

1844. J 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



715 





£ 







xrirw CATALOGUE OF FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 



SRS TYSO and SON'S DESCRIPTIVE 



M PRICED CATALOGUE of their extensive Collection of 

 Ranunculuses, Geraniums, Carnations, Picotees, Pinks, 

 Tulips R f n D r U . n g C 4 5 is just printed, and will be sent, post free, 

 t^icants inclosin* two postage labels. 



w 



feROMFlGN^ARK"NUKSERY AM) SEED ESTABLISH- 



B ROMrl MENT.-ESTABI.CSHKD 1631. 



ESSRS. GRAY, ADAMS, and HOGG have 



much Dleasure in directing the attention of their nume- 



^«?omers to their extensive NURSERY STOCK, consist - 



r0US nTarf and Standard Maiden and Trained Fruit-trees. 



2* vines &c. &c, all of which are this season of a very 



**' i<* description, and will fully maintain the reputation 



pVrablishment has for such a long period of years enjoyed 



rnducine these articles. The peculiar nature of the soil 



SIS ihe removal of all ornamental trees and shrubs almost 



renders wftich there is a select and extensive collection ; 



certain, ^. {h evcr y tu j n g.that is desirable in the class of Green- 



1 cp and Herbacous Plants. 

 MARKET GARDENERS are inviied to inspect a fine stock 

 r Half Standard Apples, Pears, and Plums, which they will 



«nri i well worthy their attention. 

 The SEEDS of this season that have come to hand are gene- 

 u • of a very fine quality, and of which Catalogues will be 



Sued in due course.— Kensington-road, October, 1814.. 



m 



"SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2G, 1844. 



MEETINGS FOR THE TWO FOLLOWING WEEKS. 

 Nov. 1 Botanical .... 8 p.m. 



f Horticultural ; 2 r.n. 



Tridat, 



Tcmday, Nov. 5 J Linneftn 

 Saturday, Nov. 9 Koyal Botanic 



8 P.M. 

 4 P.M. 



The action of light and moisture upon 

 •cuttings is hardly inferior to that of heat. Let us 

 glance at their action separately. 



The moment light strikes a green plant it excites 

 perspiration. Let us imagine that a cutting weighed 

 '20 at daybreak; the uninterrupted action of light 

 upon it during the day would perhaps' reduce its 

 weight to 5, unless it is supplied with water to 

 replace that which the sunlight drives off: the effect 

 of this would, of course, be to kill it. But such a 

 result does not often happen to rooted plants, because 

 they are able to suck fluid out of the earth as fast as 

 the sun drives it off from their leaves, and the circula- 

 tion of the plant is active enough to prevent any part 

 from being exhausted of fluid. If it is not sufficiently 

 active, then we have leaves withered at the end, or 

 branches struck with dryness. But a cutting, having 

 <no roots, is unable to -contend against the sun's influ- 

 ence, and therefore it must be shaded; for, as we 

 cannot make it feed, we must prevent its wanting 

 food. Thus in tropical countries we learn from 

 Mr. Neumann that cuttings are struck in sheds 

 shaded by straw and watered occasionally ; with us 

 the same point is also gained by cutting off the 

 leaves, or a part of them", for they are the chief 

 perspiring organs. 



But there is this disadvantage in cutting off the 

 •access of light, that roots are formed more rapidly 

 when cuttings are exposed to light than when they 

 are shaded, provided they can be kept alive. It is 

 therefore a great problem to determine how much 

 light a cutting will endure with impunity. The 

 power of bearing light varies from species to species, 

 and is only to be determined by experience. One 

 plant fades presently, because its powers of perspira- 

 tion are very great, as is the case with the young 

 shoots of most species of herbaceous and shrubby 

 plants ; but as they grow older the loss by perspira- 

 tion diminishes, because their thickened skin opposes 

 a mechanical obstacle, and they can bear more light. 

 It would therefore seem, at first sight, that ripened 

 cuttings must in all cases be preferable to those which 

 are young and tender. Certainly, they are less liable 

 to die quickly; but they are also much more 

 unwilling to root quickly. In fact, notwithstanding 

 the difficulty of keeping very young cuttings alive, 

 they present the only means of striking very difficult 

 species, such, according to Mr. Neumann, as the 

 Cashew, the Mahogany, and the Litchi. "\Y r e may 

 jay it down as a certain rule that the power of rooting 

 is always greatest in all cuttings when they are first 

 pushing, provided they have light. The misfortune 

 •s, that they are so extremely perishable at that time. 

 Water is our aid in this case. It is true that the 

 sun's influence can have no injurious tendency so 

 Jong as the roots can drink and the system digest as 

 fast as the surface perspires ; and that the reverse is 

 fatal. But the whole surface of a plant absorbs as 

 well as evaporates, and the younger it is the more it 

 absorbs. It is therefore possible to give plants drink- 

 by their leaves; and if this is done with skill, the bad 

 influence of the sun is prevented. In that case the 

 cutting has time enough to make roots, by which its 

 grosser food may be conveyed to it. Hence has arisen 

 *ne practice of striking plants under bell-glasses, fit- 

 ting tight to the soil on which they rest. Ignorant 

 people believe that the use of a bell-glass is to keep 

 °nt air, which is impracticable and useless. Bell- 

 glasses act by keeping in moisture. From the sur- 

 face of warm damp soil water is perpetually escaping 

 J n the form of invisible vapour ; if the soil is freely 

 exposed, that vapour is dispersed as fast as it is 

 tormed; but when it is confined beneath a bell-glass 

 *ne air is unchanged, and the vapour remains in a 



I state of suspension, bathing and invigorating the' 

 whole surface of the cuttings. If this is well 

 managed the whole of the injurious effects of sunlight 

 are prevented, and all the advantages of it secured. 



But it is not sufficient to place cuttings under a 

 bell-glass with a moist soil and a due supply of 

 bottom-heat. Two other things must be considered: 

 the one is, to preserve the external air in a uniform 

 state ; the other is, to take care that the soil is not 

 too wet. 



If the air on the outside of the bell-glasses is not 

 as warm as that beneath them, or warmer, the 

 moisture floating in their interior will condense on 

 the sides of the glass and run down, by which means 

 the air that surrounds the cuttings will fluctuate as 

 to the quantity of water it holds suspended ; and if 

 the external air is much colder than the internal, will, 

 in fact, be dry, instead of damp. In their delicate 

 state tender cuttings will not bear this ; it is of the 

 utmost consequence to them that all the conditions to 

 which they are exposed, except light, should be per 

 fectly steady. 



The condition of the soil as to water, is also of 

 infinite importance. If it is wet, cuttings are apt to 

 rot. If dry, they are sure to fade. When a cutting 

 is placed in a wet medium, it may attract more 

 water than it can digest ; in that case its fluids will 

 become putrid, and its solid fabric must decay. It 

 is therefore indispensable, in all delicate operations, 

 that the soil should be of such a nature as to be 

 incapable of holding much water between its parti- 

 cles ; and hence the value of silver sand, the most 

 favourable of all the materials within a gardener's 

 reach. Nevertheless, there are some hard-wooded 

 plants which will not only b:ar an excess of water 

 but are the better for it. We have seen the common 

 Ghent Azaleas struck by placing a cutting of the 

 young wood, with a heel to it, in a bottle of water, 

 inclosed within a large Ward's Case, none of the 

 leaves having been removed. In such plants as the 

 Azalea, however, it is to be observed, that the dense 

 texture of the wood prevents the introduction of 

 much water at a time, that the cuttings are very 

 slender, and the leaves very large. Plants that are 

 differently constituted can near no such treatment. 

 Let it be tried with a succulent plant, and the cutting 

 would be rotten in a week. Succulent plants, indeed, 

 will generally do best where there is no more moisture 

 in contact with them than what the air holds sus- 

 pended. When they are gummy, or milky, or resi- 

 nous, it is necessary to let the end which is to be 

 plunged in the ground become dry, so that the 

 mouths of the veins may contract, and thus hinder 

 the too rapid introduction of water. Mr. Neumann's 



mode of doing this is ingenious. When he takes off 

 cuttings of Araucarias, Euphorbias, Vaheagummifera, 

 and such plants, he plunges them in a pot, in damp 

 earth, not pressed down, with their lower end up- 

 wards, so that the latter only is exposed to the air, 

 the whole head being buried. By this means he 

 dries the wound, without allowing any of the water 

 of such cuttings to escape. After leaving them for 

 24 or 36 hours, or even more, he wipes the end, so as 

 to remove the gummy matter that has exuded, and 

 then puts them in again in the usual way, when they 

 take, and the more freely according as the wound is 



neatly made. 



One observation more and we have done for to- 

 day. It is known that plants possess some quality 

 analogous to animal irritability, to which, for wrn 1 

 of a better, the name of excitability has been given. 

 In proportion to the amount of excitability in a 

 given plant is the power which its cuttings possess 

 of striking. The great promoter of vegetable exci- 

 tability is heat. Therefore the more heat a given 

 plant has been exposed to, within certain limits, the 

 more readily its cuttings will strike root. This 

 explains what seems to have puzzled Mr. Neumann. 

 "The young wood," he says, "of trees growing in 

 the open air will not do for cuttings ; and yet, if those 

 same trees are forced in a hothouse, their cuttings 

 are almost sure to succeed. Physiologists have not 

 discovered the cause of this singular phenomenon. 

 Many attempts have been made to strike cuttings 

 from" trees growing in the open air, but without 

 success. If, for instance, we take an old branch of 

 Pawlovnia Imperialis, in the month of March, and 

 put it into earth, or tan, or even water, in a stove 

 with a good temperature, its buds will soon appear, 

 and as soon as they are long enough to make her- 

 baceous cuttings, will strike freely. But if you take 

 them as they form upon a tree exposed to the open 



on the newest and most approved principles, 1 may 

 mention that all the convenience I have for growing 

 specimen stove plants consists of a shelf which goes 

 round the ends and front of a Pine stove ; the whole 

 length of this, including the ends, is 38 feet, and 2 feet 

 in width. I have not, therefore, room for growing even 

 Miltonia spectabilis to half the size that, with increased 

 accommodation, I conceive might be very easily accom- 

 plished. This house is heated by common brick flaes, 

 with covers of the same material, each cover having a 

 cavity an inch in depth, for holding water, with which 

 they are genera'ly filled three times a day, excepting in 

 winter when the weather is foggy, or the frost severe, 

 when I consider that a very hu i atmosphere is in- 

 jurious, especially to Orchidaceae that are making young 

 growths. In winter, when the weather is cold, the ther- 

 mometer is allowed to fall to 55°, and in very miid 

 weather it is allowed to rise as high as 70°; but from 



0° to 65° may be stated as the general winter tempe- • 

 rature. In summer the thermometer is allowed to vary 

 from 65° to 80°, but from 70° to 75° is our ordinary 

 >ummer temperature. In warm weather air is admitted 

 freely by the top sashes ; in cold weather it is very 

 sparingly admitted, and when we have severe frosts, ac- 

 companied by high winds, I give no air unless the tun- 

 heat is strong. In the selection of soil for Orchidaceous 

 plants, as many of them are in their native localities 

 found in shady forests, where decomposed leaves, incor- 

 porated with vegetable fibre, are likely to form the prin- 

 cipal ingredients in which the terrestrial species natu- 

 rally grow, I made -choice of material from a wood 

 where decomposed leaves are in some places to be found 

 from 1 inch to 4 inches in depth, thickly covered with 

 Luzula maxima, and completely matted with its 

 roots. This material I u?e in a fresh and roigh state, 

 merely divesting it of the green stems of the Luzula, and 

 pulling it int > pieces suitable for rilling up between the 

 ball of the plant and the sides of the pot into which it 

 is shifted. I always mix this material with a small quantity 

 of coarse river sand, and sometimes a few pieces of rotten 

 wood, to keep the whole as loose and open as possible, 

 which I consider of great importance. In this compost 

 there are few Orchidaceous plants which have come my 

 way that do not thrive. I received a single pseudo-bulb 

 of Miltonia spectabilis having two buds beginning to 

 push, in the autumn of 1838. I potted it into a No. GO 

 pot, in the material above described, which I have uni- 

 formly used; in the spring of 1839 it perfected its young 

 pseudo-bulbs, which, in their turn, immediately began to 

 push, when I again shifted the plant into a larger 

 pot ; as the young shoots lengthened they showed 

 a tendency to grow to one side of the pot. I pegged 

 them round in the opposite direction, as far as I could 

 venture, without straining them too much, in order that 

 the plant might regularly cover the pot. This I have 

 always punctually attended to, once, and sometimes 

 twice a-year, as it was required ; in that year (1830) it 

 produced three flower-sterns, which I valued more highly 

 than I did the 46 it this year produced, 36 of which 

 being the exact number in bloom when I exhibited it at 

 Glasgow in August last (see p. 573). I cannot state 

 accurately the different sizes of pots into which it has 

 been progressively shifted, as in that respect I have been 

 entirely guided by circumstances ; but I am perfectly 

 certain that I got it at the time, and in the state above 

 described, that it was first put into a No. 60 pot, and 

 that it has since been regularly shifted once a-year, 

 sometimes in spring, and sometimes in autumn, accord- 

 ing as the plant required it ; for I consider it a matter 

 of little moment at which of these seasons it is shifted ; 

 I am certain that in either case it grew equally luxu- 

 riantly ; it has here always made fresh growth in spring, 

 at which time I shifted it, and it has just as regularly 

 mads fresh growth in autumn after it has ceased flower- 

 ing, at which time I shifted it when I adopted that season ; 

 hut in both case3 1 allowed the young shoots to grow 

 from 2 to 4 inches in length before I shifted, which 

 euabled me to peg them down in the place I wished 

 them to occupy. The pot in which the plant is at present 

 growing is 16 inches in diameter. The plant is densely 

 covered with healthy foliage and young growths ; many of 

 the latter are now protruding from 2 to 4 inches beyond 

 the rim of the pot. I have not said anything respecting 

 the drainage of the pots, as every one who knows any- 

 thin^ of pot-culture must be aware that that is abso- 

 lutely necessary for all plants, and more especially for 

 Orchidaceoe. In summer I have always supplied Mil- 

 tonia spectabilis freely with water when the soil appeared 

 dry, and in winter I give no more than I consider neces- 

 sary to keep the plant in a growing state, which ought 

 to be always maintained. I consider shading from the 

 direct rays of the sun to be of the utmost importance 

 in the culture of this plant, so much so that for seme 

 years past, on the approach of hot weather in spring, I 

 tack a piece of tbin canvas or cheese-cloth over the place 

 where it stands. I do not remove this until about the 

 end cf September, when the sun loses its scorching 

 influence. From the want of proper attention to shading, 

 I strongly suspect the majority of complaints regarding 

 the yellow appearance of Miltonia is attributable to that. 

 In conclusion, I think it but justice to say, that I could 

 have had the plant considerably larger, having in the 

 course of the time above stated taken eight young 



however, we were not previously acquainted. 



MILTONIA SPECTABILIS. 

 The following is the way in which I cultivate this 

 plant; and, in the first place, lest some people may 

 imagine that the accommodation here for stove plan 

 is large, and the mode of heatiog, &c, conducted 



plants oil it, the first of which was detached not more 



than 13 months 

 IJothwell Castle. 



after I received it. 



Turnbullf 



DISEASES OF PLANTS.— No. V. 



— [Fraoi.J 



We have, before entering on the true Fungi, to dis- 

 pose of a group of productions which have been arranged 



