580 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[SEPT. 1, 1855, 



condition to prove that when a bag of the Hops thus 

 unceremoniously condemned and a pocket of the 

 growth of 1852 or 1853 have been mixed together, 

 beer of the finest quality has been the result. Another 

 probable cause will occur to those who are familiar 

 with Hops ; it is notorious that those which come 

 from the United States and Canada have usually 

 a bad taste, owing to some defect in their pre- 

 paration or packing. The quantity of foreign 

 Hops last year imported was very large. The 

 Hop growers may fairly require to know that 

 the losses in question were not attributable to 

 the employment of foreign instead of home- 

 grown Hops. 



The circular goes on to say that u it is now prac- 

 tically ascertained beyond all question" that sul- 

 phured Hops spoil the beer. Let us know the 

 nature of this practical proof, how conducted, by 

 whom and when. "If, as we learn from the circular. 



this has been so positively made out, it is surely 

 due from the factors to the growers, that the latter 

 should be furnished with full particulars, and not be 

 called upon to receive without question an assertion 

 which, as far a$ it at present appears, rests on no 



widencf that <wn be produced. 



The Hop growers have the more right to a«k for 

 proof, when they see upon what sort of reasoning 

 the factors found their circular notice. The factors 

 say that sulphur applied to Hops in drying does 

 no harm ; it is only " when actually incorporated 

 into the plant by its application during its 

 growth " that mischief ensues. Are we to under- 

 stand from this that Hops absorb sulphur when 

 applied to them in the open air, on the vines w T hile 

 in a state of growth ? and that they refuse it when 

 large doses are administered in the kiln ? We 

 should take such to be the meaning of the circular if | 

 it were conceivable that a body of intelligent men 

 could really suppose the Hop growers capaWe of 

 accepting such an extraordinary assertion without 

 question. If Hops absorb sulphur at all it will be 

 on the kiln. We have no reason to suppose that live 

 plants are capable of absorbing through their skin 

 any form of matter except such as is gaseous ; and 

 if living plants were to absorb sulphur in its gaseous 

 combinations they could only do so at the expense 

 of their lives. We therefore beg to withhold our 



belief from all statements to the contrary, until, as we 



have already said, they are accompanied by satis- 

 factory proof. Let that be produced, and we shall 

 be among the first to announce so great a discovery. 

 In the meanwhile we rely upon the proof to the 

 contrary mentioned in a previous paragraph. 



We are far from supposing that the Hop factors 

 have intended more, by the course they have taken, 

 than to protect themselves and their customers the 

 brewer?. They probably overlooked the grievous 

 wrong they were doing to the grower, or they 

 thought themselves so sure of the ground on which 

 they stood that no private interests could be con- 

 sidered. Upon either supposition we must take the 

 liberty of calling upon them to prove their case, if 

 they can. The subject is one of immense import- 

 ance and cannot be treated lightly. As we have 

 already said, we believe ourselves able to prove that 

 Hops sulphured while growing do no injury to beer; 

 we are, therefore, the more justified in requiring the 

 factors to prove if they can that the losses they 

 speak of have really been traceable to the use of 

 the same article. ( 



Sulphur is one of the most powerful of known 

 agents in destroying mildew. It is to gardeners what 

 vaccine is to surgeons. In horticulture it has been 

 used for many years without imparting a bad flavour 

 to fruit or other vegetable products. The sudden 

 discovery that Hops are an exception to the rule 

 might well then have excited our consternation, had 

 not long experience convinced us that the supposed 

 discovery must be in reality a delusion, caused by 

 what we can only suppose to be hasty inferences 

 drawn from insufficiently examined data. 



We are now prepared to give the result of the 

 experiments which, by the kindness of Mr. G. H. 

 Hoffman, of Margate, we were enabled to make as 

 to the germination of seeds which had been 

 immersed in salt water. The method adopted for 

 this purpose was explained before. There was no 

 convenience for placing the little bags containing 

 the seeds actually in the sea. Fresh sea-water was 

 therefore supplied every day, and at the end of 

 three weeks the bags were removed. The seeds were 

 then to soft and swollen that it was impossible to 

 transmit them without danger of their perishing on 

 the journey. Measures were therefore taken to dry 

 them sufficiently for package, and while quite damp 

 they remained after their arrival, in consequence of 

 our absence from home, four days without being 

 unpacked." The immersion, therefore, was equiva- 

 lent to one of more than a month. Sixty-one 

 species were submitted to the salt water ; but of 



these seven must be subtracted, as they had not 

 germinated when placed meanwhile in common soil. 

 The others ^consisted of 18 culinary plants, 15 endo- 

 gens, and 20 exogens ; 53 in all. Of the first the only 

 ones which did not vegetate were Peas and Kidney 

 Beans ; of the second three did not vegetate ; and of 

 the third nine, being respectively one-ninth, one- 

 third, and nine-twentieths. 



The following tabular arrangement will show the 

 result of the whole experiment at a single glance. 



CULINARY PLANTS. 



Germinated. 



Did not Germinate. 



1. Carrot 



1. Pea 



2. Spinach 



2. Kidney 3ean - 



3. Yellow Turnip 





4. Celery 





5. Onion 





6\ Lettuce 





7. Capsicum 1 



• 



8. Black RadUh 





9, Cora Salad 





10. Eudive 





11. Golden Cress 





12. Beet 





1 3. Cabbage 





14. Melon 





15. Aubergine 





16. Tomato 





ENDOGENS. 



1. Oafs 



1. Colchicum autumnal 



2. Wheat 



2. Indian Corn 



3. Barley 



3. Uropetalum serotini 



4. Arum maculaturn 





5. Bulbine annua 





G. Anomotheca cruenta 





7. Asphodelus luteus 





8. Babiana plicata 





9. Asphodelus ramosus 





10. Trichonema pudicum 





11. Sisyrinchium Iridifo- 





12. Iris triflora [Hum 





EXOGENS. 





1. Godetia Lindleyana 



2. Gilia tricolor 



3. Eutoca viscida 



4. Cosmos luteus 



5. Campanula pentagonia 



6. Nemophila insignia 



7. 



8. 

 0. 





atomaria 

 maculata 

 discoidalis 



1. Monolopia californica 



2. Lupinus pubescens 



3. Cenia turbinata 



4. Godetia rubicunda 



5. Cliryseis crocea 



6. Erysimum Ferowski 



anum 



7. Malope grand i flora 



8. Fedia graciliflora 



9. Limnanthes Dou^lasi 



10. Silene compacta 



11. No'aua grandiflora 



Of these, Chryseis crocea germinated very imper- 

 fectly, though the single plant is still alive. The 

 others succeeded as well as if the seeds had never 

 been steeped, except the Lupine, of which the 

 greater part of the seeds rotted, like those of the 

 Pea, Kidney Bean, and Indian corn. Not a single 

 Hydrophyl succeeded, though five were sown, and 

 we were unsuccessful with the closely allied family 

 of Phloxvvorts. In other families the number of 

 species submitted to trial were too few to suggest 

 any general probability, and it will be seen that 

 while one Godetia failed the other succeeded. Seeds 

 which have large fleshy cotyledons like Leguminosse 

 seem the most liable to decay, where the shell is 

 thin and readily imbibes water, though it is believed 

 that species with hard woody shells are amongst 

 those which bear a long immersion the best. On 

 the whole, out of 53 species 39 succeeded, or nearly 

 three-fourths. . Sj far, then, it is clear that immer- 

 sion in salt water for a month is not sufficient to 

 prevent the germination of a large quantity of 

 species, and during that time a floating plant lad 

 with seed might travel through many hundreds of 

 miles. From the experiments of Mr. Darwin, how- 

 ever, which were made with artificial sea-water, it 

 appears that a still longer immersion is not suffi- 

 cient to prevent vegetation. Beet and Rhubarb ger- 

 minated after immersion for 65 days, Oats, Canary 

 seed and Capsicum, after 70 ; Cress, Lettuce, 

 Radish, and Carrot after the same period, but only 

 a few plants of each came up, Orach after 82 days, 

 and Celery and Onion after 85 days. Mr. Darwin 

 also instituted experiments on seeds thoroughly dried 

 after immersion in salt water, but an unfortunate 



his 



accident prevented 



arriving at any results. 





New Plants. 



Hl^JPfii^ARGONiCM Endlicherianlm. " Fenzl. Abbild. 



und Beschveib. sell. Pft. t. 3." According to Walper's 



repert. 2, 820. 

 This is a handsome novelty and a great curiosity. It 

 is a fleshy branched shrub, with soft, roundish, 

 kidney-shaped, crenated, fragrant leaves, and trusses 

 of large deep rose-coloured flowers, each con- 

 sisting of two petals only, as in P. tetragonuni. In 

 addition to their deep ground colour the petals are 

 boldly marked by rich crimson veins. The flowers on 

 the specimen before us from the garden of the Horti- 

 culiurai Society are on'y five in a Ir s ; lut our wiM 



specimens have more than twenty. The plant wa* 

 received at Chiswick from Mr. Francis llaucb, in 

 charge of one of the Austrian Imperial Gardens. 



What gives so much additional interest to this plant 

 is its native country. We need not say that the 

 principal country of Pelargoniums is the Cape of Good 

 Hope, a few species only being found in the Australian 

 colonies. None had been observed in the northern 

 hemisphere, except one species in the Canary Islands 

 and two or three in Abyssinia, until Kotschy in his 

 travels in Caramania met with the present plant and 

 sent it to Vienna. It occurred on limestone rocks 

 facing the east, in the ravines of the beautiful mountain 

 region near the village of Giillek, where it was seen in 

 flower on the 30th of July, 1853, as we learn from 

 specimens in our herbarium. Giillek is not to be found 

 in any map to which we have access, but we suppose it 

 to be somewhere on the southern side of the Bulgar 

 Dagh, or chain of Taurus. 



A geographical parallel to this case is the occurrence 

 of a species of Stapelia, another great Cape genus, on 

 the south Bide of Sicily. The present plant will 

 require a greenhouse in winter, and the more so because 

 of the succulence of its branches; but it may be expected 

 to prove a gay bedding-out plant in summer, and 

 perhaps even the parent of a new breed of garden 



mules. 



VEGETABLE PATHOLOGY.— No. LXXXVI. 



356. Phylloptosis, Carpoptosis, Anthoptosis. — (Acci- 

 dental and Organic). — Fall of the leaf, fruit, flower,- 

 In the last number those cases were considered in which 

 a separation takes place between the stem of a leaf, or 

 fruit, &c., and the base from which it springs when it 

 has performed its proper functions, and is no longer 

 wanted. There are, however, many cases in which leaves 

 and fruit fall from constitutional or accidental causes, 

 when these functions have not been performed. In most 

 cases of sterility the separation takes place, either before 

 or after the fruit shows Bigns of incipient decay, and the 

 fall of blossoms and leaves without any previously 

 diseased condition may take place, from excessive 

 drought, moisture, cold, heat, &c. Thus on the approach 

 of winter, at the first frost many leaves fall white yet 

 green, and before they betray positive signs of decay, in 

 which case, whatever may be the structure of suture by 

 which the stalk is attached to the stem, it appears clear 

 that the fall is the result of the antagonistic force between 

 the depressed vitality on the one side, and the full vigour 

 of life on the other, though we are not prepared to say in 

 what the principle of life consists. In the case of 

 drought, a fresh supply of water may reinstate the foliage 

 in all its vigour, and separation will not take place % 

 provided the drought has not been of too long continuance. 

 The drought of the hot season ia tropical climates strips 

 many deciduous trees as effectually of their foliage as 

 those of more temperate climates, where the foliage falls 

 on the cessation of its functions by natural decay. 



357. Land which has been flooded has a peculiar 

 tendency to cause trees to cast their leaves, and a 

 similar condition exists in conservatories where the pots 

 in which the plants are grown are ill-drained, though in 

 this case the dry air which Eurrounds them often in- 

 creases the evil, the evaporation from the leaves being 

 so great as not to be capable of being compensated by 

 the more or less diseased or suffering spongelets. But 

 even where the house is properly syringed, many plants 

 still cast their leaves, in consequence, probably, of defi- 

 ciency of light In fact, all extremes seem to have the 

 same effect. In plants which have been delicately 

 treated all the winter, especially if they have been 

 crowded, the first thing which takes place on their being 

 exposed to the open air is the loss of many of their 

 leaves ; and precisely the same effect may take place 

 under contrary conditions, though it is not uniformly 

 the case. It should be observed that the fall of fruit m 

 an early stage is not always due to want of impregnation. 

 In the Scarlet Bean, for instance, after the flowers have 

 been impregnated and the legumes Lave been formed, 

 a single ungenial night will cause thousands to fall, 

 which uuder other circumstances would have been per- 

 fected. It is because of some circumstance unfavour- 

 able to their healthy vegetation that the Peaches and 

 Nectarines in Van Diemen's Land, as mentioned by Dr. 

 Harvey, frequently fall before they are ripe, and are 

 so seldom brought to sufficient perfection even tot 

 culinary purposes ; and the same may be said oj 

 multitudes of plants cultivated in our conservatories and 

 stoves. When the unexpanded buds of the Camellia 

 fall we know at once that the condition of the roots is 

 bad, while in other cases we are as sure that the tempera- 

 ture is not that which a healthy condition of the plant 

 requires. A correction of such conditions, according to 

 the exigencies of each plant, where practicable is abso- 

 lutely indispensable to health or vigour. * 



358. Meyen remarks with regard to the normal fail 

 of leaves that it is strongly affected by external climatic 

 conditions, by which it may be delayed for a considerable 

 period, or, on the contrary, be greatly accelerated. l\ 

 remarks moreover that those plants which cast tne.r 

 leaves periodically exhibit surprising differences in Un» 

 respect, for while some retain their dry leaves* tor 

 months, others part with them at the first frost, even 

 those which are still green and in no respect discolored. 



359. As we have considered the fall of fruit aud otlier 

 superficial organs under the sam e head as that of le aves, 



* Oaks afford a ready example. The younger trees retain the/r 

 leaves more tenaciously than the older, but in the same V[*»™ 

 tion great differences are observable, and the same remark u> 

 licabta to Beech trees. 













