THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



247 



£*» S 2L„t fact connected with the advance of 

 L noct important I acts collected into loO 



&^ ;twc"ffil^»» d 40 are occupied by 



£5*5 C"uroT tCta^res i/apted for dif- 

 fa^ and anomc 



fcrtnt soils. , k on manures cannot yet be 



* ^^^ y 6 ubTect" too° new, notwithstanding its 



«i««. T J„ e rs "f well-directed inquiry are demanded 



Equity; J*'" ™ e some of the most simple problems 5 

 a,, frrmerJ to ...Ive s< thejr ^ tQ m . 



"^^^fcauses o 8 the conflicting results which farm- 

 "*«*" 1 are sure to produce. It is wortu the 

 to up"'™"" "° r„ ricu ltu' al Societies, whether the 



r ide T"»ch mportant inquiries would not be much 

 ^.uon of sucn i I well . arraD ged questions were 



- -Te"«nd circuited among farmers, who would thus be 



great diversity from the same pod. the largest having the sidered I to .produce , by lu t^ZT^JsllZ' u". 



i ™ith a unitv of purpose that at present is 

 ita, ° "fuel In the meanwhile, Mr. Cuthbert John- 



^woTwm maintain its ground as the best collection 

 rfhcti that has yet been co mpiled. 



VOTICES *W* * PLANTS WHICH ARE EITHER 



N0TIC t'buL or ornamental. 



m nni«rviiA Free- fl<»weriri£ Stophanotis. 

 KEf'SieM Ascl^dace.e. Pentandria Digynia.- 

 <E*r*r*» th«.beenS<>re properly called "free flowering" 

 ¥ P lh nt ™ott eSnt^ climber, for it bears a large cluster of 

 2*° lh f™n theaxU Or every leaf, and these are developed on 

 towe r. from he axil 7 while there is an almost 



I*"* ESSSSStoof them, indeed, there is scarcely any 

 ^?!Swich can compete with it ... the pro- 

 tSttmSEZEL We find, from the ''Botanical Magazine," 

 t^nave country is Madagascar, and that Mrs. Lawrence, 

 t itsna.ivc / . , collection is so rich in really 



Z22£+£** ^ILure of introducing it to England . 

 ,?S to impowible to overrate its merits, the> are so essen- 

 tUlJ " erling. Besides having a most elegant cl.mbmg habit, it 

 bears dark shining foliage of a pleasing order, and from the axils 

 oftfus the delicate, creamy -white blossoms are protruded m large 

 umbels The texture of the flowers being very firm, they last a 

 considerable t.me, and their odour is exceedingly delicious. As 

 a plant for training over the roofs of stoves, and especially of 

 Orchidaceous houses ; or for growing in a pot, and twining 

 round anykiid of trellis j or lor keeping in a small state sup- 

 ported by a stake, as an erect shrub, it is almost equally interest- 

 ing. But, though we have said that it flowers abundantly while 

 very dwarf, this is only when it is appropriately treated ; as some 

 cultivators can hardly get even large specimens to bloom well. 

 To ensure an early and continued display of flowers, the young 

 plants should be rai>ed from the upper shoots of the specimens 

 that have exhibited high blooming propensities. A cutting taken 

 from a luxuriant plant which grows vigorously and flowers but 

 seldom, will not so speedily make a free-blooming specimen as 

 one taken from a plant that has already manifested a disposition 

 to bloom freely. The soil is another of the things which affect 

 fertility. It must not be rich; nor should the pot be deep or 

 Urge. If the roots lie near the surface of the soil, the blooming 

 power will be increaied. No conditions suit the plant so well in 

 lommer as a warm, moist, close atmosphere, like that of an Or- 

 caidaeeous-hemse. But it is indispensable that it be kept cool 

 and dry through the winter, otherwise it will not blossom well. 

 The specie* is increased by cuttings, which, as before hinted, 

 ■■Krold be made from the points of the young flowering shoots. 



— Pastel Magazine of Botany. 



EaANTHKMtM Polchkllum. Pretty Eranthemum. {Ever. 

 green Shrub.) Acantl.aci re. Diandria Monogynia.— Com- 

 bined with the disposition for winter flowering, this species has 

 an erect bushy habir, without any tendency to become straggling, 

 or naked in the lower part of the stem. On the contrary, it is 

 clothed with leaves of a fall deep green, and of considerable 

 breadth, down to the very edge of the pot, if any attention at all 

 Ji ■ paid to its culture. The intense brightness of its sky-tinctured 

 blossoms lends a showiness during the first three or four months 

 ef the \ear, which is the more acceptable from having fewer 

 competitors than if they were produced at a more advanced pe- 

 riod. To realise its highest character it must be grown in a 

 roomy pot, or planted in a border. When grown in pots, it must 

 be planted in a more retentive soil than is usually employed, 

 and nothing can be better adapted than a stiong loam, such as 

 u P r °cured from the decayed sward of a pastuie. A liberal 

 supply of waer is indispensable to its vigorous growth. But 

 perhaps it is seen to the greatest advantage when planted in the 

 •order of a stove, where its roots are uncoi fined, and it can 

 grow wuh ut restriction; At Chatsworth it is planted in the 

 ooraers of the large stove conservatory, where it foims bushes 

 ■everal feet in circumference, and produces a profusion of flowers 

 ■hniATr* 1 8Uccessiv 'e months. After flowering, the shoot* 

 Iiila Pruned back to within an inch or two of their base. 

 JrfcenPA > Ue ° ! the coastof Coromandel.in the East Indies, from 

 cent i WaS Sent to Kew gardens towards the close of the last 

 in ilii,, " m *y te increased readily from cuttings, put in sand, 

 Ufcweir ii b()ttoinhe at; and if allowed sufficient pot-room, 

 Puw w ake handsome bushes in the course of a season.— 

 Won s Magazine of Botany. 



GARDEN MEMORANDA. 



bpoffbrth near Wetherby.-A lovely new flower is blown 

 >s morning, of which onlv one was raised, from Narcissus 

 pw^cus by N. tnoschatu's minor, the N. candidissimus 

 wiH * I 3016 ' ^ e leaves are now nine inches high, \ in. 

 wrV'f j C0U8; the stalk 6 in - 5 the Peduncle precipitately 

 ■tatfc ,° ; the tube & reen » t th » in - loD "' equalling the 



? * ' and han ging at the distance of a quarter of an inch 



bnT f SUlk '' tlle limb white ' acute > 5 th8 of an i,,ch 

 feirfti ming a hori2 <>ntal star ; the cup at first opening 



Wel ^ y ,; t ;,!!? e ^T h J ye»°w, TV* in- lo«»g, *«*»*■* wide ' 

 inn A 8,x -»obed, and so much indented as to look almost 



taoSr ; f. ntherS 8leD(1 * r > all standing out of the tube, 

 ibunri 8tyle ' 8borter ^»n the cup ; pollen vellow, 



lertedM '-? nt a S reeable > but weak. It would have 

 •live Al • orth for a new genus, if he had been 

 \iax m ° J ^ 8t ex P audin ? a dwarf robust mule from 

 General of°rK ^ lea8t daffodil ) b y Hermione, States- 

 lowers „. &h ops, with two large creamy pale-yellow 



cup long, and not in the least recurved. — W. Herbert, 



April lh 1844. 



Collier's Wood, Tooting The heath-house at this 



place is filled with many fine young plants of that hand- 

 some tribe. On the stage, among them we particularly 

 observed a bushy well-grown plant of Pimelea Bpectabilis. 

 It measured about 7 feet in circumference, and 1 foot 

 9 inches high, and Mr. Bruce, who is gardener there, in- 

 formed us that the plant was only two years old. It was 

 grafted on P. decussata, which appears to make an excel- 

 lent stock for this species, which is one of the most hand- 

 some of our Swan River Shrubs. The plant was not in 

 bloom; but its large well-swelled flower-buds promised 

 an abundant display of its showy blossoms. This species 

 is not difficult to cultivate ; it thrives better, however, and 

 grows faster when grafted on some of the other kinds than 

 on its own roots. With regard to soil a mixture of peat, 

 loam, leaf-mould, and sand suits it well. When it is grown 

 in a pot to the same perfection as this plant, it forms a 

 fine object for the stage of a greenhouse ; but it does best 

 to be planted out in the bed of a conservatory, where we 

 have seen it in great perfection. The young wood is some- 

 times topped after it has advanced a little in growth, in 

 order to make the plant bushy ; but this is a bad practice 

 as the shoots come weaker, and do not produce such large 

 flowers. In this house also were specimens of Aphelexis 

 humilis, which, when well grown, are showy greenhouse 

 plants, requiring nearly the same treatment as Heaths, 

 and like them succeeding best in an airy situation. A 

 plant of Tropaolum brachveeras, trained over a wire trellis, 

 was producing its bright-Yellow flowers in abundance ; and 

 here Erica grandinosa, which is an excellent Heath, was 

 blooming profusely. The greenhouse was gay with Aca- 

 cias, Azaleas, Camellias, ccc. In the stove, among others, 

 were in bloom, Dendrobium puhhellum, the showy D. 

 nobile, a well-grown plant of Euphorbia splendens, and 

 the useful E. jacquiniflora, which cheers us during the 

 whole winter with its fine bright scarlet blossoms. 



Miscellaneous. 



The Chemistry of Cultivation. By Professor Liebig.— 

 How is it possible, it may be asked, that there could ever be 

 any doubt as to the part which the soil and its principles 

 perform in the development of vegetables ? or that the 

 mineral principles of the plant could ever be regarded as 

 neither necessary nor essential ? There has also been ob- 

 served on the surface of the earth the same circulation— 

 a continual exchange— a perpetual disturbance and 

 restitution of equilibrium. The observations in Agriculture 

 show that the augmentation of vegetable substances, on a 

 given surface, increases with the introduction of certain 

 bodies which were originally principles of the same iwr- 

 face of land, which the plant has removed from it ; the 

 excrements of man and animals proceed from plants ; and 

 these are precisely the substances which in the vital act of 

 the animal, or after its death, resume the form winch they 

 possessed as principles of the soil. We know tl at the 

 atmosphere contains none of these substances, and that it 

 cannot restore them ; we know that their abstraction Irom 

 the soil entails an inequality of production, a want ot fer- 

 tility ; and that we can, by the addition of these sub- 

 stance- re-establish and increase fertility. After such 

 numerous and striking proofs relative to the origin of the 

 principles of animals and plants, to the utility of the 

 alkalies, of the phosphates, and of lime, can the slightest 

 doubt exist as to the fundamental principles of rational 

 Wiculture ? In fact, has the art of Agriculture any other 

 basis than the re-establishment of the disturbed equi- 

 librium ? Can it be imagined that a rich and ferule 

 country, possessing a flourishing commerce, which for 



trunk bearing flowers which produced other eeeds. If the 

 seed -metal had been possessed, similar hopes might have 

 been entertained. These ideas could arise only in a time when 

 the knowledge of the atmosphere was next to nothing, 

 when the part which the earth and air take in the vital 

 acts of plants and animals was unknown. The chemistry 

 of the present day prepares the elements of water, composes 

 this water with all its properties by aid of these elements, 

 but it cannot create them ; it can only extract them 

 from water. The artificial water has been water 

 before. Manv of our agriculturists resemble the 

 ancient alchemists. If the latter saught for the philoso- 

 pher's stone, the former seek for the wonderful seed which, 

 without the addition of nourishment to their soil, scarcely 

 sufficiently rich for indigenous plants, should produce a 

 hundred-fold. The observations made for ages, for thou- 

 sands of years, cannot preserve them from the illusions 

 always arising. The knowledge of true scientific princi- 

 ples alone cm give the power of resisting such errors. 

 In the earliest age of natural philosophy, it was water 

 alone that developed organic substances : then, it was 

 water and certain principles of the air; now, we know 

 with the greatest certainty that it is necessary to add other 

 principal conditions furnished by the earth, to the latter 

 two, in order that the plant may have the power of being 

 reproduced and multiplied.— From the Chemist. 



(To be continued.) 



New Water. colour. .—A lady at Palermo wishing to 

 make a drawing of the beautiful Bougainvillaea spectabilis, 

 was at a loss for a rose-colour that would match it. It 

 struck her, however, that the juice of the Opuntia fruit 

 would do, and upon trial she found it yield a most beautiful 



rose-colour, which was as readily worked as if it had 

 been prepared in a colour-shop ; and now after a year it 

 is as fresh as ever. It would be worth while to get the 

 Sicilians to make up the, juice of the Op untia into cakes. 



CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS 



For the ensti in a Week . 

 I.-HOTHOUSB, CONSERVATORIES. &C. 



TBI general potWn* is now about finished «-W^ 





p tills ^^.-Jl^wl■ f k «v* K ~*, — - — 



sowing arc nearly over in .his department, and al 1 1 he bu lbs and 

 other plants at rest throagh the winter arc now in powM 



that only the common routine of watennp f^ u m £. "j£££ 



or otherwise cleaning plants, and trauuiitfthenw will be nee»nr 



?orle time. Be very sparing o, the "^4?^^^? »£ 

 sphere very moist in fine sunny weather. The t J'™° n ; , ?f' m JS 

 have a range of 30° or 40« in the 24 h°^-£J'£°™ & £ TTo 

 in the morning, 90° and upwards at noon, and from ,0 to 75 



at r-w^'rr,/nr W -This is a go^'d time to cut back duplicate 

 climbe , s > as'to ge? them into flower ,n accession. Where 

 new Cot servatories have bem lately planted, or old ones re- 



S »» «.«» omM«0 -W-w For m. «*£. 



*om th p v » ° mede ' of Haworth. Several editions 

 >. ucetTrn M h,re Daffodil *>y different varieties of 

 * income u. yieldin & a waller «"<* paler form of 



«°>ured E/ff j .V» hich comes from a lar 6 er and dee P er 

 Ajt mino I ?! the South of Eur °P e - Seedlings from 



a-es has exported the products of its soil under the form 

 of cattle and corn, can retain its fertility, if the same com- 

 merce do not return to it, under the form of manure, the 

 principles removed from its fields, and which the atmo- 

 sphere cannot replace ? Would not such a country suffer 

 the same fate as the lands, formerly so rich and fertile, ot 

 Virginia, where neiiher Wheat nor Tobacco can any longer 

 be cultivated ? The large towns of England consume the 

 products of English Agriculture, and, besides, that of 

 foreign countries. But the principles of the soil indis- 

 pensable to the plant, and which are derived from an 

 immense surface of land, are not returned t> the soil. 

 Regulations which have their source in the manners and 

 customs of this people, and which are peculiar to this 

 country, render it difficult, and, perhaps, impossible, to 

 collect the immense quantity of phosphates (the most im- 

 portant of the mineral principles of the soil, although their 

 proportion in it is very small), which are daily conducted 

 into the rivers under the forms of urine and solid excre- 

 ments. We have seen the English fields thus exhausted 

 of phosphates present a very remarkable case; we have 

 seen the exportation of bones (phosphate of lime) from 

 the Continent double their product, as by enchantment. 

 But the exportation of these bones, if it continue on the 

 same scale, cannot fail gradually to exhaust the soil of 

 Germany ; the loss is so much the greater, as a single 

 pound of bones contains as much phosphoric acid as a 

 quintal of cereals. The Thames, and the other rivers of 

 Great Britain, carry away every year thousands of quintals 

 of phosphates. Thousands of quintals of the same sub- 

 stances which come from the sea, are returned into the 

 country, in the form of guano. The imperfect knowledge 

 of the nature and proprieties of matter gave rise, in the 

 days of alchemy, to the opinion that the metals proceeded 

 from a seed. The crystals and their ramifications were 

 regarded as the leaves and branches of the plant-metal, 

 and all efforts tended to find the seed and the earth ap- 



da^hts 1 been^hot': and* you" Vnay expect the thermometer to be 

 ahouJ^mS/emorning'. 1 have pursued this plan w.th .mew 

 than one new Conservatory at tins stage, and I know of no way 



be Grl'enhou*e -After the middle or end of April gardeners begin 

 to change the spring treatment for these plants, hitherto, every 

 means have been taken to keep back earl> growths, and now that 

 a I he plants are in active growth, and the season so far 

 a iva ced that any nece^Hry amount of air and moisture can be 

 t UP n T, -weather, the plants may be more encouraged to 

 Ke a ra Id growth, especially young plants. Whence even- 

 nnrs are cold the house should be shut up close, and air should 

 BufbTSveVE the morning until the sun-heat warm* it 



C °F S orclnflit -Where Cockscombs. Balsams, and other tender 

 an^uaUare used, this is a good place to bring them forward 

 through their early stages. Neriuma ought now to have a gentie 

 i, C mellils, tS flower early, should •»». he forced, to 



form Seir bud,, as well as the Chinese A* J^ '^^^5 

 flowerimr A lew Crassiila coccnca, now put into heat, win 

 flower some weeks earlier. In short, where there is a good cmv 

 "ervaiorv to be kept gay all the year round, and plenty ol planU 

 fo^the pVrpose. tile forcing-pits need never be at rest, and may 

 always be usefully employeu.-D. B. eiiOT ,___ |lIVI - 



II.-FLOWER GARDEN AND SHRLBBERIES. 



Out-dour Department. 



The weather is now u, invitn, e . th.t « «*«*« o ««« «£ 



lutiou to re 



isemy 





certain there i. ";; 1 " J '■*-"""- ^very probability that be- 

 middlc of May, w hde there n ^ e e y P^ ^^ ^^ 



tween now -ml « h ^ sne e J c l m | a> by D tbc tine weather of last 



tnrif'to turn out his Calceolarias, and the consequence 

 April to tun ou * h ' d of the plan ts, while those which 



s^< °w. e VeSiffitiW «* ™« not bloom until 

 ?rJ.,7he Reason' In another place nearly 5000 plants had to 

 „ U e e re"nstated! S through being planted out too early ; so that, 

 though "e can effect but little good, it is quite possible to do 

 considerable injury. Keep tne soil of the beds moved once or 

 twice a week, and on strong soils a little short grass or half- 

 clecaved vegetable refuse will do no injuiy, if well mixed with 

 the so 1 • 1 am living experiments with a variety of the new 

 manures : so far as i an. at present able to judge, superphosphate 

 of lime is the best, next to it Potter's a uano, and then bone-dust. 

 Nitrite of soda is good, but requires to be used with great cau- 

 tion. A small quantity frequently repeated is, I think, the saiest 

 method < f using any of these manures. 



Reserve Garden.— la answer to " G. O. F." the following may 

 be regarded as a good selection of •• moderately-tall biennials 

 and perennials: Alyssum sa.xatile, Amphicome arguia, AquUegia 

 formosa, glandulosa, grandittora, sibinca, spcciosa, arctica, ana 

 canadensis; Calliopsis Atk.monii, Campanula ca j'l >a i J| c ;' ftr ^ 



alb 



plen 



Delphinium azurcuni, cuiueucc, «. ««««., — 7,~~7 n F rnmTr », chi 



giatum, specosum, Dianthus bispanwiis. ^ ■>* din0 rum. 



nensis, plumarius. Digitalis new spotted. Ecmurn * iflorag , 



Iberis Tenoreana, Lupin ut arboreus, * u £* s ' c t a lcedonica, 



plumosus. polyphyllus, p. albas, L > c ^"'f f ^ pe" t8temon cam " 

 (Euothera macrocarpa, *jieciosa, laraJta s c n l ' 11 io ' „,, Potentilla for- 

 panulatum, geutianoides. cocci neura,*pe^ HoKWOO dia«a, 



prcpriate to its development. Without giving any thing m >™™ K ,^S^x*:**7«>+ ^^^omui^ndT 

 -»^ by Ma^~ a^Tflo^rStog | abearance to an ordinary vegetable seed, it was con- stachys 8pecitJ sa. ,tenact» specif, -d 



