

January 13, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



27 



scientific instruments were engaging the atten- 

 tion of the Council in 1875. In his Address for 

 the same year, the President gave an instance 

 of the unwisdom of the House of Lords. He 

 said: "In my last year's Address, I announced 

 that arrangements had been made by the Coun- 

 cil for the administration, under the authority 

 of the Trustees of the Gilchrist Bequest, of a 

 grant of £1,000 per annum in promoting 

 original research, thus aiding in the fulfilment of 

 the wishes of the testator, that the proceeds cf 

 his large fortune should be devoted ' to the 

 benefit, advancement and propagation of educa- 

 tion and learning.' The scheme for the adminis- 

 tration of this grant was approved by the 

 Trustees and laid before you in detail ; but since 

 then its operation has been frustrated by a most 

 unexpected judicial decision formally given in 

 the House of Lords as to the meaning to be 

 assigned to the terms of the Gilchrist Bequest, 

 namely, that * the promotion of original re- 

 search ' could not be held to be ' benefiting the 

 advancement and propagation of education and 

 learning/ for that it was expressly laid down 

 by the Law Lords that ' learning is to be con- 

 strued as synonymous with education/ and the 

 whole fund is to be devoted to the propagation 

 of knowledge." The President continued that 

 he " could only hope for a more enlightened pos- 

 terity, the outcome of a more liberal and scien- 

 tific education." The following year, 1876, the 

 President had a much more welcome announce- 

 ment to make concerning the finances of the 

 Society, which had been so much improved by 

 the liberal bequests and donations of Dircks, Car- 

 rington, Handley^ Wheatstone and Jodrell. 

 Some of the provisions of a proposed Vivisection 

 Bill before Parliament caused much stir in the 

 profession, and they were successfully opposed 

 by the Society. The return of the "Challen- 

 ger " this year, after a voyage of 69,000 miles, 

 was an event of almost exciting importance. No 

 expedition ever returned with such a wealth of 

 collections and observations. Apart from micro- 

 scopic organisms, the deep-sea specimens fit for 

 mounting were estimated at 100,000. The Polar 

 Expedition had furnished evidence that there 

 was no cessation of animal or vegetable life in 

 the highest latitudes reached. Indeed, in some 

 considerably lower latitudes the conditions were 

 less favourable to life. The Presidential Ad- 

 dress for 1877 includes a summary of the more 

 important discoveries by the various expeditions 

 in all the branches of science investigated. One 

 of the principal features of Sir Joseph's last 

 Presidential Address is a review of Darwin's 

 experiment with carnivorous plants. The equally 

 important researches by Downes and Blunt on the 

 influence of light on bacteria were, it was stated, 

 yielding the most interesting results towards the 

 conclusion that exposure to strong solar light 



checks and even arrests the development of such 

 organisms. 



The presentation by the Royal Society of the 

 Copley Medal to Sir Joseph Hooker, at the an- 

 niversary dinner in 1887, was the occasion of a 

 brief and highly appreciative eulogy of Hooker 

 by Sir Michael Foster, and an equally remark- 

 able reply b y Sir Joseph to the " Toast of the 

 Medallists.' Some incidents of Sir Joseph's 

 childhood, and a contrast of the botanical teach- 

 ing of that day and in the 'eighties w T ere among 

 the topics of his speech. 



Insulak Floras. 



As already mentioned, Hooker's studies of 

 insular floras began on the outward voyage of the 

 Antarctic Expedition, and his first important 

 contribution to the literature of the subject has 

 already been passed in review. This was fol- 

 lowed by : — 



"An Enumeration of the Plants of the 

 Galapagos Archipelago," Transactions of the 

 Luinean Society, vol. xx. (1851), pp. 163-254. 



"On the Vegetation of the Galapagos 

 Archipelago," Ibid, pp. 235-262. Embodies all 

 that was then known of the botany of this in- 

 teresting group of islands, including Darwin's 

 most important collection of dried plants, made 

 on the voyage of the "Beagle." It is now 

 known that the endemic element in the flora is 

 by no means so large and so highly characterised 

 as was assumed then. Out of a total of 253 

 species of vascular plants, 123 were regarded as 

 endemic. The vegetation is compared with that 

 of some other tropical islands and with that of 



continental America. An abridged Report of 

 these two papers appeared in the Journal of 

 the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, vol i. 

 (1849), pp. 276-279 and 313-314. 



Other papers dealing with insular floras are : — 



" Notes on Madeira Plants," London Journal 

 of Botany, vol. vi. (1847), pp. 125-139. 



" On the Discovery of Phylica arborea . . . 

 in Amsterdam Island in the South Indian Ocean, 

 with an Enumeration of the Phanerogams and 

 Vascular Cryptogams of that Island and of St. 

 Paul," Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. xiv. 



(1875), pp. 474-480. 



Hooker dealt with the subject of insular floras 

 in a general and popular style in an address 

 before the British Association at Nottingham, in 

 1866. He described the nature and composition 

 of the vascular floras of the Canaries, Azores, 

 Madeira, Saint Helena, Ascension, and 

 Kerguelen Island, and followed with arr*examina- 

 tion of the alternative theories of their origin, 

 whether derived or remnants of former more ex- 

 tensive floras. While accepting no theory as de- 

 serving of finality, he expressed himself as 

 strongly in favour of Darwin's theory of trans- 

 oceanic migration, a theory now regarded by a 

 section of botanists as unsound beyond certain 

 limits. This paper was reprinted in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, January, 1867. 



Carnivokous or Insectivorous Plants. 



Darwin's book on Insectivorous Plants was not 

 published till 1876, but he and Hooker had 

 separately carried on a series of experimental in- 

 vestigations in this branch of biological inquiry 

 during a number of years, and " Carnivorous 

 Plants M was the title of an address delivered by 

 Hooker before the British Association at Belfast 

 in 1874. This seems to have been the first occa- 

 sion of the subject being brought before 

 the public. Darlingtonia, Dionaea, Drosera, 

 Nepenthes, and Sarracenia w r ere the plants on 

 which the successful experiments were made. 

 The address appeared in the Association's annual 

 Report, and a translation was given in La Revue 

 Scientifique, 1874, pp. 481-489. The term 

 u carnivorous " was employed, because it was dis- 

 covered that certain plants were capable of ab- 

 sorbing and assimilating other animal substances 

 besides insects. 



Phytogeography. 



Sir Joseph's address to the Geographical Sec- 

 tion of the British Association, at York, in 1881 

 (Nature, vol. xxiv. [1881], pp. 443-448) is an ad- 

 mirable essay on geographical distribution, in 

 which he dealt mainly with plants. The leading 

 feature of this essay is the history of the de- 

 velopment of the science of phytogeography. Be- 

 ginning with Tournefort (early eighteenth cen- 

 tury), to whom has been ascribed the earliest 

 correlation of altitudinal and latitudinal distri- 

 bution of plants, and continuing with Linnaeus, 

 the author briefly reviews the work of Stromeyer, 

 Humboldt, Schouw, Lyell, Forbes, De Candolle, 

 Darwin, Wallace, A. Gray, Thiselton-Dyer, 

 Saporta and others. Prominence is given to the 

 theory of the probable northern origin of all the 



successive phases of plant-life. W. Hotting 

 Hemsley. 



(To be continued.) 



HOME CORRESPONDENCE. 



NEW INVENTION. 



SAUGHTON PLANT LABEL. 



We have received from Mr. W. Hunt, of 13, 

 Westfield Road, Edinburgh, samples of his 

 11 Saughton M plant label. The label consists of a 

 wood slab, about 2£ inches by 1£ inch, covered 

 with glass, both glass and wood being held to- 

 gether by means of a japanned tin frame, having 

 the two ends open so as to admit of sliding the 

 label in and out. The wood is painted white, the 

 glass protecting it from the weather. The chief 

 disadvantage would seem to be the inevitable 

 swelling of the wood (which is not sufficiently 

 covered to prevent the damp from penetrating) 

 and the consequent difficulty of sliding the label 

 in an out of the frame. Possibly two coats of 

 paint would prevent such swelling. 



J » 



(The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for 

 the opinions expressed by correspondents.) 



"Garden by the Sea," and "Poppies on 



the Rockies."— The Sketch Society at the Koyal 

 Institute Galleries, in Piccadilly, is holding its 

 third exhibition. The hanging is admirable, for 

 each member's works are grouped together, thus 

 conveying a distinct impression of the artist's 

 different styles and techniques. As a congenial 

 subject should be noted the " Garden by the 

 Sea/' by Fred. Whitehead, a pleasing colour 

 combination of Sea Pinks and pale-yellow flowers 

 harmonising with the sandy foreground, and set 

 off by the dull-grey sky and dunes of the dis- 

 tance. Geoffray Strahan, in his several ex- 

 hibits painted at Rye, Dorset, and elsewhere, 

 shows a feeling for the underlying and varying 

 spirit of nature in movement which is quite apart 

 from the dull level of surface tone and harmony 

 which of late have contented so many un- 

 aspiring painters. His distinctive gifts and 

 genius are manifested especially in a breezy 

 sketch, " The Storm," in which a shepherd boy 

 fights his way through tall Reeds against the 

 wind — Reeds which catch on the under leaves the 

 reflected light of the clouds overhead and flash 

 like silver across the gloom of the landscape. 

 Cyrus Cuneo, as one of the most successful ex- 

 hibitors, carries off a palm in his brilliant sketch 

 of " Sunset," and again in an unusual scene en- 

 titled " Poppies in the Rockies." These are the 

 Yellow and Orange Poppies of the variety we at-, 

 tribute to Iceland. Here they flourish wild on 

 the steep, grey cliffs of the new world. Miss A. 

 M. Youngman shows a capital study of a 

 remarkably fine specimen of the " Dande- 

 lion," and another of " Pyrus japonica. 

 " An Old-world Cottage and its Garden," by Mr. 

 Bernard Evans, exemplifies the value of clipped 

 Box trees in giving an appearance of support and 

 substantial background to the airy and lighter 

 effects of our gaily-coloured old English flowers. 

 Again, the sloping, grey-thatched roof of the 

 cottage enhances the cheerful reds and yellows 

 of the parterres below. J. Shaw Crompton is 

 responsible for an admirable study of what all 

 good gardeners abhor, "Weeds." Mary L. 

 Breahell. \ 



Treatment of Asparagus. — The treat- 

 ment of Asparagus beds described by Mr. D. 

 Calthorpe (see p. 469, vol. 1.) doubtless re- 

 sults in the plants making strong growth. The 

 winter dressing which many give the beds is 

 both a waste of time and material, for the 

 roots do not need protecting, and the loss 

 of the soluble parts of the manure which form 

 the dressing — through being washed by rain 

 and the drainage of the moisture from the beds — 

 is deplorable. Where there is no forcing depart- 

 ment the earlier Asparagus can be produced out- 

 doors the more valuable it becomes, and on this 

 account the dressing of the beds in spring is open 

 to objection, for it excludes the sun-heat from the 

 crowns and consequently growth is retarded. 

 Where the old practice of dressing the beds in 

 winter is still carried out the object of raking 

 it off in spring is to allow the sun-heat to pene- 

 trate more readily to the crowns, but why such 

 dressings are put on is beyond my conception. 

 The best time to dress the beds is after the crop 

 has been taken ; they should then be given a 

 heavy dressing of rotted manure, which stimu- 

 lates the growths that have been retained and 

 causes strong buds to form which will give a good 

 crop the following season ; the dressing also forms 

 a mulch which obviates the necessity of giving 

 the beds such frequent waterings, as would other- 

 wise be required, and by the following spring 

 there is no occasion to rake the beds, for the sum- 

 mer dressing of manure has been reduced to a 

 thin layer of black humus that absorbs the sun- 

 heat readily. All that is needed is a light forking 

 of the surface of the beds to render them more 

 porous, strong growths are then freely produced, 

 and, if weak sprinklings of nitrate of soda — in 

 solution — are given, growth is hastened. F. W. 



Sweet Pea Sport. — If I used the word 

 M Mrs. Routzahn is a dark-coloured flower/" J 

 used an expression which conveys a wrong im- 

 pression. The term " dark-coloured " in Sweet 

 Peas is generally understood to refer to maroons 

 and possibly deep crimsons. Mrs. Routzahn is 

 a deep pink on cream ground. W. Cuthhertson. 



