204 
MANAGEMENT OF TROPiEOLUM POLYPHYLLUM. 
can now be purchased for a very trifling sum. We have catalogues before us, 
which show that for three or four pounds, a person may furnish himself with 
appliances, mechanical and chemical, that will force Nature to answer, as it were, 
every reasonable question put to her in the form of a faithful analysis. What 
excuse can there be found, if any influential Horticultural Society remain without 
means of instruction, so cheaply attainable ? 
The ashes of plants, as Liebig was the first to impress, furnish the reply to 
every inquiry concerning the application of any sort of aliment which is specifically 
essential ; and now, with this remark, we offer to the reader a few lines extracted 
from a prize-essay, by an American writer, which at this moment only has met 
our eye. This essay claims the serious attention of every tyro in the art of 
manuring, and we refer him to it, commencing at p. 246, of the " Farmers' 
Magazine," for September instant. In section 12, p. 258, there are most perti- 
nent remarks on ashes, which, however, our limits constrain us to abbreviate. 
" We have in ashes a great variety of substances ; they come from the soil ; 
they form a part of plants. The dead plant returns them again to their mother 
earth ; or we, losing the volatile parts of a plant, its mould and ammonia, by 
burning, collect its salt as ashes. Let us see what these salts are — 
THE BASES ARE— THE ACIDS ARE — 
Potash and soda. Carbonic, or carbon united to oxygen. 
Lime. Phosphoric, or phosphorus united to oxygen. 
Magnesia. Sulphuric, or sulphur united to oxygen. 
Clay. Muriatic, essentially composed of chlorine." 
Iron. 
Manganese. 
Silex, or the earth of flints. 
In Guano we possess all these acids, and the greater number of the bases ; in 
it, therefore, we possess the means of restoring old effete manures, and of conferring 
qualities on poor soils. But we require faithful analyses, to instruct us how to 
apply it with specific good effect ; and these are in a state of rapid progress. 
MANAGEMENT OF TROP^EOLUM POLYPHYLLUM. 
At the time our figure of this plant was published, (Vol. x., p. 175,) appear- 
ances seemed to indicate that it would prove a shy-blooming plant. It is, 
however, with pleasure that we now find ourselves enabled to record, what indeed 
was then suggested, that the deficiency and rapid passing away of the blossoms 
only resulted from an unsuitable course of treatment. 
On its first introduction, the species, being a native of Peru, was naturally 
considered a somewhat tender plant, and cultivated accordingly, in a pot, under 
