88 JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ February 3 , mi. 
■—goes everywhere ; in fact the motto of the famous regiment of the 
Royal Artillery, “ Ubijve," may be applied to it. In north and 
south, east and west, either now or in future years, will the 
National Rose Society hold its shows. This year, for example, 
there are to be three great shows—viz., one in the south and two 
in the north. At Sydenham, under the glass of that famous Palace 
which has seen so many noble exhibitions, the southern men will 
come to show how Exeter, Colchester, Cheshunt, Hereford, Canter¬ 
bury, Slough, and a hundred other places can grow Roses which 
will be the pride of all who are fortunate to see them ; while at 
Sheffield, that dingy smoke-enveloped town, the brave men of the 
north will prove how they can battle with difficulties. Manchester, 
too, determined not to be left out in cold for one year even, have 
invited us again to hold a show at their famous Botanic Gardens ; 
and we have indeed good reason for believing, that whatever town 
may claim our provincial shows in future years, Manchester will 
always invite us. Next year, that lovely city once the most 
fashionable inland watering place in this fair land, and now as 
ever the most beautiful city—Bath, will once more see a grand 
Eose show held in her gardens ; and year after year we doubt not 
other towns will invite us, so that we shall prove indeed our claim 
to our motto, “ Ubiquc." 
3. But all this success would be marred if our finances were in 
bad order, if we were not paying our way, or had to face the 
coming season with dread and foreboding. But in this respect 
fortunately we are in a most excellent position. We have a good 
balance in hand, and if we have only a good Rose season, fine 
weather, a genial spring, and a hot summer we shall hope to add 
to our balances. 
4. Then again, we are a united body. When the Committee 
meet a smile is on every face, a warm hand-shake is exchanged 
on all sides, and each one settles down to work with but one wish 
in his heart—to do his best for the Society, to encourage Rose- 
growers, to animate the minds of all with an eager desire to im¬ 
prove the flower we love so dearly. 
“ A lor eat Rosa ” we say, and then do our best to make it 
flourish ; and I am sure the Rose Journal, or rather the Editor 
thereof, will re-echo the cry, and do all in his power, as of old, 
for many years, by giving good reports of the various shows, to 
encourage Itose-growing; and I do not think there are many sub¬ 
scribers to this estimable weekly who will not wish us well. 
Go where I will I hear of fresh men who are heartily going-in 
for Rose-growing. But no county seems to be advancing with 
greater strides than Sussex. I once held the humble position of 
junior curate at a large town in Sussex, and when there no one 
grew Roses except as garden flowers. Now I know of four large 
growers and exhibitors, one of whom is on the Committee of the 
National, and only the other day I heard of a gentleman who lives 
in a large park who is making it the “business of his life to grow 
Roses fit for exhibition.” 
Although no longer able to carry the long green boxes into 
the tented field, my love for the Rose is not diminished, nor ever 
will it be. As a member of the Committee, as a judge it may be, 
at all events as (not a critic, that is too harsh a word) a reporter of 
the varied glories of our shows, I will ever do my best to promote 
the welfare of the Rose.— Wyld Savage. 
As in your notice of the last meeting of the General Committee of 
the National Rose Society it was stated that I had been deputed to 
visit Sheffield and confer with the authorities there as to the arrange¬ 
ments for the forthcoming Exhibition, I am sure that many of our 
members will be glad to hear how matters are progressing. I have 
never for a long while travelled on so cold and bitter a day ; three 
times during the journey we cleared the windows, and three times 
they were again completely covered with frost. But the warmth of 
one’s reception made up for any of the inconveniences of the journey, 
and a bill of fare placed before me which would satisfy the most 
voracious lover of the Rose or the most ambitious exhibitor, for in 
addition to the hundred guineas which they contribute to the 
schedule they have made up a special fund of nearly £130. A con¬ 
siderable portion of this is for prizes to local exhibitors—that is, for 
those residing within thirty miles of the Town Hall, Sheffield, and 
for bouquets of Roses ; but I may specify that besides these the 
Mayor of Sheffield presents a ten-guinea cup in the nurserymen’s 
class of seventy-two, and the Master Cutler another cup of the same 
value in the amateurs’ class of forty-eight. The President of the 
Botanic Society gives another ten-guinea cup for the best collection 
of Roses in pots, the town of Sheffield two five-guinea cups and a 
prize of £5 for the best seedling Rose, to be called the “ Rose of 
Sheffield,” so that altogether a schedule that has never been equalled 
at any provincial Rose show will be set before exhibitors ; the total 
value of the prizes offered being nearly £270. 
I may also add that in every way it will be the desire of the Com¬ 
mittee of the Botanic Society to consult the comfort and pleasure 
of the exhibitors. Arrangements will be made whereby exhibitors 
and their assistants can procure refreshments at moderate charges 
from an early hour in the morning. Yans will be in readiness to 
convey the boxes from the stations, and the Judges will be invited to 
a dinner to be held in the evening. As already announced, Canon 
Hole, the President of the Society, will deliver a lecture on Roses 
(to be followed by discussion) in the gardens at four o’clock, so that 
everything has been done to endeavour to make the meeting a success. 
Thus the opinion of those who so strenuously desired that Sheffield 
should be the place of rendezvous has been abundantly justified by 
the preparations that have been made to receive the Society. Two 
things will be wanted to achieve that success—Roses to show, and 
a fine day to see them ; both of these are beyond our management, 
but let us hope we may have them.—D., Real. 
THE EFFECTS OF ELECTRICITY ON VEGETATION. 
( Continued from page 46.) 
By the staining process it is shown that the fluid contained in 
the roots is devoid of oxygen in its free state, but that it acquires 
this condition at the collar where it becomes exposed to the atmo¬ 
sphere. Now the chief materials absorbed from the atmosphere 
are oxygen, carbonic acid, and water, and possibly small portions 
of nitrogen ; but these elements in entering pursue a totally 
different course to that absorbed by the roots, for, instead of 
taking an upward course, they proceed directly across towards 
the pith inwards, as may be proved by staining during active 
growth. Fill a wineglass with small shot, and it will still hold a 
considerable quantity of water in addition ; the shot, not fitting 
together but leaving angular cavities between them, provide 
openings which in the cellular tissues of plants are termed “ inter¬ 
cellular spaces,” and are thus organised as a provision for admit¬ 
ting the nutrient sap to all other parts of the system where the 
upflowing sap does not appear to reach. But this is not all. These 
spaces are in communication with the epidermal cells and hairs, 
by which they are fed from the external atmosphere. Let a small 
piece of any fine root or rootlet containing hairs upon the surface, 
together with a fragment of any hairy leaf cr stem, be placed in 
a drop of water upon a glass slip, and then be covered with thin 
glass and submitted to the microscope. Next, with a pointed 
matchstick dipped in the magenta dye touch the upper edge of 
the cover, so that the stain may gradually spread within. On 
closely watching its entry the tips of the hairs upon both leaves 
and roots will be seen to be the first to accumulate the colour, 
and that it will then extend inwards into the intercellular spaces, 
of which these hairs are extensions, apparently with a view to 
increasing the area of the absorbing surface. 
The providing of this twofold source of supply is only another 
manifestation of that supreme wisdom of the Creator, which, 
like the bubble of air in the egg, is too simple in its design not 
to be misunderstood, but which, like Columbus with the broken 
egg, when explained is too evident to admit of the slightest doubt; 
in fact, it is scarcely possible to conceive how the desired ends 
could be attained in any other way. By the aid of staining it is 
shown that the fluids taken in at the roots find their way up 
through certain passages only in the stems and stalks, and rami¬ 
fying veins of the leaves, and up to the extreme margins of the 
latter, whence the superfluous moisture is given out again back to 
the atmosphere, as may often be seen early in the morning in a 
vinery after a night’s rain, when the leaves will be found to be 
all fringed at the edges with small drops of water like pearly 
dewdrops. Now, as these longitudinal passages are in immediate 
connection with the growing tissues, it is obvious that it is from 
this source the woody fibre, starch, and other solid tissues derive 
their materials of increase ; while, on the other hand, the carbon, 
oxygen, and water, &c., derived from the atmosphere and in¬ 
sinuating themselves between the individual cells of the paren¬ 
chymatous tissue go to the production of sugar, gum, wax, resin, 
the essential oils, and other similar products. In the grafted tree 
we find the stock furnishing the crude material ; but it is the 
electro-chemical action occurring between the pith and the bark 
of the scion that converts this primary upward current in com¬ 
bination with the preceding supply from the external source, 
crossing the former into the special compounds peculiar to the 
particular variety in question. Now as all growing cells have, 
like the egg, one or more nuclei or negative centres of growth, 
these fed from the intercellular spaces, when the parent cell shall 
have attained its full growth, then take up the action and follow 
in like course, and so on by repetition of division or multiplication 
stems and leaves acquire their full size and density. But as the 
electrical action is between the pith and the bark the diaphragm 
necessarily forms longitudinally or in the direction of the plant’s 
extension. 
In the consolidation of the albumen at the centre of the divi¬ 
sional wall C of fig. 96, the material became at length so hard and 
herny (or almost bony even) as to intercept the action ; but had 
