Coal Cinders as Drainage for Pots. is 5 



Number and Names of the Plants. State in which they were found, 







Dead. 



Sickly. 



Healthy. 



4 Delphinium sinense - 



- 



3 



1 







2 Cirsium afrum - 



. 



2 











4 Silene maritima - 



_ 



2 



1 



1 



2 Silene maritima flore pleno 



_ 



2 











2 Soldanella alpina 



_ 



2 











4 Papaver orientale 



_ 



3 







1 



2 iythrum alatum - 



_ 











2 



2 Erythrolae s na conspicua 



_ 



2 











2 JErigeron glabellus 



- 



1 



1 







2 purpureus 



■ - 



1 



1 







2 Phlox tardiflora Penny (longiflora Siveet) 



_ 



2 











2 crassifolia 



_ 



1 



1 







4 subulata - 



_ 







1 



3 



2 Oenothera macrocarpa 



- 



2 











2 missouriensis 



_ 



2 











2 acaulis - - 



. 











2 



2 speciosa - - 



- 







2 







2 Pyrethrum inodorum flore pleno 



- 







1 



1 



4 vfsclepias bombacina 



- 



3 



1 







2 Clematis Viorna - - 



- 











2 



It will be perceived that, out of fifty plants, twenty-eight died, 

 and ten were so sickly that I threw them away : twelve only 

 remained in a healthy state. 



Cinders or coal ashes are also injurious to some plants, when 

 the pots containing them are plunged in the coal ashes, as it will 

 appear by the following fact. The varieties of Chrysanthemum 

 sinense, which were cultivated in this garden in 1832, were 

 plunged about 2 in. below the rims of their pots, at the base of 

 a south wall, for flowering. After flowering (late in November) 

 they were taken up with their roots hanging in all directions 

 over the pots, and plunged in a two-light frame, one division of 

 which was rilled with cinder ashes, and the other with common 

 garden soil. In March, 1833, the whole of those plunged in 

 the ashes were pale and sickly, while those plunged in the soil 

 were all robust and healthy ; thus proving that coal ashes, as 

 well as cinders, are detrimental to some plants, among which the 

 Chinese chrysanthemums may probably take the lead. 



If any of your correspondents would proceed in the prosecu- 

 tion of the enquiry of how far cinders may be used for draining, 

 or what kinds of plants they injure, and what they do not, and 

 would publish the results in your Magazine, the facts contributed 

 could not, when they had become numerous, but avail the de- 

 duction of some useful general inference. In relation to this 

 object, I contribute these. I am, Sir, yours, &c. 



H. Turner. 

 Botanic Garden, Bury St. Edmunds, 

 Dec. 5. 1833. 



K 4 



