444 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 
June 7, 1894. 
the gravelly nature of the earth in its native habitats may be a 
guide to its requirements in other gardens. The colour of the 
flowers is described as lilac. This I should qualify by calling it 
more a lilac-blue, but I am notan adept at colour naming. Another 
excellent Iris which I received as I. hungarica has also been in 
flower for some time. The proper name of this Iris, I observe 
from the authority already quoted, is I. aphylla. It is somewhat 
alarming to see the number of synonyms applied to this plant, as 
it appears to have no fewer than twelve names. It grows to over 
a foot in height, and has fine dark lilac flowers. It appears to be 
■widely distributed in an uncultivated state, its habitats being given 
as Eastern Europe, from Hungary and Silesia to the Tyrol. It 
grows readily in the borders in any ordinary soil. 
Some of the Globularias are neat and pleasing little plants for 
the rock garden or the front row of the border, I grow some 
three or four species, and among the prettiest of these is G. tricho- 
santha, the Hairy-flowered Globularia, It forms a neat plant with 
shining deep green leaves. The radical ones are spathulate, and 
those of the stalk lanceolate. The first appearance of the flower 
heads is rather curious. They resemble round black buttons set in 
a fringe of leaves ; the stem gradually elongates, and the round 
button becomes a ball of light blue. G. trichosantha grows well 
here on a western exposure, and in a siniilar position to that in 
which I. lacustris is grown. It may be increased by seed or 
division. 
Poppies are beginning to open, although one of the earliest of 
the Poppyworts, Stylophorum diphyllum, is over before this, and 
very beautiful are they from the Welsh Poppy (Meconopsis 
cambrica) to Papaver orientale in various kinds, and the attractive 
P. umbrosum, Dodecatheons, too, are very effective in half 
shady nooks, and the same remark applies to a host of other 
garden gems—S. Arnott, Dumfries. 
VENTILATING VINERIES. 
As each season comes round, some special reminder seems 
necessary to keep “ young hands ” from committing the errors 
which have so frequently been the cause of disfigurement, if not 
ruin, to many a promising crop of Grapes. It may be that those 
errors have been perpetrate! by thoughtlessness rather than 
neglect, as it requires a few years of careful training, and perhaps 
some sharp lessons, to lead many young men to realise the 
disastrous effects which follow the mismanagement of ventilation. 
Scorched leaves and warts on leaves, scalded ber. ies, and even rust 
on berries, may all in turn be caused by ill-regu'ated ventilation. 
Once let them thoroughly understand this, and unremitting 
attention is invariably secured. This will be absolutely necessary 
during the next few weeks should the weather prove bright or 
“catchy,” as the dull damp weather recently experienced has not 
been favourable to the production of either leaves or berries, which 
will bear bright sunshine without injury. Unless the admission of 
air is carefully managed, houses having an eastern aspect ought to 
be looked after sharply in the early morning, and unless the 
weather is wet or very cold it is a good plan to admit a little air 
at six o clock, even though the temperature may not begin to rise 
for some time after, as it prevents the atmosphere of the house 
becoming heated much more rapidly than either the leaves or 
berries, and thus prevents condensation of moisture upon them, 
which with the rapid evaporation that follows causes scalding and 
scorching. 
Now that danger from night frosts is apparently over, I fancy 
the practice of leaving a chink of air on vineries throughout the 
night, provided it can be given on the opposite side from which 
the wind is blowing, a sudden rise in the temperature is then less 
likely to take place in early morning. When this does happen the 
worst possible proceeding is to open the ventilators widely in 
order to lower the temperature to its normal point, yet this is 
exactly what many are inclined to do in order that previous 
neglect may not be detected. The hope is, however, a vain one, 
as the uncomfortable feeling when entering a house so treated is 
noticeable to all practical cultivators, and the results cf such treat¬ 
ment, which are afterwards apparent, show plainly the course 
which has been followed, if not the exact time when it occurred. 
The only safe and rational method of trying to prevent injury, 
when the temperature has risen rapidly, without ventilation 
IS to give air gradually and at frequ.nt intervals, and to 
damp the floors lightly to prevent excessive evaporation from 
the tender foliage which is unable to endure the strain. In the 
absence of a corresponding supply of moisture from the roots, a 
steady and continuous rise in the temperature is then the point to 
aim at to prevent scald in the berries and scorch in the leaves. A 
sudden fall in the temperature ought also to be avoided, otherwise 
the check given will result in washy leaves and rusty berries. 
With this object in view, a sharp look out for sunshine and 
cloud ought to be kept up, and the air reduced when it is seen that 
the sunshine will shortly be obscured by clouds, or increased when 
it is apparent that they will quickly pass away. On bright settled 
days the air should be gradually reduced after midday until it is 
safe to close with plenty of moisture, so as to conserve sun heat as 
much as possible. No matter how bright the weather may be, so 
long as it is continuously bright, mistakes in ventilating are not 
likely to be made after the few critical hours in the morning are 
passed, but it frequently happens that dull mornings are succeeded 
by bright bursts of sunshine during the afternoon. Careful and 
prompt attention must under such circumstances be given, or much 
damage will be done. This difficulty is greatly increased when 
dealing with vineries facing due west, and it is seldom safe to 
close these as early as others having different aspects. I have seen 
very severe cases of scald result from venturesome treatment in 
this respect. 
The cardinal points to be observed in the matter may be summed 
up in a few words—viz., keep a little in advance of bright sunshine 
or overcast periods in giving or reducing the air, as the case may 
be ; at all times avoid opening widely the ventilators suddenly, and 
during the prevalence of cold winds open those on the opposite 
side to that from which the wind comes.— Yitis. 
THE NUTRITION OF ROOTS. 
The points raised by Mr. Raillem in his communication of the 
17th of May (page 388), are of deep interest to all horticulturists, 
and to ful.y understand them involves a knowledge of the physical 
relations of gases and fluids, the vesicular structure of plants, and 
the laws which govern the passage of fluids, and the substances and 
gases held in solution through the cell walls. 
The phenomenon of dew depends upon the vapour of water 
held in suspension by air ascending through the interstices of the 
soil till it reaches some substance or body which chills it below the 
point of saturation, when it is deposited in a fluid form. This 
deposition may take place upon the roots of plants, as in epiphytal 
Orchids, or upon the particles of the soil chilled either by evapora¬ 
tion or radiation of heat. When soil is in a moist, as distinct from 
a saturated condition, a thin film of water envelopes the particles, 
and when nutrition takes place the root hairs are in contact with 
this film. Water has the power of taking up in solution chemical 
elements existing in the soil, and also of absorbing the gases which 
are in contact with the surface, and the extent to which this is 
carried out depends upon the amount of surface exposed. As all 
plant structures consist of closed vesicles or cells, matter in a 
fluid condition can pass into these cells, and it is by means of this 
fluid only that gaseous and chemical nutrition can take place. 
The process of endosmose is always accompanied by the related 
process of exosmose, by which the waste products of the cell life 
pass outwards into the soil. This latter being of an acid nature it 
acts through the root hairs being in close contact with the soil 
upon the substances found there, and assists the enveloping film of 
water to dissolve the elements or compounds necessary to plant 
life. In the case of the spongy tissue of the roots of aerial Orchids, 
which is to some extent analogous to the open tissues of leaves, 
there is a film of moisture surrounding and enveloping the outer 
part of the cell walls exposed to the air. This watery surface has 
the power of taking up the gases of a nutrient nature present in 
the air, and these pass into the structure by endosmose, the watery 
film being renewed by exosmose and by the deposition of water from 
the supersaturated air. 
In the case of manures buried in the soil, certain gases are 
given off by fermentation and bacterial life. The resulting 
vapours coming into contact with the watery films in which the 
root hairs are living, are taken up by the water and passed on with 
it into the plant tissue. The passage of the fluid into the interior 
of the cells being by atomic displacement, there are no holes in 
the living cell wall. The condition of the watery fluid is an im¬ 
portant element in supplying manures, and at once suggests the 
reasons for giving these in a very weakened form.—J. A., Keio. 
The correspondents who have kindly written on this question 
have rather run off the line of rails which lei to the answer I 
wanted to arrive at. If Mr. D. Gilmour (page 424) will read my 
