132 



JOURNAL OF HOETICELTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. [ August is, mi. 



tleman was celebrated for Figs growing against the sunny 

 side of his stables. He allowed no one to touch them but 

 himself, and they scarcely ever saw knife, or shred, or nail, 

 the branches hanging somewhat from the wall; but the 

 roots had little to grow in, and the wood, therefore, was 

 short, and plump, and stubby, and the plants did moderately 

 well.— E. F.] 



TUEP SOIL. 



There are few requisites for a garden so troublesome to 

 procure as turf soil, unless a man has an estate of his own, 

 and even where there is plenty of grass land the gardener 

 is not always permitted to cut turf. I know that the want of 

 this supposed essential material is severely felt by many 

 persons. There can be no doubt that the man who can pro- 

 cure soil of various qualities, light sandy turf, turf from a 

 loamy pasture, and turf from a rich strong clay, who has 

 ready to his hand a good heap of peat, another of decayed 

 leaves, and a quantity of cocoa-nut fibre, has a great advan- 

 tage over a man who with difficulty prepares a compost, or 

 procures a soil for his trees. I would not for a moment pro- 

 duce the impression that it is a matter of minor importance 

 to have good soils ready at hand, but where the thing we 

 want cannot be had, a good substitute is a desideratum. 



Having heard of Mr. Garsides's man, at Worksop, being 

 very successful as a grower and exhibitor of fruit, I went to 

 see his practice. Pines, Grapes, and plants, were all well 

 grown, indeed it is not often they are seen in better condi- 

 tion, and yet not a particle of turf soil is used in the garden. 

 The gardener told me turf was very difficult to procure, and 

 he asked himself whether it was necessary. " What are the 

 advantages of turf ? It is fresh soil to the plants I want to 

 grow : so is any soil which has not grown those plants 

 before. It is full of grass roots, and less compact than ordi- 

 nary soil: this mechanical condition ought to be easily 

 imitated. It is full of vegetable matter — that can be easily 

 supplied." 



The result of this was, he had a quantity of fresh stable 

 litter, just as it left the horses, chopped up and mixed with 

 garden soil, and in this every plant and tree, except such as 

 require peat soil, was growing luxuriantly. — J. E. Peabson, 

 Chilivell. 



T0D1T0EDE3" BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 



Meeting, August 1st, 18G4. — E. Binns, Esq., in the chair. 

 Mr. S. King, of Lanehouse, Luddenden-Foot, was elected an 

 associate member. Mr. J. Law exhibited fronds of beautiful 

 varieties of the Lady Fem, gathered during the past month in 

 Langfield. One of them is regarded as quite a new form, and 

 is proposed to be named Athyrium filix-fcemina brevipinnu- 

 lum, all the pinnules, except the basal, being rounded and 

 shortened very remarkably. Another filical novelty was 

 reported in the hands of the members — Athyrium filix-fcemina 

 curtum, from Windermere. 



Letters were read from the North Devon excursion party, 

 with accounts of their progress, and a long list of rare plants 

 already found. A long and highly interesting communica- 

 tion was also read from Mr. W. Hobson, of Philadelphia, an 

 associate of the Society. Mr. Hobson gives in a journal 

 form, an account of a botanical tour made by him through 

 some portions of Pennsylvania during June and July last. 

 His success was very considerable, as will be seen by 

 the list of plants given below. Mr. Hobson, describes 

 the heat as having been quite unusual, the thermometer 

 having indicated 100° in the shade for three consecutive 

 days. Among the plants collected by Mr. Hobson, were 

 the rare Polypodium incanum, the rare, highly-curious, and 

 very minute SchizEea pusilla (in considerable quantity), 

 Pteris (Platyloma) atropurpurea, so much prized of Fern- 

 lovers, and so seldom found in collections (many scores of 

 plants), the lively Cheilanthes (Nothochkena) vestita (in 

 quantity), Botrychium limparioides (fumarioides), B. obli- 

 quum, and B. virginicum, Asplenium angustifolium, Lyco- 

 podium inundatum (var. Bigelovii), Lycopodium rupestre, 

 L. complanatum, &c. ; among Phsenogams, Anemone thalic- 

 troides (in quantity) Arum triphyllum, Chimaphila maculata, 

 C corymbosa, Drosera filiformis, Hypoxis erecta, Sarracenia 

 purpurea, Orchis spectabilis, several species of Cypripedium, 



six species of Yiola, including V. lanceolata, and V. sagittata, 

 Goodyera pubescens, &c. It is expected that at the next 

 meeting of the Society Mr. Hobson will attend, to report his 

 experiences in person. 



. T ^ e Honorary Secretary announced the recent discovery 

 in Aorth Wales by Mr. Brace Findley (Botanic Gardens, 

 Manchester), of an immense number of plants of Asplenium 

 tricnomanes ramosum, many of them very closely approach- 

 ing A. t. cnstatum, and several rare varieties of Blechnum 

 spicant. Mr. Findley may be congraulated on his good for- 

 tune. A box of J»orth American fossils, the gift to the 

 Society of Mr. F. Hartley, Alton, Illinois, was announced as 

 on its way, by favour of Mr. Hobson. 



CULTIVATION- OF THE AIELOX. 



(Continued from page 110.) 

 A pit without means of lining, or applying heat after 

 planting, is represented in fig. 4. In this case the pit is 



Fig. i. 



filled quite up to the rafters with prepared fermenting ma- 

 terials beaten well down, and trodden firmly, so as to pre- 

 vent the material of which the bed is composed falling too 

 low, and causing the plants to be at too great a distance 

 from the light. Such pits are very useful in winter and 

 spring for Endive, Lettuce, early Potatoes, Arc, and a crop 

 of Melons may be had after these, by planting strong plants 

 in May, or at the latest by the beginning of June. The 

 fermenting materials give the plants a start, and sun heat 

 carefully husbanded must be made to do the rest of the 

 work. The bed is soiled, and otherwise treated as described 

 fox fig. 3. 



The figure shows the state of the pit about a month after 

 planting ; a is the bed of fermenting materials ; b, soil over 

 it ; c, open space for the plants to grow in ; d, the ground 

 level ; and e, the spout to carry off the rain water, which 

 may be collected in an old barrel sunk in the ground. 



The fiued-pit represented in fig. 5, is chiefly employed for 

 growing late Melons, and when not in use for that purpose 

 is utilised in a variety of ways. There is a space for a 

 hotbed (a) to be formed of dung, leaves, or other fermenting 



Fig. 5. 



materials ; b, shows the soil above it. There are sometimes 

 moveable trellises for training the plants on, as at c.j L d, d, 



