I 



VOL. LV — No. 3,082. 



SATURDAY, XOVEMBER 23, 1912. 



THE 



GARDENERS 



MAGAZINE 



NOTE OF 1 HE WEEK. 



meter 



by the (>;ro\vtli of the annual iii)g 



similar annual or seasonal (growth. 



The 



Skins. 



ease^ that a fresh layer has been engendered 

 It may safely be asserted that every beneath it, and that, in point of fact, with 



living organism is enveloped in a skin 

 of some kind, since it is impossible to con- 

 reive of the fluid eouten(s of fclio cells 



of wood within it, the bark is forced off skins of plant foliage an' loniied on <lif- 

 in large flaices, showing, however, in that ferent lines, since they have but a tem- 

 porary existence. They are usually very 

 thin, and are iKn'nieate<] by innumerable 

 small breatliiiiu pures, or stomata, to per- 



such barks also an annual ring must- l)e 



engendered outside that of the wood proper, mit ingress anil egress of the carbonic acid 

 xVIoi^t Ireeij, however, be£*r bark of a dif- ^/ds requir^id by tlie cells for Die nourish- 

 ment of the 



ternal wood ring to grow, while iir:per- 



which compose them being entirely uncon- ferent character, which is permanent, and 

 fined, and the very fact of the existence such barks are found to be pervaded with 



of the cell, itself a walled-in receptacle, as cracks and fissures, and by splitting and has l)ccn tlu-nce extrat t<>(l. 

 the first essential of organic vitality, pre- subsequent filling up they permit the in- 

 eludes such an idea. Even the most primi- 

 tive, perhaps, of all organisms, the 

 amo^lia, a mere jelly-like mass, pos- 

 sesses a skin of some sort, which, 

 though permeable at all points, and 

 thus able to take in solid food and 



tluu'iis. and "lilands 



excrete its indigestible remains at 

 any part of its surface, is tough 

 enough to retain its living con- 

 tent of protoplasm, and the all-es- 

 >ential nucleus. From this indefi- 

 nite skin, however, of the primary 

 simple cellular organisms, there has 

 been engendered, in the process of 

 evolution^ a practically infinite 

 <liversity of very tangible and 

 definite ones, which clothe both 

 the animal and plant world with 

 <letensivc armour, in the shape of 

 skins and barks, which, in their 

 turn, are often protected by ex- 

 ternal excrescent coverings of hair, 

 scales, thorns/ etc., again of great 

 diversity. In the plant world we 

 find this covering to fall into two 

 reat divisions, called, botanically, 

 tlie exogenous and endogenous, of 

 which the first may be exemplified 

 by those trees which build up an 

 aiuiual ring of wood protected by 

 an indejiendeiit ring of bark, 

 which forms an outer cylinder of 

 ^kin enclosing the trunk, blanches, 

 and twigs; and the second by the 

 ^reat grass family, which forms no 

 aiuiual rino-s, and has the surface 

 protected only bv a tough, hard, 



woody deposit coherent w ith the internal ceptibly expanding in sympathy, and tlnis 



plant, and the oxygen 



gas which it throAvs oflF wdien the carbon 



In conneetion 



witli this class of skin many a<ljuncts have 

 hccji evolved, mostly of a protective 



character, such as hairs, bristles, 



all of which 



serve tluNr ])nr]^ose in preventing 

 undue transpiration, or the attacks 

 of insect and other foes. In an- 

 other direction there are the skins 

 of f]'uits. whi.h take many forms, 

 t'roni the filnvlike delicate skins of 

 the strawherrv tribe to the cast- 

 iron ones of the nuts, culminating 

 in the cocoanut and Brazil nut. In 

 the fruits, indeed, we have skins 

 of two distinct categories, viz., 

 those of the pulps, which, as ad- 

 juncts to the seed, we see in the 

 apples, pears, oranges, pomegra- 

 nates, and others, and those of the 

 seeds themselves. In these fruits 

 we have onlv to dissect them until 



■ 



we arrive at the seed proper to 

 note an immense difference. The 

 seed is, so to speak. Nature's spe- 

 cial ca re , an<l thus, w h i le we 

 find the pulps but thinly clad, the 

 pips and stones are strongly ar- 

 mouied, and in the nut tribe, as 

 alreadv cited, they are 

 thrice-armo\u-ed where the exi- 



often 



MR. r. JOEDAN. 



material of the stems, there l)eing no 

 separable bark, and no com cntric zone. In 

 the endogens there are also other kinds of 

 protective skins than barks proper ; 

 thus in the palms and yuccas, and tree 

 ftM-ns, etc., trunks are formed by the per- 

 'Sistence of the 



foliage, which survive in the form of scales, 

 and so'i'ontribute to form a trunk, whicJi 

 they thus protect. In the exogenous tribes, 

 to which most of our trees and shrubs 

 'aching, the nature of the bark varies newal,^ but Uy 

 eatly. 



smooth, rigid, and unyielding, the result 

 being that as the trunk increases in dia- 



gencies of their environment, and 

 the character of their foes have 

 necessitated such a provision. 



Mr. F. Jordan, head gar- 

 dener to Lady Nunburnholme, 

 Warter Priory, Pocklington, York, 

 has had a distinguished career, 

 and his name is well known among 

 The ranks of exhibitors, especially in con- 

 nection with fruit culture. But Mr. Jordan 



increasing correspondingly the diameter or 



the trunk, branches, and twigs. It is in nection with fruit culture xm.x v.r. ...u«» 



thfs way hat we arrive at the thick cor- is not merely a siicce.stul exhibitor, ho is 



ugated bark of the oak, which is carried to one of the most capable of ga«-<l-- 



th^ extreme in the dense rough coating of foiuul in the I lute. kingdom a d ^^^^^^ 



the Cork Oak. This splitting of the bark, is saying a good dcniL He ->";-;;-«i,';^^ 

 s"o7\heir and subsequent mnng up, Ands its parallel g^udening caree,- a u-imston Oa h, Ka^ 

 . , . +hio\. nrTnmir nf the tortoise. the ^orks. un<ler the late -Mi. >^'"stei' ^™ 



in the thick armour of the tortoise, the 

 armadillo, and other thick-skinned or 

 .^helled animals, whose sbclU iiHiinse in 

 SV/A\ not bv periodical sheddin!'- and re- 



1 



Thus in the Plane trees it is the edges of the i)lates wbu-h compose 



them ami it hwu foiuid rliat even the nonce 



whom He remained three years. Then fol- 

 lowed ei«dit<>eii nioiitli> in the nurseries of 



M KK.H.n s,..u,n,.j. - Messrs. W. nackbous. and Son, Ycjrk and 



„,.nM,on of t^rowth mund a subsequent .igbu-.n months at Muttons 



Ambo Mall, .Malton. Seeking wider expe- 



scales of fishes may reveal their age by 



rienee. he ..nt.Ted thf gardens at Osberton 

 Hall, Worksop, where, under the late 



