290 
HOEING, RAKING, AND WEEDING. 
shining surface, marked longitudinally with 
five nerves or ribs, and furnished with reticu- 
lated veins between the ribs. The flowers 
grow singly from the axils of the leaves, on 
stalks, which exceed in length the stalks of the 
leaves. They are handsome, lily-like, pendu- 
lous, about three inches long, and expanding 
at the mouth to about two inches and a half, 
the form of the expanded flower being bell- 
shaped, a little compressed ; the flowers are 
formed of six petals or flower-leaves, of which 
the three exterior ones are somewhat keeled 
at the base, and the inner three somewhat 
clawed ; the colour is a deep rose, internally 
spotted with white, the three interior petals 
being broader, as well as more thickly spotted 
than the others. Ruiz and Pavon describe the 
colour of the flowers, as varying from rose to 
rose-crimson. 
The native country of the genus, of which 
at present, we believe, only one species is known, 
is Chili. The plant has not yet, it appears, 
produced blossoms in England, although grow- 
ing in a vigorous condition, to the height of 
six feet, in the nursery of Messrs. Veitch. A 
beautiful figure, prepared partly from dried 
flowers, and partly from coloured drawings 
made in its native place of growth, has 
been recently published in the Botanical 
Magazine. 
The fruit of this plant, a large oblong pulpy 
berry, is in Chili held in some estimation as an 
esculent fruit, and is said to have a sweet 
agreeable flavour. In addition to this, the 
roots are used by the Chilenos, as a substitute 
for those of Smilax Sarsaparilla, the Sarsa- 
parilla of the shops. 
We know little of the cultivation of this 
plant as yet. That at Kew has not been found 
to make much progress ; but on the other 
hand, Messrs. Veitch's plant is extremely 
flourishing ; so that, on the whole, it will pro- 
bably turn out to be of easy culture. It will 
at least be sufficiently' hardy to rank among 
greenhouse climbers, and may perhaps suc- 
ceed in sheltered places out of doors ; that is, 
trained against out-door walls, if the situation be 
at all adapted to plants not perfectly hardy. 
The name, Lapageria, was given by Ruiz 
and Pavon, in honour of Josephine Lapagerie, 
the wife of Napoleon Buonaparte, and in com- 
memoration of the patronage she bestowed on 
the science of botany, not only in the encou- 
ragement of botanical authors, but also in fur- 
thering the cultivation of exotic plants, in the 
beautiful gardens of Malmaison. 
HOEING, RAKING, AND WEEDING. 
The operation of hoeing consists in the use 
of the well-known implement called the hoe, 
which is a plate of steel variously formed, and 
as variously set to a (usually long) handle ; 
and which being furnished with a sharp cut- 
ting edge, acts by slicing or paring, as it were, 
the crust of the soil. 
It was formerly the custom to have re- 
course to the use of the hoe as a means of 
destroying the weeds, with which, as is known 
to every one, the surface of the ground be- 
comes covered, if left undisturbed for a 
greater or less length of time. Usually, 
except during winter, a very short period 
will suffice to allow the surface of the ground 
to become covered with this extraneous vege- 
tation. It was to destroy these weeds that 
hoeing was formerly had recourse to ; and it 
is often practised even now, in many); gar- 
dens, with no higher purpose than the mere 
destruction of weeds. 
But it is well known that the growth of 
vegetation of any kind, extracts from the soil 
the nutriment with which it was charged in 
proportion to the degree of its develop- 
ment. Weeds, therefore, in perfecting their 
growth, extract some of this nutriment ; and 
as they serve no good purpose, it must be 
evident that what they draw from the soil for 
their support, is as it were stolen from the 
crops which are intended to occupy, or which 
may be occupying, the soil where they are 
found. Now, as weeds are entirely useless, 
this much of the produce of the soil, or of 
its capacity to produce, is lost — wasted. 
The proper application of the hoe should 
prevent this from taking place. 
Hoeing, therefore, it will be perceived 
ought not to be an operation of destroying 
weeds, but of preventing them. In other 
words, instead of allowing the surface of the 
soil to lie neglected until it is covered with a 
crop of useless vegetation, and then cutting 
this down and removing it, the surface should 
be frequently broken up by the hoe, so fre- 
quently, indeed, that the weeds may not have 
time to do more, at the utmost, than just to 
break through the soil. Whatever nutriment 
the soil contains is thus retained for the use- 
ful crops with which the soil is to be planted, 
instead of being stolen away from them by 
useless, and in fact injurious herbage ; for it 
must be remembered, too, that when the 
ground is clothed with weeds, the rays of the 
sun and the air are prevented from acting on 
and conveying to it those vivifying principles 
