Application of Charcoal to the Growth of Plants. 221 



before said of the Cacti, it may easily be supposed that they 

 would flower well in a mixture of charcoal, which experience 

 confirms. Hecht/a, stenopetala, which rooted so quickly as a 

 cutting, has since thriven equally well in a mixture of charcoal. 

 The splendid Mexican euphorbias, such as E. fastuosa and E. 

 fulgens, showed a very considerable power of growth. Orange 

 trees with yellow leaves, having had a layer of charcoal laid 

 on after the upper surface of earth had been removed, soon 

 recovered their green] colour : this was also the case with gar- 

 denias. We need not be very particular as to the quantity to 

 be used, half charcoal may be used without injury; only care 

 must be taken, as before noticed, that the charcoal should be 

 exposed for a time to the influence of the weather, and the 

 larger pieces removed ; and watering should never be neglected, 

 as the greater porosity of earth causes it to dry up sooner. 



A very interesting circumstance took place with an old and 

 very sickly plant of the Doryanthes excelsa. After this plant 

 had been falling off" for two years, and in reality had no roots 

 but one old and decayed one, it was planted in charcoal, and in 

 the course of three weeks it began to shoot, and is since perfectly 

 recovered; it is growing in a soil of one third charcoal. 



Ferns sown on fine sifted charcoal germinate quickly and 

 well ; a number of species come up in the charcoal beds where 

 seed falls, and not only Gymnogramma macrophylla, and Pteris 

 serrulata, but other rarer and more valuable species. 



A friend of mine in the neighbourhood of Munich uses char- 

 coal ashes for mixing instead of sand, and he assures me that 

 ail plants, chiefly hothouse ones, and among the cassias, par- 

 ticularly those with pinnated leaves, acacias, bignonias, &c., 

 succeed extremely well, and have recovered wonderfully from 

 their previous sickly state. 



My esteemed principal, the court gardener, M. Seitz, who 

 acknowledges the importance of this use of charcoal, is now 

 putting in practice a number of systematic experiments with dif^ 

 ferent sorts of charcoal, on all the families of plants, and it will 

 only be at the conclusion of these extensive observations, which 

 in spring are to be extended to garden beds, that a well-grounded 

 opinion on the application of charcoal ashes in general can be 

 formed. 



Art. IX. Remarks on the Application of Charcoal to the Groiuth of 

 Plants. By M. W. Neubert, Tiibingen. 



(From the Garten Zeitung for 1840, p. 110.) 



In reference to the communications of M. Lucas, on his ex- 

 periments of rooting cuttings in charcoal, I take the liberty of 



