2?4 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
December 28, 1895. 
SWEET VIOLETS. 
No garden, however small, should be without a few 
plants of the Violet, as the flowers are very accept¬ 
able and pleasing associates when picked and made 
up with leaves of the Crowfoot Geranium or the 
Heuchera for button-holes. Indeed, the flowers of 
the Violet are in such demand that it is with 
difficulty to exactly state when we are without 
them ; and no flower was ever so popular as the 
Violet is at the present time, especially amongst the 
ladies. Enterprising raisers are to be congratulated 
on the way they have improved this class of plants, 
in size of flower and in perfume. 
To maintain a supply of flowers for winter the 
Cucumber and Melon frames may be made use of, 
with the addition of a few inches of good fibrous 
yellow loam, placing the rough pieces at the bottom 
to afford drainage. In this compost, about October, 
strong crowns with good balls of earth may be lifted 
from the open borders and planted firmly from 
eight to ten inches apart. The plants should always 
be kept as near the glass as possible so as to admit 
of a free current of air, and to give as much light as 
possible. After planting, copious waterings should 
be given for a few days, and the frames kept close 
until the roots have permeated the fresh soil; then 
air must be admitted daily, as too close confine¬ 
ment frequently encourages premature growth of 
leaves and weakens the plants. For frame culture 
such varieties as Marie Louise, Comte Brazza, 
and Neapolitan are the best for winter flowering. 
It is obvious that the best time to plant Violets in 
the borders is from March to the middle of May, 
and to plant in beds that have been deeply dug and 
manure well-incorporated with the staple. “ Col¬ 
chester’s Ichthemic Guano ” is a capital stimulant for 
Violets as well as other such grass feeding plants. 
Mix also leaf soil and coarse silver sand and a com¬ 
post is at once prepared for them. In this, the 
crowns may be planted from 12 in. to 16 in. apart, 
and if attended to during dry weather, by giving 
plentiful supplies of water, they will well repay the 
little trouble given them. Violets are happiest with 
the shelter of a hedgerow, from which they obtain 
that free current of air that is essential to them, as 
regards maintaining healthy vigorous plants, and 
keeping down red spider. 
It is well to grow Violets in different positions, as 
this permits of a longer succession of blooms. A 
north or north-east aspect is the best. Some of the 
best of them are Victoria Regina, violet-blue ; Neapoli¬ 
tan,lavender-blue ; Marie Louise, lavender and white, 
double; KiDg of Violets, dark blue, double; De 
Parme, lavender, double; Blandyana, lavender, 
double ; Czar, dark purple. Comte Brazza is the 
finest white double variet y, and a continuous 
bloomer, commencing usually about the middle to 
the end of July and continuing until spring. Well- 
siana is a very large, deep purple, and free bloomer, 
useful for cutting, having long foot-stalks.— -W.L. 
--- 
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES AT COVENT 
GARDEN. 
The idea, which most forcibly struck us in 
relation to the fruit supply after a visit to 
the market, was the marked preponderance of 
British grown Apples and Pears over the more 
showy but less toothsome Americans. This is 
doubtless owing to the abundance of our late fruit 
harvest. Anyway, splendid samples of Cox’s Orange 
Pippin, Ribston Pippin, Mere de Menage, King of 
the Pippins, and Newtown Pippin, can be obtained 
at a fairly reasonable price. The sorts mentioned 
are always in request and may always be relied on 
to fetch the money. Pears, of course, are getting 
over now, although we saw nice fruits of Glou 
Morceau on many of the stalls. Grapes, Pineapples, 
Oranges, and Nuts of all kinds are everywhere to be 
seen, many of them now boasting of extraneous 
attractions in the way of wrappings of softly tinted 
tissue paper and sparkling tinsel. Huge trusses of 
Bananas also bespeak the fact that yet another 
tropical fruit is eaten and appreciated by the globe¬ 
trotting English nation. Vegetables of all kinds were 
not lacking : in fact, plenty seemed to reign every¬ 
where, and we left the market feeling assured that 
no matter whether it be fruit, flowers, plants, 
or vegetables that we are in need of, we have only to 
go to Covent Garden to get the best that money 
can buy. 
HOW PLANTS FEED.* 
The subject I have chosen for your acceptance to¬ 
night is, unfortunately, more or less of a chemical 
character; but as I intend to treat it as far as 
possible from a non-chemical point of view, it will in 
consequence be rather less than more. However, if 
it perchance lack chemical consideration, I trust it 
will not be deficient in physiological facts, for I 
cannot conceive a subject which ought to receive 
more attention from the gardener than “ How Plants 
Feed." 
I ought here, perhaps, to explain that this paper 
is partly due to a question which cropped up during 
the dying days of our last session, and partly the 
result of our late secretary’s desire that I should 
contribute something to the society in the nature of 
plant food. With regard to the latter, I hope I shall 
not fail; while in respect to the former, you will 
doubtless remember the query ran, “ Do Plants Eat 
Soil ? ’’ In this form it was, by the kindness of the 
Editor, discussed at some length in the columns of 
The Gardening World, and it also received some 
recognition in the Gardeners' Chronicle. In the latter 
journal, the Editor, Dr. Masters, suggested an 
alternative—viz., “ Do Plants Drink Soil?’’at the 
same time repudiating the possibility of solid sub¬ 
stances entering the roots in any form. Prof. 
Boulger, on the other hand, contended the contrary, 
and quoted Mr. Jamieson’s agricultural experiments 
to prove his case. When doctors differ, it is manifest 
that we cannot decide. Anyhow, the topic is an 
interesting one, and, as the preponderance of opinion 
is certainly in favour of the fluid theory, one might 
do worse than attempt to air one’s views in accord¬ 
ance with well-ascertained facts. 
But, first of all, let us try to understand the term 
‘‘feed.’’ It is a good old Anglo-Saxon word, and is 
applicable to plants as well as animals. It is derived 
from fod.fedan, food, and means “ to supply with 
nourishment.” Now, plants, as well as animals, 
require sustenance—in fact, they must be fed—and 
every gardener knows from daily experience that it 
is absolutely necessary to feed, say Chrysanthemums, 
if exhibition blooms are in request. I take it, then, 
that we are all thoroughly in accord as to the 
signification of this term " feed.” But there is also 
another sense in which this word is “ understanded ” 
of the gardener. For instance, he has to feed his 
fires, his boilers, and his coffers; while Shakespeare, 
in a still more figurative way, writes, in “ As You 
Like It," that— 
" The sight of lovers feedeth those in love." 
As, however, it is not my intention to deal with 
plants as a whole, but only with those organs that 
are concerned, in supplying nourishment, it will 
obviously be more convenient to divide the subject 
matter into two parts—viz., roots and leaves. Let 
us then endeavour first of all to understand the 
functions and uses of 
Roots. 
It is evident that the root is of primary importance 
in fixing the plant firmly in the soil, apart from its 
ability thus to obtain the necessary nutrient supplies 
to build up its constitution. The root may be 
technically defined as the underground, leafless 
portion of the descending axis of the plant. 
It is fortunate, perhaps, that plants are fixtures, 
and do not seem unwilling to remain wherever man 
may place them, otherwise one might wake up some 
fine morning and find strange combinations, say 
Auriculas and Anemones in hopeless confusion, or 
" ’Mums "and Michaelmas Daisies in mortal conflict. 
But although the root is principally concerned in 
anchoring the plant to the soil, its chief function is 
to absorb water together with other food substances 
which the water holds in solution. Absorption, 
then, is one of the first and most essential conditions 
of plant existence; for plants, as well as animals, 
grow by what they feed on, and through the agency 
of materials derived from without. 
While the diffusion of a liquid through a closed 
membrane is effected by a process known as osmosis, 
the passage of a fluid substance from the exterior to 
the interior is called absorption. By these means 
the plant is built up, and by these mysterious 
processes the nutrient particles of matter contained 
in the water are carried from cell to cell. 
Having cleared the way, so to speak, we may now 
go on to distinguish between roots and root-hairs. 
* A paper read before the Ealing and District Gar eners' 
Mutual Improvement Society, October 29th, 1895, by Mr C. B. 
Green. 
By the roots I mean the growing points, which are 
generally very busy, and which seem to exercise a 
good deal of discrimination in the way they go to 
work. This wonderful discrimination suggested to 
Darwin a comparison with the brains of animals. 
This comparison may be carried yet a little further, 
for, although the axis of the root is stationary, the 
rootlets ramify in all direction in search of food, like 
the commissariat of an army on a foraging expedition. 
Some remarkable stories are told concerning the 
distances roots travel, but it is quite certain that the 
roots of some trees, notably the Ash, not unfrequently 
attain a length of go ft. As to the selective power of 
roots, it has positively been stated that the Civil 
War in America was due to the ignorance of vege¬ 
table physiology. The exhausting power of roots, at 
least, is well known on this side of the Atlantic, and 
if the thriftless planters of America had only under¬ 
stood this question and not have bled the ground to 
death, there might never have been any " unpleasant¬ 
ness" between them. As it was they so impoverished 
the soil by continual cropping that the land refused 
to give a remunerative return. In this predicament 
they sought “ fresh fields and pastures new,” but the 
free States objected—hence the quarrel. 
While on the subject of roots, and the distances 
they will travel in search of food, I may mention 
that I have been told that the roots of the big vine 
at Hampton Court are probably luxuriating in 
Thames water, where they have gone to get that 
material for which they have such an affinity. 
Moreover, an old friend of this society assures me 
that his vines of Muscat of Alexandria—which are 
about sixty years old—have never carried such a 
splendid crop of fruit, and this he attributes to the 
fact that this year he trenched and heavily manured 
a piece of ground for Onions between 50 ft. and 60 ft. 
away. 
Grant Allen, a popular scientific writer, says the 
gardener and the farmer attach too much importance 
to the soil in which plants grow, and not enough to 
the air and sunlight, from which they are mainly fed. 
I thiok the above statement requires qualification. 
Anyhow, I wonder whether Grant Allen has ever 
tried to grow Chrysanthemums for exhibition without 
the aid of manures, artificial or otherwise ? Not 
that I mean to say we can do without air and sun¬ 
shine, but air and sunshine only, valuable as they 
are, would never pull us through on the exhibition 
day. 
But I fear I am rambling. Let us go back to the 
root-tips. The extreme ends then of these active 
little members were once called " spongioles," on the 
supposition that they acted like sponges and did the 
work of absorption. This, like many another 
supposition of our youth, has to be unlearned and 
discredited, for it seems, according to the latest 
microscopical research, that these so-called 
spongioles are merely protective caps, and are com¬ 
posed of dead and embryonic cells. Such being the 
case, it is safe to assume that they cannot perform 
any function, except to protect the tender-growing 
points. The rcot-hairs, on the other hand, are 
perfect elongated little cells, and fitted in every 
respect to perform the work which used to be 
attributed to the tips. These root-hairs originate 
just behind the growing points, and, according to 
Mr. Jamieson, have sometimes little apertures in 
which he claims to have discovered solid particles of 
matter. 
(To be continued.) 
> - » «- 
BEETROOT. 
It is a mistake when judging Beetroot at exhibitions 
to give decision from colour alone. There may be 
fine colour, but coarse-grained roots with tough flesh 
and of inferior flavour. Roots which are fibry are 
coarse and inferior when they have passed through 
the culinary department. We have seen more 
coarse roots at exhibitions during the past season 
than we ever recollect seeing tabled. We have had 
a number of kinds to prove, and really wonder how 
some of them have been retained by those who 
possessed the varieties, they being more like inferior 
Mangold Wurzel. Veitch’s Selecied Dark Beet has 
held its own on many Scottish exhibition tables this 
year. Dell's has not come to the desired size in 
some cases where the land is strong and low 1\ ing. 
We have seen that variety much finer in England 
than in Scotland. Its history was peculiar. It was 
raised at Gorombury, in Herts, Mr. Dell (who was 
