126 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the tree in close plantations show to what a large size the Douglas 

 Fir attains in stated periods of time. This report is rendered of special 

 value to British foresters, as the tree is likely to be largely planted in 

 the future.— A. D. W. 



Draeocephalum argunense {Boi. Mag. t. 8384).— North- 



Eastern Asia. Family, Labiatae; tribe, Nepeteae. Perennial herb 

 1-2 feet high,, hairy. Leaves l^-2f inches long, linear to lanceolate. 

 Whorls, 2-6 flowered; corolla 1^-1^ inches long, violet, villous. — G. H. 



Drainag'e, The Principles and Practice of Land. By E. E. 



Jones (U.S.A. Exp. Stn., Wisconsin, Bull. 199; July 1910; 15 figs.). 

 It is estimated that over 7,000,000 acres of land in Wisconsin need 

 draining, and of this one-third consists of muck and peat marshes and 

 two-thirds mostly of wet clays. This bulletin deals fully with the 

 practical work of draining these lands. — A. P. 



Eichhornia crassipes (Water Hyacinth). By G. Marks (Agr. 

 Gaz. N.S.W. vol. xxh. pt. vi. pp. 509-13; 4 plates).— The Water 

 Hyacinth introduced into the rivers on the North Coast (Australia) has 

 become a serious pest, choking up the waterways and rendering the 

 water unfit for drinking purposes. The only remedy is to drag the 

 ponds and rivers, spread the hyacinths on the banks to dry, and burn 

 them.— ,9. E. W. 



ElectrOCUlture. By E. Pagne (Rev. Hort. Beige, p. 196; June 

 15, 1911). — Important results which have been arrived at lately have 

 given renewed interest to the subject of cultivation by electricity. In j 

 the course of years several different processes of applying electricity I 

 to agriculture have been tried. Some experimenters have used the 

 electric current as the producer of warmth and light, which may be 

 called the indirect method, and they have asserted that the develop- 

 ment of the plant and the formation of chlorophyll was favourably 

 influenced in this way. Others have used the direct method — that is, 

 they have exposed the plants to the direct influence of the mysterious 

 action of the current without the apparent production of either light 

 or heat. i 



To apply this last method it is possible to have recourse either to i 

 artificial or natural electricity. The first of these is obviously the most j 

 costly agent, and its use is only possible when the cultivator is in the j 

 neighbourhood of a system of electric wires. The second is within the i 

 reach of every purse, and in the electricity furnished by Nature (in j 

 soil and atmosphere) we may find an inexhaustible source of energy. 

 It happens, therefore, that it is on the lines suggested by the well- ! 

 ascertained phenomenon of the accelerated growth of vegetation after •. 

 a thunderstorm, that the latest experimenters with electricity in plant- 

 cultivation have worked. This article mentions the names of several 

 earlier investigators and then gives a detailed description of an appara- 

 tus invented by Lieutenant Basty pf Angers, with th^ results of his, I 



