THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 22, 1859. 
Ill 
will find abundant directions in back numbers for many year’s. 
Still, there is yet another course more eligible, and that is what 
people call “to begin at the beginning,” in other words, so to 
prepare the soil before the tree is planted as to preclude the 
possibility of its producing too much spray. 
I have, ever since the commencement of this work, urged the 
great importance of platform planting, or, in other words, con¬ 
fining the roots of a tree to a given position, and with calculated 
resources. These platforms being impervious, and having a de¬ 
finite boundary, we can readily know what the roots are about: 
indeed, know as much about them as of the branches. I do not 
say that they may never exceed those bounds ; but I would make 
them work hard first, and then, when age and hard bearing 
proved overpowering, lei them by all means break their limits, and, 
indeed, give them extra food. This, combined with surface 
dressings and a total absence of the spade, will, I am perfectly 
assured, do all that is desirable with ninety fruit trees out of a 
hundred. 
I well remember that more than a score years since I was 1 
called in to advise about a large conservatory. The proprietor had, 
at considerable expense, built a span-roofed house—one that was 
then thought of an overpowering size. This house had been built 
some half score years, and was planted according to the fashion 
of the day, with huge-growing Acacias, Eucalypti, and other 
back-wood notables ; and they were in such a hurry upwards, that 
they threatened to unroof the house. In the more foremost rows 
were some Camellias, which seldom blossomed, and in front some 
very nice Epacrises, and dainty New Holland plants. But, what 
a struggle! These giants of the bush were about to have the 
house to themselves, and many of the little better-behaved ones 1 
in front showed manifest marks of their tyrants. 
And this brings me back to root limitation. How easy would 
it have been to have placed four huge stakes in a quadrangle 
about each monster, and thus have shown him the mastery of 
man. And even the Camellias, why did they not blossom? 
Because the soil, fat loam and bog earth, seven feet in depth, en¬ 
couraged such a multiplicity of fibres, that the Camellias had 
not patience enough to form blossom ; but, truant like, must run 
to play into a second growth. 
Now, although some may not think the case bears on fruit 
trees, with all due respect I am assured it does. Indeed, we 
derive much of our best knowledge by watching such results, 
which sometimes teach more than books. R. Errington. 
OXALIS BOWIEI’S TIME OF BLOOMING. 
GENTIANELLA NOT FLOWERING—LIST OP SQUILLS — CUTTING 
DOWN DRAWN GERANIUMS. 
I planted a pot of Oxalis Bowiei in a cool frame last spring 
as Mr. Beaton directed, but the bulbs remained dormant till 
August. I suppose I must keep them in a frame during winter ; 
but will they be of any use to make a display next summer ? I 
have also a pot of Ferraria undulata lately up, which I treated in 
the same way. 
Is the Gcntianella difficult to flower ? I have it growing in a 
light rich soil, and it has not showed a flower for years. 
I grow the following varieties of Scilla ; and as I am particu¬ 
larly fond of spring bulbs, would you let me know'the names of a 
few more good varieties ? I grow Scilla amcena, prcecox, Sibirica, 
bifolia, and bifolia alba. 
Whether is spring or autumn the better time to cut down 
drawn plants of show Geraniums growing in a window ?— An 
Amateur. 
[August is the natural time for Oxalis Bowiei to begin to 
bloom, and to go on growing all the winter; but it is, like a few 
more Cape bulbs, capable of being made to bloom and grow in 
summer and to rest all the winter, as has been shown lately by 
Mr. Robson, and proved years since by the experience of many. 
One crop of bulbs must always be sacrificed in changing this 
Oxalis to a summer bloomer by taking it up, or drying it, in the 
midst of its growth in November; then it must be pushed in 
heat the following April till the leaves break ground, and no 
more; after that and the following summer’s growth those bulbs 
will constantly go to rest in October, and begin naturally to grow* 
in the spring. It was on the principle of this artificial summer 
growth that all our notices of Oxalis Bowiei in The Cottage 
Gardener were based. It is curious that bulbs of two allied 
divisions of Amaryllis, natives of the Cape, show the two sides of 
this change of natural time of growth and bloom. All the true 
Amaryllises begin growing in the autumn like this Oxalis, and 
will not depart from it with impunity ; while all known kinds of 
the so-called Amaryllises—the Hippeasters—will change their 
natural times of growth and rest at pleasure. Ferraria undulata 
is a delicate subject, and requires care in the watering : it grows 
from the end of September till May, and requires the treatment of 
a delicate Ixia. Do you grow Ixia viridiflora —the most curious 
colour of all bulbs, and one of the most beautiful and easiest to 
manage ? 
The Gentianella blooms as freely as the Daisies where the soil 
suits it; and where it does not it will not yield to profitable 
culture at all. Try mixing sand with the soil. 
You have the best of the Scillas ; but verna and two varieties 
of campanulata, blue and white, would give different forms of 
bloom in the way of amcena and bifolia. 
Spring is certainly the best time to cut down long-legged 
Geraniums ; because, if they were cut in autumn, the legs would 
be “as long as ever” before next blooming time.] 
THE SCIENCE OE GAKDENING. 
(Continued from page 82.) 
THE SAP. 
As there is a very close similarity in the blood of all animals, 
so does the same resemblance obtain in the sap of plants. Uni¬ 
formly it is limpid as water, its chief constituent, and contains 
an acid, salts, and mucilage or saccharine matter. The pro¬ 
portions, of course, vary. 
The basis of this sap is the moisture of the soil and atmo¬ 
sphere absorbed by the roots and other organs; and that that 
power of absorption is very great we have previously stated. 
Neither is it an indiscriminate power; for if the roots of a 
plant are placed in water containing two or more salts in 
solution, they will abstract different portions of those salts, and 
will reject some of them entirely. Thus, when 100 grains of 
each of the following salts were dissolved in 10,000 grains of 
water, and plants of Polygonum persicaria, Mentha piperita , 
and Bidens cannabhia were made to grow in it, they took up six 
grains of sulphate of soda (glauber salt), and ten grains of 
chloride of sodium (common salt), but not a grain of acetate of 
lime. , 
The moisture from the soil absorbed by organs having such 
discrimination and absorbing powers passes up vessels situated 
in the wood, but especially in the alburnum, impelled by their 
contractile power—a power so great that it drives the sap from 
the extremity of a cut Yine-branch with a force capable of sus¬ 
taining a column of mercury thirty-two inches and a half high. 
If a proof of their contractile pow r er, evidently resembling the 
peristaltic motion of the animal bowels, be required, Dr. Thomson 
justly refers for such proof to the evidence afforded by milky - 
juiced plants like the Fuphorbia peplis. If the stem of this 
plant be divided in two places, the juice flows out at both ends so 
completely, that if it be again bisected between the two former 
cuts no more juice will appear. Now, it is impossible that these 
phenomena could take place without a contraction of the vessels ; 
for the vessels in that part of the stem which has been detached 
could not be more than full; and their diameter is so small, 
that, if that diameter continued unaltered, the capillary attraction 
would be more than sufficient to retain their contents, and, con¬ 
sequently, not a drop would flow out. Since, then, the whole 
liquid escapes, it must be driven out forcibly, and, consequently, 
the vessels must contract. {Thomson's Organic Chemistry , 988.) 
The ascent of the sap has been endeavoured to be explained 
by M. Dutrochet, upon mere mechanical principles. He ob¬ 
serves—“If one end of an open glass tube be covered with a 
piece of moistened bladder, or other fine animal membrane, tied 
tightly over it, and a strong solution of sugar or salt in water 
be then poured into the open end of the tube, so as to cover the 
membrane to the depth of several inches—-and if the closed end 
be then introduced to the depth of an inch below the surface of a 
vessel of pure water, the water will after a short time pass 
through the bladder inwards, and the column of liquid in the 
tube will increase in height. This ascent will continue, till, in 
favourable circumstances, the fluid will reach the height of several 
feet, and will flow out or run over at the open end of the tube. At 
the same time the water in the vessel will become sweet, or salt,’ 
indicating that while so much liquid has passed through the 
membrane inwards, a quantity has also passed outwards, carrying 
sugar, or gum, or salt along with it.” To these opposite effects 
