100 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
[Frs. 18, 
kind, the nature and causes of which have been revealed 
to the patient observer. Among these, one of the most 
interesting is the hardening of the tissue or texture of a 
lant. 
When a plant is first formed, its parts are delicate as 
the finest cobweb, thin as the most untouchable mem- 
brane, incapable of enduring the light of heaven. The plant 
is then shrouded in darkness; and in the recesses of the 
seed it undergoes its earliest changes. By degrees its 
parts harden, by attracting and absorbing the charcoal 
which, in the form of a viewless air, is floating around 
them. This they continue to feed on hour by hour and 
day by day, constantly adding sometbing.to their texture, 
till at last the microscopical point, once too delicate to be 
breathed upon, is enlarged into a seed pregnant with the 
future tree. This curious process of hardening consists 
mainly in lining the cavities of the tissue with layer after 
layer of condensed charcoal, in various chemical states ; 
which, however, is rendered stronger and harder by the 
addition of earthy substances, such as lime and magnesia, 
and even of some of the metals, such as copper, which is 
found in notable quantity in Coffee and Wheat. ; 
Now what occurs to a plant at its earliest period of life 
continues to go on during all the remainder of its exist- 
ence. The seed pushes forth a root, the texture of which 
is white, tender, half-transparent, and crushed by a touch ; 
but the root speedily robs the earth of its air of charcoal, 
and such other substances as potash, lime, or flint, dissolves 
them in its vital fluids, and then, introducing them into 
its cavities, lines those tiny spaces with a crust which 
often renders the root as hard as solid bone. 
The same takes place withthestem. The wood of the 
solid Oak was once a thin cobweb-like substance which 
would perish ifnature did not bathe it in a gummy fluid, 
wherein its first growth is accomplished. Then, organ- 
ized as a soft spongy substance, it serves as a passage 
through which charcoal passes in its invisible form, along 
with all those imperishable materials that it sucks out of 
the earth in its sap. The charcoal is gradually condensed 
upon the sides of its cavities, lining them with layer after 
layer of a harder substance : along with the charcoal are 
entangled the earthy matters of the sap, and thus in time 
the heartwood of the Oak-tree is produced. At first, 
when the cavities are young, and nothing has been de- 
posited upon their inside, the sap flows freely through 
them ; but by degrees they become furred over, their pas- 
sages are more and more choked up, and at last the 
heartwood of the Oak presents an impassable barrier to 
all further movement of the sap in its direction. If it 
were on the outside of the tree, the heartwood would be 
thrown off like the bark, which perishes from a similar 
cause, but being covered by the younger wood, it is so 
guarded and incorporated with the still Jiving timber, that 
no separation can take place. And thus, by a wise pro- 
vision, the appetite of a tree falls off as it grows larger, 80 
that though the whole earth were covered with forests it 
would still be able to feed them. 
Leaves undergo the same processes; only, in conse- 
quence of the action of light upon them, much of the 
charcoal which they attract from the air arranges itself in 
the state of coloured masses. The tints of the emerald, 
and ruby, and sapphire, are there, and we cease to wonder 
that a diamond should be charcoal, when we know that 
all the colours of the precious gems are constantly derived 
from such a source in the laboratory of the leaf. Here, 
again, takes place the same furring of the cavities of the 
leaf, by the deposit within them of sedimentary matter. 
The delicate membranes become thick and hard ; earths 
and salts blend with the charcoal to line the sides of the 
passages through which the air and fluids pass ; at last the 
delicate conduits in the interior of a leaf cease to supply 
it with the food it wants; it withers and it dies. 
Nor, if we turn to the fruit, is this singular process dis- 
continued. On the contrary, it is here that nature exerts 
her greatest hardening power for the safeguard of the 
seed. The stone of the Peach, which is harder than any 
wood, the shell of the Cocoa-nut, the bony skin of Indian 
Shot seed, were once as tender and thin as the petal of a 
Lily ; ‘but, from an early period of their existence, they 
begin to attract their hardening substances from the parts 
around them, or from the tree that bears them; and a few 
short weeks will often witness the conversion of the 
softest pulp into steely matter. Still it is brought about 
by lining the delicate cavities of a plant with charcoal and 
earthy or metallic matters, deposited layer upon layer, one 
within the other, till every cavity is full. 
To some, these things may be incomprehensible ; to 
others, they may seem incredible; and yet they are all 
capable of being witnessed by those who have the skill to 
observe. Men call them modern discoveries, and so 
they are— 
Yet all these were, when no man did them know; 
Yet have from wisest ages hidden been, 
And later times things more unknown shall show, 
en should witless man so much misween, 
That nothing is but that which he hath scen ? 
The precise manner of observing them is with the 
microscope, and the apparatus that belongs to it. Yet 
something of it may be seen by other and more ready 
means. Take a thin shaving of Rosewood, and throw it 
into aqua fortis, a little warmed; you will soon find the 
dark colour disappear as the aqua fortis dissolves it; then 
TenGve what remains, wash it in water, and dry it ; what 
is left is the original delicate texture, such as existed be- 
fore the ee dissolved by the aqua fortis had been 
deposited within it. Or take a piece of a deal match, 
without the sulphur, burn it carefully, and you will find 
that after all the charcoal has been consumed, there re- 
mains a whitish ashy film, which consists of the earthy and 
metallic substances that had been entangled in the char- 
coal, and had, assisted in giving it hardness. In Wheat- 
straw a skeleton of flint is left behind when it is carefully 
burnt. 
We may wonder how plants contrive to feed on such 
substances as these, or how a flint is to be dissolved in 
water and drank by the roots; but such is the fact, for in 
plants we always find them when they have grown old. 
It is strange enough that:a flint should be dissolved by the 
breath of a plant; and yet we know that it is so, for che- 
R 
mists have proved it. E 
ey TERT READE ores 
THE ROSE GARDEN.—No. IV. 
AmonG the diversified families of autumnal Roses, 
none are, perhaps, more beautiful, or more deserving the 
especial notice of the Amateur, than those designated 
Bourbon Roses. A few years since two varieties only were 
known; at the present time more than 100 are named 
in catalogues. These seem to have divided themselves into 
three or four well-marked groups. The type of one of 
these is a most interesting variety, viz., Gloire de Rosa- 
mene, which I should imagine to have originated by 
crossing the common Bourbon, known in France as 
“* Bourbon Jacques,’’ with Rosa semperflorens; at an 
rate, it is a remarkable variety, with elegant laciniated 
foliage, and gorgeous clusters of semi-double brilliant crim- 
son flowers. This Rose and its congeners by no means 
group well with other members of the same family. It 
will often in one season make shoots six feet or more in 
length, while its humbler relatives content themselves by 
remaining as dwarf bushes. It is therefore only as isolated 
plants, either as pillar Roses or on a trellis, that varieties of 
this group of Bourbons are cultivated with a happy effect. 
One of the best, and nearly the first, raised from the type, 
is well known as Le grand Capitaine, with flowers of equal 
brilliancy, but more double than those of its parent. It is 
to be regretted that it has not the same peculiar luxuriance 
of habit; but this we have in an eminent degree in 
Enfant d’ Ajaccio, lately raised at Lyons, having flowers 
nearly or quite double, with the fine laciniated foliage and 
robust habit of Gloire de Rosamene, and, above all, pos- 
sessed of fragrance in a high degree. 
‘At Le Mons, a seedling, called La Bedoyére, with per- 
fectly double flowers, has been raised. The colour is not, 
however, so brilliant as that of its parent. At Lyons, 
also, a seedling has been originated from the same source, 
with similar remarkable foliage, and described as of fine 
form, ‘et d’un effet superbe ;” it has been named Comte 
a@’Eu. This seems robust in habit, and will doubtless be 
an interesting acquisition. Madame Lucy Astaix is also 
a new Rose, belonging to this group, which was raised at 
Lyons; it is of a pale, but brilliant carmine. <A pretty 
dwarf Rose, known as Bossuet, of this section, forms a 
most elegant bush. 
The group next in interest to the foregoing is that 
which has Madame Desprez as its type. This fine robust 
Rose is a hybrid between the Bourbon and Noisette ; 
from the latter it derives its large corymbs of flowers, 
The varieties of this section do not harmonise with other 
Bourbons in grouping ; they form fine pillar Roses and 
admirable standards; in which respect they surpass all 
others in the family of Bourbons, uniting well with the 
stock, and annually increasing in beauty. In very rich 
soil, shoots of too great luxuriance will often make their 
appearance as standards, so as to destroy the proportions 
of the plant. These should be shortened as soon as they 
have made about half their growth; they will then produce 
numerous smaller flowering stems. The most remarkable 
and beautiful varieties of this group are—Triomphe de 
Plantier, Splendens, Crimson, Madame Desprez, Cardinal 
Fesch, Desgaches, Julie de Joynes, Comtesse de Colbert, 
Thiaffait, Comice de Seine et Maine, Paul Joseph, and a 
new white Bourbon, raised at Lyons, called Madame La- 
charme, The latter may with justice be called ‘* White 
Madame Desprez,”’ as it has precisely the habit of that 
Rose ; its flowers are described as “pure white.” For 
pillars, as standards, and for planting in beds, with their 
shoots supported by a stake, these magnificent autumna 
Roses may be safely recommended to the notice of the 
Amateur, 
The third group of Bourbons worthy of particular no- 
tice is that containing those which have the Chinese and 
Bourbon Roses for their joint parents. The leaves of 
these will by the nice observer be seen to be more pointed 
than those of the’generality of Bourbons ; the lower part 
of their flowers more compressed, and not so exactly 
hemi-spherical as those of the true Bourbon family. One 
of the most remarkable and beautiful in this group 18 
Proserpine, than which no Rose can be conceived more 
splendid, with its deep crimson flowers, shaded with 
glossy purple. Ceres is also exceedingly beautiful; its 
flowers are of a brilliant Rose, its petals thick and wax- 
like. Comtesse de Rességuier, Manteau de Jeanne 
d’Arc, Mademoiselle Rachel, Reine du Congrés, are all 
Roses of the most delicate blush, approaching to white. 
These, with Anne Beluze and Beluze, have all been 
raised at Lyons by Monsieur Beluze ; and form a re. 
markable and interesting group ; Pucelle Genoise and Ar- 
mosa are two well-known varieties, also belonging to these 
Chinese Bourbon Roses. My remarks on other Bourbon 
Roses I will, with permission, give in another paper. 
‘The Blush Boursault, Belle de I’Isle, Boursault Flo- 
rida, or Rose de V’Isle, which, I believe, is also known 
under one or two other names, makes the best stock for 
budding on; it strikes readily from cuttings planted in 
the autumn. My practice in budding on the Boursault 
is perhaps an improvement on that given at p. 51. The 
strongest shoots are selected early in July for layering; 
flower- pots of the size 48 are taken, and the aperture at 
the bottom is enlarged so as to allow the end of the 
shoot to be passed through. After doing this, the shoot 
is tongued, the pot is drawn up till the tongue is about in 
the centre ; it is then filled with a mixture of rotten dung 
and sand in equal parts, and well pressed down, The 
shoot may be budded at the time of layering or after- 
wards, accordingly as the buds are ready. T'he shoots 
should be headed down at the time of budding to within 
two eyes of where the bud is inserted. The buds of all 
the Bourbon, Tea-scented, Chinese, and hybrid autumnal 
Roses will push immediately ; these may be removed from 
the stools in August, potted into larger pots, and forced 
with great success the following spring.—Z. 
THE PINE-APPLE. 
Brine desirous of calling the attention of Pine-growers 
to the great benefit that might be derived from fruiting 
the same plant for several successive years, instead of 
raising a fresh stock annually, as is now practised, I beg 
to suggest the following plan for effecting that desirable 
object. 
The pit in which they are grown should not he less than 
10 feet wide, and should be built in divisions of five lights 
each ; the frame-work being also so constructed that the 
part belonging to each division could be raised separately 
when required. The thickness of the wall at back and 
front should be 4 inches, with only a pigeon-hole occasion- 
ally along the bottom, to allow the water to drain from 
the interior of the pit. Within the outer wall, and at about 
4 inches from it, another wall, a foot less in height, should 
be raised; the cavity between being intended for the 
reception of a hot-water pipe, which must be fixed before 
the inner wall is completed, and should be about 2 feet 
above the level of the floor of the pit. 
The depth of the pit should be about 6 feet; the front 
being a little higher than the ground level, and the 
angle of the roof left to the builder’s taste. I should 
recommend a cavity, 2 feet wide at the bottom, and 6 
inches wider at top, to be formed round the pit, about 
6 inches deeper than the level of the interior, to hold a 
lining, so that the hot-water apparatus might only be 
called into use during severe weather. The bottom of the 
pit should be covered several inches deep with rough 
stones, over which any common slabs, or, in their absence, 
pieces of turf, may bespread. This will prevent the tan, 
which is next to be brought in to the depth of 18 inches, 
from falling down amongst thé stones. 
The compost in which the plants are to be plunged 
should be about | foot deep. The latter, when planted, 
should be just upon the point of throwing up their fruit. 
The pit will be sufficiently capacious to admit of four 
rows being planted out in angles 2 feet apart. After the 
first fruit has been cut, one or two of the best suckers 
should be left, as low down as possible, on each stool; 
the old leaves should be trimmed off, and a few inches of 
fresh compost should be added, so as to raise the mould 
up to the base of the suckers. 
This treatment might be continued annually ; and as 
soon as the plants reached the glass, pieces of wood, about 
4 inches thick and a foot in height, made secure at the 
corners by means of small bolts, might be raised upon 
the wall beneath the frame-work. Upon the top of each 
piece of wood there should be a groove, in which the 
bottom of each succeeding tier would fit. 
Each division of the pit being separate, the frame-work 
might be taken off whenever it was necessary to add 
another tier of wood; and.the top of the pit being built 
but little above the level of the ground, these tiers of wood 
might be continued to the height of two or three feet. It 
would not be necessary to raise the lining higher than the 
top of the brick wall, as there would no doubt be sufficient 
heat in the bed from the lining and the hot water; which 
latter, being in the cavity, would warm the soil sufficiently. 
Boards made to fit above this cavity would be beneficial in 
keeping the dirt from falling down between the pipe and 
the walls when mould was required in the pit. The boiler 
and fire-place might be situated at one end of the pit.— 
I. Gray, Esher. 
prieiirel ce ean 
AMATEUR’S GARDEN.—No. VII. 
Tux time has arrived for the florist to bestir him- 
self. Auriculas and Polyanthuses must receive their 
spring-dressing by removing the surface-soil of each pot 
down to the roots, and replacing it with the usual com- 
post. Avoid using rich manure for this or any flower 5 
for it may be asserted as a natural law, that as all plants 
like fresh soil and leaf-mould, a compost of these two in- 
gredients with a little sand will grow plants as_healthily 
(though possibly not so Juxuriantly) as a complicated ad- 
mixture of more stimulating materials. After the plants 
are replaced in the frame, they must have all the air pos- 
sible by day and night in mild weather, but must be pro- 
tected from frost. A gentle shower of rain will not injure 
them ona mild morning, but take care that the water 
does not stagnate in the centre of the plant, or the bloom 
will be injured. 
Ranunculuses and Anemones should be planted before 
the end of the month. Some excellent observations 00 
the management of the former, by Dr. Horner and Mr. 
Lightbody, will be found at pp- 420 and 469 in the{Vol- 
for 1842, 
Carnation and Picotee layers that have been stored in — 
removed into theif — 
frames in small pots may now be 
blooming ones, taking care that the soil used does not 
contain wireworms, which are their most deadly enemy: 
Where there is convenience, the plants may be returne' 
to the frame after being potted; but where there is noty 
they must be s0 placed together in a sheltered situation 
that they can be protected from rain. Sow Carnatio? 
seed in pots or seed-pans in light soil, and protect it from 
rain and vermin. # 
In the Flower-garden, finish pruning Roses ; in dome 
so, thin out the weak shoots, and shorten the strong am 
