186 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
gardeners are more or less scientific physiologists, though, 
perhaps, without knowing it. For, it is just because florists 
and horticulturists do succeed so wonderfully well in growing 
plants that they have discovered for themselves what their 
plants require ; without, it may be, exactly knowing the why 
and the wherefore in every case. Their profession might, 
indeed, be called “ practical vegetable physiology.” 
What science can add to the gardener’s knowledge and 
experience is, on the one hand, a full description of the minute 
anatomy of plants, discovered after long and careful micro¬ 
scopical examination of them ; and secondly, the several functions 
of the different tissues, and thence the functions of all the plant 
organs which are built up of those tissues. 
If, then, a gardener understands this, it is for him so to 
place his plants, and so to feed them, as to secure to the fullest 
possible amount the complete activity of each and all the plant 
organs. 
It must always be remembered that no absolutely perfect 
conditions can be secured; but the cultivator can always 
endeavour to obtain approximately the best ; and these the 
grower can often find out where a scientist has no opportunity 
of telling him. Thus, e.g., all green plants require light; but 
the amount that each requires as best for it is not the same for 
all. This the Aucuba japonica illustrates very well; for the 
leaves on the surface of a bush, and most exposed to light, are 
much more spotted with yellow, which increases with a prolonged 
intensity, than are the leaves more deeply situated within the 
bush. These are always of a darker green and have fewer spots. 
Conifers, too, often show a marked susceptibility to too strong a 
light, when the colour of the foliage turns to a yellow green. 
The adaptations of plants to their surroundings should be 
studied much more than has been the case. Thus, when 
collectors introduce new plants from foreign countries, they 
should always record accurately in their note-books the con¬ 
ditions under which the plants were growing in their native 
homes ; not only the nature of the soil, but the amount of light 
or exposure to the sun, the amount of moisture or its absence, 
&c.; because the natural and healthiest conditions of plants in 
the wild state are solely due to their having become thoroughly 
adapted to those conditions ; and the nearer the cultivator can 
