172 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
strate that each crop takes different kinds of food from 
the earth, and not that universal one, water, which is 
ever present and renewed. 
So far, indeed, from water being the sole food of plants, 
they are injured and destroyed by its superabundance in 
the soils sustaining them. Such soils are always colder 
than well-drained soils, inasmuch as that the same quan¬ 
tity of caloric (heat) which will warm the earth four 
degrees, will only warm water one degree—or, to use the 
language of the chemist, the capacity for heat of water is 
four times greater than that of the earths. Secondly, 
the vegetable matters decomposing in a soil, where water 
is superabundant, give out carburetted hydrogen, acetic, 
gallic, and other acids, instead of carbonic acid gas and 
ammonia—products essential to healthy vegetation. Pal¬ 
liatives for such evils are the application of lime, or its 
carbonate (chalk), to the soils in which these acids have 
been generated; and, indeed, after they have been 
formed, such an application is essential, though the 
radical cure and preventive of recurrence - - thorough 
draining, be adopted. It is not an extravagant asser¬ 
tion, that there is scarcely a garden existing that would 
not be benefited by under-draining. Every gardener 
knows the absolute necessity for a good drainage under 
his wall-trees and vines ; but few gardeners ever think, 
for a moment, whether there is any escape, any outfall, 
for the water he has drained from immediate contact 
with the roots of the above-named favoured trees. Every 
garden should have drains cut, varying in depth from 
two to three feet, according to the depth of the soil, with 
an interval of twenty-four feet between the drains. At 
the bottom of the drains should be placed one-inch 
pipes: these should be well puddled over, six inches 
deep, with clay, and then the earth returned.* They 
should have an outfall into a ditch, at the least elevated 
side of the garden. By having the pipes with a bore no 
larger than an inch, moles cannot creep in, and they are 
large enough to carry off all the water, after even the 
heaviest rains. 
The expense is, comparatively, nothing, varying from 
U3 to £5 per acre; and we shall not stop to argue with 
any one, who doubts for an instant the advantage conse¬ 
quent upon removing all water from a soil not retainable 
by its own absorbent powers; and we will only repeat 
one relative fact, viz. .that at LordIlatherton’s residence, 
Teddesley Hay, in S taflordshire, four hundred and sixty- 
seven acres, formerly letting for an average rental of 12s. 
per acre, were all drained for an outlay of £3 4s. 7d. per 
acre, and their rental now averages more than 31s. per 
acre! 
The importance of following the dictate of nature to 
keep the roots of plants, natives of the torrid and tempe¬ 
rate zones, as warm or warmer than the branches, has 
been too much neglected by the gardener in bis forcing 
department. In the vinery, for example, the stem and 
roots are too often absurdly exposed to the rigour of 
whiter; whilst the buds are expanding within the glass 
* If the subsoil be clayed, the drains should be only twelve feet apart, 
and the draining tiles covered with stones. 
[December 19. 
shelter hi a temperature of 60°. A vine so treated, is 
like the felled elm, which, allowed to retain its bark, 
though rootless, puts forth its leaves in the spring; 
expands its buds, and advances through the first stages 
of growth merely from the sap stored witliin its stem and 
branches. This is no mere suggestion of fancy; for 
repeated experiments have shown that hot-house vines, 
with their roots thus kept torpid by exposure to cold, had 
not broken, that is, their buds had not burst; whilst 
other vines, treated in all respects similarly, but with 
their roots kept genially warm, were actually in bloom. 
NEW PLANTS. 
THEIR PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES. 
Choice Fkanciscea (Franciscea exirnia). — Gardeners’ 
Magazine of Botany, vol. ii., p. 177.— Stove evergreen un¬ 
der shrub. Franciscea is a name given by Polil, a Ger¬ 
man botanist, as a compliment to the Emperor Francis 
of Austria, when Bonaparte was on his fatal march to 
Moscow; and, therefore, as Mr. Beaton clearly explained 
the other day, is only a synonym of Plumier’s Brunsfelsia. 
Plunder wrote his last books on occidental plants in 
1755, after a long course of authorship, and he is the 
legitimate author of Brunsfelsia, which Polil unwarrant¬ 
ably turned into Franciscea more than sixty years after, 
wards. We must, therefore, cancel Franciscea, and gently 
rebuke young authors and gardeners for perpetuating a 
name without a title. It is time that many 7 of our books 
of reference saddle Brunsfelsia on Linnaeus; an over¬ 
sight which, if true, would place Fold’s Franciscea still 
more in the back ground. The genus Brunsfelsia com¬ 
memorates the name of Otlio Brunsfels, a Carthusian 
monk of Mentz. The specific name, exirnia, means choice, 
and well applied is it in tins instance, for it certainly is 
the choicest yet described of the Brunsfelsias. The large 
roots of one of the species in our gardens, uniflora, are 
called Manaca in Brazil, where they are extensively used, 
medicinally, for exciting the lymphatic system. It is 
also the Vegetal Mercurio of the Portuguese settlers. It 
