58 
THE SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
but, above all, by the purity ol the color itself. 
The first quality, estimated by this last test, is 
called, in commercial language, jive blue; the 
wtxi, ordinary blue ; ther\, fine purple, &c.. The 
most inferior is known SlS ordinary copper. 
The Indigo of Java is superior to that of any 
other country. The importations into the Uni- 
ted States, are chiefly from the British East In- 
dies, Manilla, the Philippine Islands, and from 
Colombia. — (Comm. Diet) 
McCulloch states, “ that the culture of Indi- 
go in the East is very precarious, not only as re- 
spects the growth of the plant from year to year, 
but also as regards the quantity and quality of 
the drug, which the same amount of plant will 
afibrd even in the same season.” The favora- 
bleness of our climate will secure the cultiva- 
torSj in this country, from such losses. This is 
applicable to the culture of Cotton ; and the ad- 
%mntages we have in this, will place us beyond 
the GoatingencieSj in respect to the Indigo, to 
which the Eastern countries are subject, from 
the peculiar character of their climate. 
A Subscriber. 
Claihorvie, Ala, 
For the Southern Cultivate*. 
CURE OF SWINEY. 
Swiney is a disease, by which many of our 
finest road horses are annually retired from the 
saddle or harness, and turned out to pasture as 
almost worthless, or sold for one-third their val- 
ue. We have seen and tried a number of pre- 
scriptions for the relief of this troublesome af- 
fection of the shoulder, such as ironing, rubbing 
with the oil of earth worms, and various stimu- 
lating liniments, the introduction of seatons, 
lengthy incisions with a deposif gf poke root, to 
produce suppuration, &c. ; many of which are 
worthless, and others both cruel and injurious. 
Ths disease may be cured in less than a 
month, and the horse used dally if necessary, 
though it is best to give him rest if convenient. 
As soon as you discover the disease— which will 
be known by noticing the horse while standing 
alter use, and it may be seen even in the stall, 
he will sustain the weight of the body on the 
opposite limb, and put forward the limb of the 
affected side, permitting it to touch the ground 
but lightly, limps when hurried down hill, the 
muscle upon the shoulder becomes thin, and in 
many instances the skin contracted and tight, — 
put a twist upon his upper lip, and introduce the 
small blade of a common pocket knife, (thepoin*^ 
of which must be sharp,) into the thinnest part 
of the shoulder, which will be near the upper 
margin of the shoulder blade, and push it direct- 
ly in until you reach the bone, holding the knife 
as you would a pen when waiting, and scratch 
up the membrane that covers the hope for a space 
the size of a silver dollar ; the knife may then 
be withdrawn, and alter the small quantity of 
blood that follows is wiped aw'ay, the orifice 
will not be seen. The knife may then be intro- 
duced in one or two places below the first, and 
used in the same way, and the operation isover. 
This may be repeated in six or eight days : we 
have but seldom found it necessary to repeat the 
operation more than twice or thrice, and in 
many cases a single operation will efiect acure. 
A;ppling, AjprU lOth, 1844. 
LECTURE, 
On the Elements of Horticulture, delivered before the 
Agricultural, Horticultural, and Botanical Society of 
Jefferson College, Miss., at Washington, Wednesday, 
1st November, 1843 — By Thos. Affleck. 
Ladies and Gentlemen: — I would just re- 
mark, before entering upon my subject, that this 
being my first attempt at any thing like a pub- 
lic lecture, I would crave 5 mur kind indulgence. 
The subject 1 have chosen is, the nature and 
structure of plants, applied especially to the theory 
and practice of Horticulture. It is a subject em- 
bracing a wide field ; and one on which it would 
be difficult to give you much that is really new. 
But, though many ot my hearers are, no doubt, 
fully as conversant with the subject as I am, 
and are as intimately acquainted with the works 
of Decandblle, Knight, Bindley, Teshemacher , 
and others to whom I shall be largely indebted 
before 1 close, 1 shall yet be able to lay open to 
many of those present, much that is new and in- 
teresting in the wondrous laws and operations 
of vegetable life. And I would especially 
crave the attention of the ladies, as I shall here 
endeavor to answer sundry enquiries made of 
me relative to this subject; and especially in its 
application to the culture and propagation ot 
fiow'ers and shrubs. 1 must beg of them, how- 
ever, to take my precept rather than follow my 
example — as I fear that if they j udge of me by 
the condition ot my garden, they will not place 
a very high value on my advice. However, la- 
dies,, let me suggest, that though the tree &ust 
be j^ged of by its fruits, it must have time and 
opportunity to produce that fruit t But, endugh 
of preface, 
I have brought with me a few specimens of 
plants, and parts of plants, that I may enlist the 
eye as well as the ear, and thus be enabled to 
make myself more easily understood than I 
would be otherwise. 
Here, then, is a plant which all will recog- 
nise, as affording the principal, nay, only staple 
of this region — the cotton plant. Here we have 
roots, stems and branches, leaf-buds and leaves, 
flower-buds and flowers, fruit, or seed-vessels 
and seeds — for the perfection of which last, the 
seeds, the functions of all the other parts are ex- 
ercised. 
Within this little seed is contained the perfect 
plant— the embryo, or small particle of pollen — 
the fertilizing principle, deposited whilst the 
flow'er or blossom is in perfection, upon the pis- 
til, by means of which it is conveyed to the cells 
or seed-vessels, where it is vivified and becomes 
a perfect seed. Here we have the perfect plant, 
whether it be the most minute grass of the mead- 
ow, or the tallest t?ee in the forest. This is the 
means employed by nature for the re-production 
of plants. But though, under ordinary circum- 
stances, each seed will.re-produce its own spe- 
cies, it is by no means certain that it will re- 
produce the particular variety by which it is 
borne. Yet,, in annual and biennial plants, no 
other means can be employed to propagate va- 
rieties — hence the necessity of removing from 
those plants, left to produce seed, all others of 
the same species, or even genus, which w'ould 
be likely to affect, by the dissemination of their 
pollen, the variety intended to be perpetuated. 
Thus, where any variety of cabbage is left to go 
to seed, no other sort of cabbage, or of kail, or 
even of turneps, w'hich also belong to the ^ras- 
sica family, should be permitted to show flowers 
at the same time, in the same garden, unless v’- 
ry extensive. So of cucumbers, melons, pump- 
kin.s, squashes, gourds, &c., which all, more or 
less, affect each other. W hen care is taken to 
prevent this — where, by a careful eradteation of 
all varieties likely to affect those left to produce 
seed — by preserving none but the most genuine 
forms of a sort for seed-plants — and by compell- 
ing a plant, by transplantation, to expend all its 
accumulated sap fn the nourishment of its seed, 
instead of in the superabqndant production of 
foliage, a crop of seed may be procured, which 
will produce plants possessing in a great measure 
the peculiar properties of the parent variety . — 
Thus, by a careful selection, for a series of 
years, of any vegetable which possesses pecu- 
liar form, color or other quality, that peculiar 
quality becomes as it were fixed, and the plant 
is capable of producing seed, which will re- 
produce the counterpart of the parent plant. 
Witness the difierent sorts of cabbage or let- 
tuce, which would require but a very slight de- 
gree of neglect,, in leaving two or more varieties 
to bloom near each other, to sport, as it is term- 
ed, to such extent, that no particular sort would 
be expected from the seed so pioduced. 
Of this readiness, in cultivated plants, to sport, 
or produce varieties from the seed sown, gard- 
eners have taken advantage, and have made use 
of it to produce such changes as they desired. 
This is principally effected by what is termed 
hybridising, or the impregnation of one variety 
by the pollen of another. And also by the pe- 
culiar treatment of the seed-producing parent— 
because, as it is found that those plants which 
have been best nourished, produce seeds which 
preserve the individual character of the parent 
most distinctly, it consequently follows that 
where the object is to prod.uce varieties, it will be 
advisable to lessen the supply of nourishment, 
by shortening the roots, and replanting ia g poor- 
er soil. This and other means, are used by 
gardeners to produce not only new and improv- 
ed vegetables, and the endless varieties of beau- 
tiful flowers, but alsonew fruits. The celebrat- 
ed Belgian Horticulturist, the late Van Mons, 
by such a system as that I have just touched up- 
on, gave to the world, during his life-time, sev- 
eral hundred varieties of pears,, vhieh, for their 
excellence, as far surpassed the generality of 
those previously existing, as the bellflower ex- 
cels the crab-apple.— (See Note A.) 
But to return to the subject directly before us 
• — the seed of the cotton plant — here we have 
this seed giving the first evidence of vitality, 
the embryo plant within has burst its shell, where 
it lay dormant until it was placed in fitting cir- 
cumstances to call it into active life. These 
circumstances are a temperature above the 
freezing point; a moist medium, such as earth, 
darkness, an'd exposure to air. When so pla- 
ced, the seed undergoes certain changes — one 
extremity' of the young plant, as we see here, 
ascending for the purpose of finding light, and 
forming leaves and branches, through which to 
carry on those chemical changes, necessary to 
its growth and existence ; and the other extrem- 
ity descending for the purpose of finding a con- 
stant supply of crude nutrim,ent, and becoming 
perfect roots. 
The root is the part that strikes into the earth 
when the seed begins to grow, continuing t ) 
lengthen, for the double purpose of fixing the 
plant in the soil or to some firm support, and of 
absorbing food in a fluid or gaseous state. 
Roots are distinguished from the stem by she 
absence of leaves and leaf-buds, of evaporating 
pores, and of pith in most plants. Hence such 
underground bodies as the tuber of the potatoe, 
ihe bulb of the onion, hyacinth, &c., are not 
roots. Roots do not absorb food by their sur- 
face ; it is chiefly by their young and newly 
formed extremities, called spangioles. Hence 
the preservation of the spongioles uninjured is 
essential to the successful removal of a plant 
from one place to another, and care should be 
taken to preseiTe the smallest fibres of the roots 
uninjured, iiistead of trimming them off, as is 
usually practised. 
Whilst touching on the subject of transplanta- 
tion, I may remark that it is an operation re- 
quiring much more care than is usually bestow- 
ed on it. The most trifling plant, worthy of re- 
moval, is woithy of being handled with care. 
If a plant be removed by digging it up so as to 
leave nothing but a club where the mass of roots 
should be, and tramping it into a hole barely 
large enough to receive it, leaving it unstaked 
to be shaken about by every wind that blows, 
what reasonable hope can be entertained that it 
will do more than send forth a few sickly look- 
ing leaves, to wither and die during the sum- 
mer 1 Whether the plant be large or small, an 
evergreen or not, remove it with a large ball of 
earth. If it be a good sized tree, there is the 
