174 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[November, 
carefully set, and the vacant space between 
the stem and the edge of the vessel very 
closely crammed with charcoal. About three 
stakes should be set in firmly close to the 
stem, at about equal distances apart, in order 
to keep it steady in its new position. 
The pots or tubs are next to be put on a 
hotbed or in a warm house, and kept there 
until the first shoot is perfected. One can 
then be certain that a vigorous supply of 
roots will have been developed. The young 
roots gather strength from the strong nourish¬ 
ment at the bottom of the pot; and the next 
shoot, which with good treatment always ap¬ 
pears in the following year, bears no trace of 
the operation performed on the plant. With 
this treatment a stem never perishes. 
I have often cut away the stems so far that 
only a bulbiform head remained with the heart. 
In these cases the rooting and the evolution 
of the shoot was always accelerated, and the 
growth without exception found to be most 
vigorous. The reason that the nearer to the 
heart one makes the cut, the quicker and 
stronger will be the growth, is evidently be¬ 
cause the parts of the young stem are better 
adapted and more disposed to form roots than 
the older parts. Indeed, after about four 
weeks one can observe a callose ring forming 
on the flat incision, and from this ring, in a 
short time, numerous plump fleshy roots sink 
down into the soil. 
The portions of the stem which have been 
removed in the way above explained, when 
cleared from all decaying matter, are pow¬ 
dered with charcoal, and placed in a hotbed, 
where they afford a ready means of multiplying 
the species—a matter which in the case of the 
newer ones is often of the greatest value.— 
Fritz Ehrenberg ( Gartenfiora , 1883, 49). 
THE SNOW PLANT. 
THE Snow Plant, Sarcodes sanguined, 
which we figured at p. 58 of our 
volume for 1881, has been generally 
thought to he a vegetable parasite; Mrs. 
It. M. Austin in a letter to Coulton’s Botanical 
Gazette gives the following good reasons for holding 
a different view. 
“ My attention was first called to the peculiar 
growth of Sarcodes sanguinea as early as 1865 by a 
plant brought me by my brother, who was working 
in a hydraulic mine at the time. The underground 
stem measured 3 feet, and a part was broken off. T t, 
is a common say mg among the miners that the 
roots of the Snow Plant have no end. During the 
years 1875 and 1876 my attention was more par¬ 
ticularly given to the growth of Sarcodes to ascer¬ 
tain if it was really a parasitic plant, and from what 
roots it drew its nourishment. The underground 
stem is covered with thick fleshy leaves (or scales), 
and in the axil of each leaf is an undeveloped 
flower-bud. Toe stem in the smaller plants extends 
down only a few inches, while in larger ones it 
reaches a depth of 3 feet or more. The root con¬ 
sists of a coraline mass, which contains from one to 
more than 100 cubic inches, according to the age of 
the plant. I have dug dozens of these plants, and 
at all seasons of the year, and always found the 
coraline mass greatest about the time the stems 
began to appear above ground in early spring. It is 
gradually absorbed in growing, leaving a honey¬ 
combed appearance in the soil. “When the growth 
for the season is completed there only remains 
about 1 cubic inch of the mass, and just below, and 
a little to one side of the old underground stem, and 
attached to the mass of root, is a little Snow Plant. 
In the spring of 1878 I marked the place of growth 
of a number of these plants, as I had promised roots 
of them to Mr. Elwes and friends in the East, who 
wished to try to grow them. I dug some of these 
plants in November, after the rains Bad commenced, 
and discovered that the root-mass and the little 
plantlet had greatly increased in size. I dug some 
of the staked plants early in March, and found them 
still progressing in growth, and others that were 
not dug up came up and bloomed by the stikes. My 
conclusions are that Sarcodes is an herbaceous peren¬ 
nial, continuing through many years, and, by the 
little plantlet always being found below the .older 
one, that it descends a little deeper into the earth 
each season, and this accounts for the great depth 
to which some of the underground stems penetrate/' 
GARDEN GOSSIP. 
T The Kilns, Falkirk, Fern Roots are 
„ used for Growing Orchids, as we 
//o ft 1 
learn from the Journal of Jiorticul- 
' • a 
tare. Mr. Gair is the possessor of one of 
the finest and best grown private collections of 
Orchids either north or south of the Tweed, and 
his gardener, Mr. Eairbairn, who is one of the 
most successful of Orchid cultivators was, it ap¬ 
pears, the first to demonstrate the superiority of 
fern roots over peat as a material for growing ihese 
plants. Mr. Eairbairn regards the best kind of fibre 
as that obtained from the surface of those places in 
the woods where Lastrea dilatata grows to tne seclu¬ 
sion of everything else. This is cut just like com¬ 
mon turf into tough mat-like squares, and after ths 
soil is shaken from it there is left the best, sweetest, 
and most lasting fibre it is possible to secure—better 
than peat, better than sphagnum, and often obtain¬ 
able by those who can secure neither of these. 
Dendrobiums and other Orchids which require to be 
kept dry at certain periods, and w'hich are apt to 
shrivel when grown in sphagnum alone, are said to 
remain plump when fern fibre is used. 
— (Ehe second volume of the re-issue of 
Paxton’s Flower Garden now before us, 
forms a tome of equal interest and of equal 
beauty with its predecessor. The greater portion of 
the subjects illustrated by coloured plates have 
already appeared in the original edition, two only, 
the Double White Bouvardia Alfred Neuner, and 
Lselia autumnalis atrorubens being the novelties 
