60 
THE FLORISTS JOURNAL. 
ON MOISTURE. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE FLORISTS JOURNAL. 
Sir, —Your late remarks on the weather as affecting vegetation, 
and your account of how an abundance, or paucity of moisture in 
the soil expedites or retards the growth, are all very satisfactory. 
Every observer of vegetable development, during the past summer, 
must agree with you, in accounting for the early shedding of the 
foliage, as being a consequence of the want of sufficient moisture 
in the ground in the season alluded to. This circumstance, by 
the by, is a proof that the summer shoots are well ripened ; and 
it is a kind of earnest of a plentiful crop, at least a plentiful 
flowering, next season. 
But, besides the moisture of the soil, so necessary to every 
plant, there is another agent which equally affects them, though 
often overlooked, or not regarded by the cultivator. This is the 
stream of subterranean heat, which is ever rising through the 
surface strata of the earth. That there is such a source of heat 
independent of that of the sun, and also a source of moisture in¬ 
dependent entirely of that of rain, is incontestible. These together 
excite and support vegetation, when their united agency is 
totally unheeded. Indeed the existence of heat, independent of 
that of the sun, is by many people considered perfectly chime¬ 
rical ; and so far have these doubts been carried, that, to make up 
for the want of heat in the soil, grape-vine borders have been 
formed and artificially heated by fire-flues ; the inventors con¬ 
ceiving that the roots require the same temperature as that in 
which the branches are kept. But this no where obtains in 
nature, as the stratum of earth in which the roots have their 
range is of pretty equal temperature at all times in the year, and 
nearly over every part of the earth’s surface. On the sands of 
Arabia there may, indeed, be something like an approximation ; 
but there vegetation, if any, is dormant. 
But in this country it is very natural to suppose, that in the 
case of winter forcing, the roots and branches of a vine are very 
unequally situated ; the latter being in a heat of 60 or 70 degrees 
of Fahrenheit, while the former are in about 42. But this is no 
