8 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
SepremBer 1,.1906 
Primfoges. 
CHOC 
Turse beautiful and popular spring flowers 
are easily raised from seed, and the present 
is a good time for sowing to obtain plants 
for next season’s flowering. A packet of 
seed will produce a numher of plants which - 
will vary so much in form and color that 
scarcely two will be alike. 
Seed of either primroses or polyanthuseS 
may be sown in the open air, but a tar 
better plan is to sow in well-drain+d pans 
or shaliow boxes, ‘he soil shouid consist 
of loam and leaf-mould in equal parts and 
sifted through a quarter inch mesh si+ve, 
pressed down and made very smooth on the 
surface. The seed must be thinly scattered 
on the finely-prepared soil, and very lightly 
covered. A good watering shouid be given — 
with a fine rose pot, and the pan or box 
will be all the better placed in a coo! frame 
or under a handlight in a shady position, 
taking care that the soil never becomes 
diy. As soon as the young plants are large 
enough, they should be pricked ous in other 
boxes in the same kind of soil or if boxes 
or pans are not available the young plants 
may be pricked out in a shady spot in good 
soil outdoors 
Treated as advised, aud kept well sup- 
plied with water in dry weather, they 
will be fairly strong by the autumn, and 
in the spring will become «a mass of color 
in great diversity. ‘They are also very beau- 
tiful grown in pots for the house or window 
decoration, and for this purpose a few 
~ plants may be potted up in well-drainéd 
pots, ina compost of two parts loam and 
one part leaf mould, 
Lime in the Garden. 
Gro KD 
‘Tux importance of lime, chemically known 
as calcium monoxide (CaO), is generally 
overlooked, and its powerful aia to the 
tertility of our soils is unheeded. ‘l’his 
should not he so,and the object of this 
article is to make readers more familiar 
with it and its work. : 
Lime in its original combination as cal- 
cium carbovate is very familiar to us as 
chalk, marble or iimestone, and it is also 
the chief constituent of shells, ete. ‘This 
combination is expressed symbolicaily as 
CaCO3, that is, there is one atom of cal- 
cium (Ca), one of carbon (©), and three of 
oxygen (C). ‘To separate the calcium mo- 
noxide from the carbon dioxids the carbon- 
ate is heated in conjunction with fuel ina 
kiln, its decomposition e‘suing, and lime 
in a quick or caustic coudition is produced. 
Althcugh lime in its native combination 
is beneficial, it is in the quick or caustic — 
form that it is most desirable to have it. 
Yo preserve it in its quick condition we 
must. take great care ot it, as it very 
readily unites with its lost partner when it 
is exposed to the air, reverting back to its 
original state. ‘lo haveit in a finely divided 
condition so as to be mixable with the soil 
water must be added, with which it com- 
bines with great avidity, forming a whitish 
powder known as slaked lime or calcium 
hydrox'de. a 
Quicklime being especially eager to re- 
unite again with an acid, it rapidly decom- 
poses the organic matter in the soil, and as 
organic acids are formed it appropriates 
them and gradually loses its quick or 
caustic character. For example, decaying 
vegetable matter yields amongst other 
acids, carbon dioxide and the line combin- 
ing with- this from calcium carbonate or 
carbonate of lime. So one of the first re- 
sults obtained by the use of lime is to 
sweeten the soil by neutralising any acid 
body that may have rendered it sour; 
another result: is to decrease the amount 
of or’ ganic matter in the soil. 
This latter result may not always be 
desirable, although in some soils. such as 
a peatty soil for instance, it is expedient. 
To avoid a diminishing of the organic 
matter the dressing should be of lime in a 
less quick form as chalk or marl, the action 
is then slower with regard to the sweeten- 
ing process, and the decrease of humus is 
corresponding iy lessened. 
Quicklime asserts a chemical influence 
upon the mineral constituents of the soi', 
converting them from an insoluble condi- 
tion to a -oluble condivion and rendering 
them available for plant use. ‘Ihus, when 
potassium silicite or sodium silicate, or 
the two felspars of potash and soda are 
brought under the influence of caustic 
lime, the potash and soda are partially 
ousted from their partnership, the calcium 
taking their place and leaving these valu- 
able alkalies at the service of the 
plants, 
Again, in the soil there exists a class of 
bodies known as the double silicates, Pure 
c ay of an aluminium silicate, a fertile clay 
or a loam, an impure clay containing a 
variety of other substancee-, and in this 
latter form the aluminium silicates become 
combined with the silicates of the alkalies 
and alkaline earths, forming double sili- 
cates. We have the doube silicate of alu- 
mina ani ammonia, alumina and potash, 
alumina and lime, aud of alumina and 
soda, 
These silicates act in a very remarkable 
way, for if we present lime to the double 
soda silicate soda is displaced, and the cor- 
responding silicate of alumina ani lime 
forme i, so likewise will lime have to give 
place to the potash and the po'ash to am- 
monia, theretore the introduction of quick 
lime encourages the production ot the 
double lime silicate, releasing the soda for 
plant use and awaiting its turn to be ex- 
plied by potash: : 
A most important office of lime in the 
soil—of special interest in these days of 
artific'al manures is the production of 
nitrate of potash or salupetre. ‘here was 
a tyme when the world’s supply of potas- 
sium nitrate was artific‘ally prepared, and 
the method adopted cannot fail to be of 
great interest to tillers of the soil. 
To give a detailed account of the pre- 
paration of nitre beds would occupy too 
much space, but works on chemistry 
describe the process of nitrification. 
Lime itself is a constituent part of a 
plant, and it is supposed to enter as plant, 
food, in the carbonate form and it will be 
seen from the above actions, that lime 
applied to a heavy clay soil will lighten 
it. 
Re-potting Palms and similar Plants 
The need to repot these plants only 
- arises when the pots are full of roots or 
when the soil is sodden and sour. Spriag 
is the most suitable time for repotting 
plants used for room and table decora- 
tion 
_ A mistake is often made by over pott- 
ing, that is, using pots too large for the 
plant. 
palms, camellias, ete., should not be 
transferred to pots much larger than the 
pots they previously occupied. A move 
irom a pot d inches 10 elses to one 7 
uches in diameter is sufligient. 
In potting plants oaly clean pots 
should be used, and they should be 
drained, eSpecially if the plants are likely 
to remain in them for some time. Muode- 
rately light soil, porous in character and- 
‘of the nature the plants require, should 
be realy for use The plant to be re- 
potted should not be dry. After being 
removed fron the pot the old crocks- 
should be taken away, and (if pot bound) 
the roots cire.ully disentangled. 
soil should be placed over the drainage 
material, and the plant placed ou the soil 
a little below the level it occupied in the 
sinaller pot. Soil should be added and 
pressed firmly between the ball of soil 
and the pot until the required level is- 
reached. Except in hot weather, the 
newly potted plant will not require much 
water for a time, but will be benefited by 
an occasional syringiny over the foliage 
aud extra shade, Pot plants fail often 
through being placed on exposed stands 
at some height from the ground. 
Peat is the decomposed but yet fibrous — 
remains of vegetable matter which accu- 
inulates in some of the swampy places in 
Peat sol u-ed as freshly up 
the hills. 
is highly injurious to many plants, as it 
contains humic acid which is gradually a 
absorbed by exvosure to the air. Some of 
the dark, black hnmus found in the same 
localities, and treated in the sime manner, 
will also be found exceedingly useful for 
mixing up soil for potting. 
Slow growing plants, like many — 
Some- 
a 
eo 
c In a glass house any time but—_ 
_ Winter is suitable. 
