May 21, 1904. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
421 
Potted moderately firm, they are set on the north side of a 
mrd which is just high enough to shade the pots from the 
m during the hottest part of the day. Plants which are not 
potted have their drainage corrected, the surface soil well 
icked out of the pots down to the roots, and are then top- 
•essed with the same potting mixture broken up a little finer 
id a handful of an artificial fertiliser added. 
Set beside the repotted plants ; the whole are. carefully 
atered from this onward till autumn frosts necessitate their 
fing put under cower. The top-dressed plants can be put into 
jat°at once if desirable; and this is one point in favour of the 
uinp or .potful, compared with the single-crown method of 
llture. 
The pots of top-dressed plants are so full of roots that they 
“spend to heat at once, while to place plants which have been 
token up or lifted from open ground into strong heat in 
[etcher would simply be to' court disaster. Watered with 
bine stimulant at every alternate watering, these old plants 
ill produce their spathes in abundance throughout the early 
inter until it is quite safe to force the divided plants. 
From five of these top-dressed pots set into brisk heat , in 
llctober I one season cut seventy-three fine blooms, showing 
[ saving in room and labour in favour of undivided plants. 
How Plants Absorb their Food. 
This is a most important item; to the gardener, but how 
many are there who understand it thoroughly, or even as it 
should be understood? 
Plants derive their food material from two' sources namely, 
the soil and the atmosphere; from the former most people 
understand that plants get food substances 1 , but to a great 
extent they get them from the latter also>. From the soil by 
means of the roots they take up food supplies', and from the 1 
atmosphere by means of the leaves they take them in. 
So; therefore, to the ordinary observer is early seen the 
necessity of keeping the roots in a healthy condition, and keep¬ 
ing them under circumstances congenial to their healthy action. 
The soil must be kept sweet by thorough drainage; if not, the 
water will stagnate or become sour in it, and ihe air will be 
excluded, which is essential to the healthy action of all parts of 
the plant. 
It is just behind the growing points of the young roots where 
the little root-hairs or feeders are. On. examining a young 
root with a glass, which has been lifted carefully, they can be 
seen with little particles of coil adhering to them. They cling 
very closely to these particles, and absorb the moisture with 
food substance® in solution in it which surround these little 
particles. 
These root-hairs are very slender little things, being out¬ 
growths of the epidermal cells. They perform the func¬ 
tion of absorbing food supplies from the soil for a, little time, 
and then die away, hut they are constantly beingi replaced by 
others as the root grows. 
The root- also gives out a small quantity of fluid, which has 
the power of converting some of the mineral substances in the 
s °il into' solution, so that they can be taken in by the root-hairs. 
When once the food solution is inside the epidermal cell it is 
attracted by the denser substances in the neighbouring cell 
“to it, and so on until it reaches the wood vessels of the root, 
and then goes up them into the wood vessels of the stem, and 
up them to the leaves, where it combines with the food sub¬ 
stances taken from the atmosphere; and is then elaborated in 
the dense chlorophyll-filled tissue of leaves. After this process 
it is carried away to growing points where growth is going on, 
and is converted into cell walls, protoplasm, etc., or it is carried 
and stored in different forms, as in the tuber of the Potato; 
r0 °k bh.© Da'lulia, etc., for future use. 
The food substance which is taken in by thei leaves is ab- 
so'ibed by means of little minute pores mostly on the underside 
O' the leaf. When once inside, it combines with the food sub- 
s ances brought up from the root, and all undergo a chemical 
change, and are thus converted into the substances required by 
the different parts of the plant. 
Sometimes they undergo several changes before they reach 
their final destination in the plant, as it is only under certain 
conditions that they can travel through the tissue of the plant. 
—that is; the substances must all be in a perfectly soluble 
condition. W. Good. 
The Improvement of Garden Plants. 
(Concluded from 'page, 313.) 
Chrysanthemums. 
Good cultivation and the selection of the best 'seedlings are 
well understood by experts, SO' that I need not enter upon that 
province on this occasion. I may say, however, that seedlings 
are not always perfectly double the first year, making it neces¬ 
sary to select, a, greater or less number of the most promising, 
and growing them on for another year 'to* test what good culti¬ 
vation can do for them. Some seedlings are ’tested' for a 
number of consecutive year®. A number turn out Well at 
last, and the rest are discarded. 
In the fixing of sports man plays very second fiddle to 
Nature. A branch or shoot upon a plant produces 'a flower 
of a different colour, or occasionally a. slightly different form. 
The observant gardener or cultivator marks this shoot, or 
keeps his eye upon it till such time as he c.a.n take cuttings 
from it. The plants so secured are grown on till next year 
and flowered. If it turns out to be identical with the original 
variation, he considers it fixed, and gives it a name, to' distin¬ 
guish it from its parent. On the other hand, if the flowers are 
identical with those of the parent, the cultivator is disappointed, 
and that is the end of it. Some varieties, like Viviand Morel 
and Etoile de Lyon, give light-coloured or even white flowers on 
the crown buds, and as often richly-coloured ones from the 
terminals. If those .shoots which give white blooms are propa¬ 
gated, they generally, or always, revert to the original next 
year, and no dependence can be placed upon them. Charles 
Davis is also a deceiver in this respect. Moreover, many of the 
finest Japanese varieties 'have originated as sports., and perhaps 
even a greater number of the incurved varieties in cultivation. 
Carnations. 
The Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) is not a. native of 
Britain, and though vast improvements have been effected on 
this side of the Channel, the original improvements were 
effected or secured upon the Continent.. Judging from an 
illustration in Dodoen’s “Herbal,” published in 1578, at least 
one distinctly double variety, not unlike the Old Clove, existed 
on the Continent previous to its introduction to Britain. What 
were the initial stages of improvement it Would be impossible 
to say. The double varieties we . can imagine to resemble Old 
Clove in form. The florists’ flower was no doubt long fore¬ 
shadowed before the florist fixed upon it. as his idiea.1 of per¬ 
fection. Shakespeare, towards the end of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury, or .about the beginning of the 'seventeenth, says., “ The 
fairest floWers O’’ the season are our Carnations, and streak’d 
Cilliflowers, which some call Nature’s bastards.” Whether 
bastards or not, the florists ultimately fixed upon these streaked 
Gillifloiwers, and developed the flakes and bizarre® from them. 
These striped Carnations come into the same category as 
feathered and flamed Tulips and show Auriculas'. I mention 
the fact® to draw attention to. the mistake® that have been 
made by a too rigid adherence to- any particular phase or line 
of beauty. In 'the evolution of varieties that may be- con¬ 
sidered fit to receive the hall-mark of the florist it- is necessary 
to pursue a method -of more or less close inbreeding for many 
years, it. may be; in order to- keep within the' limitation of 
beautiful varieties as gauged by the canons of the florist. The 
result is that Nature is outraged, and plants of weak constitu¬ 
tion are the result. The difficulty that attend®' the cultivation 
and preservation of many of the best bizarre and flaked Car¬ 
nations and Piootees proves this statement. On the other hand, 
only a few specialists can grow these' ftowers to- perfection, and 
the number that can really admire their beauty is also limited. 
The great popularity the Carnation has attained within the 
