Horticultural 2 pat. 
3 ‘Tuesday, Feb. 7 ++ SLimnean 2 Bran 
. Floricultural’ . 64 Pia 
Wednesday, Feb. 8 8 
1843.) TH 
E GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE, 
67 
In the Press, and will be published in a few Days, in One small 
vol. 12mo, 
Ui sReA bs He nBicMgehtSii iP Re¥, 
By Epwarp Soury, Esq., Jun., F.R.S., 
Experimental Chemist to the Horticultural Society of London. 
Che Gardeners’ Chvronicie, 
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1848, 
MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 
‘Monday, Feb. 6, Entomological . . + . 8 PM 
Medico-Botanical. . . 8 p.m. 
Saturday, Feb.11 . . . Royal Botanic. 33 Pm, 
Tuesday, Feb. 14. . «|, Zoological . +. 6 8b p.m 
Wednesday, Feb.15 5; + Microscopical 72 
x Geological P.M. 
Friday, Febsl7 + {Botanicals Vf 00! 8 P.M, 
Tr is very evident, from the letters that have been 
addressed to'us by our correspondents, that the obsery- 
ations we lately made upon the night temperature 
suited to Vines were not without their use. In gene- 
ral, the correctness of our opinion is admitted ; but, 
in one or two cases, the writers have doubted whether 
shanking and bad colouring are to be ascribed to mis- 
Management at the early period of forcing. In one 
instance, we are assured that in a house where the 
Vines broke well, flowered well, set well, and where 
the temperature was kept low at night, the berries, 
although all was well with them till they began to co- 
lour, then took to shanking and shrivelling, so that there 
was not half a crop. Now we beg it to be observed, 
that we didnot say that shanking is to be ascribed 
exclusively to mismanagement of temperature: we 
Only pointed it out as one of the causes of this trou- 
lesome disease, and a common one. It. may doubt- 
less be produced by other means, such as a cold wet 
border; but into this we shall not go at present. Our 
immediate object is merely to insist upon the manner 
in which the atmosphere should be regulated. 
We may all of us rely on this, that we cannot 
break the laws of nature with impunity; we 
May violate them indeed for a time, but in the end 
unishment is sure to overtake us. It is a universal 
aw of nature, that, in temperate countries, in the 
early part.of the year, the nights are cold, whatever 
the days may be. We have already mentioned the case 
of the islands of the Mediterranean: let us now turn 
our eyes still further to the eastward. Nowhere is 
the climate more sultry than in Affghanistan. We 
are told that General “Pollock’s troops at Jellalabad 
were forced to dig holes-in- the ground to hide them- 
Selves from the heat. The condition of Cabul must be 
much the same. At Candahar, we are informed by 
Mr. Atkinson that, in May, the heat of the tents was 
enerally 110°; and at midday, in the sun, 140°, 
Now, in no part’of the world are the Grapes more de- 
licious than at Candahar and ‘Cabul. On the 30th 
June, this traveller saw donkeys laden with panniers 
of fine purple Grapes; and at the same time, the 
Paper on which he was writing curled up and became 
as crisp as if it was before a blazing fire. When he 
reached Cabul, in August, he found the bazaar filled 
with delicious Grapes in astonishing profusion. Now 
what sort of nights had the troop$in the spring of the 
year, when the Vines were growing and flowering, and 
Preparing themselves to bear fruit? Why, on the 
7th March, near Shikarpore, 200 miles south of Can- 
dahar, and above 500 south of Cabul, in the Desert, 
We are told that the march took place in “a 
brilliant starlight night; frost seemed to be in 
the air, it was so cool and bracing; after mid- 
Hight, the servants made up a blazing _ fire, 
“for the north wind was blowing bitter cold, 
and the traveller was glad of hot brandy and water.’”’* 
Nevertheless, the day before, Mr. Atkinson had been 
rilling at Shikarpore, and the march was over level 
Plains, and not among the mountains. Two days 
afterwards the weather is described as being oppres- 
Slvely hot at midday. ‘Then on the 19th March there 
Was a hailstorm at night, and the air was “ cold and 
racing ;” and so on. ‘ 
. _4lere, then, in a country totally different from the 
islands of the Mediterranean, where the Grapes are 
‘mous for their excellence, we have even greater 
Variations in temperature between day and night in 
the month of March, when the Vines are shooting: 
the air is cold and bracing by night, and grilling by 
ay. And this is but one of the innumerable wise 
Provisions of nature, which prevents the destruction 
ed Vitality from undue stimulus. _ Vegetation, vio- 
ntly Spurred onwards by heat during the day, is 
efreshed at night by a total cessation. of all excite. 
aa Were it otherwise, the powers of life would 
ba n be exhausted, and such plants as the Vine would 
vitably perish. A man cannot live if his sleep is 
vented ; in like manner, plants cannot flourish if 
a kind of rest which is natural to them, and is 
daguuced by the combined influence of coolness and 
~xnhess, is withheld. 
.Let it not, however, be supposed that a low tem- 
perature at night is requisite during the whole perio 
of growth of the Vine; that the contrary is the case 
when the fruit is ripening, we shall shew at an early 
opportunity. 
Tue use of all manures is to increase the natural 
fertility of the soil, or to restore that which has been 
diminished by vegetation. ‘The idea of a universal 
pabulum for all plants is nearly exploded ; and all the 
attempts to discover it are, by many, considered to be on 
a par with the finding of the philosopher’s stone or 
the universal medicine. The improvements in Chem- 
istry have discovered various and different substances in 
every different family of plants; not only such as are 
peculiar to organised matter, and are the result of the 
decomposition of vegetable and animal substances, 
but others likewise, which belong to the mineral king- 
om. ‘These can be exhibited unaltered in the re- 
sidue of chemical decomposition, whether in the dry 
way, by means of heat,—or inthe humid way, by 
means of the action of other substances, which destroy 
the cohesion of the parts, or change their affinities. 
Thus the earths, silica, lime, magnesia, alumina, and 
several of the metals, especially iron, are found in the 
ashes of plants which have been burned; and from 
the regular proportions of these in plants of the same 
kind, whatever be the nature of the soil in which they 
are raised, we must conclude that they are in some 
measure essential to their formation. However in- 
yolved in darkness and doubt the growth and nourish- 
ment of plants is in the present. state of science, there 
are’ certain principles which may be considered to be 
fully established by experiment: of these one is, that 
whatever enters the body of a plant, whether by the 
roots or the pores which are distributed along its sur- 
face, especially in the leaves, when they are developed, 
must be so minutely divided, that its particles are in- 
visible, not only to our naked eyes, but even assisted 
by the high magnifying powers of the microscope: 
that is, they must be fluid, whether in a iquid or aéri- 
form state. It is useless, therefore, to present to the 
pores, or mouths, if we may so call them, of plants, 
substances which cannot enter into them, however 
well adapted they may be to serve as nourishment or 
increase. Mineral substances must therefore be dis- 
solved in suitable menstrua before the plants can im- 
bibe them. Organic substances naturally decompose 
in the state of gas, and these gases may contain va- 
rious matters in solution. It is more than probable 
that water and atmospheric air are the chief menstrua 
in which the food of plants is dissolved ; as we well 
know, that without the presence of both, plants soon 
become diseased, and die. All water, except perhaps 
that which has been purified by repeated distillations, 
contains portions of various substances in solution, so 
minute, that the art of the analyst has not yet found 
means to show their presence or ascertain their pro- 
portion. We need not be surprised at this when we 
apply to arithmetical calculations: one grain of any 
substance dissolved or diffused in one pound of water 
(avoirdupois) is only 55 part of the water; 
yet, when we consider that many plants absorb and 
evaporate their own weight in water in 24 hours, 
and that the substance diffused or dissolyed in this 
water may remain behind in the plant, we can rea- 
dily conceive a great deposition of substances which 
are perfectly inappreciable on an analysis of the sap ; 
besides, we cannot doubt but minute particles of every 
substance which exists on the earth are continually 
floating in the atmosphere, and there exerting influ- 
ences which are quite beyond the reach of the 
most skilful analyser of air. How could we otherwise 
account for the formation of solid meteors, which ap- 
pear to be g din tmosphere, unless they 
are supposed to be projected from the moon, which is 
avery improbable supposition? We may therefore 
philosophically lay down as a certain fact, that ex- 
treme division is an essential condition in all sub- 
stances which are to enter the body of plants and 
contribute to their formation and increase. And we 
need not be astonished if we find accumulated in 
plants substances of which no trace can be discovered 
in the soil. 
From these preliminary observations we may draw 
this conclusion: that itis not sufficient merely to add 
to the soil any of the substances which are found in 
the plants when come to maturity, but we must so 
arrange all the panying this ad- 
dition that they may be presented to the plants in the 
state in which they may be absorbed and assimilated. 
No fact.is more undeniable than that soils, the mecha- 
nical constitution of which is favourable to the deve- 
lopment of the roots, and in which they can be properly 
fixed, so as to support the plant, are found to be fer- 
tilein proportion to the quantity of organic matter in- 
timately combined with the earth, within ‘certain 
limits, and with certain exceptions ; and that this fer- 
tility, however great, diminishes in process of time, if 
plants are allowed to grow in these soils, and are car- 
ried away when they come to maturity. A soil of 
* Atkinson’s Affghanistan, p, 104, 
inewhaustible fertility is @ mere creature of the imagi- 
nation ; and the reduction of this fertility is always 
panied with diminution of the organic mat~ 
ter. This intimate union. of organic matter and the 
soil is the result of the slow deposition of various 
earths suspended in water, together with certain re- 
sults of the decomposition of animal and vegetable 
substances. There seems to be a peculiar affinity 
between extremely divided earth and the residue of 
organic decomposition, which prevents their being 
dissipated and lost so long as the soil remains undis- 
turbed ; but the slightest tillage which exposes this 
compound of earth and organic matter, commonly 
called virgin earth or humus, to the influence of the 
air, produces an action abundantly supplying the 
plants which have begun their vegetation from the 
seed with that pabulum which causes their healthy 
increase. The roots increase as well as the stems and 
leaves ; and while the former absorb the moisture and. 
gases afforded by the soil, the latter imbibe other ele- 
ments from the surrounding atmosphere; and thus, 
every part performing its proper functions, a healthy 
and vigorous plant is produced, and its fruit brought 
to maturity. 
These simple facts, and the principles founded on 
them, must be steadfastly kept in view, whenever we at- 
tempt to explain or account for the action of various 
manures ; and here chemical science greatly assists us, 
by pointing out the probable effects of certain mix~ 
tures of substances, which either act upon each other, 
or undergo spontaneous chemical changes in certain 
situations. We can never do better than take Nature 
for our-guide, and endeavour to imitate her opera- 
tions. We cannot, it is true, artificially form a soil of the 
greatest and most permanent fertility : we cannot dis- 
integrate rocks, and, washing out their minute par- 
ticles, intimately blend various kinds together, and 
slowly deposit them to form a soil—although the 
process of warping, practised on the banks of some 
rivers, is a close and rapid imitation of the natural 
depositions. We have certain earths and minerals ready 
formed and mixed in thej soils we cultivate; all we 
can do is to find the easiest mode of improving the 
texture and composition of these soils, so as to make 
them more and more fertile. It isnot relevant to our 
present purpose to speak of the mechanical means of 
improvement—of the mixture of earths of opposite 
qualities—or of the regulation of the moisture: these 
must be treated of separately. We now confine our ob- 
servations to the simple addition of substances, which 
directly or indirectly furnish materials for the increase 
and healthy vegetation of the plants cultivated. The 
subject_naturally divides itself into two parts: the 
first relates to the substances which afford the ele- 
ments by which plants increase; and the second, to 
those which act as assistants or solvents of these sub- 
stances ; and, as it were, prepare the food, bringing it 
to the state in which the plants can readily and gra« 
dually absorb it. This is exactly what some authors 
have distinguished as enriching manures and stimu 
lating manures. We shall see that some substances 
may be ranked in both these divisions.—M. 
Wuite the planting season continues, we are desir« 
ous of calling the attention of our readers to the Le- 
vant, or Turkey, or Mossy-cupped Oak (Quercus 
Cerris), of which so little seems to be known in this 
country. 
It is one of the most ornamental of the Oaks, grows 
very fast in poor soil, and forms excellent timber for 
in-door purposes, as is admitted by every one ; and for 
naval purposes also, where the climate suits it, if 
that opinion is correct which refirs the Sardinian 
Oak now so extensively employed in the Government 
Dockyards to Q. Cerris. 
Be this as it may, there is no doubt that the Turkey 
Oak is one of the most profitable to a planter ; and 
that being so, it matters little whether it is to be con~ 
yerted into line-of-battle-ships, floors, doors, or the 
shopkeepers’ counters. Mr. Loudon, in his Arboretum 
Bre gives : e t of a few speci« 
mens, of which he had obtained information 3 and they, 
in some instances, show that the tree will lengthen 
even more than three feet annually ! 
To the cases mentioned by that author, Sir Henry 
Bunbury enables us to add two others: Two Levant 
Oaks, which had been planted (from the nursery) at 
Great Barton, in the winter of 1822-3, have been cut 
down this winter, 1842-3, when the following were 
their measurements :— 
No, 1.—40 feet high ; girth at one foot from f.-in. 3 
the ground, x 2 ie Baa 
4 feet. “ : 4 e316 i 
8 feet . a Z 3 . 28 oa 
No. II.—41 feet high ; girth at one foot | 1 3 2 4 
4 feet. . ‘ it PEREHOS 
8 feet. 2 e 
. 3 * . 3 
At the same Place, there are several others standing 
about 50 feet high, and carrying up stems which do 
not taper so much as the two that have been felled ; 
but their girth at bottom is less. The soil is clay. 
We have lately inserted a notice or two concerning 
a mode of dispensing with manure, which has origin« 
