608 General Notices. 



ation, you may be pleased to know the effect it had on one or two plants. 

 I considered, from the appeai-ances produced, that it contained a considerable 

 portion of muriate of ammonia and j)hosphate of lime, held in solution by 

 some acid. I first applied it to a plant of Geissomeria longifolia infested with 

 the mealy bug. The leaves were wetted with the liquid by a brush, and in a 

 few minutes its deadly effects were visible. The parts touched with the 

 liquid appeared as if they had been anointed with sulphuric acid, and betrayed 

 at once its highly caustic properties ; the bugs, of course, fell a prey to its 

 causticity, as well as every part of the plant with which it came in contact. 

 It did not, however, kill the plant. I administered a little at the root of one or 

 two succession pine plants, and it very soon evinced its stimulating effects, by 

 starting them into fruit. I also poured a little in the pots of two plants in 

 fruit ; but I could not distinguish any apparent result, although, probably, 

 had it been continued in a diluted state, it might have proved beneficial. The 

 quantity I possessed would not permit me to extend my liberality farther. 



The experiment on the »S'tatice arborea was in effect the most singular. I 

 had two plants of this species of iS'tatice, as near as possible alike in size and 

 health, which enabled me to discover any visible difference. I therefore 

 poured a little of the distilled Hquid on the surface of the earth in one of the 

 pots ; and, that its effects might be felt some way down the soil in the pot, I 

 poured some water immediately over it, to assist in washing it down to the 

 roots. In four or five hours the vigour of the plant seemed paralysed, and 

 in a day or two the leaves began to assume a reddish brown freckled hue. 

 It then became interesting to know whether the spongelets had absorbed 

 any portion of the liquid to produce this singular mutation, or if the appear- 

 ance were caused by the roots having sustained injury from the liquid. The 

 leaf sent will convince you that the former inference is correct, for I can 

 detect both appearance and smell ; but you can draw your own conclusions. 

 [The leaf was withered before we received it, and we could not detect any 

 smell.] There is one decided objection to its use in the present state in 

 hot-houses, the smell is unbearable. This may be owing to the ammoniacal 

 gas evolved in the heated atmosphere of a hot-house ; whether any admixture 

 would destroy this, your chemical friends must inform you ; my opinion is, 

 from the appearance of the soil after its application, that it must prove highly 

 fertilising. We have therefore to learn the best manner of using it : probably, 

 in combination with some other substance, its chemical properties might be 

 changed, and all its nutritive qualities retained. As you say it can be 

 procured cheap, it would be worth while to try its effects, both as an agricul- 

 tural and horticultural manure, by mixing given quantities in heaps of compost 

 in preparation, and trying it in the culture of the pine and the melon, &c., 

 on the potato and the cereal grasses. This might prove interesting to some 

 of your friends who have leisure and opportunity, and eventually confer a 

 lasting benefit on the interests of gardening and agriculture. — R. Glendinning. 

 Bicton Gardens, August 19. 1840. 



Miisa swperha Rox. Coromandel, t. 223., flowered in the Botanic Garden 

 at Calcutta, 33 months after the seeds from which it sprang were sown ; but 

 in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden this species blossomed in the end of August, 

 1840, 14 months after the seed from which it sprang was put into the 

 ground. Every one. Professor Graham observes, vi^ho has visited the Bo- 

 tanic Garden for some years past, has been struck with the brilliant success 

 which has attended the cultivation of the many forms of banana, under the 

 judicious management of Mr. M'Nab, and the great quantity of high-flavoured 

 fruit which has been produced ; but nothing has offered a greater triumph 

 than the rapid perfection of this beautiful species from imported seed ; 

 though we learn from Dr. Roxburgh that it does not yield a fruit which can 

 be eaten, but one which resembles a dry capsule rather than a berry. We 

 learn from the same authority, that it is a native of the valley in the southern 

 part of the peninsula of India. In cultivation in the Botanic Garden, this 

 and all the varieties of fruit-bearing bananas have been planted in large 

 tubs containing extremely rich soil, have had much water, and been kept in 



