302 General Notices. 



own, I would suggest a repetition of the experiments with some of the re- 

 cently discovered photographic preparations. The fact of cress and pea plants 

 growing green, under the influence of such powerful light as penetrated Pro- 

 fessor Draper's yellow media, will not appear at all surprising when we examine 

 the rays which pass through such fluids. 



The above curious and interesting experiments form part of a paper by Mr. 

 Robert Hunt " On Light which has permeated coloured Media, and on the 

 chemical Action of the Solar Spectrum," pubhshed in the April Number of the 

 Philosophical Magazine. — J. B. W. May, 1840. 



A Hand-Plough for stirring the Soil between Carrots, has lately been invented 

 in Belgium, and sent over to this country. For moderately light soils it 

 promises to be a valuable implement, being applicable to various small plants 

 grown in rows in gardens, such as onions, parsneps, turnips, &c. The im- 

 plement may be had at Weir's manufactory, Oxford Street. — Cond. 



Preserving Wood by steeping it previously to use in a cold-water solution of 

 lime has lately attracted a good deal of attention ; but the process was in- 

 vented and used by Sir Charles G. S. Menteath, at Closeburn, in Dum- 

 friesshire, above thirty years ago, as noticed in our Enci/clopcedia of Cottage 

 Architecture, and in the Farmer'' s Magazine. — Cond. 



Sunk Water-holders. — I have been trying the pots invented by my brother 

 Henry for watering plants, and find the plan admirable. As you have given a 

 full and complete description of it in the volume for 1839, p. 525., I need not 

 repeat it here, my main object at present being to show that it may be resorted 

 to by any one who may have by him a few stone or glass quart bottles, for I 

 have used both. In the side and near the bottom of the bottle I cause two 

 small holes to be made, the smaller the better; the bottle is then buried to the 

 neck near the root of the plant or flower which requires watering ; it is then 

 filled and corked down. The exclusion of the atmospheric pressure, except 

 through the small orifices under ground, causes a very gradual, almost drop 

 by drop, exudation of the water from the bottle ; and this slow delivery of 

 moisture I consider an improvement upon the more powerful jet or jets which 

 must necessarily issue from any open vessel. My brother has three openings 

 in the side of his water-pots, I think he has one too many; for if the water can 

 make its way out at all, the slower the better, and it must run slower from two 

 than from three holes. Mine are made, one as near the bottom of the bottle 

 as possible, the other about 2 in. or so above it. Another advantage of corking 

 the vessel is, that insects and dirt are thereby excluded. It strikes me, that if 

 Dr. Lindley had seen this plan it would have removed some of his objections 

 to artificial watering ; objections which, I entirely agree with him, are most 

 rational and well founded. " This operation," he observes, " is usually per- 

 formed in hot dry weather, and must necessarily be very limited in its effects ; 

 it can have little, if any, influence upon the atmosphere : then the parched air 

 robs the leaves rapidly of their moisture, so long as the latter is abundant ; 

 the roots are suddenly and violently excited, and after a short time the exciting 

 cause is suddenly withdrawn, by the momentary supply of water being cut off 

 by evaporation and by filtration through the bibulous substances of which soil 

 usually consists. Moreover, in stiff soils, the dashing of water upon the sur- 

 face has, after a little while, the effect of ' puddhng ' the ground, and render- 

 ing it impervious, so that the descent of water to the roots is impeded, whether 

 it is communicated artificially or by the fall of rain. It is therefore doubtful 

 whether artificial watering of plants in the open air is advantageous, unless in 

 particular cases ; and, most assuredly, if it is done at all, it ought to be much 

 more copious than is usual." {Theory of Hort. p. 126.) — Samuel Taylor. Stoke 

 Ferry, April 18. 1840. 



Myatfs Pine Strawberry, commonly thought to be " obstinately sterile, and 

 therefore not worth cultivating," has been found so in Ireland by the Hon. 

 Baron Foster, till he " tried it in very rotten cow-dung, turned and decomposed 

 through four or five successive years, without the mixture of any other sub- 

 stance ; and, having planted the strawberry in this, under the shelter of a south 



