VOL. LV.— No. 3,058. 



Saturday, juxe 8, 1912. 



THE 



GARDENERS 



9 



MAGAZINE 



NOTE OF THE WEEK. 



of warm reJs, which our Japanese friends general Iiost of xerophils or 



drought-lov- 

 honics in 



4^ 



have so enhanced by selection that a ool- ing plants, who find congenial 



lection of maples may be almost as bril- parching desert*, these culminating in the 



liant as so many floriferous shrubs, while cacti and euphorbias, in which the foliar 



in another direction, that of form, their function is really delegated to the leaf 



When we consider the uniform nature of diversity of cutting is extreme. A closer stalks to ensure the greatest economy of 



Foliage. 



the function which foliage performs in the 

 vegetable kingdom, namely, that of ab- 

 sorption and assimulation of the carbonic 

 acid gas in the air with the salts derived 

 from the soil, and supplied to it bv the 



examination, indeed, of every 



transpiration of the scarce, but all-essen- 



species, or 



even variety, of plants shows such diver- 

 sity to be general. Apart from the varied coloured foliage, as a decorated adjunct 

 habits concerned. 



tial, water supply. The charm of brightly- 



we find the foliage, the 



transmitted 



that 



sap, 

 in the 



it is a 



very 

 of 



by 



wonderful 



to brilliancy of bloom, has been so highly 



bv horticultural selective 



thing tliat in tne process 

 evolution it should have de- 



such. infinitely 

 At this season 



veloped on 

 diverse lines, 

 of the year, particularly when 

 we behold a widespreading ver- 

 durous landscape clothed with 



individual leaves, to be distinctly charac- appreciated 



terised, ranging from the simple undivided breeders, that Nature has been largely 



transcende<l, and it is among 

 highly-cultivated plants that 

 we find the most brilliantly- 



vegetation in 

 freshness although 



all its pristine 



distance 



may preclude discrimination of 

 detail, we can still perceive 

 a marvellous diversity in the 

 tints of greens, browns, and 

 other colours, and in the char- 

 acters and habits of the 

 masses of foliage which form 

 the chief feature, though bro- 

 ken up here and there by 

 stretches of pasture or cereals, 

 or other humbler growths, 

 which are none the less inter- 

 esting as forms of foliage on 

 different lines. In the nearer 

 distance we may see the rCM?ks 

 coated, or even only stained, 

 by the still humbler forms of 

 the lichens and mosses which, 

 by theiir minuteness, hardly 

 claim to be foliage proper at 

 all, though none the 

 their 



coloured foliage, 

 for instance. 



Caladiums, 



and 



with their large, 



leaves of 



- •a-M--.-".- 



less 



same. 



primary function 

 The main tint. 



IS 



the 

 how- 



vet delicate, 

 the most delicate rosy tints, 

 veined and mottled with 



white or 



crotons of 



green ; 



gleaming yellow, orange, and 

 gold, and of the most quaint 

 and contorted shapes to boot ; 

 while the coleus, in the hands 

 of the selector, has developed 

 coloured leaves often of the 



most l>eautifu! 



patterns and 

 tremely varied 



ever, IS green, the colour pro- 

 per of the great agent, chlo- 

 rophyll^ which constitutes the 

 one and only link between 

 organic life and the vital in- 

 fluence of the sun 

 We have 



PROFESSOR FREDERICK KEEBLE, Sc.D. 



of w^hich 



treate^l in former issues. 

 gJ^een, however 

 % other 



desip;ns on 

 and luilliant lines, no two 

 plants being probably alike 

 unless propagate<l by cuttings, 

 to which process they lend 

 themselves freely. Apart from 

 all these wide variations in 

 colour and make, each species 

 has its characteristic form of 

 veining, i.e., the arrangement 

 of the delicate system of main 

 and minor ribs, which perform 

 the double function of sup- 

 porting the cellular tissue in 

 the leaves, and supplying the 

 cells with material from be- 

 low. No two leaves, even in 

 the same plant, will bf found 

 identical in this respect, al- 

 though in monocotyledonous 

 plants they run on much 

 simpler and parallel lines, in- 



the case of 



modifie<l 



themselves 



tints, 

 by the 



effect 



ali^o 



of 



IS 



the leaves 



the 



holly, 



in many, trees 



like 



IS very 

 and in 

 texture 

 so that 



and shrubs, especially evergreens, 



ivy, and many conifers, it 

 IS so intensely dark as to present an alto- 

 gether different aspect to the pale tints 

 ot the larches and other growths, which 

 stands out ^ gleams of gold and admirable 

 counterfoils, against the backgrounds of 

 JJieir more sombre fellows. 



same genus, as particularly in the 

 laples, we find innumerable bright tints 



This leaf, varied, however, considerably in out- stead of being nette<l, as in 

 often masked 1-nes, from mere needle-like ones in the pines those of dicotyledonous plants. 



Even within 



to huge ones in the banana, through serrate 

 forms to much-divided ones, and, in short, 

 ranging through every conceivable grada- 

 tion of type from the grass blade to the 

 lace-like frondage of the finest fern. In 

 make and texture, too, the foHage varies 

 immense, from the diaphanous to the 

 tough and leathery, from the water-borne 

 vallisneria, whose very veins are so trans- 

 parent as to display the circulation of 

 its sap, to the tough, leathery, opaque 

 foliage of the saxifrages and sedums, por- 

 tulaceas, mesembryanthemums, and the 



Professor F. Keeble, Sc.D., 



Dean of the Faculty of Science of I'niver- 

 sity College, Reading, has, by virtue of h's 

 commanding ability and his combining a 

 thorough a<c|uaintance with the practical 

 aspects of eveiy-day ]ife with scientific 

 attainments of a high order, contributed 

 in no small degree to tlic remarkable 

 success achieved by the < ))llcge in making 

 M<'a<ling famous as an imjxjrtant etluca- 

 tional centre. We have on more than one 



