376 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
t November 1, 1883. 
mathola, Calcolarie hysofolia, Asplenumreptonale (Asplenium septen- 
trionale), Saxifraga neeros (S. nervosa), Erigeron elegontata (E. elongata), 
Lilium caladense (L. canadense), Androsace Lanugerosa (A. lanu¬ 
ginosa).” 
- The Hampton Court and other celebrated Grape Vines are, 
according to American accounts, completely distanced by a Vine in 
Pike County, Georgia, which, though only eighteen years old, is said 
to be “ a quarter of a mile long, and to produce five waggonloads of 
Grapes annually.” It must be grown on the “ extension ” system. 
- The “ Science Monthly” (David Bogue, St. Martin’s Place), 
is the title of a new illustrated monthly periodical devoted to popular 
science, and, judging by the first number now before us, it is likely to 
be a welcome addition to that class of literature. It contains several 
good special articles on various subjects, among them beiDg two on 
“Insect Depredators ” by Mr. J. H. Westwood Oliver, and on “ Forestry 
at Home and Abroad,” by Dr. J. C. Brown. Departments are devoted 
to The Library, Topics of the Time, The Observatory, The Laboratory, 
and The Museum; while a most interesting feature will be the articles 
on “ Leaders of Science,” which will be accompanied by portraits. 
With the present number a sketch of the life of Sir G. B. Airy, with 
an excellent portrait, is given. The work is well printed upon toned 
paper in double columns, contains thirty-two pages of closely printed 
matter, and is issued at 6d. per month. 
- An American paper states that a new industry has been started 
in Georgia. Two gardeners near Savannah have taken to raising Boses. 
This year they sold 20,000 bushes to persons in the North, and had orders 
for 50,000 which they could not fill. They get from 10 dollars to 20 
dollars per 100 for them. Over 500,000 Rose bushes are annually im¬ 
ported from Europe, but it is said that Georgia has a better climate for 
their production than even the South of France. 
- “Accounts come to us from Italy,” says Mr. H. M. Chichester 
in the “Journal of Forestry,” “ of a curious process for the ‘ metallisa¬ 
tion ’ of wood, the invention of Signor Giovanni Rubennick. The 
wood is first treated with caustic alkaline liquor (soda-lime), wherein it 
is left for the space of three to four days, the time depending on the 
degree of porosity of the wood, at a temperature of 75° to 90° Cent. (168° 
to 194° Fahr.). Thence the wood passes into a bath of calcic sulphohy- 
drate, to which, at the end of twenty-four to thirty-six hours, is added a 
concentrated solution of sulphur in caustic soda. The duration of this 
bath is about forty-eight hours, and the temperature 30° to 50° Cent. (95 c 
to 122° Fahr.). Lastly, for the space of thirty to fifty hours the wood is 
immersed in a solution of acetate of lead at the last named temperature. 
The process, it will be seen, is tedious; but the results are described as 
altogether surprising. Wood thus treated, when burnished with a piece 
of hardwood after a moderate amount of drying at a suitable temperature, 
takes a brilliant metallic polish. Particularly is this the case if the pre¬ 
pared wood is first rubbed with sheet zinc, lead, or tin, and then polished 
with a glass or porcelain disc. It then presents, we are told, all the 
characteristics of a very highly polished metallic speculum, combining 
therewith great strength and durability.” 
-A Madras visitor to Colombo, Ceylon, writes to the Ceylon 
Observer as follows :—“ One of the earliest impressions of Madras visitors 
is the general tidiness which prevails both in and outside the town, and 
the superiority of the roads. In Madras the streets and roads are always 
either in bad order or under repair. In Colombo they equal the drives in 
an English park, and the trim rich greensward is very refreshing to the 
eye. The drives about Colombo are numerous and pleasant, but owing 
to the luxuriance of the vegetation the prospect is everywhere rather 
limited, except on the beach. A large proportion of the roads runs in 
various directions through the Cinnamon Gardens. These consist of 
plantations of the Cinnamon plant, which cover a large area of level 
sandy ground that stretches inland and to the south of the town. The 
soil in which the Cinnamon grows consists chiefly of fine white sand, and 
the plants are coppiced so as to make them send up a thicket of shoots. 
The Cinnamon Gardens are studded with villas, each standing in its own 
grounds, and often almost buried in rank vegetation. The wanderer 
from Madras is astonished to see here in great profusion the pretty purple- 
flowered Melastoma malabathrica, and the rampant Fern Gleichenia 
dichotoma, which are rarely seen much below the level of Coonoor with 
us on the east coast. Species of Lygodium also form a dense network of 
vegetation in the hedges, and a Pitcher-plant grows in various places 
amongst the Cinnamon.” 
GARDEN CHEMISTRY. 
LOAMS. 
The geology of soils we have hut glanced at, for geology 
will not greatly help us. The best test of a soil is, not the 
rock on which it rests, but the vegetation which it carries. 
An accomplished gardener in choosing a soil will not turn his 
steps in the direction of stunted trees, poor crops of corn, and 
hedges filled with paling spars. If the turf should be ever so 
fibry he will not take it, if he has a choice, if its flora is largely 
composed of Juncuses, Carexes, and the species of Grass called 
“ wire grass ” by gardeners who well know how sharp a scythe 
must be to cut them, and how rapidly they take off the edge 
when they are largely present. We would much rather go where 
the grass is of that stout yet soft character which “ cuts like 
cheese,” and which is composed of Grasses and Clovers which 
feed cattle well, instead of half starving them, and perhaps a 
thick undersward here and there of Buttercups. The land that, 
will not support good cattle without undue exercise on their part 
to find breakfast and dinner, though it may with help raise good 
crops, is inferior in many respects to that which supports heavy 
cattle in goodiy numbers without other feeding. 
Botany, then, will help us more in choosing a soil than will 
geology. But the botany of soils may be altered. In many 
parks the most luxuriant grass grow s, which is the outcome,, 
not so much perhaps of a fine soil, as of the cake and other 
foods supplied to the animals. The luxuriance is only artificial,, 
and may be misleading. 
Not long ago I knew a gardener who went many miles for 
turf to form Yine borders from off a gravel, simply because 
of the luxuriance presented by the grass and because of the 
very fibi’y nature of the turf. Such, men grown grey in the 
work of gardens, and who have observed closely, will tell us, 
as men such as Mr. Thomson of Drumlanrig have told us- 
again and again, will produce only a mere “ flash in the pan ” 
while the organic matter lasts, and then failure will come. If 
the gardener in question has the teachings of chemistry to fall 
back on, failure, even with such a soil, may be indefinitely 
postponed; but the possession of that may be doubted, for if 
he had had such a knowledge he could have chosen a better 
within half a mile of his vineries, without much fibre, it is true, 
and with very little appearance of luxuriant verdure, because 
the fields had been badly done by. He was led astray by the 
will-o’-the-wisp of a fictitious fertility, because he could not 
properly value a much better soil just at hand because of an 
equally misleading poverty. 
Another that I know w-ith good loam, fibreless and turfless,, 
but good loam still, within a hundred yards of his vineries, went 
over ten miles for turf from off the purest yellow clay, and 
not because of the permanent virtues of the soil, but of the 
age of the turf. No yellow clay, only soil and fibre and gras^ 
were apparent in the upper 3 inches of the soil. But ten years 
hence that fibre will be gone, and a putty-like mass in which. 
Yine roots never thrive will be the result. 
In choosing soil, then, it is not enough that plenty of fibre 
be present, not enough that the verdure be luxuriant. If the 
subsoil be gravel or sand such “ loam ” will soon become of 
itself the poorest of sand; if the subsoil be clay or even heavy 
loam it will become mere mud, and be fit for nothing in either 
case. Soils fit for making fruit borders may be of the very 
best quality and contain no fibre. If clay enough be present to 
form what gardeners call body, and if stones and sand be 
present in quantity sufficient to keep it open, and if it is known 
to produce good agricultural crops, it is far to be preferred before 
the most fibry turf that wdll soon become a blowing sand or 
an adhesive clay. 
Experience has taught our most reliable authorities that for 
all fruits and most flowers and vegetables that a loam is the 
most proper. Farmers know that such is also best for them. 
But the word “loam ” is with many a very indefinite term, gene¬ 
rally applied to turf the vegetable fibre of which is decayed 
somewhat. When we use the word it must not be understood 
that w r e do so in the gardening, but in the agricultural sense, 
which is definite in its meaning and reliable. The young 
gardener who wishes to start with a correct notion of what 
constitutes the different varieties of soils cannot do better than 
make the following very simple mechanical analysis. Take 
100 parts of soil, dry it thoroughly at a temperature of fully 
boiling point, and weigh it, and then thoroughly diffuse it in 
a tub of water. Allow it two or three minutes to settle, and 
then pour off the muddy liquid into another tub. After the 
