February 6, l'89f. 
r H fi GARDENING WORLD. 
359 
Soil.— The ideal soil for stove plants generally is 
a mixture of fibrous loam and peat in equal parts 
with a sprinkling of sharp sand. To this may be 
added a few nodules of charcoal. This compost must 
naturally be slightly varied to suit particular plants. 
Thus the majority of palms like a greater proportion 
of good loam ; indeed, the same may be said of most 
plants that are strong-growing. One important point 
about soil that is to be used for potting is the state of 
moisture. If a handful of it he taken up and gently 
squeezed the particles should adhere slightly to each 
other. If it is dryer than this it is not good, and if 
wetter, damage is likely to be done by the use of the 
rammer. 
Firm Potting is very essential. It conduces to 
short and sturdy, whilst at the same time checking 
over luxuriant growth. Moreover, it assists in keep¬ 
ing plants within due bounds. A judicious use of 
the rammer will not hurt any fairly healthy plant. 
Weak and Unhealthy Plants on the other hand 
need special treatment. Probably the best thing to 
do with them where root action is very weak is to 
shake them out of the old soil and to plant them pro 
tem in a bed of cocoanut fibre made up in a warm 
pit; or a half-way course may be adopted, the plants 
being potted loosely, and the pots pluDged in the 
fibre. It will be well to have a pit that can be kept 
close in the manner suggested for the accommodation 
of weaklings, as thereby time will be saved. 
Browneas. —These are certainly some of the finest 
of our stove flowering shrubs, although from their 
size they are only suitable for roomy houses. 
CuttiDgs of fairly matured wood strike fairly readily 
if inserted in autumn in small pots filled with sand, 
and given a moist heat. They should be potted off 
at the commencement of January, or as soon after as 
possible. Larger plants will also be standing in need 
of a shift. Browneas take a number of years to grow 
to flowering size, and during that time they must not 
be cramped at the roots. 
Dieffenbachias certainly include some very 
handsome foliage plants which do well in an ordinary 
collection. From their peculiar habit plants of above 
a year in age are of little value, as after that period 
the stems get long and leggy. Such plants should 
now have their tops taken off and inserted as cuttings. 
They soon root, and may therefore be placed straight 
away into 48 sized pots. Desirable forms may be 
increased by cutting up the stems into lengths con¬ 
taining an eye or two in each, and potting them up 
into small 60 sized pots. In this case the cut end 
should just peep out of the soil. Place the sets in a 
propagating frame, but do not keep them too close or 
they will rot off. It may be of service to state here 
that the juices of Dieffenbachias are acrid and poi¬ 
sonous, and hence no part of them should be allowed 
to touch the lips. More than one “ green ” hand has 
been trapped in this way by enterprising elders, and 
the results, to the sufferer, are most unpleasant. 
Propagating Dracaenas. —After taking the tops 
of the plants off, and putting them in as cuttings the 
old plants may be left until they break into growth, 
which they will do at the topmost eyes first of all. 
Some growers adopt the plan of cutting off the whole 
stem, laying it down and covering it with cocoanut 
fibre in a propagating frame, when it breaks into 
growth at most of the eyes along the stem at the 
same time. D. Lindeni does very well if the stem is 
cut up into short lengths like Dieflenbachias and 
potted off into small thumb pots. 
Pits and Frames. 
Tuberous Begonias. —Seed which was sown about 
the middle of last month will now have germinated. 
As soon as the seedlings have got big enough to 
handle they must be pricked off. This is a most 
delicate operation, and one that must not be 
entrusted to an incompetent workman. In separating 
the tender plants take care not to mutilate the tender 
roots, and also avoid having many out of the soil at 
once, as such an experience is most injurious to 
them. The pans or pots containing the pricked off 
plants should be placed in the same temperature as 
that from which they weie taken. Water carefully 
through the medium of a fine rose, and shade 
during the middle of bright days with sheets of 
newspaper. 
Last year's plants must now be fetched out from 
their winter’s resting place. The probability is that 
if they have been wintered in a warm greenhouse 
they will have commenced to make top growth by 
this time. Shake them out of the old soil and pot 
them up afresh. They like a light rich soil, and a 
mixture of equal parts of good loam, peat or leaf 
soil, and manure from an old Mushroom bed, dried 
and rubbed through a sieve with sand, will be found 
to suit them well. Use no larger pots than can be 
helped and do not pot very firmly. It will be found 
that the tubers make roots much more rapidly when 
the soil is rather loose about them than they do when 
firm potting is given. 
Streptocarpuses. —The value of these pretty 
plants it is not possible to gainsay. A sowing of 
seed made now will furnish plants that will bloom 
from the latter part of June. Place the seed under 
the same conditions as recommended for Gloxinias. 
Tree Carnations. —As the bulk of the flowers are 
over now, preparations for an increase of stock may 
be made at once. Cuttings root very readily at this 
time of the year if placed in heat. Instead of cutting 
them off above a node in the usual way followed in 
preparing cuttings, they may be pulled out from the 
joint by a sharp twist of the hand and wrist. 
Cuttings treated thus root exceedingly well, as they 
have no cavities about their basis to afford lodgement 
for water and not so liable to rot off as others which 
are treated in the ordinary way. A temperature of 
about 60 9 will insure a good " strike.” Use sandy 
soil, and place the cuttings fairly close to each other 
all round the inside edge of a small 6o-pot. 
The Old Plants should still be taken care of, as 
they will still keep throwing occasional flowers. 
Later on in the spring the weakest ones may be 
discarded, but until that time all must receive 
attention. It often happens that injudicious watering 
causes a lot of deaths among them at this season, 
therefore keep a sharp look-out upon this part of the 
programme. 
Coleuses. —It is quite time that a batch of 
cuttings was put in if fair sized plants are to be 
forthcoming at a reasonable date. For this purpose 
the tops may be taken off the cuttings that were 
inserted last autumn, and which have passed through 
the winter in their cutting pots, as advised. Put 
these autumn-struck cuttings into brisk heat, and 
keep them well syringed, morning and afternoon, 
and they will soon furnish another batch of cuttings. 
Fuchsias were put into heat about the middle of 
January to produce cuttings. The main stock should 
be started now. What pruning is necessary should 
be given and the plants put in a gentle heat, and in 
a position where they can get the syringe at least 
once a day. When they have started nicely into 
growth they may be potted off into as small pots as 
will comfortably contain them. If they have com¬ 
menced to break already, they may be potted off 
without further delay. 
Herbaceous Calceolarias. —Plenty of light must 
be given these, and there must be an entire absence 
of any coddling. We have found them to succeed 
best when placed on a shelf near the glass, in a Peach 
house from which frost was only just excluded. 
Even during severe weather they were never shifted 
from this exposed position, and when they wanted 
water it was given them ice cold. Towards the end 
of the month the plants will be starting into growth, 
and will then call for their final shift into 8-in. or 
10-in. pots, but it will not be wise to disturb them 
just yet. 
General Work.— Seed sowing will ere long be 
occupying a good deal of attention, and hence clean 
pots and pans, as well as soil, may be got in readiness. 
The seed store must likewise be overhauled so as to 
make sure that seeds which require to be sown 
earlier than others are not neglected. The furnishing 
of the conservatory will also need constant care. 
Carefully watch for the appearance of greenfly 
amongst late Cinerarias and Calceolarias, and 
fumigate as soon as necessary.— A. S. G. 
—-O*.-- 
(gleanings JrumtljK IDovRi 
nj Sctencq. 
Nansen's Waymarks to the North Poje.—Year 
by year the microscopically minute forms of vegetable 
life are gaining in importance, in various phases of 
science and practice, as well as in their bearings 
upon the problems of health and disease. While the 
problem of how to reach the North Pole was being 
discussed some years ago, Dr. Nansen was not 
beneath taking into account such minute organisms 
as diatoms when laying his plans for reaching that 
mysterious goal before the Royal Geographical 
Society in 1892. The story of the diatoms he again 
brought prominently to the front in his letters to the 
Daily Chronicle, in November last. These vegetable 
organisms are again discussed in the February 
number of Knowledge, by W. F. Hume, D. Sc. 
Dr. Nansen argued that the great Polar currents 
flow southward to the North Atlantic Ocean, 
between the east coast of Greenland and Spitzbergen ; 
while, on the other hand, the currents from the 
Asiatic side flowed northward from the direction of 
Behring Straits, and turned north-westward at the 
New Siberian Islands. He argued these points from 
the fact that wood of Siberian Larch and Red 
Spruce was every year washed up against the east 
coast of Greenland, in greater or less quantity, and 
that the Esquimaux used this wood in the con¬ 
struction of boats, sledges, &c. This wood was also 
found in the sea north of Spitzbergen amongst the 
drifting ice. Even more interesting were the samples 
of dust which he collected on the snow and ice 
between Iceland and Greenland, and which, when 
tested microscopically, were found to contain dia¬ 
toms. These vegetable organisms are so minute that 
200 of them lying side by side would only measure 
one inch. Dr. Nansen placed his specimens in the 
hands of Professor Cleve, of Upsala, for identification, 
and the professor made out sixteen species and 
varieties, stating that this diatom flora was most 
peculiar inasmuch as it differed from the many thou¬ 
sands of samples which he had examined, except one. 
The exception was a sample collected by Kjellman 
(during the Vega expedition) on ice-floes at Cape 
Wankarema, near Behring Straits. The species and 
varieties of diatoms were identical in both cases. 
The inference was that the diatom floras from the 
vicinity of the Behring Straits and the east coast of 
Greenland must be identical, and that, therefore, 
there must be open communication between the 
waters of the sea at both these places. Amongst 
specimens from Cape Wankarema in Nansen’s 
possession, twelve species were " only known from 
there, and from nowhere else in the world,” though 
the diatom floras in various northern regions under 
notice had been partly examined. The minerals in 
the dust collected were also examined, and twenty 
varieties at least were determined. 
Dr. Nansen, in conducting his now famous expedi¬ 
tion both in the Fram and by sledges over the Polar 
ice, did so in the belief that he was following the 
same path as the diatoms, &c., were conveyed by the 
ocean currents. " Verily, great men can appreciate 
the teachings of very small things, such as driftwood, 
minute minerals, and microscopic plants.” 
Poisonous Plants of Essex.—A review of the 
poisonous plants native to Essex is being published 
in The Journal of the Essex Technical Laboratories. The 
writer is Mr. J. C. Shenstone, who says that “ the 
accidental poisoning of man and other animals may 
not be an everyday experience, but cases do occur 
from time to time, and the results are often so dis¬ 
astrous that it would appear to be worth some 
trouble on the part of our farmers and others to 
become familiar with the more dangerous species 
growing in their district.” 
A considerable number of the Buttercup family are 
classed amongst the poisonous subjects, including the 
Buttercups, Anemones, Helleborus foetidus, H. 
viridis, and Moekshood (Aconitum Napellus). We 
hope, however, that Mr. Shenstone’s remarks will 
not excite the Essex farmers to uproot and extermi¬ 
nate such rare British plants as the last three men¬ 
tioned species, and Anemone Pulsatilla. Monkshood 
is as likely to be so named from the fanciful resem¬ 
blance of the hooded dorsal sepal to the hood of a 
monk as to the fact that it is stated to have poisoned 
some of those gentlemen in olden times. We do not 
mean to say that Mr. Shenstone quotes this state¬ 
ment, but he says that ” it appears that the root was 
frequently mistaken for that of Horse-radish. 
Various plants are recorded here as being more of 
less poisonous, including Poppyworts, Roseworts, 
the Pink family, Vetches, Red Bryony, and Umbelli- 
fers. The latter include the Hemlock, Water Hem¬ 
lock, Water Dropwort, Fool’s Parsley, and others 
which are stated from time to time to be deadly poi¬ 
sonous to animals eating them. The Wild Parsnip 
is stated to have caused fatal poisoning, though the 
garden Parsnip is a wholesome vegetable. It would 
be highly satisfactory to all concerned if reputed 
cases of poisoning by British plants were scientifi¬ 
cally investigated and certified. 
