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UROPEDIUM LINODENII. 
219 
which points to another fact of deep interest; namely, that while manures, solid or fluid, yield up all 
their nutritious elements to loamy soils, to the point of saturation, they attract from those soils, and 
expel other elements which possess innutritive and deleterious qualities ! 
3. But now important questions present themselves ; and to these we require of our re-agents clear 
and unambiguous answers. What then were the elements in the manure and in the earth which, by 
mutually attracting each other, produced such new combinations ? 
(a). Barytes, either as a nitrate or acetate, being dropped into the filtrate, gave a precipitate of 
sulphate of baryt; hence we are sure that sulphuric acid must have been present in the manure. 
if). Nitrate of silver caused an immediate deposition of the chloride of that metal, and thus proved 
the existence of hydro-chloric acid (muriatic) in the manure, in which, most likely, it had existed hi 
the state of common salt. 
(c) . A little carbonate of socla in solution, added to another small quantity of the filtrate, caused a 
visible separation of a little chalk—a mere milkiness ; which, however, sufficed to prove that some 
carbonic acid was there. This became more evident from the turbidity occasioned by a few drops of 
pure barytes water. Thus proofs demonstrative of the presence of two or three acids holding in solu¬ 
tion definite quantities of lime, were obtained. These acids, at the moment of their development, 
caused by the attraction of lime in the soil, had quitted their ammonia, entered into close chemical union 
with the lime, and passed away with it, as a sulphate, muriate and carbonate, or compound hard 
water. 
(d) . The ammonia and the colouring humid matter, simultaneously liberated, became fixed in the 
soil, and so firmly, that any subsequent applications of rain-water failed to carry them away. 
Enough has been said to induce reflection, and a course of rigid experiments. A large stride is 
made, and the march onward continues. Errors may perhaps be detected; but a true theory of 
manure promises to be the result. 
ON TRAINING THE CAMELLIA RETICULATA. 
MlIIOSE who are much engaged in growing the Camellia are well aware that the old species, called 
A reticulata, is one of the most unmanageable to train into a good form; nor, indeed, is it likely to 
receive much attention on account of its own merits, while the number of far more beautiful varieties 
is being augmented every year. But though it is principally used as a stock on which to graft better 
sorts, there are but few collections in which it is not allotted a place; and it is certainly desirable to 
retain it, were it only to show, by contrast, the grand effects of cultivation. Its flowers also, according 
to the most advanced opinions of florists, are coarse and wanting in chasteness of outline; but their 
unusual size and showy colour compensate in some measure for their other defects. 
C. reticulata is, however, on the whole very defective in character, and its flowers are not likely 
to be much improved; but, if it is worth growing at all in a collection, it should be trained to assume 
a much better form than that which it commonly has. In a communication published in the Annales 
de la Societe d' Horticulture de Paris, M. Neumann briefly notices the results of an experiment which 
he made with a plant of this sort, and which, instituted by so eminent a cultivator, would seem to 
prove that this desirable object may be attained with complete success. M. Neumann narrates his 
experiment as follows Last year, selecting a vigorous plant for my purpose, I commenced to pinch 
off the young shoots as soon as they were two inches long. The operation was performed about the 
end of April. This year, the same plant produced three flowers, and twenty-seven wood buds or 
shoots, of which a good number were borne on the wood three and four years old, a circumstance which 
never happens in the absence of such an operation.” Pinching the young shoots, when properly 
performed, is always conducive to the growth of fresh wood, as may be seen in the dense and handsome 
specimens which are exhibited every year ; but though this practice is familiar to all horticulturists, no 
one, excepting M. Neumann, appears to have thought it worth while to apply it to the variety of 
Camellia under consideration.—K. 
UROPEDIIIM LINDENIIA 
TF this is not the most brilliant, it is at least the most singular of terrestrial orchids. For gardens it 
A is a rare curiosity, for botanists a perfect wonder, and an object of just pride for the enterprising 
cultivator who introduced it. The characters of the type may be stated in a few words:—It is a 
Cypripedium, the labellum of which, instead of being formed like a slipper, extends in that of a tongue, 
* By J. E. Planchon, Docteur en Sciences, &c. From the Flore des Sevres. 
