171 
that are most efficient in supplyin;^ the plant with water by 
atinosplieric absorption, are those in which there is a due mix- 
ture of sand, finely divided clay, and carbonate of lime, with 
some animal or vegetable matter : and which are so loose and 
light as to be permeable to the atmosphere. With respect to 
this quality, carbonate of lime and animal and vegetable matter 
are of great use in soils ; they give absorbent power to the soil 
without giving it likewise tenacity: sand, which also destroys 
tenacity, on the contrary, gives little absorbent power.” Due 
attention to the foregoing observations cannot ffiil of being use- 
ful to those who are desirous of increasing the productive qual- 
ities of their soil ; an object which is sometimes sought without 
the guidance of any scientific or rational principle. 
17o FjEOM V MOUTAN, TO INCREASE. Various methods may be 
|)ractised to increase the Tree Paeony, none of which, however, 
seem to have the effect of making it a cheap and generally cul- 
tivated plant. This can but be regretted, on account of its 
splendour and its hardiness. Under No. 241, in the Botanic 
(iarden, we have published a method of raising young plants 
with facility, and it lias been practised very successfully, by 
many amateur gardeners, but it has not been attended to 
generally. Another method has been adopted liy M. Soulange 
Bodin of Paris, and published in I.e Bon .Jardinier for 1839. 
A translation is given in the 15th volume of the Gardener’s 
Magazine. The method is simply that of cleft-grafting a 
young shoot of the Tree Picony on a tuber of the common 
herbaceous Pa>ony, placing it in a pot, plunging it heat, and 
covering it with a liell-glass. It is recommended that the 
operation be performed at the end of .luly or beginning of 
August. IMr. Loudon observes, that “Mr. IMasters of Canter- 
bury has adopted this mode of propagating, with this difference, 
that, after grafting, the graft being tied with bast, and covered 
with grafting-wax, the whole is inserted into a bed of tan, 
leaving only about half an inch of the point of the scion above 
the surface. The grafted plants are inserted in the angular 
interstices between the pots, with which the pit is usually 
occupied; two, three, or four, are placed together, according 
to the size of the triangular space; and a larger or smaller 
l)ell-glass is placed over them, as may be requisite. The tubers 
throw out roots by the end of .September, or the beginning of 
18G .t.DCTA.SICM. 
