i! 



1844J 



B^RTTHTOV FLORAL and HORTICULTURAL 

 snr'ETY -The Exhibition of the above Society will be 

 t ,a ,,(,, Town Hal), on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1844, when, in 

 *~!v V« the nremiums offered by the Society, there will be 

 •* phtps riven for Grapes-one a handsome Silver Dessert 

 **°-, „J i Vnrk and Spoon, in case, for the best dish of Grapes 

 Knife and _*_«» exceeding 4 lbs. weight; the other a Prize of 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



587 



Brighton 



re iiW each. Persons who intena to exnioit are re- 

 Kntrance. . • f nam es and address on or before the 



IS Sept to the Secretary, Mr. R. Collinos, Duke-street, 



Z\)t ^arft energ* C ljrontcle 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1844 



MEETINGS FOR THE FOLLOWING WEEK. 



Tfwuat, s 'P l - 8 Horticultural . . . . 3 p.h 

 Fmbat, ^P 1 - 6 Botanical 8 p.m. 



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We resume the consideration of hybridising. 

 Some of its actual results have already been pointed 

 out (p. 459); others will suggest themselves to any 

 one acquainted with gardening. Let us now con- 

 sider what further may be hoped for. 



What further? Why, we have only stepped over 

 the border, and the whole field of hybridising lies 

 widely spread before us ; its boundaries are lost in 

 the horizon, and we shall find them still receding as 

 we advance. 



In directing attention to this part of the subject, 

 we do not here propose to include the plants culti- 

 vated by the farmer, but to confine ourselves strictly 

 to garden plants. What agricultural applications 

 hybridising may have will be found hereafter in the 

 other department of our Journal. 



The ends which it is hoped to gain by all opera- 

 tions directed towards improving the races of plants 

 are many.— To increase the size of flowers, To im- 

 prove their colour, To approximate their form to 

 some assumed standard of perfection, To enlarge the 

 foliage, as in esculents, To render tender plants hardy, 

 To make barren races fertile, To improve flavour, by 

 changing acidity or austerity into sugary matter, 

 To exchange early for late varieties, are all re- 

 sults that have been gained by hybridising, and 

 which, therefore, may be gained again. We pro- 

 pose to consider each of these points separately. 



How far theme of flowers m*y be thus increased 

 can be judged of from the Rose, the Dahlia, the 

 Fuchsia, Pansy, Pelargonium, and Cactus. All 

 these plants are, in their wild state, small-flowered ; 

 cultivation alone has increased them greatly, but 

 J crossing has rapidly carried it further. By Inocu- 

 lating the common Heartsease with the large- 

 flowered Pansy of the Altai mountains, a degree of 



i Vfu W ? lnf f ed int0 the form er which we could 



* not have hoped to obtain by any other means. In 



other cases, as in that of the Dahlia, by observing 



- nvnSf Sym P toms of a tendency to enlarge in the 

 tL \1T T' and then crossing the best of them, 

 ihirf! X V i aS recdve(1 an immediate impulse, 

 nW«; M y e ^ eeS brou S ht about the enormous 

 Cerl s,? - aU familiar with - The flowers of 

 of ( Prpn PeC1 ° S,S f n mus were moculated with the pollen 



?w£f Ta 1 ^ h ? Messrs ' Davis and Co., of 

 M fromr ' ?• l . he mme diat€ result was a seedling 



' in oMameter. C10S1SSlmUS, whose flowers were I0 inches 



el 1 . BEVt this branch of improvement, 



flower a I h*i ? W 8elcCt the fine * P° Ssibl * 

 anTto render^ ^ ***** ** ™ ther ' s side > 

 ing all their' I- ?? unnaturall 7 'arge by destroy- 



be in he ? J g u b ° Urs - The P lan?s » "><>> should 



tha no point nf r ° buS ? health ' *' r we ™Y be sure 



h"^i£SS^ vig T * to be ne - 



increase of ^ * . e " ts . wl *n a general and permanent 



! moreover cnnfJ 8 u? lred in their offspring. It is 



fc And rew lf ^ rniable to the experience of the late 



ar e more lifc i l' 8 ,' tnat even tn e plumpest seeds 



weaker. y brin S a fine seedling than the 



^ 5 ^ b^ g draw C ° mm0nerpIants t0 which attention 

 * hic h like ,£ U "f er ti,is head, are not merely those 



2 Cactus, are «!r > . bena ' the Petunia, and the 



* mat have vet y ! n tbe florists ' hands > but ot hers, 

 A maris, for \t^ ned Iittle attention . Take the Cle- 



kn °wn in eai T P : our wil(1 Traveller's Joy is un- 

 1 great vicoiir T/' allh ough it has a fine foliage, and 



£ < • florid* 8 or Vi^S mK Wfl y «* «*** « v - ith 



- Viti ceil a is a }L\ h > or even Flammula? Clematis 

 u ' too, m av "\ ? r °wer, but has beautiful blossoms ; 



^ finer species t! y be i m P r oved by some of the 

 WlUl its fine inPoLi !' a " ain ' me Minorca Clematis, 

 ei 7 late ; wha7, i , lossoms ' is tender, and flowers 

 r " and C mnnr° U be the etfect ofan intermixture 

 I? ear, y? Vh» ' Which is so ^ardy,and flowers 

 for!: with ' J t a noble plant, too, is C. azurea to 

 ^y °f the rpl mUst . not ^ however, be crossed with 

 fplained hereaft Spec, ® s » for reasons that will be 



Mention than^v.'- i? n an y lnin g be more worthy 

 Jms to hav*;L. Mm ing genus, which nobodv 



lave thought about P To those whose 







«• 





k 



leisure enables them to prosecute such an inquiry we 



- - 17 ■ i ■ « uuw&a ait 11UJU1I * *V t: 



may state that m all probability the species of 

 Clematis will cross most readily in the following 



o^^r 1, C. flammula, vitalba and cylmdrica; 

 2. L. florida, azurea, viticella, halearica, and montana; 

 but there is no apparent reason why they should not 

 all also intermix, in skilful and patient hands 



Another important race of Climbers are the Honey- 

 suckles The flowers of our common Honeysuckle 

 are little more than an inch long ; but those of the 

 beautiful Tuscan species (Caprifolium etruscum) are 

 twice as large, and in the Caprifolium longiflorum of 

 China the blossoms are full three inches in length. 

 Here are the best opportunities for an improvement 

 of one of our most favourite plants. 



Nor do we regard the case of the common Jasmine 

 as hopeless. It is true that it does not produce its 

 berries with us ; but if it were kept under glass, and 

 artificially fertilised, it probably would do so. Why 

 not intermix it with the beautiful species from the 

 Azores. It would, in all probability, give its hardi- 

 ness to that plant and receive in return a finer foliage 

 and more abundant bloom ; or, at least, it wouTd 

 hardly refuse to mingle with the Catalonian Jasmine, 

 which is so like it, and then our cottages might be 



covered with plants as beautiful as those of Barcelona 

 and Italy. 



The Laurustinus is another plant entirely neglected 

 by growers of new plants, and yet there is no reason 

 why its flowers should not become as large as those 

 of the Guelders Rose— itself an artificial production. 

 What would be the effect of inoculating the finest of 

 the varieties of the Viburnum opulus, the parent of 

 the Guelders Kose, with the Laurustinus? Either, 

 we should expect, an evergreen Snowball-tree, or a 

 Snowball Laurustinus; or, at least, a considerable 

 enlargement of the flowers of the latter ; or, may be, 

 the issue would be a hardier Laurustinus than we 

 had before. But that is beside the present question, 

 which we confine to an enlargement of the blossom. 



The double Japan and Chinese Cherries (Cerasus 

 japonica and sinensis), among the finest of our spring 

 shrubs, would be infinitely improved if the size of 

 the common Cherry could be communicated to them ; 

 and there is no apparent reason against it. And in 

 like manner the little Dwarf Almond (Amygdalus 

 nana), not now much grown, though a very pretty 

 bush, might, and most likely would, be 'readily 

 improved by a mixture with the common Almond, 

 or still better with that magnificent variety called in 

 the gardens Amygdalus macrocarpa. 



If we turn from shrubs to herbaceous plants, 

 there is the same abundance of materials on which to 

 work. Why not attempt to mix Tropaeolum bra- 

 chyceras or canariense with the common Nasturtium ? 

 or the beautiful Hypericum Coris with II. androsa> 

 mum, or H. erectum with calycinum ? or the annual 

 Larkspurs with Delphinium grandiflorum ? or the 

 whole race of: Dianthus, including the Indian Pinks 

 and Sweet Williams, with the Cloves and Carnations? 

 or the gay Sea Lavenders with such plants as Statice 

 arborea and Dickinsonii ? or, finally, our wild 

 Buttercups with the gaudy Ranunculus of the 

 florists ? 



In all these suggestions there is nothing in the 



least contrary to probability ; the plants that are 



adverted to are all of common occurrence, and easy 



for any one to operate upon — indeed they ha\e 



been selected for that reason ; and they offer an 



abundant reward to skill and patience. 



The other points above alluded to must be con- 

 sidered hereafter. 



DISEASES OF PLANTS.— No. II. Seep.lZl, 1844. 



[.MOSSES, LICHENS, &C.] 



Before we enter on the consideration of those mor- 

 bid appearances which are produced in plants by the 

 agency of Fungi, we proposed to consider how far other 

 cryptogamic species are injurious. In the few cases in 

 which they are so, it is not by the production of any 

 particular disease, but by simply overrunning the leaves 

 and branches, and thus blocking up the stomata, pre- 

 venting the proper influence of light, keeping up an un- 

 natural moisture, or affording a nidus for the develop- 

 ment or preservation of injurious insects. Several species 

 of Mosses and Marchantia, Vaucheria terrestris, and Mi- 

 crocoleus, &c, are very noxious weeds, especially in the 

 case of small and tender plants preserved in frames, and j 

 the delicate seedlings of Ferns are frequently destroyed 

 by Palmella botryoides and others of the smaller terres- 

 trial algic ; and they are in some measure the more an- 

 noying to the cultivator, because they are extremely diffi- 

 cult of extirpation. If the gardener complains sometimes 

 that his lawns are spoiled by many of the more common 

 Mosses, though in certain situations they add very much 

 to the beauty of his close-shaven sward, the farmer with 

 greater reason laments over his pastures overrun with 

 Moss and Lichen till they are all but useless. 



In these cases, however, they are injurious simply by 

 encroaching on the ground which was destined for more 

 useful tenants, and however hurtful occasionally, they 

 cannot be regarded in the light of diseases. In damp 

 situations I have seen trees much infested with the com- 



construction, not only the trunk .and branches being 

 covered as with a green wash, but the leaves themselves 

 becoming entirely coated with it, at once to the great 

 disfigurement and injury of the plants thus invested. 

 But the injury produced does not arise from the rootlets 

 penetrating into the tissues and nourishing the parasites 

 at their expense, with the juices intended for the sup- 

 port of the mother plant, but merely as a coat of any other 

 coloured wash, by clogging up the pores and hindering a 

 due assimilation of the sap. In hot countries the leaves 

 of many phcenogamous plants, and the fronds of the more 

 rigid Ferns, are frequently overrun with various species 

 of Moss and Jungermannia, but it is principally the older 

 leaves, whose functions are nearly past, that are thus 

 infested ; and it is possible that in some cases they may 

 even be of use in retaining a certain quantity of moisture 

 about them. In these cases, again, there is not the 

 slightest penetration of the rootlets into the tissues of 

 the plant on which they grow. It is scarcely necessary to 

 mention that the MotMi which so often and to such an 

 extent adorn the trunks of our trees, grow upon them, 

 merely because the cracks in the bark and the moulder- 

 ing surface itself affords a fit soil for the germination of 

 their spores and the support of the full-grown plant. 

 Lichens vegetate on the hardest bodies, as granite, quartz, 

 and glass, and not unfrequently the same species which 

 flourish on the hardest rocks abound also on trees. There 

 can be no question, then, in such instances, of real para- 

 sitism. There may, indeed, be a few cases amongst thoie 

 Lichens which are produced on tropical leaves, in which 

 there is a certain connection between the tissues of the 

 matrix and parasite, for several of these approach very 

 nearly to Fungi ; and some of the cortical species (also 

 allied to Fungi), common both to the new and old world, 

 are certainly very intimately connected with the bark, 

 without, however, destroying the subjacent tissues ; yet, 

 in general, it may be said of cryptogamic plants, with the 

 exception of Fungi, that they merely choose other plants 

 as a base on which to rest their fronds, without, in the 

 majority of cases, having any but the most superficial 

 union. In the officinal barks, for instance, those spe- 

 cimens which are covered with healthy Lichens abound 

 in the peculiar principles which make them valuable at 

 medicines, while those portions which are covered by 

 the beautiful Hypochnus rubro-cinctus, and other Fungi, 

 are totally worthless, because their tissue has been pene- 

 trated and preyed upon by the mvcelium, or in other 

 words, the delicate rootlets of the Fungi. Still, it must 

 be confessed that where the growth of trees is slow from 

 an ungenial soil, or where the atmosphere is such as to 

 encourage the development of Lichens on the smaller 

 fruit-bearing shoots, their fertility is often very much 

 injured. This does not appear, however, to be always 

 the case. In the deep recesses of large woods very 

 vigorous trees are often found much covered by Lichens, 

 and Meyen tells us, that in the Riesengebirge and the 

 Harz mountains, the Firs in the neighbourhood of little 

 waterfalls are absolutely covered witli Mosses and Lichens, 

 and yet grow with the utmost luxuriance; and it is 

 notorious that in tropical woods, a single stem in the 

 most vigorous health often bears upon its trunk and 

 branches a whole garden of Ferns, and other false para- 

 sites, without the slightest injury. Most gardeners, 

 however, must know by experience that old fruit-trees 

 which have become covered with the common yellow Lichen 

 (L. parietinus), and scarcely produce any fruit, will, if 

 carefully cleaned, recover sometimes much of their 

 former vigour, sending out new shoots, and producing 

 abundance of excellent fruit. In such cases, it is pro- 

 bable that the Lichen prevents the proper action of the 

 light upon the tender bark of the terminal shoots, and 

 thus weakens the buds, or by encroaching on the buds 

 themselves, destroys them. This may not always be the 

 case, and trees almost smothered with Moss and Lichen 

 may be excellent bearers ; but if so, it is probable that 

 this arises from the strength and healthy state of the 

 roots, and the genial nature of the soil, which makes the 

 buds so vigorous that the new shoots outstrip the Lichen. 

 Where it is thought necessary to prevent the growth of 

 Lichens and Mosses on trees, the best method, perhaps, 

 is to use a wash of quicklime, which has the advantage 

 of destroying a large number of insects, if it does not at 

 all benefit the tree directly. Except in the case, how- 

 ever, of fruit-trees, this indirect benefit hardly compen- 

 sates for the loss of picturesque effect ; and to the more 

 attentive observer few objects, even amongst phseno- 

 gamous plants, present more beautiful forms, or more 

 admirably blended colours, which in some cases are of 

 great brilliancy, than many of these humble productions 

 which so often entirely escape the notice of the casual 

 eye. — M. J. B. 



mon 



ON THE PRESERVATION OF FRUITS. 

 The preserving of fruits forms an important part of the 

 art of gardening, but it is in very few places that sufficient 

 attention is paid to it, for in many gardens, after the fruit 

 hasbeen gathered, and that not in the most careful manner, 

 it is carried into the fruit-room and there laid upon the 

 shelves, sometimes covered with hay or straw, and some- 

 times exposed to the atmosphere of the house. Nothing 

 can be moreinjurious to their keeping than being subjected 

 to all the currents of air to which the house or room may 

 be exposed. 



Many contradictory opinions are given on this subject 

 by different authors, but they all seem to arrive at this 

 conclusion, that the prevention of excess of air in 

 the room where fruits are kept, is the most important 

 point to be attended to, and is generally the least 

 regarded. Some persons recommend packing the finest 



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green Chlorococcus, an Alga of the most simple] fruits in earthenware jars amongst moss, and excluding 



