370 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Septembeb 20, 1859. 
duetion of young shoots and buds; for, as soon as it becomes 
extinct in a branch, that member loses, in a great degree, the 
power of producing them; that power apparently being trans¬ 
ferred to those younger branches which still retain their pith in 
perfection. 
Much has been said concerning the function of the pith, and 
many opinions hazarded. In the earlier ages of phytological 
inquiry, or rather in ages when phytological opinions were taken 
up without inquiry, one of the vulgar errors of the time seems 
to have been an opinion that the function of the pith was that of 
generating the stone of fruit, and that if a Plum tree were to be 
deprived of its pith, it would produce fruit without a stone. 
This opinion receives some countenance from Evelyn ( Pomona, 
chap, i.), but we presume that it is now exploded. Another 
early opinion is that by which the pith was regarded as being 
analogous to the brain and heart of animals ; though we cannot 
see in what respect it is analogous to either. Malpighi believed 
it to be, like the cellular tissue, the viscera in which the sap is 
elaborated for the nourishment of the plant, and the protrusion 
of future buds. Magnol thought that it produces the flower and 
fruit, but not the wood. Duhamel thought it was not destined to 
perform any important function at all in the vegetable economy ; 
and Linnoeus revived the old doctrine of its analogy to the brain 
and spinal marrow. Thus all was uncertainty or contradiction 
among the earlier phytologists with regard to the function of 
the pith; and we believe that no function has been yet assigned 
to it, even among modem phytologists, calculated to do away all 
doubt. 
Mr. Knight, in one of his papers published in the “Philoso¬ 
phical Transactions” for 1801, regards it as destined by Nature to 
be a reservoir of moisture to supply the leaves when exhausted 
by excess of perspiration ; which opinion Sir J. E. Smith com¬ 
bated, contending that the cause assigned is wholly inadequate 
to the effect, as the moisture of the pith would, in many cases, 
be insufficient to supply even one hour’s perspiration of a single 
leaf. Thus he overthrows the hypothesis of Mr. Knight; but 
we cannot think that he succeeds in establishing his own, which j 
is merely a modification of that of Linnoeus, by which he regards J 
the pith, not as a source of nourishment, but as a reservoir of 
vital energy or life, analogous to the spinal marrow or nerves of 
animals. Yet surely the analogy will not hold good. If the 
spinal marrow is injured, the parts below are immediately pa¬ 
ralysed ; and if it is broken the animal dies ; but Mr. Knight, 
after Theophrastus, has shown that a portion of the pith may be 
abstracted from the shoot, so as to occasion a disruption of con¬ 
tinuity, without doing any material injury to the plant. 
When the functions of the pith, whatever they may be, have 
ceased, nothing remains but a mass of the purest cellular tissue, 
so light and so full of cells as usually to float even on the sur¬ 
face of alcohol (. spirits of wine). Dr. John endeavoured to | 
establish it as a peculiar vegetable principle, under the name of i 
Medullius, and he chose as examples, among others, the pith of 
the Sunflower (Helianthus annuus), and that of the Lilac 
(: Syringa vulgaris). He says its characteristics are being in¬ 
soluble in water, ether, alcohol, and oils ; being destitute of taste 
and smell; being soluble in nitric acid, and thereby furnishing 
oxalic acid; furnishing ammonia when distilled, and leaving a 
charcoal having a bronzy metallic lustre ( Ckemische Taballen her 
JPfanzem Analyser) . But nearly all these characteristics are 
furnished by cotton and other mere woody fibres. 
The stem is by no means an essential part of the plant, since 
many are destitute of it; to such trees as naturally are gifted 
with one, it is somewhat injurious to prevent its formation. 
Standard fruit trees, under similar circumstances of soil, season, 
and culture, generally produce finer-flavoured fruit than either 
dwarf standards or espaliers. This fact appears to be accounted 
for by the discoveries of the indefatigable Knight, which evince 
that plants, during the latter part of the summer, are employed 
in preparing nourishment for the production of the foliage and 
blossom in the succeeding spring; this nourishment is perfected 
and deposited in the alburnum, and mixes with the sap during 
its ascent in that season. Of a consequence it is found to increase 
in density proportionate to the height at which it is extracted.—J. 
(To he continued.) 
SENDING BULBS TO AUSTRALIA. 
“ I have a lot of bulbs in the ground at present, consisting of 
Liliums, Narcissuses, Irises, &c., which I wish to send by a friend 
to Australia in April or May next year. Would it do to lift them 
just now, and store them in sand during winter; as, if I allow 
them to remain where they are, some of them will be flowering at 
that period?”— James Milne. 
[Your plan will not answer at all. Yours, and all our winter 
and spring-growing bulbs, will not do if they are packed any day 
from the end of August to the first of June. If the bulbs could 
be sent in April, the Japan Lilies would do, and only then, 
to be sent in November to the beginning of January. The 
moment any bulb ceases growing and is dried a little is the 
right time to send. Keeping bulbs dormant artificially spoils 
them even at home; and it cannot succeed for sending them 
so far off.] 
VINE-GRAFTING—TRAINING YOUNG WALL 
TREES. 
“ First. Is it possible to bud, graft, or inarch a Black Ham- 
burgh Vine on a Cannon Sail Muscat, so as to have a cane of 
each on the same root, both producing fruit together, black and 
white. I am aware they both require heat, and the Muscat the 
most ? 
“ Second. I have Beach, Nectarine, and Apricot trees planted 
on a south-east wall, maiden plants from the nursery last 
autumn. They were cut rather close back last spring, and have 
now made four or five shoots each, from three to four feet long, 
with laterals half their length. Should I cut the laterals out, or 
lay them in ? Should the leaders be shortened again or not, and 
how far apart should the leaders be trained ? 
“ Third. Is Hooper's Seedling Strawberry a better cropper 
than Keens' Seedling ? and if it is, where can plants of it be 
obtained ? A Loveb oe the Gabden. 
[1. You could not have been reading our pages attentively, or 
you would have found that there would be little difficulty in 
grafting or inarching your Vine, and having as many sorts on one 
root as you would wish. In the present instance we do not Bee 
the propriety of the experiment, as the Cannon Hall Muscat 
wants more heat than would be good for the Hamburgh, though 
they are frequently seen good side by side. To please you, we 
will just advert to the simplicities of Vine-grafting ; the operation 
cannot well be performed unless the Vine is at rest, or a branch 
has been cut back when in full leaf, and, consequently, all danger 
of bleeding past. In the first case the stock and the scion must 
be in a state of rest, and the best time to perform the operation, 
is just a week or two before, naturally or otherwise, the sap in 
the Vine will begin to flow. By the second mode the scion must 
be retarded and kept in a damp place to secure its vitality. When 
the leaves of a stem, or a shoot, are unfolded, the flow of the 
sap is over, and there will be no bleeding when the stem or 
shoot is cut. The scion being put on such a shoot in any of the 
usual ways, a union is generally quickly effected. Inarching is 
effected hy bringing a plant in a pot, in a growing state, and 
joining the liber, or inner bark, of the shoot, for a couple of inches 
or so, to the liber of the young shoot of the stock, and severing 
the shoot from the pot when the union is effected, and cutting 
back the shoot of the stock above the junction, that the strength 
may be thrown into the new inarched shoot. In particular cases, 
we would prefer grafting when the Vine and the scion were in 
a state of rest, and starting a bud of the sort desired in a hot¬ 
bed a little before, and growing the plant vigorously. Then, 
supposing the graft should fail, some young shoots are sure to 
break from the stem below the grafted part. Leave the best one 
of these, and in two or three months inarch it with the young 
Vine in the pot. You will thus have two strings to your bow, if 
the first should fail. 
2. We would leave shoots and laterals alone now, provided 
there is room for - the foliage of the latter to be fully exposed, 
choosing those only that come from the sides of the mam-shoots, 
and merely nipping out, or off, the points of main-shoots and 
laterals. This will tend to arrest mere growth, and hasten the 
ripening process. If the main-shoots are well ripened at the end 
of autumn to near then - point, there is no necessity for cutting 
them back further in spring than is necessary for securing well- 
ripened wood. Tf the laterals then show fruit-buds, and they 
are well ripened for a part of then - length, to that length they 
should be cut back in spring. If so green as to show no fruit- 
buds, it would be as well to cut them back to the last wood-bud, 
which will be close to the main-shoot, and you will be sure to 
have a shoot from that place during summer, and many more 
