62G 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Fertilizers, Plot Experiments with. By J. H. Steward and 



Horace Atwood {U.S.A. Exp. Stn., West Virginia, Bull. 131; Nov. 

 1910; plates). — The soil on which these experiments were tried is 

 a Permeo-Carboniferous one, lightish, of a sandy texture, easily tilled, 

 but drying too rapidly in summer. The fertilizers tried were sodium 

 nitrate, stable manure, acid phosphate, potassium sulphate, and lime, 

 in varying quantities and combinations. 



The results are given for each year^ and were continued for eleven 

 years. The conclusions drawn from the work of the whole period are 

 as follows : — • 



That the stock of phosphoric acid in the soil was so low that this 

 deficiency had to be supplied before either nitrogen or potash was of 

 any value. When once the phosphoric acid was supplied, however, 

 tlie want of the other two constituents was at once felt. Applications 

 of lime have so far not proved of much benefit. 



Within the limits of the crops grown it may be said that a fertilizer 

 which gives good results with one crop will give good results with 

 another crop grown on the same or similar soil. There are, however, 

 some minor exceptions to this rule. Indian corn responds more 

 favourably to a dressing of stable manure than it does to an application 

 of commercial fertilizer, while with Oowpeas the opposite is true. 

 Stable manure has again demonstrated its great value as a restorer of 

 fertility to a poor wOrn-out soil. More manure should be produced on 

 West Virginia farms, and it should be applied more systematically and 

 more intelligently than it is at present. — M. L. H. 



Fokienia, A new genus of Coniferae. By Aug. Henry (Gard. 



Chron., xlix., p. 67; Feb. 4, 1911; 4 figs.). — An account of a tree 

 described by Mr. S. T. Dunn in 1908 as a new species of Cupressus 

 which had been discovered by Captain Hodgins. After a careful 

 examination of material received from Mr. H. Clinton Baker, with 

 the assistance of Mr. H. Hamshaw Thomas, the writer comes to the 

 conclusion that the tree in question should be made the type of a 

 new genus — namely, Fokienia A. Henry and H. H. Thomas. It 

 is intermediate in its characters between Cupressus and Lihocedrus, 

 and may be briefly characterized as an evergreen tree belonging to 

 the Cupressineae, with cones similar to those of Cupressus (section 

 Chamaecyparis) in being globose in form, and composed of numerous 

 peltate scales, but with each scale bearing two seeds which are like 

 those of LihocedriLs in having two very unequal lateral wings, while 

 the foliage is nearly identical with that prevalent in the Chinese and 

 North American representatives of the last named genus. 



Only a single species, Fokienia Hodginsii A. Henry and H. H. 

 Thomas, is known. It is a tree which reaches a height of forty feet 

 and three feet in girth. The foliage is described in detail and com- 

 pared with that of Libocedrus macrolepis. In adult trees the arrange- 

 r;ient of leaves on tlie main axes in older branchlets differs m the two 

 genera. No staminate flowers have been observed. The female ones 



