1843.) 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 
735 
Brought forward £0 2 9 
The same taken up and again divided, about the middle 
of October, and averaging a division of 3 times, or 
10,980 plants, and again plantedasbefore,6inchesapart 0 3 0 
Taking up and dividingthesame . . . + + 0 3 0 
The same plants again taken up and divided, about the 
beginning of March, and averaging a division of 4 
times, or 43,920 plants, the plants to be placed at one 
‘oot apart at this planting eachway . + + + 0 
Taking up and dividing the same dite ay 
Total for planting an acre of Wheat, one foot apart #1 12 9 
No. IIJ.—To plant an acre of Wheat, the plants to 
stand one foot and a half apart, 227 grains must be sown, 
about the middle of July, six inches apart— 
The labour for which would be half an hour, at 2d. € s. d, 
per hour " . i . . . . * Do Ook 
The same taken up and divided in August, averaging & 
division of 4 times, or 908 plants—labour for planting, é 
one hour and a half . . . . . . - 0-083 
Taking up and dividing thesame . . 0. + 0 0 8 
The same taken up and divided in September, averaging 
a division of 3 times, or 2724 plants, still planted six 
inches apart—labour for planting . . ‘ oOo. 
Taking up and dividing thesame . 9. + 4 0 0 9 
The same taken up and divided in October, averaging a. 
division of 3 times, or 8172 plants, and planted at six 
inches apart—labour for planting . : . , 0 3-8 
Taking up and dividing the same. . yal eee das ati 
Th in taken upand divided t 
of March, and averaging a division of 4 times, or 32,670 
plants, which are to be planted one foot and a half 
apart—labour for planting . : . ° . oe OD ot) 
Taking up and dividing the same 09 0 
Total for planting an acre of Wheat at 1ft. Gin, apart #1 4-7 
No. 1V,—In my opinion the only way of executing this 
plan is to dibble in the seed, 2 grains in a hole, about 4 
inches from each other, the plants to be taken up when they 
are in a proper state, and divided intofive, which would be as 
many on an average at that time as could skilfully be made, 
and then planted out at once, where they are to remain, 
thus getting rid of all the intermediate dividings. The 
number of grains of Wheat required for one rood would 
be 42,240, which would not exceed one pint at farthest, 
as I have ascertained by actually counting that quantity ; 
and consequently, a pint of Wheat will plant 21,120 holes, 
Tf each hole thus gives five plants on an average, which 
may be reasonably expected, there would be at the dis- 
Posal of the farmer, 105,600 plants, a quantity sufficient 
to plant five acres, at 174 inches apart. 
__ If farmers were to adopt a system of this kind, there is 
little doubt but it would soon gain ground in the country, 
eed for five acres, sown in the usual way, would cost 
about 47. 12s. 6d.; whereas, one pint of Wheat would 
only cost about one penny. The plants may be taken up, 
» and planted again by 50 people in one day ;— 
farmer’s saving, exclusive of the original cost of dibbling 
the rood, would be 37. 7s. 5d. per every five acres, as thus— 
Cost of seed-Wheat for five acres . . 
Cost of one pint of seed-Wheat 0 0s, 1d. 
Dibbling a quarter of an acre 0 0 
Taking up and planting F 15 O0——1 5 1 
€4 12s. 6d, 
FAMILIAR BOTANY.—No. XVII. 
Tar Water Frannez.—A friend put into my hand 
the other day a yard or two of what seemed a coarse kind 
of flannel, gray on one side, greenish on the other, and a 
full quarter of an inch thick. It had been thrown up by 
the river Trent, and washed ashore in vast sheets. 
Those who had seen it pronounced it a manufactured arti- 
cle, and so it was, but by the hand of Nature. It brought 
to mind a similar production, of which some acres had 
been ‘discovered in Berkshire about three years since, 
when it was sarp that clothing had been made from it 
by the country people, who took it for a sort of cotton 
wadding, falien from heaven. 
When this substance is handled it is harsh to the touch, 
although composed of finest threads. To the naked eye it 
Presents no character by which it may be known from any 
Coarse and loosely woven cloth. The microscope reveals its 
nature. It is then found to consist of myriads of jointed 
threads, whose joints are compressed alternatély sideways 
and vertically ; they are here and there transparent, but 
Or the most part opaque, and rough to the eye. The 
white side is more opaque than the other, and more unex- 
aminable; but if a little muriatic acid be added to the 
Water in which the fragments of Water Flannel float, 
©opious bubbles of air appear, which are much increased 
in quantity by the application of the heat of a spirit- 
‘amp. By degrees they disappear. They were bubbles of 
Carboniciacid, extricated by the action of the muriatic 
acid ona coating of carbonate of lime, with which the 
plant is more or less completely invested. If, after this 
Operation, the threads are again examined, the contents of 
the joints become visible; in the green parts of the 
lannel they are filled with an irregular mass of green 
matter, in the white part with myriads of globules, inter- 
mixed with a shapeless substance. The globules are the 
Seeds. If a little iodine is then given to the flannel, it is 
Teadily absorbed, and the contents, shapeless matter, 
globules, and all, become deep violet, showing that all this 
Substance is starch. 
ence it appears that the Water Flannel is a micro. 
Scopical plant, composed of jointed threads, secreting car- 
onate of lime on their surface, ‘an forming seeds 
composed of starch within them. And when we consider 
that the joints are smaller than the eye can detect, while 
each contains from 50 to 100 seeds, it may easily be con- 
Seived with what Japidity puch a plant is multiplied. 
Besides which, as their contents consist to a great extent 
of starch, the most readily organizable of all vegetable 
materials, the means of growth with which the plant is 
provided are far more ample than anything we know of 
in the higher orders of the Vegetable kingdom. 
This curious substance has of late years attracted the 
attention of people in various parts of England, and the 
inquiries that have been made of naturalists have been so 
incorrectly answered, that it is full time to put an end to 
the mistakes about it. In the year 1840, the Royai 
Agricultural Society submitted specimens of it to the late 
Librarian of the Linnean Society and the Secretary of 
the Royal Dublin Society. Mr. Don declared it to be the 
Oscillatoria corium—one of the half-animal, half-vegetable 
productions which form entangled layers in the bottom of 
streams in the colder parts of England. But it is difficult 
to conceive what could have given rise to this statement ; 
for the Water Flannel has no one of the peculiarities of 
Oscillatoria corium, which, moreover, is glossy and slimy. 
Mr. Hardyman reported it to be a water-plant called Con- 
ferva sordida, or, as he called it (Hibernicé), a kind of 
Sresh-water sea-weed; and he was nearly, though not 
quite, right; for it is a true Conferva. C. sordida, how- 
ever, differs ; has another colour, and a silkiness which is 
rendered impossible in this plant by the carbonate of lime 
that clothes it. Another authority assured the Linnean 
Society that the Water Flannel is the Conferva fluviatilis 
of Linnzus, a more extraordinary error than that of Mr. 
Don. I happen to know that, in two of these cases, 
the observers had the real Water Flannel submitted to 
them, for portions of it were placed in my hands at the same 
time ; and there is little reason to doubt that the speci- 
mens laid before the Linnean Society were the same. 
The Water Flannel is really the Conferva crispa of Dill- 
wyn, or the C. capillaris of Linnzus, known for years for 
the singular property it has of forming beds of rough, 
entangled, curling threads. 
nd for what purposes, we may ask, is this small plant 
intended? Is it for food for man or animals, or for 
decorating the waters in which it grows, or for adding 
to wealth or comfort in any way? It is hard to answer 
selfish questions of this sort. That it has its use we may 
rest assured ; but whether for us or our fellow-creatures it 
is scarcely within my province to determine. I may, how- 
ever, suggest, that it, like all such agents, is probably one 
of the great means of moving the hidden springs of the 
natural world.——It swarms in waters, where it floats and 
grows with inconcéivable rapidity. What doesit grow on, 
unless the decaying matter in which all water abounds, 
and which tends to pollute it? Itis therefore a purifier 
of the streams.——It is cast by the waters on the mea- 
dows, and carries with every 1000 lbs. weight of it, 400 lbs. 
and upwards of carbonate of lime, 200 Ibs. of carbon, 
with at least 15 lbs of the air called nitrogen. These are 
manures which the Water-Flannel rescues from the flood 
to increase the vigour and abundance of the land.——But 
it is also the nest of insects and animalcules, which wander 
amidst its trackless fields and feed upon its produce. 
Surely these are uses enough without a hacknied appeal 
to the admiration of what are called inquiring minds. 
But it may be that nature intends such plants for 
higher purposes. One quarter of its weight consists of 
starch and azotised substance; that is to say, of the nutri- 
tious matter that gives bread its value. Why, then, might 
not the Water-Flannel be converted into food in times of 
scarcity ? It would certainly be far better than the bread 
of bark and straw which has been sometimes used.— R. 
TO OBTAIN FLOWERING PLANTS OF SALVIA 
SPLENDENS IN THE MONTHS OF MARCH 
AND APRIL. 
Tue small lateral shoots from large specimens of in- 
different vigour, and which were previously bloomed the 
current season, were formed as cuttings in the last week 
of October, and struck in store pots of 12 each, within a 
span-roofed box, resting within two inches of a hot flue, 
in a propagating-house, When in a suitable state for 
potting off, pots of small and large 48 size were prepared 
by placing an inverted thumb-pot over the cavity of each 
as drainage (or circulating medium,) and around each 
small pot were added, up to its level, portions of half- 
decomposed manure in a thoroughly dried and coarse 
state, pressed close. 
A struck cutting from{the store pot was then inserted 
ineach, and in many instances a flake of the dried manure 
was placed immediately over the cavity of the small in- 
verted pot, upon which each cutting, with its detached 
portion of roots, &c. generally rested. 
The compost used was two parts of yellow loam, with a 
third portion of the same dried manure reduced through 
a sieve of two-eighths of an inch wide in the wire—a small 
quantity of sand being added. The first situation in which 
they were placed when potted of was within the span- 
roofed box or frame in which they were struck, from 
whence, when fully established, they were removed for a 
short period upon the pit of an Orchidaceous-house ; and 
from this position they were finally transferred to the 
south end of a span-roofed stove, which also employed 
in the spring as a Forcing-house. This structure was 
heated by an ordinary flue running round the house, which 
being in an exposed situation, required a high temperature 
during winter, and consequently the atmosphere was dry. 
The plants were placed upon an elevated shelf against the 
south front glass, and also upon the platform beneath, 
over the flue, which was covered with sphagnum and 
surfaced with sand in order to counteract the intense heat | 
by copious watering. ' 
In addition to the potted cuttings, the same process 
was applied to larger plants, the whole of which had pre- 
viously bloomed in an indifferent:state of growth. The 
latter were cut back a short time previous to the opera- 
tion, in order to accumulate their sap as far as their 
lateral growth permitted. The only difference observed 
with the shifted: plants was, a great reduction of the soil 
in which they had been previously grown, and the inverted 
pot used for internal circulation (or drainage) was pro- 
portionate in size to the large twenty-fours or sixteens to 
which the plants were removed; the quantity of dried 
manure employed was also in proportion, The larger 
specimens, including the whole of the shifted plants, 
were excited to growth by being placed upon a bed of tan 
previous to their final removal to the stove. Being, as 
before stated, exposed to a high temperature and ungenial 
atmosphere, humidity was maintained by frequent 
syringings, &c. at appropriate hours. 
The above mode of potting was adopted apart from 
any previous knowledge of its application’ or probable 
effect. In the instance of the potted cuttings nothing 
short of a failure was anticipated, from the extremely 
rapid circulation which was expected to follow; and on 
this account the plants excited little interest until their 
uniform and exuberant growth proved, satisfactorily, that 
the proportions, arrangement, and quality of the mate- 
rials used in the process of potting, had answered the 
great end always sought for in high cultivation—namely, 
an uniform circulation of moisture. 
The appearance of the plants during the progress of 
their growth, especially of the cuttings in 48 sized pots, 
up to the season of bloom, was luxuriant and uniform in 
the highest degree, indicating the vigour of seedlings 
rather than of cuttings, and even led to an inquiry 
whether they were not some new species! Durin; 
March and April they presented a very interesting 
appearance, with their long brilliant spikes of orange- 
scarlet, mingling at that season with other gay produc- 
tions of the forcing-house, but surpassing them all for 
elegance and beauty. 
I conceive that the principles involved in the foregoing 
instance of successful cultivation, with portions of plants 
previously exhausted by bl ing, afford lusi 
evidence in favour of opinions adyanced elsewhere, 
namely, that— 
1st—The vigour of plants is in proportion to the excit- 
ability of their organs, 
2nd—A progressive and accumulative system of cultiy- 
ation is alone capable of obtaining the greatest possible 
effects, from any proportionate amount of agency to which 
plants are exposed. 
3d—The greatest possible effects in cultivation do not 
in any case depend upon the presence or absence of any 
single element of support, nor upon any given amount of 
material or agency, but in the judicious combination of 
all the materials or agencies which are essential. 
4th—An adaptation of those agencies to the progres- 
sive stages of growth in plants is essential, if the best 
possible effects of cultivation are to be obtained. 
5th—The subserviency of the highest given amount of 
material to the legitimate object of cultivation will be the 
nearest test of an ultimate effect. 
6th—The best result produced by an inferior amount of 
material is only an approximate effect. 
7th—The greatest extent of healthy development in the 
Organs of plants is equal to an ultimate effect in growth. 
8th—The subserviency of the greatest extent of growth 
to an uniform development of flower-buds is equal to an 
ultimate effect in bloom, which is the highest object of 
cultivation. 
ENTOMOLOGY.—No. XLIX. 
AsprpioTus concuirormis (The Apple-iree Mussel 
Scale, or Dry Scale).—Upon the trunks and branches of 
Apple and Pear-trees there are found two species of Scale- 
insects, the former of which we will now describe and 
figure. They are so small, and partake so completely of the 
substance, colour,.and character of the bark, that an un- 
practised eye would not suspect they were the produc- 
tion and habitation of an insect, and I believe that some 
allied species attached to the Ash and other trees have 
been mistaken, even by philosophers, for Lichens, &c. 
The little animals sticking to the bark of the Apple- 
trees are so similar to Mussel-shells, that Geoffroy called 
them ‘‘ Le Kermes en ecaille de moule,’”’ but instead of 
giving them an appropriate scientific name, he designated 
them as the Chermes arborum-linearis. Gmelin has in 
some measure supplied the deficiency, by describing them 
under the name of Coccus conchiformis; but if he had 
applied the term of Mytiliformis, Mussel-shaped, it would 
have been more significant. These scales.do not lie in 
one direction, as others generally do, with their heads 
downward, for some of the Apple-tree Scales are placed 
vertically, others obliquely, and many have a transverse 
direction (fig. 1), and sometimes they are crowded together 
in immense multitudes in every possible position, even 
lying one over another. The scales are hard, dark, and 
shining ; they are exceedingly like a minute Mussel-shell, 
but rather more elongated ; they are slightly curved, 
transversely wrinkled, rounded at the tail, and attenuated 
at the head, which is semi-cylindric, less opaque, and of a 
rusty colour (fig.2). These adhere firmly to the bark 
having the margins broad beneath and woolly (fig. 3), 
and when dislodged, the space they had covered appears’ 
white. Within the shell is found a fleshy-green female, 
occupying part of the cavity towards the tapering extre? 
mity (fig. 4), the hinder space being entirely filled with 
white oval eggs, amounting sometimes to 50 or more (fig 5); 
they are rather larger than in most Species I think, and 
produce little white flat Cocci, with two antenne and six 
legs ; theyare lively and run about for several days, but 
haying fixedii meelves then grow, and by degrees become 
