.] 



THE 



ft 



CHRONICLE. 



H 



ORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



EXHIBITIONS AT THE GARDEN.— The Second Meet- 



■ _. f „4...-J~.. »U« l-»l. nt liana fhr* r.^*^,-. 



- ^yj take place on Saturday the 15th of June. The gates 

 w-m be opeued at One p.m. Tickets are issued to Fellows at 

 this Office, price 6*. each ; or at the Garden, in the afternoon 

 rf the days of Exhibition, at 7*. 6d. each ; but only to orders 

 from Fellows of the Society. 



iS M No Tickets will be issued in Regent Street on the day 

 of E x h ib.t.on.-2l. Regent Street.; 



T YNDON'S PATENT GARDEN SPADES.— 



J a These excellent Spades, warranted to bear a knife edge, 

 rnnd wear as long as three Spades made in the usual way, are 

 ySfcv Jopv Shkwkn, Ironmonger, Sevenoaks, to whom orders 

 iy be addressed, and will receive prompt attention. 



Ctye iSrarHetter^ ©Drotrtcle 



VT 



8 F.M 

 4 P.M 



SATURDAY, JUXE 1, 1844. 



MEETINGS FOR THE FOLLOWING WEEK. 



f Horticultural . . . 3 pm. 



June 4 .< Royal Botanic Gardens . 2 p.m. 



(.Linnean .... 8 p.m. 



>at, /nnef . Society of Arts . . . 8 pm. 

 June 7 • Botanical .... 

 SATvaDAT, June 8 . Royal Botanic 



COUNTRY SHOW.— Twmdat, June 11— Gardeners' Benevolent Institution. 



At page 295, a correspondent, signing himself 

 "Omikron," gave an account of a most destructive 

 DrsEAse among his Peach Trees, for which he 

 could find no cure. Mr. Errington has since (p. 331) 

 offered some valuable suggestions upon the subject. 

 "Omikron" has furnished us with further information, 

 and we now beg to submit a few observations of our 

 own upon this singular case, which involves a variety 

 of considerations of the greatest interest to gardeners. 



The disease in question is " the gum " in a very 

 aggravated state. Both young and old branches are 

 cankering fast from this cause, and it is clear that all 

 the trees in " Omikron's " garden must perish if the 

 mischief is not stopped. 



It appears from his statement that — I, the garden 

 is near Cheltenham, in an open aspect, somewhat, but 

 not very low ; 2, the natural soil a clay, which by burn- 

 ing and cultivating has been made to work well; 

 3, the borders thoroughly drained, only a spit deep, 

 and secured from communication with the clay by a 

 cement bottom ; 4, the soil of the borders a good 

 virgin loam ; 5, the trees planted with their roots 

 near the surface. In all these circumstances there is 

 nothing that can be objected to ; the measures which 

 have been taken are judicious; and it seems impos- 

 sible that the mischief can be connected with them. 

 Mr. Ernngton, indeed, refers the evil to the employ- 

 ment of loam on a cement bottom ; and he thinks 

 that chopped turf would have been better ; which is 

 true. liut when we consider that the disease appears 

 in a few weeks after trees begin to grow in this loam 

 *or the first time, that the borders are only a spit 

 deep, the roots near the surface, and the drainage 

 perfect it seems difficult to believe that the loam is 

 the real cause of" Omikron's" disasters. 



(h Z\° Wn - ° pi r i0n W l S ' as we stated at first > that all 



rhLl S ? i r ° m - the W00d not bei "g Properly 

 ripened; and that opinion is changed into'conviction 



a^mS }* tter J rom "Omikron" now before us, 

 In 3?fff a 7 °^ er s P ecimens °f Ae diseased trees, 

 and he in? ° ld i. W0 ? d is & een > soft, and pithy ; 



the br^Jw / T findl , n S that the ^aves remain on 



heir r'n^ T* Wy , ate in the Season > retainin g 

 meir green appearance." 8 



^sr 10 " 8 then are >- i > what is it that 



^•X^" unn P e *ess of wood?- and % 

 Proc elfto V T?V , c ° nnected with the ripening 

 can Z 1° *i°? tro , ? d ? Neither of these question? 



gives birth to branches firm and healthy like itself 

 because they are fed by a healthy mother. In the 

 latter state, (that of unripeness), it is extremely sensible 

 of changes of temperature, its fluid expanding with 

 force on either side of 40° of Fahrenheit's scale, 

 and it brings forth sickly watery branches, be- 



oftood ° ann0t g "' e their dUly prepared ^PP^ 



The point to be gained, then, is to secure the con- 

 version of gum into some more drv and solid form of 

 matter. Tins is the more important in a Peach-tree 

 because that plant, like all stone fruit trees, naturally 

 produces gum in excess, and wants the power which 

 many plants possess of rapidly converting it into 

 something else. How is this to be done ? ° 



Gum is converted into starch or wood by the loss 

 of a portion of the water in combination with it. A 

 loss of 1 part of water in 1 1 produces starch, arid of 

 3 parts m 11 produces wood. A separation of the 

 water of combination is produced by heat and light, 

 and by no other known agents. In proportion as the 

 branches are heated and exposed to bright light are 

 starch and wood formed at the expense of gum; we 

 may also conceive that in a similar proportion* un- 

 changed gum is dried ofFby the evaporation of its water 

 of solution, and vice vend. Now, one of the first means 

 to effect this end is to take care that no more wood is 

 produced than can be fully exposed to sunlight; and 

 that all such wood is continually nailed close to a wall, 

 whenever it is long enough to be so secured, in order 

 that the reflected heat of the wall may be absorbed by 

 the branches. All the systems of leaving fore-right 

 shoots, or of putting offfsummer pruning till the 

 winter, and tucking in the summer growth, according 

 to the ignorant school of Forsyth, are in the most 

 direct opposition to the ripening process, or in other 

 words, to the conversion of gum into starch and wood. 

 This explains why Peach-trees grown in the open 

 quarters of a nursery, where the temperature is low, 

 are so peculiarly subject to gum. 



But all the exposure, thin training, and other 

 expedients that can be thought of, in order to place 

 the Peach-tree in a situation similar to that of its own 

 Persian climate, will fail, if the roots are permitted to 

 suck up moisture too abundantly from the soil, or if 

 the air is so damp as to hinder the ready passage of 

 water through the leaves. In order, therefore, to 

 secure the ripening of wood, these points also are to 

 be sedulously attended to. The border must not 

 only be at all times well drained, but in localities 

 where theair is inevitably very moist, and where, there- 

 fore, the leaves are incapable of perspiring copiously, 

 the border must be maintained so dry that but little 

 moisture shall find its way into the system of the 

 trees ; for by so doing, the leaves, which have little 

 power of action, in consequence of the dampness of 

 the air that surrounds them, will have little occasion 

 to exercise such power as they possess; and thus a 

 due balance will be maintained between the perspir- 

 ing powers of the leaves and the absorbing powers 

 of the roots. 



When these things are neglected, the consequence is 

 that cold, expanding the watery matter of the un- 

 ripe wood during winter, will force through the sides 

 of the cells in which it is lodged the gummy fluid, 

 which, the moment this happens, loses its vitality 

 and causes a decay of the surrounding parts ; or 

 heat, when the sun beats fiercely on the branches, 

 will produce the same effect — the inevitable result of 

 which will be decay. The proximate cause of " the 

 gum " may therefore be, either exposure of unripe 

 wood to the sun, as we suggested (p. 295), or the 

 action of frost upon it, as we observe by our corres- 



355 



new sap enters them ; and the moment that new sap 

 is introduced in addition, they become so distended, 

 that a portion of their contents must escape. That 

 portion flows into the intercellular cavities of the 



<*n be answered "w-'h" 1 1 ? euner ot tnese questions 



amining the chan ' m the first instance > ex " acil °n ot irost upon it, as we observe by our corres 



organisation. g6S connected with Vegetable pondence that " Omikron V gardener has supposed. 



Oum is the basis nf • Another cause, distinct from all these, may be the 



be very wronjr whn ^^f 1011 » and ne wouId not following :— Suppose that neither heat nor cold are 



f ramework of a nl r • SSSert that the wnoIe suffi cient to damage the unripe wood, the new sap 



substance seems to rtf 1S *a ? keleton of & um - This will d°it; for in unripe wood the cells and vessels 



^rbonicacidamnn^!. m by thedecom P osition of are filIed unnaturally with crude fluid before the 

 ?°ung carbon 3 stwa ter, with whose elements the ....*... 



find *n a youn^Sr- • The fim secretion that we 

 he organs of thl I ? lS ^ m ' and out of that gum 

 Vital force Th P fi" plant are fashioned by the 

 ful l-grown slant k ? ecretion that is formed by a 

 tor Por and Win ♦ U is roused from its winter's 

 00265 out between tl° gr ° W ' is S um > which in tre ™ 

 musing the latter t« « WOod and bark > as cambium, 

 Pa^ to increase in V- r ? n, " and enabling both those 

 tne deli Cite m Jhickness. Gum also lubricates 



•nd lengthen into ll„ ch are formed in the leaf-bud, 



But as plams J. 6S , and branches. 

 £°«ions of i ts &£"?* ^m disappears, the pro- 



l^ forms of sta rc h en i ehm &> and il assumes the 

 ***« that di $S oI V p fl an .? WOod > or U sim P*y loses the 

 *° r at,ngt0 *eSL U >\r d becomes 1 a hardened' 



r P T ure - wBt cells ? nd tubes of ve S etabIe 



?£• *ood is B n aid o t C0m Pletely changed, oi°hard- 

 ^ema ms h id o be r lpe on ^ ^ ^ 



& ^d is cInL ,^ - of gu T m ' and stiU retains 



uffi. ffers ^tZl? " Pe u In the forr "er condi- 

 SUfferin g but Uuh TlZl^ Ch ^ eso£ temperature, 



tr0m either heat or cold, and i 



ment are probably caused by the uniform m< ure~to 

 which the roots are exposed, and which appears essential 

 to their highest vigour. Under such conditions, the 

 growth is nearly twice as great as when grown in the 

 common borders ; by being less exposed to the extremes 

 of drought and moisture, their growth is much stronger, 

 whilst the vigour thus acquired is ultimately productive 

 of a proportionate amount of bloom. Under this mode 

 of management is seen the practical application of a pre- 

 vious remark, viz., that the bloom of Fuchsias generally 

 is commensurate with their annual extent of growth. 

 Thus, their unrestricted vigour when grown in open beds 

 of peat, not only maintains them in beauty for a longer 

 period than when cultivated in pots, but also serves as a 

 most valuable auxiliary in aid of the conservatory, green- 

 house, &c, in the autumn months, it being a valuable 

 feature of all plants which are adapted for planting out 

 in peat, that their removal in bloom into pots or tubs 

 may be effected at any period with infinitely less risk 

 than similar plants grown in other soils. Hence the 

 fitness of the present genus for shifting from the autumn 

 situation into pots, <S:c. 



Other advantages may be named. An established 

 plant in a pot, on being planted out, will in many cases 

 attain two and three times as much growth as it would 

 under ordinary treatment (especially if the season is too 

 far advanced for pot culture) ; hence its value to 

 nurserymen, for the purposes of growth alone. It has 

 also been shown that the bloom of Fuchsias in general is 

 in proportion to the extent of annual growth ; hence its 

 value to amateurs, especially for late-llowering varieties. 

 Last and not least, is its value for the object of increase. 

 It is occasionally remarked, that a difficulty exists in 

 propagating the Fuchsia during summer and autumn ; 

 and this remark is generally connected with another, 

 which serves very well in the place of a worse, namely, 

 that they are easily enough struck if cuttings can be got in 

 a proper state. The question then is, How may suitable 

 cuttings be obtained under the most unfavourable circum- 

 stances, or during that season which is the least adapted 

 to produce them under ordinary modes of culture ? 



At page 753 (CAroHiete, 1843), an opinion is offered, that 

 '« the vigour of plants is in proportion to the excitability 

 of their organs." Admitting this to be correct, it is fur- 

 ther assumed that any system of cultivation which in- 

 sures a progressive and accumulative secretion of sap, by 

 an uninterrupted supply of the agencies which are essen- 

 tial to growth, is alone productive of the highest vigour 

 at any given period. As such, it follows that, all plants* 

 whose maturity of growth and bloom has been produced 

 with the least artificial restriction of those agencies, em- 

 body a higher amount of constitutional vigour than those 

 obtained vice versa. For example, a Fuchsia plant, sub- 

 jected to a uniform circulation of moisture, by being 

 planted in a bed of peat, which is the closest approach to 

 its conditions of growth in nature, will possess a higher 

 amount of vigour, for growth and for bloom, than any 

 similar plant which is exposed to the alternations of 

 drought and moisture in a pot. Again, the finest speci- 

 men of Fuchsia in a pot would be that wherein the entire 

 growth was rendered subservient to the ultimate effect of 

 bloom ; an effect which it produced at the sacrifice, in 

 part, of the natural size of every organ, and generally by 

 a reduction of the highest known vigour of the plant. 

 But the most perfect specimen of Fuchsia, by open 

 ground culture in peat, would never so far either reduce 

 the proportions of its several parts, nor render the plant 

 incapuble of forming additional leaf-buds. The general 

 inferences to be derived from these remarks are, 1st. That 

 an approach to the conditions of growth in nature, are 

 capable of higher effects than the conditions of growth 

 by art ; 2d. That those conditions which maintain a pro- 

 gressive excitability of the organs, also involve the pri- 

 mary and essential condition of their multiplication by 

 cuttings. Thus, one of the most valuable results of 

 Fuchsias being cultivated in beds of peat i.*, that the ex- 

 citability of the plants to a late period offers a state of 

 growth suited for propagation throughout the year. 



About seven years ago, the writer had two new varieties 

 intrusted to his care for increase. The plants being in 

 full bloom when received, were in an unsuitable state for 

 the purpose. After removing all the bloom from one of 

 them, it was planted out in peat, where it resumed its 



-*-"' -*■ " J "* yielded a 



- - - for 

 two store pots of cuttings, which were plunged in a small 



tan-pit with a very slight heat, and covered with bell- 

 glasses. They were kept in a moist state by sprinkling 

 water over them with the hand, or a fine rose watering- 

 pot. In a few weeks the whole of them began to emit 



mem, u was piancea out in peat, wnere it resumea 

 growth until October, during which period it yielde 

 sufficient number of excitable fore and lateral shoots 



r„ l .i a -i i . . . P ot ' x« a Jew n«»a mc nuuis ui lucixi ufgan to emit 



bark, thence finds its way to the exterior, and having roots f rora the axils or leaf-buds, and for a considerable 



lOSt ltS VltalltV. immediatelv indnnpe tViAfWov nf the* :~a k-r AM » *«-;«,» mnt* «ror« «^,;4-*„j r 



lost its vitality, immediately induces the decay of the 

 surrounding parts. Cases like those of " Omikron" 

 will be cured more certainly by reflecting upon 

 these facts than by all the specific remedies which 

 the most experienced plant-doctor could possibly 

 prescribe. We commend them accordingly to all 

 whom they concern— and their name is Lemon. 



FUCHSIAS. 



(Continued fromp. 31(5.) 



The general fitness of peat for Fuchsias, is in that 

 state whi;:h approaches nearest to their conditions of 

 growth in nature, namely, in a bed or clump in the open 

 ground. Those who hitherto have not seen the sur- 

 passing vigour they assume when indulged with the cool 

 and refreshing influence of this material, have yet to 

 enjoy one of the most beautiful features of an English 

 flower-garden. 



The advantages connected with this mode of treat- 



period before spring, roots were emitted from every part 

 of each, even up to the terminal leaf; and though the 

 whole of them were afterwards left to perish by exposure 

 in an open frame, the instance is still remembered as one 

 of the most interesting facts in the writer's practice. 

 Plants of one year's growth, when pruned and previously 

 started into growth in a cold pit, are well adapted for the 

 centre, and plants of the current year are suitable for the 

 fore-ground of a peat-bed. If it is fully exposed to the sun, 

 occasional syringing with water will be found beneficial. 

 The principal precautions in the autumn shifting into 

 pots, are to secure each plant firmly to a stake, and its re- 

 moval to a pot large in proportion to its size. In potiing, 

 very little bottom drainage will be required, because 

 the vigour of the plants demands an abundant supply of 

 moisture. If the operation is performed on a wet day 

 so much the better ; if not, let the plants be placed in a 

 close shady place for a few days, each in a dish or pan 

 which may be allowed to retain the superfluous water 



j I 



