148 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
[ August 14, 1884. 
down at the point, the object being, as in the case of a Vine, to seek 
to cause the buds at the base to break uniformly with those of the 
upper part of the shoot. Thus you can maintain an equal balance 
of strength, otherwise the top eyes or shoots are sure to grow with 
greater vigour at the expense of the lower or mid e 3 '-es, which become 
weakly. The leading or first blooms will come from the extreme 
point, but a prolongation of the flowering season can be insured by the 
bending-down process. 
As the buds break afford them all the light and air possible and 
keep them near the glass, as this will strengthen the shoots. When 
the ■wind is east be cautious in the admission of air, for easterly 
winds, especially in the spring, are very hurtful to vegetation under 
glass ; but when the weather is mild and the house or pit about to be 
closed for the evening, then syringe them with some tepid but clear 
water. Avoid syringing on dull and cold days, or mildew will appear, 
the first signs of which will be white patches or spots on the upper 
as w’ell as the under surface of the leaves. As soon as these indi¬ 
cations are discovered take a small pepper-box filled with powdered 
sulphur and dust the parts affected. If not done immediately it may 
get so bad that all future efforts will he useless. Green fly is another 
destructive pest that must not be allowed to remain, or it will quickly 
suck away the vital energies of the young wood. Fumigation is the 
most certain cure, but in small conservatories and adjoining the resi¬ 
dence the operation is mostly disagreeable. The best way then is to 
procure some strong tobacco water and dip the points of the shoots 
or the buds in it, afterwards syringing it with clean water so as to 
remove the stain of the tobacco water. Sometimes a feather or a 
soft brush will remove the insects, but in the early part of the year 
they are very tenacious of life, because the young shoots of the plant 
afford them support. Caterpillars will often do much damage amongst 
Eoses in pots. They travel from plant to plant with wonderful 
rapidity in the night, eating the points of the jmung wood. The plan 
I pursue is to search among the plants of an evening ; sometimes 
they are secreted in the folds of the leaves, and at others they may 
be found curled up on the surface of the soil. 
To preserve and insure the true colour of the flowers as they begin 
to expand afford plenty of air on all favourable opportunities and shade 
as required ; but as the system now recommended is not what is 
termed forcing, but only a slight gain on those in the open ground in 
respect to the blooming season, they may not flower before the month 
of April, or at the earliest the latter end of March. 
The following list includes twelve of the most abundant-blooming 
and hardy-constitutioned varieties. I have not referred to any of the 
Tca-scented Roses, as their culture requires a greater amount of skill 
—Coupe d’Hebo, lich pink ; large and double. Madame Plantier, 
pure white ; very free bloomer. Glory of Waltham, splendid crim¬ 
son ; a first-rate variety. Souvenir de la Reine de I’Angleterre, a 
large bright rose. Paul Perras, fine, full, pale rose. Brennus, deep 
carmine ; very free bloomer. General .Jacqueminot, crimson ; very 
good. Victor Verdier, a first-rate free bloomer of a rosy carmine. 
Mrs. William Paul, a bright red ; flowers in clusters. Madame Emile 
Boyau, soft rosy flesh colour ; of a hardy constilution. Madame 
Charles Verdier, very sweet-scented. Prince Camille de Rohan, crim¬ 
son maroon ; a very rich colour. —Jno. F. McElroy. 
THE SWEET PRINCIPLE OF FRUITS AND PLANTS. 
The most interesting phenomenon connected with the growth of 
fruits and vegetables is the development in their structures of chemical 
principles which influence in a peculiar manner the sense of taste. A 
variety of impressions are produced upon the nerves of taste, some of 
which are agreeable and others disagreeable, by bringing in contact the 
juices of certain fruits, roots, grasses, leaves, &c., in their mature and 
fresh condition. The sense of sweetness is usually agreeable, while the 
sour and the bitter are of the opposite character. 
The term sweet is applied to a class of bodies which are found in 
fruits and in a considerable number of vegetable structures, but we do 
not clearly understand how they are capable of exerting so decided and 
pleasurable an influence upon the palate, not only of human beings, but 
upon animals as well. As we walk through our gardens and orchards 
and watch the growth of the luxuriant products of the soil we do not 
often stop to consider the intricate and wonderful chemical reactions 
which are unceasingly taking place in everything that springs from the 
earth upon which we tread. We place the luscious ripened fruits upon 
our tables and partake of them with deep gratification, but we do not 
often consider the origin and nature of the complex agents which render 
them so acceptable. 
Substances characterised by sweetness are assumed to contain an 
organic product called sugar, and, as a class, vegetable structures do con¬ 
tain it in some one of its forms. There are, however, a few .substances 
which have a sweet taste not due to sugar. Acetate of lead is an example 
afforded in the mineral world, and glycerine is a sweet liquid, the base 
of fatty acid compounds having no sugar. There is a form called heptica 
sugar, which is a product of the liver, and some of the secretions of the 
body contain it. It is, however, in the organic world that we find sugar 
in the vast quantities needed by man, and in the juices of fruits and 
plants we find its hiding place. 
Before vegetable physiology and chemistry were understood the belief 
prevailed that all the characteristic constituents of fruits and plants were 
in some way hunted from the soil, and conveyed to their resting places 
by the sap, which was known to circulate through living vegetable 
organisms. Although no sugar could be detected in any soil by the most 
persistent scrutiny, yet it was supposed that sugar and its associated acid 
and other plant constituents were present and ready for transportation 
by the ascending sap. We are disposed to smile at this error of our 
fathers, but we should remember that, in accounting for natural pheno¬ 
mena, or seeking for a reason for things, the easiest and shortest path is 
the one usually followed. This remains true until we are guided by facts 
learned from accurate observation and experiment, or until science be¬ 
comes sufficiently robust to act as an unerring guide. 
Science in our epoch is capable of explaining many of the former 
mysteries of plant movements and plant production, and we now know 
the source of the sweet principle of fruits and plants—we know that the 
soil has no direct agency in supplying sugar to any organic structure. 
Sugar is a very remarkable substance, and its investigation opens to 
view surprises and paradoxes not afforded by any other agent in nature. 
It is highly complex in its organisation, having a high atomic constitution, 
and yet it is the simplest of all compounds when considered in regard to 
the nature of the elements of which it is composed. 
In studying the sweet principle of plants we soon discover that they 
possess the capability of elaborating more than one variety of sugar in 
their structures, and that there is a curious blending of several forms in 
the ripened fruits which come upon our tables. ' We discover also that 
each plant has the power of manufacturing a special variety, or a com¬ 
bination of varieties, and that this law of their constitution cannot be 
changed by man. 
In Beetroots, in the stems and trunks of the Supar Maple tree, the 
Sycamore, the Palm, in Sugar Canes, in the Sorghum plant, in the stalks of 
Maize, in Grasses, we have one kind of sugar called sucrose, which is the 
sweetest variety ; in Grapes we have another distinct variety, called 
dextrose or glucose ; in Apples and other fruits we have still another, 
called fructose or levulose ; in Melons we have a sweet which is nearly 
pure sucrose, or cane sugar. In that vegetable monstrosity called a Beet, 
which is hidden from the clear sunlight and the air during the whole 
period of its growth, there are found juices which hold the most noble 
and valuable form of sugar known to man. The crimson tissues of this 
root contain the snow-white sugar which graces the tea tables of the 
kings and princes of continental Europe, and millions of pounds find 
their way into commerce. The humble earthy Beet can hold up its head 
in pride when its sweetness is contrasted with that of the petted Grape, 
which occupies the foremost place among our delicious fruits. The 
Grape is sweetened with glucose, an ignoble form of sugar which the 
chemist can make in the laboratory, and its production does not require 
the employment of costly or rare materials. Even if it lessens our re¬ 
spect for the tempting fruit of the Vine, the truth must be told. The 
chemist can make the sweet juices of the Grape from old cotton rags and 
old newspapers ; and if this statement does not indicate a sufficiently low 
origin, I have only to remark that it can be made from common sawdust 
as well. Human art has not been able to number among its triumphs 
the production of the sugar of the Beet, the Maple, or the Cane. The 
sweet principle of fruits other than the Grape cannot be imitated in the 
laboratory. It is a mixture of at least two forms of sugar—sucrose and 
dextrose, in varying proportions. 
How curious and mysterious is this plan in nature of delicately ad¬ 
justing the taste of our noble fruits, so as to produce a sense of the 
highest enjoyment in their use. In some fruits we find the sweet to exist 
in its lowest modified form; but this is not due to a lessening of the 
amount of the sweetest sugar, but to the presence of an entirely different 
kind. It is probable that the peculiar delicate flavour and taste of the 
Grape could not be secured by any adjustment of quantity of sucrose or 
cane sugar, or by any mixtures. It requires glucose pure and simple to 
act in conjunction with the delicate acids in order that we may have this 
fruit in its highest perfection. The Water Melon would not be the fruit 
it is if it had not the capability of manufacturing cane sugar in large 
quantities ; neither would the Apple, the Peach, the Cherry, the Straw¬ 
berry, or the Pear be what they are if the plants and trees upon which 
they grow had not the power of bringing into play a subtle chemistry, 
by which is produced a mixture of distinct forms of sweets which no art 
of man can imitate. If there was in nature but one kind of sugar the 
number of choice delicacies in our gardens and fruit orchards would be 
lamentably small. 
But Nature does not, in the bestowal of her fruits, spontaneously, or 
of her own free will, sweeten them for us so acceptably. What are 
designed to be luxuries and the most highly prized forms of food she 
ordains shall be bestowed only through the exercise of labour, care, and 
skill on the part of man. No one of the fruits in its wild or native state 
holds any considerable quantity of sugar of any kind—not enough to 
make it acceptable to the taste or fit it to serve as food. It is only by 
skilful cultivation, by hybridising, by budding and grafting, that we have 
secured the svveet principle in fruits. We have, as it were, educated the 
dumb chemists in the vegetable cell, and fitted them for the work which 
Nature made them competent to perform under man’s guidance. 
It is, indeed, wonderful that we can increase or diminish the amount 
of sugar in any kind of fruit or plant by cultivation. The Beet, for ex¬ 
ample, under ordinary care will afford from I to 6 per cent, of sugar ; 
but by scientific and generous culture the per-centage can be nearly or 
