758 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICIE. 



fNov. 17, 1855. 



tank was abandoned, until the dank profusion of decaying 

 and decayed vegetation generated pestilence to such a 

 degree, that in 1824 I was told that no white man, during 

 certain parts of the year, dare sleep a single night 

 beyond the walls of Charleston. 



A similar result has occurred in the northern part of 

 Ceylon, which abounds with the remains of tanks, some 

 of gigantic dimensions. There, as at Charleston, the 

 neglected tanks first commenced the depopulation of 

 the district. But in Ceylon inroads of the Malabars 

 from the continental coast, combined with that fell 

 scourge the small pox, have reduced the population to its 

 present low, very low state, and to make the country so 

 unhealthy, that when two of us were about to join a 

 shooting excursion from Colombo, and to visit the 

 ancient capital of the island, now in ruins, our com- 

 rades tried to dissuade us by saying u that we should 

 leave our bones in the jungle. 1 ' 



On looking back at the foregoing we find instances of 

 the power of man — in the White Clover, in the Charlock, 

 in the Yellow Pine, the Scotch Fir, the white Cedar, and 

 the Hickory, &c; in the bulb taken from the hand of 

 a mummy; over the mite and the hopper, over mos- 

 quitoes, gnats, or midges, over the snails at Lay ton ; in 

 substituting steam for a mother, and in taking advantage 

 of high feeding to accelerate the production of young, 

 and thus to make the ingenuity of man minister to the 

 wants of man. We also see man exerting his intellect 

 in drawing condensed moisture from the clouds in the 

 Island of Ascension — showing his ignorance by letting in 

 pestilence and death over his healthy home in Virginia 

 — and his intelligence by dej riving miasma of its prey 

 in the fort of Nalunda. 



We find in the neighbourhood of Charleston, South 

 Carolina, and in Ceylon, man busied in forming tanks, 

 the sources of plenty and abundance. We see him as 

 an economist in America, or oppressed and a martyr to 

 the most dire disease in Ceylon, abandon those sources 

 of plenty and abundance, and we see large districts con- 

 verted into pestilential morasses. 



But we see throughout, that in every instance beings 

 are subject to universal laws ; and, although man in his 

 blindness cannot see nor trace the workings of the 

 Almighty, and although the ingenuity, the perseverance, 

 the comprehension of man may do much, still those 

 laws are universal, and creation is the province of the 

 Creator. He alone asserts this power. He exerts it 

 when and in what manner He pleases. /. /. C. 





Home Correspondence. 



Vitality of Seeds.— Several statements have been pub- 

 lished on the number of years during which seeds pre- 

 served in a dry state have retained their power of 

 germinating, but much less seems to be known in regard 

 to seeds lying naturally near the surface of the ground ; 

 therefore you may, perhaps, think the following case, 

 though very far from a striking one, worth publishing. 

 An arable field 15 years ago was laid down in pasture°; 

 nine years ago last spring, a portion was deeply ploughed 

 up and planted with trees, and in the succeeding summer, 

 as far as I can trust my memory, plenty of Charlock' 

 which abounds in this neighbourhood, came up ; but if 

 my memory plays me false the case will prove so much 

 the stronger. From being badly ploughed the whole of 

 the land in the course of the year became covered with 

 Urass and coarse weeds, and has remained so ever 

 since, and the trees have now grown up. It is very 

 improbable, from the well-known habits of the Char- 

 lock that it could have grown in the little wood after 

 the first year or two ; and though almost daily visiting 

 it 1 have not noticed a plant. But this spring I had 

 some 1 horn bushes pulled up, and it was so done that 

 not more than one or two (I speak after comparison) 

 hand s breadth of earth was turned up. To my sur- 

 prise m July I happened to observe on one of the little 

 patches of earth no less than six dwarf Charlock plants 

 in flower ; on each of two other patches three plants • 

 and on the fourth one plant. This made me on 

 July 21st have three separate, plots of ground, each 

 -feet square, in different rather open parts of the wood 

 cleared of thick Grass and Weeds, and dug one spit 

 deep. By August 1st many seedlings had come up, and 

 several of them seemed to be cruciferous plants • so 

 I marked with little sticks 11 of them on one of 'the 

 beds ; six on the second bed ; and five on the third 

 bed ; two or three died, all the rest grew up and proved 

 to be Charlock. I can state positively that no Charlock 

 was growing near these beds ; and I do not believe 

 there was any within a quarter of a mile, as the little 

 wood is surrounded by Grass land. Now, to my mind, 

 this seems good evidence that the Charlock seed had 

 retained its vitality within a spit's depth of the sur- 

 lace during at least eight or nine years. In most 



^' u I plants B P rin * U P unexpectedly, as when a 

 woo* has been burnt down, it is not possible to feel 



ihit ♦£? i ¥*? remarked t0 me by Dr. Hooker) 

 that the seeds had not been strewed about during the 



tiZ*k°\ *? !* bWs 0r 0ther ffieaflS ' Had the 



pod there, and that I had overlooked during the previous 

 years a few Charlock plants, but it seems tome im- 

 probable in the highest degree that on each of the 6 

 plants taken by simple hazard, several (in one of the 

 cases 11) seeds should have been dropped by some un- 

 known agency, having been brought from a quarter of a 

 mile distance. But if when the land was ploughed, 

 9 years ago (or when arable, 15 years ago) the 

 wnole was, as I believe, almost covered by Charlock 



the seed would have been scattered everywhere, ready to 

 spring up at whatever point the land might subsequently 

 be stirred up. I will only further remark that the 

 power in seeds of retaining their vitality when buried 

 in damp soil may well be an element in preserving the 

 species, and, therefore, that seeds may be specially 

 endowed with this capacity ; whereas, the power of 

 retaining vitality in a dry and artificial condition must 

 be an indirect, and in one sense accidental, quality in 

 seeds of little or no use to the species. C/tarles Darwin, 



Down, Nov. 13. 



Cucumbers. — In his remarks on new Cucumbers, Mr. 

 W. P. Ay res gives the following description of my 

 " Ipswich Standard." " Though fine in form," he says, 

 " it is coarse in flavour." Now, having sent out this 

 variety with a good character and professing to be " a 

 bit of a judge" in such matters, although differing in 

 opinion from Mr. Ayres I trust you will allow me to say 

 a few words in reply. I have no hesitation in repeat- 

 ing that my " Ispwich Standard," well grown, is perfect 

 in form, solid, and crisp ; the taste being neither sweet 

 nor bitter, but exactly that agreeable Cucumbry flavour 

 which is so desirable in all first-rate fruit of the kind. 

 This opinion is confirmed by numerous testimonials 

 which I have received from gentlemen's gardeners who 

 have discarded all other varieties. Market gardeners 

 who never thought of show fruit have this year 

 astonished themselves by winning for the first time 

 prizes with this Cucumber. Others have made 

 more money of their crop than they ever did 

 before, while some have struck cuttings, planted ridges, 

 and had in that way an excellent crop of hand- 

 some fruit from 12 to 18 inches in length. For the 

 sake of a little friendly competition I should be proud 

 to enter my thorough-bred favourite a- ainst Mr. Ayres's 

 whole collection, but they must be judged by parties 

 who know the difference between fine and coarse- 

 flavoured fruit, and who are also aware that the Siou 

 House and Kenyon's Favourite do not represent the 

 qualifications of a perfect Cucumber ; at least, such is 

 my opinion. Thomas Wild, Ipswich. 



Double-blossomed Peach. — You mention (see p. 7*26), 

 relative to this Peach, that the fruit seldom ripens ; 

 and when it does, it is valueless. I beg to inform you 

 that I have some trees which ripen the fruit generally 

 every year ; and although the fruit is not very palatable 

 from the tree, it makes a most excellent preserve, when 

 preserved in brandy, &c. George Palmer, Nazing Park, 

 Waltham Cross. 



The Yapanna, a Madagascar plant used against 

 Diarrhoea. — May I trouble you to examine a specimen 

 or two of a plant from Madagascar. The specimens I 

 am sorry to say are all imperfect, but I send the best ; 

 they may be enough to enable you to identify the plant. 

 They were brought in the dried state by an intelligent 

 captain of a ship trading between this port and the 

 West Indies, The captain says that being ill when he 

 touched at Madagascar of some painful affection of the 

 bowels with diarrhoea, an infusion of this plant was 

 administered to him with very rapid success, and that it 

 was the great remedy in the island for colics and all 

 such affection^: being so rapidly cured, he begged 

 a small parcel of the wonderful herb to bring 

 to Europe with him for the benefit of the 

 faculty at home. The native name was Yapanna or 

 Japanna. It appears to possess a good deal of 

 astringency. This is the sum of the information I have 

 been able to gather. If you can inform me of its name 

 and its relations in the natural system it would be a 

 satisfaction. Dennis Fmbleton, M.D. 9 Z9, Northumberland 

 Street, Newcastle-on Tyne. [The plant sent us consists of 

 two or three twigs of some herbaceous plant, with the 

 leaves attached, but neither flower nor fruit is present. 

 There is therefore no means of identifying it with cer- 

 tainty, and we can only say that it looks very like some 

 Jussisea,such as J. repens, or Ludwigia jussiaeoides, both 

 found in the Mascaren Islands. Of their qualities we 

 know nothing, but the order of Onagrads in which 

 botanists place them is scarcely more than mucilaginous. 

 We should add that it is also possible that the specimens 

 may belong to some Lythrad like Ammannia vesicatoria, 

 in which case the supposed astringency of the Yapanna 

 may be expected to occur.] 



The Osborne Shell Shower. — Your correspondent 

 " C. D." will no doubt follow up the pertinent questions 

 which he put to Mr. Winchester by an exposition of the 

 cause of his inquiries, viz. (what I dare say will astonish 

 Mr. Winchester), that the shells never fell from the 

 clouds at all. Nothing cau be more clear than the 

 whole story, more particularly since Mr. W.'s remarks 

 of last week. Zua lubrica, the shell in question, is one 

 (in certain situations) of our most common . terrestrial 

 mollusks ; it exists in thousands among the moss-grown 

 flowers of our woods and forests, and gladly avails 

 itself of stones, under which it takes refuge from the 

 cruel designs of naturalists, or the more natural instincts 

 of its man; -winged enemies. And yet how many 

 people ever saw a Zua lubrica ? Probably not one in 

 every 10,000 inhabitants of the realm. It is one of the 

 common things which pass onward, generation after 

 generation, unnoticed and unknown. The English are 

 not, as a people, deeply conversant with nature, except 

 as it appears to them in those groups of beauty which 

 touch the coldest and most unimaginative mind at such 

 seasons of the year as the present. Of the great families 

 of living things in the world they know little or nothing. 

 Were it not so, we should not have so many of those 

 wonderful stories which recount how toads have lived 

 for ages in the middle of a rock or an old tree ; how 

 small vipers run down their mamma's throats for refuge- 



or how frogs and mollusks are showered down upon us 

 from above. Now, it is the nature of Zua lubrica to 

 crawl out upon provendering excursions after rainy 

 weather; it is necessary that it should comfort the 

 inward snail, and from its mossy or rocky retreat on 

 the memorable day recounted by Mr. Winchester the 

 mollusks about Osborne were especially hungry, and 

 wandered about that hospitable mansion in quest of 

 food. For the first time in her life one of the ladies of 

 her Majesty's household beheld one, two — hundreds, 

 nay, countless thousands of these hungry young roving 

 mollusks. " Where could they come from ? How 

 hungry they must be ! poor little things ! I have been 

 in fields, gardens, woods, and even to sea, and I never 

 did see this little creature before ; it must have fallen 

 from the clouds ! n And thus in the course of half an 

 hour the entire household at Osborne is in possession 

 of the wonderful story, good Mr. Winchester semis off 

 paragraph to the Gardeners 9 Chronicle, and from one 

 end of the kingdom to the other it is most re .ously 

 believed that a shower of shells did actually fall at 

 Osborne on the day mentioned. This is the usual history 

 of these tales. No one is to blame. Each told 

 or recorded what they each and severally believed to 

 be true. One of your correspondents, " C. D.," with a 

 laudable desire to elicit truth, puts one or two question?, 

 and the whole matter is blown to the winds. The only 

 thing Mr. Winchester really knew was, that they were 

 alive because they eat Cabbages. Will he be kind 

 enough to go and search in the 

 Osborne among moss and stones, 

 hundreds of Zua lubrica that will 



neighbourhood of 

 and he will find 



do the same 2 If 

 he will be careful in his search he will find scores of 

 snails that he never saw before. But they did not fall 

 from the clouds, neither were they lifted bodily by a 

 storm and removed from one locality to another : they 

 have fed thus since the great convulsion of Nature 

 which separated the island from the mainland, ai they 

 will remain until their destiny is fulfilled, and no 

 longer. C. R. Bree, Strichlands, Slowmarlcct, Nov. 1 3. 



Subtemanean Irrigation ; Woolmer " Forest." — I feel 

 great pleasure in observing that my former communica- 

 tion has been the means of prompting a minute and 

 interesting notice of Mr. Wilkins's experimental garden 

 at Reading. May I be again permitted to make a few 

 remarks on the benefits probably to be derived from 

 the adoption of this system in certain localities. Look, 

 for instance, at the immense extent of the south downs? 

 what would not those downs produce which now barely 

 feed a few sheep, were they, or great parts of them, 

 brought into cultivation under this system ? We will 

 not stop to consider them, however, but will endeavour 

 to get a step or two nearer the metropolis. As you 

 leave these downs in the rear, you step at once into 

 " The Royal Forest of Woolmer, a tract of 7 miles in 

 length, by 2£ in breadth." Yes, a royal forest, but a 

 forest of what ? Why a royal forest of flints and Furze, 

 a land of sandstone and shingle, a region of * Varn " 

 and heather — or, in one word, a primeval waste, over 

 whose hillsides desolation reigneth paramount. Such 

 is or rather such was the condition of this domain the 

 last time I saw it, with the exception of a straggling 

 plantation of Pines that did not appear to be at all 

 extensive. It will thus be seen that this immense 

 extent of country, within 50 miles of London, is 

 at the present time laying almost wholly idle and 

 unproductive ; and it will not require any very 

 profound calculations to prove that in its present 

 condition it is a dead loss to the state, and a next 

 to useless addition to the crown lands. I should 

 venture to suggest that if Government were to form 

 a company for the purpose of building upon and 

 bringing into cultivation this extensive district under 

 Mr Wilkins's system, the benefits to be derived from it 

 would be almost incalculable ; and instead of its being, 

 as it now is, one of the most barren, worthless, and un- 

 civilised portions of the country, it might be made one 

 of the most smiling and productive. It consists prin- 

 cipally of wide undulating slopes and extensive table- 

 lands ; added to this, it has several lakes of various dimen- 

 sions within its limits. Altogether it would be, in nay 

 opinion, a most eligible situation for carrying out the 

 system of subsoil irrigation with beneficial effect 

 It may be asked, supposing the Government could be 

 prevailed to give this barren waste into the hands of an 

 enterprising company, what would be the results I" 

 We may reasonably suppose that they should be some- 

 thing like the following, namely, that the company 

 would build houses from the labourer's cottage up to 

 the ordinary farmhouse, with a proportionate amount 

 of land duly prepared attached to each ; together with 

 barns, sheds, and all things requisite or appertaining 

 to the system, and for which a moderate rental should 

 be expected. I am myself not only perfectly convinced 

 that this plan would be most profitable and remunera- 

 tive, but that these residences would be eagerly sought 

 after, and from the competition even perhaps difficult to 

 obtain. Under this system then, and in this particular 

 district, we may hope to see a return of that good time 



" Ere England'* griefs began, 

 When every rood of ground maintained its man." 



And it is also worthy of remark that the labour attend- 

 ing this mode of cultivation is trifling compared to that 

 of the old system, the soil itself requiring none of that 

 care, labour, and attention so essential to the welfare of 

 all land cultivated in the ordinary manner. The crops 

 of the neighbouring farmers on this light soil may be 

 parched up or partially ruined, but the new man has- 

 nothing to fear. The excessive drought or heat are but 

 the means of renovating and bringing quicker to per* 



