1843.] 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICHLE. 
207 
in proportion to the others ;_ white good, crowns well, 
and the colour evenly distributed. 
Rev. T. Gisbourne (Brabbin’s).—Raised the same year 
and by the same person as Squire Meynell, but far in- 
ferior to that fiower ; I have discarded it altogether. 
Magnificent (Ely’s).—A full and large-sized flower; stripes 
dark and numerous, crowns well; white not pure. 
Queen Victoria (Ely’s).—A useful flower, though not 
first-rate. 3 
Cleopatra (Weldon’s).—Stripes very dark purple, flowers 
large and confused, white rather impure ; second rate. 
First-raie (Pollard’s).—Well named; the pod is rather 
short, but the petals, with a little attention, get out 
well. ‘The flower is large and finely formed; white 
very pure, ribboned with broad flakes of deep purple ; 
it appears to be shy in rooting, and is very scarce. 
Platoff (Hall’s).—A compact flower, with fine petalss the 
purple very dark ; white sometimes slightly tinged. } 
Major Cartwright (Hall’s). — This is an old variety, 
whose day is gone by; occasionally a decent flower is 
seen. ‘The petals are'thin in substance, and there are 
too few of them; the purple also is not good. 
R picoT . 
Mrs. Horner (Ely’s).—This is often exhibited in the 
heavy as well as the light-edged class. The pod is 
good, and edging distinct; it isa favourite in this part 
of the country, and wins at most exhibitions. 
Miss Bacon (Wollard’s Neatly edged, but too small. 
Litile Wonder (Wollard’s). — Very much akin to the 
foregoing, under-sized, but of good shape ; the edge 
distinct and well laid on. 
Duke of Wellington (Sbarp’s).— White pure, and very 
finely feathered or plaited; the guard-leaves are rather 
too small, still it stands in the first rank at present. 
Mary (Marris’s). — A large and finely-shaped heavy- 
edged flower, sometimes rather too much barred. 
Pilot (Marris’s).—As large and well formed as the pre- 
ceding; itis, however, much cleaner and more dis- 
. A decided good heavy edge. 
Will Stukeley (Hufton’s).—Heavy-edged : bars too much, 
and though still winning in some parts of the country, 
it is certainly an inferior flower. 
Derby Willow (Maw’s).—Heavy-edged with dull scarlet, 
only fit for borders. 
King of the French (Green’s).—Much too thin, and, at 
the risk of being thought severe, I must say, inferior. 
Royal Briton (Hardy’s).—Something in the style of Mrs. 
Horner, but inferior to that flower, the white being im- 
pure ; stillit has a good pod, crowns well, and the edge 
is well defined. 
Matilda (Parkinson’s). — A large and distinct flower, 
white good, edge dark crimson; not quite up to the mark. 
Venus (Hudson’s). — Light-edged red, a full flower, 
crowns well, is very clean, and worth growing. 
Mare Antony (Benn’s).—Rather too thin ;ithe white is 
very good, and beautifully plaited with dark crimson. 
Hector (Sharp’s)—Rather light-edged, form good, white 
pure, edging distin fi ti 
Cornelius (Barr 
5 first-rate. 
—I have not used much ceremony 
in my short de, ons of north country flowers, and 
here I am obliged to find fault with the favourite of the 
south. It has agood pod, the white is pure, edged with 
dark crimson, of a different shade to most others; with 
me it bars too much, and should it always flower in the 
same style, I should pronounce it decidedly second-rate, 
Colonel Foreman (Barraud’s).— Clean, with a good petal 
and neat feather. 
Teazer (Gidden’ A large and rather coarse flower ; 
jt has, however, fine guard petals and crowns well; it 
stripes down too much, but when in its best state is un- 
doubtedly a ‘ Teazer.’” 
Casar (Gidden’s).—Heavy-edged, rather thin, in the way 
of Mare Antony ; an inferior flower. 
Criterion (Sharp’s).—Neatly-edged, but with a short awk- 
ward pod ; flowers medium size, and apt to expand con- 
fusedly, requiring much care to bloom it well; the 
layers also root indifferently. 
Catherine (Hardy’s).— Under-sized, white impure, raised 
near Nottingham from Bowley’s Ann; neatly edged, 
but second-rate—dJ. £". Wood, The Coppice, Not- 
tingham. 
ae 
(To be continued.) 
FAMILIAR BOTANY.—No. XIV. 
Blown in the morning, thou shalt fade ere noon; 
What boots a life, which in such. haste forsakes thee! 
Thow’rt wondrous ing to die so soon, 
‘And passing proud a little colour makes thee. 
The Figwort.—The fetters of ice in which the earth 
was shackled a few weeks ago had hardly been broken ; a 
few scanty sunbeams had but just been playing upon the 
ground beneath the old oak-tree before our door, when 
the turf began to sparkle with the surfaces of a thousand 
glassy emerald leaves, while myriads of golden stars were 
to be seen glittering amongst the herbage, It almost 
Seemed as if the wand of an enchanter had struck the 
round and suddenly commanded the slaves of his will 
to appear. 
A walk among the thickets of our landlord’s park and 
the deeper recesses of his woods brought more of these 
ay visitors to our knowledge, and showed us that no en- 
Chanter had been at work, but that the teeming womb of 
Nature was everywhere producing some early and joyous 
herald of the spring. The lingering days of autumn, pro- 
tracted into February, had produced no effect upon the 
hardy wilding which sturdily awaited its appointed time, 
and refused to be awakened till the customary frosts 
id given it energy to spring into vernal life. 
The old herbalists knew the Figwort well, and thought 
it imbued with great medicinal qualities; some mixed it 
soon as the leaves have perished. 
with honey, and drawing it into their nostrils, thought it 
cured their headache ; others found it hot and dry in the 
first degree : more sober people pounded it into a paste, 
and used it as an astringent ; the scurvy was driven away 
by it, as a few said; and many boiled it as a Spinach, 
which they found agreeable. Some, however, declared it 
was an acrid, poisonous thing, blistering the skin and 
causing leprosy. All these fancies are, however, long 
forgottén, and nothing now remains of the plant but its 
beauty. 
The Figwort is a sort of Crowfoot, called by some Bo- 
tanists Ranunculus Ficaria, and by others Ficaria ranun- 
culoides; but although it belongs to the same vile race as 
the Sardoan herb of the ancients, whose blistering poison- 
ous qualities have gained them an unenviable notoriety, it 
is a harmless gentle plant, as quiet as it seems to be : which 
js more than can be said of all fair flowers. It derives its 
common name from its roots looking like a cluster o! 
small Figs. It leaves are similar to those of the Arrow- 
head, but shorter, smaller, and delicately mottled with 
pallid spots. The flowers grow singly at the end of slen- 
der angular stalks; they have three leaves, or rather 
scales, on the outside, and eight or nine glittering golden 
petals, dull at, the back, but almost metallic in front, 
where a scale is found near their foot, the sign of the clan 
Ranunculus. Many are their yellow stamens, many their 
grass-green ovaries heaped upon each other in the middle 
of the flower, and promising an abundant increase. Yet, 
strange to tell, the seeds are seldom ripened, and that 
ready mode of propagation, in forming which nature 
seems to have taken such infinite pains, is thrown aside as 
worthless, another mode of multiplying its race being 
given to the Figwort. According to Vaucher, the tuber- 
cles of its roots are of three sorts—the one long and 
withered, which nourish the plant ; another, dilated at the 
lower end, and afterwards producing other plants; and a 
third sort, which sprouts out from the crown of the root ; 
besides which it produces in the bosom of its 
leaves certain bulbs, which disperse themselves as 
In the early spring 
these bulbs are not to be found, but in the autumn 
they may be seen lying near the bottom of the leaves, shut 
up in two furrowed sheaths, in the midst of which is a 
perfect little leaf, bearing at its base a fourth, which itself 
gives pirth to a fifth, and so on. The ground is said to be 
filled with these little bulbs atthe approach of autumn, 
and they certainly produce an abundant crop when the 
spring-time arrives. 
The flowers of the Figwort hail the sun like the fire- 
worshippers of old: as soon as his beams strike them 
‘and pour their soft luxuriance on the morn,” they un- 
fold; but when a cloud interposes, they close again ; so 
that you may find the turf enamelled with sparkling stars 
in the morning, and as joyless as the “ mournful, sober- 
suited night’’ in an hour afterwards. Gardeners are its 
sworn enemies, we know not why, destroying it whenever 
it dares to intrude upon the ground where the Groundsel 
and Dandelion are permitted to flourish; so that its life is 
surrounded by perils, for which its harmless nature gives 
no cause, and from which its short life might have pre- 
served it, for it springs up in March and perishes in May. 
EE. 
ON VEGETA MANURES. 
(By Prorgsson CHARLES SPRENGEL. ‘Translated from 
the German.) 
Under this name are comprised not only different sorts 
of straw or litter, but also those vegetable substances 
which are used unmixed for manuring fields. 1 shall first 
treat of the different sorts of litter, and then of those 
plants, or remains of plants, which, without being mixed 
with animal excrement, improve the fertility of the soil. 
a, Of Plants used for the Absorption of Animal Excre- 
ment, and which, thus mined, serve as Manurem-TLhose 
plants which have to absorb animal fluids, and which are 
also employed as a soft litter for cattle, are (with few excep- 
tions) used in a dry state, because it is one of the chief 
objects to soak up the liquid part of manure. In this 
way, however, it happens that the materials used for litter 
are rendered more capable of being decomposed, and of 
thus becoming a nourishment to crops. The decompo- 
sition of dung, on the other hand, is accelerated by its 
being loosened by means of the litter, and ofa free access for 
the oxygen of the atmosphere, without which no chemical 
decomposition is possible. The products of the complete 
decomposition of vegetable substances are, humic acid, 
carbonic acid, mineral acids, earths, oxides, and alkalies ; 
and since all these belong to the nourishing substances of 
crops, it is necessary, if we would know the value of dif- 
ferent sorts of litter, to make ourselves acquainted with 
their chemical constituents. 
The chief constituent of dry vegetable litter is carbon, 
which amounts in all cases to more than 50 per cent. It 
forms, combined with hydrogen and oxygen, humic acid,* 
a substance which every fertile soil must contain in great 
abundance, not only because it furnishes plants with car- 
bon, but also because it dissolves and conveys to the roots 
earths, oxides, and certain salts contained in the soil and 
required for the crops. Humic acid serves also for the 
neutralisation of alkalies, which easily destroy vegetation, 
—as, for instance, ammonia, potash, soda, and lime—so 
much so, that it must be considered in many respects as a 
substance quite indispensable for vegetation. Now as 
humic acid is mostly generated by the substances used as 
litter, it is evident that they cannot be dispensed with in 
agriculture, except in cases where humic acid may be 
obtained by manuring with mould, mud, peat, &c. ; for 
no amount that could be afforded by the decomposition of 
solid excrement would be sufficient. Litter is also indis- 
pensable, because it improves the soil mechanically 5 it 
keeps a clayey soil loose as long as it is not decayed, and 
thus not only facilitates the access of atmospheric air, bat 
accelerates the evaporation of superabundant moisture. 
Besides these great} advantages which the crops receive 
from litter,it jis’ also to be remarked that its mineral 
ingredients are of equal importance. The effects of these 
have hitherto excited little notice, for it was not generally 
believed that mineral substances form the nourishment of 
plants ; and this explains the reason why litter has either 
been undervalued or insufficiently appreciated. The true 
value of litter can only be determined by chemical analysis. 
If we compare with each other the mineral substances 
contained in litter, we shall find pretty nearly what we 
have to expect of each in the way of manure; and if we 
ascertain their amount of nitrogen, their value in regard 
of any sort of soil may be ascertained almost with mathe- 
matical accuracy. If we next determine the chemical con- 
stituents of the food of cattle, and deduct this from that 
which has remained in their bodies, or has been exhaled 
by them, we shall be able to calculate even to pounds, all 
the substances which the soil receives from the fresh dung. 
But, in order to arrive at that, many experiments are still 
to be made. 
It is beyond all doubt that that sort of litter possesses 
the greatest value which contains the greatest quantity of 
these ingredients in which soil in general is most deficient ; 
amongst these are potash and soda, lime and magnesia, 
chlorine, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, and especially 
nitrogen. Carbon, which as we have just seen is amongst 
the most important ingredients of litter, may here be left 
out of consideration, because its amount is constantly 
within a few per cent. more or less, and as we know that 
all dry litter contains more than 50 per cent. of carbon, 
it is equally unnecessary to take into account the oxygen 
or hydrogen of litter, as all crops can take up the water 
of the soil ad libitum. 
‘As some sorts of vegetable matter contain substances 
either detrimental to vegetation (like tan), or decomposed 
with great difficulty, such as rosin, wax, and fibre, such 
substances require a particular preparation previously to 
being used for litter, or carried on the field, mixed with 
dung. They require to be well heated, without, however, 
being carbonised, as it is merely requisite that the tannin 
should be destroyed, and the fibres rendered more tender. 
If this is not attended to, they will remain for years 1n the 
soil undecomposed, which (as manure is to be considered a 
capital desirable to be quickly circulated), 18 attended with 
much loss ; besides which, the plants whose growth we in- 
tend to accelerate, will derive no advantage from them. I 
have stated before that those sorts of litter are easiest of de- 
composition which contain much nitrogen, phosphorus, 
and sulphur, or which are soft and delicate, at the same time 
containing much green mucilage or other substances easily 
extracted by water. Dry green plants always arrive easier 
at a state of decomposition than those which are dry and 
ripe, not only because the texture of the former is more 
soft, but also because they contain substances which bring 
on a speedier putrefaction, It is said that litter which has 
become mouldy is of less value than when fresh; if this 
he really the case it is to be ascribed to nitrogen having 
porated during dl position in the form of ammonia. 
1. Straw of Corn Plants.—The straw of Cereal plants 
is, on most farms, the only litter used, and as far as 
keeping dry the beds of cattle is concerned, it is the best, 
because its hollow straws enable it to absorb the greatest 
quantity of moisture. Its value however aS a manure 
is byno means so great as that of other sorts of litter; 
there is moreover a great difference between the different 
sorts of straw in respect of their manuring qualities, It 
may be generally assumed that the straw which is most 
nutritious is also the best manure. It manures the better, 
the less it has been subjected to maceration by rain-water ; 
Tp aaa ren 
* Humic acid is composed of 56'700 parts of carbon, 4789 hy- 
drogen, and 38°511 oxygen 
