468 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
March 23,1895. 
men who still rely upon the favourite books 
of their boyhood. The so-called spongiole 
is merely the root-cap of the young and 
growing tissue of the root. There are no 
mouths nor openings in it whatever, and 
what is more, the outer cells of the cap are 
dead, dry, cortical and practically impervi¬ 
ous to water. The function of the root 
cap is merely to protect the delicate 
growing point or punctum vegetationis. Water¬ 
holding plant food in a state of solution is 
absorbed by the root hairs and by the 
young and uncuticularised cells of the 
epidermis of the younger portions of the 
roots. There are no apertures in the root 
hairs any more than in any portion of the 
roots of land plants. Neither do we believe 
that the walls of the root hairs deliquesce 
(see p. 454) when they come in contact with 
particles of stone in order to gum them¬ 
selves to the same. We have seen many 
hundreds of root hairs in contact with 
particles of sand and soil, and we consider 
that they merely flatten or otherwise 
accommodate themselves to the uneven 
surfaces of the particles in order to come in 
close contact with them to absorb the film 
of water surrounding them, and that too in 
opposition to the force of adhesion. An 
exception to the general rule may be pointed 
out in the case of Orchids whose roots are 
covered with a layer of perforated and 
spongy cells termed the velamen; but the true 
epidermis is underneath the velamen and 
conforms to the general plan. 
Nothing, therefore, of a solid nature can 
pass into the interior of roots, and solid 
substances must first become or be made 
soluble. Water is the vehicle by which 
they are carried into and up through the 
tissues of the plant. The process by which 
the liquid food is absorbed is termed 
osmosis; and its explanation is the well- 
known law that two fluids of different 
densities on the two sides of a membrane 
will diffuse, the one into the other till a 
perfect equilibrium is set up, provided there 
is nothing to disturb that equilibrium. So 
long as plants are active that equilibrium is 
constantly being disturbed by the removal 
of the absorbed liquid into the more interior 
portions of root, stem and leaves, so that 
absorption under those conditions is con¬ 
stant. The ash, it will now be perceived, 
must pass into the roots in a state of 
solution, and furthurmore, it is in the form 
of compounds termed salts. Those portions 
of a plant which pass into the gaseous 
state on being burnt may be termed the 
combustible, while those which remain 
behind are the incombustible, but both 
kinds are matter and equally indestructible. 
Some of the ingredients of plant food are 
soluble in pure water; but others are 
rendered soluble by the carbon dioxide, 
popularly but erroneously termed carbonic 
acid gas, that is always present in soils 
more or less rich in humus, that is, decay¬ 
ing vegetable and animal matter. The 
presence of soluble salts in the soil is re¬ 
sponsible for many chemical changes that 
take place there, and in their action they 
bring about the solubility of substances not 
acted upon by pure water nor carbon 
dioxide. All this takes place independently 
of the plant or its roots ; but in another 
case we arrive at something like a solution 
of the question as to whether or not 
“ plants eat soil.” If a Scarlet Runner, a 
Broad Bean, or a Sunflower be planted in 
a pot having a piece of polished marble at 
the bottom, and allowed to grow till a con¬ 
siderable number of the roots have come in 
contact with the marble, the latter may 
than be examined, and will be found to be 
corroded in lines corresponding to the 
roots. The root system is etched so to 
speak upon the marble. Here then we 
have evidence that plants do help them¬ 
selves to some ingredients of the soil at 
least, and the roots may be said to eat them 
in the sense that they corrode them. This 
they are able to do by means of the acid 
sap that not only permeates the interior of 
the roots, but the whole of the cell wall 
itself, so that when root hairs come in con¬ 
tact with particles of stone or soil, the acid 
sap of their cell wall does so also, and 
renders certain of them soluble. 
An old gardening book coming under our 
notice many years ago, discussed the 
question as to whether plants consumed 
the soil in which they grew, and answered 
it in the negative. To test the question, a 
young tree was planted in a tub and allowed 
to grow to considerable size. The soil was 
weighed at the beginning and end of the 
experiment, and making allowance for 
waste, it was found that the soil had not 
been appreciably diminished in weight. 
The experiment in our opinion was too in¬ 
exact to prove anything. About half the 
dried weight of plants is obtained from the 
atmosphere as everybody knows. Then to 
be accurate, account should be taken of the 
plant food in the water supplied, what 
drains away in it, what it received from the 
atmosphere in the form of nitric acid, 
ammonia, particles of dust, and many other 
natural sources of accretion to the soil. 
After all, the weight of ashes in any given 
plant is so small, that it would require very 
accurate experiments to detect its removal 
from any given quantity of soil. When a 
pot becomes filled with roots to such an 
extent that very little of the original soil 
remains, it is due to compressure, to waste 
at the bottom and at the top of the pot. It 
may be taken for granted that very little of 
it is in the plant—in fact an inappreciable 
quantity—compared with the waste. Soils 
in a state of nature increase in depth by 
the growth of trees and other vegetation 
upon them. 
-- 
Mr. Alfred Outram, who is so well known and so much 
respected in the horticultural world, has been en¬ 
gaged by Messrs. Sutton & Sons, and will in future 
represent the famous Reading firm as traveller. 
Death of a Colonial Gardener.—We regret to hear 
of the death of Mr. William Crowther, who for the 
last five years has been curator of the botanical 
station at Aburi, on the Gold Coast, Western 
Tropical Africa. The deceased up to the time of his 
death had stood the trying climate remarkably well, 
and was preparing to leave for his annual holiday 
when he was seized with the malady which has so 
unfortunately terminated his existence. 
Watering in Bright Sunshine.—In the course of a 
discussion on " Gardening Mistakes,” which recently 
took place at a meeting of the Birmingham Amateur 
Gardeners’ Association, Mr. William Dean described 
it as a ridiculous error, shared by men of the greatest 
experience, to think that it is fatal to a plant to 
water it overhead in the sunshine. To the objection 
that such a course in a very hot sun was calculated 
to injure the foliage, he retorted had anybody ever 
directly traced hurt to a hot sun following a thunder¬ 
storm ? He had practised overhead watering in the 
heat of the sun for many years without finding it 
prej udicial 
Jadoo Fibre.—Col. Halford Thompson has recently 
issued in neat pamphlet form the paper which he 
read a few weeks ago at the People’s Palace for East 
London, and the discussion which followed, and 
which should prove interesting and useful reading to 
all who experience difficulty in getting compost for 
their plants. Col. Thompson has also added a long 
list of plants that he has proved can be successfully 
grown in "Jadoo," but after what we have seen we 
should imagine that it will soon be easier to 
enumerate what will not grow in it. The English 
patent rights for the manufacture of "Jadoo’’ have 
now, we understand, been transferred to Jadoo, 
Limited. 
The Society of American Florists.—The bill granting 
a National Charter to the Society of American 
Florists which was passed by Congress, and the 
Senate has been vetoed by the President of the 
United States. The declared object of the proposed 
incorporation is stated in thebill to be the “elevation 
and advancement of horticulture in all its branches, 
to increase and diffuse the knowledge thereof, and 
for kindred purposes in the interest of horticulture," 
but the President seemed to infer that a florist was 
not a horticulturist, and that, therefore, " the 
interests of florists would be badly served by a 
corporation confined to the furtherance of garden 
culture." A florist, that is to say a man who grows 
plants and flowers, as distinguished from the mere 
salesman of other people’s produce, is certainly a 
horticulturist, but it is true also that a horticulturist 
need not necessarily be a florist. It was the title 
that did it; it was not comprehensive enough. 
Bonaparte's Chestnut.—The 20th of March Chest¬ 
nut tree in the Tuileries gardens gives no sign (says 
the Paris correspondent of The Daily News) of 
putting forth leaves on the traditional date. Hopes 
were entertained by some Bonapartists that it would 
then be mantled in green, the colour of hope, but 
yesterday morning’s frost was hard and black. Not 
a bud shows itself. The gardener of the Tuileries 
says that the Chestnut tree has three times in the 
last ten years failed to rejoice Imperialists. It is so 
backward that he fears we have not yet got to the 
end of winter. The 20th of March was the date of 
Bonaparte’s return to the Tuileries from Elba, and 
of the birth of the late Prince Imperial. For the 
first time the famous Chestnut was in leaf as the 
partisans of the Empire were rushing to the Palace 
to hail the military despot. It celebrated the 
anniversary regularly up to 1871, when, on the 20th 
of March, it was without a leaf. It was said that a 
reason for its premature foliage was that the sewer 
that drained the Palace kitchens brought tepid fluid 
near its roots, but this explanation had no founda¬ 
tion in fact. There must be something in the nature 
of the tree which favours premature leafage. 
Southern Florists’ Societies.—We have before us 
the eighteenth annual reports of the National Carna¬ 
tion and Picot-.e, and National Auricula and Primula 
Societies, and congratulate the managers of both on 
the good work they are doing in promoting the 
culture and development of these particular florists' 
flowers. Both societies held their first exhibitions 
at the Crystal Palace, in 1877, and it is curious to 
note that one of them, the Carnation Society is about 
to return to its first home after some years of absence, 
it having been arranged for this year’s show to take 
place at Sydenham, on July 24th. The popularity 
among the general public of the Carnation over the 
more staid Auricula is well shown at the end of the 
seventeenth year of their existence, in the financial 
position of the two Societies. The Carnation 
Society winds up with the handsome surplus in hand 
of over /159, while the Auricula Society has had to 
draw upon its reserve fund, and carries forward a 
balance only of some £20. We hope sincerely that 
the Auricula Society will not come to grief, but if it 
goes on paying £68 in prizes as against £63 received 
in subscriptions, unless there is a sensible increase 
under the latter heading, there can only be one end, 
and that every true Auricula grower will regret. 
Mr. Martin Hope Sutton.—To very few is it per¬ 
mitted, after an active and successful business 
career, and a life spent in works of usefulness, social, 
philanthropic and religious, to enter the threshold 
of four score years. An honoured resident of 
Reading—Mr. M. H. Sutton—has lived to attain 
his eightieth birthday, the 14th of March, and the 
pleasurable occasion was on Thursday of last week 
duly observed. Mr. Sutton received over one 
hundred letters and telegrams, besides a great 
number of congratulatory visits from friends in 
Reading. Addresses were also presented, amongst 
others, by the Church of England Y.M.C.A., the 
Reading and District Gardeners' Mutual Improve¬ 
ment Association, and by the chiefs of departments 
of the Royal Seed Establishment, from which 
business he retired in 1888, after being head partner 
tor more than fifty years, leaving it in the hands of 
the present firm, consisting of his eldest son, Mr. 
Martin J. Sutton, who has been managing partner 
for the past twenty-four years, with two other sons, 
Mr. A. W. Sutton and Mr. Leonard Sutton, and his 
nephew, Mr. Herbert Sutton. The heartfelt con¬ 
gratulations which Mr. Sutton received on the 
anniversary will be echoed far and wide, together 
with the wish that his life may still longer be spared 
to his family and friends. 
