THE 



GARDENERS' MAGAZINE. 



SATURDAY, JANUARY i, 1898. 



HORTICULTURAL SHOW ADVERTISE 

 column at One Shilling per line, the minimum chai 

 inent Office, 148 and 149, Aldersgate Street, London, E.G 



Notes of the Week. 



THE NEW YEAR. 



justification for the opinion held by those who contend that there is 

 during the resting period a cessation of protoplastic activity. The ex- 

 periments of the late Professor Romanes a few years since have an im- 

 portant bearing upon this point. Professor Romanes submitted in glass 

 tubes various seeds to high vacua for a period of fifteen months, and other 

 seeds were subjected to high vacua for three months, and then trans- 



Quinquennial 



The commencement of the ne w year affects us in various ways, and ferred to other tubes charged with various gases, and it was found that 

 no one who takes an active interest in the garden, or, indeed, in any- neither a high vacuum nor exposure for a year to either of the gases em- 

 thing that has a direct bearing upon the welfare of the community, can ployed had any appreciable effect upon their germinative power. The 

 escape being influenced. In a strictly philosophical view of the matter, experiments of Romanes proved to demonstration there could have 

 one day is as important as another; but the sentimental view of the been no respiration, but they were hardly conclusive with regard to chemical 

 season is of great practical value, as prompting wholesome reflections interactions within the cells, and to clear up this point Messrs. H. T. 

 and affording a favourable opportunity for making new resolves, and Brown and F. Escombe subjected seeds of twelve plants of widely 

 preparing for the conflicts in the world of horticulture that are in pro- different character to a temperature below that at which chemical reac 

 spect. Whether the year on which we have entered will be a good or tions take place. From a recent communication to the Royal Society 

 bad one, as compared with previous years, it is impossible to say ; but we learn that the seeds of Avena sativa, Convolvulus tricolor, Cucur- 

 we enter it with a spirit of hopefulness, and strengthened by the know- bita Pepo, Cyclanthera explodens, Funkia Sieboldi, Helianthus annuus, 

 ledge that there is an expanded and expanding interest in the various Heracleum villosum, Hordeum distichon, Lotus tetragonolobus, Pisum 

 aspects of the art of gardening. We have not in prospect any event elatius, Impatiens balsamina, and Trigonella foenum-graicum, were 

 of exceptional importance to horticulturists within the United Kingdom, selected for the purpose of experiment. Through the kindness of 



_ «, . „» will Professor Dewar in putting his laboratory at the disposal of the experi- 



afford some compensation, and give our countrymen another oppor- mentalists, they were able to ascertain how far the subsequent germinative 



tunity of becoming acquainted with the ornamental aspects of Belgian power of the seeds is affected by prolonged exposure to the very low 



horticulture. If there are none but exhibitions of the customary temperature of liquid air. The seeds, we are told, " were enclosed in 



character to be held during the year, they will be sufficiently numerous thin glass tubes, were slowly cooled and immersed 



to provide plenty of work for those who take part in them, and of jacketed flask 'containing about two litres of the liquid air, which was 



these the most important will be sufficiently comprehensive to ensure kept replenished so as to submit the seeds for one hundred and ten 



an adequate representation of British horticulture. The Royal Horti- hours to a temperature of from 183 to 192 degrees Centigrade." After 



cultural Society will hold the two exhibitions which for several years this treatment they were slowly thawed, a process which occupied about 



programme ; fifty hours, and it was subsequently found that after having been sub- 



the special societies, which have greatly increased in strength and fitted to this low temperature, they germinated as freely as seeds from 



activity of late years, will amply vindicate the flowers in which they are the same stocks that had not been treated. The great value of the low 



respectively interested ; and we anticipate with much interest the horti- temperature experiments carried out by Messrs. Brown and Escombe, 



cultural gatherings in the great provincial centres. The reward the consists in the fact that processes of autoxidation are rendered impossible 



gardener will obtain for the care and unremitting attention bestowed ;it the temperatures to which the seeds were subjected, and consequently 



upon the objects of his care can have no estimate placed upon it the protoplasm in resting seeds is regarded as existing in an absolutely 



at the present time. The year 1898 should be remarkable for its inert state, devoid of any trace of metabolic activity, and yet conserving 



crop of fruit, for last year the crops were in most cases so light as the potentiality of life. These experiments are of importance as indicating 



to in no way unduly tax the energies of the trees, and the mag- the possibility of maintaining the perfect stability of protoplasm when 



nificent weather experienced early in the autumn was so favourable once it has reached the resting state, provided the low temperature is 



in a vacuum- 



to the ripening of the wood, that the embryo flower buds 



are 



maintained, or in other words, of keeping the seeds for an indefinite 



A — A _ _L ' _ 



WORMS. 



Although worms are a great nuisance, and do a large amount of 



so perfect, as to justify a spirit of hopefulness as to the ultimate period, without their vitality being impaired. 



results, provided the climatic conditions are favourable. So far they 



have not been such as we could wish ; we have had no winter as yet, and 

 if the winter does not come the spring will, and unless some early check 



is imposed upon awakening vegetation the morning frosts and east winds t, u ^ • . A ■ . . • , . , 



will not fail to do more or less damage. As this is a season for making when the y mtrude Int0 the hort.cultunst's pots and pans, upsettin. 



new resolves, we would urge upon our readers the importance of beinf* , bury,ng h,s choicest seedlings, and disturbing and weakening larger 



well in advance with all gardening operations, due consideration beinz in P ' antS ,. by burrowin & a«">ng their roots and choking up the drainage, 



all cases paid to the district, soil, and weather, and to remember that this 7 ' ? many other nuisances, are highly beneficial agents in their 



can only be done when the seeds are purchased early in the vear Bv Pt "° Per P ' ° aSe * ° pCn S ° lK At th ' S SeaS ° n ° f the 



ordering seeds now the cultivator places himself in a position to sow the ^ es P eciall y lt 13 wonderful to observe how speedily the fallen leafage 



c «„~w.i -• - ^ c disappears from the surface. The dead leaves may be lying an inch 



r 



several crops at the proper time, and, what is not less desirable helps to u- , u , * . 



reduce the strain which late purchases impose upon those eneaeed in the 1 g " ° n6 ' 6 nCXt ' Wllh ° Ut the aid of a 



seed trade. With regard to ourselves there is no occasion to soeak at ™ ° r ^ the bulk ' * n0t W,U haVC bee " S ' lently drawn down 



length. The ever-increasing number of readers is the best possible proof ^ mynad bUrr ° VVS ° f the ever busy worms - h is very interesting 



that the vigorous policy characteristic of the journal is appreciated bvall X ° WatCh the P rocess ' thou ^ h the w0 »W-be observer must go gently 



classes of horticulturists, and with such gratifying evidence of apprecia- ab ° Ut ° n tiptoe unlesS he wlsheS t0 Sce a number of rapidly-vanishing 



tion our readers may be well assured that we shall in no way relax our heads instead of the worms busi,y en S a S ed in the work in question. 



efforts to maintain the Gardeners' Magazine in the position it occu- ********* - -" ; * 5 "~ 



p.es as the foremost exponent of horticulture in the United Kingdom 



Adopting this precantion, or waiting quietly awhile to restore confidence, 

 we shall see the pointed heads gradually emerge, or re-emerge, and after 

 giving it a tentative swing round Master Worm will slowly lengthen out, 

 bit by bit, his tapering snout so to speak feeling the way until presently 

 a leaf is reached. Then begins a series of pulls and tugs, until literally 

 hook or by crook, the dainty morsel is drawn to the hole. Now com- 

 biological science, a difference of mences the serious business of getting perhaps a stiffish two-inch morsel 



into a cavity only a quarter of an inch across. Getting the edge close to 

 the cavity, a succession of pulls gradually curls up the leaf in a sort of 



VITALITY OF SEEDS. 



madeira ^ * ! h< ; immenSe advance that has of ,ate y^rs been 

 Son mm' 3S branCheS ° f biolo S ical 5cien <*, * difference of 

 of thc ^ protoplasts' f CX1St amon S 5t botanists - ith regard to the condition 



able for a m\A ° , r . est,n £ seet l s > ' n which signs of life are indistinguish- me cavity, a succession ot puns graauany cuns up the leat in a sort ot 

 pwnt - / co nsiderable period. On the one hand it is assumed that the funnel, and this once done the rest is easy, and the leaf is buried, eaten, 



^Sf^S im P^e P tible, alteration, with or without a gaseous 



tained that h 5 . Urro ing atmos P here - 0n the other side it is main- leaves, choking its aerating cavities ana breeding stagnation instead ot 



vert* »™ ro^abolism is completely arrested in protoplasm when the the active life which is encouraged by this method of conveying the leaf 

 seeds are perfect v dormant „ i .t__ r . . . c _ . , . . r . * . . 3 & - . 



and digested at leisure. Clearly, were not some such provision as this to 

 exist, the surface soil would become simply covered by the decaying 

 leaves, choking its aerating cavities and breeding stagnation instead of 



SPPf l, arA nfl , 7 F^tciy arreted in protoplasm when the 



" has To 'ot y f d ° rmam ; and thatSO lon ^ s "»» «*« 



material in an easily assimilated form once again to the roots. It is 

 therefore, to be regretted that the cultivation has been advocated c* 



might be said ' v, ™ : w J uouucm lu cAicrnai conditions. Much tnererore, to oe regrettea tnat tne cultivation Has been advocated c* 

 suits of car f l^ T support of the views held, but the re- worm-eating slugs (Testaculas), for the purpose of destroying these (in 



u y-conducted experiments appear to show that there is full their proper place) beneficial creatures. Already the race, prolific as 



