THE GARDENING WORLD 
January 4, 1896. 
Again, listen ye amateurs 1 It is bad practice to 
take the crown bud of such sorts as Soeur Melaine, 
Snowdrop, or, indeed, any pompon variety. Every 
sort needs to be carefully studied as to its individual 
requirements in order to have it in good condition 
with regard to colour, shape, and size at the proper 
season. I will give a few instances :—Edwin Moly- 
neux takes a long while to build up, therefore it 
requires to be taken on the crown or the earliest bud, 
as that gives the longest period to form a large 
and good flower. This crown bud appears on 
all varieties, pompons included, provided they have 
made proper growth, and the wood strong enough. 
Its appearance may vary with respect to time, 
according to the date at which the cuttings were 
inserted, but generally shows itself about the middle 
of July and onwards. In no case should they ever 
be taken after the end of September. 
Great discernment is needed, especially by the 
inexperienced, to catch the crown bud, appearing, as 
it does, with three or more shoots, and bearing but 
little resemblance to an ordinary bud, as it always 
has two or three small leaves attached to it. 
Before leaving the subject of the crown bud 
should like to say a word in favour of a good old 
variety called Elaine. I know it is old, nobody need 
tell me that, but for a white bloom it is hard to beat. 
This season I have had blooms of it taken on the 
crown or early bud equal to that sterling variety 
Avalanche, both in size, depth, and finish. My only 
reason for this digression is the great tendency ex¬ 
hibited at the present day to discard the old for the 
new. Another one, Yellow Jardin des Plantes 
(incurved) only requires proper culture to make areal 
gem. 
Now to the consideration of the terminal bud :— 
This is the topmost bud of the natural growth. 
All the small buds which surround it should be 
discarded. Viviand Morel is an instance of a sort 
that does well treated in this way. Plants obtained 
from cuttings, put in in March, of some varieties do 
well tocarryone goodbloom each, Wm. Seward being 
a good example. In conclusion I may say to those bent 
on winning fame at the annual exhibitions that three 
blooms on a plant for grouping purposes are quite 
enough. If any more are present the massing of 
colour is too much in one place. At another 
time I may describe the different ways of growing, 
and whether stopping should be practised or not. 
Meanwhile, the advice I would give to those who 
can keep the cuttings on the old bed plants cool, is 
not to be in a hurry to disturb them.— J. G. 
Pettinger, Strawberry Dale Nursery, Harrogate. 
-» S « ~ 
HOW PLANTS FEED. 
Physiologists, however, are not yet prepared to 
accept these things ; and Mr. Fraser, the Editor of 
The Gardening World, writes me that apertures 
if they occur are quite abnormal, and that he 
attaches very little importance to these statements. 
He further says, and says facetiously, that “ I have 
read a good deal of what they have said about roots 
and examined a good many of them myself without 
detecting anything of the kind. Supposing there 
were holes in the root-hairs and they swallowed 
stones [sic) how would the latter get conveyed through 
cell walls of cellulose and lignin up to the leaves, 
etc., of plants? Such solid particles or grains of 
sand would get filtered out of water on passing 
through porous soil; much more would they get 
detained in their progress beyond the root-hair and 
the cell into which each root-hair leads. Without 
something more tangible and explanatory I would as 
soon believe that plants convey bricks and mortar 
from the soil in which they are growing to a height 
of roo ft. to 400 ft. for the purpose of building up 
their fabric." This is doubtless a lucid and vigorous, 
not to say picturesque, opinion of the matter, but it 
is one to which I am willing to subscribe, because I 
feel that it emanates from a very reliable source. 
The food of plants theD, it would appear, can only 
be taken up in a liquid or gaseous form. What is 
this food that plants are so eager for, and what are 
the elements of which it is composed ? Probably the 
most important element which plants obtain in 
solution from the soil is nitrogen, and if you add 
sulphur, phosphorus, and iron, you will get a very 
good idea of what these little roots go in search of. 
But none of these substances are taken up in a free 
or simple form, but as soluble nitrates, sulphates, 
phosphates, etc. Out of these and other materials 
plants manufacture—with the aid of carbon, oxygen, 
and hydrogen—a complex substance called proto¬ 
plasm, which Prof. Huxley has happily named the 
“ physical basis of life.” In this respect, then, plants 
are superior to animals, for only the former are 
capable of producing out of inorganic compounds 
th ohysical basis of life. But animals must have 
1. , so, as they cannot manufacture it for themselves, 
they are obliged to go to the plants to get it ready 
made. 
Plants, in fact, derive their food from the mineral 
kingdom; animals obtain theirs from vegetable 
products. Plants live on carbon dioxide (carbonic 
acid), ammonia, water, and various salts; animals 
extract their nutriment from substances elaborated 
by plants out of these compounds. Let us then 
extol the plants; Darwin loved to do so. 
The Leaves. 
Having spoken as freely as time will permit concern¬ 
ing the action of the roots, we may well pass on to 
consider those other important agencies in the plant 
economy—the leaves. With the shape of the leaves 
we have nothing to do; we only want to find out 
something about their nature, their uses, and the 
principle of construction on which they are based. 
A leaf, then, is usually a thin, flat, more or less hori¬ 
zontal body, the epidermis or skin of which varies 
considerably according to the requirements of the 
plant. Its main functions are, of course, to catch 
the sunshine and the light; to absorb carbon dioxide 
from the air, and to get rid of those superfluous 
products that have served their turn. If a small 
portion of a leaf be examined under the microscope, 
it will be found to be made up of a series of cells. 
These cells vary in size and shape, and have certain 
complicated duties to fulfil. Those which constitute 
the epidermis or outer layers, are usually firmer and 
harder than those situated within the surfaces. 
These latter are more or less spongy in character and 
contain the green colouring matter called chloro¬ 
phyll. These interior cells not only take the gases 
from the air, but the water from the soil, and forth¬ 
with proceed to manufacture them into protoplasm 
sugars, starches, and other materials of living bodies. 
Thus the leaves as well as the roots feed the 
plants. But provision is also made for the escape of 
surplus moisture, and the act of throwing this off is 
known as transpiration. This function is mainly 
effected through the stomata or little mouths, which 
are found in great abundance on the surfaces of the 
leaves. Usually the lower or undersurfaces contain 
the greater number. These are very active during 
the day, especially when they are subjected to strong 
light or great heat. The amount of water given off 
in this way is very great, amounting in some cases 
to many times the weight and volume of the plant. 
In fact, Dr. Robert Brown has calculated that a 
Sunflower only 3J ft. high, with 5,616 square inches 
of surface exposed to the air, transpires every twelve 
hours from two to two and a half pints of water—- 
which is more than a man does. 
The same authority has also remarked that an acre 
of Cabbages, planted i8in. apart each way, will, in 
the same time, give off over 10 tons of this same fluid ! 
Most of the work of transpiration, it would seem, 
is performed by the stomata or little openings, on the 
upper and lower surfaces of the leaves, and which, in 
in some cases are very numerous, 708,750 having 
been counted on the leaf of a Lilac, whereas the 
entire surface of a leaf of the Lime is said to possess 
over a million of them ! 
Is it any wonder then that seedlings and other 
plants when removed from one place to another 
should suffer through this excessive transpiration ? 
As transpiration, however, only goes on in a light or 
dry atmosphere the obvious remedy is shade and 
moisture. 
But plants respire gases as well as transpire 
vapour. This respiration goes on during the night 
when carbon dioxide—a life-destroying gas is given 
off, hence the danger of an evening stroll. But is 
this gas evolved in sufficient quantities to endanger 
life ? Let us see. Dr. R. Brown records the fact that 
a greenhouse containing 6,000 plants was shut up for 
twelve hours. At the end of that time it was found 
that this poisonous gas only amounted to 1 39 in 
10,000 parts. So that the amateur or the gardener 
may work in the greenhouse after dark among his 
plants, or even go to sleep therein without fear of 
serious consequences. Small as is the percentage of 
this noxious gas—about one millionth part of 
common air—it more than makes up in activity what 
it lacks in bulk. Its chemical formula is represented 
by the sign CO2, that is, carbon one part, oxygen two 
parts; and when this is absorbed into the body of 
the leaf it is decomposed, through the assistance of 
sunlight into its original elements. The carbon is 
retained as food to help to build up the tissues of the 
plant, while the oxygen is returned as waste to the 
air. Under the cover of night the process is 
seemingly reversed, the plant continuing to take in 
oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide only. 
It must now be quite evident that leaves perform 
a most important part in the economy of the plant, 
for they not only absorb a large proportion of its 
food from the air, but they help the plant to get rid 
of those elements which are no longer of any use to 
it. Those, therefore, who would grow plants to 
perfection must study the physiological action of 
the leaves as well as the nature of the soil; for the 
the leaves may not only be said to eat, drink, and 
assimilate, but to breathe also. As a matter of fact 
there is a very close resemblance in many respects 
between the functions of plants and animals, and 
one which would form in itself a most interesting 
inquiry. 
That the atmosphere is a sine qua non, both for 
plants and animals, goes without saying, and an 
insufficient quantity is alike injurious to one as to 
the other. Those who live in or near large centres 
of industry, for instance, and follow artificial 
occupations become more or less etiolated. Plants 
grown under the same conditions also suffer from 
want of light and air. In the one case the red cor¬ 
puscles of the blood become deficient in oxygen, 
while in the other the green corpuscles of the cells 
become deficient in carbon. It is, further, a 
beautiful adaptation of means to an end, that what 
animals reject, plants greedily appropriate, and 
vice versa. 
Summary. 
Let us now briefly sum up the leading facts con¬ 
cerning the way plants feed. Plants, then, absorb 
their nutriment from the soil and the air. They do 
this, in the one case, through their roots ; and in the 
other by their leaves. The roots and the leaves are 
inter-dependent—the one cannot produce new 
material without the other. The roots supply the 
plant with nitrogenous matter in the form of nitrates, 
sulphates, phosphates, and certain other necessary 
ingredients of plant life. These are taken up by the 
plant in a soluble form through the root-hairs and 
epidermal cells. Thence, by a process known as 
osmosis, they are conducted from cell to cell, until 
they arrive at the leaves. Here they are acted on 
by other mysterious forces of nature, and with the 
aid of carbon dioxide they are manufactured into 
protoplasm, chlorophyll, starch, etc., etc. During 
this process, the leaves, through their stomata 
transpire enormous quantities of water—the excess, 
in fact, of the plant’s requirements. Thus a kind of 
circulation is kept up, and the activity of all parts 
of the plant assured. 
Plants are superior to animals inasmuch as they 
can assimilate inorganic matter and produce proto¬ 
plasm—" the physical basis of life ”—the only living 
material with which we are acquainted ; and out of 
which every animal and vegetable tissue is built up 
and compounded.— C. B. Green, Acton, IV. 
--j-- 
HYBRID BEGONIAS. 
I have no doubt Mr. Napper is quite convinced that 
he has proved his case— i.e., that Begonia Woodmani 
was the first round-flowered hybrid tuberous-rooted 
Begonia raised in this country— 11 right up to the 
hilt ” ; but I am equally convinced that he has 
not converted anyone else to his way of thinking. 
Your correspondent seems to be hopelessly unable 
to draw any distinction between what is, and what 
is not evidence of a fact, and in his anxiety to do 
something—anything, in fact, but honestly admit 
his errors—goes blundering on out of one quagmire 
into another, only to make himself more ridiculous 
still in the eyes of those who love the truth. 
It is perfectly useless to quote the description of 
B. woodmani in Lucombe, Pince & Co’s old cata¬ 
logue, in support of his contention that it was a 
round flowered variety, and equally futile to 
introduce Sir Joseph Hooker's statement with regard 
to the character of the leaves and colour of the 
flowers of B. Veitchii, or their dimensions as givenin 
The Gardeners' Chronicle, “ about that time,” because 
no inference can be drawn from the one or the other 
in support of his assertion. I have not publicly 
questioned the statement that B. V'eitchii was one of 
