266 
VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 
“ As this house, which has a southern aspect, is of rather a peculiar structure, a few remarks upon 
it may not he out of place. It has a lofty curvilinear metallic roof, a form which is particularly well 
adapted to catch the rays of the sun during every part of the day; but in consequence of which it 
would in summer become intensely hot, were it not that a light canvass shading is used during bright 
sunshine, to modify the heat and prevent the young growth becoming scorched. The heating apparatus 
for the interior is fitted up on a modification of Penn’s system of circulating the warm air; one division 
being supplied with hot-water tanks mider ground, for the purpose of warming the soil, in which some 
of the spice trees are turned out. The house is separated into three divisions, which arrangement is 
fomicl particularly convenient in the winter. The Mangosteen, and other plants swelling fruit, can 
thus be kept by themselves comparatively hot and moist; in a second division, a warm and dry 
temperature is maintained ; and the third is kept cool and dry, for such plants as it is considered safe 
to subject to that treatment in order to throw them into rest, and to check their growth for the purpose 
of producing flower buds. 
“ The Nutmeg plants continued to grow vigorously, and were gradually shifted into larger pots and 
tubs as they were found to require it, care being always taken to give good drainage and not to injure 
the young roots. As they increased in size, one half of the soil used was good turfy loam, which had 
been laid up for some time previous, with plenty of silver sand. The most suitable temperature was 
found to be a maximum of 90° Fahrenheit in summer, with abundance of water and syringing ; and a 
minimum of about 60° in winter, with comparative dryness; but, in the winter of 1845-6, the division 
in which they were grown was allowed to be rather more cool than usual, which had the effect of 
throwing three of the plants into flower in the following spring. As the Nutmeg is a dioecious plant, 
is was fortunate that one of them produced male flowers, without which there would have been no 
possibility of fruiting the others. I believe that in Nutmeg plantations in the East Indies, it is 
customary to plant one male plant to seven females, and to leave the process of fertilization to the ah' 
and insects; but hi this country under glass no fruit is produced without artificial impregnation, the 
flowers requiring a very similar process to that adopted with cucumbers and melons that are wanted to 
produce perfect seed; the only difference being that both kinds of flowers are produced on the same 
plant in the cucumber and its allies ; while the Myristica produces them on separate plants. About 
twelve months elapse from the time the fruit is set until it is ripe ; but, in the meantime, a second crop 
of fruit and a third of flowers, is produced: in fact, the plants flower regularly in the sprhig and 
autumn months. I need hardly remark that the Mace and Nutmegs gathered fresh from the trees are 
much higher flavoured than those imported to the shops, which may be accounted for by their not 
having to undergo the preparing process necessary for exportation. 
“ When the Nutmegs from Syon were exhibited at the rooms of the Horticultural Society, it was 
remarked that it was perhaps the first time this spice tree had fruited in England. Before the fruit 
opens it looks not unlike a little pear, but, as maturity approaches, the outside coating is burst into two 
halves, displaying to view a reddish purple body something like a plum, and within this, which after a 
certain process becomes the Mace of the shops, the true Nutmeg is enclosed. The fruit is about as large 
as a good sized fig, and perhaps more pear-shaped or rather round. There is a larger variety of the 
Nutmeg at Syon, which has also borne fruit; in this, the fruit is much more round in form than in the 
common variety, and has, before it opens, very much the appearance of a good-sized peach.” 
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Rrgrtdili ItytjsiDlngtf. 
By ARTHUR. HENFREY, Esq., F.L. S., Lecturer ox Botaxy at St. George’s Hospital. 
THE CONTENTS OF THE ELEMENTARY STRUCTURES OF PLANTS. 
t■ 
n /E shall dismiss the subject of the minute anatomy of plants with the present chapter, in which 
lif the most important of the various matters contained in plants will be briefly described. More 
extended information will come into place better hereafter, when we examine the characters of the vital 
operations. 
The substance of every living plant is wholly pervaded (excepting, of course, the epidermis and bark 
structure) with liquid, which, constantly rising up from the roots towards the upper parts, the leaves 
and flowers, where it is evaporated during the active vegetation of the plant, carries with it the various 
substances taken up in solution from the soil. But this liquid does not pass through open conduits, 
and is not conveyed up unaltered, but passes through the cellular tissues, which take from it certain 
substances, and give out others ; so that this general sap probably differs in its actual composition in 
every different part of a plant, according to the operations going on in the tissues which it traverses. 
