106 
THE LADIES,' FLORAL CABINET. 
the most perfect harmony, performing their allotted 
tasks wisely, patiently and well. Each and every 
locality has a vegetation adapted to its necessities; in 
some places it is far more varied and extensive than in 
others. This seemingly unequal distribution is not the 
result of chance or circumstance: rather the result of 
an intelligent, well organized plan. In short, each 
plant is a special creation, and that for the time and 
place in which we find it. The Oak was not brought 
forth by the slow uncertain labors of evolution, but by 
the unerring hand of Almighty power and goodness. 
The form, variety, and extent of the vegetation of a 
country,depends altogether upon the existing elementary 
substances which they were created to utilize in har¬ 
mony with other creations. The Cinchona Calisaya of 
Peru, has a world-wide fame for a certain active prin¬ 
ciple in its bark, known as quinine. It is a strong, 
rapid-growing evergreen shrub, or low-growing tree, 
of an ornamental character, and abounds in the low 
malarial districts of that tropical country. So valuable 
is the bark of this tree as an article of commerce, 
that its cultivation in other countries, where both 
climate and soil were supposed favorable for its produc¬ 
tion, has been attempted. The experiment, has however, 
in every case proved a failure, from the fact that the 
drug, in an elementary state, did not exist in the atmos¬ 
phere of its adopted home. The tree will grow 
luxuriantly, but cannot yield a product that does not 
exist in its surroundings, more than the chemist can 
extract the precious metals from rock that does not 
contain them. 
This sa m e principle is applicable to every plant, and 
under all circumstances. It is the reason why the 
plum is an abundant crop in a given locality, and why 
the peach is not, and the reverse. It is the reason why 
either will for a period thrive in a certain locality, and 
for a successive period fail; then again thrive and 
produce their rich fruits, with all their foimer vigor. It 
is the reason why rotation of crop is an agricultural 
necessity. When ono kind of grain, vegetable, or fruit, 
has eaten up all the food provided for its use, it will no 
longer succeed, and the practical horticulturist, wisely 
accepting the situation, plants something else. 
The fabled Upas-tree (Antiaris innoxia) is occasionally 
met in certain low valleys in Java, which are rendered 
unwholesome by an escape of carbonic acid gas from 
the crevices in the ground, and which is given off in 
such abundance as to be fatal to animals that approach 
too closely. These pestiferous valleys are connected 
with the numerous volcanoes in the island. The craters 
of some of these emit, according to Reimvardt, sul¬ 
phureous vapors iu such abundance as to cause the 
death of great numbers of tigers, buds, and insects; 
while the rivers and lakes are in some cases so charged 
with sulphuric acid, that no fish can live in them. So 
that doubtless the Upas-tree has had to bear the oppro¬ 
brium really due to the volcanoes and their products. 
That the secretions of the Upas are virulent poisons, is 
not to be doubted, and herein lies the usefulness of the 
tree. Iis leaves have been provided with chemical ap¬ 
paratus for the express purpose of absorbing these 
deadly gases, and transforming them into wholesome 
ones, for the sustenance of animal life, the tree retain¬ 
ing the poisonous properties in its juices. 
We cannot close our remarks upon the plant as a 
chemist, without a quotation from Runge, the noted 
chemist and observer: “A plant is a great chemist; it 
distinguishes and separates substances more definitely 
and accurately than man can, with all his skill, his in¬ 
telligence, and his appliances. What is a man, indeed, 
when compared with the humble plant which he treads 
under his feet, in all the mistaken pride of his little 
knowledge, and circumscribed power and capability? 
The little daisy, which has painted its ‘ wee, crimson- 
topped flowers,’ puts the chemist and scientific man to 
shame, for it has produced its leaf, and stem and flowers, 
and has dyed these with their bright colors from 
materials which he can never change with all his arts.” 
DRAIN YOUR GARDENS. 
Thebe exists a notion that the only advantage of 
good drainage consists in merely removing water. 
Water is not of itself an evil; on the contrary, it is a 
necessary food of plants, and its absence, if long contin¬ 
ued, is attended with fatal results. It is the excess of 
water which injures plants, just as an excess of food 
injures animals. 
There can be no sort of doubt that the advantage de¬ 
rived from draining land is owing greatly, if not exclu¬ 
sively, to the augmented temperature which attends 
the removal of stagnant water from it. 
Underground climate is not less important than that 
•which prevails above ground, and it is only by perfect 
and skilful drainage that underground climate can be 
improved. 
Land is rendered cold and late wherever the drainage 
is defective by the great capacity which water has for 
heat as compared with clay or sand; the same quantity 
of heat which is sufficient to raise the temperature of 
soil four degrees of Fahrenheit being only sufficient to 
raise that of water one degree. Consequently, when 
land is saturated with water, the sun’s rays, instead of 
being expended in heating the soil, are absorbed and ren 
dered latent by the water it contains, and the soil de¬ 
rives but one fourth of the warmth which it would do 
were it filled with common air instead of water. 
Then again, undrained ground soon gets soured and 
encourages the formation of substances hurtful to veg¬ 
etation, which are developed by the exclusion of com¬ 
mon air and the oxygen it contains, from free circula¬ 
tion among the soil. Vegetable and animal manures 
thus remain imperfectly decayed, or decay is converted 
into putrefaction, and acetic, malic, tannic, gallic, and 
other acids are substituted for carbonic acid and am¬ 
monia, the products of simple decay, and which with 
the elements of water, are recognized as the chief 
agents in the nourishment of plants. 
Immediately land is thoroughly drained it affords free 
passage through its texture for air; for wherever ground 
is water-logged air cannot penetrate; remove the water, 
and air naturally occupies its place; and a large supply 
of oxygen is needed by the roots of growing plants if 
the plants are to thrive and do well. 
Soil filled with stagnant water cannot be penetrated 
SSJH- „■ 
