



10—1" 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



151 



-7 H|MEN ES, GLOXINIAS, ETC. 



4ND BROWN have a large stock of fine 



'iLiof the following which they can supply to the trade 

 IhS. Prices on application. 



^ am " Gloxinea Leonie Van Houtte. 



Hogoveen. 



Will son!. 



Duke of Wellington. 



Verbenas, 60 new varieties of 



1854, of the first raisers. 

 rsea and Pimelea Stocks Wanted. 



'■^J^Cberita. 



Mr Ap* r P ftrt - 



TLfr Van Houtte. 

 jS^tretU (best white). 

 Miirnito purpurea. 

 STTrtherne Thomas. 



— 4 nnantitV of Cor 



M 

 ft 



jy 



A quantity 



Sudbury, Suffolk 



NEW AND RARE CONIFER/E. 



PFTER LAWSON and SON, the Qr fen's Seeds- 

 riinbnrHi and London, have Btill on hand a small 

 -Jir^'of <ti* Se< pf the following K A RE CC > XI I . I : , to. : 



regained nearly all their evaporated juices. If, as 

 the jurors have reason to believe, these preparations 

 retain their good qualities for several years, they 

 cannot he too strongly recommended to public atten- 

 tion. It would probably be necessary for long 

 voyages that these square cakes be packed in per- 

 fectly dry casks or tanks, as biscuits are." 



In November, 1851, a commission consisting of 

 French naval and victualling officers strongly recom- 

 mended their introduction into the stores provided 



:il<>ps, have excited great interest on the continent 

 of Europe. Botanists. \vh< s ideas on the specific 

 distinction of plants marked by slight differences 

 have been carried very far, have felt that their 

 principles would be much shaken if it were admitted 

 that two plants in their opinion so totally d fferent 

 bad a common origin, and several refutations of M. 

 Dunal's arguments have been attempted, although 

 hitherto without much success. 



M. Godron, of Besan$ori, one of the authors of 



pfaB Lambertiana 



50 £ s. d. 

 ... 1 50 



S^wntireco neS 2 | 



** . £ • • f 1 o 



§ * • 



**"*&,£*,*>. 1 5 



Taxus Lindleyana (quite 

 new) 5'» Seeds ... 2 



CI iib-headed Wheat (cul- 

 tivated by theoldCali- 

 fornians) 200 grains 1 



Wheat (a variety of 

 Triticura durum) do. 



for sailors, and ordered a supply for nine vessels of; the "Flore de Fiance," now in course of publica- 

 war. In August, 1852, a French medical commis- tion, has just, however, communicated to the 



2 



o 

 15 o 





Fnlldescriptions will be found in the last page of the Gunhnrrs 

 *zjyu^ r jp P b. 3— Orders may be addressed to Peter Law- 

 2l£0OF. in Edinburgh ; or to their London House, 27, Great 



nat, Westminster. 



( liFUlT^SEMI-DOUBLE PRIMULAS.— 



_ Oiilv a few packets remain on hand. To prevent disap- 

 nilnttnent, order without delay. 

 Tb«c* rated Ipswich Standard Cucumber is sold out, only 



rt mtU toft.— Thomas Wild, l« rich. 



BANKS' SEEDLING FUCHSIAS.-1855. 

 fffci Fill De.- .iption see Former Adyertise.mkxts, and 

 1 o.< Application). 



WJ. EPPS lias much pleasure in stating that the 

 • abov* 1 Fuchsia have been proved to be the finest that 

 bm been r ed by that celebrated grower E. Banks, Esq., Deal. 

 Earlr order are solicited. The set of six 21. 2s. The usual 

 diieonnt totlie trade. — Bower Nurseries, Maidstone. 



THE ANNUAL SPRING EXHIBITION OF PLANTS IN THE 



EXETER NURSERY. 



LUC0MBE, PINCE and Co. very respectfully beg 

 leave to announce that their superb specimens of CAMEL- 



iAS are now in flower ; they are particularly fine this season, 

 ltd great additions h.-we been made to their collection. Their 



** Show II* ie is also filled with an extensive assortment of 

 va iih Fine Plants, which cannot fail to gratify those who pay 

 their Nursery a - it, as it is now, and will continue for a long 



;neto be exceedingly brilliant and attractive with all the gayest 

 Sprinjr and other Choice Flowers. 



L., P., A o. have now several experienced Gardeners whom 

 tbey can strongly recommend. — Exeter Nursery, Exeter. Mar. 10. 



a most 

 the 



Hit ©at&rrt^r^Cfironf cle 



SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1855. 



5 



iome years ago M. Masson, an ingenious French 

 gardener, conceived the possibility of so preserving 

 esculent vegetables that while their bulk was re- 

 duced to a minimum, and their quality remained 

 unimpaired, they should be secured against decom- 

 position for a very long time. It is well known that 

 the large space occupied by vegetables is owing in 



£rt to the water they contain, and in part to the 

 Jseness of their tissue ; it is also known that the 

 decay which ensues when they pass into a state of 

 fermentation is rapid or the contrary, in proportion 

 to the water lodged in their substance ; if absolutely 

 *y they undergo no putrefactive change whatever. 

 M. Masson proposed in the first place to deprive 

 «emof the greater part of their mere water, by 

 exposing them to a current of warm dry air till 

 *to* per cent, was removed, when they become 



wngh leathery bodies, with little tendency to 

 decay. In ' 



sion adopted the views of the naval board, and 

 recommended them to be introduced largely into the 

 commissariat of the army of Algiers. We understand 

 that since that time they have formed 

 important part of the supplies provided for 

 service of all French armaments. 



Last Tuesday a cake of this substance, as provided 

 for the French service by Messrs, Chollet & Co., 

 who work the patent, was exhibited to the Horti- 

 cultural Society. It weighed 6 lbs., cost 7s. 6d., 

 and was sufficient for' 120 rations. Nothing could 

 surpass the freshness and fragrance of the prepara- 

 tion ; so that for three farthings a head a meal of 

 valuable nutritious anti-scorbutic food is at the 

 command of any commissariat. The value attached 

 by the French navy to this important preparation 

 will be seen by the following extract from a letter 

 addressed to the Minister of Marine by Admiral 

 Hamelin, dated from on board the Ville de Paris, 

 lying off the Katcha, October 8, 1854, while acknow- 

 ledging the arrival of 17,000 kilos or more than 

 37,000 lbs. " These vegetables have been received 

 with the greatest satisfaction, and their effect upon 

 the health of the men is already manifest. We 

 were threatened by epidemic scurvy ; but from the 

 time that the vegetables have been served out an 

 improvement has taken place, swellings and ulcera- 

 tions of the gums begin to disappear, and the con- 

 dition of the men is sensibly better. As the season 

 advances we shall have no fresh vegetables, which 

 can never be obtained on an enemy's coast without 

 extreme difficulty ; and therefore another supply of 

 these preserved vegetables would be most welcome. 

 The health of the men. which has become a good 

 deal impaired, will be preserved, and your name 

 will be identified with one of the greatest improve- 

 ments which have been introduced into victualling 

 the fleet." 



Considering the length of time that this prepara- 

 tion has been known, its cheapness, its portability, 

 its durability, and its unquestionable excellence, it 

 might have been expected to have found its way 

 into the English service, and that some means would 

 have been taken in our own victualling yards to 

 secure the right of working Masson's patent, or 

 that our own market-gardeners might have derived 

 some advantage from the increased demand which 

 would have followed its adoption. But with the 

 exception of a small order sent to Paris by the 

 Admiralty, nothing had been done about it when 

 the late Minister of War quitted office : we h 

 indeed, that some prepared vegetables had been 



"Annales des Sciences Nafurdles" the result of 

 his observations and experiments, which he con- 

 siders as removing all weight from the arguments of 

 MM. Fabre and Dunal by accounting otherwise for 

 the phenomena on which they were founded. 



The JEgilopa triticoides, the intermediate form or 

 transitiouary state between JE. ovata and Wheat, is 7 

 according to M. Gouuon, when growing wild, found 

 on the edges of Wheat fields in a country where 

 E. ovata is a common weed, and under other 

 circumstances of growth, which suggested to him 

 the idea that it was a natural hybrid between those 

 two plants. He has confirmed this view by actual 

 experiment, fertilising M. ovata with the pollen of 

 Wheat, and thus producing artificially the JE. 

 triticoides. 



M. Godron concludes, therefore, that " the obser- 

 vations made by M. Fapre on the JE. triticoides do 

 not in any manner prove that our cultivated Wheat 

 has for its origin the JE. ovata, nor that one species 

 can transform itself into another." Some friends of 



his 



hel 



in 

 las 



W 



German journals po further, and assert that 

 positively disproved M. Dunal's conclusions. 



to the transformation 



of 



one 

 notion 

 stance 



" species" 



subjected 

 the 



to 



the second place they were to be purchased by him for the Crimea ; but they were 

 violent pressure, so as to expel not such as the experience of the French has taught 



air and convert them into solid masses. 

 lAese objects have been 

 th *t the compressed 



so skilfully carried out 

 egetables can scarcely be 



fi dlffer from the fresh ; and certainl y lose 



^ the operation no part whatever of their nutritive 

 gamtary qualities. In reality they part with nothing 



bnm^f ater ; not even aroma disappearing, nor any 

 ™t o r other unnatural taste being communicated 

 yine process of drying. The invention became 



it* J* ■ Ject , of a P atent > and soon attracted the 

 Mention of the French. 



ii tl! n 1 s P ecimens oJf the preparation were shown 



. o *** Exhibition in Hyde Park, and received 



■uncd Medal, the highest honour which the 



JJ* )uld conf er. In the report of the juries the 



« M « ' S Spoken of in the followin « words : ~ 



' A >ns dried compressed vegetables demand 

 able til n ° tlC . e ' as * nowil >g on * of the most remark- 

 nhnof ,° VenCS of modern times in this branch of 

 •oft T* By Masson * s process the most bulkv, 

 faction yj c ? nlent vegetables are reduced to "a 

 indMi,. °A, , r v °lume, and are preserved in a dry, 



Cr S I *** After boilin 8 for a «*« 

 iDEofl? 6 - USUalj lhe vare restored to some- 



heir ? n 8 lnal form aild consistence, retaining 

 vour p Utnll0U8 principles, and much of their 

 these nr«r IOLLRT and Co '' the manufacturers of 

 ^presS 6 " Ve S etables > Q» only desiccation and 



on m the process, which is Masson's in- 



the'r Accor <lins 

 . Umptes 



them to prefer, and would seem to have rotted in 

 the Balaklava limbo if they ever reached it. 



But it is not merely because of the importance of 

 Masson's vegetables in time of war that we have 

 thought it desirable to bring them thus into notice ; 

 on the contrary, it is for the sake of ourselves at 



mercantile 



have nothing to say 



into another, for according to our 

 of the meaning of the word, this circum- 

 would but prove that the two supposed 

 species were in fact only varieties or races more or 

 less permanent of one species. We would, however, 

 make some observations on the remainder of M. 

 Goduon's paper. 



It is admitted that Triticum sativum and JEgilops 

 ovata are ssti icily congeners, as confirmed by the 

 form of the carvopsis; that M. triticoides is the 

 first known instance of a hybrid among Grasses; 

 that M. Fabre raistd from seeds of a wild 

 2B. triticoides plants which produced perfect seed, 

 which he again sowed and continued the operation 

 during 12 successive generations, and that during 

 these 12 years' careful cultivation the plants 

 gradually acquired more and more the character of 

 Wheat ; that M. triticoides is occasionally, though 

 rarely, found in sterile places surrounded by vine- 

 yards. 



But M. Godron observes that there were abund- 

 ance of Wheat fields in the neighbourhood of the 

 spot where M. Fabre carried on his experiments, 

 from whence the pollen might have been wafted so 

 as to fecundate his plants and produce that gradual 

 assimilation according to the laws of hybrids* 

 So also in the case of the JE. triticoides in the 

 midst of vineyards, there was quite Wheat enough 

 cultivated in the surrounding country for some of the 

 pollen to have found its way over to the parent plant 

 of JR. ovata. 



Even 



admitting 



home, of our 



great 

 market 



our numerous 

 them to be better 



like this, in which all 



gardens, 

 known. For 



marine, and of 

 that we wish 



surely 

 hopes of 



m a 

 fresh 



country 



vegetables at moderate prices are effectually dis- 

 pelled for weeks to come by the seventy of any 

 hard winter, it is a matter of the first necessity that 

 such a method as that of Masson should come into 

 common use. Thousands of pounds 1 worth of Cab- 

 bages have utterly perished round London, all which 



Acad 



ia 



Ren«! 



to a statement published in 



us, as read before the Par: 



•■wtfchY !, ve * elaWw ar S reduced seven-eighths 

 t0 be b if pro P ortional ly in bulk. They require 



thr <* Quart ° ne hour and H half to 01ie hour and 



1 lc *s, and on cooling, are found to have 



might have been saved had there been a London 

 Chollet to buy them up and secure them by the 

 simple process before us. And the poor, instead of 

 being left without a chance of fresh vegetable diet 

 until the end of March, at the soonest, might have 

 bought in any grocer's shop an abundant supply at 

 even a less cost than in the summer. It is to be 

 hoped, then, that enterpiising persons will be found 

 to secure the right of working in this country the 

 patent by which such important results are 

 obtained, and that in future we may be placed 

 beyond the reach of a scarcity of fresh vegetables, 

 whether arising from season, mildew, or other 



arising 



causes. 



•i 



The experiments of M. Fabre on the Origin of 

 Wiikat, and the consequent conclusions adopted by 

 several distinguished naturalists that most of our 

 cultivated Wh it$ were derived from species of 



this extraordinary dispersive 

 power of the pollen of Wheat, and that JE. triti- 

 coides as now produced is always of hybrid origin, 



it appears to us that this very great facility of 

 natural hybridisation in a family where it is so 

 rare as to have been hitherto unobserved, would 

 appear to prove much rather that the two plants had 

 a common origin, than that they are really distinct 

 species. 



Another point much relied on by M. Godron is 

 that the first start from iE. ovata to JE, triticoides 

 is very great, and that there are no intermediates 

 between two plants so distinct as to be universally 

 admitted as species. That such should be the 

 case with M. Godron's artificial crops would 

 natuially be expected, but that it is so in the wild 

 plant remains to be proved. Most of the supposed 

 species of jEgilops* in the South of Europe, are 

 very variable, and run so much one into another, 

 that few botanists can agree as to what are or are 

 not species amongst them. 



With regard to the rarity of JE. triticoides in a 

 wild state, we may observe as a well-known fact, 

 that when aberrant forms of natural species are 

 produced from causes unknown to us, and therefore 

 termed accuhnfa! varieties, various circumstances 

 tend in a wild state to restrict the number of indi- 

 viduals, or cause the varieties to disappear alto- 

 gether, whilst they may be rendered permanent by 

 ultivation. 



In our opinion, therefore, all that M. Oodron 

 has proved is, that Triticuni sativum and A ilops 

 ovata are species no nearly allied that they In ridise 



with a facility very unusual amongst Grasses : but 



