368 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 19, 1861. 
Although fruit-bearing is the most influential curtailer of 
a plant’s longevity, there are others of scarcely less fatal efficiency, 
among which are improper supplies of moisture, obnoxious soils, 
deleterious food, uncongenial temperatures, and deficient light. 
These all tend to shorten a plant’s existence, or even at once 
to destroy it if administered in a violent or protracted degree. 
Excessive moisture induces that over-succulency which is ever 
attended by weakness, unnatural growth, and early decay. 
Such plants more than any others are sufferers by sudden vicissi¬ 
tudes in the hygrometric state of the atmosphere, and are still 
more fatally visited if exposed to low reductions of temperature. 
Soils containing obnoxious ingredients are certain introducers 
of disease and premature death. An excess of oxide of iron—as 
when the roots of the Apple and Pear get into an irony red, 
gravelly subsoil—always causes canker to supervene. In the 
neighbourhood of copper-smelting furnaces, not only are cattle 
subjected to swollen joints, and other unusual diseases, causing 
decrepitude and death, but the plants also around are subject to 
sudden visitations, to irregular growths, and to unwarned 
destruction; and a crop once vigorous will suddenly wither as 
if swept over by a blast. There is no doubt of this arising from 
the salts of copper which impregnate the soil irregularly as the 
winds may have borne them sublimed from the furnaces, and 
the experiments of Sennebier have shown that of all salts those 
of copper are the most fatal to plants. 
That they can be poisoned, and by many of those substances, 
narcotic as well as corrosive, which are fatal to animals, has been 
shown by the experiments of M. F. Marcet. The metallic 
poisons being absorbed are conveyed to the different parts of the 
plant, and alter or destroy its tissue. The vegetable poisons, 
such as opium, strychnia, prussic acid, belladonna, alcohol, and 
oxalic acid, which act fatally upon the nervous system of animals, 
also cause the death of plants. Does not this favour the opinion 
of those who believe that there is something in plants analogous 
to the nerves in animals ? is the naturally suggested inquiry 
made by Dr. Thomson, formerly the Glasgow Regius Professor 
of Chemistry. 
The poisonous substance is absorbed into the plant’s system, 
and proves injurious when merely applied to its branches or 
etem, almost as much as if placed in contact with the roots. 
Ulcerations and canker are exasperated if lime be put upon the 
wounds; and when Dr. Hales made a Golden Reinette Apple 
tree absorb a quart of camphorated spirits of wine through one 
of its branches, one half of the tree was destroyed. 
An uncongenial heat is as pernicious to vegetables as to 
animals. Every plant has a particular temperature, without 
which its functions cease; but the majority of them luxuriate 
most in a climate of which the extreme temperatures do not 
much exceed 32° and 90°. No seed will vegetate, no sap will 
circulate, at a temperature at or below the freezing-point of 
water; yet the juices of the plant are not congealed even at a 
temperature far more depressed; and we know of no other more 
satisfactory proof, that like a cold-blooded animal—the frog and 
the leech for example—it becomes torpid, though life is not 
extinct, until excited by a genial temperature. No cultivation 
will render plants, natives of the torrid zone, capable of bearing 
the rigours of our winters, although in some instances their 
offspring raised from seed may be rendered much more hardy than 
their parents. When a new plant arrives from such tropical 
latitudes, it is desirable to use every precaution to avoid its loss; 
but so soon as it has been propagated from, and the danger of 
such loss is removed, from that moment ought experiments to 
commence to ascertain whether its acclimatisation is attainable. 
That this should be done is self-evident; for the nearer such a. 
desirable point can be attained, the cheaper will be its cultivation, 
and consequently the greater will be the number of those who 
will be able to derive pleasure from its growth: hence, it is 
very desirable that an extended series of experiments should be 
instituted, to ascertain decisively whether many of our present 
greenhouse and stove plants would not endure exposure to our 
winters, if but slightly or not at all protected. It may be laid 
down as a rule, that all Japan plants will do so in the southern- 
coast counties of England, but it remains unascertained to what 
degree of northern latitude in our islands this general power of 
endurance extends. “ Foregone conclusions ” should have 
nothing to do with this matter. Experiment, and experiment 
only, ought to be relied upon; for we know that the Larch was 
once kept in a greenhouse; and only recently has it been proved 
that such South American plants as Tropceolum pentaphyllum 
and Gesnera Fouglasii have been found to survive our winters 
in our garden borders; the first in Scotland and Suffolk, and 
the second in Herefordshire. 
Another fact is, that many tropical plants of every order and 
species have been found to require much less heat, both during 
the day and during the night, than gardeners of a previous 
century believed. Other plants than those already noticed have 
passed from the tropics to our parterres, and even to those of 
higher northern latitudes. The Horse Chestnut is a native of 
the tropics, but it enchn’es uninjured the stern climate of Sweden. 
Aucnba Japonica , Pceonia Moutan, we all remember to have 
passed from our stoves to the greenhouse, and now they are in 
our open gardens. 
Every year renders us acquainted with instances of plants- 
being acclimatised; and, in addition to those already noticed, 
we find that Mr. Buchan, Lord Bagot’s gardener, at Blithfield 
House in Staffordshire, has an old Cinnamon tree (Laurus Cinna- 
momum), under his care, which ripens seed: from these many 
plants have been raised that endure our winters in a conserva¬ 
tory without any artificial heat. Then, again, there is no doubt 
that all the Conifer a of Mexico, which flourish there at an 
elevation of more than 8000 feet above the sea’s level, will 
survive our ordinary winters in the open air. Among these 
are Finns Llaveano, F. Teocote, F. patula, F. Hartwegii, 
Gupressus thurifera , Juniperus Jlaccida , Picea religiosa, and 
some others. 
Closely connected with the consideration of acclimatisation 
of plants is the fact that they retain habits long after their 
removal to situations in which these habits are unsuitable. Thus 
the Hyacinth , a native of Southern Asia, begins to shew symp¬ 
toms of vegetation here in autumn, which answers to the spring 
of its long-left native clime. So the Fuchsia, although it ac¬ 
commodates itself to our hemisphere, and submitting to remain 
dormant during the winter, will revive in the spring; yet the 
season during which it will grow most vigorously, if placed in a 
suitable temperature, is the winter, for this is the spring-time of 
its native country, Chili.—J. 
{To be continued.') 
FORCING. 
{Continued from page 321.) 
Old gardeners avoided the now-rather-common mistake of 
supposing that growing some good-looking plants in pots, and 
filling a few flower-beds in a popular style, constituted gardening. 
They knew that there were things more tangible required than 
the mere gratification of the eye, and that even pretty objects 
lost their charm when there was little or nothing to gratify 
the cravings of the palate: hence, instead of making flowers 
the chief object, they invariably impressed on the minds of their 
pupils the importance of making a good supply of vegetables 
their first concern, a supply of fruit the second object, and the 
supply of flowers as the third matter of importance, winding up 
with the advice to keep friends with the cook, and that the only 
safe way to do this was always to have abundance. I will 
follow the same plan with these desultory articles on Forcing* 
and, treating of vegetables first, will commence with 
ASPARAGUS. 
This much-prized vegetable is found wild in several parts 
of the country near the seashore, and delights in a deep,, 
rich, sandy loam. The modes of forcing it are endless, as it 
will do well in almost any circumstances that will yield a 
bottom heat averaging from 60° to 65°, and a top heat aver¬ 
aging 50° to 55°, with a rise of 5° more from sunshine. The 
earliest crops to come in during the middle of December are 
generally raised from the ground carefully, and then the roots 
packed closely on the top of a hotbed—such as one made with 
a foot of dung a little heated, and covered with 18 inches of 
tree leaves beginning to heat, and 3 inches of light soil. In 
severe weather the sides of the box will need protecting with 
linings, and the glass will want covering at night. Any house 
where fire heat is used will answer well for this purpose and 
with less trouble. When the roots are packed closely together 
throw a little light soil all over them an inch or so thick, and 
then give water at a temperature of about 60°, so as to fill all 
the interstices about the roots with soil; and, when settled 
cover with 2 inches or 3 inches of soil of a light character. 
Rotten leaf mould will, answer well, but any light soil will do. 
If less than the above heat is given, the shoots will be apt to - 
