HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 39 
physical properties unnecessary, while, on the other hand, these properties 
secured, his only further inquiry is to ascertain that nothing actually inju- 
rious to vegetation exists in the soil. 
It has been, and still is, in many quarters, a prevalent opinion that the 
majority of our finest exotics, cannot attain perfection, unless they are 
planted in peaty soil. This fancy has been the greatest obstacle to im- 
proved plant culture in this country. Peat is rather an indefinite term, as 
expressive of soils, many kinds of widely different character and value are 
classed under that general appellation. The peat used in English gardens, 
and so frequently alluded to in English garden literature, is a substance 
very seldom met with here. It is simply the surface taken from uncultivated 
lands where the native heath and other similar plants have been growing 
undisturbed for ages. Extensive tracks of this description of land are 
common, where the roots of these plants have formed a surface of fibry 
matter, intermixed with sand and pebbles to a considerable depth. The 
surface to a few inches deep is carefully collected, and after undergoing 
slight decomposition to destroy vegetation, forms the peat we read about, 
and is the principal soil used in the production of these magnificent specimens 
of pot culture which our horticultural editors delight in figuring, to the no 
small mortification of unsuccesful gardeners and young amateurs. The 
general appearance of these specimens being that of a large globe or balloon, 
covered with flowers and set in a very small pot. The portrait being much 
nearer perfection than the original from which it was taken. 
The soil just described is, of course, quite a different thing from the de- 
composed accumulations of vegetable origin, found in marshy and swampy 
localities, also called peat, and used as such in the growth of plants, but 
utterly unfitted to produce healthy vegetation. The proper name of this 
substance is bog-mould, and is valuable in composition with lime and other 
matters as a manure, but by itself is too acid and inert to afford vegetable 
sustenance. When we consider the source from whence plants receive their 
principal nourishment, and their mode of feeding, the advantages of a fibry 
soil, such as is afforded in the English peat, is readily apparent. Nine- 
tenths of the whole bulk of green vegetable matter is derived either directly 
from, or through the agency of air and water. The roots, therefore, require 
to be surrounded by a medium at all times permeated by these atmospheric 
gases. 
Soils chemically fertile have been found unproductive, because these 
decomposing agencies were excluded. The soil is the laboratory of natui-e 
where she prepares the food of plants ; her active agents are air and water, 
