280 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 
jKiattllmmms Malm. 
The Ivy .—The Ivy is not only ornamental upon trees, but it is also remarkably well adapted to ornament 
cottages, and even large mansions, when allowed to grow upon the walls, to which it will attach itself so firmly by 
the little rootlets sent out by the branches, that it is almost impossible to tear it off. On wooden buildings it may 
perhaps be injurious, by causing them to decay, hut on stone buildings it fastens itself firmly, and holds both 
stone and mortar together like a coat of cement. The thick garniture of foliage with which it covers the surface, 
excludes stormy weather, and has, therefore, a tendency to preserve the walls, rather than accelerate their decay. 
The Ivy is the inseparable accompaniment of the old feudal castles and crumbling towers of Europe, and borrows 
a great additional interest from the romance and historical recollections connected with such spots. Indeed, half 
the interest, picturesque as well as poetical, of these time-worn buildings, is conferred by this plant, which 
seeks to bind together and adorn with something of their former richness, the crumbling fragments that are fast 
tottering to decay :— 
“ The Ivy, that staunchest and firmest friend, 
That hastens its succouring arm to lend 
To the ruined fane, where in youth it sprung, 
And its pliant tendrils in sport were flung. 
■When the sinking buttress and mouldering tower 
Seem only the spectres of former power, 
Then the Ivy clusters around the wall, 
And for tapestry hangs on the moss-grown hall, 
Striving in beauty and youth to dress 
The desolate place in its loneliness.” 
The Ivy lives to a great age, if we may judge from the specimens that overrun some of the oldest edifices of 
Europe, which are said to have been covered with it for centuries, and where the main stems arc seen nearly as 
large as the trunk of a middle-sized tree. 
“Whole ages have fled, and their works decayed, 
And nations have scattered been ; 
But the stout old Ivy shall never fade 
From its hale and hearty green. 
The brave old plant, in its lonely days, 
Shall fatten upon the past; 
For the stateliest building man can raise 
Is the Ivy’s food at last.” Downing's Landscape Gardening. 
Charcoal is an impure form of Carbon, and is manufactured on a large scale for the purposes of the arts. The 
process of manufacture consists in exposing to heat billets of wood, or other organic matter, under such conditions 
as either wholly or partially to exclude air. Charcoal has several properties which render it of value to the 
cultivator. As a manure, it does not act by furnishing carbon to the vegetation ; because it is, in reality, one of 
the most indestructible substances known, and remains for an indefinite length of time without change. But it is 
remarkably absorptive of certain gases which it retains within its pores in a state of high condensation. A 
fragment of freshly burned charcoal condenses as much as ninety times its bulk of ammoniacal gas, and thirty-five 
times its volume of carbonic acid. As these two gases form the principal organic food of plants, it is obvious that 
charcoal may have a powerful individual action upon their growth. The experiments of Saussure, and others 
have shown that plants flourish with great luxuriance when the atmosphere in which they grow contains more 
than the usual amount of carbonic acid. Charcoal, after having absorbed carbonic acid and ammonia from the 
air, places plants under favourable conditions for receiving and appropriating a larger than usual amount of this 
organic food. The only difference is, that instead of entering the plant by the leaves, they reach it through the 
roots, which absorb the rain water containing these gases, washed out from the charcoal. Thus, charcoal, from its 
absorptive nature, becomes an indirect means of increasing the supply of carbon and nitrogen to plants. Different 
kinds of charcoal have varying values in this respect. Experiments made by exposing freshly burned pieces of 
charcoal to the air, showed their different absorptive powers, by the increase in weight after they had been exposed 
a week to the atmosphere. The charcoal from fir gained 13 per cent, in weight; that from lignum vitas, 9 - 6 ; 
that from box, 14; from beech, 16'3 ; from oak, 16'5 ; and from mahogany, 18. Charcoal also possesses the 
property of absorbing and retaining the odoriferous and colouring principles of most organic substances. It is, on 
this account, used for removing the putrefactive taint from foul water, or other putrid substances. "When used as 
a filter for foul water, both the smell and colour are removed. From this deodorizing property charcoal is 
frequently mixed with night-soil and other decaying manures, which it keeps free from smell, and, at the same 
time aids in pi'eserving, by absorbing the gases which would otherwise escape. A mixture of charcoal and burnt 
clay is frequently used for this purpose, with excellent effect. Charcoal, when employed as a manure, acts, to a 
small extent, by presenting, in a soluble form, the ashes of the wood from which it was prepared; but this action 
is only temporary and of small importance, when compared with its principal point of utility, viz., its power of 
absorbing from the air the gaseous food of plants; and therefore, of presenting it in a more condensed form, and 
in greater quantity.— Prof. Playfair , in Morton's Cyclopedia of Agriculture. 
