596 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[Sept. 8, 1S55. 



purity of retained and corrupted breath, scarcely 

 heeded in general, has been the chief element of the 

 foul atmosphere which has led to numerous cholera 

 outbreaks. Thus, in England, it has been in public 

 institutions, clean to the eye, not very offensive to 

 the nose, and where the inmates were well fed and 

 well clothed, and otherwise well-cared for under 

 frequent public inspection, but where ventilation 

 was overlooked and defective, that some of the most 

 shocking scenes of destruction from cholera have 

 occurred. Such was the school at Tooting, of above 

 a thousand parish children, among whom about 300 

 cases of cholera suddenly occurred, and killed more 

 than half of those aifected before the crowd was 

 dispersed. And various union workhouses, lunatic 

 asylums, prisons, &c, in London and elsewhere, 

 were similarly visited. Such places in the end of 

 1849 produced more than half the cases of cholera 

 which then occurred about London, as is set forth 

 at page 37 of the valuable 'Report on Cholera,' 

 prepared by Dr. Baly and Dr. Gull, and issued by 

 the College of Physicians. The very crowded school 

 of the union-house at Taunton, in Somersetshire, 

 became a remarkable example : 30 cases suddenly 

 appeared in the room of the girls, in which the 

 glass of the windows remained entire, while in the 

 adjoining room of* the boys, where panes of glass 

 were broken, and so admitted fresh air, not a single 

 case occurred, and there was only one other case in 

 the whole town." 



In anothjr place the same experienced physician 

 makes a further remark : — " One of the most hurtful 

 to man of all the aerial poisons is that of his own 

 expelled breath, when detained long around him 

 and breathed again. A considerable proportion of 

 the solid aliment and drink which he receives is 

 thrown off by the lungs and skin, as kinds of excre- 

 mentitious matter, in the forms of carbonic acid, 

 water, and aeriform organic matter. The last- 

 named portion gives a certain odour to the breath 

 and bodies of many persons even in good health, 

 ♦by which a dog often can trace his master, and with 

 impaired health it becomes copious, offensive, and 

 pernicious. This organic matter, probably at first, 

 when it may be called fresh, is harmless, for a 

 mother does not fear to kiss her beautiful child, nor 

 do persons in a crowded church, or other place 

 where healthy people assemble, much fear their 

 neighbours, but there is no doubt that it soon 

 becomes putrid and noxious. In early states of 

 society, before glass windows were used, and when 

 men lived almost in the free air, they had no notion 

 of this poison, and that ignorance continuing 

 through later times explains to us many of the facts 

 connected with the generation and spread of plagues 

 or epidemics/' 



These are very striking statements, the truth of 



which no intelligent person will venture to question. 



But it occurs to few that Dr. Arnott's cases have 



everywhere their counterpart in the vegetable 



kingdom. The instance of the girls shut up close 



in the school at Taunton, and of the boys in an 



adjoining room, with broken windows, is precisely 



parallel with the plants cooped in the greenhouse, 

 ------ - - We will 



Yet the quantity 



health permanently supervenes 

 of additional light admitted by removing the roof is 

 but inconsiderable; plants have little more than 

 before. What they do enjoy in abundance is free 

 air, or it would be better to say, unimpeded respirar 

 tion, with a complete absence of their own atmo- 

 sphere whether it be vitiated by exhaustion or 



deterioration. 



There can be no doubt that the instances given 

 by Dr. Arnott of evil consequences manifestly 

 derived from a polluted atmosphere are precisely 

 analogous to what attend plants under similar cir- 

 cumstances. The yellow spindling Geraniums in 

 Mr. Absolon Chilly's greenhouse are the scrofulous 

 children of Russell Square. The dead and dying in 

 Sir Simeon Suffocate's grand conservatory are the 

 poor parish children at Tooting. 



In the last number of his very interesting 

 "Journal of Botany" Sir William Hooker laments 

 over the want of skill yet so manifest in gardens 

 notwithstanding our boasted horticultural eminence. 

 Speaking of the Rice-paper plant, which has been 

 flowering magnificently at Hong Kong in the garden 

 of Sir John Bowring, but which still remains a 

 poor sterile thing at Kew, he writes as follows : — 



" Captain Mellersh, late in command of H.M. 

 steamer Ranter, which conveyed Sir John Bowring 

 and his suite to Siam, has just arrived from Hong 

 Kong, bringing from J. C. Bowring, Esq., noble 

 flowering racemes of the Aralia papyrifera, which 

 have flowered in high perfection in the Governor's 

 garden at Hong Kong, and the plants have attained 

 to a great size : while in our European stoves our 

 plants, imported by Sir John Bowring from For- 

 mosa at the same time with his, and of the same 

 age, have continued small and shown no disposition 

 to flower : forcing upon us the humiliating convic- 

 tion that, however high our nation may stand as 

 successful gardeners, we have yet much to learn in 

 regard to the skilful cultivation of tropical plants, 

 which, speaking' generally, and of the larger and 

 especially the shrubby kinds, so seldom yield 

 flowers, and infinitely more rarely fruits. Mr. J. 

 C. Bowring, whose letter accompanies these flower- 

 ing specimens, observes 



not be more complete. Three twigs close together 

 may be described as follows : — 



1. 



not 

 may 



and others living in the open air. 

 pause to inquire what the exact reason is. It 

 be that plants are starved in the first case by want 

 of atmospheric food, and abundantly fed in the 

 other ; or it may also be that " one of the most 

 hurtful to a plant of all the aerial poisons is that of 

 its own expelled breath when detained long around 

 it and breathed again ; " for if the carbonic acid 

 removed from their system is injurious to animals, 

 so may the oxygen or other gases expelled from 

 their system by plants be equally prejudicial to 

 them, for aught we know to the contrary. But it 

 is needless to inquire how the case may really 

 stand ; if physiology cannot explain the precise 

 reason why stifled plants do not thrive, it is enough 

 for practice to know that the fact is so ; and having 

 gained the knowledge, to apply it. 



Let a number of growing plants be shut up for 

 many days in a chest perfectly close ; all know that 

 at the end of those days most will have died, and 

 that such as continue to live are bleached, feeble, 

 and perishing. This result is said to be caused by 

 want of light; and is, no doubt, aggravated by it. 

 But if the chest has holes cut in its sides, the evil 

 consequences are for a long time averted ; and yet 

 the amount of light admitted by the holes is very 

 small. Is it not rather the freer access of air which 

 sustains life in this case ? 

 the affirmative, there is a 

 proof. 



If there is no proof of 

 equal absence of all dis- 



> c The two specimens 

 now sent, one in bud, with copious bracteas, the 

 other with the flowers fully expanded, are from the 

 large plant at head-quarters here, which was a shoot 

 from my original plant, but has much outgrown its 

 parent. I was obliged to cut the latter down, to save 

 its life ; but it is now again a fine healthy plant, and I 

 hope will flower next winter. The species has a very 

 handsome appearance when flowering. The one above 

 mentioned threw out 12 fine panicles of blossoms 

 (besides two which I cut off before the flowers burst 

 forth), more than 3 feet in length, and they crowned 

 the shrub in beautiful style, drooping like magnificent 

 plumes, in regular form over the large, dark, palmate 



leaves below. 1 " 



Now, there is nothing whatever in Hong Kong 

 which England is unable to supply, except that 

 combination of heat and free air which nature pro- 

 vides in China. 



Such being the case it cannot be admitted that 



the imperfection of modern gardens is owing to an 

 absence of horticultural skill. The blame lies quite 

 as much, or indeed much more, at the door of the 

 garden architect. His business is to provide means 

 for combining heat and the freest ventilation wher- 

 ever a plant has to grow. That the garden architect 

 cannot do. Let us hope then that a man like Dr. 

 Arnott, eminent among the most eminent in his 

 application of philosophy to matters of daily neces- 

 sity, will turn his attention to garden structures and 

 show how that is to be done, without w r hich all 

 exotic gardening is but a pretence, unless effected at 

 enormous cost. In his most interesting volume, 

 which concerns the exigencies of man's dwelling- 

 places, he deals successfully with everything except 

 the atmosphere of plants. We earnestly hope that, 

 his first object having been gained, he will be able to 

 direct his eyes upon lower matters, and to show us 

 how to sanitarise the air of a plant house as well as 

 of a dwelling house. 



A glass house, shut close, is nothing but a 

 chest, the sides of which are partially transparent. 

 Cooped up in such a box for many days, some plants 

 will die, and those which live will be pallid and 

 sickly. Cut holes in the sides of the box in the 

 form of doors and opening windows, and then also 

 evil consequences are long averted ; but they come 

 at last* Take off the roof and sides, and robust dentally stuck to the branches the mixture could 



So much has been heard of u sports," and 

 " varieties," and " mules, hybrids, or cross breds," 

 and of all manner of forms produced no one knows 

 how, from Adam's Laburnum up to Boghos Bey's 

 trifacial Orange, that one would have thought the 

 list exhausted. Nevertheless a Scotch correspondent 

 tells us of a case as strange as the strangest yet 

 recorded, and more puzzling than most. 



We learn that he has a Gooseberry bush which 

 bears indifferently on each small twig red or yellow 

 berries, the red superior in flavour to the yellow, 

 and both dissimilar ; the reds, too, are unlike, for 

 some are rough and others smooth ; and the yellows 

 bear seed that is red. Had a handful of' yellow 

 berries been thrown in among the reds and acci- 



Red 

 Yellow 

 Yellow 

 Yellow 



2. 



Yellow 



Yellow 



Red 



Yellow 



Yellow 



3i 



Red 



Red 



Red 

 Red 



Yellow 



We hope to receive specimens shortly at our office- 

 In the meanwhile those who live near Glasgow may 

 satisfy themselves as to the reality of the sport hy 

 calling on Mr, Thomas Telfeti, of Woodhouse 

 Hurlet. 



New Plants. 



142. Eremurus spectabilis. Bicberst. fi m Taur. cane, 



— 77/., 269. Bot. Mag., t. 4870. 



A very fine showy herbaceous hardy plant, with the 

 habit and appearance of an Asphodel. The flowering 

 scape is 2 or 3 feet high, and terminated by a fine com- 

 pact pyramidal raceme of yellow flowers, the effect of 

 which is greatly heightened by long rich orange-brown 

 stamens. It is said to be found wild in Siberia, the 

 Caucasus, Koordistan, the Crimea, and even in Scinde, 

 where the late Dr. Stocks appears to have met with it. 

 No doubt it is a plant of the most easy cultivation. At 

 Kew it flowers in June. * 



We may add to the description in the Botanical 

 Magazine that this is the famous Cherish or Tchirish 

 plant of Eastern people, as we know from specimens in 

 our herbarium collected by Dr. Dickson for Mr. Brant^ 

 her Majesty's Consul at Erzeroum, and by our excellent 

 correspondent, Mr. H. Calvert, of the same place. The 

 latter gentleman, in recently communicating specimens 

 of the article to Sir William Hooker for the Kew 

 Museum, makes the following statement :— « Jaubert,. 

 in the * Voyages d'Aucher Eloy,' p. 200, mentions the 

 Tchirish plant to be Asphod. ramosus, but you will see 

 by the specimen marked No. 1365, sent to Dr. Lindley,. 

 that Jaubert is in error. The roots of this plant are- 

 dug up in May, and after separating the young tubers 

 of the year from the older ones (the former being finer 

 in quality than the latter), the roots are bruised, dried,, 

 and then ground to powder, and in this state are 

 ported from Koordistan to various parts of Turkey,. 

 Its adhesive qualities render it useful to saddlers, shoe- 

 makers, bookbinders, &c, and for 4 filling' for the coarse 

 native cotton cloth, &c, wheaten flour paste never 

 being employed in this country as a gluten. To make 

 Tchirish paste the powder has merely to be added 

 gradually to cold water and then stirred. Pouring 

 water on the powder is not so effectual, as the Tchirish 

 clogs into lumps. In May and June the young shoots 

 are sold in town as a vegetable. When cooked, green 

 Tchirish has a taste intermediate between Spinach and 

 Purslane, with the glutinous property of Okra ; in fact, 

 it is by no means a disagreeable vegetable. I had 

 hoped to have sent you seeds, but in the disturbed state 

 of the country I could not induce any one to go for them.'* 



It is rather curious to find our own "Bath Aspa- 

 ragus," namely the young shoots of Ornithogalum 

 pyrenaicum, thus imitated among the delicacies of 

 Koordistan. 



VEGETABLE PATHOLOGY.— No. LXXXVIL 

 3G0. Cladoptosis*— (Fall of Branches) .—It wasstated 

 above that the fall of the leaf was in many cases, and. 

 perhaps in all, a vital process, put in force by the growing 

 plant to get rid of dead incumbrances. This view is 

 confirmed by what takes place in the fall of branches- 

 Fruit, moreover, follows the same laws as leaves, and 

 when it has acquired its full growth and development 

 separates in like manner from the parent stem. In some 

 cases, new buds have been developed from the scar, the 

 margin of which often swells extremely, and acquires 

 quite a new aspect ; but more frequently where the fruit 

 has been but one of many branches on a panicle, the sepa- 

 ration does not ultimately cease at the first scar. In the 

 Pear, for instance, a Eeries of Bub-horizontal fissures- 

 gradually takes place as the superior parts decay, till the 

 origin of the whole panicle is reached, and if separation 

 does not take place, which is sometimes the case when 

 the vital action below is not sufficiently active, the living 

 parts are infected by the dead matter above, and canker- 

 is the consequence. Now, though there is an evident 

 articulation at the base of each peduncle, there is none 

 at the junction of the individual internodes, nor is there 

 in many cases any transverse tissue of different structure 

 from the rest which might induce rupture. , 



361. This disintegration of the stem of the panicle 

 after the fall of the fruit may be considered as a sort oi 



instances 



to which the name may more strictly be applied, m 

 common white Willow is extremely subject to such an 

 affection, and one precisely similar in the Oak was- 

 many years since forwarded by an unknown correspon- 

 dent to Dr. Lindley. The cause of death m tne 

 branches is uncertain, sometimes perhaps it may 

 cold, sometimes the superior demands of other parts oi 

 the tree which divert that nourishment which *£ 

 destined for their use. Unless some process of un- 

 kind took place, every bud upon a tree would be equa y 

 developed, and there would be no room left for the cir- 

 culation of air or the admission of light. Now, it ti 

 hranchlets were simply broken off ty the wind, a ragged 

 surface would be left, easily affected by the weather, 

 and calcula ted to cause decay. A vi ta Uction. jioj^YL-* 



From x ?.atos, a young branch, and *t*™, the act of falling 



