March 3, 1U00 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
425 
Cover the seeds, over with a thin layer of soil, water 
the whole, place ihe pots in a house of 58° tempera¬ 
ture, and leave them. When the plants are 4 in. 
high place taller stakes, say 3^ ft. high, spreadingly 
around, and if fine netting or any other supporting 
framework suggests itself to you these could be em¬ 
ployed along with stakes. Indeed, so tractable are 
Sweet Peas that we should not be surprised to see 
some of the large growers exhibit naturally developed 
colour combinations and varied designs. By sowing 
Navy Blue and Emily Henderson, or Early Blanche 
Ferry, the latter two being whites, and separate pots 
to start with, and by keeping them separately 
trained when potted in larger pots, it would tie 
possible to have the representation guitar or other 
form. Do net allow the plants to hang nor to be¬ 
come drawn and weakly, and avoid large shifts. 
Seven inch pots should be size enough to flower 
them in. 
VICTORIA REGIA. 
The accompanying illustrat'on of the queen of 
Water Lilies was prepared from a photograph sent 
ty Mr, Cretchh y, the Gardens, The Honeys, Twy- 
CHEMISTRY FOR THE GARDEN. 
VI.— Ammonia and Nitric Acid. 
(Continued from p. 411). 
From time to time the results of experiments have 
proved that the salts of ammonia are not in every 
case beneficial for the soil. It is, we regret to say, 
too often thought by tillers of the soil that all shall be 
well if any specific manure of extolled excellency is 
liberally applied to the soil. To overcome this 
fallacy it is necessary to have a general idea at 
least of the constituents existing in the soil about 
to be improved by a chemical manure whose chief 
ingredients consist of ammonia. Mineral salts 
require to be largely in evidence to assist ammonia- 
cal salts becoming suitable food for plants. Leibeg, 
many years ago, pointed out the great danger of per¬ 
sistently applying manures chiefly consisting of 
ammonia year after year to Ihe land. When such 
fertilisers are applied, he said, that the presence 
of potash and silicic acid is always presup¬ 
posed. In a soil of ordinary fertility these constitu¬ 
ents are by no means represented in a meagre quan¬ 
tity, but both are greatly demanded as plant food. It 
will be obvious that the demand will be necessarily 
carried out with manures, that we find the same 
manures under the same apparent circumstances, 
often prove so variable and conflicting in their 
results. Heat and favourable moisture must have a 
great disposition to prepare a manure into proper 
plant food, while, on the contrary, cold and wet must 
have quite a different effect. Some seasons, on the 
same land, the effects of the muriate of ammonia 
appears to suit better than those of the sulphate, 
and so on with all thenitrogenous compounds. With 
respect to the muriate we give, as our own opinion, 
that its use is preferable generally on certain light 
soils having a good deal of ferrous oxide in their 
mixture. The sulphate generally gives a much 
better result than the nitrate of ammonia under any 
circumstances. 
This seems rather strange seeing that the latter 
contains double the amount of nitrogen that the 
former does. From this we must infer that every¬ 
thing does not always depend on the quantity of 
nitrogen which any individual salt contains. I 
would appear that the base to which nitrogen is 
attached has a good deal to do with the success of 
its operations on plant growth. 
The abundance or comparative absence of necea- 
sty 
Victoria Regia. 
ford, to illustrate an article upon the subject, some 
time ago, when his communication went amissing in 
coming through the post. He says the photograph 
represents a new variety of Victoria regia, the chief 
■characteristics of which would be the more highly 
coloured flowers, and the greater depth of rim to the 
leaves, the rim in this case amounting to 6-in. in 
depth. The illustration will give readers, at a dis¬ 
tance from gardens in which the Victoria is 
grown, an idea of the appearance of the plant when 
grown in a hot-water tank under artificial conditions. 
BEGONIA GLOIRE DE LORRAINE, 
The hints thrown out by a large American grower 
may be cf service to some who find difficulty in rais¬ 
ing a stock of this grand plant. He says, " It takes 
time to become acclimated. One of its necessities is 
a warm and comparatively dry atmosphere. It 
resents much moisture on its foliage. Cardful 
watering is necessary. A night temperature of from 
65° to 70° is about right, and although I feel satis¬ 
fied they do not like a moist, stuffy atmosphere, they 
should never suffer from lack of root moisture." 
much greater in the presence of ammonia. In form 
an approximate estimate of the presence of the 
necessary minerals in the soil is one of those 
important things which every gardener and farmer 
ought to be able to decide. The practised eye is 
seldom at fault in arriving at fairly correct conclu¬ 
sions with regard to the fertility or sterility of a soil; 
while in every case an analysis may not be quits 
satisfactory for reasons which, when treating of soils, 
we shall endeavour to place before our readers. 
The manurial values not only of ammoniacal salts, 
but of other fertilising agents, are very much sub¬ 
jected in their influence to the peculiarities of local 
conditions as well as that of soil. The weather must 
have much to do in the regulation of the growth of 
any crop, and without favourable conditions in this 
respect it is vain to suppose that any stimulating 
manure can effect marvels where weather fails. 
Perhaps experiments have been too often carried 
out on lines that did not give the matter of local con¬ 
ditions the due attention in the resulting calculations 
as undoubtedly they deserve. 
It is greatly owing to local conditions, when 
scanning over a series of reports of experiments 
sary mineral oxides must also have a modifying 
effect in forming food, perhaps,which the plant may not 
immediately require. It is not unreasonable to think 
that plants can exercise their choice in selecting the 
food of which they stand most in need. Iron, for 
instance, does not go to form very much of the 
plant’s structure; yet if a plant shows symptoms of 
paleness in the foliage, which denotes deficiency of 
iron, the plant would assuredly sooner absorb the 
salts of iron than those of any other mineral though 
they might be very much more valuable fertilisers. 
The association of soda with nitrogen has a very 
marked effect on the fertilising influence of nitrogen 
on vegetation. Every person is acquainted with the 
valuable power of nitrate of soda for certain sub¬ 
jects. Evidently the nitric acid in this compound is 
in the most convenient form possible for plant 
absorption, and would appear to be as easily 
decomposed as it is dissolved by the weather. The 
semblance between nitric acid and ammonia is very 
much. The one can be easily resolved into the 
other by a little chemical experiment. In the soil 
these changes continually go on according to the 
agents brought to bear upon them—ammonia into 
nitric acid and vice versa.— Oxygen. 
(To be continued.) 
