November 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER 
109 
and fruits, of every hue. It is always cellular, and 
evidently acts a part in the secretory system of plants. 
Under the cellular integument occurs the bark, which, 
in annual plants, or branches of one year’s growth, 
consists of a single layer, scarcely distinguishable from 
the wood; in older stems and branches, it is composed 
of as many layers as they are years of age. It is in the 
innermost of these, which is called the liber, that the 
vital returning circulation and secretions are carried on 
for the time being almost exclusively. These layers are 
i concentric, or, as they are usually termed, cortical layers; 
' they are thicker in feeble plants than in more vigorous 
ones of the same species; they are formed of waving 
i longitudinal fibres, the meshes of the net-work they 
| thus constitute being filled with pulp. If the outer 
j hark is destroyed, but the wound does not penetrate 
j below the liber, the wound is healed up, otherwise the 
i removed part is unregenerated. In some roots, although 
only annuals, the hark is composed entirely of liber, 
and is very thick, as in the carrot and parsnip, in which 
it is evidently separated by a light-coloured annular 
mark, from the central or woody part. The liber is 
composed of various longitudinal tubes, in which the 
S true sap of the individual descends after elaboration in 
j the leaves, consequently here are found the substances 
that are the peculiar products of each in the most con¬ 
centrated state, as the resin of the fir, the bitter prin¬ 
ciple of the cinchona, or Peruvian bark, &c. 
We will here pause, to remark upon some of the 
remedies which have been recommended for the removal 
of insects from the bark of trees. Oil has been directed 
to be smeared over them, for the destruction of the 
aphis lanigera, moss, &c. Whether this application 
; will answer such purpose we will not stop to enquire, 
j but will rest content with observing that a more dele¬ 
terious one is scarcely possible; for on the same prin¬ 
ciple that it destroys the parasites, namely, by closing 
I their spiracles and pores, and thus suffocating them, it 
1 in a like manner clogs up the pores of the infected tree, 
and, in every instance, insures a weak and unhealthy 
vegetation; for it is not a transient remedy that 
will cease in its effects as soon as it has attained 
the desired end. The oil dries, and, as it were, forms 
a varnish over the epidermis for years, unremoved by 
exposure to the atmosphere; and this effect is more 
decidedly insured by linseed oil being the kind recorn- 
i mended, it being one of the most unctuous and quick- 
drying of the oils. The most, effectual, most salutary, and 
least disagreeable remedy is of trivial expense, and 
which a gardener need but try upon one individual to 
: insure its adoption. It is with a hard scrubbing-brush, 
dipped in a strong brine of common salt, as often as 
necessary to insure each portion of the bark being 
moisted with it, to scrub the trunks and branches of his 
trees at least every second year. It most effectually 
destroys insects of all kinds, and moss; and the stimu¬ 
lating influence of the application and the friction, are 
productive of the most beneficial effects. The expense 
is not so much as that of dressing the trunks with a 
solution of lime, which, however efficient in the des¬ 
truction of moss, is not so in the removal of insects,—is 
highly injurious to the trees, by filling up the respira¬ 
tory pores of the epidermis, and is decidedly a promoter 
of canker. Let our remedy be brought by every 
orchardist to the test of experiment under his own eye, 
that it may be effectually done, and he will not require 
us to theorise. Facts are stubborn opponents. 
The injury inflicted by stopping the pores of the epi¬ 
dermis on the stem and branches of a tree, is at once 
evident from the fact, that oxygen and water are ab¬ 
sorbed, and carbonic acid evolved from them, the same 
as in the leaves, which operations are all parts of the | 
process of elaborating the sap. It is no trivial inspira¬ 
tion of oxygen; for, in twenty-four hours, the branch of 
an apple-tree has been found to inhale five times its 
own volume. 
If the fibres emitted by the ivy, by which it clings 
to other trees for support, do not aid it in obtaining 
nourishment, yet by filling .their respiratory pores, they 
are injurious, and should never be allowed to cling 
around serviceable trees. 
GARDENING GOSSIP. 
The London Horticultural Society are proposing to 
reduce the amount of the sums to be paid by those 
who wish to compound for their annual contributions; 
and it is intended in future that a Fellow, at the time 
of his election, may so compound by paying <£-12 10s., 
and at the end of twenty years by paying <£21, with 
some intermediate sums if the payment be made at ; 
intermediate times. So far as these sums are reductions 
below those formerly charged, so far are they praise¬ 
worthy ; but they stop very much short of what is 
desirable if the object of the Society is to benefit the 
many. The day must come when the Society will be 
entirely remodelled ; for it will not be tolerated that an 
association capable of taking the lead in all that is 
useful in horticulture, and that might improve the 
orcharding and kitchen gardening of millions, should 
stagnate as a genteel Vauxhall, celebrated chiefly for its 
exhibition to a select few of other people’s horticultural 
productions. A total change from this must come, and 
the effective step towards it will be reducing the 
annual payments required from its Fellows, and by 
thus rendering it more generally an object oi interest. 
When, in our fifth volume, we gave an account of 
Philip Miller, the never-to-be-too-liighly-estimated author 
of “ The Gardener’s Dictionary,” we quoted Dr. Martyn’s 
observations, that “ Mr. Miller was of a disposition too 
generous and careless of money to become rich, and 
all his transactions showed more attention to integrity 
and honest fame than to any pecuniary advantage.’’ 
An extraordinary confirmation of this is now before 
us, in which we do not know whether most to wonder 
at the liberality of Mr. Miller, or at the beggarly 
parsimony of the Apothecaries Company. The follow¬ 
ing is an exact copy of the original memorandum in 
Mr. Miller’s own handwriting 
