THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 25, i860. 177 
Tomatoes not ripening-. 
On all hands we hear of failures of plants from the more 
temperate or tropical regions. The Chinese Sugar Cane, or 
Holcus Saccliaratus, has no where, that I am aware of, 
.yielded the crop it was reported as likely to do, and which 
it certainly did in some places the year before. Indian Corn 
lias been a like failure, and even Scarlet Runner Beans have 
not been so prolific as they are sometimes. All these failures 
are easily enough accounted for, as is also that of the plant 
mentioned above, which, like the others, claims a warmer 
climate for its home. In the garden here (Linton) we have had 
very few ripe fruit, and these far from being so good as usual, 
although the plants were treated the same as in former years. 
But the cause is obvious enough—a cold, wet, sunless season is 
not the one to ripen a tropical fruit, although it is, perhaps, 
favourable for the growth of a vegetable from a colder region : 
consequently, the garden Pea has done us more service this 
season than for several years past. The Tomato ripened very few 
fruit with us, even against a south wall, while last year some self- 
sown plants in the open ground produced some good fruit with¬ 
out any other attention than putting a few faggot sticks under 
them horizontally, to keep them from the ground. Chilies have 
in like manner failed to ripen in a cold pit as they did last year, 
and the few Tomatoes that did colour I should think were 
deficient of that flavour which sun alone can give them.—J. Robson. 
NEW AND RARE PLANTS. 
Phal.EXOP3IS ROSEA (Rose-colout ed Phalcenopsis). 
This Orchid has been called also Stauroglottis and Phalsenopsis 
equestris. It is a native of Manilla, whence it was sent to 
Messrs. Yeitch & Sons by their collector, Mr. T. Lobb. Elowers 
white and pink.—( Botanical Magazine, t. 5212.) 
Agave YtrcoasEOUA ( Yucca-leaved Agave). 
Native of the Rio del Monte district in Mexico. Elowers in 
a cool greenhouse during the summer. The flower-stem at Kew 
was twenty feet high.— {Ibicl., t. 5213.) 
Oncidium rnTMATOCHiLUM ( Warted-lipped Oncidktm). 
Probably a native of Mexico. Imported in 1847, both by 
Mr. Clowes and Messrs. Loddiges. Blooms in May. Elowers 
with white lip, and the rest yellow-green spotted with orange- 
red.— {Ibid., t. 5214.) 
Dianthtjs Seguieri var. Caitcasicus {Caucasian Seguier's 
Pink). 
Native of mountain districts of southern Europe, as well as 
of a great part of Russia and Siberia. Numerous specific 
names have been applied, but they have all been reduced to 
synonymes of the above by Sir W. Hooker. Elowers various 
shades of purple.— {Ibid., t. 5215.) 
Methonica grandiflora {Large yellow-flowered African 
Methonica). 
Native of the Island of Fernando Po, sent home by the Kew 
plant collector, M. Gustav Mann. Blooms from July to Septem¬ 
ber. Elowers sulphur-coloured, eight inches across.— {Ibid, 
t. 5216.) 
PRODUCTION OF MANURE FROM THE AIR.’ 
{By MM. Margueritte and I)e Sourdeval.) 
The value of guano and most other concentrated manures 
arises to a considerable extent from the ammonia which they 
contain. As three-quarters of the atmospheric air consist of 
nitrogen, and as hydrogen forms one-ninth of all pure water, if 
some cheap means could be found for inducing the hydrogen of 
water to enter into combination with the nitrogen of air and 
form ammonia, this valuable manure could be produced in 
unlimited quantities, and the agricultural products of the world 
enormously increased. The efforts to do this have been at last 
crowned with success, as will be seen by the following abstract 
of some continental researches. 
Since the remarkable labours of Messrs. Liebig, Sclialtenmann, 
and Ivuhlmann, on the fertilising action of ammoniacal salts, the 
production of ammonia at a low price has become a problem of 
the highest interest. But to arrive at this result it is necessary 
to obtain the nitrogen elsewhere than in the nitrogenous matters; 
which may, for the most part, be employed directly as manures, 
and of which the limited quantities and elevated price permit 
only a restricted use. 
Atmospheric air is an inexhaustible and costless source of 
nitrogen. However, this element presents so great an indiffer¬ 
ence in its chemical reactions, that, notwithstanding the nume¬ 
rous attempts which have been made, chemists have not hereto¬ 
fore succeeded in combining it with hydrogen so as to produce 
ammonia artificially. This result, so long desired, has been 
reserved for MM. Margueritte and De Sourdeval, who have 
obtained it by employing an agent of which the remarkable 
properties and neat and precise reactions have permitted them 
to succeed where all others had failed. This agent is baryta, of 
which notice has recently been taken on account of the recent 
applications that- M. Kulilmann has made of it in painting, but 
of which no person suspected the part that it was to be called 
to play in the development of the agricultural riches of our 
country. The manufacture of ammonia is based on a fact 
entirely new—the cyanuration of barium. It had been believed 
until the present time that potash and soda alone had the pro¬ 
perty of determining the formation of cyanogen; that the earthy 
alkaline bases—baryta, for example—could not, in any case, 
form cyanides. 
Messrs, Margueritte and De Sourdeval have ascertained that 
this opinion is entirely erroneous, and that baryta, much better 
than potash or soda, fixes the nitrogen of the ah' or of animal 
matters in considerable proportions. It is already understood, 
that for the preparation of Prussian blue the cyanide of barium 
presents great advantages over that of potassium, for the equiva¬ 
lent of baryta costs only about the one-seventh of that of potash. 
Thus do we find practically and really obtained the result first 
announced by Desfosses, and vainly pursued in France and 
England—the manufacture of cyanides from the nitrogen of the 
atmospheric air. This solution, so important, depends on the 
essential difference which exists between the properties of baryta 
and those of potash; the first is infusible, fixed, porous, and 
becomes deeply cyanuretted without loss ; the second is fusible, 
volatile, and becomes cyanuretted only at the surface, and suffers 
by volatilisation a loss which amounts to 50 per cent. After the 
cyanide of barium was obtained, the grand problem for Messrs. 
Margueritte and De Sourdeval to resolve was the transformation 
of the cyanide into ammonia, by means at the same time simple, 
rapid, and inexpensive. The following is the operation :— 
In an earthern retort is calcined, at an elevated and sustained 
temperature, a mixture of carbonate of baryta, iron filings in the 
proportion of about 30 per cent., the refuse of coal, tar, and 
sawdust. This produces a reduction to the state of anhydrous 
baryta, of the greater part of the carbonate employed. After¬ 
wards is slowly passed a current of ah' across the porous mass, 
the oxygen of which is converted into carbonic oxide by its 
passage over a column of incandescent charcoal, while its nitro¬ 
gen, in presence of the charcoal and of the barium, transforms 
itself into cyanogen, and produces considerable quantities of 
cyanide. In effect, the matter sheltered from the air and cooled, 
and washed with boiling water, gives with the salts of iron an abun¬ 
dant precipitate of Prussian blue. The mixture thus calcined and 
cyanuretted is received into a cylinder of either cast or wrought- 
iron, which serves both as an extinguisher and as an apparatus 
for the transformation of the cyanuret. Through this cylinder, 
at a temperature less than 300° (centigrade) is passed a current 
of steam, which disengages, under the form of ammonia, all the 
nitrogen contained in the cyanide of barium. It is impossible to 
foresee all the results of this great discovery. Among other 
things, it suggests the production of nitric acid from the air by 
oxidising ammonia .—{Chemical News.) 
NEW BOOKS. 
Healthy Moral Homes* —The title page of this excellent 
little volume does not do it justice. It embodies the author’s 
praiseworthy object—“ improving the home of the agricultural 
labourer;” but its contents extend far beyond that, for they 
convey almost every information which an amateur needs and 
seeks for when he has resolved to build himself a house. Job 
mercilessly exclaims, “ Oh! that mine adversary had written a 
book,” for that son of wisdom would have flayed him critically; 
* Healthy Moral Homes for Agricultural Labourers, showing a good 
investment for landlords with great advantage to tenants. ByC. Vincent 
Bernard, a practical workman of 40 years’ experience. With 24 illustra¬ 
tions. London: Cottage Gardener Office; and C. V. Bernard, 2, Lucas 
Place, Commercial Road, East. 
