Nov- 3, 1855.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



725 



they may be wanted for actual use, either to carry on i s the Peterson i u m figuwd in the Gardeners' Chr.nuU 



tfe growth of the plant more vigorously after a season 1850, p. 579, and reproduced in e shape of 



of rest, or to insure such a stock of active vitality at annexed cut " • l 



some future period as may be necessary to the profuse It first made its appearance in the gardens of the 



production ot fruit which in due season is usual ,n many Horticultural Society of London. The stem was swollen 



Such deposits take place in different parts both * 



trees. 



of herbaceous and ligneous plants, and under certain 

 circumstances the growth of these is promoted by the 

 cultivator to effect certain ends which are more profit- 

 able to him than if the plant went through the usual 

 series of processes, without any deviation from the 

 normal course. It is rare moreover that one organ cau ' two piano- 

 be nourished excessively without deterioration or sup- ! stunted leaves. 



pression of some neighbouring organ, and in con- 

 sequence such plants may never produce perfect 

 seed at all, or only in small quantities. It is to 

 this tendency to lay up nutriment for future use 

 in particular organs to which the cultivator has had 

 recourse in the production of so many of the valuable 

 productions with which our gardens and orchards are 

 stored ; and though doubtless such plants are, in a 

 certain sense, in a diseased condition, they answer his 

 purposes so well that his object is rather to cherish the 

 disease than to suppress it. 



377. Hypertrophy is not, however, always harmless. 

 It may arise from more causes than one, though in 

 general it is essentially constitutional. Perfect fruit is 

 for the most part produced only where the several 

 organs of which the flower is composed maintain their 

 normal proportion to each other. This may and does 

 differ in different plants. The petals may be suppressed 

 in consequence of the unusually great development of 

 the sepals ; or a large portion of the stamens may pro- 



and made only imperfect attempts at the formation of 

 leaves. As these swellings increased it was found that 

 the cellular matter of the stern was excessively deve- 

 loped, assuming on the surface a warty or tuberculate 

 ppearance ; that the warts were of a great variety of 

 sizes, all tapering to a sharp point, some divided into 



parts, and a few supported by minute 



The plants were feeble in their growth, 



made little progress, and gradually lost their "leaves. 



natural productions appear chaiigeii. £uch is the 



change produced by tin plough and the axe in the 



hands of man ; but neither the Yellow Pine nor the 



Scotch Fir nor the White C ar are destroyed, but 



( ach, in turn, has been the tyrant of its day, and each 



in its turn has sunk into insjnincance as ti»e situation 



has become more suitable to others, and less favourable 

 to itsetf. 



4. Instances occur daily of the production of new 

 plants in localities by turning up deep cuttings on rail- 

 roads, &c; but the instance which occurred on the 

 return of Col. Fitzclarence (afterwards L»rd Munstef) 

 from Judeea, by way of Egypt, will suffice for this 

 division of the subj-ct In this instance he brought 



Both cuttings and old plants were attacked. By degrees home a bulbous root which was found in the hand of a 



the fleshy masses rotted off, but the plants remained 



unhealthy during the rest of the summer. It does not 



appear that these excrescences were true galls, though 



the plants where they did not perish ultimately recovered 



to a great extent their normal condition .* M. J. £. 



MEMORANDA 



has 

 cts, 



Intended to show some instances in which the a-rfneyof man 

 been brought into play in tin? production of ptantt, of inse 

 of birds, and also on a more extended scale, on localities ami 

 on climates; and to show that how* \««r those effects nay 

 appear permanent, they originate in taking advantage of 

 those laws to which the Almighty Power has ittbjected all 

 alike— plants, insects, animals, localities, climates, and man 

 himself. 



FIRST— OF PL ANT 3. 



Wherever the Grasses had gained the ascen- 



1. When quartered in Canterbury prior to 1812 the 

 following fact was pointed out to me as occurring on 

 chalk. 



dancy over the White Clover, the farmer had only t«» 

 broadcast with coal ashes to restore to the Clover the 

 superiority it had lost, and that this superiority con- 

 tinued about three years when the Grasses over- topped 

 the Clover, which shrunk into insignificance. 



This effect appears to be principally due first, to the 

 form of the plants : a, The leaf of the Clover, is broad ; 

 b, The leaf of the Grass, is narrow. They both act as 

 condensers of moisture, with which they supply the 

 centre C, the seat of life. 



Wherever the Clover can spread itself and can gather 

 moisture in sufficient quantities for its supply, its broad 

 leaf outspans the narrow leaf of the Grasses, but as soon 

 as the Clover has an insufficient supply of moisture then 

 the narrow leaf of the Grasses overtops and extends 

 beyond it, and as before said, the Clover sinks into 



Secondly. This influence is due also to 

 the hygrometical quality of the coal ash. Tins sub- 

 stance absorbs much of that moisture in rainy or 

 damp weather, which is too great for the action of the 

 leaves, and thus acts as a reservoir, which retains 

 moisture, about the centre of both plants. The compa- 

 rative superiority of the two shows plainly in which the 

 supply has been deficient. The result proves that that 

 deficiency is made up. Thirdly. Some portion is due, 

 probably, to the mechanical effect of the coal ash, by 

 rendering the surface soil better fitted for the expansion 

 of the roots of the Clover ; and, fourthly, something is 

 due to the chemical decomposition of the coal ash ; but 

 the two last are not of consequence in this instance 

 where the object is to show that the farmer in Kent, on 

 chalk, can at his pleasure influence the production and 

 the reproduction of white Cover. In this case the 

 Clover sinks into comparative insignificance, but— it 



mummy. The mummy was proved to hit* rested in 

 its tomb upwards of 2000 year*. After his arrival in 

 England the bulb grew, but, whether it came to perfec- 

 tion I know not. It is sufficient that th< \ ital power 

 existed, after having been hit ed^ and suspended tor 

 at least 2000 years, and that it was called into activity 

 by the accidental circumstance of having been taken 

 from its place of repose by a man, and having been ex- 

 posed to treatment calculated to a use SUpendsi 

 vitality. To sum up, we have here vitality which had 

 been suspended for JOOO years in the plant restored by 

 the agency of man. We have the Yellow Pine made to 

 give place to the Scotch Fir,the White Cedar, the 1 lick ry, 

 &c, in succession by the plough and the axe of man. 

 We have the Charlock brought into activity by the 

 wilful stupidity of man, and we have the White Clover 

 made to alternate with the Grasses at the will of 

 man. C. 



{To he continued.) 



insignificance. 



it exists. 



duce no anthers, and so on of other cases. Still if the 

 usual proportions are maintained, the proper quantity 

 of pollen grains and ovules will be perfected, and im- 

 pregnation will take place, ending in the production of 

 good and abundant seed. But if any organ undergoes 

 * degree of development foreign to the particular 

 species, the others will suffer, and the result will be 

 abortive. Every organ is in turn liable to hypertrophy 

 from purely constitutional causes ; and even after im- 

 pregnation has taken place, parts of the ovule may be 



remains 



2. I was quartered at Christ Church, Hampshire, 



in 1815. The barracks are situated on a small plain, 



a deposit from the sea, where the surface soil rests 



upon sand, but is so superficial as only to admit of a 



ridge (?) of 4 inches. It so happened that the first crop 



of a stranger was on the ground ; this man laughed at the 



caution of the natives, and set his share at least 6 inches 



deep. The result was a most abundant crop of that 



noisome stinking weed Charlock. So vigorous was it, 



that there was scarcely a trace of Turnips, of which the. 



ordinary quantity of seed had been sown. The farmers 



(the natives as he called them) said, that he had turned 



up the seeds of this roost noisome weed which they had 



overcome by dint of weeding, and this in spite of their 



warning. Here the Charlock was only buried, and 



awaited its day. 



3. In the seaboard parts of Virginia, U. S., N. Arae- 

 there is a vast tract of sand, nearly on a level 

 with the sea. It is the region of the mist ; scarcely any 

 kind of tree is found to exist here except the Yellow 

 Pine, which fairly luxuriates, and is the lord of the 

 ascendant. Here, as elsewhere, the Pine tree is the 

 child of the mist ; here, as elsewhere, it stretches up 

 its arms to catch the dews of heaven ; and here the 

 Yellow Pine avails itself of the peculiar state of the dis- 



MR. PHILLPOTTS' ORCHID-HOUSE AND PITS. 



The extract from the * Journal of the Horticultural 



Society ," given in the Garden tri Chronicle of July 21, 



page 485, relative to the mode of heating adopted at 

 Porthgwidden, near Truro, will be most acceptable to 

 many readers who are interested in such matters, and 

 being accompanied with plans and sections, it cannot fail 

 to be extremely useful to those who may contemplate, 

 or are engaged in, the erection of buildings of a similar 

 description. Mr. Phillpotts has for many years devoted 

 much of his time to horticultural pursuits, and is 

 acknowledged to be one of the best informed on the 

 subject in Cornwall. His Orchid-house and pits, al- 

 though on a sm«ll scale, are very complete, and admir- 

 ably suited for the purposes to which they are applied. 

 I have seen them repeatedly, and on all occasions the 

 plants they contained were In the most perfect state of 

 health and beauty, affording evidence not to be 

 mistaken both of good management and successful 



cultivation. 



In the construction of the house and pits Mr. Phill- 

 potts lays no claim- to anything more than what he 

 states to be " a practical rather than a scientific adapta- 

 tion of the plans of others, avoiding their mistakes." 

 The Hey wood House pit, which gave him the first idea 

 of his own range, would appear to be a modification of 

 the pit designed by Mr. G lend inning, and published in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle of 1844. The Orchid-house is 

 span-roofed, bu% in my opinion, is rather too narrow. 

 The principals are secured at the top by iron work alter 

 the manner of the Banksia and Acaci-i houses at Kew, 

 of which an account, with plans and sections, will be 

 found in the Gardeners' Chronicle of Feb. 1, 1845. In 

 eral instances I have observed the same mode of 



sev 



rica, 



so highly developed as to prevent entirely the perfection ^ m 



of the embryo. The multiplication of the various trict under the influence of the Gulf stream to not both ^ attr ; lmte d. 



Komnanvincr hypertrophy in double as to multitude and dimensions. But as the country J fru ^ ;rnrini9 ' t 



, or has been, covered by 



When from 



securing the principals of a span-roof adopted, and with 

 the best effect, as it gives to a house of this description 

 a light and neat appearance, and renders it more suit- 

 able for the general purposes of cultivation than a lean- 

 to house on the old plan. 



Perhaps one of the best things about the erections at 

 Porthgwidden is the excellent manner in which they 

 are treated by means of hot-water pipes, with open 

 troughs and cisterns. The form and arrangement of 

 these are well deserving of attention, and if adopted by 

 others cannot fail to answer, provided due care is 

 taken that the power of the apparatus and amount of 

 heating surface are in proportion to the cubic contents 

 of air required to be heated to a certain temperature. 

 It must not be supposed, however, that the command of 

 a powerful supply of heat and moisture is all that is 

 necessary to insure success in cultivation, for after 

 everything has been done in this way that may 

 deemed necessary, it will be found that there is 

 another point of as much importance as the above to 

 which the attention of the cultivator must be particularly 

 directed I allude, of course, to the introduction of a 

 proper system of ventilation, which is so essential to 

 the health of plants, and, when overlooked, is in most 

 cases one of the principal causes to which failure is to 



be 

 still 



organs, and the accompanying hypertrophy 



flowers afford familiar instances, as does the swelling 



of the upper part of the funiculus in Gourds and other 

 Cucurbits, which is sometimes so excessive as to form 

 * sort of false arillus. 



378. Hypertrophy is sometimes however of a more 

 general character, affecting the whole plant, and pro- 

 ducing distortion or a total change of habit and 

 character. This often arises from the irritation 

 produced by fungal growths or insects, and will be 

 treated of when we come to the consideration of the 

 effects produced by parasites. It may exist however 

 without the presence of any parasite, and be as strange 



becomes more elevated, and i 



the Yellow Pine, the following facts occur 



any cause the Yellow Pine is removed, a species of 



Pine, resembling the Scotch Fir, replaces it ; if these 



are cut down they are replaced by the White Cedar, 



and should the Cedar be removed Hickories, Oa' of 



many kinds, Chesnuts, &c, in all at least 20 different 



species, spring up. All trace of the original Ye low 



Pine is lost, to a superficial inquiry, and the whole 



* I raised this year from seed a very curious Pelargonium, with 



extremely laciniated crisp and variegated leaves, «£ a compact 

 dwarf habit. The constitution, however, was so weak taati^as 



a* regards the forms which the several organs assume. : ima t>le to preserve it longer than the beginning ot Uie present 



Oaeof the most curious with which we are acquainted | month, October. 



The importance of air in motion to plants has been 

 n adverted to in the Gardeners" Chronicle, but the 

 best mode of creating a circulation, and effecting this 

 desirable object, has yet to be ascertained. Mr. Phill- 

 potts would appear to have well considered the matter, 

 and has made ample provision for the escape of the 

 heated air along the rid^e of his Orchid-house, as well 

 as for the admission of an abundant supply of fresh air 

 by ventilators in the front and back walls. The great 

 secret of his success, however, will be found to he in 

 the air chamber, with several drains leading from it, 

 and opening into the pits, &c, by means of which a 

 supply of fresh air, either dry or charged with vapour, 

 can be admitted at all times, and so regulated as never 



