1843.] 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
819 
Just published, in One Volume 8vo., price 3s. 6d. to Fellows of 
the Society, and 5s. to others, (or postage free, upon receipt of 
@ Post-office order, price 5s. to Fellows of the Society, or 6s. 6d, 
to others, 
A CATALOGUE or roe FRUITS CULTIVATED 
in the GARDEN of the HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY or 
LONDON. (Third Edition.) Containing the Names, Synonyms, 
Colour, Size, Form, Quality, Use, Time of Ripening, and many, 
other particulars concerning all the most important varieties of 
hardy Fruit cultivated in this country. 
Sold at the House of the Society, 21, Regent-street, and also 
by Loneman and Co., Paternoster-row; J. Harcuarp, Picea- 
dilly; Rimeway, Piccadilly ; Riviverons, Waterloo-place; and 
by the principal Booksellers in all parts of the Empire. 
sew Copies of the Second Edition of this Catalogue may be 
had at the reduced price of 1s, 6d. cach. 
Che Gardeners’ Chronicie. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1843. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
Wednesday, Nov. 29 { 2 ean aggtecsitaedk 
Ae 
ty of Arts 
Tuesday, Deo, 5{ Horticultral « one 
_ Lieu is an agent perfectly indispensable to plants 
in 4 growing state, and they generally thrive in pro- 
Portion to the amount of it they receive. It is the 
Stimulus which puts in action all their most powerful 
and important vital forces. Hence it is a principle 
M modern gardening to provide houses used for culti- 
Vation with the most transparent substance that can 
be procured for their roofs, and to employ means of 
diminishing the quantity of light at those seasons when, 
under the artificial circumstances to which plants are 
€xposed in hothouses, it becomes necessary to do so. 
or this end glass is universally employed, and it is 
hot likely to be superseded. 
ut some plants never require bright light; Cucum- 
bers for example. Others need it only during the 
Summer ; as many sorts of Greenhouse plants. Others 
gain, can dispense with it at the early period of their 
Stowth, though it is indispensable to them afterwards. 
n all such instances any substance which is cheap, 
Waterproof, and not brittle, although not more trans- 
Parent than horn, would be invaluable to gardeners ; 
and accordingly various attempts have been made to 
deprive paper or cotton linen of their opacity by some 
Sfeasy or resinous preparation which shall repel water. 
We cannot say that the attempts have been hitherto 
Very successful. In some cases the application of the 
Substance to be employed has been difficult ; in others 
ls preparation has proved an obstacle ; and sometimes 
even its cost. 
At last the proposed end seems to have been 
attained by Mr. George Whitney, of Shrewsbury, if 
We are to judge from the statements that have been 
made to us, and by the specimens that we have seen. 
There is now before usa piece of cotton linen, and 
another of muslin, which are certainly all that can be 
wished for on the score of transparency and texture, 
oth prepared by some waterproofing substance which 
r, Whitney has contrived. 
, ve understand that this gentleman was led to turn 
his attention to the subject in consequence of having 
Ost the larger part of his wall-fruit for three or four 
Years consecutively. Barly last spring he covered his 
trees with common calico coated with the composition, 
men the blossoms were found to expand fully, and a 
Top of fruit much greater than the trees could support 
Was the result. He did not take the coverings off by 
Te €Xcept to thin the fruit, till the latter end of May. 
thonthee was not only abundant and very fine, but a 
a ee than his neighbours’. This success 
line sl Y induced him to try a thinner material 
Aa ee Sale and ce si the fruit 
quality, er them is represented to have been of good 
ee iM eg can be entertained of the plan being suc- 
mate or many purposes, and we recommend our 
iGie he friends to put it in practice—on a small 
Bat » Dowever, at first, until they have ascertained the 
Means of proceeding. 
4 me Tegret to find it still necessary to repeat the 
oe a formerly (p. 587, 1842) gave, as to the 
oe “4 ion of perennial weeds. Everybody is troubled 
lookin aoe jall wish to remove them : but many stand 
© me, on helplessly, as if there were no remedy for 
Mischief, “Fields continue to be smothered with 
Thistles and Docks; lawns swarm with 
wie and Dandelion; and gardens are overrun 
Very feluch grass in all parts of the country, except a 
simple a And yet the means of destruction are 
tl nines the result certain, and the expense no more 
wae auvolned in a small exercise of patience, and the 
is a few common tools. 
it is x we formerly said we now repeat, viz.: that 
if its ety impossible for any plant to exist long 
Consequence are perpetually destroyed. It is of no 
what tie ce whatever what the plant Js, or under 
Hane eae it grows—perish it must under the 
iy Hv’ toss of its foliage. For the reasons why this 
80, ‘we can only refer to the place above quoted. 
‘For the proof, we shall call the first person who has | tion mounted only to the comparatively trifling outlay 
steadily set about cutting off the crowns of the Dande- 
lion in his grass-plots. A year ago, some garden- 
groundwas infested with Gout-weed (A%gpodium poda- 
graria), a very troublesome plant to eradicate ; and in 
the instance in question circumstances rendered it in- 
convenient to take up the Ferns and other herbaceous 
plants which occupied the ground infested with the 
Gout-weed, which had insinuated itself among 
them and intermingled its roots in all directions 
with the plants it was desirable to preserve. A 
little girl was taught to watch the Goutweed as it 
sprang up in the spring, and to pinch off its leaves 
whenever they were four or five inches long. The 
first pinching produced no effect, the second very 
little, and the experiment was pronounced a failure. 
Patience, however, came in aid of the operation, and 
after the third destruction of the leaves, which was by 
Midsummer, the Goutweed was evidently much en- 
feebled. And now the previous perseverance began to 
tell: the leaves were thin and pale, and grew but 
slowly. The merciless pinching was continued, and 
by the end of September leaves ceased to appear. 
pon examining the ground the other day, the subter- 
ranean stems and roots of the Goutweed were found 
wholly dead. 
Now what was true in that case would be equally 
true in all others—a fact which cannot be too well 
remembered, for the losses occasioned by weeds, on a 
arge scale, no one can count. In the last Number of 
the « Journal of Agriculture” * two similar instances 
are mentioned by Mr, Boyd, of Innerleithen, which 
deserve to be mentioned in connexion with this 
subject :-— 
“ An extensive bog on the farm of Gemscleuch, on 
the estate of Thirlstane, the property of Lord Napier, 
was surface-diained some years ago at a very con- 
siderable expense, and, no~ doubt, in the confident 
expectation that it would be rendered highly pro- 
ductive in consequence ; but, in place of this being 
the result, to the ist and sad disappoi 
ment of Mr. Laidlaw, the tenant, it produced, the 
first year, a most extensive crop of Thistles—so exten- 
sive, indeed, that the tenant at once and for all 
abandoned the idea of eradicating them. It is, how- 
ever, consistent with my knowledge, from a recent 
experiment, conducted upon a scale of considerable 
extent, that cutting Thistles two consecutive years 
will destroy them.” 
ilere we have the destruction of leaves carried on 
with much less zeal than might have been employed, 
and the consequence was the loss of two years in the 
attempt to extirpate the Thistles. If cut as fast as 
they shot up, they would have disappeared in one year. 
The other case is that of the common Brake, one of 
the most difficult of all plants to get rid of without 
irrigation :— 
* From time immemorial, the inhabitants of Inner- 
Jeithen have been accustomed to collect Ferns annually 
from the adjoining mountains for the purpose of 
pitting, or securing their Potatoes during the winter 
months. ‘or a number of years past, also, many of 
them have been in the habit of keeping pigs, and, 
from their having the command of no other material 
for litter than the Fern, the competition in collecting 
it has, in consequence, become of late years so very 
great, that many of the pig-feeders, (unwittingly for 
themselves,) in place of allowing the Ferns to come to 
maturity, as usual, before cutting, have mown down 
large quantities of them while young and succulent, 
This has had completely the effect of eradicating them 
from the soil. n~some patches, however, a few 
sickly plants are still left to point out the ground 
where, five or six years ago, Ferns were produced in 
the greatest abund s an additional proof that 
repeated cuttings of the Ferns while young and 
succulent will eradicate them from sheep pasture, 
may mention that in the year 1834, Mr. Ballan- 
tyne, of Holylee, engaged two experienced mowers, 
for five weeks, to cut the Ferns on Blackcleuch and 
of 25/. sterling, being at the rate of 5s. an acre.” 
To this we need only add, that more frequent cut- 
tings would also have accelerated the destruction of 
the Ferns as well as of the Thistles. 
w —————— 
A COMMENTARY ON CERTAIN PASSAGES IN 
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL WRITINGS OF THE 
LATE ANDREW THOMAS KNIGHT. 
BY W. WOOD. 
(Continued from page 803.) 
No. VII.— On tHe TRANSPLANTATION oF PLANTS 
WITH SPINDLE-SHAPED Roors.—‘‘It is a generally re- 
ceived opinion amongst Gardeners that plants with spindle- 
shaped roots cannot be advantageously cultivated by trans. 
plantation, and it cannot be questioned that the most 
perfect crops of plants of this habit, both in quantity and 
quality, will be obtained by permitting them to retain their 
first situation and position. Fibrous-rooted plants, also, I 
am inclined to infer, from the grounds above stated, will 
be found to succeed well under the same mode of treat- 
ment, for these would readily emit in great abundance new 
superficial roots.”’— Hort. Trans., vol. vi., p. 370, (1826.) 
The above evidence affords still further and clearer 
proofs, that a Progressive and Accumulative — system 
of cultivation is the ultimate result of cultivation ; 
although as previously stated in the instance of the Bal- 
sams, in which intermediate shifts were dispensed with, it 
did not occur to me at that period that such a system 
could ever be applied to the culture of plants of slow 
growth, yet a conviction that such a principle does really 
exist in nature, and would be ultimately successful in the 
treatment of plants generally, was my decided opinion 
from that period up to the present; and each successive 
instance of an approach to it has only served to confirm 
my expectations—that had the eminent experimentalist 
whose papers haye done so much to illustrate and confirm 
all subsequent experience, been permitted to continue his 
valuable labours, I have no doubt but ere this, a clear 
conviction and practical insight into the ultimate effects 
of cultivation would have led him to affirm what I sin- 
cerely believe to be consistent with the principles of Hor- 
ticulture, that, physiologically considered, shifting is but e 
substitute for a worse evil. 
No. VIII.—On toe CULTIVATION OF THE PINE- 
AppLu.— Concluded a long course of experiments upon 
tbe cultivation of the Pine-Apple, and in ascertaining the 
effects of excess of drought and of moisture, and of very 
high and of very low temperature, I have of course sacri 
ficed many plants in experiments, which I neither found 
nor expected to find successful; but from these experi- 
ments, &c., much valuable information was gained, &e. 
&é. 6.” Fort. Trans., vol. vii. p. 409 (1828.) 
Remarks.—Such is the honourable testimony borne to 
the valuable results of philosophical research and inquiry, 
and it would be well if those who are attempting to apply 
the highest principles of Horticulture to practice, with but 
a very slender knowledge of the requisite means, would 
remember that the success of the latter must essentially 
depend upon the former. 
“Very high temperature, if accompanied with a sufli- 
ciently humid state of the atmosphere, I found beneficial 
at all seasons of the year under a curvilinear iron house, 
for this admitted as much light in the middle of winter as 
the Pine-A pple plants appeared to require. 
“‘ The effects of the excess of humidity in the air of the 
house were, as might have been anticipated, diametrically 
Opposite to those which had resulted from drought, and 
the plants grew so rapidly as to become soon too large for 
the spaces allotted, without indicating at any season of 
the year a disposition to show fruit.” 
Remarks.—The above statement appears to imply a 
difference of treatment in the cultivation of plants which 
to a certain extent admit of a progressive maturity of 
growth, as in many of those with a branching habit, and 
those whose maturity must depend upon a single aecumu- 
lative development, as the Pine-Apple, Cockscomb, &c., 
—the former not admitting of those artificial processes 
which render the current of sap subservient to fertility, 
by diverting its exuberant or perpendicular flow to the 
formation and support of every developed bud. 
“T do not entertain the slightest doubt that as large 
and larger, and even still larger Pine-Apples may be raised 
Without, than with, a hot-bed of any kind. A requisite 
mee of temperature and humidity of ie oe may 
e maintai we. 
Brakenhope, both of which are farms of great extent, 
many of the patches of Ferns covering five or six acres 
of land. Although the plants, after a second and third 
ears’ .cutting, became extremely feeble and sickly 
teow g, still the operation of mowing was found 
necessary to be repeated in the month of, July for five 
consecutive years before the Ferns were totally extir- 
pated ; and in many places, where they were rank, it 
was the third year after the first cutting before the 
surface was completely covered with a variety of 
Grasses and White Clover. Although the extent of 
ground subjected to the experiment has not been 
actually measured, it is the opinion of those conversant 
with measurements, as also of those who have a prac- 
tical knowledge of the ordinary quantity of Ferns that 
a mower will cut in a day, that the whole extent of 
ground from which the Ferns have been extirpated 
cannot, at the most moderate computation, be less 
than 100 acres, which are at this moment the richest 
and most productive portions of sheep pasture on the 
estate of Holylee. The whole expense of extermina- 
* P, 143, Oct., 1843, Blackwood, 
d by intense solar agency, &e. &e. &e. 
In reference to the above, I may again cité the instance 
of the Balsams, which I subjected to intense heat and 
excessive moisture by syringing, apart from the aid of 
fermenting material throughout the whole process. Such 
was the exuberant growth on that occasion from the plants 
being transferred from 60-sized pots to 12-sized, that 
Thad a repeated intention of again shifting them; but 
the stimulating material in which they were placed proved 
capable of imparting a vigour far exceeding the expecta- 
tions, of all who saw them, and though cultivated in 
houses whose structure was favourable only to a dry heat, 
yet the humidity which they were subjected to daily caused 
the protrusion of roots above the surface of the soil—a 
sufficient proof of the genial element and intense agency 
to which they were exposed. } 
“To obtain fruit of a much larger size, it will be found 
necessary to restrain the plants from bearing fruit to a 
greater age than mine have ever been permitted to acquire, 
and in such cases it will be found beneficial to remove the 
lants annually into larger pots. The difficulty of thus 
The RHE: without danger to the roots, &c.’” 
Remarhks.—Here it appears that Mr, Knight supposed 
it possible to attain a larger fruit by successive stages of 
growth. But I am strongly inclined to think that he 
