JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ January 27, 1863. 



COCOA-NUT FIBRE DUST AS A COVERING 

 FOR HOT-WATER PIPES. 



I THINK if your correspondent, "J. M.," (page 32) were to 

 read Mr. Beaton's remarks in the previous Number of your 

 Journal, page 3, he would discover that the cause of the cocoa- 

 nut refuse not becoming hot was its being allowed to become 

 too dry. I have experienced a similar instance. Last spring 1 

 covered-up my hot-water pipes with this refuse, taking care to 

 keep it wet, particularly where in contact with the pipes, and it 

 answered admirably. 



Eor the last six weeks I have not been able to attend to my 

 little propagating-house, and my man, who is no gardener, 

 suffered the refuBe to become dry, and, consequently, he could 

 not make it hot. On removing it I found about 2 inches thick 

 round the pipes completely caked, very dry, and lighter than 

 cork. I made the whole quite wet with warm water, and again 

 covered-up the pipes about 10 iuches thick, plunging pots in it 

 as before. I now find the surface very little warmer than the 

 temperature of the house, but on lifting the pots steam imme- 

 diately rises, and the stuff is very hot near the pipes. 



In another part of my greenhouse I filled-up the space from 

 the ground to the bottom of the pipes to prevent the heat 

 escaping, and then filled-up with broken pieces of brick even with 

 the top of the pipes, making a flat Burface, on which I placed a 

 thin sheet of iron. On this I spread cocoa-nut refuse about 

 3 inches thick, sprinkling it with warm water occasionally to 

 keep it moist, and by so doing I obtain an even and regular heat 

 over the surface. 



I have been informed by an engineer that if this refuse is 

 made quite dry, it is the beet nonconductor of heat that could 

 be used for covering-up steam boilers. I have also heard it 

 recommended as a casing for cold frames or pits. About 

 3 inches thick will keep out the severest froBt ; but it must be 

 rande quite dry and kept bo. Gardeners and agriculturists are 

 using this cocoa-nut refuse very freely ; but we Bhall probably 

 hear of its being applied to other purposes soon. — H. E. 



It had been formerly the practice there to have the Globe 

 Artichokes protected, but this had been omitted that winter. — 

 James Beid. 



CHEAP CROCUS-HOLDER, 



I AM unaware whether any of the readers of the Journal 

 have ever Been the following cheap Crocus-holder ; if not, the 

 description may be of some service ; it is, 

 at all events, no very costly experiment 

 to try. 



Take a large sound Turnip, and hollow 

 it out from the bottom, taking care not 

 to injure the base of the leaves, and allow- 

 ing the rind to be at least half an inch in 

 thickness all round ; then bend a piece 

 of wire (zinc is best from not corroding) 

 into a circular form, and place the Turnip 

 upon it, leaveB downwards, having pre- 

 viously trimmed-off the large ones. The 

 hollow is then to be filled with silver 

 Band, a Crocus root planted therein, and 

 three wireB or Btrings attached to the 

 ring to support the whole upon a hook 

 fixed in the upper part of the window- 

 frame. The sand being kept moist, the 

 Turnip will soon shoot-out leaves, which, 

 turning upwards, in a short time com- 

 pletely hide the root, and present a pretty 

 and novel appearance during the winter season. — -A Cobjbe- 

 ppondent. 



GLOBE ARTICHOKES NOT QUITE HARDY. 



I can testify that the Globe Artichoke is not able to stand a 

 very severe frost unless protection be used. I well recollect 

 having in my apprentice years — it must be at least twenty years 

 ago — seen all the plants in a large quarter of the garden destroyed 

 by the frost, which was very severe that winter. The plants 

 had no protection. The soil in which they were growing was 

 a very light, gravelly, dry, porous loam, upon a sandstone sub- 

 soil, with an angle of about 25° to the north, situated six miles 

 and a half west of Edinburgh. 



So far as I then could judge, those plants must have occupied 

 the same ground for several years, the Btools being very large 

 and producing a very Urge quintity of excellent heads. 



INFLUENCE OF POLLEN ON THE 

 APPEARANCE OF SEED. 



Eew facts in vegetable physiology are more remarkable than 

 the well-ascertained influence of the pollen of one species or 

 variety on the seed and fruit of another species or variety 

 whilst still attached to the female plant. There are several old 

 accounts, and the case haB been well proved by Gartner of the 

 colour of the pea in one variety of the Garden Pea, being 

 changed by the direct action of the pollen of another differently- 

 coloured variety. So, again, the famous St. Valery Apple tree 

 produces many different kinds of fruit, according to the nature 

 of the pollen used ; for the singularly-constructed flowers yield 

 no pollen, and they are annually fertilised by a party of French 

 girls, who bring pollen from other trees, and mark with ribbons 

 the flowers thus fertilised. About a year ago Mr. Beaton gave 

 an analagoua case, far more remarkable than any hitherto re- 

 corded, for he showed (if my memory does not deceive me) that 

 the pollen of one species acted on the footstalk of the seed- 

 capsule of another species, and caused it slowly to assume a 

 position which it would not otherwise have acquired. I forget 

 the name of the plant, and have vainly spent an hour in trying 

 to find the passage, though I am sure I marked it. Will Mr. 

 Beaton have the kindness to repeat the statement ? and I am 

 sure it is worth repetition. If he grant this favour, will he 

 inform us whether his observations were made on several 

 flowers, and during one or more years ? I remember some diffi- 

 culty in finding the name of the plant in such catalogues as I 

 happened to have at hand, which led me to Buppose that it had, 

 like too many plants, more names than one.— Chables Dabwin. 



[In answering Mr. Darwin's question, allow me, first, to clear 

 myself of any participation in his opening remark, that "'Few 

 facts in vegetable physiology are more remarkable than the well- 

 ascertained influence of the pollen of one species or variety on 

 the seed and fruit of another species or variety while still 

 attached to the female plant." Gartner never proved that — he 

 only asserted it ; and when he was pushed to the proof, he 

 lowered his sails, made a Becond edition of his great work, and 

 confessed many of his errors. 



The most practical crosB-breeder who has yet appeared has 

 stated " Gartner's report of the cross-bred seed he has obtained, 

 to be nothing but a mere enumeration of the crosses he has tried 

 to obtain." And with regard to very many of the cases of 

 impregnation mentioned by Gartner, he, the said cross-breeder, 

 otherwise Br. Herbert, " utterly repudiates the probability of 

 such impregnation ;" and well he might. 



It was not Gartner, but Dr. Wiegman, in 1823, who first said 

 he found the Bea changed colour from being planted along with 

 Vicia sativa, or common Vetch ; and Gartner, two years sub- 

 sequently, said he caused the same change by means of the pollen ; 

 and our Mr. Knight was somewhat smitten with that doctrine. 



I had a commission to work over, again and again, every ex- 

 periment mentioned by Gartner, Wiegman, and Lageret, and I 

 found over and over again each experiment was without a base. 

 Others proved the same, but it remained for the late Professor 

 Henslow to prove by scientific investigation that the pollen has 

 no visible effect on the seed impregnated ; and no cross-breeder 

 of any practice in England at the present day would like to 

 have his name associated with that of Gartner, for or against 

 any exploit in crossing. Nevertheless, I am firmly of the opinion 

 that Gartner waB right in his belief of the way impregnation is 

 effected. 



I forget the plant I mentioned last year as having the pe- 

 duncle, or stalk, of the flower affected by pollen. Of all the 

 plants I recollect having mentioned, for the last twelve months, 

 there are only five genera that are affected that way — Cor- 

 bularia and Hermione among the Narcissi, and Erodium, 

 Pelargonium, and Geranium, in that class of plantB. , The best 

 generio distinction for upholding Corbularia and Hermione as 

 distinct from the true Narcissi, is that the peduncle rises slowly 

 from a horizontal to an upright posture as the seedB ripen in 

 the pod. The Erodiums and a section of Pelargoniums, with, 

 I believe, all the true Geraniums, have the peduncle affected 

 differently from the great mass of Pelargoniums. 



It is probable, however, that Mr. Darwin has been thinking of 



