December 1, 1894. 
The gardening world 
219 
PLANTS RECENTLY CERTIFICATED. 
Certificates according to merit were awarded by 
the Royal Horticultural Society on the 27th to the 
undermentioned subjects. 
Primula capitata Loxwood var. —The flowers 
of this variety are borne in dense capitate heads on 
scapes 6 in. to 14 in. high, and are of a dark violet 
purple. The leaves are white and mealy beneath. 
The plants were lifted from the open ground. First- 
class Certificate, C. J. Lucas, Esq. (gardener, Mr. 
Duncan), Wamham Court, Horsham. 
Chrysanthemum Black Prince. —The blooms 
of this Japanese variety measure from 5J in. and 
upwards in diameter. The spreading florets are 
broad and of a brilliant, rich crimson, and slightly 
paler on the reverse. Award of Merit. Mr. Robert 
Owen, Castle Hill, Maidenhead. 
Chrysanthemum Mons Meg. —This Japanese 
variety measures about 6^ in. in diameter, and has 
crimson-red interlacing florets, with an old gold 
reverse, very much shown in the centre. Award of 
Merit. Mr. Robert Owen. 
Chrysanthemum Owen’s Crimson.— For des¬ 
cription of this grand new incurved variety, see 
next column. Award of Merit. Mr. R. Owen. 
Chrysanthemum Madame Carnot. —The outer 
florets of this white Japanese sort, are quilled and 
spathulate at the tips while the central ones are 
much more flattened. The flower is the best in its 
section and measures about 8 in. or 9 in. across 
owing to its spreading character. Award of Merit.' 
Mr. H. J. Jones, Ryecroft Nursery, Hither Green, 
Lewisham ; also Mr. W. Wells, Earlswood Nursery, 
Redhill. 
Chrysanthemum Duchess of York.— Theblooms 
of this Japanese sort measure about 7 in. across. 
The florets are bright yellow, most remarkably inter¬ 
laced, and paler on the reverse. Award of Merit. 
Mr. H. J. Jones. 
Begonia Sander’s Winter Queen.— This and 
several other sorts were raised by fertilising B. 
socotrana with the pollen of several varieties of 
B. Rex. The leaves in this case are olive-green in 
the centre, speckled with gray. This is surrounded 
by a broad, but irregular gray band, and that again 
by a light green margin, speckled with gray. Award 
of Merit. Messrs. F. Sander & Co., St. Albans. 
Ruellia macrantha.— The flowers of this species 
are larger than these of any other in cultivation, 
funnel-shaped, five-lobed, and of a deep rose, 
beautifully lined and netted with a much darker hue 
in the tube, which narrows very suddenly below the 
middle. They are subtended by a wealth of lanceo¬ 
late, large and dark green leaves. Award of Merit. 
Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart, (gardener, Mr. W. 
Bain), Burford Lodge, Dorking. 
Reinwardtia tetragyna. —The leaves of this 
species are ovate-lanceolate, slightly serrate, dark 
green, and very much larger than those of R. 
trigyna. The flowers are also somewhat larger, 
freely produced in large, terminal corymbs, and 
clear bright yellow. Like the Ruellia, it is a very 
useful winter flowering subject. Award of Merit. 
Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart. 
- t »- 
NEW CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
The following new varieties received First-class 
Certificates from the Floral Committee of the 
National Chrysanthemum Society on November 
21st:— 
Mr. C. Harman Payne. —The bloom of this 
massive Japanese variety measures 6 in. to 7 in. 
wide, and 5 in. to 6 in. deep. The florets are long, 
drooping, more or less twisted, moderately broad, 
sometimes revolute at the sides, and often distinctly 
ridged ; they are of a rich shade of reddish-purple, 
more or less marbled or spotted with white, 
especially towards the centre of the bloom, and 
silvery-white on the reverse. Mons. E. Calvat, 
Grenoble, France. 
Directkur E. Cisserand.— Here again the 
bloom is very massive, 6 in. to 7 in. wide, 5 in. deep, 
and belongs to the Japanese section. The florets 
are long, reflexed, revolute at the edges, somewhat 
twisted, and ultimately rising up in the centre. The 
outer ones are yellow overlaid with pale crimson- 
red, which fades considerably as the bloom 
develops, but the central ones seem to retain their 
colour to the last, making the flower distinct. Mons. 
E. Calvat. 
Charles Cox.—At first this seems to be an 
incurved Japanese variety, but when fully developed 
the bloom assumes a globular form with the florets 
pointing in various directions, and would simply be 
referred to the Japanese section. It measures 5 in. 
to 5i in. in diameter, and the florets are fairly broad 
and of a clear soft yellow. Mr. Charles Cox, The 
Gardens, Brickendon Grange, Hertford. 
John Fulford. —This is an incurved variety 
somewhat after the style of Wm. Tunnington, and 
measures 4 in. to 4J in. in diameter. The florets are 
very broad and blunt, and the outer ones are pale 
chestnut-red, while the central ones are more of a 
buff-yellow on the reverse, which is the only sur¬ 
face shown. Mr. R. Owen, Castle Hill, Maiden¬ 
head. 
Owen’s Crimson.— This is one of the darkest 
incurved or Chinese Chrysanthemums in cultiva¬ 
tion of any size. The bloom is 5 in. in diameter, 
and the very broad, blunt florets are of a brilliant 
dark crimson on the upper face, giving a shade to 
the reverse or exposed surface, which we should 
still describe as crimson paler. Mr. R. Owen. 
Enfant des Gaules.— This French variety 
belongs to the incurved, hirsute, Japanese type, and 
measures 4J in. to 5J in. across. The florets are 
broad, buff-yellow, and prominently hirsute with 
short, stiff bristles. Mr. R. Owen. 
Miss Gertie Waterer.— Here we have a pom¬ 
pon, a sport from Snowdrop, with unusually 
diminutive blooms of a soft pink, or occasionally 
almost white. The florets are relatively broad, blunt, 
and more or less fluted in their early stages, but 
ultimately flat, and rising up slightly in the centre 
of the flowers. P. Waterer, Esq., Fawkham, Kent. 
PLANT LIFE* 
The history of a plant is the history of protoplasm 
and its covering. When we trace plants to their 
lowest limits, we find that all plants begin with a 
simple cell. That cell consists of a microscopically 
small mass of colourless, jelly-like matter, which is 
termed the protoplasm. It may or may not be 
covered with a cell wall, for many of the lower 
organisms live for a longer or shorter period in 
water or damp places, but at another stage of their 
existence they do secrete a cell wall or covering, for 
that is one of the fundamental characteristics of a 
vegetable. The fact must not be overlooked that 
the organism is considered a cell, even when devoid 
of a wall. Many of the lower organisms live 
separately or crowded together in masses, or in 
other cases form simple or complicated colonies held 
together by jelly-like matter formed by the degrada¬ 
tion of their old cell walls. Others are truly united 
by their ends forming a plant like a necklace or a 
thread according to the shape of the individual cells. 
Higher up the scale they form a true tissue of vary¬ 
ing shape according to the kind. Here it may be 
noted that the fungi, even the highest of them, such 
as the Mushroom, never form a true tissue, but 
simply an interlaced and complicated mass of 
threads. 
The higher or flowering plants, such as an Apple 
tree, commences in the same way with a single cell, 
namely, the germinal vesicle, which has no wall of 
its own, being merely covered by one large cell of 
the mother plant termed the embryo sac. After 
fertilisation its first work is to secrete a wall of its 
own ; then it is termed the embryo which forthwith 
commences to divide into numerous cells and grows 
in its own peculiar way. Each of the cells is filled 
with protoplasm in their early stages, for it is the 
physical basis of life. The secret of life, however, 
is still a mystery, for no one has yet discovered what 
it is. Chemists are able to make protoplasm, or 
what they are pleased to term such, in their labora¬ 
tories, but they cannot make it live, feed, nor grow. 
By cutting up a tree—an Apple tree for instance— 
and examining the different parts of it minutely 
under the microscope, we can see that every part of 
it is made up of cells of many distinct forms, each 
kind of which is located in a particular part of the 
tree according to the function it has to perform. By 
chemical analysis the composition of the tree can be 
determined, so that we have a clue to the food upon 
which it lives. A large number of elements has 
been found in various plants, but certain elements 
* A Paper read by Mr. J. Fraser at a meeting of the 
Chiswick Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Association on 14th 
November. 
are common to all so that one would readily infer 
that they were essential to the life of the plant. 
Experiments with what are termed water cultures 
have proved that only ten of the elements found in 
plants are absolutely necessary to their life. The 
others are accidental, or are frequently taken up 
from the soil in chemical combination with essential 
ones. These are carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, 
sulphur, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, 
and iron. 
The object of this paper is to sketch in a rough, 
general way the sources from which the tree obtains 
its food, and how it collects the various ingredients, 
as well as incidental phenomena of plant life in con¬ 
nection therewith. All the thicker roots of the tree 
consist of a mass of wood surrounded by a layer of 
cork and have little or no pith at all. Between the 
wood and the cork is a layer of cambium by which 
the roots thicken. These thick roots simply serve as 
a holdfast to fix the tree in the ground, and as 
channels to convey water and the elements of plant 
food, with exception of carbon, to the trunk and 
upper parts of the tree. They themselves being 
covered with cork, which is practically impermeable 
to water, cannot be feeders. The very youngest 
portions of the fibrous roots and the root hairs with 
which they are covered are the true feeders. There 
are no openings in them anywhere, so that nothing 
solid can pass into the interior. The food is taken 
from the soil in the form of salts in a state of 
solution, and filtering through the thin membranous 
wall of the root hair or youngest roots is said to be 
absorbed. Some of the salts are soluble in water, 
others in carbonic acid, and the roots themselves are 
very agressive. It has been demonstrated that they 
can corrode the surface of polished marble, and for 
this reason it is quite certain that they are capable 
of attacking various other ingredients in the soil, and 
of rendering them fit to be absorbed. This 
they are able to do by virtue of the acid sap 
that permeates the walls of the root hairs and 
younger roots which are in actual contact with 
the substances from which they draw their 
supplies. According to a natural law there must 
always be more of the salts in the soil than in the 
interior of the root hairs, otherwise the latter will 
cease to absorb. It must not be supposed, however, 
that they will or can absorb these salts in unlimited 
quantity, should the cultivator choose to supply 
them. Many cultivators have proved this for them¬ 
selves, to their great dissatisfaction. Notwithstand¬ 
ing their eagerness to get large Apples or large 
blooms of Chrysanthemums, let young aspirants 
beware not to give too strong a dose of nitrate of 
soda, guano, “ Flor Vita ” or other highly concen¬ 
trated manure, otherwise they are certain to pay 
dear for their reckless extravagance by the death of 
their favourite plants. Some would then say that 
the plants were poisoned, others that the roots had 
been burned. The simple facts are that the ingredi¬ 
ents of highly concentrated manures have a great 
affinity for water, and when they come in contact 
with roots, they abstract the water from the latter 
causing them to perish,and soon after the rest of the 
plant dependent upon the roots likewise. 
(To be continued.) 
--*«- 
GALVANIZED WIRE ON WALLS. 
Where fruit trees on walls are tied to galvanized 
iron wire, some amount of care will be necessary, or 
the wood will suffer. Many good gardeners make it 
a point to untie the trees from the wire at the 
approach of winter, and tie the growths into bundles 
to keep them from direct contact with the wires. 
From whatever cause resulting, it is very certain 
that the wood of the trees if left in contact with the 
galvanized wire during winter stands a great chance 
of being injured, and very often killed outright. I 
remember once seeing a number of standard Rose 
trees, to which the labels had been attached by 
means of a galvanized iron wire, with the result that 
seventy or eighty per cent, of the branches that the 
wire touched died. In many cases where fruit trees 
on walls are tied to wire of this kind and no injury 
has been sustained by the trees the wires have be¬ 
come rusted completely over, in which state they do 
not seem to exercise the evil effect upon the wood of the 
tree so frequently noticed in cases where the wire is 
comparatively new. When looking round the gardens 
at Gunnersbury House last week I noticed that a numj 
