1.32 
ON MANURE. 
of a particular species, by employing a quantity of earth (such as the plant delights 
in), in the different crannies and crevices; and, as in the case of various terrestrial 
orehidaceae, which naturally choose limestone in preference to any other stone, 
wherever any partiality is displayed, it should be humoured, observing only, that 
but one description of rock shall meet the eye. Thus chips of Bath stone, or 
common sandstone, which imbibe a considerable quantity of moisture, and part 
with it slowly, forming a reservoir from which an even and constant amount of 
moisture is supplied, may be used with advantage in places not exposed to view ; 
and indeed any porous stone, though differing from that principally employed, may 
be used beneath the surface. Rough arms of decayed wood may appear here and 
there for epiphytal orchidaceae, without impropriety. Hence, whilst the eye 
observes nothing unnatural or inconsistent in the groundwork, all the varied 
vegetation that clothes it, may severally meet with their peculiar wants. 
It must be evident that on the irregular, convex, or sloping surface of rockery, 
there will be room for a greater number of plants than can be cultivated on a flat 
surface. We would therefore suggest for large conservatories that, independent of 
the main rock work, at least a portion of the borders should be raised in the middle, 
and partly covered with rock ; upon which, beneath the partial shade of taller 
plants, ferns and a few rapid-growing trailing things might be planted. 
As large houses are likely soon to become much more frequent than they have 
hitherto been, greater facilities will be opened for the formation of glass-house 
rockeries. We therefore leave the subject for the present, in the hope that the 
propriety and ornamental advancement of cultivating tender exotics on rockwork, 
will be more fully appreciated and practically adopted. 
ON MANURE. 
We have been in the habit of considering as manure every decomposable or 
putrescent material which exists naturally in, or is artificially added to, the earths. 
Thus, the fibrous masses left in the ground, green vegetable subtances chopped to 
pieces and dug in, and the black vegetable portions of heath or moor-soil are in 
reality, manures. Earths proper, namely — alumine and clay, silex or sand, chalk, 
phosphate of lime, and metallic oxides are themselves almost insoluble ; and can 
act only, or chiefly, as the bed, or fundamental support, of plants : or, to speak 
more philosophically, — the laboratory — wherein the interchange between the 
laborated products of decomposition and the roots of the plant is carried on. These 
general truths are equally applicable to garden and pot-culture — there is no 
distinction so far, between the processes of the florist, the amateur, the nursery- 
man, and market-gardener — all are included therein. 
Our present remarks will not apply to solid manures ; the subject which claims 
