Principles of Gardening physiologically considered. 67 



comes, then, to perform its part without change in animals, and 

 serves as an instrument for thought; then, vanquished by this 

 effort, and broken as it were, it returns brute matter to the great 

 reservoir whence it came. 



Allow me to add, in finishing this picture, which sums up 

 opinions, which, to my mind, are but the necessary conse- 

 quences and developements of the great path which Lavoisier 

 marked out for modern chemistry ; allow me, I say, to express 

 myself as he did with regard to his fellow-labourers and his 

 friends. 



If in my lessons, if in this summing up, I have chanced to 

 adopt without mentioning them the experiments or the opinions 

 of M. Boussingault, it is that the habit of communicating to each 

 other our ideas, our observations, our manner of viewing things, 

 has established between us a community of opinions, in which 

 we ourselves, even afterwards, find it difficult to distinguish what 

 belongs to each of us. 



In resting these opinions and their consequences on his name 

 and on his authority, in telling you that we work actively, some- 

 times together, and sometimes apart, in order to verify and to 

 develope all these facts, all these results, by experiment, I do but 

 evince mv anxious desire to justify the interest which you have 

 this year taken in my labours. 



For this I beg to thank you. It has given me courage to 

 undertake a long course of researches : if anything useful to the 

 progress of humanity should result from them, let all the honour 

 of it redound to the intelligent good-will with which you have 

 constantly surrounded me, and for which I shall ever be pro- 

 foundly grateful. 



Art. III. The Principles of Gardening physiologically considered. 

 By G. Regel, Gardener in the Royal Botanic Garden at Berlin. 



(Translated from the Garten Zeitung, May 2. 1840, p. 148.) 



(Continued from our preceding Volume, p. 600.) 



I. On the Propagation of Plants — continued. 



Cuttings. 



In making cuttings, the cut presents the greatest difficulty ; 

 as, to perform it properly, a previous knowledge of the nature 

 of the plant should be acquired ; after which, to insure suc- 

 cess, the sharpest instrument should be used, so that the 

 vessels that are cut through may not be crushed or squeezed, 

 and thereby cause a cessation of the flow of the sap. In most 

 cases the cut is most advantageously performed where the last 

 shoot proceeds from the stem, and as much is taken away as a 



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