472 



GARDENERS 9 MAGAZINE. 



LICHENS AND MOSSES. 



CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 



It may not be out of place if we give here some few particulars relating 

 to these two peculiar forms of vegetation which form the heading to this 

 article. Taking lichens first. I find that the word is derived from the 



MANURES 



The occasion for complaining about the weather might almost 



article. laKing ucnena m»i, * — — ~~ . t * . — "tamer migm almost K* 



Greek x«xn», and in the botanical world it is the name for an extensive sidered the special prerogative of gardeners generally, and C ° n * 

 division of cvDtoeamic plants, constituting a genus in the order of those who plunge deeply into the cultivation of sneciiLn „v.! PeCl * Ily 



division of cyptogamic plants 

 algce, in the Linntean system, but now forming a distinct natural order 

 known as Lichenacere. Thev aDDear in the form of thin, flat crusts. 



mums, judging from the chorus of perennial grumWeTw^thT^* 

 is greeted amongst brothers in the craft. This oresent 



This present season, with 



one 



its 



same evil 



covering rocks and the bark of trees, or growing upon the ground, or in abnormally low temperatures and lack of sunshine, bears the same 



foliaceous expansions, or branched like a shrub in miniature, or some- reputation as most of its predecessors, and yet one may safely n r ? 



times only as a gelatinous mass or a powdery substance. They are that November will bring its wealth of lovely flowers and keen com T 



" tions, as it always has done. We are like a certain farmer who wlT 



known 



the liverworts are of this order. They also include the Iceland moss and complimented on his fine crop of wheat, complained M that there w 



• • " - - - dreadful lot of smut if you looked into it." Chrysanthemum « srnuj" 



reindeer moss, but they are entirely distinct from the true mosses. 

 Lichens abound in the cold and temperate parts of the world. The 

 greater number are of no known use, except in preparing the surface of 

 the earth for the reception of larger growing vegetation ; but some are used 

 as tonic medicines, such as Variolaria fuginae and Iceland moss. Cetraria 

 islandica, when deprived of its bitterness by boiling, becomes a diet 

 recommended for invalids. Their principal use is to furnish the dyer 



was a 



various and persistent in their attacks on the plants, but they ca 

 withstand the watchful care of the earnest cultivator! Some of these 

 troubles, however, are the result of our own misguided kindness to the 

 plants, and there is no more prolific source of evil than errors in the 

 application of manures. It is a pardonable error with beginners that 

 with brilliant colours, orchil, cudbear, and several others being thus they should be too liberal with special fertilizers, even to the extent of 

 employed. " ' * " 



Having thus briefly summarised the uses of lichens, I will now pro- 

 ceed to touch upon the subjects from the botanical point of view. We 

 are all familiar with the ordinary appearance ot a lichen. It is a dry 

 membraneous-looking object, whose external aspect scarcely invites 

 attention, but if examined closely many wonders reveal themselves. A 

 mass of cells, a number of little tubes of membranes, containings porules 

 of an oval form, both outer and inner layers, are disclosed on microscopic 

 examination. The colour and appearance of the plants are wonderfully 

 diversified. They may be seen drooping from the branches of trees in 

 thick beard-like bunches or tufts, and are called in this form Old 

 Man's Beard, which in their aspect and hue they positively 

 resemble. They are found growing on the walls of old castles or 

 ruined churches, with curious - looking patches of brown or 

 yellow. They glitter in golden colours, and paint a bare 

 rock with strange devices sometimes in the richest, but oftener in the 

 gloomiest of colours, and at times form miniature goblets in grey with 

 crimson edges. They are really nearly ubiquitous, few places coming 

 amiss to them. They cover weather-beaten rocks, and subsist equally 

 on the sea-shore, and are scattered from the equator to the poles, from 

 the depth of deserted mines to the height of everlasting snow. England 

 is rich in lichens, but cannot compare in that respect with the moist 

 equatorial regions, which greatly favour their development. The most 

 curious lichens in this country are those called 11 Lungs of the Oak," from 

 their remarkable resemblance to the human lungs ; the hair lichen, 

 which covers trees with a shaggy mantle ; the crab's eye, common upon 

 stones j and the goblet, which ornaments so many of our heaths. How 

 lichens appear in many places is a great mystery, and experiments made 

 to solve the matter result in engendering increased perplexity. Meyer 

 found that decomposed vegetable and some inorganic matter will assume 

 an organisation under the influence of water and light, and that the 

 pulverulent matter of lichens is thus propagated, but species could only 

 be propagated by spirules of the same species. D'Unville tells us pulse- 

 rulent lichens are the first plants which appear on bare rocks of newly- 

 formed islands. This is the first garment at the hands of Nature. 



Lichens from a commercial point of view are of value. For more 



destroying some roots when, without much experience, they are trying 

 to steer their own ship, and to some extent also that they should rejoice 

 (during the growing season) in the large fleshy leaves and bamboo-like 

 stems which result from early and constant doses of stimulating 

 manures. In talking with people who persist in this style of growing 

 their plants, it is most amusing to note the pains they take to assure you 

 " that scarcely any manure has been given," that "there is nothing but 

 a dusting of bone meal in the soil, &c," the veracity of 

 which statements can only be admitted on the assumption 

 that they do not measure their quantities by our standard. 

 Not long since I saw, amongst a collection of large stemmed plants, one 

 of Madame Carnot, with the main growth divided right through the 

 centre, showing quite a hollow stem, surely a condition which cannot 

 result satisfactorily. It has been frequently urged upon those readers 

 who have still this lesson to learn, that fine blooms are produced on 

 solid, sturdy, well-matured growth, and that gross, succulent plants will 

 not yield nearly such good flowers as those with comparatively small but 

 sound shoots. 



Other evils consequent on too high feeding, also, are "damping 5 ' of 

 the blooms, a predisposition to the attacks of mildew and of the new 

 fungus or leaf rust which will establish its spores much more readily on 

 soft, fleshy foliage than on leaves of hard texture. A robust, healthy 

 growth is, of course, necessary to enable the plants to develop high-class 

 flowers, and considerable use of manure is requisite to obtain this, but 

 caution against extremes is very important. Plants which were potted 

 early in June will, by this time, have freely occupied the soil with roots, 

 and are in condition to receive weak supplies of liquid manures. As we 

 do not use soot in the soil for potting, a light dusting of the surface will 

 prove a simple means of affording this stimulant now, or otherwise it may 

 be supplied in water, a bag of soot being plunged into the tank from 

 which supplies are taken. The former method answers well during 

 showery weather. Give this once all round to the plants, then a weak 

 watering of liquid cow manure may follow after clear water has been used 

 for a day or two. As the season advances and the extra growth demands 



ty^ava ^itt%Mi^««A • ^ .1 • i i _ - • a.L ^ +V»a enrvrvllPQ OT 



♦v.o« v. ir . r , r more support owing to the partial exhaustion of the soil the supplies of 



man nait a century numbers of the population in the Highlands of Scot- liquid manure may be more frequent and varied. Drainage from stables 



land have earned a fair lmng by collecting the J^ecauora tartara, or or farm yard, diluted to a safe condition, is a good manure, usually one of 



cuaDear, scraping it off the rocks on which it grows so abundantly in the strongest. Manure from horses or poultry may be also used m the 



tnose parts. Loudon states that when large quantities were collected it same way as the soot by placing a quantity in a coarse hemp bag 



Z a t . ™ sen \ t0 , Glasgow, where it was employed for dying wool purple, and plunging in a tank of water. I t is well to bear in mind that of the 



It is not so good though as that sent to us from the Canary Islands. The 

 orchal or orchil which is, procured from the volcanic rocks there, is used 

 here in large quantities, the value imported being over ^100,000 annually, 

 ihe well-known chemical test called Litmus is produced from the 

 colouring matter of orchil. Other lichens give us yellow, blue, and red 

 (the primary colours) dyes. 



Coming now to the mosses, it may be mentioned that these form one 

 ot the families or classes into which all vegetables are divided by 

 Linnneus in the " Philosophia Botanica." In Ray's method the mosses 

 torm 1 the third class, and in Tournefort's they constitute a single genus, 

 in the sexual system they are the second order of the class Cryptogamia, 

 wnicn contains all the plants in which the parts of the flower or fruit are 

 wanting or are not conspicuous. They form a natural order of small 

 plants, with leafy stems and narrow simple leaves. Their flowers are 



lan 



Well, at Holywell 



th 



thmwn An 7*. !, ng ^ the effect tha * St. Winifred was beheaded ana 



cm e~d ™ *** blood has « v€r since tin S ed the »oss- 



to tradition n • \ m ° SS fami ] y has in man y other instances lent itself 

 mosrwonder 1S Tn C ° UrSe ' Un , d , er the microscope that the mosses afford 

 SS mosses ln^ » m ° SSeS .' ^ the Aliens, are cosmopolists. The 



v'egetarnloundT^ ^Jffsfi* and ? ?5 " 

 urn mosses are to kl f® .„J?lf I V he - pasting snow limit Some of the 



feet. From the 



— t""»«6*"g "i <x iauK. 01 water. 11 is wen iu uou ■*■•«•— 



animal manures, that from cows is the weakest and from poultry the 

 richest, the latter consequently requiring more dilution. The sediment 

 which would collect on the surface soil if the manure were stirred loose 

 in the tank, is avoided bv using the hemp bags, and very properly so, 

 because it is very essential to keep the soil perfectly free and porous to 

 the constant supplies of water which the plants require. At a later penoa 

 a light dusting of either of the special manures, may be given with advan- 

 tage, as a change, always following with clear water for a lew aa>>. 

 Plants require less manure during rainy weather, and this musi 

 especially be taken into consideration later in the season. 



The leaf mining grub has been more troublesome than usual this year, 

 handpicking is the remedy, and though the attacks of the insects jn* 

 cease by the end of July, it is important to destroy as many as possiwe 

 to prevent injury to the lower leaves and ultimate increase otw ) 

 which, through its eggs, produces the grub. Attention in W, 1 

 shoots is extremely important with such very brittle varieties as bnowau , 



sts are to be found at a height : o Pi 080 to 8 ooo 

 downwards, and f~~- *J . c 01 7>°?° to b,ooo 



Lapland 



found. 



are 



Joseph Brooks, and Austral 

 ng usually as destructive to the tops of such vaneuc ~ 

 .-ugh winds. The side shoots must be kept carefully removed a 

 l. tle services of this kind must be regularly carried out to keep 

 plants in proper trim, and to confine their energies to building up so 

 growths and future buds. A caution, too, may be given, against 

 . tak,n & " of buds too early. Very few indeed, should be retained Unit 

 the middle of August. Mrs Weeks must not be allowed to . gro« 

 again if the bud shows d.irine- the first week of next month, or 



reindeer, too eke* out th*' ° { them ' and al so use them as candlewicks 

 else can be written. SpafSe P rovis ions with them, but really litt! 



In and several others. 



John 



little 



Wm. Norman BrownJ 



July 

 secured. 



Gardens, 



W. H. LEES. 



