298 
Tfife COTTAGE GARDENED AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Febeuaey 8, 1859. 
tliati the Common Black. The bush is hardier than that 
of Black Naples. 
Pheasant’s Eye. See Champagne. 
Baby Castle (Houghton Castle; May's Victoria; Vic¬ 
toria; Goliath). — Bunches longer than those of Bed 
Dutch ; berries larger, and of a brighter red, hut rather 
more acid. It is an abundant bearer, and the fruit ripens 
later, and hangs longer, than any other currant. 
Bed Dutch {Large Red Dutch; New Red Dutch ; Red 
Grape).— Bunches from two to three inches long. Berries 
large, deep red, with a subdued acidity. Superior in 
every respect to the old Common Bed, which is unworthy 
of cultivation. 
Bed Grape. See Red Dutch. 
White Crystal. See White Dutch. 
White Dutch (New White Dutch; Jeeves' White; 
Morgans White; White Crystal; White Leghorn; 
White Grape ).—The bunches aud berries are of the same 
size as the Bed Dutch ; but the berries are of a yellowish 
white, and the skin somewhat transparent. The fruit is 
very much sweeter, and more agreeable to eat, than the 
Bed variety. It is, therefore, preferred in the dessert, and 
for wine-making. 
White Grape. See White Dutch. 
White Leghorn. See White Dutch. 
Wilmot’s Long-bunched Bed. See Long-hunched Red. 
LIST OP SELECT CURRANTS. 
BLACK. 
Black Naples 
Ogden’s Black 
EED. 
Cherry 
Knight’s Large Red 
Long-bunched Red 
Raby Castle 
Red Dutch 
WHITE. 
White Dutch 
FIGS. 
SYNOPSIS OF FIGS. 
I. FRUIT BOUND, EOUNDISH, OK TUBBINATE. 
§ Shin dark. Flesh red. 
Black Bourjassotte Early Violet 
Black Genoa Malta 
Black Ischia Pregussata 
Brown Ischia 
§§ Skin pale. 
* Flesh red. 
Large White Genoa White Ischia 
Savantine Yellow Ischia 
White Bourjassotte 
** Flesh white. 
Angelique Marseilles 
Early White Raby Castle 
II. FKUIT LONO, PYKIFOKM, OE OBOVATE. 
§ Skin dark. Flesh red. 
Black Provence Brunswick 
Bordeaux Peau dure 
Brown Turkey Violette Grosse 
{To he continued.) 
CELERY CULTURE AT THE DARTMOOR 
CONVICT ESTABLISHMENT-SCAB IN THE 
POTATO. 
I never saw anything very extraordinary in the way Celery 
is grown in this neighbourhood, except at the above establish¬ 
ment, situated about eight miles from Tavistock, in the very 
heart of Dartmoor, as wild and desolate a track of country as 
ever a crow llew over. Yet they manage to grow Celery with 
ordinary culture, every season, upwards of three feet long, and 
large in proportion. I suppose the secret of their success must 
lay in the soil, which is peat, bog, and decomposed granite sand. 
I should also remark, that the stalks are quite free from canker, 
so frequently found when grown in heavy soil. 
“ Last season, I grew a very good crop of Potatoes, but they 
were almost unfit for the table, from being so very warty, or, 
as it is called here, scabby. Can you, or any of your corres¬ 
pondents, give the reason and remedy ?— James Nicholls. 
[We shall be obliged by any information relative to the Dart¬ 
moor mode of Celery culture. 
The scab in Potato tubers usually arises from some unfavour¬ 
able ingredient in the soil. Excess of oxide of iron will occasion 
j it. We have known lime, mixed with the soil, remove the evil. 
Some varieties of the Potato are more liable to the scab than 
others.] 
THE SCIENCE OE GARDENING. 
{Continued from page 277.) 
I As no seed wil germinate unless a certain degree of heat is 
present, so also does it require that a certain quantity of water 
be in contact with its outer skin or integument; and this is 
i required, not only to soften this covering, and thus permit the 
enlargement of the cotyledons (seed lobes) always preceding 
germination, but also to afford that water to the internal com¬ 
ponents of the seed, without which the chemical changes 
necessary for the nutriment of the embryo plant will not take 
place. 
Pure water, or some other liquid of which it is a large con¬ 
stituent, is absolutely necessary: no other fluid will advance 
germination a single stage. The quantity of water, necessary to 
be present before germination will proceed, varies much. The 
seeds of aquatic plants require to be completely and con¬ 
stantly submerged in water; others, natives of dry soils and 
warm climates, will germinate if merely exposed to a damp 
atmosphere, of which the Spanish and Horse Chestnut afford 
ready examples; but the far larger majority of seeds require and 
germinate most healthily in contact with that degree of moisture 
which a fertile soil retains only by its chemical and capillary 
attraction. If the soil be inefficiently drained, and t here is, con¬ 
sequently, a superfluity of stagnant water, the seeds cither decay 
without germinating, or germinate unhealthily. This arises 
neither merely from its keeping them in an ungenial temperature, 
nor only from the usual tendency of excessive moisture to pro¬ 
mote putrefaction ; but also because the vegetable decomposing 
matters, in a soil where water is superabundant, give out car- 
buretted-hydrogen, with acetic and gallic acids—compounds un¬ 
favourable to the vegetation of most cultivated plants, whilst the 
evolution of carbonic acid and ammonia is prevented, which two 
bodies are beneficial to the embryo plant. 
As water is essential to germination, aud only a certain quan¬ 
tity is required for its healthy progress, so is it by no means a 
matter of indifference what matters it holds in solution. Until 
germination has commenced, no liquid but water, at common 
temperatures, will pass through the integuments of a seed. So 
soon as germination has commenced, this power to exclude 
foreign fluids ceases; but the organs starling into activity, 
the radicle and the plumule, or young root and stem, are so 
delicate, that, the weakest saline solutions are too acrid and 
offensive for them. So utterly incapable are the infant roots of 
imbibing such solutions, that at first they arc absolutely de¬ 
pendent, themselves, for their very existence, upon the seed- 
leaves ; and if these be removed, the plant either makes no further 
advance, or altogether perishes. Many years since, wc tried 
various menstrua, to facilitate the germination of seeds; but, 
with the exception of those which promoted the decomposition 
of water, and the consequent more abundant evolution of oxygen, 
we found none of any efficiency. As to keeping the seeds in 
Ealine solutions until they germinated, we never, certainly, carried 
our experiments so far as that; and shall be most astonished, 
if any other effect than injury or death to the plant is the con¬ 
sequence. Such has been the result in the Horticultural Society’s 
gardens, where the seeds of Lupinus Hartwegii were made to 
germinate in a weak solution of phosphate of ammonia. 
No liquid in which water does not preponderate, will enable a 
seed moistened with it to germinate ; for we have treated Broad 
Beans, Kidney Beans, aud Peas, with pure alcohol (spirit of 
i wine), olive oil, alcohol aud water, in equal proportions by 
