383 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Maech 26, 1861. 
were once one vast primeval forest of Scotch Firs, save the peaks 
and ridges, and some of the very steep declivities of the 
mountains. The forest of Braemar to the right of Balmoral 
is the last remains of that forest. And the question is this, 
Would the Scotch Fir from the seeds ripened on the heights of 
Braemar be more hardy in the north of Canada, or by the river 
Lena, towards the farthest-off side of Siberia, than Scotch Fir 
from seeds ripened at Stirling Castle, or in Cornwall ? Here is 
a knotty point, and the old English Oak would answer my 
purpose better, for the Oak of the Highlands is no whit more 
hardy than the same kind of Oak is on the Apennines. But 
the Scotch Fir answers better for the philosophy of my friend, 
for the Scotch Fir of Braemar is a very different and superior 
kind to the common low-country variety of the same kind of 
Fir. Now, the kind of tree with which, my friend explains how 
the nature of one species may differ from the nature of other 
individuals of the same is the Araucaria imbricata ; and unless 
we can find out that there is a different variety of it, as there is 
known to be of the Scotch Fir on the flank of the Grampian 
range, depend upon it my friend has climbed too high up in 
the mountains for his “selection” at all events.—D. Beaton, 
GROWING and FORCING LILY of the VALLEY. 
“ Can The Cottage Gardener tell the secret of the way to 
grow Lilies of the Valley, that they may bloom as profusely as 
those at the Crystal Palace ?”—B., Croydon. 
We have not seen the plants at the Crystal Palace, but 
presume they are there now, and therefore forced into bloom. 
There is little difficulty in getting good pots of this general 
favourite in the early months of the year, provided you have 
a good stock out of doors to go to for filling your pots. This 
plant, however, out of doors has a way of its own. In some 
places it will become next to a weed, taking possession of shady 
woods and of sunny borders; and in some other places hardly 
any coaxing will make it grow vigorously at all. In general, a 
rich, deep, sandy loam suits it best; and where it flourishes 
naturally in the place, the common soil, with a little addition of 
leaf mould and silver sand, will bloom it to great perfection 
in pots. 
In making a plantation out of doors the aspect is of little 
: consequence, though, if I have a prejudice, it would be for the 
! north-west. After digging and airing the ground, the roots should 
be spread over beds about 3 inches apart, and then covered 
2 inches deep with rich soil, in which very rotten dung or leaf 
mould forms the chief part. The planting is best done in March. 
■ These will require watering several times if the summer is dry, 
and will produce pretty well in the second year. After ten 
years it would be well to make new plantations by dividing a 
portion and fresh planting. From such beds the plants must be 
I selected for forcing. 
Six-inch pots are generally used. These are well-drained, and 
are filled to within 3 inches of the rim with rich sandy loam and 
leaf mould. The roots are then carefully taken up with the 
fork, and if in large pieces they are shaken or parted separately; 
and then you select the roots with the best buds, and put them 
very thick on the soil in the pots—so thick that the buds stand 
about an inch or a little more from each other according to 
their strength. Now, the whole success almost in having fine, 
full pots a mass of bloom, depends on choosing the plants with 
fine buds. These must be round, and not long and angular; 
and if you press each bud between your thumb and finger, a 
very little experience will soon enable you to decide whether 
it will be flower-producing or not. In the first case it will not 
only be round and plump, but hard to the pressure; in the 
other case the bud will be long, angular, and soft to the pressure. 
When the pots are thus filled, press the roots gently, and cover 
with 2 inches of sandy loam and leaf mould a little pressed 
1 down. If these pots could then be plunged in a gentle hotbed 
for a few weeks, but air left on back and front to keep the 
surface of the pots cool while the plunged part was a little 
warm, the success would be all the greater, increasing the top 
heat to an average of 60° when the buds began to break through 
the soil; and when the flowers began to open, removing the 
plants to a warm greenhouse or the window of a sitting-room. 
[The plants will do very well if placed not far from the glass in a 
forcing-house at once, but better if the little mild bottom heat can 
:be given. When done flowering, if the pots are top-dressed 
and well watered iu Bummer, they will force again and again 
for years ; but for uniform fine display I would prefer planting 
them out when done, and selecting from fresh buds and their 
roots every season. We sometimes see people take up a lump 
out of the ground, and, after squeezing it into a pot, feel very 
much surprised that they get so many leaves and so few flowers. 
The picking the buds is my secret, and I am chiefly indebted 
for that to a kind neighbour; but if the Crystal Palace gardeners 
have a better one, I trust it will be made known for the general 
benefit. The man who makes it known may expect to get many 
a sweet look of thanks from the fairest and sweetest of all 
flowers. R. Fish, 
THE SCIENCE OF GARDENING. 
{Concluded from,page 368.) 
In the next place, let us consider what circumstances render 
a plant most liable to suffer from frost; and let it be observed 
once for all, that to avoid such circumstances is by so much to 
render plants capable of enduring our climate. 
First. Moisture renders a plant susceptible of cold. Every 
gardener knows this. If the air of his greenhouse be dry, the 
plants within may be submitted to a temperature of 32® without 
injury, provided the return to a higher temperature be gradual. 
Secondly. Gradual decrements of temperature are scarcely 
felt. A Myrtle may be forced, and subsequently passed to the 
conservatory, cold pit, and even thence to an open border if in 
the south of England, without enduring any injury from the 
cold of winter, but it would be killed if passed at once from the 
hothouse to the border. 
Thirdly. The more saline are the juices of a plant the less 
liable are they to congelation by frost. Salt preserves vegetables 
from injury by sudden transitions in the temperature of the 
atmosphere. That salted soils freeze with more reluctance than 
before the salt is applied is well known, and that crops of 
Turnips, Cabbages, Cauliflowers, &c., are similarly preserved is 
equally well established. 
Fourthly. Absence of motion enables plants to endure a 
lower degree of temperature. Water may be cooled down to 
below 32° without freezing, but it solidifies the moment it is 
agitated. 
Some plants, like some animals, are able to endure a very high 
degree of temperature. Sir Joseph Banks and others have 
breathed for many minutes in an atmosphere hot enough to 
cook eggs. So do certain plants flourish in hot-water springs 
of which the temperature varies between the scalding heats of 
from 150° to 180° of Fahrenheit’s thermometer; and others have 
been found growing freely on the edge of volcanoes in an atmo¬ 
sphere heated above the boiling-point of water. Indeed it is 
quite certain that most plants will better bear for a short time 
an elevated temperature which, if long continued, would 
destroy them, than they can a low temperature. Thus a tem¬ 
perature rather above the freezing-point of water to Orchidaceous 
and other tropical plants is generally fatal if endured by them 
for only a few minutes, whereas a considerable elevation above 
a salutary temperature is rarely injurious to plants. But this 
is not universally the case ; for the elegant Primula marginata is 
so impatient of heat, that although just about to bloom, it never 
opens a bud if brought into a room in which there is a fire. 
Plants, generally, have the power of preventing their sap 
attaining to the unnatural elevation of temperature of the at¬ 
mosphere around them. This in some degree may depend 
upon the bark and wood being bad conductors of heat, but they 
have a power of resisting heat quite independent of that; for 
the Pine Apple, though growing for months in a minimum tem- 
perature of 60°, never has that of its flesh whilst growing 
elevated above 50°. Now the worst of conductors would have 
conveyed heat through them in that time. This is only analogous 
to what occurs in the animal economy. Sir Joseph Banks, Sir 
Charles Blagden, and Dr. Solander, in the case already alluded 
to, remained several minutes in a room heated to 212°—the 
boiling-point of water, and though unpleasant sensations were 
produced, yet the air was easily borne, and the temperature of 
the body was very little elevated. If they breathed on the ther¬ 
mometer it sank several degrees ; every expiration was cool to 
the nostrils, previously heated by the air inspired; the body 
felt cold as a corpse to the touch of the fingers, and the heat of 
the skin under the tongue was only 98°. A dog was exposed to 
a temperature of 220° for ten minutes, but its body’s heat did 
not rise above 110°, being only 9° above its natural warmth. 
