1843.] 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
691 
OUDON TESTIMONIAL.—An Advertisement hav- 
ing appeared in the Times of Sept. 26, and the Gardeners’ 
Gazette of Sept. 30, with this heading, Mr. Loupon, who didnot 
return to town till the evening of Sept. 30, and did not see the 
above Papers till the following day, takes this mode of acquaint- 
ing the Public, that so far from ‘ioning th i 
ese 
nothing would induce him to accept of the Testimonial alluded 
to in them,—Bayswater, Oct. 2, 1843. J.C. L. 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1843. 
MEETINGS FOR THE 1 oO 
Monday, October 9 . West London Gardeners’ Assoc’ ME 
‘Tuesday, October 17 Horticultural i SOR Pim 
VO FOLLOWING WEEBRS. 
: ation, 7 P. 
a8 
Ir is quite annoying to an admirer of good farming 
to go along the roads and by-ways in the country at 
this time of the year and see the abundant crops of 
Thistles just shedding their flying seeds, which the 
winds carry into the fields with such great impartiality, 
that the farmer who has expended considerable sums 
in clearing his fields of these disagreeable occupants has 
as good a chance of being overrun with them next 
year as he who has slept and let the weeds take their 
chance. Every farmer knows that a Thistle or a Dock 
ina Wheat-field usurps the place and food of many 
ears of Corn. Wherever Thistles thrive, the land will 
grow good Wheat ; hence the saying of the blind man, 
“Tie me to a Thistle,” when he was choosing his 
land: but there is no necessity for allowing this sign 
of fertility to be always conspicuous. In some coun- 
tries there is a law compelling farmers to cut down and 
destroy the Thistles in their fields before they ripen 
their seeds ; and when we consider how easily this 
tight be done, by cutting them down when they have 
expanded their blossoms, in which case they will 
assuredly die off, it appears incredible that they should 
e allowed to seed the fields for miles around, as they 
now do in many places. They are kept down in the 
pastures and meadows, and more or less in the Corn- 
fields, especially where the crop is drilled and hoed: 
but how few farmers think of weeding their hedge- 
Yows and the strip along every ditch, which the plough 
caves unstirred, and which every careful farmer 
should invariably have dug up. In well-cultivated 
Countries, where the spade is a great help to the other 
agricultural instruments, to make a field lock like a 
garden the land is generally sloped down into the ditch, 
and cultivated with the spade where the plough cannot 
go, so as merely to leave a course for the water at 
bottom. What is now usually occupied by rank 
i , Sg 
weeds, and forms a barrier to the water, which, after 
@ heavy rain, should run into the ditch, is never seen, 
and the headlands, where the earth accumulates, are 
evelled down, to carry the superfluous earth into the 
‘ollows, where the water might lodge. If this were 
attended to, much land, now lost, and made a nursery 
for weeds, would become productive. The hedge-rows 
in many of the old inclosed lands in England are 
allowed to spread out to a width which would scarcely 
@ believed, unless the whole were grubbed up and 
the ditch filled in. Theoretically, the ditch takes 
tree feet and the bank three, and the bottom of the 
hedge is confined to the side of the bank nearest the 
ditch ; but, in fact, two feet are lost by the side of the 
ditch, because the horses, when they plough, cannot 
80 nearer ; and if the bank be examined on the other 
Side, it will oftener be found to extend six feet than 
bree ; besides, the roots of the Thorns, of which the 
hedge is composed, spread out farther into the 
Ploughed Jand than the farmer is aware of—to say 
Nothing of Elms and Ash-trees which are growing in 
ee hedge-rows, and extend their suckers without 
limit,—unless the tenant has the sense to keep a ditch 
dug out on both sides of the row: but this again takes 
Up ground ; and the interval between the two ditches 
48 often a perfect wilderness of weeds. The reducing 
the waste of land caused by old hedge-rows is a matter 
between landlord and tenant; andif the latter is wise, 
he will give an additional rent, where he is allowed 
to clear them of trees and substitute a covered drain 
for the ditch, and fully compensate the landlord for 
the loss in the increase of hedge-row timber, for we 
ate fully persuaded that for every cubic foot of timber 
Which the landlord cuts down after anumber of years, 
ae tenant has lost the value of many cubic feet, in 
© annual diminution of his crops. The beauty of 
Ose parts of England where hedge-row timber 
abounds, when seen from an eminence, cannot be 
nied: nor would we disfigure an estate by cutting 
me all trees in hedge-rows. But where inclosures 
ee Ve or six acres are entirely surrounded with trees 
anding too close to grow, and only keeping the sun 
nd air from the fields, the look of the country would 
fe Tauch improved by devoting some small irregular 
elds entirely to the growth of wood, where, if pro- 
ua Managed, it would pay a good rent: while larger 
closures of 15 or 20 acres might have trees round 
wean at a distance of 30 or 40 feet apart, where they 
ae in time be ornamental as well as profitable, 
out injuring the crops by their shade. 
‘ut we have been led away from weeds to trees, 
not very unnaturally, for trees are permanent weeds, 
‘and affect crops as well as lesser weeds, with this 
| difference, that the farmers cannot remove them. To 
| return to Thistles: we would suggest if no law could 
be framed to meet the case, that the occupiers of land 
ina parish or district, should agree to clear their hedge- 
rows of all pernicious weeds—especially those whose 
seeds are carried about by the winds—and submit to a 
fine, if any weeds are found on their land or in the 
hedge-rows at the time when their seeds ripen. Or 
| perhaps a better plan would be, to empower the 
surveyors of the roads to employ old men and women, 
who receive relief from the parish, to clear all the sides 
of roads and hedge-rows of Docks and Thistles, and to 
burn them, paying the expense out of the highway 
fate, or, if that be not legal, to make a small rate for 
this especial purpose. In many parishes abounding 
in hedge-rows, the churchwardens were accustomed 
to pay a certain premium for the heads of hedge- 
Sparrows ; but some conscientious opposers of every 
irregularity found out that there was no law for this; 
the sparrows increased ad Cibicwm, and it was found 
expedient among the farmers to establish a sparrow- 
club, and pay for the heads as before—so there might 
be a weed-club, much to the advantage of those who 
love clean crops. ‘The general destruction of the 
weeds which most infest crops can never be effected 
but by the zealous co-operation of all the occupiers 
of land, and this, perliaps, may in many cases be 
unpracticable without a special law made for the 
purpose. Wolves have been early destroyed in 
England by an old law as it is said ; but the damage 
caused by a few wolves killing sheep is a trifle to 
the loss occasioned, year after year, in the Corn crops 
by the rank weeds, which might so easily be extermi- 
nated if the seeds were prevented from flying all over 
the country for miles around, owing to the carelessness 
of some small occupier of land who does not know 
his own interest and cares not for that of his neigh- 
bours.— AZ. 
Iv March of the present year we directed attention 
to a mode of growing plants in very large pots, with- 
out taking the trouble to shift them gradually in the 
manner usually practised; and on some subsequent 
occasions we insisted upon the expediency of adopting 
this plan when the best possible cultivation is sought 
after. At that time we were not aware that Mr. 
Wood, the experienced foreman in the Nursery of 
lessrs. Henderson, of Pine-apple Place, was the 
on to whom the promotion of the practice was 
principally owing ; but as he has since that time stated 
his own views on the subject in two elaborate papers 
in “ Paxton’s Magazine of Botany,” we have thought 
it desirable to reprint them in our own columns, which 
with Mr. Paxton’s permission we commence doing 
to-day. 
We have been the more anxious about this because 
some gardeners fail in their application of the system, 
either from want of skill, or from a misapprehension 
of the principles on which it depends, or from both ; 
and because the papers themselves will form the best of 
all introductions to some communications on Cultiya- 
tion with which we have been favoured by Mr. Wood 
himself, whose correct physiological views and great 
practical experience render them particularly valuable. 
ta 
Our readers are, doubtless, aware that luminous 
appearances have been occasionally observed on certain 
plants, and that physiologists admit the presence of 
phosphorescent properties in vegetation. Fungi, in 
particular, are reported to possess such qualities. Cer- 
tain Rhizomorphas are said to be so luminous as to 
light up the mines where they grow, as if the rays of 
a feeble moon were playing on them ; and the Agarics 
of the Olive-grounds are said to behave in a similar way 
in the south of Europe. The younger Linneus also 
reports that the flowers of the Nasturtium, the African 
Marygold, the Orange Lily, and other orange flowers, 
exhale, at the end of a hot summer’s day, intermittent 
phosphoric discharges, which resemble little flashes of 
light. Such appearances as the last have, however, 
been sought in vain by ourselves and others ; but it 
appears from the ‘ Proceedings of the British Asso- 
ciation,” at Cork, that the phenomenon has been observed 
by an Irish gentleman. 
Mr. R. Dowden is said to have made mention of 
a luminous appearance on the double variety of 
the common Marygold (Calendula officinalis). “This 
circumstance was noticed on the 4th of August, 
1842, at eight, p.m. after a week of very dry 
warm weather ; four persons observed the phe- 
nomenon; by shading off the declining daylight, 
a gold-coloured lambent light appeared to play from 
petal to petal of the flowers, so as to make a more or 
jess interrupted corona round its disk, It seemed as 
if this emanation grew less vivid as the light declined ; 
it was not examined in darkness. The single kind is 
not suited to examination, because it “goeth to sleep 
with the sun,” and has not the disk exposed to 
observation. 
When, however, this matter was discussed, Dr. 
Allman expressed his opinion that the phenomenon 
was not at all due to phosphorescence, but it was 
referable to the state of the visual organ, as he thought 
had been satisfactorily explained by Sir David Brew- 
ster. If it were phosphorescence, it would appear 
brightest at night, and it would be expected to occur 
in other plants than those of an orange or flame 
colour.’ This led Mr. Babington to mention that he 
had seen, in the south of England, a peculiar bright 
appearance produced by the presence of the Schistos- 
tega pennata, a little moss, which inhabited caverns 
and dark places, but this too was objected to by a 
member present, who stated that Prof. Lloyd had 
ined the Schi and had found that the 
peculiar luminous appearance of that moss arose from 
the presence of small crystals in its structure, which 
reflected the smallest portion of the rays of light. 
It would be interesting to examine this matter with 
more care than has hitherto been bestowed upon it; 
and we should be glad to know whether any of our 
readers can mention cases of vegetable luminosity 
witnessed by themselves. We confess our doubts as to 
the fact of crystals being present in the moss, whose 
illumination was mentioned by Mr. Babington, but 
we have no access to fresh specimens for examination. 
AN OUTLINE OF GAVIN (of Biggar) 
SYSTEM OF PRUNING FOREST-TREES. 
(Havine read with much interest an article in your 
Chronicle of Sept. 10, headed “ Encouragement to Plant- 
ers,” wherein the author appears to have many correct 
views, but others which I think are not altogether consistent 
with the principles of Vegetable Physiology, Ihave inclosed 
you an outline of Cree’s system, written by him, which I 
have now practised for three years regularly, and from 
which I have found the most beneficial effects.|—J. M. 
Nasmyth, Bart, 
To cultivate wood on physiological principles it is ne- 
cessary to have a knowledge of the organs which consti- 
tute the internal and external structure of trees, and of 
the various functions these organs perform through the 
instrumentality of external agents. ‘Trees are generally 
treated as if they were mere inorganic matter; they are 
operated on as the ploughman operates on the ground, or 
as the carpenter and blacksmith on the wood or iron under 
their hands. Many eminent men have written treatises 
on Vegetable Anatomy and Physiology, and many have 
promulgated their notions on the pruning of Forest-trees, 
while neither party understood how the science of Vegetable 
Physiology ought to direct the mechanical operation of 
pruning, so as to make it affect, to the greatest extent, the 
growth and health of the tree. There is in trees, as in 
animals, a vital power which presides over all their func- 
tions. This power is the agent by which the ascent and 
descent of the sap is produced, and certain internal and 
external causes facilitate the exercise of this phenomenon. 
Among the external causes is to be ranked the influence 
of air, heat, light, and moisture, and the system of oper- 
ating on the lateral branches by shortening them. 
I shail give an outline of the principles which led me to 
the conviction that the system of pruning by shortening 
the lateral branches, which I brought forward a number 
of years ago, is calculated, more than any other, togecure 
for the benefit of the tree an extra nourishment. 
The organs of nutrition and egetation have one common 
object to support, namely, life in the vegetable, and the 
power of these organs may be greatly increased by mecha- 
nical means. In order to use these means in a way to 
assist nature, some knowledge of the physiology of plants 
is requisite, Hither the operator or the superintendent 
must understand how the organs exert their functions, 
otherwise they cannot reasonably expect to be successful. 
The different processes of the sap (or vegetative blood) 
of trees must especially be carefully studied, as by it their 
growth and vigour are sustained. The sap is acquired 
and influenced in divers ways. In spring, the small spon- 
gelets or extremities of the roots absorb the fluids and 
Bases from the soil, which are conveyed by an inherent 
power.depending on the life of the tree; or, more properly, 
the ascending sapis acted on through the roots by atmosphe- 
ric pressure; up through the capillary tubes, till it reaches 
the extreme ramifications of the stem, shooting forth buds 
and expanding leaves. ‘The common sap having extended 
over all the branches, mingles with the fluid absorbed by 
the leaves, and, losing the watery and aériform principles, 
which are useless for nutrition, by evaporation, it returns 
down the vessels of the bark, and in its course deposits 
cambium, which forms the annual rings of wood ; then 
extends to and strengthens the extremities of the rootlets, 
whereby they are made to extract more nourishment from 
the soil throughout the season; and as the two Saps com- 
mingle in the leaves, the descending sap, which has not 
been deposited in like manner, mixes with that extracted by 
the rootlets, and is again carried up with the ascending sap. 
How to economise these fluids for the advantage of the 
tree is next to be considered. It is obvious, then that 
when the uppermost lateral branches are shottenéa to 
half the length of the leadin 
portionally, the sap has less 
they are allowed to extend 
thickness ; in consequence 
every part of the tree; 
tree, that, from the extraordinary size and health of the 
foliage which clothes the-branches, it attracts more than 
