1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. 
Bea 
TULIPS. 
H GROOM, Clapham Rise, near London, (removed 
“ * from Walworth ; by APPOINTMENT, FLORIST TO HER 
MAJESTY, begs to remind the Nobility, Gentry, and Amateurs, 
that this is the season for making up their collections of TULIPS 
preparatory to planting next month, herefore recommends 
that an early application be made, as it not unfrequently happens 
that gentlemen are unable to obtain the kinds they require, from 
ot applying sufficiently early. His Catalogue of Bulbs will be 
forwarded by post, on application.—Nov. 3, 1843. 
The Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1843. 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEK: 
‘Tuesday, Noy. 7 ,f Horticultural. 6 6 6 + ets 
Wik Linnean. a 
ednesday, Nov. 8, Society of Arts. 
Wednesday, Noy. 15, M 
Friday, “Nov. 17, Botanical 
i, 
Wirn the most sincere regret we announce the 
death of the Rey. William Lewis Rham, M.A. a 
Member of the Council of the Royal Agricultural 
Society, and one of the best Agricultural writers of 
our day, We need only point to his excellent 
articles in our own columns under the signature 
e M. > and to his many valuable contributions to the 
Penny Cyclopedia,” and the ‘Journal of the 
Agricultural Society,” to show what a serious loss 
the science of Agriculture has sustained in this kind, 
good, and amiable man, who died at his living of 
Winkfield, in Berkshire, on the Sist ult., in the 64th 
year of his age. 
Tun attention which Profe Henslow and other 
Writers in this Journal have directed to the new 
Agricultural pest, called the Clover Dodder, will, we 
| ust, cause it to be destroyed before it can have had 
time to spread. And it will doubtless be consolatory 
\to the farmers to know that if it can once be driven 
oft there is little or no chance of its return. 
\, Several writers have stated that it appears to have 
deen introduced from Cabul with the Lucerne, of 
which we have lately had some importations; and 
We are enabled by the favour of a correspondent to 
Confirm this supposition beyond all question. 
I have witnessed,” he says, “in the extreme 
Horth-western portion of Northumberland, a fact which 
Seems to confirm the opinion that a species of Cuscuta 
Has been introduced into England with the seed of 
Trefoil from Khelat. A packet of that seed was sown 
ast spring in rows, in soil prepared for a hedge at the 
edge of a meadow which had meadows also on three 
Sides of it, and no arable land near it. Cuscuta is said 
to have been previously unknown in that district, and 
‘as not been seen, as far as I have learnt, this season. 
It had seized on two or three patches of the Trefoil, 
when, in consequence of the first notice on the subject 
in the Gardeners’ Chronicle,an examination was made, 
and the infected Trefoil plants, with their enemy, 
removed and destroyed. As the latter had no flowers 
the species could not be determined. I have the 
pleasure of sending you a packet in the state in which 
% was purchased aé a bazaar with that which produced 
the Cuscuta above mentioned.} ‘ Close examination 
May possibly detect the seeds of the parasite mixed 
With those of the Trefoil.” 
. We have carefully examined the seed alluded to 
in the foregoing letter, and we are able to state that 
the seed of Cuscuta-trifolii was in it, Out of a 
small packet we have picked ¢hirteen seeds, each 
With its snake-like embryo perfectly alive and fit 
for growth. 
€ are also enabled to state something more im- 
portant ; namely, that the Dodder-seed may be readily 
Separated by sifting. Lucerne-seeds are about 2 lines 
ong, and,1+ broad. Clover-seed is much the same; 
the Dodder-seed is spheroidal, and scarcely a line in 
diameter. Tt is of a pale-grey colour, in form like the 
quarter of an Orange, and looks more like fragments 
of grey clay than an organised body. 
S there has been a little skirmishing in our 
columns about the priority of some imaginary dis- 
Coveries relating to the name and so forth of this 
p ‘ant, we may as well take the present opportunity of 
Staying all further expenditure of powder by stating 
that the discovery of the species probably rests with Dr. 
Roxburgh, in whose “ Flora Indica,” Vol. i., p. 447, it 
8 described under the name of Cuscuta sulcata, 
rans have seen with great regret some letters in the 
aily Papers complaining of the conduct of visitors to 
i €nsington Gardens, where of late so much pains 
‘ave been taken to render them instructive and inter- 
€sting by the introduction of named collections of 
ieee and flowers. We regret still more to say that 
e allegations are true. 
ate first of these malpractices (says a writer in the 
pin Commences in the spring, when a systematic 
An ee of all the birds’ nests takes place 3 not a 
is gle blackbird or thrush, whose song at this season 
So peculiarly attractive, is suffered to escape,—and 
nets it not for the protection afforded (by express 
‘ommand) to these beautiful songsters in the grounds 
of Buckingham Palace, and the keeper’s island in St. 
James’s Park, not a note would be heard in any of 
our” parks, and these joyous harbingers of spring 
would, near London, be exterminated. he second 
nuisance is the plucking of the flowers, and the steal- 
ing of roots and plants almost as soon as they are put 
into the ground. The best of the Dahlias last season 
were carried off almost immediately they were planted, 
and the Pinks and Geraniums were all stolen, one 
after the other, within a few days of their being trans- 
planted. The third nuisance occurs in the autumn, 
when the very seeds are stolen, and by persons well 
dressed. i 
It is alamentable thing that the excellent intentions 
of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests should 
thus be frustrated by the well-dressed, or ill-dressed, 
scamps who abound in all great cities, and we should 
be glad to learn that the example of the good people 
of Frankfort were followed when such people are 
caught. Mr. Jessie tells us that “The public gardens 
at Frankfort are only separated from the high-road by 
a single rail ; and yet nothing is injured, although no 
one is excluded. In these gardens, a nightingale had 
for many years built its nest on a particular spot, close 
to one of the walks. It was seen by every one, and 
yet no one molested it; until, one day, a foreign ser- 
vant saw and took it. When it became known, the 
man was hunted by a mob, taken before the city 
authoritics, and, the fact being proved, he was sen- 
tenced to have his coat turned, to be drummed out of 
the city with every mark of disgrace, and never to 
enter it again.” 
Without, however, resorting to means of this 
kind, which suit Germany better than England, 
we think that a remedy may be easily found in the 
plan suggested by the writer in the Times, from whom 
we have already quoted ; namely, that a few persons 
should be constantly employed in Kensington Gardens 
in looking after the borders, and that a very much 
larger number of notices warning the public against 
picking and stealing should be posted about the 
grounds; to which we would add the dispersal of a 
few policemen in plain clothes among the thievish 
crowd, with orders to seize the best dressed persons 
they could see in the act of plunder. A morning at 
Kensington Police-office would prove a salutary lesson 
to such gentry. At Hampton Court, at Kew, at the Gar- 
dens of the Horticultural and Zoological Societies, no 
robbing worth talking of takes place; but then these 
places are always guarded by workmen engaged in their 
ordinary duty. We would not answer for their security 
if the well-dressed mob of London had free liberty of 
amusing themselves without control. We earnestly 
hope that the Commissioners of Woods and Forests 
will adopt so simple a plan for preventing plunder. 
The Long Walk in Kensington Gardens is, we under- 
stand, under the special care of no one. Altogether, 
there is only the occasional attendance of three men 
for all the work of the pleasure-ground there—a num- 
ber barely sufficient for the duty, even if constantly 
employed. If each of the long beds—and there is 
nearly a mile of them in length—was placed under the 
constant charge of some one gardener, he would 
naturally take a pride in them, and there would be 
some responsible persons who would be ambitious of 
the credit of keeping the grounds in order, and would 
on the other hand have the blame and censure, should 
the beds be slovenly and ill kept. 
The desire of Lord Lincoln is evidently to beautify 
the Gardens for the pleasure ot the public. We are 
sure that his Lordship only requires to be made aware 
of the evils now complained of, to cause effectual 
measures to be taken for preserving the flower-beds in 
the state in which they ought to be ; and, above all, 
for rewarding the gentry who have been thus offending, 
jn the manner best suited to their conduct, and least 
agreeable to their feelings. 
A COMMENTARY ON CERTAIN PASSAGES IN 
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL WRITINGS OF THE 
LATE THOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT. 
BY W. WOOD. 
No. I.—On THE ADVANTAGE OF EMPLOYING ViEGE- 
rAbLE Marrer AS MANURE IN A FRESH Stare.— 
Opinion, founded upon experiments, ‘‘ that many vegetable 
substances are best calculated to reassume an organic 
living state, when they are least changed and decomposed 
byjputrefaction.” eras 
First experiment, upon a seedling Plum—The seed 
placed jn a small garden-pot, and nearly filled with living 
jeaves and roots of grasses, mixed with a small portion of 
mould, plaeed under glass, without other artificial heat 3 
appeared in April—was removed into a larger pot three 
times during the summer, each time with same kind of 
material for potting ; end of October occupied about one- 
third of a square foot, at which period its height was 
9 feet 7 inches. Further experiments in manuring Tur- 
nips with green fermented Fern and black vegetable mould, 
and branches of trees in every stage of decomposition— 
the latter applied four-fold more than the former—the 
result being greatly in favour of the former ; the growth, 
&c. being much more rapid than the effects from either 
vegetable mould or stable produce, and distinguishable in 
the autumn from the rest of the field, by the deeper shade 
of their foliage. The above experiments conceived to be 
satisfactory, in showing that any given (I presume pro- 
portionate) quantity of vegetable matter can generally be 
employed in its recent and organised state with much 
more advantage than when it has been decomposed, and 
no inconsiderable part of its component parts has been 
dissipated and lost during the progress of putrefaction 
and fermentation.— Hort. Trans., vol. xvii. 
Remarks.—This interesting fact, though valuable in 
its results when applied to the cultivation of plants re- 
markably robust in constitution, or known to be gross 
feeders, and under the most favourable circumstances, 
does not appear equally applicable to the general cultiva- 
tion of exotic plants in pots. ad the experiments been 
applied to the mauvagement of ornamental plants, even in 
the attainment of a medium growth, I have no doubt that 
the results would have been less favourable, for the’ fol- 
lowing reason:—The higher we rise in the scale of 
cultivation, the more powerful are the agencies required 
to effect our purpo And in the cultivation of plants 
intended for superior growth, there are many instances of 
extreme fluctuations of temperature, to which the amount 
of counteractive agency is unequal; and hence I infer, 
from abundant evidence, that the mechanical texture and 
effect of undecomposed vegetable matter would by no 
means balance the injurious influence of its absorbent 
properties. The undefinable variations of vegetable 
structure and capability of assimilating matter as food, 
under equal variations of atmospheric and solar agency, 
would preclude the application of undecomposed vegetable 
matter in many elaborate processes of cultivation. The 
accumulative system of culture is negatived in the 
above facts. 
No. I.—On THe most ADVANTAGEOUS Form oF 
GarpEN-Pors.—* [ have constantly found the growth of 
trees to be most rapid when the roots and leaves are 
brought nearest to each other, under similar external cir- 
cumstances ; and the horizontal space necessarily occupied 
by the leaves and stems of plants will in almost all cases 
exceed the width of the pots, of the form now recom- 
mended ; the width of each being as 8, its depth will be 
as 6, and its smallest width at its base as 5, inside mea- 
sure.’—Hort. Trans., vol. iii., p. 378. 
Remarks.—At p. 110 of ‘ Paxton’s Magazine of Bo- 
tany,’’ an opinion is offered that ‘‘ the capability of roots 
to fulfil their natural functions will be in proportion as 
modes of cultivation approach Nature so nearly, as to per- 
mit their free extension and ramification in search of 
elementary substances, &c. : and that it will probably be 
found that the amount of food thus obtained will be com- 
te with li. ion of the roots over a given 
the di. 
surface ;” which opinion appears strictly to coincide with 
Mr. K.’s view. 
No. Iil.—On rae Appricarion or Manure, in a 
Liauip Form, to Pranvs 1n Pors.—‘‘ A large extent 
and depth of soil seem, therefore, to be no further requi- 
site to trees than to afford them aregular supply of water, 
and a sufficient quantity of organizable matter; and the 
rapid growth of plants of every kind when their roots are 
confined in a pot toa SMALL quantity of mould, till that 
becomes exhausted, proves the truth (sufficiently) of this 
position.”’— Hort. Trans., vol. ii. 
Remarks.—It would appear from the “rapid growth ” 
here spoken of, that Mr. K. believed plants capable of the 
most rapid growth when confined in small pots and re- 
moved to larger, according to the ordinary and restrictive 
system, But this opinion can be only maintained by 
showing that a small plant remov ed in its young and ex- 
citable state to a Jager quantity of soil, of a texture and 
quality adapted to its growth, and so mechanically ar- 
ranged as to enable its tender organs progressively to as- 
similate its food without being liable to an impeded 
circulation of moisture,* is, in reality, making a slower 
progress to maturity than a small plant, ‘‘confined to a 
small quantity of mould.” But the real difference I pre- 
sume would be, that the former, by a judicious adaptation 
of its organs to the increased amount of agency brought 
to act upon it, would be attaining an accumulative vigour 
by a uniform development of its axillary buds, and 
consequent deposition of a uniform amount of organiz- 
able matter, whilst the latter, if allowed to surpass the 
other by a more rapid growth, could only do so by an 
attenuated growth, which is invariably connected with 
abortive or undeveloped leaf-buds. In the former, accu- 
mulation is not only progress, but maturation ; in the 
latter, rapid growth is abortion, and loss of functional 
power, by the repeated intervention of secondary causes, 
each of which interferes with an ultimate effect. This 
paper fails to recognise any principle which involves the 
application of higher agencies in Nature, or any modifica- 
tion of organic matter, to be rendered successively appli- 
cable to the different stages of growth. 
be continued.) 
ON THE ATMOSPHERE OF HOTHOUSES. 
Wuuixe the importance of a suitable temperature for 
plants, and the best means for effecting that object 
seem be acknowledged by Horticulturists, as your 
columns testify, I would beg to use the same vebicle 
for a few hints of a wider range, and take up the atmo- 
sphere of hothouses as a subject of more general and 
comprehensive import, In considering this subject, it 
obviously arranges itself under the four heads of heat, 
light, moisture, and chemical constitution ; all of which 
conditions must be distinctly attended to by the practical 
gardener in the atmosphere of his hothouses, if he hopes 
to make their inmates emulate the luxuriance of their 
natural compeers in wood and wild. As the rays of our 
unaided sun are inadequate to the production of sufficient 
ab Wee engeie eieeen 
* Paxton, Pr 110, 
