698 



THE GABDENEliS" CHEONICLE. 



[December 15. 18b". 



the leaf is the organ in which the starch is formed, 

 and there is no apparent important difference in 

 these results as to the conditions under which it is 

 formed. From this first formed carbo-hydrate all 

 the others found in a plant are formed. What we 

 want from a Potato is this starch in the form in 

 which we can use it as food. 



In the case of timber trees the rapid transference 

 of carbo-hydrates to growing branches is a gain to 

 the stateliness of the tree. So, too, we appreciate a 

 wealth of carbo-hydrates in leaves on plants culti- 

 vated for luxuriant foliage. But we do not grow 

 Potatos for stateliness, or for handsome foliage, or 

 for bright-hued flowers. We want the plants to put 

 as much of their starch into their tubers as they can. 



What is the ratio between the rate of decomposition 

 of C 3 and H.0 (carbonic acid and water), with its 

 change to starch, C H 10 5 , and the rate of tuber for- 

 mation, is a subject no one seems to have worked at. In 

 other words, we do not know, for the formation of, say, 

 a pound of starch in so many weeks, what leaf area and 

 what duration of the wave lengths is wanted. If 

 much is used up in the leaves and stems there is less 

 to go to the tubers, but the amount at any time in the 

 leaves and stem relative to that in the tubers is so 

 disproportionate it is perhaps of little importance. 

 A dense foliage, however, makes leaves in the shade 

 inactive as starch formers, and the more the leaves 

 the better chance there is for the fungus. 



Now, is it an altogether impracticable suggestion 

 that experiments should be made in growing Potatos 

 in houses where conditions in accordance with our 

 present knowledge could be under control ? The full 

 intensity of light could not in our climate be always 

 s cured, but over-intensity could be guarded against. 

 Coloured glass is not now very costly. Cultivation 

 in solutions of salts of different strengths and in 

 different proportions is easily effected, and in pots 

 soils of different and definitely weighed mixtures 

 could be easily arranged. 



It seems hardly rash to predict that different re- 

 sults would happen in different cases, and that dif- 

 ferent " habit " might in a few years be established 

 with some degree of permanency. How long a habit 

 might last when tubers so produced were used for cul- 

 tivation in the open seems a very doubtful question. 

 How long does any variety last ? It has been said, 

 at the outside not more than twenty years. That 

 appears to be in the case of keeping on, year after 

 year, taking from the open. But might not " breed- 

 ing " keeping up the strain ? It would be time to 

 consider what points to breed to when the limits of 

 control have been worked out. Supposing experi- 

 ments proved that it was possible to lead to a habit 

 of a few large or many small tubers who should 

 decide the standard of a good Potato ? A commit- 

 tee of cultivators, or of cooks ? Por boiling, steam- 

 ing, baking, roasting, chipping, mashing, and the 

 more mysterious elegant ways of preparing, known 

 only to accomplished chefs, I am told different quali- 

 ties are preferred. Probably there would be many 

 standards. But the first thing is to learn how far 

 we can control; then how far it is possible to induce 

 habit; then to what extent that habit is permanent, 

 and how conditions in the open change it ; then 

 whether any results arise sufficiently good to make 

 breeding or rearing establishments under be control 

 worth keeping up. 



A question to which it seems at present possible 

 to get but a very partial reply is, what happens 

 to tubers during the time they are pitted or kept in 

 cellars ? 



The principal fact that seems to be known is, that 

 they loose weight. But why ? What is it they loose ? 

 Is it that it is only water that is lost, i-e.,H„0, 

 which is contained as water in the tuber, and which 

 can be driven off by drying? — or is it that the tubers, 

 when first lifted, contain a glucose (C H,„O o ) which 

 gives up from each molecule H„0, and so becomes 

 an amyloid (C H, o O 5 ) starch ? The question pro- 

 bably has bearings on th; difference between the 

 " mealy " and " waxy " condition of a tuber. 



As a preliminary step to answering the question, 

 information might be collected in this way. 



When a crop is lifted set apart a number of tubers 

 for observation. They should be all from one part of 

 the crop, so that the conditions under which they 

 grow should be similar. They should also be of 

 about the same size and weight. In crops on sloping 

 land, where conditions of soil and drainage are 

 different at the top and at the bottom, a second set 

 might with advantage be kept. Each tuber should 

 be numbered or in some way marked. Weigh and 

 enter the weight of each tuber when first lifted, and 

 at regular intervals weigh and record the weights. 

 This would give the rate of loss of weight. 

 To make the record of value the thermometer read- 

 ings (highest and lowest, day and night) of the 

 place where the tnbers are kept should be registered. 

 This would give loss of weight with regard to tem- 

 perature. These observations would need regularity, 

 but would give but little trouble. A record of the 

 hygrometric condition of the air would add to the 

 value of the observations. 



Another set of observations that would be very 

 helpful, though rather more troublesome, is on whether 

 there is any change in the starch in tubers during 

 keeping. All that is requisite is at fixed intervals 

 to take a tuber, slice it, and treat it with iodine. 

 The blue colour will show the area of starch. A 

 record should be kept either by a pencil sketch, or, 

 better still, by a photograph. The results will show, 

 as in the woodcut from a photograph at p. 91, 

 July 28. Different tubers, even from the same plot 

 of ground, may, of course, somewhat vary at the 

 outset, but the average results of a large number 

 of observations would indicate the nature of the 

 changes taking place. W. S. M, 



away the pulse and pusillanimity thereof, sharpeneth 

 one's understanding, and is soueraigne against the 

 falling euill." What would the modern physicians 

 say to this ? Echo answers, what ? Bee, 



The Apiary. 



We are having curious weather for the time of 

 year. Rain has been very general, and probably in 

 many cases beneficial, but not pleasant for us or the 

 bees, If neglected before, do not fail to open the 

 entrances to their full width now, otherwise the 

 hives will probably get very damp. If bricks are 

 used to stand hives upon, there ought to be pieces 

 of slate between the bricks and the hives, otherwise 

 the damp will ascend right through the bricks into 

 the hives. We found this out once by painful expe- 

 rience, to the loss of a hive and a colony. Should 

 the rain unfortunately be changed into snow, more 

 care still will be required. The entrance must then 

 be shaded, and the snow brushed off the covers every 

 day. 



The honey harvest in America seems to have 

 been as bad, or worse than here, and from the United 

 States we hear that they have never had such a bad 

 year for a very long time. Let us hope that things 

 are now on the turn. The present is a good time to be 

 making preparations for another season, especially 

 as regards frames and sections. It seems that in the 

 near future wooden sections are to be more or less 

 replaced by glass. Por some time this has exer- 

 cised the minds of beekeepers, but a totally satis- 

 factory section seems to be a thing of the future. 

 Our Scotch friends think it is not advisable to have 

 glass sections too small, as the honeycomb looks so 

 beautiful in them that they meet with a very ready 

 sale. In Scotland for a long time past they have 

 used a kind of glass frame bar holding 4 or 5 lb., and, 

 filled with heather honey, have found a ready sale. 



These are days when the study of antiquities 

 receives a large amount of attention. Bees have in 

 all ages received a large amount of attention, but it 

 is astonishing what mistakes were made by our fore- 

 fathers about them. The Rev. John Thorley years 

 ago said the princesses were not only " proclaimed 

 queen, but crowned as well." While we read the fol- 

 lowing curious medical recipe in the British Bee 

 Journal of this week, taken from a work printed in 

 1607 : — " The hart of an ape, sod and dried, where 

 of the weight of a groat drunk in a draught of stale 

 hunny sod (seethe) in water called mcllicraton, 

 strengthened the heart, emboldeneth and driveth 



FICU3 ROXBURGHII. 



[See Supplementary Sheet.] 

 The genus Picus has been the occasion of late 

 of considerable correspondence in the pages cf 

 our own and other periodicals by various writers, 

 including Dr. King, the eminent Director of the 

 Calcutta Botanic Gardens, and who has recently 

 written an elaborate monograph of the Species 

 of Flats of the Indo- Malayan and Chinese Countries, 

 published by L. Reeve & Co., London. Our 

 illustration (see Supplement) is copied from the 

 frontispiece to this work, and the tree, of which 

 it is a picture, is now growing in the Botanic 

 Garden at Calcutta. 



This species of Picus was named by the late Dr. 

 Wallich in honour of the illustrious Roxburgh, for 

 many years the Superintendent, and to a large extent 

 the founder of the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, and 

 the father of Indian botany. Picus Roxburghii is a 

 native of the lower and outer Himalayas from Nepal 

 to Bhotan, being found at elevations of from 1000 to 

 3000 feet. It is a tree from 15 to 25 feet in height, 

 and with a wide spreading "head. The leaves are 

 large, measuring from 1 to 1.J- foot in length, and 

 from 12 to 15 inches in breadth. The most striking 

 feature in the tree is, however, the great abund- 

 ance of its handsome russet-red Pigs. These Pigs 

 in shape and size much resemble Dutch Turnips. 

 They are carried in enormous bunches on the stem, 

 especially near its base, and smaller bunches on the 

 main branches. The mass of Figs borne at the collar 

 of the stem on this singular tree at the time when it 

 was photogaphed, weighed, as Dr. King informs us, 

 about a hundredweight. It must, when in full per- 

 fection, have presented a remarkable spectacle, and 

 one which would have produced a sensation at a fruit 

 show in this country. The fruit, however, although 

 eaten by the unfastidious Indian labourer, is quite 

 unpalatable to a European being insipid and sloppy. 



Plants and Their Culture. 



Aralia and Panax.— This is a group of plants 

 chiefly characterised by their elegance, particularly 

 ai small plants ; but when they attain larger size 

 than can be accommodated in a 4S-sized pot, they 

 are not nearly so captivating ; in fact, their general 

 appearance becomes altogether changed. To give 

 an example : the well known Aralia reticulata, when 

 young, has long, narrow, almost linear leaves ; but 

 planted out in a cool greenhouse it soon begins to 

 assume its adult habit of growth, and at 12 or more 

 feet high the leaves will be from 4 to 6 inches in 

 width, and a yard or more in length, and all other 

 parts of the plant developed in the same propor- 

 tion. The plant in this condition is very effec- 

 tive, altogether different from the same plant 

 growing in a 48-pot. The same sort of meta- 

 morphosis takes place when Aralia Veitchii is 

 planted out under like conditions, the individual 

 leaflets soon measure an inch across, and other parts 

 become correspondingly developed. This is merely a 

 sample of what generally takes place, when these plan; s 

 are allowed to develope, and shows the desirability of 

 having them in a young state for most indoor purposes. 

 Therefore batches of cuttings should be put in 

 periodically. These plants are not nearly so difficult 

 to propagate, as was at one time believed, indeed, 

 many of them strike almost as freely as Willows. A 

 frequent cause of failure results from the cuttings 

 being kept too close and moist, such as would take 

 place in a close propagating case, especially where 

 much bottom-heat was applied. In such a position, 

 unless the greatest care is taken in airing, shading and 

 other details, damping off is liable to occur, but this 



