Oct. 25th, 1384. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
119 
is the direct cause, and reasoning from analogy it 
would seem to be the fungus itself which is luminous 
rather than the decaying wood on which it grows. To 
what fungus the mycelium belongs is not known, 
though the habitat might suggest a Polyporus. It 
would be of great interest to watch some luminous 
stump for the appearance of the fungus.— X. 
— a—. <—p — 
CALLICARPA PURPUREA. 
Amongst the many fine plants which have for years 
been known to cultivators and yet are now seldom 
seen, must be included the purple-berried Callicarpa, 
than which there is no more useful subject for the 
decoration of a cool stove, as its long shoots of 
beautiful purple berries, last in perfection during at 
least four of the dullest months of the year, viz., from 
October to February. The plant is a member of the 
family “ Verbenacere ” and has opposite, lanceolate, 
serrulated, and nearly sessile woolly leaves. The 
small greenish flowers are produced in clusters in the 
axils of most of the leaves, and about eighty of them 
in each cluster set berries, so that each pair of leaves 
have about one hundred and sixty berries between 
them, and a shoot with from fifteen to twenty pair of 
leaves with berries, as we have them this season, 
contains about three thousand berries of the loveliest 
purple colour—a sight worth seeing. 
We grow this plant as a standard and give it about 
the same treatment as Fuchsias. It is pruned in 
the same way early in March, and after the plants 
have broken into growth, some three or four inches, 
they are turned out of the pots they have been grown 
in during the previous year, the roots and soil are 
carefully reduced, and potted again in good sound 
loam, in 10-in. to 12-in. pots the same size as before. 
As soon as the roots get well hold of the fresh soil, we 
feed them with manure-water, and soot, and three or 
four times during the season we apply a dressing of 
“ Standen’s Manure.” The plant can be propagated 
either by sowing seeds early in the spring, or by 
cuttings, which strike very freely, grow rapidly, and, 
with attention, make good fruiting-plants the first 
season, if kept in a growing temperature of fifty-five 
to sixty-five degrees of heat.— W. B. Latham, Botanic 
Gardens, Edgbaston, Birmingham. 
[This grand old plant is splendidly grown by Mr. 
Latham,—indeed, we have never seen it finer than in 
the Birmingham Botanic Gardens, and we thank him 
for his note on its cultivation. Many a gardener who 
has to make a show in his houses during the dull 
months, would give it much attention, if they only 
realized what a great beauty it is.— Ed.] 
HOME MANURES FOR THE 
GARDEN. 
(Continued from p. 109.) 
Night-Soil. —In England, night-soil is often carried 
to' pits and deposited with layers of quick-lime to 
remove its offensive smell: having undergone the 
process of putrefaction, it is thrown out in order to 
be employed, mixed with earth, lime, or gypsum, for 
the purposes of manure. We may easily perceive 
that in thus removing the objectionable odour of this 
substance we must also deprive it at the same time 
of a great amount of nitrogen ; for the action of lime 
after depositing those component parts which contain 
nitrogen to form ammonia, also tends to drive the 
ammonia away altogether. 
Some nitric acid will indeed be produced from the 
nitrogen of the night-soil, and in that case nitrates 
of lime and ammonia will be formed which becomes 
valuable plant-food, but the greater proportion of the 
nitrogen will combine with hydrogen and escape in 
the state of gas. 
Probably the best-known contrivances for deodoriz¬ 
ing and disinfecting the human excreta deposited in 
dry closets, are those in which advantage is taken of 
the deodorizing properties of dry earth, so prominently 
associated with the name of the Rev. Henry Moule. 
The most complete and practical system, to our 
way of thinking, was advocated by Mr. James Soppitt 
a few years ago in The Times. He said, “ Nothing 
conveys infection more fatally than water, and nothing 
so surely infects water as human excretion. To 
increase our water supply where it is insufficient, and 
to obtain a supply where it is deficient are vitally 
important steps, but the first and the readiest is to 
keep pure what we have already got, and the means 
for doing this are sufficiently easy if we set about it 
in the right way. The patent dry-earth closets are 
admirable things, and to the mechanically educated 
simplicity itself, but they will not do for the present. 
Nothing more is requisite than that there should be a 
garden-plot to each cottage. Then build to each cot¬ 
tage an ordinary privy, with an external vault, not too 
large—say 3 ft. square—not touching the house wall, 
perfectly waterproof, with an external sloping wooden 
lid that can be easily opened, and with a layer of 
garden mould—the dryer the better—about 12 ins. 
deep, spread upon the floor of the vault. The cottager 
must be taught to lift up this lid occasionally and 
to throw into it a shovelful of earth, but never to 
throw in any water—water in that box must be 
“anathema” —and once or twice a year, according to 
circumstances, the pit must be cleared out and the 
compost spread amongst his Cabbages, recommencing 
with the 12-in. layer of garden mould on the floor of 
the vault.” 
Human excreta (night-soil) converted into a compost 
should be well dug in, and incorporated thoroughly 
with the soil, when it becomes a good fertilizer for 
Cabbages, Broccoli, and similar deep-rooting and 
gross-feeding plants, but should not be employed for 
Potatos or shallow-rooting vegetables. 
Liquid Manures.— It may be pronounced almost an 
axiom, that liquid manure is the soul of gardening, 
and on its efficient application depends the well-being 
of the great number of plants entrusted to the gar¬ 
dener’s care. It has been well said that he who does not 
carefully collect and preserve the drainings from his 
dwelling-house and cattle-sheds, acts like a man who 
throws away dull rich silver ore because it does not 
shine like white silver. And a gardener who buys arti¬ 
ficial manures, or so-called special manures, but does 
not look carefully after his liquid manure, nor study 
the best mode of its application, is not acting with 
economy, for he buys the same chemical ingredients 
at great cost which he might have for nothing, if he 
did not suffer it to flow or evaporate uselessly away—- 
without saying anything about the sanitary aspects of 
the question. 
Were it otherwise, draining tanks or simple reser¬ 
voirs commodiously placed would be provided first 
and foremost in every garden. 
Were it otherwise there would no longer be villages 
or cattle-yards in which a brown current of liquid 
manure streams forth from every enclosure, to be 
lost in the gutters, ditches, or the horse-pond. 
The great principle for all gardeners to start from 
is, that the best parts of manure will either “ run 
away ” or “fly away.” 
The first are seen in the fluids that drain from 
ordinary dung-heaps, and the second may be dis¬ 
covered by the sense of smell, for the offensive 
exhalations of manure-heaps are produced in conse¬ 
quence of valuable fertilizing ingredients evaporating 
away in an invisible and gaseous condition. 
Therefore a properly made dung-hill or compost 
heap should neither leak nor smell. 
Very accurate analysis has shown that the urine 
voided by an animal contains double-the amount of 
phosphoric acid, four times as much of nitrogenous 
substances, and six times as much of alkaline salts 
as the solid faeces. 
It follows therefore that the former possess a far 
higher manurial value than the latter, and conse¬ 
quently deserve to be most carefully collected. 
The drainings of a dwelling-house, though not so 
powerful as those from the stable, the cow-shed, or 
the cattle-yards, are neither insignificant in quantity 
nor poor in quality. In many establishments, where 
the fa mil y is numerous, the quantity of drainage 
during the year is much greater than is generally 
supposed, as in it we may include every description 
of washings, scourings, soap-suds, &c., together with 
human urine. 
It contains animal and vegetable refuse prolific in 
ammonia, fatty matters rich in carbonic acid, and 
soap, a compound of fat and soda, the latter being 
one of the inorganic constituents of plants. Practical 
evidence of the value of these liquid matters is found 
in the enormous growth of garden crops which have 
paid so well on sewage farms. 
When once the benefits of liquid manure are fully 
recognized, and the quick growth, early maturity, and 
superior quality of vegetables and fruits cultivated by 
its aid established, there should be no difficulty in the 
disposal of the sewage from the dwelling-house and 
the cattle feeding-sheds. 
Roses, Chrysanthemums, and Raspberries especially, 
should repay cultivation by the aid of liquid manure, 
remarkably well, considering their love of rich 
ammoniacal dressing; and abundant luxuriance 
would almost certainly reward the gardener’s efforts 
in this direction. On sandy light-soil the efficiency 
of liquid manure is most conspicuous. On heavy 
clay-land its effects are less striking, and it has a 
tendency to impart consistency to the soil, which in 
most clay soils has to be diminished rather than 
increased by cultivation. 
(To he continued .) 
-— 
CYPERUS ALTERNIFOLIUS. 
The largely increasing demand, in almost every 
gardening establishment, for a variety of plants for 
dinner-table decoration, renders it a matter of great 
importance, and sometimes of considerable difficulty, 
to keep up a sufficient stock of young plants suitable 
for the purpose. Owing to the fact that many of the 
best subjects for this work are either of slow growth, 
or are easily injured by the changes they have to 
endure, it becomes necessary to turn our attention to 
plants possessing the requisite good qualities, and 
which besides are of quick and easy growth, and not 
easily to be injured by sudden changes. 
I think this Cyperus is one of the best of plants in 
these respects, its cultural requirements being so 
simple and well-known as to need but little descrip¬ 
tion. It will grow equally well in either peat or 
loam; delights in plenty of moisture at the roots, 
and a rather shady position, and will thrive in any 
temperature between 50 degs. and 80 degs., but when 
grown in strong heat, it should be placed in a cooler 
position for a time before being used. To obtain 
handsome plants, medium-sized tops should be 
inserted in pans and placed in a brisk bottom heat. 
In a few weeks they will throw up a quantity of young 
shoots, which will quickly grow into plants of the 
required size. When grown in this way, the habit of 
the plant is much more elegant than in the case of 
those obtained by dividing the old stools. I think 
there are few green foliaged plants, that can surpass 
it for dinner-table decoration.— H. Dunkin. 
WILD PLANT FABRICS. 
A most interesting example of utilization of waste 
products is to be seen in a shop window in New 
York in the shape of a number of hanks of thread 
of different textures and colours, some being as soft 
as the finest silk, others as rough as hemp. These 
hanks are the result of an attempt, which seems 
likely to be successful, to utilize the various wild 
grasses and stalks for textile purposes. The cotton 
stalk, which in the South has been hitherto burnt as 
useless trash, is here made into a coarse thread fully 
equal to Indian jute, an article of commerce which is 
imported into the United States to the amount of 
6,000,000 dols. per annum. Flax straw, which is also 
a very common waste product in many of the States, is 
converted into a'fibre which make excellent linens, and 
serves also as a substitute for cotton when mixed 
with wool. These, however, are only a few instances 
of many materials which have been experimented upon 
with more or less valuable results. Among them are 
the Bear Grass, Spanish Bayonet, Okra, Nettle, 
Ramie, Pita, Baurbor, Wild Coffee, and the Cotton 
plant, all of which grew wild; and from them are 
produced various fibres which dye beautifully, and can 
be made into bagging, rope, packing thread, and paper 
of the finest quality, fabrics for dress, and materials 
for upholstering purposes. It has been found, too, that 
Ramie and Sisal hemp-fibre can be mixed with silk to 
great advantage, while the common American grasses 
are turned into fibre strong and good enough for false 
hair and wigs. The cocoa-nut shell yields a fibre quite 
equal to curled hah for upholstering uses. Another 
conversion into fibre which seems likely to be of prac¬ 
tical value is that of the mineral asbestos, which is as 
fine as silk, and can be made up into fireproof curtains 
and hangings for walls and theatres, fireproof ropes, 
carpets, and, in fact, every kind of house decoration. 
