aoe eS 
1843.] 
THE GARDENERS 
CHRONICLE. 875 
THE BRITISH ND PRINCE AL: ‘T PEAS. 
W J. CORMACK anv CO. beg to announce to 
* their Friends and the Public that they have harvested the 
above two New Varieties, and will be obliged by early orders, as 
the stock is limited. They will be seut out, as last spring, in 
packages, bearing the name of the firm, price 3s. 6d. per quart. 
The usual allowance to the trade. 
N -B.—" Cormack’s Early Kent Peas,” 14s. per bushel. 
Neweross, and Bedford Conservatory, Covent Garden, Dec. 15- 
JePward BECK invites the attention of Horticul- 
sh, _turists to the different articles manufactured by him in 
SLATE, They may be seen in use al Worron Corracs, IsuE- 
WORTH, upon application to the Gardener—Sundays ewecpted. 
ne 
Che Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
SATURDAY, DECEMBER. 16, 1848. 
MEETINGS FOR THE FOLLOWING WEEK. 
‘Tuxsvay, Dev. 19, innean . ee Bate 
Wapwuspay, Dec. aof Miarorcopina ot gaan 
Wer 
have the paint ° nnouncing the 
deteate painful duty of a g 
» at Bayswater, on the 14th inst., of Joun 
ee Loupon, Esq., the well-known indefatigable 
Tans oH Horticultural subjects and the celebrated 
differ Po? Gardener, in his 60th year. Whatever 
thé eee of opinion there may be as to some of 
aa Set which Mr. Loudon advocated, there can be 
The on to the general value of his literary labours. 
aie fem which was entertained for them by one 
aoltta las Occasionally been opposed to him, was shown 
Teas ago by the establishment of the genus 
“i ee ae curious New Holland shrub, whose 
pean awwers served to typify the value of those 
Ours — Horticultural, Architectural, Gconomical, 
and Botanical— eRe NTA HN BG 
Thas 2 ube under which Mr. Loudon at length 
4 sti Macrae, 
whignt Smithfela Show of fat cattle, implements, &e., 
ee oe place last week in Baker street, viewed as 
cana ition of the extent to which feeding can be 
oe in the fattening of cattle, sheep, and pigs, was 
Sidered fully equal to the shows of previous years. 
ree ae not room to give this year’s award of the 
ieee offered by the Smithfield Club, and probably 
ana ajority of our readers would not feel much inter- 
ited in it. Among the many heavy animals exhi- 
ae we noticed particularly the beautifully-formed 
years and nine months’ old short-horned heifer, bred 
Si a C. ‘Tempest, Bart., of Broughton-hall, near 
ms rea which gained the first prize in her class, and 
" hich gold and silver medals were also awarded. 
i "ince Albert was among the unsuccessful ex- 
hibitors, 
r 
The exhibition in the galleries of implements, roots, 
“C., was full and interesting. These may be con- 
Sidered as the means, whose use results in the extra- 
ordinary specimens of ox, sheep, and pig, shewn in the 
yard below them ; and whatever advantage may follow 
the spirit of emulation, which is, we think, the only 
useful consequence of a show of fat cattle, there can 
no doubt that the exhibition of Agricultural imple- 
ments, and of the plants used in good farming must 
be usefulin many ways. Some extraordinary Swedish 
urnips were exhibited by Mr. Skirving of Liverpool, 
and Carrots and Mangold Wurtzel, by Messrs. Gibbs, 
of London ; but these, though they doubtless displayed 
the distinguishing marks of their respective varieties 
Carried out to the fullest extent, could not be taken as 
ieee of what their seed would produce under 
; e ordinary circumstances of field culture. We saw 
0 sertes of specimens of Agricultural Grasses, or of 
eae Oats, and Barley ; yet these are surely quite 
aa of classification, according to their varieties, 
bitio ey would form to many as interesting an exhi- 
Geld Ge that of the fat cattle patronised by the Smith- 
as well ub; and we think thatthe display of the straw, 
ee se a the seed of such specimens, would not only 
es hi ul to the spectator, but profitable also to the 
a itor. We shall, however, next year look to these 
atters much more narrowly. 
we relation that plants bear to the carbonic acid 
eat eens them may, at first sight, appear to 
wih ne question in the Chemistry of Physiology 
on hich Practice has no concern; but a moment’s 
Sines of the nature of plants shows that this 
bein, ea very erroneous view, and that, so far from 
an '8 & Mere point of philosophical speculation, it is 
© Intimatel d with the fund 1 princi- 
Ples of cultivation, 
TRG consist very largely of charcoal (or carbon), 
1s plain enough, without having recourse to 
cal investigation: everybody, indeed, knows 
Sticks and branches are what become charcoal 
properly burned, and that after the operation 
the Tuts less bulky, although much lighter than 
Gre Seng petore. It is not, however, so generally 
ae a that the most delicate parts of plants are as 
and UNtgeaeae of charcoal as the wood—yet such is 
yebmors i the fact. Take the petal of a Rose—the 
tender e! Leate corolla of a Convolvulus—or even the 
ungi which spring up in cellars like tufts of 
SNOW, as fragile and as delicate—place them on a piece 
chemi 
that 
when 
they ai 
of glass, thrust them for a moment between the red- 
hot coals of a glowing fire, and when they are with- 
drawn their colour and freshness is gone, but charcoal 
remains. In short, plants consist principally of char- 
coal and water. 
If it is true that such is the fact—if it is thus evi- 
dent that plants consist to a large extent of charcoal, 
it is obviously most important to ascertain the source 
from which they derive it—for we need not say that 
they could not have it if cut off from communication 
with bodies capable of furnishing it. Now all evidence 
goes to prove that a very large source of charcoal is 
carbonic acid: a kind of air, compounded of carbon 
and oxygen, found in the atmosphere, incessantly ex- 
pelled from the lungs of animals, and produced by the 
decay of vegetable and animal bodies. On this invisible, 
untouchable substance plants feed; out of this they 
help themselves to the charcoal, returning the oxygen 
to the air, And thus the vast forests of the earth, and 
all the herbage at their feet, are gradually built up, 
and fashioned into the beautiful green mantle of 
our planet. 
This great fact being established, some other ques- 
tions about which Physiologists cannot agree are less 
important. It practically disposes of the question, 
whether all the charcoal in plants comes from the 
atmosphere or not; because the moment it is proved 
that carbonic acid is their food, we must necessarily 
admit that plants will take it up by their absorbent 
surfaces whenever it is presented to their surfaces. 
And as the power of absorption exists nowhere in 
plants more powerfully than in their roots, so must we 
therefore admit that the roots will feed on carbonic 
acid if the substances surrounding them can furnish it. 
In all cultivated land itis so furnished, and therefore all 
cultivated plants must be considered to be so fed. We 
cannot for a moment admit the truth of those specula- 
tions in which the unimportance of carbonic acid at 
the roots of plants is insisted on. All experience 
shows the contrary. 
If these statements are well founded, as they surely 
are, one of the most important of all matters connected 
with cultivation is immediately touched—viz. the 
management of the soil in which plants grow ; for it 
must be plain that oneof the first things to be thought 
of is the introduction into earth of materials out o: 
which carbonic acid can be steadily produced. The cul- 
tivator does this by means of manure—that is, by means 
of decaying matter capable of producing gaseous com~ 
pounds of carbon,* one of which is carbonic acid. 
But although this is practically done universally to a 
certain extent, it is by no means clear that we employ 
for this purpose all the available substances at our 
disposal. 
Of late years a great deal has been said of the value 
of common charcoal in soil. Experiments have been 
quoted to show that in powdered charcoal alone plants 
flourish with an extraordinary degree of vigour ; char- 
coal has been recommended as the best of substances in 
which to strike cuttings (see vol. i., p. 549, and many 
other places), and by degrees it has gained a reputation 
which nothing now can shake. It is true that some ex- 
periments with it have failed, owing, we believe, to its 
having been used in too fine a state, or to other acci- 
dental causes; nevertheless the opinion of practical 
men is setting steadily in its favour. Messrs. Lod- 
diges employed it ad geously in the cultivation of 
Orchidaceous plants, charring the wooden blocks on 
which they are attached : that practice was introduced 
beneficially at Chatsworth, and nothing can be more 
striking than its good effects in the garden of the 
Horticultural Society, where a few weeks have sufficed 
to give a dark green healthy colour to the plants 
attached to the charcoal blocks. By mixing it with 
the soil of Orange-trees their health was presently 
increased in a remarkable degree ; and we understand 
that it is used largely as an ingredient in the soil em- 
ployed by Mr. Barnes for the production of the great 
Pine-apples at Bicton. 
This may be in part ascribed to the mechanical 
action of charcoal, and to its freedom from insects ; 
or, as chemists maintain, it may be owing to the power 
possessed by charcoal of condensing within its pores 
carbonic acid and other gaseous substances which are 
slowly yielded up to plants as they are required. But 
we are persuaded that charcoal does itself enter into 
combinations capable of being consumed by plants, 
either in the form of carbonic acid, or of some other 
compound. Itis true that chemists regard charcoal as 
one of the most unchangeable bodies in Nature, and 
altogether incapable of entering into combination with 
oxygen at common temperatures. But at p. 24 of our 
volume for 1841, we have pointed out an apparent 
difficulty in the way of this supposition, and it is 
always to be recollected that the powers which are 
assigned to living bodies are far beyond those of the 
laboratory. Enthusiastic chemists may undervalue 
* For the sake of simplicity we here speak of carbonic acid 
only ; nevertheless we by no means exclude carbonic oxide and 
carburetted hydrogen from the gaseous matters capable of being 
decomposed by plants, 
the vital principle, but the world will hardly go with 
them in doing so, They cannot decompose the ¢arthy 
silicates with their most powerful solvents, but the’ 
feeble roots of a plant will do so with the utmost ease 
We, therefore, regard the inability of man to make 
charcoal combine with oxygen or hydrogen as no 
proof whatever that plants cannot do so, and until 
some experimental evidence is produced to prove that 
plants cannot feed on charcoal, we shall believe that 
they can. In the meanwhile we may adduce, in 
support of our own view of this most important 
question, a statement just made by Mr. Rigg,* who 
expressly asserts that charcoal wi// combine with other 
elements at common temperatures. And this is only 
reasonable, considering the facility with which some 
carbonaceous compounds are decomposed; the charcoal 
being combined by Nature into carbonic oxide and 
carburetted hydrogen, which rush to the surface of 
stagnant water when the bottom is disturbed. Let 
any one push a stake into the mud of a wet ditch, and 
see what a vast quantity of air-bubbles rises imme- 
diately to the surface, ‘Those bubbles are composed 
almost entirely of compounds of oxygen or hydrogen, 
obtained by the decomposition of matter, consisting in 
part of charcoal, and formed among the decaying 
matter in the mud. 
« The opinion of Liebig,” says Mr. Rigg, “ that the 
charcoal employed by Lucas (in growing plants) 
underwent no change, js based upon the indestructi- 
bility of this body when prepared from heart-wood of 
large timbers, which, after having been kept for 
centuries excluded from the access of the atmosphere, 
has been found perfectly sound. But it is not so with 
charcoal made in the ordinary way, from the less 
valuable parts of timber when kept moist and exposed 
to the atmosphere. Charcoal of this description under- 
goes decomposition, and carbonic acid is given off: 
“ Lucas would lead us to infer that this was the case 
with those experiments which succeeded best; for he 
says, ‘In order to ascertain the effects of different 
kinds of charcoal, experiments were also made upon 
that obtained from the hard woods:and peat, and also 
upon animal charcouwl, although I foresaw the proba- 
bility that none of them would answer so well as that 
of Pinewood, both on account of its porosity and the 
ease with which it is decomposed’ ” 
The following experiment by Mr. Rigg favours 
the conclusion drawn by Lucas, and disproves the 
proposition of Liebig :— 
“ Fifty grains of charcoal, made from Elm branches 
nearly an inch in diameter was put into a twelve 
cubic inch bottle whose long neck was graduated 
into z35 of a cubic inch. To this charcoal was added 
400 grains of distilled water: the bottle was tightly 
corked, sealed, and placed in a greenhouse on May 
26th. It remained in this situation, at a temperature 
varying from 60° to 90°, until the 6th of July, when 
the cork was drawn, and 1-1 cubic inch of carbonic 
acid was removed over mercury by caustic potassa. 
“The bottle remained open for ten days, when it 
was corked down and placed in a similar situation, 
where it stood for 28 days, during which -58 of a 
cubic inch of carbonic acid had been formed. 
“The bottle was again corked, and kept where the 
temperature yaried from 36° to 60° On drawing 
the cork, a portion of air made its escape, and there 
was ‘64 of a cubic inch of carbonic acid removed by 
liquor potasse. 
“From these we may conclude, that the charcoal 
employed by Lucas underwent decomposition, and 
furnished to the atmosphere carbonic ack : 
hence the plants in these experiments might always 
be in a situation for exercising their influence upon 
this gas, and for being influenced by it.” 
Fortunately it matters little in practice whether 
charcoal acts beneficially on plants by forming gaseous 
compounds from its own substance, or by seizing 
them from the atmosphere, locking them in its pores, 
and then releasing them as plants require them for 
their food. That it does feed plants, and most abund- 
antly, seems proved by evidence that cannot now be 
controverted. 
Why then should not kilns be erected for converting 
into charcoal all the rubbish of gardens and all the 
thousands of loads of tan and sawdust now annually 
wasted, and thus another agent of fertility be added 
to the stock with which both gardeners and farmers 
have to work? But this opens a more extensive 
question which we cannot at present discuss. 
Tuosu who have pits heated by hot-water gutters 
will find, as we have already stated, that dampness 
will be a formidable enemy in winter. When a dare 
the gutters, and ¢ d the surface of materials placed 
above them, the air will have no considerable motion, 
water will lodge on the foliage, and death will result 
with all soft and tender plants. 
But Mr. Donald, the superintendent of the hot~ 
ia jmental Researches, Chemical and Agricultural ; show- 
ing Carbon to be # Compound Body madeby Plants and decom- 
posed by Putrefaction. yo, Smith, Elder, and Co, 
