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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 1, 1870. 



in her hand. Louis Napoleon understood, and it was his only 

 answer. Napoleon while consul selected this as his flower. 

 It was through Josephine asking him to bring her a bouquet 

 of them on her birthday — a desire he was only able to serve 

 after very great difficulty. He cultivated them assiduously 

 while a prisoner at St. Helena ; and they were profusely planted 

 over the grave of Josephine. After his death his coffin was 

 covered with the humble flowers he loved. It is even said that 

 in the earlier days of Louis Napoleon, he was silently made 

 acquainted with who his secret friends were, by a cautious dis- 

 play of Violets. 



THE ROYAL BERKSHIRE ROOT SHOW. 



The twenty-first Exhibition of roots, annually held in Reading, and 

 which is now generally known as the Royal Berkshire Root Show, took 

 place on the 26th nit. in Messrs. Sutton's large stores in the Market- 

 place. This Exhibition is conducted at the expense, and under the 

 management of Messrs. Sutton & Sons. The competition is not con- 

 fined to the immediate district of Reading, but is open to all comers ; 

 and from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, we here find brought 

 together such a collection of roots, that the Show may fairly be termed 

 extraordinary when the unusually dry summer is taken into consider- 

 ation. The number of entries this vear exceed those of any other, 

 being nearly 400 against 270 in 1869, and 250 in 1S68. There are 

 also very fine collections of Turnips, Kohl Rabi, Carrots, Cabbage, and 

 Potatoes ; among the latter we noticed the Bovinia or Cattle-Feeder, 

 and Suttons' Red-skin Flour Ball, of extraordinary size and fine quality. 

 The following is a list of awards for roots cultivated in gardens : — 



12 Parsnips, R. W. Hall Dare, Esq., Newtownbarry, Ireland ; 2nd, Mr. 

 B. Lane. 



12 Red Carrots, Messrs. Virgo & Son ; 2nd, J. Bates, Esq. 



12 Reading Onions, Mr. Thomas Naseby, Banbury ; 2nd, Mr. J. Cave, 

 Rickmansworth. 



24 Kidney Potatoes, P. McKinlay, Esq. (Early Rose) ; 2nd, John Bates, 

 Esq. (King's). 



24 Round Potatoes, F. G. Jones, Esq., Bala (Suttons' Red-skinned Flour 

 Ball) ; 2nd, the Reading Union. 



Extra Prize, for collection of seedling Potatoes, Mrs. Betsy M. Paterson, 

 Dundee. 



The Judges were Messrs. Wilkins (Mortimer), J. B. Spearing, and 

 Jenkin Davies, whose decisions appeared to give general satisfaction. 



We understand that some of the finest specimens will be exhibited 

 on Messrs. Sutton's stand at the Smithfield Club Cattle Show. 



THE LAW OF FASCIATION AND ITS RELATION 

 TO SEX IN PLANTS. 



[Read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ] 

 At the last meeting of the Association Dr. Sterry Hunt 

 handed me a fasciated branch of Picea balsamea, in which the 

 branchlets of the fascicle presented a very distinct appearance 

 from the normal form. In the language of the person who 

 directed Dr. Hunt's attention to it, it seemed as if a Norway 

 Spruce was being developed from the Balsam Fir. From facts 

 I had previously observed, and embodied in my paper on 

 Adnation in Conifers, read at Chicago, it was clear that these 

 branchlets did not possess the adnating power which I showed 

 in that pjperto be characteristic of the highest vigour. The 

 leaves were not distichous, but scattered around the weak 

 stems, terete, and in every respect like those on plants in the 

 young seedling state ; and corresponding in this character with 

 the free leaves in Arbor Vitae, Juniper, and similar plants, 

 when the branches are forced to grow in shady places, or under 

 other conditions unfavourable to perfect nutrition. I was 

 astonished at the suggestion that fasciation could possibly be a 

 weakness of development ; because, though very little has been 

 written about this phenomenon, all that I have read refers to 

 over-nutrition as the probable cause. I believe I can now 

 offer some facts which will show that there may be two distinct 

 causes of fasciation — one an abundant supply of nutrition, 

 which consolidates together parts normally free, as we often 

 see in Asparagus, Plantains, Dandelions, and other common 

 things ; the other a weakened flow of vitality, which is not able 

 to combine parts together, which usually go to make up the 

 integrate structure, and which then take the form known among t 

 the people generally as " Crow's-nest branches." 



That the last cause was probable in the case before me, I 

 saw, as I have already stated. I found several specimens on 

 living trees of Balsam Firs near me similar to the one given 

 to me by Dr. Hunt, and watched them frequently. That they 

 were weak developments was clear from the fact that they 

 made little more than an inch of growth every year — that the 

 leaves, usually of a dark green, were of a paler hue — they were 

 destroyed by the first frosts of autumn, becoming as deciduous 



as the Larch, while the regular leaves continued evergreen — 

 and many of the fasciated shoots died during the course of the 

 winter. The pale tint was evidence of defective nutrition, as it 

 is well known to every practical gardener that when, from any 

 cause, the fibres of a plant become injured, and the free supply 

 of sap is from any cause, as by ringing the bark, cut off from 

 the leaves, they become of a pale sickly hue. It was also 

 evident from the inability of the fascicle to keep its leaf green, 

 and some of its branchlets alive during winter, that vitality was 

 at a low stage. 



I examined the fasciated branches on other kinds of treeB, 

 and found these general results in all ; but in none so well 

 illustrated as in a Sassafras tree, which had nearly all of its 

 branches in this condition, one of which I exhibit. Another 

 tree was alongside of it quite free from this character. The one 

 with the fasciated branches was not nearly as large as the other, 

 although there appeared no reason in Boil or other circum- 

 stances why it should not be. A great number of the branchlets 

 in the fascicles also died out every winter. 



I was very anxious to find how these fasciated branches 

 would behave in a state of inflorescence, but could not find any 

 case of one bearing flowers. At length I discovered them in 

 the common Blackberry, Rubus villosus, and was pleased to 

 find that they not only confirmed the view I had taken of the 

 cause of this kind of fasciation, but also furnished in the most 

 unexpected manner new facts in favour of my theory of last 

 year respecting sex — namely, that the male is the offspring of a 

 declining vitality. These fasciated branches in Rubus I am 

 inclined to think common, and it will be very easy to verify 

 the following facts : — In these fasciated branches the number 

 of branchlets varies from five to fifteen. 



The pale tint characteristic of failing nutrition is particularly 

 marked, while the lower leaves die away earlier than in those 

 branches on the same cane produced in the regular way. That 

 the whole of these leaves will fall first I anticipate, but cannot 

 speak from actual knowledge. Here are perfect evidences of 

 failure of nutrition, decreased vitality, and fasciation all going 

 along together. 



Now in its relation to sex. I pointed out in my paper on 

 this subject last year, that the flower-bearing parts of plants 

 were weak in porportion as they diverged from the feminine 

 condition. In a polygamous plant the pistillate flower is on 

 the stoutest axis — the hermaphrodite the next — the male the 

 weakest. So also in the grades of masculine weakness. When 

 the male flowers had their stamens reduced to petals, the plant 

 or axis of the plant was weaker than before ; and when the 

 sepals took on the character of leaves, or the leaves lost their 

 chlorophyllous character and simulated petals, vitality was 

 well known to horticulturists to be in a weaker state than in 

 other cases. 



Here are the same illustrations. As you see in this speci- 

 men, the lower branches, pushing in the usual way, have the 

 regular calyx segments ; but in the upper set of fasciated ones 

 the segments have taken on a leaf-like form, the stamens 

 have increased in size, and the pistils, as shown by the great 

 number in some flowers which have failed to swell out their 

 ovaries, are proportionately defective. A tendency to masculinity 

 is clearly in connection with defective nutrition, decreased 

 vitality, and fasciation. 



I saw this, however, still more clearly demonstrated in a field 

 of a cultivated variety of Blackberry — the Wilson's Early, on 

 the farm of Mr. W. Parry, of Cinnaminson, New Jersey. His 

 son Levi, an intelligent and observing young man, called my 

 attention to the fact that wherever these fascioles occurred the 

 flowers were nearly double, and no fruit followed. I found this 

 to be the case so far as the flowers were concerned. In some 

 there were as many as twenty petals, and the calycine seg- 

 ments were largely foliaceouB. There could not be clearer 

 illustrations of masculinity and fasciation going along together 



Returning to fasciations of the " Crow's-nest" kind, we may 

 then safely say that they are bundles of branches formed from 

 germs, which, if nutrition had been sufficient to provide the 

 required vitality, would have adnated together and formed one 

 vigorous united axis, instead of as now, each struggling on in 

 its own weak way. I am aware that this conclusion may con- 

 flict with received theories as to the formation of axis or stem. 

 It would seem to imply that one perfect branch is but a collec- 

 tion of smaller homogenous ones. I sometimes see oases which 

 indicate that this may be so. I have here a portion of a cane 

 of Rubus oooidentaiis. At the base it is no thicker than the 

 average of other canes ; but near the middle of its length it 

 has separated into four smaller canes. It has been usual to 



