November 18 , 188S. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
423 
many feet thick wherever the circumstances have been favourable to 
its formation. It is this kind of peat w r hich is used so largely in the 
cultivation of Orchids, and at one time was used fermented along 
with stable litter as manure. This kind of peat is to be found in all 
stages of decomposition from the state in which the moss seems only 
dead and no more (in which state it is best for Orchids) down to black 
greasy bog earth, Avhich, when sweetened by exposure or after being 
long laid dry by draining, is good for mixing with light sandy or 
gravelly soil in the formation of Rhododendron beds. 
Then, also formed in bogs, but either when artificially as by 
draining, or naturally when the outlet for the water has by any means 
been lowered, so that not enough moisture is present for maintaining 
the sphagnum in life, is the peat formed from bog grasses. This 
essentially differs from the moss-peat, and, though inferior to the 
former as a fuel, is much superior for cultivating plants in. For 
all outdoor work it is decidedly better than moss-peat, and when cut 
in turves from off bogs long laid dry, and the turf kept for a year or 
two till properly decayed it forms, when mixed with sand, sandstone, 
and charcoal, a really good soil for almost all Ericaceous plants in 
pots, though not, perhaps, the best to be got. Still, in such material 
Heaths, Azaleas, and similar hardwooded plants are often grown to 
perfection. 
_ Next in order to this is a very similar kind, but which differs from 
it jn so far as it never has been formed in bogs, is never of any great 
thickness, and is very often found covering the sheerest sands which 
have never been considered worth cultivating. Often this description 
is found covering the bare freestone rock, and in such positions it 
forms the best peat going for fine hair-rooted plants. As the surface 
generally consists of fibre and black soil mixed with more or less sand 
it is long in decaying, and requires to be cut a long time before it is 
wanted. Of course the best kind is that which has just the right 
proportion of the best sharp silver sand in it, and frequently such is 
to be found. It is, nevertheless, often of first-rate quality though 
containing no sand at all, and it is better thus than having a deal of 
very fine sand mixed with it. Asa rule only the turf or upper 3 or 
4 inches of such is taken when for pot plants, but for beds the whole 
depth may be taken. Peat of this kind is very often covered with 
Calluna vulgaris, and when this plant grows freely in it, it may be 
taken as proof that it is suitable for Heaths and hair-rooted plants in 
general. But this guide is only general, the Calluna often growing 
in very wet peat. In choosing peat for hardwooded plants the rule 
should invariably be observed to take it from where water never under 
any condition lodges if a choice is at all possible. 
As no hard-drawn line can be drawn to distinguish one kind of 
loam or peat from another, so it is no easy task to draw the line 
between such peat as we have here named grass-peat and the light 
loam to be found in sandy soil. As a rule the peat is on the poorer 
bottom. White sand may support grasses that by-and-by will form 
peat, or rather we ought to call it moor earth. Brown sand is. though 
very far from rich, yet richer, and supports grasses of quite a different 
kind—grasses that rot more readily, and do not, therefore, so readily 
assume a peat-like form ; grasses that will yield nourishment to 
animal life, and out of which what is often called humus is formed ; 
grasses that collect nitrogen and phosphates, potash, lime, &c., and 
when decayed will grow a corn crop. The one becomes black, the 
other remains brown ; and though the one merges into the other, yet 
the black is on the peat side of the line, the brown on the loam. 
Frequently the latter can be had off very poor sandy soils when the 
other cannot be had. For many purposes it is of great value, and 
when pretty well decayed and the loose soil shaken out and blended 
with proper leaf mould, it is perhaps better for strong growing 
members of peat-loving plants than pure peat. For Lapagerias, 
Camellias, and even Azaleas and Rhododendrons and hardy Ericas, 
we have found it decidedly better than peat proper, especially when 
the peat was not first-rate. 
Fern-peat.—T his may be said to be the connecting link between 
f ieat and vegetable mould. When found in woods, when Oak and other 
eaves have settled among the decaying fronds, and both have become 
soil together, bound in one web, of which they form the woof, by the 
warp of the roots the Ferns produce, it is more vegetable mould than 
eat. This fibre, from Lastrea dilatata or even Pteris aquilina, is the 
est peat by far for Orchid cultivation. Sweet, fresh, nourishing, 
open, porous, not liable to decay, it is far before the true moss-peat. 
The fine material shaken from it, half peaty, half leaf mould, is 
capital for Fern-growing in pots or out of them. 
But great tracks of brake may be seen where no trees are, and 
where for many, many years the stems and fronds and roots have 
accumulated in decay till some inches of Fern-peat have been formed. 
This also is a capital article when taken from where no stagnant 
water sours it, for almost all the purposes named for which the Fern- 
peat of woods is mentioned, and, in addition, for many of those for 
which grass-peat is suitable. 
Leaf Soil. —One step further than Fern-peat brings us to leaf 
soil. We do not mean vegetable soil made from leaves, but the 
flaky, peaty-looking, sweet mould which is found after years of accu¬ 
mulation, in woods, especially where Oak and Beech flourish, and add 
their annual contribution towards the sum total. There is hardly 
anything for which this is not suited. Peat proper is soil, only a 
rooting medium, and generally very poor soil. Leaf mould looks 
almost like peat, but has been formed from very different materials 
than the sphagnums, Juncuses, Carexes, and grasses that grow in bogs 
or moors. These yield very little ash when burned, and the li-tie they 
do yield is not of the kind which higher plants use. Leaves of Beech 
and Oak are rich, not only in the ash constituents of the higher orders 
of plants, but in the matters which form the flesh and bones of animals. 
Such matters nourish swarms of the minutest creatures, and hence 
such decay rapidly—they are eaten up, and the resulting mould is 
rich in animal excreta ; and supposing there were animals that could 
Fig. 81.—Lyon. 
live in peat their excreta would be of no great value. But peat is 
not thus eaten, does not decay, is permanent, is soil, is not food. Leaf 
soil is soil and food both. 
Leaf soil when it has been made very slowly, where worms did not 
work it into puddle, nor rapid fermentation and much wet turn it 
sour, is certainly the leaf soil for use in the cultivation of plants in 
pots. Years ago we had proved its superiority to ordinary leaf mould. 
Ordinary soil made from huge heaps of leaves is generally full of 
acids which corrode young roots as if rusted, and fails to produce 
results equal to leaf mould. Those who wish to have a clearer insight 
into what constitutes proper and what improper leaf soil cannot better 
do than read a remarkable paper by Mr. Wright in the Journal of 
Horticulture for April 26th, 1883, if they do not get a clear idea from 
what is above. 
The use of pure flaky soil cannot be entered into here. We are 
rather inquiring into the nature of the materials necessary than de¬ 
tailing their use. To do so would necessitate our travelling into the 
domain more of practice than of theory ; and however desirable this 
might be, would swell these papers to a greater length than is intended. 
Vegetable Soil, or, as it is often termed, humus, differs from 
peat in many particulars. Peat is decidedly vegetable mould in the 
sense that peat is formed from vegetable matter, but not in the sense 
that is usually employed, nor as employed by Darwin. The word 
