo- 
thesis as any that we have seen; but the greater frequency 
of double flowers in gardens where soil is rich, than in 
fields where it is poor, offers some difficulty in the way of 
Mr. Darwin’s speculation.] P.S.—T also send a curious 
Cabbage-leaf, grown into the form of a perfect funnel, like 
the fold of paper into which grocers put sugar, t was 
borne on a long footstalk from the centre of an old stalk, 
from which a Cabbage had been cut this summer, a 
remember that De Candolle describes pitchers at the end 
of the leaves of some Cubbages, which he compares to 
those of the Nepenthes. Is this leaf something of the 
same kind? [Yes. 
ROSES IN POTS.—No. II. 
Tris an excellent plan to remove all the Tea-scented, 
Chinese, and tender varieties of Noisette Roses, to a cold 
pit in October, or before the autumnal rains set in, This 
is not only to afford them protection from frost, but many 
tender varieties, especially those grown on their own 
roots, are liable to suffer materially from the rains in 
autumn, Through the winter, the lights or covering 
should be removed in fine weather, that the plants may 
have as’ much air as possible ; and being in a state of 
comparative rest, they will require but little water, 
Where a cold pit is unattainable, such varieties may be 
removed to the north side of a wall or fence, and a tem- 
porary frame erected ; upon this a light covering of Fern 
or Beech-boughs may be laid in the manner of a thatch, 
which will throw off the heavy rains, and form no small 
protection against frost, at comparatively little trouble. 
The front of this erection may be left open, that air may 
circulate freely amongst the plants to prevent damp, and 
the pots should be covered over with Fern or stable-litter. 
a selecting plants from the ground to grow in pots, 
I prefer such as have grown moderately through the 
summer; they will be more compact, and the wood 
solid and better ripened than that of those which have 
grown very vigorously; and it is of great importance 
to have them potted early in the season. As before 
mentioned, most of the sorts will bear removing by the 
middle of September,—certainly the varieties of Tea- 
scented, Chinese, and Bourbon. 
The operation of pruning may be performed at two 
seasons; in November for early flowering, and in March, 
or even April, to procure a later bloom. The first season 
after removal the plants will require to be pruned closer 
than at subsequent periods; and it is worthy of remem- 
brance, that the flowers should be produced as near home 
as possible, or, in other words, that the plants may 
become close aud bushy. The Moss, Provins, Gallica, 
and most of the autumnal Roses, may be pruned in close, 
to within three or four eyes of the base. With the excep- 
tion of a few very robust growers, there is little fear of 
pruning these varieties out of shape or flower. But with 
the hybrids of Chinese it is far otherwise 3 they are more 
disposed to form wood, and should be well thinned out, 
and the remaining shoots left longer. 
Tn pruning all Roses, where the shoots are crowded or 
cross each other, it is beneficial to cut some ‘entirely out, 
that those left for flowering may stand a good distance 
apart; for if too many be allowed to remain, they will 
become drawn, and produce weak flowers. It is, in fact, 
much in favour of a good bloom, to have the shoots 
thinned during the previous summer, which assists in 
ripening the wood. And, as a general rule in pruning, 
weak growers should be cut in close, strong growers left 
long, and those of intermediate growth pruned in propor- 
tion. Soft, unripened wood should be invariably removed. 
The hardy varieties (pruned and not pruned) may now 
(November) be removed to an airy situation in the 
garden, and plunged in the ground up to the rims of the 
pots from one to two feet apart, according to the size or 
habit of the plant. It is well with regard to Roses grown 
in pots that they be always kept plunged. 
To obviate the disadvantages following the plunging of 
plants in pots, namely, their liability to root through into 
the ground, and the facility afforded for worms to work 
into the pots, I bave the soil taken out of a sufficient 
depth, and a seed-pan with the hole enlarged placed at 
the bottom in an inverted position, upon which the pot is 
placed. It answers perfectly, and further secures an 
effectual drainage. 
After the plants are plunged, the pots should be covered 
over with stable-dung, to protect the roots at the top from 
frost in winter, and to keep the surface of the soil moist 
through the summer. About March, the tender varieties 
may be bro! {from their winter residence, and treated 
in Lke manner; and such as were left for late pruning, 
be pruned. Where the buds push out very numerouslyy 
the strongest aud those which have a tendency to grow 
outwards should be selected to remain for flower, and 
the weak ones rubbed off. The plants should be 
frequently looked over for the purpose of destroying the 
grab, which will otherwise eat into the buds, and spoil 
the bloom; from worked plants all suckers: or wild 
shoots should be cut out as scon as they appear, and in 
