THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
803 
1843.] 
TULIPS, RANUNCULUSES, HYACINTHS, &c. 
GROOM, Clapham Rise, near London (removed 
* from Walworth) by APPOINTMENT FLORIST TO HER 
MAJESTY, respectfully informs the Nobility and Gentry, that 
his Bulb Catalogue for this autumn is ready, and will be for- 
warded by post on application. He begs to state that he has a 
large stock of the beautiful New Lily (Lilium lancifolium) anda 
fine collection of Auriculas, which he can supply at very moderate 
prices, 
AHOMAS CRIPPS, Nursuryman, Tunbridge Wells, 
respectfully begs to direct the attention of the patrons of 
the ROSE to his Advertisements in former Nos. of this Paper, 
which contain the prices of Collections of that peautiful Flower, 
The Garbeners’ Chronicie. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1843. 
Tuesday, 1, Linnea : 
Wednesday, Noy 
2, Society of Arts 
Wednesday, Nov-29, Botanical 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING Wee 
nm opie ait, boeeaare Me 
Pi 8 
+ 8 Pate 
Tue approaching winter will put to the test the 
real capabilities of hot-water gutters or tanks, as a 
means of heating, and we shall not fail to report all 
well-authenticated results. In the meanwhile a few 
observations as to what is certainly known of their 
efficiency will not be unseasonable. , 
As a means of conveying bottom-heat, for which 
they are best suited, we regard the tanks or gutters 
formed of bricks and cement as being perfect. It is 
indispensable that any contrivance for that purpose 
should permit a small quantity of moisture, and only 
a small quantity, to pass through the sides. When 
steam pipes, hot-water iron pipes, or metal apparatus 
of any kind are employed, the soil is necessarily dried, 
and there is no remedy for that except by watering 
over-head. To do so may be unobjectionable where 
such a material as tan is employed to form a bed in 
which pots are to be plunged, but it is jnadmissible 
when soil rests on the apparatus, and plants are 
expected to grow in that soil. The sides of dry 
metallic troughs will destroy all roots which touch 
them, and unless the greatest care is taken, a large 
portion of the other roots will be injuriously affected 
by the fluctuating humidity of the soil. That cannot 
occur with cemented brickwork, through which an 
insensible perspiration is incessantly passing. diffusing 
itself in the soil, and maintaining an equal humidity. 
A most instructive proof of this was afforded a few 
weeks sincein the Garden of the Horticultural Society, 
when it became necessary to pull down part of a pit 
which had been fitted up in the spring, experiment- 
ally, with hot-water gutters. When this pit was 
filled with mould, the spaces between the gutters 
were filled, and they were themselves covered, with 
sticks and trimmings of Vines and White Mul- 
berries, upon which the earth rested. Upon removing 
these cuttings they were found to have been forming 
roots in abundance, upon the sides of the gutters. 
No evidence could be more conclusive as to the 
genial moisture emitted by the gutters when filled 
with hot-water, so that the roots of the most tender 
plants may be safely trusted in contact with them. 
Weregard, then, the fitness of closed brick gutters for 
r icating bott t to soil to be established 
satisfactorily ; whether they are the best of all con- 
trivances, or whether the arches and youssoirs proposed 
y Mr: Ainger in our volume for 1841, or some si- 
milar contrivance, may not be better is a separate 
question. 
It may, however, and probably will, turn out that 
some peculiar management is necessary where pits 
thus warmed are employed for preserving plants in 
winter; for that transpiration of moisture which is 
80 grateful to growing plants, especially in summer, 
may not suit torpid plants in winter ; and we antici- 
pate many complaints of plants damping off in winter 
in pits heated with hot-water gutters passing through 
soil, tan, cinders, or other materials. But this is an 
inconvenience common to them and the old hotbeds 
which they are destined to displace, and similar pre- 
cautions will be wanted in consequence. 
iy he fitness of hot-water brick gutters for giving air- 
heat in winter is much more open to doubt, in cases 
where, as in all greenhouses, a dry atmosphere is 
required. We have never recommended them except for 
special purposes. Moisture in the form of vapour will 
certainly pass through their cops, and the quantity will, 
we presume, be in proportion to the heat employed ; 
So that the hotter a brick-tank-warmed greenhouse 
may be kept, the damper it will become. It is, how- 
ever, probable that abundant ventilation will diminish 
thisinconvenience ; or if not, that it may be found pos- 
sible to coat the tanks with some paint-like sub- 
stance, which will temporarily arrest the emission of 
vapour. This difficulty, if it should prove one, will 
Not, however, be felt in forcing-houses ; where, on the 
Contrary, it will be a positive advantage. We believe 
an che vee applied when the tanks are hot, will 
ruct ; i 
ae the passage of vapour to a very considerable 
We mention these things thus early in order to put 
Balsenare: on their guard, so that they may not fall 
© the error of imagining that the management of 
houses whose air is warmed with brick-gutters can be 
prudently managed in the same way as if iron-pipes or 
smoke-flues were employed. 
Tis Ie AO See 
Now that the subject of Pine-growing has been 
brought forward, we have many letters attesting the 
truth of the statements that have been published 
regarding the excellence of cultivation at Bicton and 
elsewhere. For ourselves we require no such evidence; 
but for the purpose of satisfying those who remain 
unconvinced, notwithstanding the Longleat Pines 
lately exhibited, and the details furnished last week 
by Mr. Pawson, we publish in another column the 
particulars of some Queens grown at Bowood by Mr. 
Spencer, Lord Lansdowne’s gardener ; and we here 
add the testimony of Mr. Amaziah Saul, Lord For- 
tescue’s gardener at Castle-hill. He states that— 
“ Having lately paid a visit to Bicton, he was muc 
struck by the extraordinary fine Queen Pines, pro- 
duced there by Mr. Barnes. He had not, indeed, an 
opportunity of seeing any of the fruit weighed, but 
judging of them by other fruit of the same variety, 
which he had himself weighed, he has no hesitation in 
affirming that they must have been quite as heavy as 
has been represented by our correspondents.” “If,” 
he continues, “ ‘ Doumhuil’ would take the trouble of 
going to see the plants, I think he would no longer 
doubt the possibility of their producing fruit of the 
weight stated. Let him picture to himself a Queen 
Pine-plant standing about 6ft. high, with leaves 3ins. or 
4ins. broad, and the stem in every way proportionate, 
and then say whether he does not think it possible for 
such a plant to produce a fruit of lbs. or 6lbs. weight. 
T have seen a great many well-grown Pine plants, but 
never any at all equal to those at Bicton.” 
We purposely refrained last week from bringing 
forward evidence of great weights, formerly obtained 
by a few select gardeners, because we regarded them 
either as doubtful, or as exceptions to the general 
rule, or accidental, rather than the consequence of high 
cultivation, 
‘A correspondent, *¢ A. C.,” reminds us that nearly 
40 years ago, Mr. Griflin, a most respectable gardener 
of that day, effected at Kelham nearly as much as 
Mr. Barnes at Bicton and Mr. Murray, at Longleat; 
he haying, in 1802, cut 20 Queen Pines, which 
weighed 87 Ibs. 7 0z., and in 1803 one which weighed 
5 Ibs. 3 oz. ; again, in 1805, 22. of the same sort, which 
together weighed 118 Ibs. 3 0z.; “ giving an average 
not far behind the Little Queens of Bicton of the 
present day.” 
Now we do not in any way question the accuracy 
of this statement; but as we have heard of such a 
thing as troy weight being used for Pine weighing 
instead of avoirdupois, and as we know that large 
gills and heavy crowns, and even a foot of handle, 
have occasionally been added to the weight of Pines, 
it strikes us that modern jnstanees, which are easy to 
verify, are more satisfactory than evidence half a 
century old. 
How these large modern Pines have been obtained, 
we hope in due time to relate 
spare ncaa ape rn 
A COMMENTARY ON CERTAIN PASSAGES IN 
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL WRITINGS OF THE 
LATE ANDREW THOMAS KNIGHT. 
BY W. WOOD. 
(Continued from page 788-) 
No. VI.—On rux CuLrivATION OF THE Prne-Appre, 
—*If the bark-bed could be made to give a steady heat 
(temperature of about 10 degrees below that of the day tem- 
perature of the air in the stove,) I readily admit that the 
plants would thrive better ina compost of that temperature 
than in a colder; for the temperature of the day being 
about 90° or 95°, and that of the night 70°, the mould in 
the pots wiil necessarily acquire nearly the intermediate 
temperature of 80°. Itis true that two disturbing causes 
are in action—the evaporation from the mould and porous 
surface of the pots, and the radiant. heat of the sun ; but 
these causes operate in opposition to each other, and, 
probably, nearly negative the operation or influence of 
each other, as far as respects the temperature of the mould 
in the pots. 
«< Thave never yet seen plants of the same age equally 
strong, nor any produce fruit better—so well swelled, nor 
so rich in flavour. 
«« But I have never“taken off nor shortened a root, no 
taken any other measure to retard the period of fructifica- 
tion, with the prospect of obtaining larger fruit; and my 
lants have always shewed fruit when 14 or 15 months 
old, though propagated from small and young suckers 
and crowns. 
«The compost as before given for Cockscombs is the 
most stimulative of growth. Pine-plants will, however, 
grow perfectly well in composts of different kinds, but 
L have found that they have succeeded best when the mate- 
rials have been fresh, and retaining their organic form; 
particularly if the pots be large relatively to the size of the 
plants, which I think they always ought to be, for the 
mode of cultivation recommended. I have used with 
advantage the haulm of Beans, cut into lengths of about 
an inch each. I found that the plants succeeded best in 
the warmest part of the house, where the flue first enters, 
and where the temperature is very high, varying from 
about 85° to 105°, and the air exceeding dry. 
“Qf Suckers. When the whole of the suckers are re- 
moved at an early period, one or more very strong suckers 
usually spring out below the level of the soil, and from 
these, suffering only one to remain attached to the parent 
stem, and preserving the roots as entire as possible, I have 
propagated with much advantage and have obtained plants 
which shewed fruit strongly at seven months, dating from 
the period at which the sucker appeared like a strong 
head of ‘Asparagus, at the surface of the soil.’’—Hort. 
Trans., vol, iv., p. 543. 
Remarks.—The foregoing statement appears to involve 
and toa great extent, to illustrate, the principles upon 
which a progressive an lative system of cultiva 
tion depends ; while speaking of the medium temperatare 
that is most desirable, and of the opposing agencies of 
absorption by the mould and surface of pots, &c. with the 
radiant heat of the sun, I think that the balance or 
‘negative’? influence of these causes is more or less 
embodied in a former paragraph (p. 788,) where it is 
stated that a due exposure (of plants) to atmospheric 
and solar ugency is requisite; that sentence alluding to 
‘a balance of the power of absorption,” &c. 
The superior growth of the plants and the excellence of 
the fruit, compared with the age of the plants, is a suffi- 
cient proof of the superiority of an accumulative growth 
over an opposite treatment 5 and this instance, connected 
with another cited at the conclusion of the paper, wherein 
Mr. Knight refers to suckers showing fruit at seven 
months, may be adduced as an anticipation in practice of 
what I have advanced in theory (by the light of practice,) 
relative to the highest test of cultivation ; namely, ‘‘ that 
which attains the greatest constitutional vigour within a 
limited period.’”’” The very young state in which the 
suckers were removed further confirms the remark at 
p- 710, that the vital functions of plants are diminished in 
force, in proportion as the primary development of their 
arts is prematurely hardened or matured, whether by 
deficiency or excess of the elements which sustain them ; 
and again, p. 734, “it is the elementary condition of an 
organised being which favours the ultimate development 
of its parts.’ 
namely, that ‘*‘ the accumulative vigour of all plants is 
exactly in proportion to the progressive agency of the 
cause to which they are first subjected,” &c. &c. 
the whole of this instance of cultivation appears to be in 
harmony with first principles. In the first place, we have 
proportions of compost, their texture and qualities, their 
mechanical structure (in pieces, &c.) and arrangement, 
so as to prevent impeded circulation—a method which 
supposes a union of several parts, adapted to a common 
end, and implies a principle of unity with progression, or, 
in other words, progressive transition without breach of 
continuity. This definition is, I conceive, strictly applica- 
ble to a system of cultivation which produces a progres- 
sive and accumulative effect, and strictly in harmony with 
the first principles of Horticulture, which affirm that 
“For the maintenance of a plant in health it is indispensa- 
ble that the supply of fluid by the roots should be continued 
e only means by which this 
continued and uninterrupted supply of fluid may be 
obtained will be by such a combination of materials, of 
their relative proportions, textures, qualities, arrange- 
ments, and exposure to certain agencies, as will be equal 
to maintain a regular progression of the functions of life, 
from the first development to maturity of growth. Such 
is the only law by which a comparatively perfect system 
of cultivation can be established. Every other process 
than that which involves unity of parts with progression 
of growth may be invariably conducive to inferior results, 
but the laws which govern organic and chemical affinities 
will never allow it to be productive of the highest possible 
effects. A disorganization of vegetable structure is 
attended with a loss of functional power which no process 
can entirely re-establish. 
«<A few days after the annexed paper was read, I had 
the pleasure of observing (being on a visit to the President 
&c.) the condition and appearance of the Pine Apple plants 
described by him. The plants, which were then expecting 
the Secretary. 
Remarks.— 
tivation, \ 
were removed or transferred to such large pots in their 
youngest state, yet itis a close approximation to it, and 
may be considered illustrative of a paragraph at page 709, 
viz. :—‘* The leading feature of the former (accumulative) 
js found in its adaptation to attain a maturity of growth, 
apart from the aid of intermediate shifts, by removing 
plants in their youngest state to pots commensurate 
in size with their ultimate vigour and fertility.’ It 
also strongly corroborates the statement at page 734, 
that “The intensity of atmospheric and solar agency 
should be in page the amount of material used in 
ss of potting, &c. 
the igre M Cro be continued.) 
ON THE ATMOSPHERE OF HOTHOUSES. 
(Continued from page 788.) 
Moisture.—It is of especial importance in the manage- 
ment of plants that the atmosphere surrounding them be 
in a proper hygrometric condition : if too moist, they are 
