THE 



GARDENERS 



MAGAZINE. 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER i 7 , 1898. 



Owing to 



NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS. 



continued increase in circulation, the " Gardeners' Magazine 



yf 



2 goes to press on Wednesday. No advertisement can be guaranteed - t without slightest % ^ 

 nslrtion, or altered, unless received before Four p.m. on that day. * exposure 



NOTES OF THE WEEK. 



LEAVES AND FRONDS. 



Leaves and fronds appear so generally similar in character that we 

 » apt to lose sight of the fundamental differences between them, 

 aves, versatile as they are in the production of diverse methods of 

 King,' or veining, or colouring, twisting or twirling, or bunching, or 

 anching, are but auxiliaries in the one great function of the plant, that 

 reproduction by seed. To arrive at this, evolution has managed las a 



able as to admit of it being being efficiently and economically used. 

 Were it otherwise, we should not so frequently see men engaged in 



? a ™" g the , Wate 5. f f 0m great de P ths by means offeree pumps, and using 



to atmospheric influences. On the 

 owners taking full advantage of natural forces, 

 or, m other words, they would provide the machinery by which wind in 

 lieu of highly-paid labour, would raise ample supplies at an infinitesimal 

 cost. We have on several occasions directed attention to the great value 

 of wind engines as the motive power for force pumps, and we have shown 

 how Messrs. Bunyard and Co. obtain abundant supplies for their 

 Allington nurseries by means of a wind engine erected on the higher 

 ground. We have also referred to the fact that upon Lord Spencer's 

 estate in Northamptonshire two villages are regularly supplied with 

 water by the agency of wind engines. The subject is, in fact, one to 

 which we have devoted a considerable i share of attention, and we now 



. utterly to transform the leaves proper, under favourable circum- re f er t0 5t for the purpose of showing the enormous quantity of water a 



nces, into the altogether dissimilar, and usually much more beautiful fairl y powerful engine will raise in the course of twelve months. We 



>roductive apparatus which we know as flowers. So thorough, indeed, have before ™ the carefully-kept record of the year's work of a sixteen- 



the metamorphosis, that it is mainly the scientific botanist who grasps foot geared wind engine, which has its axis eighty-two feet above the 



i real facts, though here and there, as in the callas, we see the ground. The engine is of steel, and its work is done through one 



itionship of leaf and flower plants clear enough, and floral abnormalities °f more of four pumps (a) a reciprocating pump with fourteen-inch 



piston ; (b) a bucket pump with a normal capacity of one hundred and 



same thing in different fashions. In the fern, however, " we twenty gallons per minute ; and {c and d) two centrifugal pumps, which 



in vain for similar transformation, and although we get here and were not found satisfactory with wind as the motive power. The second 



there apparent attempts at it, such as in the royal or so-called flowering P um P required the least power to work it, and was used with light winds, 



fern, the aneimias, the lunarias, and others, the resemblance dis- Wlth a stronger wind the reciprocating pump was used, and with a very 



appears on close investigation, since no trace is discernible of the stron S wind the tw0 P um P s were run t0 S ether - Th « water was pumped 



e green roses, and the brilliantly coloured bracts of poinsettias display 



narvdlous arrangement of petal, stamens, stigma, pollen and ovary, 



into a self-emptying and self-registering tank, and the total quantity 



which go to constitute a flower. All we find in these is a contraction of raised > neglecting decimals, was 2,345,053 cubic feet, or sufficient to 

 the frond into a mass or masses of spore capsules, and examining the cover seventy-nine acres to a depth of twelve inches, and as one inch of 



tacks of fronds of other ferns not so differentiated, we find still these 

 ipore capsules in heaps, or lines, or dots, or generally spread over the 



water is equivalent to one hundred tons per acre, there will be no 

 difficulty in ascertaining the weight of the water raised. The variation 



•Ace according to the specific character of the fructification. Never in the velocity of the wind renders it necessary to provide storage for the 

 a flower, and yet if we study the evolution of flowering plants, we shall water Pimped to ensure a supply for irrigation when needed ; but apart 

 fed far away in a dim and distant past these flowerless ferns must have from the cost of the tanks this is an advanta S e > for Wlth an °P en reservoir 



hecn their progenitors ; and further we are confronted with the fact tha 

 fenis having managed to exist ever since that 1 distant period, there must 

 ■c some efficacious reproductive scheme to keep them going. 



in the wonder ; we drop one of the millions of spores on a 



Here 



the water becomes aerated, and during the summer months warmed also. 

 The tank should, of course, be placed at a sufficient height for the water to 

 flow over the whole of the garden, and with sufficient force to be 



we drop one of the millions of spores on a used for washin £ and 0ther J?* T ° sh< / w f hmv lhe x ™ [iU ™ 



m of damp clay, and watch it. In a week or two it has developed in the velocit y of the wind ^ affeCt the * UPP , y f °7 mg T' 



emerald green heartlet, like a herring scale, and about the same y ear ' s work of the mil1 was dlVlded ,nt ° pen ° dS ° f i ayS f T ' 

 *- »:-> •' • • ■- 0 the smallest quantity raised in any one period was sufficient to cover 



nearly ten acres to a depth of one inch. It will therefore be seen that 

 while the wind engine works only when the wind is sufficiently strong, it 

 can be depended upon, with storage accommodation, to produce large 

 pplies in proportion to its power, and thus materially reduce the cost of 



Pick this prothallus up, and put it under a strong lens, and, behold, 

 * mm Of the fern are there ; there lies the embryo seed ; thither 

 the f ««ilizing brood of antherozoids, and presently the seed 

 Wjrates, up comes a tiny frond, down dips a tiny root, and a fern is born 

 •«» 'ntents and purposes in precisely the same fashion as a flower. The su PP lies 1 

 ^therefore, differs from the frond in one great essential ; it bears no watenn g- 

 T^ucuve bodies, hence 



«£ethe A flowering plants proper differ from ferns, 



» a m y P e no s P or es, which form independent flowering plants 

 fcfflad" 0550 ? 10 SCalC ' but bearthem selves the incipient seeds which 

 •Wftof Z a !^ Usand and one fashions by wind or insect agencv. 



mis difference has been an entirely different irnH* «f , 



IMPORTS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES. 



are 



•wction-tK uccn an entirety airterent mode of natural in uul " ll,c ""r iu ? ' 



l**^ c ^ lcuous to™ once st^ri attracted insects by virtue trade with the United States 

 Ok ae Hence > ^creased in size and brilliancy, and varied in £tf45,W, equal to I IS per <** 



The returns of the Board of Trade for August are more satisfactory 

 than were those for the three preceding months, for there are increases 

 in both the imports and exports, and evidence of an augmentation of our 



__ . - „. ._- imports show an increase of 



x m as well th ' mcreased in size and brilliancy, and varied in 

 ••dttill and ! ncons P' cuous microscopic fern flower, however, has 

 ***** divert f° St ldentical in ever y s P ecies and genus, despite the to 7*5 per 



ersity of s i ze and cutting which has been evolved m Qth 



t _ ere is an increase of £ 1,4*2,019, equal 



cent" With thi large increase in the imports of general 

 commodities it ' is interesting to observe that there is an exact 

 baSnTe between the increases and decreases of the imports of fruit 

 and vegetables. Apples were received in smaller quantities than for 

 Lveral y ars past, the imports amounting to ,,6,860 bushels, of the 

 alue 0^34,083 a decrease in quantity of 65,887, and ,n value of 

 V,* ./i Dnrine the eight months ending August 31 we .mported 



fl tt 7 bushdf of he value of £&A<5, against 2,300,6,7 bushels, 

 , 062,427 bushels 0 t Qf chcrneS) Qn 



of the value of £0.54,000, iu « r k™a-|« and in 



,he Cher hand, evince an increase ,n quanu y bush dv »dm 



OO.OOO 



The ion Water wkkly for GARDENS. 



n ^ced g o^?!l Ued dry and ex eessively hot weather which has been 



*^si*ed th/;i grCater part of lhe United K 'ng d om has greatly 



in relation to the 



' * h 10 JSm Str ° nkr relief the necessity for a serious attempt 



4^ - ™ country ^e mpr ° Ve the SUpplies of water in majority of 



insist upon the 



2j 6oistu '*, the 1 ?r0 Z mg Cr ° pS 0f al1 des oriptions well supplied 



of Sequent 0verhead washings of fruit trees, or the 



2? for aU these th ngS of lawns and ten ™'s courts in dry pared with 1896. 



-T ^L th -\-« for the manage- of grapes for the W J ^^ T ^\*Z^ 



^^^^^^^ and nuts T d as food ' and d 



laree decrease in the receipts of pears. In August, ,897, we .mported 

 ?25 S 53 n Mrs . of the value of ^,54,638 ; but last month the 



£ 



£i3>°o l 



01 A 1 * 001 ; , - th , 8 Q 7 and of almost double the quantity as com- 



bushels ascomparea wun iov/, . „ MMC ; c n ic^ lars?e 



tKa inrrease in the imports of grapes is aisa »aree 



been 



^98 



th« °*ners of tt ' 1 "~ ^ w»«cmciy uhiiuuii 10 



«fc^.^ntialtoth e f 1 ,,T C f l ablishment s that a liberal supply of 



* " to persu^. T ae yelopment of their resources. Still more 



<nem that the supply should be so readily avail- 



