64 
THE FLORIST’S JOURNAL. 
quantity of water requisite to take up this matter in solution, 
the addition of manure will be in vain : manure is useless to 
vegetation till it becomes dissolved in water ; and it would 
remain useless in a state of solution, if it so abounded as to 
exclude air; for the fibres, or mouths, being then unable to 
perform their functions, would soon decay and rot off. 
As the garden pea is in request every day during the season, 
there is generally a large portion of the kitchen garden set 
apart for its cultivation. It is commonly sown in rows from 
three to five feet apart, according to the height of the several 
varieties which are grown ; but, unless for the early crops (for 
which certain situations alone are suitable, on account of 
warmth and shelter), I am convinced, from experience, that it 
is a bad practice to sow such large quantities together, as I 
have always observed that the outside rows are invariably more 
healthy, and much more productive, than the rows in the in¬ 
terior of the quarter ; there is no doubt but that this results 
from their being too thickly sown, and the rows being too 
close together, by which they are excluded from the full 
action of sun and air, and the stems and lower leaves 
assume a sickly yellow hue, by reason of the obstruction of 
perspiration, and the prevention of the chemical changes 
effected by light on the epidermis of the leaf. 
The change and elaboration of sap into pulp cannot take place 
in the dark, for the light of the sun is indispensable in order to 
the exercise of their functions; and plants that are crowded 
together, or are growing under the shade of trees, cannot well 
effect the important change of sap into the proper juices, except 
in small quantities; and this causes them to become sickly for 
want of due nourishment. We always see plapts that are placed 
in a dark shaded situation, incline their heads towards the light: 
this does not arise from any sensibility or instinct in the plant, 
but from the natural cause of the part most exposed to light, 
being placed in more favourable circumstances for the conver¬ 
sion of the sap into pulp, which renders it heavier, firmer, and. 
shorter than the part less exposed, whose laxness causes it to 
elongate and give way, through weakness. 
If these general observations are correct, the importance of 
giving more space between the rows of peas must be at once 
obvious. Suppose they were to be sown in rows from twenty to 
thirty feet apart, I am convinced the consequence would be an 
