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THE JOURNAL

OF THE

HORTICULTUHAL SOCIETY

LONDON.

VOLUME IX.

LONDON.

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY, AT THEIR HOUSE,

21, REGENT STREET.

SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS.

1855.

LONDOS :
BRADBCRV AND EVANS, I'RINTEnS, WniTKFRT ARS.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

VOLUME IX.
Original Communicatioijs :

Article Page

I. On the Vine Mildew. By Hugo Von Mohl. (Second Memoir) . 1

II. Some Account of the Genus Hedychium. By N. Wallich, M.D.,
F.R.S., Knight Commander of the Royal Danish Order of Danne-
brog. (Reprinted from the London Journal of Botany, by per-
mission of Sir Wm. Hooker ; witli a few alterations by the
author.) 11

III. Notes made on Vi.siting some Gardens, between tlie 7th and 11th

of September, 1853. By Robert Tliomp-ou . . . .28

IV. Observations on a Form of White Rust in Pear-trees. By the

Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S. 48

V. Botanical Notes on the Mildew of the Vine and Hop. By the

Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S 01

VI. Remai-ks on the Scientific Objects and Uses of Plant-houses. In
a series of letters to Professor Fiirnrohr, editor of the Fhra,
and inserted in the Volume for 1853. By Professor Von Martius,
Director of the Royal Botanic Garden at Munich. (Translated
and abridged from the German by Dr. Wallich, F.R.S., Foreign
Member of the Horticultural Society) . . . , . . 71

VII. Some Account of the Horticulture of Tacna in Periu By John

Reid, Esq. (Communicated by Wm. Reid, Esq., Rose Bank.) . 99

VIII. Notice of a new Chinese Spira?a (S. Reevesiana, fl. pi.?) discovered

at Foo-chow-foo. By R. Fortune . . . . . .109

IX. On the prickly-fruite I and double-flowered Strawberries. By
Professor L. C. Treviranus. Read before the Association of
Naturalists for the Rhenish Countries and Westphalia in May,
1853. (Translated from the German by Dr. Wallich, F.M.H.S.") 110

X. A brief Sketch of the present .■^tate of the Question relative to

the Vine Mildew. By Dr. C. Montague 112

XL On Structures for Horticultural Pai-poses. By R. Errington,
C.M.H.S., Gardener to Sir Philip de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart.,
F.H.S., Oulton Park, Tarporlev, Cheshire. (Communicated
February 12th, 1854) . ". 129

XII. On the Cultivation of Hyacinths in Glasses. By the Rev. W. B.
Hawkins, F.K.S. (Read at a Meeting of the Society, held March
21st, 1854) ISl

8 6 5 ;l 3

CONTENTS.

Article Page

XIII. Historical Notes ou the Introduction of various Plants into the
Agriculture and Horticulture of Tuscany : a summary of a Work
entitled — " Cenui storici sulla introduzione di varie piante nell'
agricoltura ed orticultura Toscana." By Dr. Antonio Targioni-
Tozzetti. Florence, 1850 133

XIV. An Abstract of Meteorological Observations iu the Garden of the
Society ; iu continuation of those published vol. vii. p. 138, By
Robert Thompson . . 195

XV. An effectual and unexpensive mode of Protecting Wall-trees

from Spring Frosts 205

XVI. Ascertained Effects of the Winter of 1853-4 upon Exotics cultivated
in the Gardens, &c., of Great Britain. Compiled from various
sources ............ 207

XVII. Report on a Trial of the Dutch Method of forcing Apricots. By
Mr. W. Tatter, Gardener in the Royal Grardens of Hereuhausen,
near Hanover. (Translated from the Allgemeine Garten Zeituug,
of Berlin.) 248

XVIII. Analysis of a Chinese Work on Husbandry and Botany. By Sir
John Francis Davis, Bart., K.C.B., F.R.S., Fellow of the Horti-
cultural Society. (Presented to the Society with the original
work.) ............ 257

XIX. On the Vine Mildew. By Hugo Von Mohl. Translated by the

Rev. M. J. Berkeley. (Third Memoir.) 264

XX. American Plants. By Mr. John Saul, Nurseryman, Washington

City, D.C., United States 272

XXI. Suggestions for employing Evergreens as a Winter Decoration in
Flower-Gardens. By Messrs. Standish and Noble, Nurserymen,
Bagshot. (Communfcated September 10, 1854) . . . 275

XXII. Pine Culture in South Wales. By W. P. Ayres, C.M.H.S. . . 278

XXIII. Notes on Pears, with reference to the Sorts enumerated in the
Supplement to the Catalogue of Fruit-trees published by the
Horticultural Society. By M. Do Jonghe of Brussels . . 287
XXIV. How to Regenerate our Fruits. By Mr. T. Rivers, F.H.S., Saw-

bridgeworth 292

XXV. Notes ou Pears received in the Autumn of 1854, from M. de
Jonghe, of Brussels, and from Mr. Langelier, St. Heliers, Jersey.
By R. Thompson • . . 299

New Plants, &c. from the Society's Garden : —

1. Pinus Royleana 52

2. Nycterinia selaginoides 53

3. Liuum grandifiorum 55

New Escdlents Received in the Garden of the Society: —

1. Oxalis tuberosa 57

2. Gesnera esculeuta ........... 58

3. TropDeolum tuberosum ......... 59

4. Poireau d'6t6 petit de Brabant 60

5. Poireau jaune de Poitou ......... 60

Proceedings at Meetings op the Society from June 28, 1853, to December 5,
1S54 ..,-...... Page i. — Ixxix.

OPJGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

I. — On the Vine Mildew. By Hugo Von Mohl.*
(Second Memoir.)

T N bringing the subject of the Vine Mildew again before the public,
1 have to plead as a sufficient excuse, partly its importance,
and partly the circumstance that my former observations instituted
in September 18.5 If were restricted to the more advanced form
of the disease, whereas during the present year I have had an
opportunity of examining the malady from the first period of its
appearance, and, in consequence, of tracing more completely the
influence of the fungus upon the vine. During the last two
years, the disease was first observed, as well in the Tyrol as in Italy,
after the vines had blossomed, and the ovaries had begun to
swell. In the present year the malady appeared, if not sooner
in point of time, still at an earlier period as regards the develop-
ment of the vine, for in consequence of the cold wet unfavourable
weather the vegetation was many weeks behind that of former
years, so that at the time of writing this (on the 29th of June) all
the vines at this place are not yet out of flower. Amici wrote to rae
from Florence on the 8th of June, that vine branches were brought
to him the day before from the country, whose tendrils and un-
opened blossoms were infested with the fungus. The first
diseased vines which I met with were at Venice on the 15th of
June, on which day only a few scattered blossoms were expanded.
The vines of the Botanical Garden as well as the vineyards of
Murano exhibited the disease, though only to a small extent.
The peduncles and divisions of the blossoms, more especially,
were infested with the fungus, which existed, though in small
quantities only, on the hark at the lower end of this year's shoots,
and also on the leaves and tendrils. I had doubtless overlooked

* Translated from Bolanische Zeitung, Aug. 19, 185-3.
t See this Journal. Vol. VII. p. 132.
VOL. IX. n

PROFESSOR VON MOHL

the presence of the fungus for some days, but the mode of
cultivation of the vines in practice there, on high trellises, is even
with the help of a ladder unfavourable to constant observation.
The whole spring was unusually wet, and both immediately
before and after the appearance of the disease tlie rain fell in
torrents every day. This extreme moisture combined in June
with a rather high degree of temperature (72,5° Fahr.) was
doubtless favourable to the development of the fungus, for news
of the eruption of the malady arrived from different parts of the
continent a few days after. The malady, which had been observed
ten days previously, first occurred to me at Bozen on the 23rd
of June, already very generally diffused and in a higher state of
development than at Venice, for not only the larger discoloured
spots, covei-ed with mould, of which I have spoken in my former
memoir, appeared on the bark of the new shoots, and the leaves
were in part sensibly powdered with white dust ; but the fungus
was not rare on the young ovaries which had attained two or
three times the magnitude they had when the blossoms were
first expanded, whereas at Venice two days previously they
were still free.

Whether this early irruption of the disease is attributable to
the luiusual moisture of the present year, or whether it was
simply observed at an earlier period than last year, because
of the greater attention paid to the subject, must be left for
futui'e inquiry.

In consequence of the very great economical importance of the
cultivation of the vine in Italy, the malady has naturally engaged
during the two last years the attention of many of the best
observers in the country ; and in several places, as at Florence
and Venice, commissions have been established for its investiga-
tion. The principal point of contention to which these inquiries
have given rise, and which in a certain quarter has been carried
on with more vehemence than was quite seemly, is the question
whether the vines themselves are diseased, and the fungus is
a consequence of the disease ; or whether, on the contrary, the
vines themselves are healthy, and the disease is the consequence
of the influence of the fungus on the plants, and carried b}'
means of the parasite from one plant to another.

In my former memoir I had remarked that in consequence of
the morbid appearances connected with the presence of the
fungus being confined to the outer strata of the green coloured
organs, and in particular to the outer coat of the bark, the

ON VINE iMILDEW

vegetative powers of the vines had suffered no essential injury,
and that consequently it was to be hoped that the health of the
plants would not be impaired tlie following year, since the inner
coats of bark as well as the wood appeared sound in that respect ;
so that, in general, only such parts were injured as must
naturally perish in the course of the ensuing winter. Tliis
supposition that the general healtli of the vine had suffered
no injury has been fully established in those districts which
I have lately examined (as also appears from information trans-
mitted from every part of Italy), though they have suffered more
or less during the "two previous years, for the development of
the shoots of tliis year has been most luxuriant, and the plants
exhibit as vigorous a vegetation as can be seen anywhere. In
this respect not the least difference can be found between those
vines which havejiever suffered from the malady and those -wliich
have been its victims for one or more seasons.

My observations of this year agree also with those made in
Switzerland, in this respect, that as regards tlie physical condi-
tions of the locality, the geognostic character of the subsoil, the
dryness or moisture of the place, the exposure to different quar-
ters of the skies, &c., no definite relation could be found between
any of them and the appearance of the disease. Greater differences
of site cannot be imagined than between the vineyai'ds of Murano
which are planted in a constantly wet soil, situated but a few feet
above a subsoil saturated with sea water, and those situated in
the plains of the country from whence I write, where a channel
is formed between every two rows of vines, which are frequently
watered in summer; or again, between those on the dry southern
precipices of our steep mountains, ascending to a height of nearly
a thousand feet. Still in these different localities the vines were
in some places spared, in others, during the last year, diseased
to the total annihilation of the vintage, and all of them exhibited
during the past May and June a diseased growth. Single plants,
also, were often shown me by the proprietors which the year
before were diseased to a very high degree, but this year were
perfectly sound, and the contrary. When, as was the case in
some peculiarly damp situations, as Murano, the vines had suffered
from the influence of exuberant moisture, and their leaves had in
consequence assumed a yellow tinge, such plants were so far from
being more palpably affected by the fungus, than those which looked
perfectly sound and green, that on the contrary they were fre-
quently altogether free. These circumstances render it altogether

B 2

4 PROFESSOR VON MOHL '

improbable that the vines ai"e suffering from a general disease,
in consequence of which the local morbid phenomena and the
fungus make their appearance.

Far less are the vines affected by a local malady ; for, as is
pi'oved by the phenomena which I am about to relate, the fungus
does not appear on parts of the plant already impaired by disease,
but on the contrary on perfectly sound organs, and the disease of
the tissues begins precisely at those spots to which the fungus
adheres by especial organs of attachment. Here then the con-
nection is so clear between cause and effect, between the agency
of the fungus and the disease of the plant, that the opposite
view, which is not confirmed by a single positive fact, appears to
me to be flatly contradicted."

The only circumstance which can be adduced in favour of the
predisposition of particular vines for disease, a^d one which has
been much noticed in Italy, is that certain varieties of vine are
more subject to be attacked than others, those for instance the
skin of whose grapes is soft and the pulp juicy, while those with
a firmer skin and harder flesh are spared. This, however, may
be put aside as regards a peculiar susceptibility in the varieties
just mentioned, inasmuch as the harder grapes, in consequence
of the toughness of their tissues, present a greater resistance to
the attacks of the fungus.

Independently, however, of the question whether the grape-
disease is the consequence of a general indisposition of the vines,
one of great importance arises, viz. : whether in consequence of
the mildew the general health of the vines is impaired. This,
as said above, was not in the remotest degree the case in Italy,
but it appears from the Journals of last year, that in many more
Southern districts, as in Madeira, the vines perished. It is con-
ceivable indeed that the attack of the fungus may produce such

* This notion, that the vines are diseased only in consequence of the
attack of the fnngus, is most expressly defended in the report of the com-
mission appointed by the Venetian Institute, whose i-eporters were Prof.
Visiani and Dr. Zanardini (Rapporto della commissione norainata d.all'
I. R. Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti per lo studio della malattia
deir uva ; in den Atti dell' I. R. Istituto Veneto, &c. Tom. IV. Serie II.)
It was of immense practical importance to give currency to this view, since
the proprietors fancied that they had a remedy against the disease, in
cutting the vines down to the ground, and the consequent renovation of
the shoots, a process, however, which entailed a certain loss for some years.
The Venetian Institute therefore received with thanks my letter printed
in the Official Gazette of Venice of the 1st of June of the cvirrent year in
which I stated the accoi-dance of my views in this respect with those of
Dr. Zanardini.

ON VINE MILDEW. 5

a disease in the bark, and so derange the physiological functions
of the leaves, that the plant may for a time be prostrated, though
possibly the notion that the vine is irrecoverably lost may be prema-
ture. It is, however, difficult to judge of the matter at a distance.

I proved by experiment during the course of this year, as in
Switzerland in the preceding season, that the fungus does not
spread from the vine to any other plant. Similar fungi, indeed,
occurred commonly on other plants, as on roses, partly before
the vines exhibited any symptoms of disease, but none of these
appeai'ed to me to be identical with Oiclium Tiickeri.

As regards the connection indicated above of the fungus with
the cuticle of the green organs, and its power of producing
disease ; if clear notions on the subject are desired, we must not
choose for examination those parts which are thickly covered
with the fungus, but those in which it appears under the form of
a delicate arachnoid web, scarcely perceptible under a lens. It
is a matter of indifference, in this point of view, whether the
bark of the green branches be chosen, the tendrils, the peduncles
of the bunches, the integumeuts of the closed flower-buds, or the
young fruit of but one or two lines long, provided the leaves are
excepted.

With respect to the extension of the fungus on its first appear-
ance, it must be considered as altogether local, for it occurs in
insulated specks, which send out radiating threads from their cir-
cumference, and so becoming confluent, gradually cover, more or
less completely, the surface of the organs which are attacked.
On the branches the parasite occurs regularly on the lowest
and oldest internodes ; large spots covered with the fungus
appear on these, and, at a later period, on the intermediate inter-
nodes, while the upper internodes (as is at present universally
the case here) are altogether free. The fungus often spreads
to the ovaries from the peduncles, which are ah'eady attacked
before the blossoms expand, since the threads of the Mycelium,
a short time after the corolla falls, creep over the nectary and
involve the berries, commencing at their base. Meanwhile new
centres of development arise from which the fungous web
commences, caused probably by the oval vesicles or spores, which
are produced at a very early period of growth upon the erect
threads, and which germinate very readily and ai'e found widely
dispersed over every part of the plant, as for instance on the
ovaries soon after the fall of the blossom, and then mixed with
pollen grains.

6 PROFESSOR VON MOHL

The tlireads of the Mycelium* creep constaully iu a horizontal
direction, adhering most accurately to the cuticle. While these
are yet at a considerable distance from one another (Fig. 1) we
perceive that they are branched in a pinnate manner ; and since
these branches are repeatedly divided in the same manner, in
consequence of their crossing, the whole assumes the appearance
of a net, which in a short time loses its regularity from the in-
cursion of neiglibouring threads. They have in consequence a
tendency to adhere not only to the matrix, hut also to each other
(Fig. 3) where they cross ; so that except strong magnifying
powers be used, an appearance arises as if the branches were
far more numerous and irregular than they are in reality.

In the older portions of the threads which lie in the middle of
the fungal spots, the fructifying branches begin to show them-
selves at a very early period, springing out on their upper side
in a vertical direction, but not always perfectly rectilinear. While
the creeping threads are divided into long articulations by distant
and obscure septa, the upright threads are always distinctly jointed.
They pass from a tolerably cylindi'ical to a clavate form (Fig. 4)
showing a greater quantity of protoplasm iu the upper cells, but
especially in tlie last, Tliis at a later period swells out into an
oval form, and is separated by a distinct septum, a greater or less
number of little vacua being first formed in the protoplasm
(endochrome). During the past spring, I found almost without
e.xception, only a single oval utricle at the tip of each thread,
whereas in the autumn of 1851, two or three were generally pre-
sent, forming a little necklace. I have already remarked in my
former treatise, that the size of these fallen utricles is subject to
great variation, and must therefoi-e be used with some circum-
spection in the distinction of species.

The connection of the fungus with the matrix is, as was before
mentioned, of especial moment as regards the theory of the
disease. To make this connection clear, we must examine the

* The investigatiou of the Mycelium must be mtide with light reflected
from above, for which purpose nothing is better than Lieberkiihn's mirror.
It is self-evident that such spots must be cho.sen as are protected from
evei-y cause of injury, or otherwise the tender threads will infallibly be
damaged. It appear.s probable that this simple and obvious jn-ecaution
has been neglected by Trevisan, who asserts with much earnestness (Sulla
origine delle alterazioni clie osservansi alia superficie delle parti verdi nelle
viti affette dal bianco dei grappoli. Osservazioni di Vittore B. A. Trevisan.
Padova, Obtobre, 1852), that fungi never grow on the sound cuticle, but
always on already diseased patches.

ON A'INE MILDEW,

earliest state of the fungus on the bark of the branches and
tendrils, or on the young fruit. These organs appear after various
degrees of the evolution of the fungus, perfectly green, but for the
most part uumerous brown specks are visible on the organs
affected by the fungus even with the naked eye, but more cer-
tainly with a lens. Such specks must be chosen for examination,
for those parts which are iu a more advanced stage of decay, in
which the specks have become enlarged, are useless for this
purpose ; in consequence of which, iu my earlier investigations, in
which I had before me the later stages of disease, the relations in
question were not satisfactorily explained. Thus much is now
clearly established : amongst the youngest threads of Mycelium,
where they radiate on all sides from the margin of the spots, the
cuticle retains its normal green ; amongst the older parts of the
threads, on the contrary, little brown specks (Fig. 1 & '3,a a) are
visible. That this appearance is not accidental (for indeed the
dead and fallen hairs, for example, on the under side of the nerves,
leave little specks) is at once clear, when a part of the cuticle is
placed under the microscope, already covered with the network of
the threads of the Mycelium, for iu this case the dots occur with
the greatest regularity only beneath the threads of the fungus,
and therefore arranged after the fashion of a net. A good lens
will exhibit this phenomenon, but perfect conviction can be
obtained only by means of the compound microscope, employing
for the purpose an objective fitted with Lieberkiihns miiror and
adapted for opaque objects, since we can then see the most delicate
threads and the connection of one spot with ftnother.

If we examine the specks more accurately, which is best done
with transmitted light in extremely thin horizontal slices of the
cuticle, we perceive that the threads of the fungus have on their
under side, exactly correspoudhig with each brown speck, an
irregular lobed process, by which it is firmly attached to the
epidermis (Figs. 2 & 4, b b). Those processes which are nearest
the tips of the threads of the Mycelium are frequently as colourless
as the threads themselves, but most of them have assumed a
brown tint with which a diseased state of the epidermal cells
with which they are iu contact is constantly combined. The con-
tents of these cells become brown and contract irregularly, while
the walls themselves acquire a similar tint which is deeper in those
which are lateral. This degeneration of tlie tissue, which at first
is confined to the cells in immediate contact with the processes,
seizes at a later period also the neighbouring cells to a greater or

PllOFESSOll VON WOHL

less extent. lu this manner there arise upon the berries little
knots wliich are perfectly visible to the naked ej^e, and on the
branches the large brown spots described above.

There can be no doubt, that we have in these processes the
points from whence the parasitic fungus exercises its baneful
influence on the vine, as it is in contact with them that the
cuticle becomes diseased, inducing tlie destruction of the outer
layers of bark, and in the berries preventing the further growth
of the skin, and in consequence of the continued undisturbed
growth of the pulp, the rupture of the fruit. At the same time
the most certain proof that the disease of the vines does really
proceed from the fungus is afforded by these relations, and more
especially in the above-described series of phenomena.

I have already stated above that the leaves are not eligible for
this purpose. The processes and brown spots are not produced
on the firm cuticle of tlie upper surface of the leaves, nor have I
found them in the interstices of the veins of the under side, but
only upon the cuticle of the veins themselves, where, however,
their examination is very difl&cult, in consequence of the thickset
hairs with which the veins are clothed. Connected possibly with
this protection against the attacks of the fungus, which the
parenchym of the leaves enjoys, is the fact, that the grow'th of the
leaves, even when thickly coated with fungus, is not impaired ; the
parenchym of the leaf does not become brown like the outer strata
of bark, and the nourishment of the plant, at least according to
the investigations recorded above, seems to remain normal.

The first discoverer of these processes was Dr. Zanardini, at
Venice, who on the 19th of July, 1851, made a communication
respecting them to the Venetian Institute, and gave them the
name oi fulcra. I cannot, however, agree in many respects with
the description which is given of them with reference to the obsei*-
vations of Prof. Visiani, in the above-mentioned report of the
Venetian commission. Visiani believes that he has discovered
that they penetrate into the epidermal tissue after the fashion of
roots. This I have never been able to establish, but I find, on the
contrary, the cuticle perfectly entire (as Amici asserts, who, how-
ever, appears not to have recognised these organs), and the pro-
cesses themselves attached only superficially and in many cases
even separable together with the threads of the Mycelium (Figs. 4.
b b) without injury. In a second point again I cannot contirm the
observations of Visiani. He asserts, that at the place where the
processes spring from the underside of the threads, from two to

ON VINE MILDEW.

Various states ol Uic Vino MiUluw,

10 ON VI NK iMlLOEW.

four branches are given off in a radiating manner, like runners,
wliich in tui'n develop new processes and a similar ramification ;
so that in this way the reticulate mode of branching and the quick
development of the Mycelium is connected with that of the
processes. A glance at Figs. 1, 3 proves that the mode of ramifica-
tion is very different, observing a different law, and in no degree
connected with the situation of the processes.

That the extension of the fungus during summer (independent
of the immediate growth of the Mycelium) is ascribable to the
dispersion and subsequent ready germination of the oval utricles,
seems beyond all doubt. On the contrary, I was unable to dis-
cover where they are deposited through the winter, in what con-
dition they are, and how the first development of the plant takes
place in spring. One would imagine a priori, that they pass the
winter on the bark of the last year's shoots, or more especially on
the buds, and so when they expand are ready to germinate on
the young branches. I have, however, no express observations
on these points; only thus much is certain, that, as was before
remarked, the disease commences on the inferior internodes.
Whether the spores retain their form, or it is the already de-
veloped Mycelium which endures the severity of winter, is a point
worthy of further investigation. In this respect the new fruit
discovered by Amici is of the highest importance. He found,
in October, 1851, that individuals of the oval utricles of Oidium
Tuckeri enlarge, assume a yellow tint, acquire a cellular structure,
and contain hundreds of extremely small elliptic somewhat curved
spores, furnished with a little nucleus at either extremity. It is
possible that these spores, developed late in the autumn, live
through the winter, and in the following spring give rise to the
new invasion of the fungus. The investigation of this matter is
attended with no little difficulty on account of the extreme
smallness of the spores. In September, 1851, I did not find this
form of fruit in Switzerland, whether in consequence of the season
not being sufficiently advanced, or that it is produced only in
southern climes, points which must be decided by fresh observa-
tions. Cesati found similar fruit in Piedmont, on Oidium Tuckeri,
and I have just seen it in Bozen on an allied species, on tlie leaves
of hops, whereas Amici was led to its discovery in the vine, from
the investigation of an Oidium on the common gourd with the
same kind of fruit. Should further investigation afford any key
to this difficulty, I shall not fail to return to the subject.

Bozen, June 2Qlh, 1853.

THE GENUS HEDYCHIQM. 11

II. — Some Account of the Genus Hedychium. By X. Wallich,
M.D., F.R S., Knight Coinmandei' of the Royal Danish
Order of Daunebrog.

(Repi-inted from the London Journal of Botany, by permission of
Sir Wm. Hooker ; with a few alterations by the author.)

The genus Hedychium is exchisively East Iiadian, consisting
mostly of exquisitely beautiful and sweetly fragrant plants, which
flower in profusion during many months of the year, and espe-
cially during the wet season. They delight in moist and shady
mountain valleys, from China, where Rumphius was told they
grew wild, and the ]\Ialay islands and peninsula, where the first
species was discovered by that inimitable observer, and others
were afterwards added; to 30° north lat. in Western Hindustan,
where they are found at Mussuri and on the Suen Range, accord-
ing to Royle. In the intermediate countries they are met with
on the coast of Teuasserim, on the banks of the Irawaddy, in
Assam, very profusely on the Kasia (or Kasiya) and Kachar
ranges,* in Sikkim, and in Xipal ; less numerously in Kamaon:
also in Malabar and on the Xilgirries. Beyond their ornamental,
horticultural uses, for which they are eminently qualified, being
scarcely exceeded by any of our garden and stove favourites, I
am not aware of their possessing any marked medicinal or other
virtues. Dr, Royle mentions, in his Natural History of the
Himalayan Mountains, p. 385 — a rich treasure, not to be
met with elsewhere, of useful and important infoiination,
and of curious and successful research in matters of history
and literature connected with his subject — that a warm
aromatic root, called Seer, Suttee, and Kupoor-kuchree, in
the bazaars of Northern India, is produed by H. spicatum,
the Sidhuoul of Mussuri, and that it may perhaps be the
Sitta ritte mentioned under the Lesser Galangal, by Sir W.
Ainslie.f Rumphius, as well as Valentyn (probably from the

* This is the correct mode of .spelling those names, accoi'ding to the
high authority of the Boden professor of Sanscrita at Oxford, Mr. H. H.
Wilson. The first is derived from the Sanscrita Kasa, being the tall wild
Sugar-reed (Saccharum spontaneum), so common on the jilains and lower
hills of Hindustan. The second name cannot be reduced to any Sanscrita
word; Kachar is Hindi, and implies land lying along rivers, liable to inun-
dation, and of easy irrigation.

t Dr. O'Shaughnessy's Bengal Dispensatory, p, 652, quotes this obs^erva-
tion from the above work. In a memoir just published by Professor

12 DR. WALLICH

former) informs us, that the flowers of H. coronarium are worn
by the Malays behind the ears, or as garlands among the hair,
for ornament, and that they will perfume a whole room with their
fragrance ; further, that it is stated in some Malay grammar, that
they are used symbolically to denote great promise, by their
ample spread aiid beauty, but equal inconstancy by their deli-
cate and quickly evanescent texture. Both those 'authors give
GandasuU or Suli, as the Malay name of that species. Ac-
cording to Mr. Hasskarl, all the Malayan species have that
name. The distinguished traveller and author, Mr. J. Crawfurd,
informs me that, in the Malay language, Ganda (as does
its Sanscrita primitive) denotes smell or odour; and Suli, a
corruption of Suri, in Javanese, a " woman of rank, a
queen : " the entire word meaning Queen's perfume (see also
his recent, most valuable Dictionary of the Malay language).
In Nipal all the species are called by the general term
Lutisa-soa (the last term meaning flower in the Parbuttea
language).

In his splendid work onMonandrian Plants, Mr. Roscoe notices
a very old remark of mine, that no plants are more subject to
changes than those belonging to our genus. This applies equally
to their wild and cultivated state, and is a constant source of
trouble and perplexity to those who wish to study them in their
native places of growth, or in gardens; and the dried specimens
are still more difficultly examined, owing to the delicate fabric of
the flowers, and generally (though not always) to their colours
being lost. A good many species have in consequence been
enumerated and described, which have no reality, and are some-
times not even entitled to the subordinate rank of varieties, so
that my present humble attempt has consisted chiefly in reducing,
under the banners of a moderate series of species, what preceding
authors, myself notably included, had, as I now thhik, needlessly
and unwarrantably multiplied. In proof I may mention, that I
have myself been often deceived by the freaks and versatility of
form and colours in these lovely flowers, and even the stature and
Avhole appearance of the plants I had before me, and have had

Theodor Martius, on a series of duplicate specimens of drugs from the
Indian Department of the late Exhibition, presented to the University of
Erlangen by the East India Company, mentions " radix Hedychii spicati."
No native names are given; but the drug is assimilated to Zedoary, and
somewhat to " radix Martelli " of commerce. Die ostindisclte Rohicuaren-
^amviluur/, p. i).

ox THE GENUS HEDYCHIUM. 13

successive drawings made of them, imagiuing that they were spe-
cifically distinct, whereas they were in reality one and the same
plant, only arrayed in various fancy guises. Now, all this may
110 doubt be ascribed to my own want of discernment. I am
consoled however by finding, that the immortal Roseoe has been
similarly misled in many instances; and my friend Dr. Hooker
has also several varieties among the exquisite sketches of Hedy-
chium, made by him on the spot. Few species only admit of
being somewhat rigorously defined ; the rest slide suddenly, or by
gradations, into each other, so as to elude all endeavours to fix
them with any sort of botanical precision. The fact is that, like
other very natural gi'oups, ours point-blank refuses to disclose the
exact limitations of its members, and leaves the systeraatising
botanist to grope his way through the maze as best he may.
Probably there exist in reality but a very limited number of
distinct species ; the problem to be solved being, \\hich are those
species? Botanically speaking, the genus may be called poor, —
such, at least, I believe it will be pronounced hereafter; jillhough
to the horticulturist and florist it is exceedingly rich, abounding
in transient forms, shades, and varieties. Tn the meantime I
have followed the beaten track, leaving the subject to be taken up
by abler hands than mine, who may have favourable opportunities
for studying it. I attribute the cause of the great variableness
alluded to, to the facilities of multiplication by the rhizomas or
roots, and of propagation by the ordinary means of seeds, wliich
the plants produce not unsparingly ; and also perhaps to the
natural intermixture of varieties of the same species. Thus far
only can I admit of any cross-breeding (if indeed it can be so
called) taking place in that part of the globe, where most of my
years have been spent. Amidst the natural facilities — I had
almost said inducements — which the amazing luxuriance of an
Indian vegetation frequently offers for the production of mule
breeds, scores of genera crowding their species together into a
narrow area of only a few square yards, their pollen transported
by winds, animals, and other means, among the hundreds of
vegetable occupants : never have I seen a single instance of a
hybrid plant. For the validity of this assertion I appeal, without
hesitation, to ray brother labourers in the field of Indian botany.
There, at least, nature repudiates divei'sifying her creation by
means which would violate the sanctity of the process of
fecundation. I can imagine that two plants, specifically different
soisu hotanico, may mix together and produce a third, similarly

It OH. AVALMfH

constituted species ; but in tliat case 1 should very strongly
suspect, tliat all three formed in reality only one truly natural
species. Indeed, the appearance of such a mule-like plant would
argue to me, that there was lurking a false species somewhere or
other in the genus. I crave forgiveness for this little digression;
it is made with hearty and profound deference to those names,
whicli support a contrary opinion on the subject.

If I have failed in my endeavours to clear the way for future
inquirers, it has certainly not been for want of opportunities while
I was in India, or of means of verifving species during the latter
five or six weeks — such as are not often enjoyed, and for which I
feel deeply grateful. I have been permitted to borrow, first, the
whole series of specimens in the East India Company's and Sir
J. E. Smith's herbarium in the possession of the Linnean Society;
secondly, the entire series in the matchless herbarium of Sir W.
Hooker ; tliirdly, the noble collection both in extent and pre-
servation (many specimens nearly as beautiful as in their fresh
state ! ) formed by Dr. Hooker in Sikkim, and conjointly by him
and Dr. Thomas Thomson on the Kasia liills, accompanied by all
the drawings of the genus made by the former in both countries ;
fourthly, a number of beautiful sketches made for the late Mr.
J. F. Cathcart, during his visit to Sikkim, by Luchmum Sing,
an exceedingly clever Hindu painter formerly attached to the
Calcutta Botanic Garden ; fifthly, Dr. Thomson's small collection
of species found in the north-west mountains of Hindustan ;
sixthly, all the specimens in Dr. Lindley's herbarium ; and
seventhly, two-and-twenty drawings belonging to the IMuseum of
the Hon. East India Company (three presented by Dr. Hamilton,
one by Dr. Wight, and eighteen by myself). I have further had
the freest possible access to the specimens in the Banksian
Herbarium (salve magnum nomen !) and those in Dr. Horsfield's
collection, likewise preserved at the British Museum ; and lastly,
my friend and successor Di*. Falconer has, with the utmost
readiness, furnished me with a copy of my entry of the genus in
the manuscript Catalogue of the Calcutta Garden.

I have considered it my duty to refer to and quote, though not
according to strict priority, all the authorities to which I had
access, not wittingly omitting any, though some might perhaps
have been dispensed with, as affording only repetitions of specific
characters ; and in regard to such, I have not troubled myself or
others with the mention of excludenda synonyma. My reason for
citing the numbers in the Catalogue of the Indian Herbarium,

ON THE GENUS HEDYCHIUM. 15

and the Company's drawings, is that otliers may be able to refer
to and consult them if they wish it ; but I have not thought it at
all necessary to copy the names of collectors from the former.

HEDYCHIUM.
A. Coronarid). Spica plus minus arete imbricata.

1. H. coronarium ; foliis oblongo-ellipticis subtus pilosulis, brac-
teis ovatis, infimis aliquando apice foliaceo-expansis, tubo
corollae serai-exserto, laciniis interioribus lanceolatis vel ovatis,
labello latissimo subquadrato obtuse bilobo subsossili, stamen
pauUo superante.
H. coronarium, Koen. in, Retz. Obs. Fasc. iii. p. 73. Roxb.
in Asiat. Research, xi. p. 325. Ej. Fl. Lid. ed. Carey, i. p. 9.
Exot. Bot. ii. p. 95. t. 107. Bot. Mag xix. t. 708. Rose, in
Linn. Trans, viii. p. 343. t. 20. f. 6. Ej. Monandr. PL n. 51=^
Wight, Icon. vi. p. 17. t. 2010. H. spicatum, Bot. Cab. vii.
t. 653. — Gandasulium, Rumph. Amh. v. p. 175. t. 69. f. 3.
/3. floribus lutescentibus.
H. Havescens, Carey apud Uosc he. cit. n. 50. Bot. Cab. viii.
t. 723. Wight, J. c. p. 17. t. 2008, 9. Bot. Mag. t. 2371
exclus. synon.

H. chi-ysoleucum, Bot. Mag. t. 4516. Lindl. et Pa.rt. Flow.
Gard. i. p. 110, t. 77.

H. coronarium, Bot. Cab. vi. t. 507.

y. floribus intense luteis.
H. urophyllum, Bot. Cab. xviii. t. 1785.

h. statura floribusque ma.ximis.
H. maximum, Rose. I. c. n. 52.

e. foliis angustis, spicis abbreviatis, Bhime.
C foliis infra sericeis. Blame.
Wild in many parts of the East Indies in moist shady situ-
ations on mountains, or in rich grassy plains, and producing a
constant succession of fl.owers from May until October. Tlie
normal form, -with pure ■white flowers scarcely tinged yellow at
the centre, seems to belong exclusively to the Malay Archipelago,
and perhaps to the islands and countries still more to the east-
ward ; and is that which is most commonly found in tlie gardens
throughout Hindostan, being a great favourite with all classes of

* As neither the pages nor the plates of Eoscoe's Monandrian Plant.s
are numbered, I give the numbers in the synoptical table prefixed to the
Wiirk, being from 47 to 63 inclusive, and belonging to seventeen species.

16 DK. WALLICH

natives, as well as Europeans. It deserves to be noticed that
another white flower, still more universally cultivated and equally
fragrant, the Gardenia florida, is called Gandaraja (the King's or
regal perfume) in Sanscrita, as our plant, as we have mentioned
already, is denominated Queen's perfume. Variety j3 in Nipal ;
Simla, Thomson ; Qxlikim, Jos. Hooker ; Kasia, Hooker, Thomson,
and Griffith ; Hills in or near Assam, Mrs. Mack and Griffith ;
Dindygul, Wight; Concau, Law; Ceylon, Walker: Tavoy and
Mergui, Griffith and Gomez ; Malacca, Blame ; Cochiu-China?
Finlayson; y Kasia, Hooker and Thomson; 8 Nipal ; Sikkim,
Hooker ; e Province of Bantam in Java, Blume ; ^ Province of
Cheriban, Java, Idem.

Roxburgh observes very justly in his Flora Indica, that H.
coronarium is a most charming plant, throwing out a profusion of
large, beautiful, and fragrant flowers during many months of the
year; that is, throughout the rainy season. This remark applies
more or less to the whole genus, the plurality of its members
being exceedingly handsome and sweetly perfumed ; some to a
still greater degree even than our present species. What I be-
lieve to be the type of the species, having almost pure-white
flowers, with a pale yellow tinge towards the throat, does not grow
wild in Nipal; at least I never found it there; but it is much
cultivated in the gardens of Bengal, where it is a common prac-
tice to pull out the flowers from the spike as they open in
succession, which they will continue doing for weeks together,
and putting them in water or wearing them as ornaments.

2. H. flavum ; foliis oblongis glabris, bracteis ovatis, tubo corolla

plus dimidio exserto, laciniis exterioribus anguste linearibus,

iiiterioribus oblongis cuneatis, stamine labellum subrhoraboi-

deum bilobum acutiusculum subaequante vel paullo superante.

H. flavum, Boxh. Fl. Lul. i. p. 8. Wall. Cat. Herb. n. 0542.

Bat. Cab. vh. t. 004. Bosc.Mon. PI. n. 4S. Bot. Mar/, t. 3039.

Wild on the Kasia Mountains, Boxhurgh.

As far as I know, this is a good species, and entirely confined

to the range named above ; nor have I seen it vary. It is smaller

than H. coronarium : the flowers decidedly so. The filament is

mostly a little shorter than the lip, sometimes slightly longer.

The specific name correctly indicates the colour of the flower.

3. H. elliptimtm ; foliis ellipticis, spica fastigiata, bracteis laxiuscule

imbricantibus, corolljE tubo dimidio exserto, limbi interioris.

ON THE GENUS HEDYCHIUM. 17

exteriore augustissimo brevioris, laciniis cuneatis, stamine
labellum lanceolatum acute bifidum bis superaute.

H. ellipticum, Hamilt. in Rces. Cycl. xvii. n. 2. B.osc. Mon.
PL n. 55. Bot. Cab. xix. t. 1881.

Wild in Nipal ; the Mountains of the Province of Kamoon
at an elevation of 3000 to 4000 feet, Strachey and Winterhottom ;
Sikkim, at 4000 to 5000 feet, Hooker; Kasia, Hooker and Thomson.

Tlie spike is remarkably fastigiate, even before the expansion
of the flowers, which are white with orange-coloured stamen ; or
yellowish, always so in their declining stage. The species is
among the less common in Nipal.

4. H. thyrsiforine ; foliis ellipticis lucidis subtus vaginisque

pilosulis, spica subelongata squarrosa bracteis cylindraceo-con-
volutis recurvis valde approximatis, tubo corollse tertia ^arte
exserto, limbi interioris, exteriore angustissimo brevioris,
laciniis lineari-cuueatis, stamine labellum ovale acute bifidum,
nuuc fere indivisum bis superante.
H. thyrsiforme, Hamilt. I. c. n. 4. Rose. Mon. PI. n. 56.
H. heteromallum, Bot. Reg. ix. t. 767.
Wild in Nipal ; Sikkim, Hooker and Catkcart.
Like the preceding, this is a very distinct species (ah, si sic
omnes !), and is readily knovvn in all the stages of the inflorescence
by the closely approximated, cylindrically convolute or piped, and
gently recurved bracts. The flowers are white throughout. It is
very common in Nipal.

B. Spicata. Spica elongata. Bractese distantes, patulae.

5. H. spicatum ; foliis lato-lanceolatis, bracteis planis vel leviter

convolutis tubo dimidio brevioribus, limbi laciniis linearibus

stamineque labello ovato obtuse bilobo breve unguiculato

brevioribus, interioribus latioribus.

H. spicatum, Hamilt. I. c. n. 3. Roijle, Nat. Hist. Himal. p.

357 et 358. Bot. Mag. xlix. t. 2300. Hook. Exot. Fl. i. t. 46.

B,osc. I. c. n. 48.

/3. trilohuw ; spica pauciflora, bracteis convolutis unifloris,
lobulo brevi cuspidate in sinu labelli.
H. trilobum, Wall. Cat. n. 6554.

y. acuminatum ; bracteis convolutis subunifloris, labelli
lanceolati lobis acuminatis.

H. acuminatum, Piosc. I. c. n. 47, Bot. Mag. Ivii. t, 2969.
Bot. Cab. xviii.'t. 1795.

VOL. IX. C

18 DR. WALLICH

Wild in Nipal, growing everywhere both on hills and valle^-s ;
Kamoon ; Chalk Rocks of Mussooree, lioyle and Thomson ; the
Suen range in 30° N.L., at an elevation of — 7000 feet. Boyle ;
Sikkim, at 5000 feet, Hooker; Kasia, Hooker, Thomson, and
Cathcart. The varieties are seemingly found in all these places
indifferently.

This is tlie commonest Hedychium in Nipal, where it blossoms
during six months of the year. The flowers are white ; in var.
y yellowish, with orange claw and stamen. ^ was originally
introduced into the Calcutta Garden in 1817, by the Hon. E.
Gardner, and afterwards observed by me in the great valley of
Nipal, but sparingly.

6. H. veniistum ; foliis lanceolatis, spica nutante, bracteis subcon-

^volutis unifloris, laciniis limbi linearibus, labello lanceolato
acute bifido stamen superante, capsulis villosis.

H. venustum, Wight Ic. vi. p. 17. t. 2012.

H. cernuum, Wight, ibid, t 2011.

Wild in Coorg? Wight; Nilgerries, Id. and Haniayne.

The authority of Dr. Wight as a systematic botanist is far too
grave to be easily set aside on any occasion ; but on the present I
venture to differ from ray friend, by uniting his two species into
one. I place comparatively little value on the form of leaves or
petioles in this genus ; and the floral leaf is often seen long-
petioled, in cases even, where they are ordinarily almost sessile.
The perfectly drooping spike is characteristic, as also, as far as I
know, the villous capsules. I believe I had the species very
many years ago, from Archdeacon Hawtayne, and it was entered
into the Calcutta Garden catalogue for H. acuminatum. I
omitted to take notice of the particular direction of the spike.

7. H. viUosum. ; foliis lanceolatis breviter petiolatis, spica elongata

densiflora, bracteis 1—3-floris, calyce tuboque dimidio exserto

villosis, laciniis limbi linearibus labelloque oblongo bilobo

stamine dimidio brevioribus, anthera minuta sagittata.

H. villosum. Wall, in Ro.rh. Fl. Ind. i. p. 12. Rose. I. c. n. 56.

Wild in Nipal ; Kasia, Old Collectors, and besides, Griffith,

Hooker, and Thomson; Hills in Assam, Mrs. Mack.

The very minute sagittate anthers is a permanent character,
which at once distinguishes the species from all others. The
spike is long and cylindric; or oval, with flowers altogether
larger. This latter state is well represented in Eoscoe s figure ;

ON THE GENUS HEDYCHIUM. 19

the former I liad drawn and engraved many years ago, as men-
tioned by that author. They differ not even as varieties I believe.

8. TL.rjracile ; glahrum, omnibus partibus minutissime glanduloso-

punctatum, foliis ovato-lanceolatis acuminatis, bracteis binis

convolutis unifloris tubo parum brevioribus, laciniis limbi

lobisque labelli iere bipartiti linearibus, stamine valfle

ponecto.

H. gracile, Pi.oxh. Corom. Plants, iii. p. 48, t "^ol, fig. infer.

dextra (folium tantum flosque dissectus). Flor. hid. i. p. \2 (c.

nota Care\'i).

H. glaucum, Eosc. Mon. PL n. 3.

Wild in the Sikkim Himalaya, Hooker and Cathcart ; Kasia,
Collectors ; also Zl/rs. Mack and Griffith.

All the parts of the plant, leaves, bracts, calyx, and corolla,
even the filament, are marked with copious minute, globular,
brown, and semi-pellucid glandular dots, visible only under the
microscope, more particularly the parts of the flower. This
punctuation exists in a greater or less degree in most if not all
the species. I have before me a lai'ge number of specimens in
all stages, particularly those collected by Drs. Hooker and Thom-
son ; which, although differing apparently among themselves, I
am unable to distinguish even as varieties. Roxburgh's original
plant seems to have been smaller than what is usual. The
Howers are white or cream-coloured, with a long red stamen. In
many of the specimens the spike is slightly nodding, rather it is
ascending on a somewhat declined or decumbent stem ; an
appearance which has no value as a specific character, and which
occurs veiy often, especially where the inflorescence is large and
heavy.

0. H. deusiflonnn ; glabrum, foliis ellipticis, bracteis unifloris,
laciniis limbi interioribus cuneiformibus, labelli subsessilis
ovato-lanceolati bifidi lobis acutis, stamine sequante, anthera
carnosa dorso convexa.
H. densiflorura, Wall. Cat. Herb. n. 65.59.
Only FOUND on Mount Shivapura in Nipal, and in Sikkira at
an elevation of 5 — 6000 feet by Dr. Hooker.

I am not quite confident that this is in reality distinct from
H. gracile, as a species. The latter, however, has never been
found either in Nipal, or on the mountains to the westward of it.
The flowers ai'e orange-coloured throughout.

c 2

20 DIJ. WALLICH

1(1. H. Gomeziaimm ; glabrum, glanduloso-punctulatum, foliis
lanceolatis nunc supra glanduloso-lineolatis, bracteis approxi-
niatis gemiiiatis unifloris, cal3'ce tiiboque exsertis, laciiiiis
lirabi exterioribus angustissime linearibus interiores super-
antibus, labello cuneato bilobo, stamine longissimo.
H. Gomezianum, Wall. Cat. Herb. n. 6543.
Wild in Tavoy and Mergui, growing on trees, Gomez and
Griffith.

Both Mr. Griffith and Mr. Gomez found this plant growing on
trees. Dr. Hoolcer has occasionally seen some species in this sort
of locality ; Dr. Blame gives it to two of his species, and I have
myself at times found decidedly terrestrial species growing both
on trees and I'ocks. Still it is possible that our species may be
really epiphytal. The spike seems to be slightly recurved or
nodding, and the flowers ascending or one-sided; which appear-
ance, if permanent, might be added to the specific character.
According to Mr. Griffith the outer limb of the corolla is green,
the inner white, and the stamen red or orange-coloured.

}l. H. Griffithianiim ; foliis lanceolatis acuminatissimis punctis
creberrimis linearibus inasqualibus parallelis obsitis, subtus
pilosis, bracteis gerainatis remotiusculis unifloris calyce
duplo vel triplo brevioribus, tubo valde exserto, limbi laciniis
elongatis linearibus labelloque lanceolato bilobo deorsura
longe attenuatis.
Wild in Kasia, Griffith.

There is a single specimen of this very remarkable plant in the
herbaria of Sir Wm. Hooker and Prof. Lindley. The nearest
affinity is certainly with the immediately preceding species
(H. Gomezianum), of which I can imagine it possible that it may
hereafter prove only a variety. Can a mistake have occurred in
regard to the label, and that Kasia was written instead of Mergui ?
The crowded longitudinal, unequal, parallel glandular lines on the
leaves, especially on the upper surface, are visible even to the
naked eye. On the lower surface there is a number of long grey,
easily separable hairs, which are decumbent, and deceptively accrete
within their base. Further, the very long calyx and still longer
tulie, and the exceedingly slender divisions of the limb, all dotted
with globular glands, seem to point at a decided specific distinction.

12. H. Gardnerianiim ; foliis ellipticis subtus imprimis spica
intense furfuraceo-glaucis, bracteis convolutis 1 — 2-floris,

ON THE GENUS HEDYCHIUM. 21

labello ovali subsessili integro vel bidentato, nunc subor-
biculato, stamine longissime porrecto.

H. Gardneriauum, Wall. Ic. Bot. Reg. ix. n. 774 A et B.
Piosc. Monand. PL n. Q'2.

H. speciosum, Wall, in Pioxh. Ltd. i. p. 13. PI. Asiat. Ear.
iii. p. 51. tab. 285.

/3. labello suborbiculato unguiculato integro vel bilobo. —
Wall, et Cathcart, Ic. pict.

y. labello subquadrato bilobo unguiculato.

H. Roscoei, Wallich.

H. aurantiacum, Wall. Cat. Herb. 6551.

Wild on mountains, Sikkim, at 6000 feet elevation, Dr.
Hooker; and Kasia, Mrs. Mack and Mr. Griffith. Var. /3 in
Sikkim ; var. y in Nipal.

This is the queen of the genus, if not of the whole order, both
as regards the general aspect, the stature and foliage, and the
exquisite elegance as well as fragrance of the ample inflorescence.
While I write this, several large patches of the typical form are
in full bloom at the Horticultural Society's Garden at Chiswick,
thriving luxuriantly in the open border of the iron conservatory,
without any extraordinary supply of water, and last year I saw
them in equal perfection. The Hon. W. F. Strang ways also
states that the species has lived out of doors in Dorsetshire for
three years, and flowers. What can be the reason that a plant
so charming and desirable as this, is not more frequently seen in
the stoves of the great and wealtliy ? Surely there exists not an
Orchidea which exceeds it in any respect, especially in facility of
cultivation. I regret to say the figure in my " Plantae Asiaticae
Rariores " does by no means justice to the plant, the original
drawing having been taken from the first specimen sent down to
me by post, from the Kasia range, by the late Mr. M. R. Smith,
nearly forty years ago. The magnificent series of specimens,
even as to colour, preserved by Drs. Hooker and Thomson, with
the fine drawings of the former and the excellent figure in Roscoe's
work, prove that my H. speciosum and my H. Gardnerianum are
identically one and the same species. I retain the latter name,
being that of a very valued and honoured friend, who, himself
ardently attached to flowers and gardening, has done a great deal
of service to the cause of botany in its most extended sense.
During a number of years in which the Hon. Edward Gardner
(son of the late distinguished Admiral Lord Gardner) lived in
Nipal, as the Hon. East India Company's resident at the Court

■Z:l Dli. WALLICH

of Katmandu, he contributed greatly to the riclies of the Botanic
Garden of Calcutta, and through it to the gardens and herbariums
of England. It was through his local intluence, and afterwards
also of the late Mr. Robert Stuart's, the officiating resident," that
1 was permitted to send permanent collecting parties into that
country, where they enjoyed his unceasing support and encourage-
ment; and afterwards to visit it myself during a whole year,
which I spent under his friendly and hospitable roof.f Would
that the cause of Natural History could boast many such
Maecenases in India and everywhere else! — The plant varies
strikingly in the shape and size of the labellum, as also in the
general colour of the flower, which from a bright yellow
becomes pale, or changes into white with a pinkish centre
in j3 (the only instance in our genus of that colour, with which
I am acquainted), according to Mr. Cathcart's drawing. It is
orange in y. I have only given the above-mentioned varieties,
as an abstract of the manifold changes to which this noble species
is liable.

13. H. Sieholdii ; foliis ellipticis subtus, bracteis convolutis
reraotiusculis multifloris, calyceque ferrugineo-villosis, laciniis
limbi interioribus unguiculatis acuminatis, labello bipartite
lobis semiovatis staminis dimidium subsequante.

H. flavescens, Lindl. in Hort. Soc. Juurii. vii. p. '^81. Paxt.
Flow. Gard. iii. p. 164. n. 648. f. 311.

H. Roxburghii, Siehold in Hort. Soc. Journ. I. c.

Native country doubtful, perhaps Japan.

There is a beautiful specimen of this noble plant in Dr. Lindley's
Herbarium, from the Horticultural Society's Garden at Chiswick.
Although allied to H. Gardnerianum, it seems quite distinct;
nor can I refer it to any other species. In the Society's Journal,
H. flavescens is cited for it without hesitation, although quite
different, as I think, in wanting the compact spike, the short
stamen, etc. of that species ; and from my H. villosum, with

* See my note to Primula Stuartii, Roxb. Flor. Ind. ii. p. 20.

+ lu 1820 I had the satisfaction to dedicate a very reuuirkablp genus of
plants to that distinguished benefactor of Indian Botany, whicli was first
published in Roxburgh's Fl. Ind. i. p. 400, and ii. p. 317 and 318. In this
second volume, as well as in my I'lantaj Asiatica; Rariores and the Catalogue
of the East Indian Herbarium, the correct name of Gardnera is given
(instead of Gardnei-ia). Endlicher has even established a suborder of
Gardnerepc, and in fact I long before him suggested that name for the
entire natural order to which the genus belongs.

ON THE GENUS HEDYCHIUM. 23

which it is likewise compared, it diifers, among other poiuts, by
having the long linear anther usual in the genus. The tlower is
said to be of a pale yellow colour, with a bright orange-coloured
filament, and emitting a spicy fragrance.

14:. H. anifustifoliuui ; foliis approximates bifariis oblongis basi
rotundatis ; spica sexfaria, bracteis ternatim verticillatis
."3 — 4-floris ; labello longe unguiculato profunde bilobo obtuso,
stamine valde porrecto.

H. angustifolium, Roxh. Fl. Iiul. i. p. 1 I et &2 (uota Wall.);
Bot. Rey. t. 157 {excl. syn. H. coccinei). Bot. Maij. t. 2078
(excl. eod. syn.).

H. aurantiacum, Rose. Mon. Fl. u. (51.

H. coccineum, Bot. Cab. viii. n. 705.

Wild in Kasia, Griffith, Hooker, and Thonson ; Gualpora,
F. Thunilton ; Upper Assam, Griffith and Mrs. Mack ; Sikkim and
the low forest tract called Turraye, bordering on that country,
Hooker ; Chittagong, Ceylou ? Mrs. General Walker.

The species, as far as I know, is confined to the eastern part
of Hindustan ; 1 never saw it in Nipal, nor had it from the west-
ward. The leaves are rigidly bifarious, not glaucous ; their base
obtuse and rounded, and the sides bent down. The spike is
sexfarious, owing to the flowers, disposed in whorls of threes,
legularly alternating with each other ; which is peculiarly
conspicuous before their expansion. With exception of the
colour, Roscoe's figure of H. aurantiacum, which I have quoted,
is a perfect representation of our species. I quite agree in the
remark of that author (under his H. angustifolium, which, however,
I have expressly omitted quoting,) that the figure in Roxburgh's
Coromandel Plants belongs to H. coccineum, while the description
is that of H. angustifolium, it being Roxburgh's own species. I had
long before come to the same conclusion in regard to his original
drawing, preserved at the Calcutta Garden. No botanical author
was ever more conscientiously accurate or trustworthy than
Roxburgh ; but in this instance an error seems to have crept in,
which 1 attribute to his painter having drawn a plant, raised from
seeds or rhizomas sent down by Dr. Hamilton from Nipal,
where H. angustifolium does not grow, but histead of it, the nearly
allied if not identical H. coccineum.

15. H. coccineum, ; foliis ensiformibus basi acutiusculis spicaque
glaucis, nuncpube parca subtus conspersis, bracteis 3 — 6-fioris,

24 1)K. AVALLICH

laciiiiis limbi interioris cultriforuiibus, labello ovato bilobo
acutiusculo ungue brevi, stamine porrecto.

H. cocciueum, Ilamilt. in Cud. Bees. ii. 5. lioyle, Nat. Hist.
Himal. p. 357. Wall, apud Roxb. in Fl. Ind. i. p. 83. Bot.
Reg. t. 1209. Rose. Mon. PI. n. 58 {exclus. syn. H. augustifolii,
Roxb. Coram, quod ad descriptionem).

H. longifolium, Rose. I. c. n. 59.

H. angustifolium, Fioxb. Corom. PL iii. tab. 251 {exclus.
descr.).

H. carneum, Rose. I. c. n. 57 {non Careyi). Bot. Cab. t.
693.

^. floribus carneis nunc fere albis, labello plicato subinfundi-

buliforrai, statura proceriore.

H. elatum, Broim in Bot. Rcy. t. 520. Bot. Cab. t. 850.
Rose. I. c. n. 63.

H. carneum, Bot. Marj. t. 2037.

H. stenopetalum, Bot. Cab. t. 1902.

Wild in Nipal ; Kamoon, at an elevation of 5000 feet, Messrs.
Straehey and Winterlottom ; Sikkim, Hooker and Cathcurt. Var.
ft in Nipal and Kamoon. Probably also on mountains near Ava.

I believe it to be impossible to discriminate between Hamilton's
H. coccineum and Roxburgh's H. angustifolium, except in their
fresh state ; and after all, they may possibly be one and the same
species. The former is a taller glaucous plant, with leaves
generally tapering from their pointed base into an acuminate apex ;
they are less rigidly bifarious and the spike less sexfarious than in
the latter. — H. elatum, carneum, and stenopetalum, are only
varieties of H. coccineum, and I have accordingly united them
under /3. Roscoe's and Loddiges' H. carneum seems rather to
come under the normal foi-m.

16. H. Hasseltii ; foliis lanceolatis acuminatis glabris, spica
elongata patente laxe imbricata, spathis obtusis sericeis,
fasciculis solitariis 2 — 3-floris, tubo corollae limbo triplo
longiore, laciniis subsequalibus lineari-lanceolatis, labelli
2-partiti segmentis falcato-lanceolatis obtuse acuminatis.
— Blume.
H. Hasseltii, Blume, E>n(m. Plant. Java', i. p. 56.
Wild in the woods of Western Java, on trees and on
Mount Prahu.

Dr. Horsfield's specimens in the Banksian Herbarium seem to
be either this or the next following species (H. intermedium,

ON THE GENUS HEDYCHIUM. 25

Bluine). The Javanese name of the plant is Sinipol, and the
flower is white, according to Dr. Horsfield.

17. H. intermedium; fohis Hneari-lanceolatis ad costam subtus
pubescentibus, spica elongata laxa fasciculis soHtariis-ternis
subtrifloi'is, hmbilaciniis tubo dimidio brevioribus,exterioribus
anguste linearibus, interioribus lineari-lanceolatis labello
longitudine aequalibus ; labelli bipartiti segmentis falcato-
lanceolatis obtusiusculis. — Blume.

H. intermedium, Blume, I. c. p. 57.
Wild on the mountains of Western Java.

18. H. simile; foliis lanceolatis acuminatis glabris, spica brevi
erecta laxe irabricata, spathis acutis margine inflexis sericeis,
fascicuhs solitariis I — ^-floris, tubo corollse limbo triple
longiore, laciniis interioribus externis multo latioribus lanceo-
latis, labelli 2-partiti segmentis falcato-lanceolatis acumina-
tissimis. — Blume.

H. simile, Blume, I. c. -p. 67.

Wild in Java, on trees on Mount Salak.

10. H. Roxburgh i ; foliis lanceolatis acumiuatis subtus villosis,
spica elongata patente laxe bifariam imbricata, spathis acutis
villosis, fasciculis remotis subbifloris, limbo tubo dimidio
breviore, laciniis lineari-lanceolatis, interioribus longioribus
basi angustatis, labelli bifidi laciniis obtusis.
H. Roxburghi, Blume, I. c. p. 57. Hasskarl, Cat. alt. Hort.
Boyor. p. 51.

/3. spicis densioribus fasciculis approximatis, inferioribus
4-floris. — Blume, I. c. Hassk. I. c.
Wild in woods on Mount Gede, in Java.

I presume that had there been anything extaordinarj about the
authera (as is the case in my H. villosum,) so accurate and minute
an observer as Blume would undoubtedly have noticed it, whereas
he is entirely silent on the subject.

20. H. llngulatum ; foliis elliptico-ovatis vel lanceolatis subtus
glaucescentibus pubescentibus, ligulis longissimis : spica vix
exserta, bracteis obtusiusculis 3 — i-floris; cal3'ce tubi dimi-
diura vix sequante ; laciniis externis linearibus, interioribus
spathulato-oblongis : labello subrotundo unguiculato filamen-
tum sequante. (Character ad descr. cit. Hassk. concinnat.)

20 1)K. WALLlCir

11. linguUuum, JJua^hciri, Cut. alt. Iluitl Buijur. p. 51. I'laiit.
Javaii. luirior. p. lob.

Wild in Java.

The outer limb, according to M. Hasskarl, is yellowisb, the
inner white, base of the lip satfron-coluured.

'■l\. H. Spanoijheainna, Wall.; foliis oblongis attenuato-acumi-
natis glabris, bracteis approximatis elongatis acutis ccn-
volutis calyce tuboque longissimo dense obsitis villis sericeis
adpressis, laciniis exterioribus angustissiiuis lougissimis,
interioribus lanceolatis, stamiue labellum bipartitum ? super-
ante, antherae loculis basi altius solutis.
WrLD in Java.

This densely villous and silky-spiked species I think is
different from all the preceding live Javanese ones. I am
uncertain about the labellum, as the specimen in Sir W. Hooker's
herbarium has only a few flowers, which 1 am unwilling to
disturb. The almost capillary end of one of the outer laciniae
extends beyond the apex of the advanced flower-bud. The tube
is villous, and nearly five inches long.

0. Siplionium. Limbi iuterioris lacinia postica subcucullata
mucronata. Anthera leviter ci-istata. Calyx persistens im-
mutatus.

'Z'Z. H. svaposum ; subacaule, glabrum, radice tuberosa, foliis fere
omnibus radicalibus lanceolatis acuminatis petioles vagina-
formes ligula destitutes longitudine fequantibus, spicii bracteis
subimbricantibus attenuatis, tubo longissimo, labello ovato
bifido subsessili.
H. scaposum, Niinmo, Onih. Bombay Catal. p. 205.
Monolophus scaposus, Didzell in Hook. Jouni. ii. p. 14o.
Witjlit Ic. vi. p. -20. t. 2030.

Wild in marshes in the Southern Concan on the plains of
Karle and woods of Lawanowlee, Graham; banks of rivulets in
Malwa, Dalzell ; Malabar, Wir/ht ; Ghauts, Dalzell ; marshes
from Karle to Kaudola, Jacquemont.

With exception of the somewhat crested anther and the
tuberous root, this very remarkable plant has no striking affinity
\n character or habit to Monolophus, or Ki«mpferia either, and
it wants altogether the delicate texture of their flowers. To
lledychium it comes much nearer. Following the example first

ON THE GENUS HEDYCHIUM. 27

set by Mr. Browu iu his Prudromus, and also applied by him to
the next following species, I enter our plant for the present as a
subgenus, differing on the points I have noticed above. The per-
sistent calyx crowns the capsule in the form of a curved tube,
having its mouth cleft on one side, and three-toothed on the other,
according to Dr. Wight's instructive and detailed plate. Both
the bracts and calyx seem to me to be of a more firm substance
than is usual in our genus, and the corolla, too, participates in
some degree of that character. The tube is very long, the limb
comparatively short, the inner much broader. Filament very
short. Tlie sheath-like petioles seem to point out at their being
imbricate in the early stage of the plant, and as there are a few
(subsessile ones) on the stem, according to Dr. Wight, the latter
cannot properly be called a scapus. In M. Jacquemont's
specimen all the leaves are radical. There is no ligula.
Mr. Dalzell says that the plant is handsome, with white scent-
less flowers. The leaves, and still more the flowers, are marked
with many miimte glandular round dots.

D. Brachychihim, Brown, MSS. Labellum nanum retusum
sessile. Stigma bilabiatum, labio inferiore triplo longiore.

•>!;J. H. (Brachychilum) Horsfieldii, Brown, MSS. ; glabrum,
foliis lanceolatis acuminatis, spica laxiuscula, bracteis ovatis
2 — 3-floris, tubo gracili, limbi interioris laciniis lateralibus
ovalibus obtusiusculis, exteriores lanceolatas acutas latitu-
dine triplo excedentibus.
Wild in Java on Mount Prahu.

The delicacy of the flower is that of a Monolophus, but in all
other respects our plant has the appearance of a Hedychium, with
this striking difference, that the labellum is exceedingly small,
so as to be hidden almost from sight, and consists of a very short
broad concave retuse body.

28 NOTES Ul'ON

III. — Notes made on Visiting some Gardens, between
THE 7th and 11th of Septembee, 1853. By Ilobert
Thompson.

Having an opportunity of going into the country for a few
days only, I was desirous of seeing as many gardens, in certain
directions, as I could. The time for seeing eacli was in conse-
quence limited, and I therefore could not attempt to give full
accounts of the respective places visited. But having made some
notes, it was thought they might be written out for this journal, as
some useful hints might be derived from them. In proceeding
to do so, I must, in the first place, beg to take the opportunity of
expressing my thanks to those in charge of the gardens noticed,
for the trouble very kindly taken by all of them in affording
information relating to horticultural proceedings.

KOYAL GARDENS, FROGMOKE.

These gardens are situated about a mile south-east from
Windsor Castle. The latter, although the principal royal resi-
dence, had no suitable garden for the supply of fruit and vegetables
until those were established at Frogmore. Their formation com-
menced with the groundwork in December, 1841. The. buildings
were begun in the following summer, and so rapidly carried on as
to admit of the wall-trees being planted in the spring of 1843.
The area enclosed is about twenty-two acres, in the form of a
parallelogram, the dimensions being, from east to west, 1132 feet,
and from north to south 900 feet. But without interfering with
the plan of the garden, about nine aci'es additional have lately
been appropriated for the growth of various kinds of vegetables,
such as Potatoes, Broccoli, &c. The total length of walls for
fruit-trees is about 4600 feet.

The principal range of forcing-houses is nearly 1000 feet in
length. The border in front of this is about twenty feet wide. The
gravelled straight terrace walk is also twenty feet wide, and has
broad margins of grass ; parallel to the walk is a terrace wall, with
appropriate vases. The space between the walk and terrace wall
is laid out in flower-beds. Altogether this part of the garden has
a grand and highly ornamental appearance, and very different
from what would have been pi'oduced had the houses and walk in
front been on the general level of the garden.

FROGMORE. 29

The range of houses do not run exactly east and west. Instead
of the houses facing the sun at noon, they do so at 11 a.m. By
this arrangement, a certain amount of sun-heat can be obtained
earlier and continued more steadily than would have been the
case had the houses been so placed as to receive the rays direct
when the sun was at the greatest altitude. The intensity of sun-
heat usually increases till '2 or even 3 p.m. ; but as this takes
place, the excessive intensity of the rays is moderated, in conse-
quence of their falling more and more obliquely on the glass.
The aspect of the houses being made to face 15° to the east
of the meridian, or to the sun at 1 1 a.m , is therefore worthy of
imitation.

The crops of Grapes, lipe and coming forward in the Vineries,
were excellent. Of course the fruit in the earliest Vineries had
been cut. The vines are all planted inside, four feet apart ;
they are pruned on the spur system. In the late Vinery, 102
feet in length and 16 feet wide, the sorts planted are Black
Hamburgh and Black St. Peter's (Oldaker's). The latter were
green at the time, Sept. 7th ; but the vines showed an abundant
and regular crop, which is likely to continue fit for use till the
Grapes in the earliest vineries, and those in pots are fit to cut.

A corridor between a Peach-house and an early Vinery is
allowed to partake of the heat of the latter, so that it is consider-
ably warmer than the adjoining Peach-house. Into this warm
place some branches of a Peach-tree planted in the Peach-house
had been introduced ; and it has been found that the fruit on
these branches ripen about a fortnight earlier than those on the
other part of the tree. This has been the case for several
years. According to this, a Peach-tree may be so circum-
stanced as to produce a succession of fruit. Instead of the
crop being in gathering for a fortnight at most, it r&ight be
prolonged to a month from the same tree. The branches alluded
to, as being in the higher temperature, bore but a small propor-
tion to those of the rest of the tree situated in the regular Peach-
house temperature. But it may be a question whether the health
of a tree would be materially affected by subjecting two equal,
or nearly equal, portions of it to temperatures considerably
different.

The crops of forced Peaches and Nectarines had been very

•fine. In the early Peach-house (fifty feet in length and sixteen

feet wide), 1 30 dozens fruit were gathered this season from the

four trees with which the house is occupied. These are planted

80 XOTKS UPON

near the front wall, and trained on wire trellises, fifteen inches
from tlie glass.

The sorts of Pine-apples chiefly cultivated here are Queens
and Ca3'ennes. The smooth-leaved Cayenne is preferred to the
prickly-leaved. The Pine-plants are mostly planted out of the
pots, in soil above a bed of leaves of oak and beech, from whicli
the requisite bottom heat is solely derived. The soil is about a
foot thick, and is composed of rich friable loam, mixed with some
pigs' dung. Some of the Pine-apple leaves were four feet long,
and of a very liealthy dark-green colour. These were in a bed
planted in October, 1852 ; and in eighteen months from that time
the fruit will be all cut; or, if any are not then ripe, such will be
taken up and ripened off in pots, in order to allow the house to
be cleared, so as vines, the Black Hamburgh and Muscat of
Alexandria, which are trained at the back, may have a month's rest.
A mode of growing vines on a slate-shelf at the back wall of a house
near the light is likely to answer well. The vines appeared to be
growing in pots ; but in reality they were in bottomless earthenware
cylinders. The shelf is covered with good I'ich loam to the depth
of two inches, and on this the cylinders containing the plants are
placed. In this way, when the roots require to travel in quest of
fresh nourishment, not being confined like those in pots, they can
proceed beneath the lower edge of the cylinder, and feed on the
stratum of soil placed on the shelf. Into this they emit
abundance of fresh roots, capable of supplying plenty of nourisli-
mont to the branches; for the temperature of the soil on the
shelf must be nearly that of the atmosphere of the house.
Besides, moisture can be more uniformly applied to the principal
feeders than could be the case if the roots were all confined in a
pot ; for, in the latter, the centre of the ball of soil is apt to get
dry, and then it must be saturated by a pressure of water before
it can be moistened throughout. The roots of a plant may be in
soil containing just sufficient moisture, and then, all other circum
stances being favourable, its fruit will be well-flavoured. That
condition of soil is possible by the above arrangement ; but in a
pot the roots must be frequently saturated, and consequently the
flavour of the fruit must be thereby deteriorated.

The Cherry-houses run north and south. The variety employed
for forcing is the May Duke, Bigarreau, and Black Tartarian.
Tiie trees are forced every second year. When the fruit is'
gathered, they are planted out in a compartment of the garden
near the houses, where they can be readilv svringed and watered.

FROGMORE. 31

The early Cherry-house is also made to answer the purpose of a
late Vinery, in which the St. Peter's variety of Grape is grown ;
and when the crop of this is cut, the vines are turned out, and
the Cherry-trees and Strawberries for forcing are introduced.

A new sort of Strawberry (Ingram's Prince of Wales) answers
well for forcing, and it also yields a second crop. Plants of this
sort forced last spring, and which had been planted out of the
pots ipto beds in the open ground, were bearing a good crop for
the period of the season, September 7, and the fruit was of fine
size and colour.

There are two ways by which forced Asparagus may be
obtained. The established plants in beds must either be taken
up and brought into heat, or heat must be applied to the beds.
But the latter mode is that by which the finest shoots are
produced; for the roots of Asparagus are so brittle, that it is
impossible to take them up without a deal of breakage, and small
shoots are the consequence. At Frogmore, pigeon-holed brick-
work forms the sides of the bed, which are seven-and-a-half feet
wide ; the brickwork forms a cavity between the beds eighteen
inches wide, and in this hot-water pipes are placed. This cavity
or chamber is closely covered over, and the pipes are furnished
with stop-cocks, so that heat, more or less, can be supplied to the
beds, or to such of them as it may be desirable. In short, the
arrangement is such, that the beds can be forced in succession.

In an Orchid-house, with a north aspect, the plants were
thriving remarkably well ; and in the same house a plant of
Amherstia nobilis, which flowered in 1852, has branches extending
ten feet. It has been shifted, and is likely to flower again next
season. In the houses where ornamental plants are grown at
each end of the principal range, Mandevilla suaveolens, Alia-
manda cathartica, and Ipomcea Leari, were in splendid condition :
the healthy appearance of the foliage, the vigour of the plants,
and the profusion of their flowers, were remarkable. These
plants are being trained so as to contrast the colours of their
respective flowers. In one of the Cherry-houses there were a
number of seedling Pelargoniums, of the scented-leaved species,
so much esteemed by many persons.

The walls for fruit-trees are twelve feet high. The trees were
planted in 1843, and in seven years from that time the Pear-
trees were in most instances completely covering their allotted
space on either side, and quite to the top of the wall. Cherries
covered the space in five years. The greater part of the trees

32 NOTES UPON

are fan-traiued, but some are trained horizontally. It is seldom
the case that summer laterals can be depended on for horizontals,
and therefore one pair of branches can only be obtained in a
season ; but the soil in the Royal Gardens at Frogmore is so
favourable, that as many as three, and in some instances four
courses of horizontals have been originated in one season, and
all sufficiently vigorous.

Under circumstances of management, which are fortunately
less common now than formerly, a soil which proves so favourable
for the growth of fruit-trees would very soon be the cause of
rapidly hastening their ruin. But in these gardens they are
managed on good principles ; and although, in the present
season, various kinds have not borne so abundantly as they were
prepared to do previously to the severe frosts late in spring, yet
the good condition of the trees can be easily perceived ; for they
are furnished with fruit-spurs at the base as well as at the extre-
mities. This is to be attributed to the practice of preventing
the excessive flow of sap to the top, by commencing to stop the
summer shoots on the upper part of the tree before the lower.
Were this to be neglected, the sap in these vigorous trees would
rush to the higher parts so much in preference to the lower,
that anything like an equal distribution would be out of the
question.

There is a well-selected assortment of Pears on walls. The
Van Mons-Leon le Clerc was producing an excellent crop ; some
of the fruits were seven inches in length. This sort requires the
young shoots from spurs to be left unshortened, for on these it
bears ; and when they have once borne, they must be cut back to
make room for others. Chaumontels were very good, as were
also Glout Morceaus, on a west aspect. The Old Colmar and
Crassane do not bear well, it was said, in these gardens, even
in good seasons ; but as these sorts sometimes bear well when
old, although not readily when young, the trees just mentioned
may be expected to produce better as they get older. The
Brown Beurre, another old sort, on the contrary, succeeds well.
Knight's Monarch Pear, unquestionably true, was very fine. It
was stated that the fruit of this excellent sort continues in per-
fection for six or eight weeks from the time it is first fit for use.
It has been kept till March in dry sand.

At this place, as well as elsewhere throughout the country,
many kinds of Pears, as well as Apples, had been attacked by a
sort of smut, a species of mildew of the Genus Spiloctro, an

FROGMOEE. 33

account of which is given in vol. viii. p. 40, by the Rev, M. J.
Berkley. It attacks the skin of the fruit ; destroys the Yitality
of the latter, so that there is in the part of the skin affected no
longer any expansion by growth, and therefore as the fruit
swells the skin must crack, as is the case with the berries of
Grapes attacked by the Oidium. The Easter Beurre and Glout
Morceau Pears, and the Devonshire Quarrenden Apple, were
particularly affected with this very destructive disease. It may
be advisable to sulphur the trees early in spring, and occasionally
in the course of the summer. For applying the sulphur in the
form of powder, the best instrument is one invented by M.
Gontier, of Paris. It consists of a common bellows, of very
pliable leather; and on the upper side of the tube, where it
should be flattened, several holes are pierced corresponding with
similar ones in the bottom of a cylindrical box, which is fixed on
that part of the tube. A flat spring, loaded with about an ounce
weight of iron at the one end, has its other end fixed to tlie
under side of the bellows. When the latter is worked, the
spring is thereby made to vibrate and tap against the under side
of the bellows near the neck of the tube ; and thus the sulphur
is shaken so as to pass continually through the holes, to be
carried with the current of air against any part of the tree. The
sulphur may also be applied by an engine or syringe, after being
thoroughly mixed with water. To do this effectually, the dry
flowers of sulphur must be sprinkled in the first instance with
a very little water, then stirred till that moisture is diffused ; by
repeated sprinklings and continued stirring the sulpliur will
become a moist paste, capable of mixing with any desired quantity
of water. Applied in either of these ways, before and after the
blossoming of trees, sulphur can do no harm, and probably may
act as a preventive against the attack of the above-mentioned
destructive fungus.

The main part of the garden, bounded by the terrace in front
of the range of forcing-houses on the north side, and elsewhere
by walls, forms a large parallelogram about 760 feet from east to
west by 440 feet from north to south. This area is divided into
four equal portions by two walks, the direction of which is to
cross each other at right angles in the centre. But here there is
a fountain of polished marble, rising out of a circular basin, the
latter being 30 feet in diameter. Dwarf fruit-trees are planted
by the sides of the walks surrounding, and intersecting this part
of the garden. Those by the walk in front of the terrace on

VOL. IX. D

;5I NoTKS UPON

llie north side, ami likewise those on each side of the central
walk running* southward (correctly speaking, an hour to the east
of due south), are trained on curvilinear iron trellises, G feet wide
at the hase, and 4 feet from the ground to the top of the arch.
The principal ribs of this trellis are secured in stone blocks.
This affords as much surface for training as an espalier 8 feet
high, whilst the view is less interrupted. It is found, however,
that these trellises are better adapted for Apples than Pears ; for
the former are naturally later in flowering, and thus escape the
frosts to which tlie Pear-blossoms, by this mode of training, are
much exposed. The trees are planted in the centre, or 3 feet
from either side of the trellis. As each tree reaches perpendi-
cularly above the top of the arch, it is cut back, and afterwards two
shoots are trained, one to the right and another to the left, along
the top of the curve. From these ridge-branches shoots are
trained downwards on both sides, like ribs, at 9 inches apart.
Tiiis mode of ti'aining requires great attention during the growing
season, in order to prevent the upward tendency of the flow of
sap from starting erect shoots, that would soon deprive the
downward-trained branches of a due share of nourishment. The
e.xtent of training of all kinds, on walls and elsewhere, may be
imagined by any one from the dimensions given ; but no one
unacquainted with the operations necessary to insure an equal, or
as nearly an equal distribution of sap as is possible, can form an
idea of the time which these operations require. If these were
not so duly performed as they are in those gardens, the trees in a
few years would sustain irreparable injury.

I feel greatly indebted to Mr. Ingram for his kindness in
affording eveiy facility for making the notes from which the
preceding account is derived. It must not, however, be looked
upon as in any way approaching to a full account of these magni-
ficent gardens. The construction of the forcing-houses, the
arrangements for heating, and many other adaptations, would
require long details to give an idea of their perfection.

Windsor Loiuj Walk is an avenue of Elm-trees, thi'ee miles
long, and 150 feet wide. There are two rows of trees on each
side. The distance between the trees in the side-rows is 30 feet,
and that from tree to tree along the avenue is also 30 feet, so
that every four trees on each side form a square 30 feet each way.
Many of the trees are 80-90 feet high, especially in the lower
part of the ground ; but where the ground is high, towards the
southern extremity of the avenue, the soil is poor and too dry for

FROGMORE. 35

trees thriving well. Here, liowever, young trees might soon hp
reared by deeply trenching, and introducing a quantity of fresh
soil, which could easily be procured in Windsor Great Park,
through whicli this avenue runs.

COOPER'S HILL.

The residence of Sir John Cathcart. It is situated about
four miles south-east from Windsor. The house and gardens
are on the summit of a considerable elevation ; and from various
parts of the pleasure-ground extensive views are obtained, espe-
cially to the north-west, in which direction Windsor Castle is the
most conspicuous object. From the north side of the grounds one
can look down on JNIagna Charta Island, and on the whole of
Runneymead.

Under the superintendence of Mr. Dods, the Gardens are being
greatly improved. The soil is sandy : this and good drainage
enabled Mr. Dods to exhibit Alpine Strawberries at the Meeting
of the Society in November last, when none came forward from
the lower and more damp situations in other parts of the country.
He is also cultivating Specimen plants for exhibition. Camellias
were here very healthy ; Mandevilla suaveolens, very fine. There
was a most splendid plant of Dendrobium chrysanthum, covered
at the time when I saw it with 1700 flowers. Some of the
flower-stems were 5 feet long. Conifers on the lawn appear to
like the soil and situation of this airy spot. Picea Nordmaniana
was 5^ feet high.

PORTNALL PARK.

THE SEAT OF GOLOKFT, CHALLONER. NFAR VIRGTIsIA WATFR.

The gardens and pleasure-grounds at this place are noted for
*being exceedingly well-kept. The lawn, walks, and shrubberies,
are maintained in the best possible order. The gardei^s con-
taining the forcing-houses are several hundred yards from the
house, and sufficiently hid from it, as well as from the pleasure-
ground.

The time when these Gardens were visited, September 8th,
was fortunately that which was the most proper for seeing the
results obtained from a Protecting Peach-frame against a wall ;
and also from Peach-pits. As these modes have been highly
successful, details respecting them will of course be acceptable.

D 2

^C) NOTES UrON

The Protecting-frame placed against the Peach-wall was made

by Cottam and Hullen, and is similar to tlie one which was subse-
quently put up by that firm in tlie Society's Garden ; but the
latter is only 16 feet long, and it has been found that the ends
require to be glazed. The length of the one at Portnall
Park is 41 feet; the ends are glazed, so that it can be entirely
shut up, when necessary. It is glazed with Hartley's rough-
plate glass, and may therefore be considered a very durable
structure. The Peach and Nectarine trees under it have been
planted four years. The crop was abundant and well-coloured.

The Peach-pit is 90 feet long ; 7^ feet wide ; 4 feet high at
back ; the front is 1 foot 3 inches above the ground-level ; and
the trellis on which the trees are trained is 10 inches from the
glass. There are ventilating boards, inches wide, which turn
on end-pivots. There is a walk close to the front of the
pits ; but it is laid over a border prepared for the Peach-trees.
Tliis border consists of about 9 inches of old brick-rubbish, above
which there is 20 inches of soil, as is the case where the trees
are planted inside the pit. The trees were covering the trellis,
and were loaded with fine well-coloured fruit, which could be
protected by the sashes from all vicissitudes of weather, and
from most other accidents to which Peaches on the open wall are
liable. To see a trellis 90 feet in length and 7^ feet in width
so richly covered with fruit, under these sashes, in the space of
four years from the plantation of the trees, must have exceeded
the most sanguine expectations formed of it. It may be observed,
that the Peaches will not colour well far from the glass ; in these
pits the fruit is within 10 inches of it.

In exposed situations, wind-breaks are considered beneficial to
Peach-trees on the open wall. These usually consist of walls
across the border, or of hedges. In either case, the trees
adjoining such are partially shaded, and consequently injured.
But at Portnall Pai"k, the part of the wall not protected by the
above-mentioned Protecting-frame, had wind-breaks not liable
to the objection of causing shade ; for they are glazed. They
are 3^ feet wide at the base, and slant to 21 inches at the top,
where they are securely fixed, and maintained in a position at
right angles to the surface of the wall by iron stays.

Pear-trees on walls had been in danger some years ago, from an
excess of vigourin the higher parts of the branches ; but by checking
the shoots there early in summer, and before those below are inter-
fered with, a more equal flow of sap has been induced, and the trees

POETNALL PARK. 37

are, in consequence, doing well. In this locality tlie east aspect
suits the Pear better than the west. On a north aspect
Morello Cherries were very large and fine.

Strawberries are here grown on mounds. One of these is
terraced, each terrace having a horizontal width of 15 inches
for the soil in which the Strawberries ai'e planted. Another
mound is covered with bricks and clinkers, but not terraced.
The crops on both were stated to have been equally good ; but
the regularly terraced mound is more easily kept clean.

In the forcing-ground, the heating is derived from one saddle-
boiler and two of Rogers's. These, with their furnaces and stoke-
holes, are under a circular roof of corrugated iron, which has been
erected for ten years.

Besides Vineries, there are ranges of pits for Melons, Cucum-
bers, early forced vegetables, and also a house for Begonias
and other plants adapted for affording a supply of cut-flowers iu
winter.

The Cucumber-pit has bottom heat supplied by cement tanks,
which have been in use for upwards of eight years, and they are
yet quite sound. Mr. INTacqualter states, that nothing could
answer better than they do for bottom-heat ; and that he would
as soon have them as he would 4-inch pipes for that purpose.
This pit has four 2-inch pipes for top heat.

In another part of the ground there is a Vinery 40 feet long,
by 16 feet wide, with a span roof, and with upright glass in
front, but not at the back. One Vine covers the w-hole extent
of roof, and appears strong enough to cover half as much more
space. There is a walk 3| feet wide all round ; and within
this a stage, for bedding out plants, 3 feet from the ground.

A gravel walk, 20 feet wide, extends from the principal front
of the mansion, 720 feet, in a south-west direction, and terminates
with a fountain and grotto-work. The lawn bordering this walk
is, on both sides of the latter, smooth and level ; but from this,
as if securely from a level base, a high and steep slope rises on
the west side. Along this walk, on both sides, there are either
marble vases or statues at every .50 feet distance, with a marble
seat half-way between, and two Portugal Laurels in tubs between
each seat and vase or statue. So that there is, first, a statue or
vase, then two Portugal Laurels, a marble seat, two Portugal
Laurels, and again a statue or vase.

Near the mansion, and south-east from it, there is an American
Garden. Should it be at any time desirable to extend the

o^ NOTES UPON

pleasure-ground in this direction, the American plants could be

shifted a little farther otf, to a naturally formed hollow, which
would be a most eligible spot for them. There are, in the same
direction, views of a lake, which has partly been formed artificially.
A Flower-garden, at some distance north-east from the man-
sion, is scarcely seen from the latter. It is a pleasant retired
spot, rather than one calculated for display.

UROPMORE.

This place, still maintained by Lady Gkenville in its
former peculiar style, has been so frequently noticed in horti-
cultural publications, and so generally visited, that little requires
to be said respecting it. Mr. Frost, however, pointed out a few
things which may be mentioned.

The unusual quantity of rain which has fallen since the com-
mencement of 1852 has afforded a supply of moisture to the
roots of trees which they previously much wanted. Many of the
Piuus tribe have, in consequence, made longer growths in the past
season than they had in those preceding. The Picea nobilis,
for example, has this year made a shoot 2 feet 8 inches long.
The tree was planted in 1835 ; and its total height is 17 feet.
It was not more than "6 inches high when planted out; it has
therefore grown this season fully 1 foot 8 inches more than
it has done on the average. A Douglas Fir (Abies Douglasi) is
now 70 feet high ; and the large Araucaria imbricata, 3 feet
7^ inches in circumference at 3 feet from the ground, is nearly
40 feet in height ; a Cedar of Lebanon, planted forty-eight years,
is about 70 feet high.

A number of standard Fuchsias, planted out in various parts
of the ground, wei'e very splendid. Their stems were 8 to 10
feet high, with heads from 4 to 6 feet in diameter. After flower-
ing, they are spurred in and wintered in a green-house. In
the spring they are turned out into places of made soil feet in
diameter and 3 feet deep.

HEDSOR,
THE SEAT OF LOBD BOSTON, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

Prizes for Grapes, Pine-Apples, and other fruits, have been so
repeatedly awarded for a series of years to Mr. Davis, the gar-
dener here, that his name must be familiar to those frequenting
the Society's Exhibitions. It was therefore desirable to see the
gardens where these fine productions were grown.

HEDSOR. 39

The mansion stands on an elevated situation. From north-east
to south, the views extend over extensive undulations, and are
terminated in glades which recede amongst majestic woods. On
the north and north-west the ground is precijMtous, with the
Thames in the plain below; and a canal, fed by that river, is
brought almost close to the base of the steep, which is wooded,
hut has views through from the house.

The Garden is in rather a low situation, and partly on chalk.
There were good crops of Peaches, Apricots, and Pears on walls ;
but Ml- Davis remarked, that Peai'-trees do not succeed when
their roots get to the chalk. Some of the borders ai-e therefore
concreted. The Pine-pits, from which so many large fruits have
been obtained, are not heated either by flues or pipes, but entirely
by leaves. The latter can be obtained of the best description for
the purpose, Oak and Beech, to any amount, from the extensive
woods. Beds and linings of these supply both bottom and top
heat for the Pine-apple plants. But great care is necessary with
regard to covering. The sashes are first covered with mats, and
these again with close wooden shutters. The mats are thus kept
always dry ; and wood being a slow conductor of heat, the latter
can be sufficiently maintained without the aid of fire. The success
which has attended this mode of cultivation is a proof that suffi-
cient heat, well economised, is better for plants than a much
greater amount reduced to sufficiency by dissipation.

Leaves are also used for covering Vine-borders. This serves,
in the first instance, as a protection to the roots from cold ; and
as the leaves decompose, they afford manure. Hence the ease
and success with which early forcing, more especially, can be
carried on, compared with the difficulty of the process when no
such covering is at command.

A curvilinear Vinery has been built for many years. Part of it
was constructed of malleable iron, and the other of cast-iron : the
latter has stood equally as well as the former, and it was just
one-half the expense.

A number of Orange-trees was standing out in a flower-garden,
along the sheltered side of which they formed a row. They had
fine tops ; and their stems were thick, tall, and straight. These
now valuable trees were purchased about five yeai's ago, at an
oil-shop, for fifteen shillings a-piece. They were put in bottom
heat ; and by good management in other respects, they have
attained their present excellent condition.

The small parish church is situated near the walk which winds

4.0 NOTES UPON

and slopes from the mansion to the garJen. Near tliis church,
and close to the side of the walk, there is a very ancient specimen
of the common Yew, still maintaining a healthy top, and about (30
feet high. The tree now measures 28 feet iu circumference, at
3 feet from the ground. The trunk is quite hollow ; but fresh
wood keeps forming round it. It is impossible to ascertain,
correctly, the age of the tree ; for the centre being gone, the
annual layers cannot be counted. Dubreujl, Notes sur VAccro-
issement lies Arhres Exogenes, mentions two Yews, in the cemetery
of La Haye-de-Routot, Eure, in Normandy, one of which was 29
feet 3 inches in circumference, at a mutre from the ground : and
the other 28 feet 6 inches. The oge of these he estimates at
1400 years, or, at all events, not less than 1400 years.
Their trunks were stated to be likewise completely hollow.
M. Dubreuil arrived at the above conclusion with regard to the
age of the trees, by the following means : He ascertained that
the annual layers of two Yews, comparatively young, growing in
the same locality as those in question, averaged about ~ of an
inch ; and, at this rate, he calculated the first two hundred years
of the existence of the Yew. He then counted 90 concentric
layers of one of the identical aged trees, and 74 layers of the
otiier; and he found the average thickness of these layers was
about -p§-y parts of an inch. From these data, it was deduced
that the age of these Yews was between 1400 and 1460 years.
Now, if we assume that the Yew at Hedsor has grown at the
same rate as those in Normandy, and allowing 20 years, which
would be the proportionate deduction for its somewhat less cir-
cumference, we must conclude that it is between 1380 and 1440
years old ; the mean of these would make its age upwards of one
thousand four hundred years. Although there are steep slopes in
its vicinity, it is evident that no material change of surface has
taken place in the spot where it grows during the long period of
its existence.

CLEVEDEN.

ONE OF THE SEATS OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND, IN
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

The mansion at this place was destroyed by fire in 1795.
Another was built, which was likewise burned down some years
ago. But a noble edifice, by Barry, is now erected. This
requires the pleasure-grounds to be remodelled ; and, accordingly,
they are intended to be laid out in a very elegant style, judging

CLEVEDEN. 41

from the plan to be carried out, which Mr. John Fleming had the
kindness to explain. The scene of operations, which were just
commenced, was on the south side of the mansion. The design
for an American garden is included in the plan. When com-
pleted, the effect from the Terrace, on this side, will be very fine,
and the improvements in this direction will doubtless lead to
others on the north side of the mansion, where there is also space
for such. There is every probability that these gardens and
grounds will be rendered every year more and more interesting.

HIGH GROVE.
NEAR READING, THE RESIDENCE OF J. J. BLANDT, ESQ.

After visiting Hedsor and Cleveden in the morning, I had to
proceed to Calne the same day. I endeavoured, however, to see
Mr Blandys place, although the starting of the trains permitted
of only a general view of it.

This place was formerly noted for its fine collection of Orchids ;
but their cultivation is now, in a great measure, discontinued,
and ordinary stove and green-house plants ai'e grown instead by
Mr. Stanley, formerly gardener to the late Mr. Berens, of Sid-
cup, in Kent, and a successful contributor to the Society's
Exhibition. He is cultivating a number of exotic Ferns ; among
which the most conspicuous was the Cibotium Schiedianum.
This is, perhaps, the finest plant of this remarkable species in the
kingdom. Its fronds measured from 8 to 10 feet in length.
Some of the ferns were growing, suspended, in earthenware vases,
or in pots, with holes in their sides, through which the fronds
extended. The large span-roofed house has an elegant ap-
pearance. It is 70 feet in length, and, with the vestibule, the
length is 100 feet ; the width 30 feet.

The gardens and pleasure-grounds are well-kept. There is a
collection of thriving Conifers ; also good American plants ; a fine
Kalmia latifolia was 7 or 8 feet across. A geometrical flower-
garden is seen north-east from the house, with the lawn sloping
from the latter towards it. The flower-garden itself is level, and
the outline square ; but an ornamental fountain in the centre
produces a good effect, that of a circular form imposed on a square
base. If the fountain had been in the centre of any other figure
it would not have looked so well as in that of the square ; and the
flower-garden, notwithstanding its gay colours, if without the
fountain, would have lost much of its elegance.

42 NOTES UPON

BOWOOD.

THI-; SEAT OF THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE, NEAR CALNE,
WILTSHIRE.

The mausion is situated on the south side of a hill, which
slopes rather rapidly to a lake occupying the bottom of a valley,
and extending through the park for more than a mile. At some
distance behind the mansion the ground continues to rise, and
the fine trees growing upon it form a rich back-ground, parti-
cularly when seen from the opposite side of tlie lake.

Great improvements have recently been made on the south
side of the mansion, which, in a horticultural point of view, are
so connected with the building, that some notice of it is in the
first place requisite.

The mansion is built, or rather has been ornamented exter-
nally, in the mixed Grecian style. On the south front is a
portico, supported by noble columns. The pediment is enriched
by the family arms. Under this portico is the principal entrance.
The demesne came into the possession of the present family
about the beginning of the last century ; and the principal
alterations and improvements were carried out by the first
Marquis, and under the superintendence of Adams. One wing
extends 300 feet west from the main building, and is in the
Italian style. It forms a screen to the stable-yaixl and offices
behind, and contains the library, orangery, and chapel, besides
offices. The chapel, which is in the centre of this wing, is
surmounted by a beautiful turret tower, by Barry, which forms
a resting-point in viewing this rather long line of building. The
other wing runs nearly the same length to the north ; the space
between the two is devoted to offices, &c.

Immediately in front of the west wing is the upper terrace,
extending the whole length of the wing, and about 60 feet in
width. This terrace is 8 feet higher than the lower one in
front, from which it is separated by a wall surmounted by
perforated work in dressed free-stone, vases, &c. The lower
terrace is reached by a flight of steps, and is on a level witli the
floor of the main body of the mansion, with the width of which it
corresponds, and its length is the same as that of the upper
terrace. Both are connected at the end by a raised terrace-
walk, at right angles with the terrace wall, terminating in a
handsome pavilion, which abuts immediately on the park, com-

BOWOOD.

manding a view of it, as well as of the parterres which lie below.
The lower terrace is separated from the park by a dwarf balus-
traded wall, which is carried round the principal entrance, so as
to form an entrance court, access to which is obtained through
two handsome iron gates, with massive stone piers, surmounted
by fine copies of Canova's lions, in Bath stone. The lower
terrace terminates in a wall fountain, immediately over which is
a fine group of sculpture, by Smith, consisting of a river god,
uymph, &c. On each side of this fountain and group are
circular flights of steps leading up to the pavilion above
mentioned.

Both terraces are laid out in the Geometric or French style ;
and, in addition to the flower-beds, contain many plants of Cypress,
and Irish Yews, intended for cutting into architectural shapes.
The lower terrace is between 90 and 100 feet wide; and a walk
runs directly up the centre, terminating at the fountain already
mentioned. Cross walks intersect ; and the main one of these,
leading from the upper terrace, is 25 feet wide, and conducts to a
flight of steps, which afford access into the park. The latter,
previous to these improvements, approached too near the mansion ;
but now the south frontage is rendered complete by the tasteful
adjuncts which have been formed by a combination of architectural
and horticultural skill.

The park is extensive and well wooded ; Beech appears to be
the pi'incipal ijidigenous tree of the locality. The surface of the
park is much diversified by hill and valley. A natural one of the
latter, and its subordinate branches, is filled by the lake, which
was made by merely damming up the bottom of the valley. The
waste water flows over a much admired cascade, and, with its
accompanying rocky scenery, has a very natural appearance.
About 00 acres in the pleasure-grounds, adjoining the mansion,
are kept under the scythe.

A Pinetum was formed by Mr. Spencer in 1850. It is arranged
geographically. The species indigenous to Chitia are together,
and adjoining those of Japan ; then those of Tartary, Siberia,
other parts of Russia, the Crimea, Persia, Himalaya, Norway,
Western Europe, Spain, the Levant, Africa. In another division
we find the Conifers of Hudson's Bay, Canada, the United States,
N. W. Coast, California, Mexico, and Chili, &c. Many of the
species had made rapid growth in the short time in which they
have been planted. A Cupressus macrocarpa was 14 feet high.
Cupressus Goveniana, 9 to 10 feet high. Pinus muricata, 7 feet

44 NOTES UPON

high, had made a shoot 2J feet this season. A Pinus insignis,
phinted in 1838, was upwards of 35 feet. A tree of Abies
Doughisi on the lawn measured 54 feet in height.

The Kitchen Garden, whicli is walled in, contains about 5 J
acres ; but besides this, as the family is very large, there are 7
or 8 acres of vegetable ground, including an orchard. The
subsoil of the gai'dens is as bad as can be, a coarse sand, with
clay full of iron, and water rising evei'ywhere to within three feet
of the surface. This is owing to the substratum being rock,
through the fissures of which the water rises in all directions, even
to the top of the highest ground. It is very difficult to drain
under these circumstances. Tlie large percentage of iron in the
subsoil is very unfavourable to vegetation, which positively
refuses to grow in it. Hence a great part of the borders is
artificial, made with difiiculty owing to there being no suitable
loam near. Loam for the Vine-borders was procured from the
Downs, a distance of six miles. It is a turfy loam, moderately
strong, lying immediately on the chalk.

Some of the walls are 1^ feet, others 14 feet high. Their
copings project 4 inches. Copings of wood, which project 11
inches, are put up over Peach-trees, &c., and at every 30 or 40
feet there are wind-breaks. By these means, and with artificial
soil, very good crops are obtained. A very large Plum was
growing on the walls, called the Fonthill Plum, and it is also
cultivated near Bath under tlie same name. It appeared to be
the same as Pond's Seedling. It is red and much larger than
the Pi,ed Magnum Bonum. Along the sides of some of the
walks intersecting the kitchen-garden. Currants and Gooseberries
are ti'ained to slight espaliers.

There are six Vineries, including a large pit for Muscats, and
in all of them excellent crops are produced. The sort of Muscat
chiefly grown by Mr. Spencer, is one introduced by him, and called
the " Bo wood Muscat." He states that it is a freer setter than
the common one, grows weaker, and breaks much later in the
spring. There was a fine crop of this sort in the large pit above
mentioned. The earliest Vinery and two others are heated by
flues ; the other three by hot water. There are two Peach-
houses : and three houses for Pine-apples, one of which is used
as a Strawberry-house in spring. In one pit the Pine-apples are
grown on the Meudou plan, and very successfully ; Queens are
grown by this mode to the weight of fi lbs. and upwai'ds, the average
being 4 lbs. The winter-house has heat applied from below by

BO WOOD. 45

dung linings ; but this, although it answers well, i-equires a con-
siderable amount of labour. In the other houses the Pines are
grown in pots. It may be added, that all the forcing-houses
except three have been erected and fitted up under the superin-
tendence of Mr. Spencer, and although on economical plans, yet
they answer their respective purposes well. The laying and
planting the terraces and Pinetum have also been done by him ;
and in accordance with the views of the highly respected owner
of these noble domains, he is likely to go on with improvements
where such are required.

MR. LYDIARD'S MARKET GARDEN
AT BATH EASTOX, NEAR BATH.

Visitors frequenting the Society's Exhibitions will recollect
seeing very fine Strawberries from growers in the neighbourliood
of Bath. I have measured some of them fully 7 inches in
circumference ; and in ascertaining their merits, the judges have
found it sometimes expedient to use the knife. Mr. Lydiard
is one of those growers ; and finding him in the fruit and
vegetable market at Bath, he very kindly took the trouble to
accompany me to his grounds at Bath Easton, where he pointed
out his mode of cultivation, which will be seen to differ in some
particulars from that usually employed and recommended.

It has been generally considered advisable not to cut off the
Strawberry leaves ; nevertheless Mr. Lydiard does so. Frequent
renewal of Strawberry plantations have also been recommended ;
but at Bath Easton they remain in bearing during six, or from
that to ten years.

With regard to cutting off the leaves, it must be observed that
this is done, not just before winter, but immediately after the crop
is gathered. Moreover, the old leaves as well as the young heart
ones are not mowed over indiscriminately with the scythe : a knife
is employed, so that the old leaves only can be removed, and the
young and pushing ones saved. As a consequence of this mode
of proceeding, in the warm soil of the locality, the plants had
acquired, by the time I saw them, September 11th, a large size
from the growth of fresh foliage, which had even become robust
from having the advantage of all the light which the old leaves
would have intercepted, had they been allowed to remain.

These young and vigorous leaves were in a condition to
elaborate sap to form equally vigorous roots for supplying

46 NOTES UPON

abundant nourislimeut to the ensuing crop. After it is gathered,
the knife is again immediately emploj^ed to remove all old
leaves, in order to give space and light for new ones. And inas-
nuich as the large amount of fresh foliage, thus annually
encouraged, produces a corresponding amount of new tissue, the
plants are so far annually regenerated ; and hence, it may be
concluded, that the frequent renewal of the plantations becomes
less necessary. When young plantations are made at this place,
the rows are 2^ ^^^^ apart, and the plants 2 feet from each
other in the rows.

The quality of the Potato crop this season was here excellent ;
but the quantity deficient owing to the haulm having been
prematurely cut off by the disease. The sorts chiefly grown are
the Forty-fold (red), and the Goldtinder (white). From the
quantity of Brussels Sprouts grown for market, it w-ould appear
that there is a class of society in Bath that can appreciate the
superior delicacy of that kind of winter green. This being the
case, the Early Ulm Savoy would doubtless prove an acceptable
introduction to that locality ; for its quality is much finer than
that of the large Savoy, and approaches that of the Brussels
Sprouts.

Mr. Lydiard had a span-roofed house, north and south, for
early Melons. The flue is built of ashlar Bath-stone, with the
exception of a few bricks near the fire. This fine is very close,
and Mr. Lydiard says it stands the fire very well. The slabs
with which it is constructed are IS inches in length ; those for
the sides are two inches thick ; and the covers, of the same
material, are '■) inches thick. The joints are made with coal-ash
mortar.

MONTEBELLO, BATHWICK HILL,
THE RESIDENCE OF G. H. SIMS, ESQ.

This is a very elevated spot, many hundred feet above the
bottom of the valley, in which the Avon flows to Bath. It is on
the east side of the city, near the top of the bill, facing the south-
west, and consequently much exposed to the strong winds from that
quarter. Where the garden, or rather series of terraced gardens
have been formed, the ground is exceedingly steep ; and if the
ground made for a garden had been laid according to the original
slope, the soil would have been washed down. Therefore, terrace
above terrace has been formed to modify the declivity. The

MONTEBELLO. -Ji

terrace-walls, of Bath stone, have an elegant appeai'ance. A walk
ascends from bottom to top, through the centre of these terraced
gardens, with the exception of one, which has lately been taken
in from, or ratlier quarried out of, a part of the hill, whith lies
on the other side of the road, leading from Bath to Claverton.

The houses are new, and fitted up in first-rate stjde. Full
command of heat is insured by abundance of hot-water pipes.
One Vmery, for early forcing, had three 4-inch pipes in front,
and four laid backwards and forwards along the floor. This
Vinery is 13 or 14 feet wide, and Vines planted two months had
reached in that time to the topt of the house ; and the wood was
such as to be fit for bearing next season. A very high tempera-
ture was, of course, maintained, but the house being light, the
foliage was sufficiently robust.

Melons are here grown exceedingly well. The gardener, Mr.
Grant, was the raiser of the Victoiy of Bath Melon, with which
he has taken many prizes at various Exhibitions. He grows it
in a Melon-house in pots. Some of this sort was sown in the
beginning of September, 1852; planted the 5th of October;
commenced cutting fruit April 14th, and successively till Sep-
tember 11th, 1853, when I tasted one of them, white-fleshed,
juicy, sugary, and rich. The Melon plants are grown in 19-
incli pots, which are plunged nearly to their rims in sand, in a
bottom heat of 85 degrees. The soil in the pots is all loam, but
pervious, so that manure water can be supplied to the roots as
required. Tlie plants are trained with an upright stem till they
reach a trellis near the glass. Every leaf, it should be observed,
is encouraged on the upright stem until it reaches the trellis,
and then they are gradually dispensed with. The bed in which
the pots are plunged is 36 feet in length and 6 feet wide, and in
this 20 plants are grown, one row of pots being plunged along the
front and another along the back.

There is an Orchid-house, 64 feet in length and 16 feet wide ;
and in this there was a very fine collection of pei'haps the
healthiest plants of the kind any where to be found. On the
whole, this place, from its peculiar situation, and the excellent
arrangements for forcing, is becoming very interesting to horti-
culturists.

48 ON WHITE RUST.

IV. — Observations on a Form of White Rust in Pear Trees.
By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S.

Every cultivator of Pears has of late years, in addition to the
well known TEcidium cancellatum, which in certain localities has
long been the pest of the Pear orchard, had to struggle against
another less seemly intruder (Helmiuthosporium pyrorura, Desm.)
which not only impairs the health and beauty of his trees, but renders
the fruit, which at first perhaps gave fair promise of remuneration,
perfectly unsaleable. During the early part of the past summer an
enemy belonging to the animal world, under the form of a minute
Acarus, was more than usually abundant, affecting not only the
leaves but distorting the fruit, as represented in the Gardeners
Chronicle, 1853, p. 420. In the course of some investigations of
the mode of operation of the Acarus, which had been hard at
work at my own pear trees, I observed, especially in the Marie
Louise and Glout Morceau, that a great quantity of the leaves
were blistered somewhat after the fashion of peach leaves when
suffering from chilly weather, before their perfect expansion, but
with the blisters in general more neatly defined. In many cases
these blisters formed two parallel lines on either side of the
midrib, but sometimes, especially when larger, they were
irregularly scattered over the frond. In some cases the blistered
part had become black, and in others the portion of tlie leaf
which had protruded had fallen out so as to leave a regularly
defined aperture. On inspecting the under side of the distorted
leaves, the cavities were found to be lined with a thin white
stratum consisting of myriads of confluent white specks, of a
waxy rather than powdery appearance, and in an early stage of
growth, covered with the cuticle which is loose and more or less
ruptured, showing the subjacent organisms through the fissures.
On examining the substance more closely, it appeared first that the
vesicles of which it was composed did not occupy exactly their
original position, but that the tips of the little heaps of spores
had collapsed more or less from moisture, so as to produce a more
or less uniform stratum like that of a Corticium. The mass
itself consisted of ovate or elliptic hyaline bodies about 4-0V0 of an
inch long, without any apparent sporophores, though the greatest
pains were taken to discover them both b^^ myself and Mr.
Broome, to whom I had communicated fresh specimens. Here
and there a spore might be discovered with a little projecting

ON WHITE RUST. 49

cell often seated obliquely, so as to call to mind exactly the yeast
fungus. An examination however of the youngest individuals we
could find, detected extremely short moniliform threads like
those of some of the more minute Oidia, as 0. circinans, and it
is to that genus, notwithstanding some difficulties, that we think
the little parasite must be referred. At first we were inclined to
consider it a Glceosporium, especially in consequence of the waxy
appearance mentioned above, which does not exist in any recorded
Oidium, and which is due to some gelatinous element in the
outer coat of the spores, the absence of which renders the spores
of normal Oidia pulverulent, but not only was there nothing like
distinct pustules in some shape or other essential to Glceosporium,
but the moniliform growth of the spores was decisive as to the
impropriety of such an arrangement. Unless admission be
conceded into Oidium, a new genus must be framed, which we
are unwilling to do on the mere circumstance of the spores having
a little more gelatinous matter in their outer walls than is usual
in the genus. About the time when the parasite appeared. Dr.
Montagne kindly communicated to me a somewhat similar pro-
duction which had occurred in the South of France on walnut
trees, consisting like this of minute white spores, none of which
however exhibited any tendency to become moniliform. This he
has referred to the genus Gymnosporium, under the name of
G. leucosporum, to which genus I should gladly have assigned my
minute fungus, but for the Oidioid mode of growth. It may be ob-
served moreover that the spores of Dr. Montagne's plant strongly
resemble those of the Pear Fungus, measuring -g-5'0-0 of an inch
in length, a size which differs very little fi'om that of the Oidium.
There is however a circumstance connected with the little
parasite which requires notice. When it was first submitted to
Mr. Broome, he detected what appeared to be perfect asci, con-
taining hyaline bodies of the same shape as the spores, but
averaging -^-^-q of an inch in length. The question at first
occurred whether these had not been poured forth from the little
sacs so as to form a thin white stratum, but the difference of size,
though the form was identical, was against such a view, and the
discovery of the moniliform mode of increase was still more
decisive."' The apparent asci were no doubt individualised cells

* The production noticed by Dr. Moutagne on walnut leaves was no leg.s
remarkable for the total absence of sporopliores, insomuch that, as in the
pear leaf, the bodies might be supposed to have been poured out from the
asciform cells but from their evident increase by the addition of new cells,

VOL. TX. E

50 ON WHITE RUST.

of the spongy tissue of the underside of the leaf, in which the
endochrorae instead of forming grains of chloropliyll had heen
organised into minute hyaline cells, simulating the spores of the
fungus ; a similar case to which occurred much about the same
time in the processes into which the outer cells of the cuticle are
converted in the pi'oduction known under the name of Erineum
aureum. The Erineum had been produced on the surface of the
ovaries and in every cell, the endochrome was converted into
hyaline grains resembling perfectly the spores of a true fungus.
The bodies represented by Fee are probably of the same nature.
A case approaching to this occurred also in the clavate cells with
which Lecythea epitea is surrounded. The endochrome did not
indeed form distinct cells, but was broken up into separate
granules, as far as I could see, not invested with a membrane and
endowed with very active molecular motion.

Before closing the present observations I must call attention to
a very curious appearance which has this autumn accompanied
Helminthosporium pyrorum in the gardens of the Earl of
Westmoreland at Apethorpe. In the midst of the dingy patches
of the fungus, white spots appeared, not only on the leaves, but
also on the fruit, sometimes a quarter of an inch or even more
across, resembling very closely at first sight the Oidium, but not
blistering the leaves. On examination however it was clear that
the white appearance was not due to any fungus, but merely to a
disease of the cuticle itself, consisting of a sort of desquamation
like that of Lepra, the scales however being quite microscopic.
I was not able to examine this at a sufficiently early period to
trace its connection with the fungus, or to study its phases pro-
perly ; a somewhat similar case has occurred on Elm leaves, com-
municated by Mr. Broome. The matter certainly deserves further
iiotice, as it seems more properly a cutaneous affection, than some
other affections which have been so denominated. I am not prepared
to say that any real injury was caused to my pear trees by the
parasite, for the Glout Morceau bore an excellent crop of fine
fruit, and the Mai'ie Louise failed merely from the blossoms being
injured by late fi'ost. The peculiarly damp season may have had
some share in the appearance of this new parasite, but we have

so in the walnut leaf there was a question whether the bodies might not be
very minute eggs. Dr. Montague had, as it appears, no opportunity of
examining the production in a perfectly fresh state, and therefore it is pos-
sible that the sti'ucture of Lis plant may really be more near that of the
pear leaf fungus than was at first appai-ent. If I mistake not the pro-
duction occurs in England. tho\tgh it has not been recorded.

ox WHITE RUST. 51

seen so much injury arise from a little production analogous at
least if not in reality very closely related, which at a certain
definite time made its appearance in a particular garden at
Margate, and from thence spreading over the greater part of
Europe or even beyond its limits, that we are not in a position to
judge of the possible importance of any parasite, merely from the
effects produced during the first season in which it may be
observed. The whole question of the production and appearance
of these organisms is involved in mystery, but though we are
unable to come to any general conclusions now, it is quite possible
that the simple record of facts like the present may not be with-
out its weight at some futui'e day. The fungus may be recorded
as follows.

OkUum hnllatum. Berk. & Br. Mss. soris punctiformibus
demum confluentibus epidermide primum vestitis ; sporis ovatis
ellipticisque minutis subgelatinosis.

The figure represents at (a) a group of the spores, either simple
or more or less compound ; and at (b) some of the cells of the
leaf in which the endochrome is converted into distinct hyaline
vesicles.

i^rA^i^

Oidium buUatum, Berk. S,- Br. — White Rust on Peav Trees.

E 2

NEW PLANTS, ETC., FROM THE SOCIETY'S
GAEDEN.

I, PiNus RoTLEANA.''' — Jamieson.

Although the seeds, cones, and a few loose leaves of this plant
are all that have as yet reached Europe, there is no doubt that it
forms a species previously quite unknown. The leaves are like
those of the Scotch fir in almost all particulars, except that they
are much more slender and short ; and the cones, of the size of
Pinus sylvestris, have an entirely different form, are smooth as if
they had been half polished, and their scales are flat-headed,
with a fine, hard, sharp mucro, very distinctly hooked back —
(much more uniformly than the artist has represented in the
accompanying cut).

Cone of Pinus Royleana.

All that is known of its history is that the fragments above
alluded to were received in 1853, from Dr. Jamieson, as belonging

* P. (Pinaster) Royleana ; foliis geminis tenuibiis canaliculatis contortis
divergentibus, strobilis parvis oblongis obtusis lajvigatis, sqnamaram apo-
physiangnsta rugosalrrvi umbonnloduroapiciilatoretrorsTimiinoinato.— .T.L.

NEW PLANTS, ETC., FROM THE SOCIETY'S GARDEN. 53

to a noble tree, growing iu Nepal at an altitude of 8 — 1(3,000 feet,
and therefore perfectly hardy. A very few plants have been raised
in the Garden, where they prove to be, in their seedling state,
quite different from any species previously raised there. The
following is Mr. Gordon's description of the materials received
from Dr. Eoyle: —

" Leaves, two in a sheath, rather spreading, from 2 to 2^
inches iu length, rather broad, stiff, blunt-pointed, partially
twisted, concave on the upper surface, and light glaucous green.
Sheaths, very short, particularly on the adult leaves, ragged or
torn, and partially persistent.

" Cones, 2^ inches in length, and 1 inch broad in the middle, of
a greyish-brown colour, oblong-conical, slightly tapering to the
base, and rather blunt-pointed. Scales, smallest and most nume-
rous near the base, and largest near the middle, slightly elevated
in the centre, and terminating in an irregular four-sided pro-
jecting hooked point, slightly bent backwards.

" Seeds, very small, with a broadish wing, rather more than half
an inch in length.

" Seed leaves on the young plants, mostly in sixes, and rather
long.

" The Society received seeds of this Pine from the Honourable
Court of Directors of the East India Company in April, 1853,
but as very few seeds grew, it must continue to be scarce for some
time. It certainly is new to our collections. Previously we
had no Pine from India with only two leaves in a sheath, and
verv small cones."

2. Nycterinia selagtnoides. Bentham in De Candolle's
Prodromiis, X. 348. — Ei'inus selaginoides, Thnnherg.

A very pretty greenhouse annual, received from Messrs.
Vilmorin & Co., under the erroneous name of N. villosa. It
forms a broad spreading patch of pale dull green hairy herbage,
arranged in the manner of a Candytuft. The leaves are linear-
spathulate, and slightly toothed ; the uppermost quite entire and
adnate to the tube of the calyx, than which they are much longer.
The flowers are arranged much in the same manner as in Iberis,
forming a true corymb. They are pure white except the eye,
which is a very deep-yellow cup fringed by an exquisitely beauti-
ful coronet of tiny yellow hairs, The tube of the corolla is very

54

NEW PLANTS, ETC.,

slender, an inch long, and nearly smooth ; the limb is flat, a little
curved backwards, with 5 two-lobed equal divisions.

This may be regarded as one of the prettiest summer annuals
introduced for some years.

Nyctcriuia selagiuoides.

FROM THE SOCIETY S GARDEN. 55

3. LiNUM GRANUIFLOHUM. — Desfoiitiuiies Flora Atlantica,
Vol. I. p. 277.

A brilliant little annual, with large rich crimson flowers,
lately introduced from Paris. It was originally found in heavy
land near Mascara by Desfontaines, who called it species j^ii^icher-
rima, as it certainly is. He described it as throwing up clusters
of erect or decumbent stems, from 8 to 12 inches high, with
smooth scattered leaves, of which the lowest are linear, the upper
broader, narrowly lanceolate, and rough at the edge. Tlie flowers
are in loose panicles, with very large rose-coloured petals, about
twice as broad as in the officinal flax. Five years ago its intro-
duction to gardens was announced, with a good coloured plate, in
the Revue Horticole, and great expectations were entertained
that a really precious novelty had been acquired. But when
young plants had been raised, they were found so unmanageable
that it was doubtful whether they could ever be kept alive. In
fact, many perished, and those which did flower, although realising
all that had been said of their brilliancy, were dwindlingand unattrac-
tive. In pots under glass they could scarcely be kept alive. Planted
out, in 1853, in an open south border, they did better, but still
acquired no horticultural value, a circumstance not to be won-
dered at in so rainy, cold, and gloomy a summer. The plant,
however, is of too much importance for its cultivation to be
regarded as hopeless, and therefore the following remarks by
M. Ysabeau, recording the experience gained in France, will
doubtless be read with advantage . —

" This pretty annual was figured in the Bcvve Horticole of
November 1, 1848. The plant bears a profusion of flowers
which remain long in bloom ; it is consequently one which is
greatly to be recommended. Since the above date it has been
lost in most gardens, and notwithstanding its splendid colour and
other valuable qualities, it still is only in the hands of a small
number of amateurs. Messrs. Courtois-Gerard and Vilmorin
imagine that they have discovered the cause of the disappearance
of a plant which was very favourably received at first. It was
generally believed that it should be cultivated in pure peat, or at
least in peat mixed with a little vegetable mould, or common
garden earth. This soil appears to be too unsubstantial for a
plant which, like other Linums, requires much vegetable nourish-
ment ; and this nourishment not being supplied in sufficient

56 NEW PLANTS, ETC., FROM THE SOCIETY'S GAKDEN.

quantity, the plant did not ripen its seeds and eventually perished.
Messrs. Courtois Gerard and Vilmorin made the experiment of
pricking some plants into the open ground, in a border of light
but tolerably rich soil, containing much more nourishment than
peat earth, either pure or mixed. This experiment succeeded
perfectly. Althougli sown and pricked out somewhat late, the
plants are, at the present time (August ^nd), covered with flowers
having well-formed ovaries full of seeds, the perfect ripening of
■which does not appear doubtful, judging from the good state of
the plants. It is probable that the cultivation of Linum grandi-
fiorum failed from the excess of precautions taken to ensure its
success ; if the plant had been treated the same as other hardy
annuals which are sown in beds or under glass, and pricked out
into the borders, it would have perpetuated itself without dif-
ficulty. Now that it is in a manner re-introduced, it will be the
duty of amateurs not to allow it to disappear again from the flower
garden, to which it is undoubtedly a valuable acquisition." —
Beviie Horticole, Sept. 16, 1853.

NEW ESCULENTS DECEIVED IN THE GARDEN
OF THE SOCIETY.

]. OXAMS TUBEROSA.

Under the name of Oca it ajipears that several varieties of this
tuberous plant are known in Bolivia, whence they have been
brought by M. Weddell. In the spring of 1853 some tubers,
about the size of a pea, were received of the Oca Rouge from
M. Vilraorin, and were raised in a melon pit. Two of the plants
were kept in the vinery ; and two were planted in the glass wall.
The former died to the soil about the end of September without
forming tubers. Tbose in the glass wall continued growing till
killed by frost, November 1 7th. Their stems had grown in this
situation to the height of five feet, with a healthy dark green
foliage ; but no flowers were produced.

When the roots were taken up, it was found that numerous
tubers had formed, some of which were fully an inch in diameter,
roundish, or somewhat flattened, and having numerous eyes. The
skin was smooth, in some parts of a pale straw colour, but mostly
of a delicate crimson red.

The roots have been taken up with the soil adhering, and
covered with dry soil, in a cool vinery. From the largest tubers
strong plants may be expected, which will most probably flower.
The tubers may be cut into sets like potatoes. Possibly the
Oca may be grown so as to produce tubers in this country,
perhaps in warm soil and hot seasons without the aid of glass,
except to forward it in spring.

Although very imperfectly ripened these tubers possessed little
of the acidity that might be expected of an Oxalis, and which is
spoken of by M. Weddell in the Pieviie Horticole (-ith series,
vol. i. p. J 49). On the contrary, they wei*e pleasant to the taste,
perhaps resembling unripe Spanish chesnuts as much as anything
else, and being, in the opinion of persons of taste, at least equal
to Rampions, as a raw esculent. The quantity raised in the
Garden was too small to allow of experiments in cooking thera.
It is intended to grow them more extensively next year; and, as

58 NEW ESCULENTS RECEIVED IN THE

they are likely to become of interest, the following account of
them by M. Decaisne ^Yill pi'ove hiteresting: —

" The Oca is very extensively cultivated in the temperate parts
of Bolivia, where several varieties of it are distinguished. Two
are known by the names of Oca hlauca and Oca colorada. The Mu-
seum is indebted to M. Bourcier for the latter, which he considers
superior in quality to the Oca blauca, although M. Weddell is of
a different opinion. The Oca blanca is beginning to appear in
our markets ; it is now to be found in most gi-eengrocers' shops,
but the slightly acid flavour of the tubers is disagreeable to some
persons. This acidity may be converted into a sugary flavour by
exposing them to the sun, which converts the acid into saccharine
matter. This phenomenon is analogous to what goes on at the
ripening of most fruits. The Oca, when treated in this way, loses
all trace of acidity and becomes as floury as the best varieties
of potatoes. According to M. Weddell the Oca should be exposed
to the sun from six to ten days. In Bolivia this operation is
performed in woollen bags, which appear to facilitate the con-
version of the acid. To obtain this result, the bags should
contain no more tubers than are sufficient to form a thin layer
within the bag. If the action of the sun is continued for several
months the Ocas become of the consistence and sweet taste
of dried figs ; they are then called Caul. The Caui is cooked by
steam, the tubers being placed on a bed of straw which keeps
them from contact with the water over which they are cooked.
In Bolivia, and more especially at La Paz, the Oca is cultivated to
double the extent of the potatoe. The price is also twice as
high as that of the last-named vegetable." — Rev. Hort. 4. ser.
vol. 2., p. 383.

U. Gesnkra esculenta.

Seeds under this name were received from M. Vilmorin of
Paris in the spring of 1853. The leaves proved to be narrowly
oblong, about four inches and a half in length, and one inch and
three quarters broad, pale green, and soft with pubescence,
especially on the under side ; petioles short. The plants did not
flower, and died down in the beginning of October ; but in the
pot a number of roundish tubers had been formed, about an inch
in diameter, of a whitish colour. AVhen boiled, these tubers
were somewhat farinaceous, of a transparent bluish white; but
had a disagreeable bitter, like that of potatoes which have been
partially greened. The seeds were sown and placed in a melon-

GAKDEN OF THE SOCIETY. 59

frame ; they came up in about a fortnight, and were potted singl}',
when fit, in five-inch pots, in which each plant produced a great
number of tubers, some of them of the size above mentioned. They
are larger than is usually obtained from potatoes raised from
seed, in the first season.

Having obtained tubers, two of them were kept dry for
a fortnight, and then started in beat. They are now growing
well and will probably flower. If the tubers can be deprived by
any means of the bitter which they naturally possess, they might
form an agreeable dish. — R. T.

No flowers having been produced in the Garden the real name
of this plant cannot be determined. That of Gesnera esculeuta
is not to be found in works on systematical botany. That it is a
stove plant seems, however, to be certain ; and therefore it is
improbable that, even if palatable, it will ever possess any
horticultural value.

:]. TROP.EOLUit ILI3KKOSUJI.

Although not cultivated as yet in the Society's garden this
deserves mention in an account of newly introduced esculents.
It produces an abundance of very pretty yellow and red pear-
shaped tubers from two to three inches long ; and since it is as
hardy as a potatoe there is no reason to doubt its lieing cultivable ;
but it is a question whether its flavour, which is not very
agreeable in its ordinary condition, can be improved in England,
as it is in La Paz, its native country. Upon this subject
M. Decaisne has some interesting observations to the following
effect : —

" The tubers of the Tropseolum tuberosum, designated Ysano
at La Paz, require to be prepared before they become edible.
Indeed when they were prepared in Europe like potatoes,
and immediately after being taken up, their taste was very
disagreeable. But a mode of making them palatable was dis-
covered in Bolivia, and the Ysano has there become, if not a
common vegetable, at least one which is quite edible. The means
consist in freezing them after they have been cooked, and they
are eaten when frozen. In this state M. Weddell affirms that
they constitute an agreeable dish, and that scarcely a day passes
at La Paz without two lines of dealers being engaged in selling
nothing e.xcept Ysano, which they protect from the action of the
sun by enveloping it in a woollen cloth, and straw.

60 NEW ESCULENTS RECEIVED IN THE GARDEN.

" The ladies of La Paz are all very foud of the Ysano, and in
the season of the taiachas large quantities are sopped in molasses,
and taken as refreshments during the heat of the daj'.

" It ■will be perceived by the preceding, and by the preparation
which the Ysano must undergo, that the cultivation of the
Ti-opgeolum tuberosum, and likewise that of the IIlluco, has but
little chance of being successful among us, our climate being
entirely different from that of La Paz, the mean annual tem-
perature of wliich (50°), is, however, little different from that of
Paris (5 1*44°). Many plants can resist intense cold in the very
dry climate of La Paz, where the dryness of the air allows
several Cacti to grow as on the elevated table-lands of Mexico,
although tlie thermometer falls nearly every night below the
freezing point. But such is not the case in our moist climate ;
for we know that a slight fall in the temperature is sufficient,
either in spring or autumn, to destroy the stems of all herbaceous
vegetables." — Revue Horticole, Oct. 16, 1853.

4. PoiREAU D'iTE PETIT DE BrABANT.

Received from M. Vilmorin, 1853.

This is an early leek, with very long narrow leaves, of a dark
green colour. It is not so well adapted for a main crojj as the
Large Rouen Leek and some others, because, if sown at the same
time, it is more apt to run to seed than they are. But a little
of it may be sown for early use with advantage. — R. T.

5. PoiKEAU JAUNE BE PoiTOU.

Received from M. Vilmorin, 1853.

A very large sort of leek, some of the leaves being more than
six inches broad and five feet long, measuring from the lower
part of the stem ; they are of a yellowish green colour. The
stem blanches yellowish white, and its substance is more tender
than that of other varieties. It requires to be planted farther
apart than usual, owing to the size of its leaves. As it grows
large and is of tender quality, it deserves cultivation. — R. T.

ORIGINAL COMxAI[JNICATIONS.

V. — Botanical Notes on the Mildew of the Vine and
Hop. By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A.. F.L.S.

The genus Oidium, a name, at the present moment, far too
familiar in every country where the Vine forms an important
object of cultivation, contains a heterogeneous mass of species
of very various affinity, agreeing only in the circumstance of the
spores, or sometimes merely of the component cells of certain
threads of the mycelium being arranged end to end so as to form
little necklaces. Amongst these there is a peculiar group con-
sisting of such species as O. leucoconium, Tuckeri, &c., distin-
guished by their mealy appearance, though not constantly of a
pure white, and developed on the green parts of vegetables. In
many cases this mycelium creeps amongst the large inter-
cellular spaces of the under surface of leaves, the moniliferous
threads making their appearance through the stomata; but this
is by no means constant or essential, for, as in the grape mildew,
though often exhibiting such a mode of growth, they are produced
with equal luxuriance on parts of the plant where there are either
very few or no stomata.

Another circumstance connected with such species is, that in a
variety of cases they are the certain forerunners of different species
of Erysiphe. There are, indeed, some of these species which have
never been observed to be accompanied or succeeded by an Ery-
siphe, and it is possible that such may be autonomous, but in the
majority of instances, of which the hop mildew is an example, the
Erysiphe most certainly and constantly follows or attends the
Oidium.

Under such circumstances it was natural that a question should
arise as to the character of this connection, and accordingly it
has been warmly contended on the one hand that the Oidium and
Erysiphe are perfectly independent, while on the other the Oidium
is regarded as the mere mycelium of the Erysiphe, and it has even
been hinted, though without any sufficient grounds, that the decidu-
ous joints of its erect threads may possibly be of sexual importance.
Asa step towards the solution of this question, some observations.

62 MILDEW OP TPIR

accompanied by a figure, were published by tlie autlior of this
memoir, in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1851, p. 227, tending to
show that in Erysiphe communis, as produced upon the Garden
Pea, the sporangia really arose from the decumbent threads of the
Oidium, and that in such a way as not to make it probable that
this is a case of mere parasitical growth, but that the myceloid
threads of the Oidium actually give birth to the Erysiphe,
The illustration, if correct, is clearly of great importance ; but
inasmuch as it has not been I'eceived with perfect confidence, I am
happy to give the annexed figure from the observations of Dr.
Plomley, made perfectly independent of my own, which com-
pletely confirms the views I liad taken of the matter, and sets it
almost beyond doubt (Fig. 1).

The question was in this state when, in the early part of 1851,
a drawing made the previous year by Dr. Plomley, illustrative of
the hop mildew, was hung up in the Crystal Palace, in which a
transformation of the articulations of the moniliform threads of
the Oidium, into what were then supposed to be true sporangia,
was clearly represented (Fig. 2). This transformation was pre-
cisely like that which so commonly takes place in the genus
Antennaria, of which a few words may be said towards the close of
the paper. It was not then matter of surprise so far, though it
might seem a j^riori scarcely probable that the sporangia should
be formed in two different ways, and when the subject was men-
tioned in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1851, p. 467, the interest
attached to it was pointed out, though there remained some diffi-
culty about the two modes of the origination of sporangia, for the
distinction between those organs and others presently to be men-
tioned was not at that time ascertained. The correctness of the
whole was indeed called in question by Mr. F. J. Graham, in the
number of the same year for Aug. 9, p. 502, but so many un-
expected circumstances arise in the study of natural histor}', that
it is seldom safe to reject altogether any evidence that may be
brought forward, because it may at first appear anomalous, how-
ever wise it may be to rest in a position of more or less philosophic
doubt. In point of fact, such seeming anomalies often indicate
latent truths, and when cleared up throw light in the most unlooked
for manner on matters which wei'e before involved in obscurity.
Recent observations have, indeed, shown that Dr. Plomley 's illus-
tration was really of much importance, and the anomalous points
have been, for the most part, elucidated by the discovery that the
bodies into which the articulations were transformed were not

VINE AND HOP. 6'

precisely of the same nature as the sporangia, but exhibiting,
independently of the mere conidia of the Oidium, a second form of
fruit, as in many other fungi. On the 5th of September of the
following year (1 852), a paper was read before the Royal Academy
of Georgofili of Florence, by Professor Amici, in which he reports
the discovery of bodies in the grape mildew of precisely the same
nature and mode of production as those in Dr. Plomley's figure.
It will be found from Prof. Amici's memoir, a translation of
which appeared in tlie last volume of this Journal, that he does
not allow the above-mentioned connection between the Erj'siphe and
Oidium, nor indeed at present have true ascigei'ous sporangia been
detected in the grape mildew. These bodies were not, however,
found merely in the grape Oidium. Prof. Amici informs us in his
memoir, that they had occurred in the mildew of Convolvulus
arvensis accompanying an Erysiphe ; and I have lately received a
very kind letter, in which he sends specimens of Oidia bearing
transformed cells, not only in the Vine and Convolvulus, but also
on the common Gourd, the Hop. Plantago major, and Trifolium
pratense (Fig. 3). He also found them on Artemisia campestris,
but I have seen no specimen. Dr. Plomley has detected them
abundantly in the Oidium of the rose. I had, indeed, previously
seen specimens of the transformed joints in the vine mildew, for
Cesati's Ampelomyces quisqualis, Rahenhorst, n. 10G9. b, pub-
lished in 1859, is undoubtedly the same thing, though the bodies
contained in the cells are rather smaller than in Amicis specimens
(Fig. 4).

This, however, is not the only name which has been imposed
upon these bodies, as though it were still the fate of fungi to have
generic importance ascribed not only to their mycelia but even to
their separate organs ; for Ehrenberg, who received liis specimens
from Amici himself, gave them the name of Circinobolus floren-
tinus ; and Riess in Hedwir/ia, 1853, p. 23, tab. III. fig. 2, d,
e, f. has given to similar bodies in Erysiphe lamprocarpa, the
name of Byssocystis textilis.

In the early part of 1853, Tulasne published in the Botanische
Zeitimy some admirable observations on the genus, without, how-
ever, having had the advantage of seeing any of Amicis specimens
or those published by Piabenhorst. His remarks refer principally
to two species belonging to the genera Uncinula and Phyllactinia,
of Leveille, in which he found the bodies in question, to which he
gave the name of pycnidia, as being identical in function and
essential structure to those which he had before so cliaracterissd

Ot :\[TLnKW OF THE

iu lichens {Mem. p. 108), but differing from those ohserved by
Amici, and from all that 1 have myself examined, in resembling
exactly the true sporangia and in being furnished with similar
appendages. In no single instance has this been the case in the
species I have had the opportunity of observing, and though in
some cases the bodies were globose, this was not by any means
their normal form, far the greater part being pointed above.
Like M. Tulasne, neither myself nor Mr. Broome have ever seen
the pycnidia surmounted by a necklace of utricles, but in every
case rising immediately from tlie mycelium very much as repre-
sented in the figure in the Hedwir/ia, quoted above, but frequently
also from one of the swollen cells of the decumbent mycelium;
there is, however, no reason to doubt that such is the case, for
the practised eye of Amici could scarcely be deceived; and Dr.
Plomley's figures, made two years before those of Amici, and
verified by the numerous observations of 1853, are altogether
confirmatory of the fact. In one or two instances in Cesati's
specimens (Fig. 4, b), Mr. Broome found a few delicate threads
at the base of one of the pycnidia attached to its walls, but by no
means emulating those of the sporangia. The bodies contained
in the pycnidia do not differ much in size iu the different species.
In the grape mildew they are (at least in Amici's specimensj''^
'0004 of an inch long, iu that of the gourd, Plantago major, the
hop, and Convolvulus arvensis, "0003, and in Trifolium pratense
they vary from "OOO^ to -0004.

No one has at present seen these bodies germinate, unless
indeed, as Amici suspects, they are what Professor Pietro Savi
" saw vegetate under the microscope, believing them to have issued
by a regular longitudinal dehiscence from the utricles of the
moniliform filaments which had been supposed to be sporangia."
Now it does not seem very probable that Savi could have made
such a mistake, as the pycnidia are differently coloured, the colour
indeed often extending down the peduncle; and the observations
which I have now to record resting entirely upon the repeated
and long-continued examination of Dr. Plomley, confirm what is
advanced by the Italian Professor. Both in the hop and vine
mildew, he found that the joints of the moniliform threads, though
not transformed into pycnidia, contained a number of distinct
bodies, and not merely a granular endochrome. In both cases their
number appeared to be normally about 300, but in the hop mildew

* Iu Cesati's specimen the contents of the pycnidia did not exceed '0003 in.

VINE AND HOP. 65

occasionally they did not exceed 50. lu both cases alike these
bodies germinated very readily when kept moist between two slips
of glass (Fig. 5), in one instance even producing an approach to
fertile threads and swellings of the articulations, the forerunners,
as Dr. Plomley believed, of true (Fig. 6) sporangia or pycnidia, it
is uncertain which, as either may arise from the decumbent threads.
But not only did they germinate when separated from the utricles
either by pressure or spontaneous rupture, but even where no
rupture in the walls of the mother-cell took place they germinated
ill situ, pushing out the shoots of mycelium through the walls
In many instances, little germs were produced from the cells,
which call to remembrance the observations which Tulasne has
made on the germinating threads of Puccinia (Fig. 7), though it
perhaps may not be certain that they are of precisely the same
relative importance. In many cases the fallen utricles adhered
together in considerable masses, germinating and producing an
inextricable plexus of spores, myceloid threads, &c., and so giving
rise to the curdy appearance which is often observable in hop
mildew, and indeed in most allied forms of mildew. These facts
are very curious, for the utricles themselves have often been
observed in a state of germination, as figured by Amici, and by
Dr. Plomley himself in the grape mildew, but in these lower
productions, wherever a complete cell is produced perfectly indi-
vidualised, there seems a power of reproduction, and we know not
how far the notion of Turpin may be verified, that it may some
day be possible to raise a Pha^nogam from a single cell. Whether
this may be true or not practically, some cases of grafting, as the
well-known one of the so-called Scarlet Laburnum, tend to show
that it is so theoretically. It will not be superfluous to notice
further, that in the hop mildew Mr. Broome has found on the
same mycelium as the Erysiphe, but on the upper surface of the
leaves only, a little brown Sphseria (Fig. 8), intermediate in size
between the sporangia and pycnidia. The perithecia contained
perfect uniseptate sporidia '0005 inch in length, whereas the sporidia
of the accompanying Erysiphe were about '0013. It is singular
that a parasite so closely resembling the Erysiphe in form and
colour, not to mention other points, should exist in such a situation.
Are we then, after the facts detailed above and elsewhere, to
conclude that these Oidia are really states of so many species of
Erysiphe? This question seems to me to admit only of one
answer, and that affirmative; for though it may be very true that
one cannot see the sporangia utricles and pycnidia upon one and

VOL. TX. F

66 MILDEW OF THE

the same thread, and it is impossible to prove the case by repro-
duction from the spores as in that of dicecious plants, the body of
evidence seems so strong and closely connected as to be irresist-
ible. It is true that the real sporangia of the vine mildew have
not yet been observed, but considering the identity of their pycnidia
with those of known species of Erysiphe, it seems very difficult
to suppose that they are essentially different. The mildew of the
peach may be observed for years without finding sporangia, except
at a very late period on the branches; and that of the rose, and of
Lycium barbarura, as noticed by Tulasne, frequently do not proceed
beyond the mucoroid condition. We do not doubt, therefore, that
at some future period the true sporangia may be found, and we
trust that the little parasite which has been of such unlooked-for
importance may still preserve the specific name originally
assigned to it, in honour of the very meritorious cultivator who
first observed it, and did not cease to study its habits till he had
discovered the proper remedy. It may still therefore be named
Erysiphe Tuckeri, if the name of Oidiura Tuckeri must perish.

It is a curious fact that in abundant specimens received from
the Upper and Lower Corgo and Douro, thi'ough the kindness of
Messrs, Martiniez and Gassiot, and in specimens of diseased
grapes from INIadeira, forwarded in 1852 to Sir W. J. Hooker,
by C. H. C. Plowden, Esq., (see Gardeners'' Chronicle, 1853,
p. 547; and 1852, p. 579), not a single pycnidium appeared
amongst the mould, but in their stead very curious bodies consist-
ing of a large nearly globose terminal cell, with one or two hyaline
cells at the base forming a sort of peduncle. These resemble very
closely Conisporium Helminthosporii, Corda and I have therefore
given them the name of Conisporium commilitans* (Fig. 9),
though 1 cannot conceal from myself the possibility of their being
some other form of fruit, however improbable this may seem.
At any rate the matter is well worth attention, and I am content
to run the risk of the tu qiioque reproach of adding a name which
inay hereafter be found useless, as the very circumstance of

» Conisporiun commilitans, Berk. <t JBr. Sporis magnis obovatis pallidis
granulatis, basi uniseptulis, articulo inferiore hyalino, cum pedunculo brevis-
simo, cyliudrico subconfluente.

Sporee cerviiiEe "0014 ad -0015 unc. long. ■0011 lat. I am the rather
inclined to suppose the Conisporium autonomous, as both the Madeira and
Portuguese specimens were overrun with Trichothecium and other parasites.
The more nearly allied species of Conisporium are truly parasitic, which i.s
an additional argument in favour of the view I have taken.

VINE AND HOP.

67

assigning a name to any natural production draws more attention
to it.

The constant counection of Autennaria and Capnodiura, a genus
illustrated on a former occasion at considerable length in this
journal, seems exactly analogous with that of Oidium and Ery-
siphe. It appears however that though the transformed joints of
the Antenuaria never produce asci^ tlie perithecia of Capnodiuni
are very uncertain as to the nature of their contents. Sometimes
they are decidedly ascigerous and sometimes as certainly sporo-
ferous. Sometliing however more definite may be discovered
now that attention has been drawn to such points, and I should
be the very last to lose sight of the fact that to M. Tulasne and
his brother is due the credit of opening this new field to mycolo-
gists and lichenologists.

Explanation of the Figures.

Fig. 1. Erysiphe communis from
Hop leaves, showing the
origin of the sporangia
from the decumbent
threads of the mycelium.
From a sketch by Dr.
Plomley.

Fig. 2. Pycnidia produced on the
moniliform threads of the
Oidium of the Hop leaf.
Dr. Plomley.

Fig. 3. a. Pycnidia and inclosed
spores from the Erysiphe
of Convolvulus arvensis.
b. Pycnidia from that of Trifo-
lium pratense. Both from
sketches by Mr. Broome.

Fig. 4. Ampelomyces quisqualis,
Cesati, sketched by Mr.
Broome.

Fig. 5. Germination of contents of
utricles in the Vine mildew.

a. One of the utricles ruptured.

b. Granules beginning to germi-

nate.

c. Various stages of germination

more highly magnified.
The joints marked 1,1, are
the two cells into which
tlie granule was originally
divided.

d. Granules germinating within

the utricle,
d'. Granules from Hop mildew.
A similar series of sketches
vras prepared by Dr.
Plomley from the germi-
nation of the contents of
the utricles of the Hop
mildew, but they have
been omitted with one
exception, as altogether
similar to those of the
Vine mildew.

Fig. 6. Erect threads and swollen
articulations, the precur-
sors of utricles and spo-
rangia or pycnidia, by Dr.
Plomley.

Fig. 7. Thread which has arisen
from germinating gra-
nules producing little bud-
like articulations. Dr.
Plomley. 1, 1, original
spore.

Fig. 8. Sphseria Erysiphina, Berk.
<L- Br.

Fig. 9

Perithecium.
Ascus.
Sporidia.
Couisporium
Berk. A- Br

commilitans,

6S

MILDEW OF THE

Fig. 1.

Fig 2.
Highly magnified figures of

VINE AND HOP.

09

llie Viue and Hop Mildew.

70

VINE AND HOP MILDEW.

. W^.%<>

ggecGTil

Fig. 5.

Germinatiuii ul N'ine Mildew.

DR. V. MARTIUS UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 71

VI. — Remarks on the Scientific Objects and Uses of
Plant-houses. In a series of letters to Professor
Fiirnrohr, editor of the Flora, and inserted in the
Volume for 1853. By Professor Von Martins, Director
of the Pioyal Botanic Garden at Munich.

(Translated and abridged from the German by Dr. Wallich, F.R.S.,'
Foreign Member of tlie Horticultm-al Society.)

The author commences thus : —

I will preface my subject by some remarks on botanic
gardens generally. No establishment of this kind can possibly
comprise all that is cultivated in similar gardens collectively ;
nor would it be desirable, because the area, buildings, &c., would
be too extensive for convenience or successful study. What is
required is, that the number of plants necessary for purposes of
public instruction should always be at hand ; while the actual
amount of species must necessarily -vary, and be successive.
Widely different is the case as regards public herbariums, which
should contain the greatest possible number of species of dried
specimens that can be obtained. But a variety of circumstances
is constantly affecting botanic gardens, such as the general state
of botanical science, the fluctuating taste of the public in favour
of this or the other sort of cultivation, the routes of voyages of
discovery, and so forth. Some thirty years ago. Pelargoniums
and other Cape of Good Hope productions, which are at present
rarely seen, were the leading favourites. Mexican, Siberian,
Brazilian, and Chilian forms existed in abundance, but ai'e now
superseded by others from Xew Holland, Texas, California,
Venezuela, &e. Nay, there are species which make their appear-
ance only ephemerally, and then disappear again from all gardens.
All this should be attended to in the construction of plant-houses,
as pointing out how important it is to be prepared for a frequent
change of cultivation. A judicious selection must be made among
a vast variety of plants ; and I believe I am riglit in asserting
that the science and acquirements of the director may be tested
by the choice he makes ; that we may judge of him by what is
cultivated in a botanic garden, and of the gardener under him by
the manner of cultivation. What, then, ought constantly to be
found in a plant-house ? Four things are to be kept in view : —
1, peculiarity of growth and appearance, or habit; '4, remarkable
structures of flower and fruit, and other objects of morphology ;

73 DR. V. MARTI US

3, peculiarities in. the vital functions; and 4, prominent medicinal
or other properties. Kespect must necessarily be had to the
space which we have at command ; and here we are obviously
bound to prefer, in our choice of inmates, such as are most
likely to attain all the stages of their vegetation, or at least those
stages which peculiarly recommend them for a place in the house;
and, secondly, they must be placed in a situation most favourable
for their easy and frequent blossoming. This is scarcely attain-
able as regards herbaceous plants and shrubs ; but the case is
very different in regard to trees. Artificial means will help us
in many cases ; but in others all our endeavours are vain, years
and years passing by without the trees showing any disposition to
repay our cost and trouble by flowering. In many such cases
the judicious director of the institution would, as a matter of
course, exclude such refractory inmates, as useless dead weight,
were it not that the public expect to have the opportunity of
seeing those plants, in any stage, concerning which they have
heard or read interesting accounts ; such as the Teak (Tectona
grandis), tlie Bread-fruit (Artocarpus incisa), the Cliina bark
(Cinchona), Maranhara-nut (Bertholletia excelsa), &c., however
crippled and incapacitated from exhibiting their colossal native
growth.

On the other hand, there are numerous plants which, though
never or only rarely showing blossoms in a hothouse, are yet
deserving a place there, on account of their elegance or some
striking peculiarity or other ; especially does this apply to arbo-
rescent monocotyledons, such as certain lilies, palms, Pandane«,
Smilaceae, grasses, climbing large-leaved Aroidese, tree ferns, and
other remarkable productions ; also Coniferse, such as Cunning-
hamia, Araucaria, Pbyllocladus, Podocarpus ; Myrtacese, Laurineae,
Proteaceee, &c., from Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. If
we cannot hope to see flowers we may at least enjoy the sight of
some peculiarly splendid production of foliage, although nothing
like what is witnessed in tropical countries is usually now
produced in our houses ; es^Decially is this the case with AroideiB,
(Anthurium, Pliilodendron, Carludovicte, and Cyclanthi,) producing
leaves 8 to 1 2 feet long. I remember only once having seen
these sorts of plants in perfection, at Schonbrunn, under the
treatment of the experienced Mr. Schott. Showy plants of the
above class require those lofty and roomy houses which are called
serves cVexhihition in France and Belgium, in contradistinction to
the serves de culture. All the plants in the former, with the

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 7'-^

exception of the Nopalese, are forest plants ; in the latter they
are the humbler vegetation, partly of forests,' but chiefly the
ground-vegetation of open places.

In the second letter the writer enters into details concerning

forest and open (Flur) vegetation. In tropical countries the trees

are mostly of the former class, and rarely extend beyond their

dense forests, which are constantly tending to expand their limits.

Only few trees are so fond of light and impatient of shade as never

to be found in forests ; as the Cashew-nut (Anacardium occi-

dentale). The colossal constituents of forests, its oldest and

longest enduring members, reach a height of 80 — 100 feet

and upwards, and cause not only the most striking diminution

of light, but also of temperature, which is higher than we usually

find in our large plant-houses, namely, '22°, 28°, 30° R. and more.

But of these trees only few ever find their way into our houses,

and when there, they ai'e almost without exception the most

thankless of all, inasmuch as they never produce flowers or fruit

there. Who has ever seen a Tectona, Bertholletia, Lecythis,

Caryocar, or any of the immense Vochysise, Qualese, Lauriuese

or Leguminosse, which form the haute-voUe of such forests, in

those states in our botanic institutions ? Though we find these

often in the catalogues of the richest gardens, especially of

France and England ; but they perish prematurely, or else they

grow extremely slowly. Below the dense summit of the loftiest

trees which form the dome of the forests, three other gradations

may be observed, namely, the dicotyledonous trees, and climbers

next in elevation, with several palms, which attain a height of 50

to 80 feet; some of them, especially climbing plants, sometimes

surmounting the dome itself. Of all these we possess many in

our houses, but they blossom rarely. The second gradation is

formed by low trees and shrubs, which we call underwood in our

forests, such as numerous Leguminosse, Rubiacese, Euphorbiacete,

Myrtaceae, Melastomaceae, Piperaceae, &c. These are still more

in tbe shade than the preceding series, receiving light only

laterally, when the sun is near the horizon, or accidentally from

other causes. The last and lowest gradation consists of herbs,

bulbs, grasses, Cyperacese, ferns, &c. Orchideae, Bromeliaceae,

Aroideae, and other epiphytes, constitute here an essential

feature. But whenever these primeval forests attain their fullest

perfection, they consist in colossal trunks only, which have little

or no underwood beneath the dense shade, the surface of the

earth being at length deprived even of its grassy sod, and even

74- DU. V. MARTI us

the epiphytes ceasing to exist. The individuals of this colossal
growth must ever be excluded from our plant-houses, however
lofty. Other forests, less vast in their dimensions, especially
their height, prevail in tropical countries ; and they supply our
large houses, and even the smaller, with inmates. In these
forests there are not the gradations mentioned above ; shrubs, and
even herbaceous plants, mix with the constituent trees, and the
ground is densely covered with grass. The moisture in these
forests varies much, according to their localities ; and therefore
the periods of vegetation vary with them. Trees, both solitary,
and whole forests of them, which were naked in the plateau of the
Minas during the dry months, I found in leaf, and even in flower,
near perennial springs or near rivers.

The author applies the foregoing remarks to show how import-
ant it is to separate plants so different in their growth and seasons
in our various glass-houses, and how little attention is generally
paid to this subject. Subtropical trees and others, produced still
further south and north of the tropics, are less difficultly treated
because the less vertical light which they are accustomed to
approaches more to that in our latitudes in its intensity and
effect.

Another grand division is the ground-vegetation, consisting
both within the tropics and beyond these of grasses, Cyperaceae,
Restiacete, and a vast number of herbaceous plants, also of those
low plants, which form hedges, thickets, and the like. Of
such consists that class of vegetation in the prairies of North
America, the llanos of Venezuela and Caracas, the campos of
Brazil, the pampas of Buenos Eyres, Cordova, Tucuman, and
Salta, and the jungles of the East Indies; the Karroo plains of the
Cape of Good Hope, the steppes of Persia, southern Russia,
and many eastern countries ; finally New Holland, New Zealand,
and Van Diemen's Land. The number of their genera is immense ;
the collection of their seeds, tubers, bulbs, &e., far easier than is
the case as regards the fruits and seeds of the forest vegetation ;
their introduction into our houses consequently disproportionally
greater. This is apparent, particularly, in English and Belgian
garden publications ; and the case would be still more striking, if
the predilection for Orchidese, Bronieliaceae, and Scitaminese had
not so extensively predominated for these ten or fifteen years.*

* Note by Dr. Wallich. I wish that the predilection which the author
claims for the Scitamineous culture were ([uite correct ! When I left
England, upwards of twenty years ago, there was indeed some fondness

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 75

Now these 2}lant(B aprica: requii'e strong light ; for between
the tropics they enjoy it from morning until night, with a most
vertical sun ; in a weaker degree beyond the tropics. All night
the firmament is clear, and the radiation of heat veiy powerful,
especially at places which are void of vegetation. The crowded
plants throw a narrow and flickering shadow on each other, and
exercise a mutual influence by developing warmth and reflecting
light, and thus vei'ify the old saying : Latior una alterius crescit
sub umbra. Hence it is that our cultivation is successfully
carried on in low houses with oblique windows, on one side, or
having them on a pent-roof, in which the heat may be con-
veniently regulated and proportioned to the means of introducing
light. And hence also the facilities which these structures afford
to the observant and experimenting botanist. These buildings
recommend themselves besides by their cheapness. On occasions
when existing high glass-houses are to be rebuilt, the principle
on which to proceed ought to be, to remove low or ground-
vegetation altogether. There are besides tropical forest plants
of low stature, which, truly speaking, do not belong to the class of
ground-plants, and which are cultivated not merely for the sake
of their general appearance or habit, but for the sake of their
producing flowers and fruit : all such should be removed from the
serves cV exhibition, or palm-houses, into the low or forcing-houses.
They require that the light and heat should be nicely proportioned,
especially during particular periods, and verify the rule : The
greater the heat the stronger the light ; which ought by no means
to be interpreted, the more light the better. I think I have
seen glass-houses into which too great light was admitted during
certain periods of rest, such as the state of leaf or flower budding,
and which caused a yellowish, attenuated, and somewhat arid
appearance among the plants. On the other hand, during the
highest leaf-development (e. g. of bulbous plants, Amaryllideee), it
is impossible to give too much light with the requisite heat.

Light and heat are the two powers by which vegetable life is
chiefly regulated and modified. Each spring the entire distri-
bution of plants over the surface of the globe points at this great

for these plants, but it never became general, and it soon after declined ;
which is the more to be regretted, because their treatment and multipli-
cation are so easy. Never shall I forget the display of Hedychiums which
the Livex-pool Botanical Garden exhibited under the hands of its excellent
gardener, Mr. J. Shepherd, in the days of the illustrious Roscoe. Nothing
that I have ever seen could exceed the fragrance and magnificence of the
collection at the time in full blossom.

7() DK. V. MAKTIUS

fact. They go baud in hand in their inlluences on bodies ; the
more lifrbt these receive and retain, the greater is the heat pro-
duced within them ; and as soon as tliey exceed in degree that of
surrounding bodies, heat, not light, is radiated from them. The
relation in which plants stand, as regards those powers, corresponds
in some respects with that which e.xists in lifeless bodies ; and in
others it differs, and even in their different stages, as is instanced
in a naked tree, which reacts on light differently from what is
tlie case with a tree in full leaf. Some of these influences are
well known to us ; such as the property of heat to call forth the
growth of plants, and of light to produce their green colour, and,
by decomposition, to cause warmth. But very many others, it
must be confessed, are entirely hidden from us. Thus we believe
that light and heat depend, like sound, on the oscillations of
an elastic medium ; but we know by experiment that there
exists a great difference among the rays of light, inasmuch as the
perception of light and heat for which our bodies are organised is
not the effect of one and the same ray of light, but that the
illuminating, heating, and the chemically acting rays may be
distinguished from each other, and that their refrangibility and
intensity are different. We know that plants receive heat, and
that it pervades them and mightily influences their processes of
life ; but the manner in which it receives modifications from the
internal and external form of plants, from the content of their tissue,
and even their social life, so to say, is still in many respects pro-
blematic, and as far as regards most garden establishments it
reduces itself practically to the before-mentioned rule : the more
light the better. Yet, nothing is more certain than this, that
they produce respectively vast variety of separate effects. Since
the time of Senebier it has been admitted that, next to its
influence on the process of suction by the roots, light augments
and accelerates the perspiration of plants, and causes their green
colour, besides affecting divers physical, physiological, and chemical
functions. But we are unable to apportion with certainty the
different operations to the different rays. M. Dumas 's observa-
tion, that green leaves produce a weaker photographic reaction
than other light-reflecting bodies, makes it probable that the
chemical rays operate principally the wonderful formation of
chlorophyll, and we discern the green of the leaves because they
reflect the yellow and blue (i. e. green), while the other elements
of the solar rays become absorbed. We must not suppose, how-
ever, that the phenomena are to be accorded exclusively to this or

UPON PLANT-HOUSES.

that influence of heat or light, as may be proved by hundreds of
instances. Thus the leaf-bud turns visibly away from the light
at the moment of bursting ; the young leaves ai'e not always
developed towards the south, but follow the general course of
warmth in the atmosphere, expanding themselves most actively
between south and west, in order to turn green. Nor are plants
insensible to the radiation of heat emanating from neighbouring
plants, which in some degree affect their development. The
degree of warmth which plants receive from the solar light differs
according to their solidity and thickness, and should become
perceptible towards evening and during night. The radiation of
heat from powerful Cactuses and the like plants deserves to be
especially attended to.

All these combined influences become greater and more
complicated if we reflect, that the vegetable structure consists of
a threefold system of growth : the ascending and the descending,
which are perpetually in a state of antagonism ; that while the
atmosphere with its light and heat constitute only one-half of
the agencies which affect these green, deaf and dumb, but still
excitable beings, the earth — that dark source of warmth — and
its moisture, call forth other processes in them. Not to insist
on these, physical and chemical powers operate differently
according to tlie degrees of longitude and latitude, elevation of
the sea, exposure, season, time of day, character of the
soil, &c. ; and all the phases in the life of a given plant occur
within certain periods in succession, according to its native place.
All which tends to prove that the vegetable \Yorld must possess
the power of adaptation to a considerable degree, in order to
accommodate itself to and thrive under the deficient appliances
which the art of gardening can substitute for the realities of
nature.

In a state of nature, as well as in a hot-house, plants derive
warmth from two distinct sources — from the sun as the illu-
minating, and from the earth and whatever else can radiate heat,
as the dark, source. We are unable to give plants from hot
countries the same advantages which they derive from those
sources in their native places, because the heat of our less
vertical sun is not so powerful as in those regions ; and the
plants consequently I'eceive a smaller amount of stimulus from
light and heat from above. We err if we imagine that the heat
from a stove or from heated tubes has the same effect, physiolo-
gically, as the former combined. We might approach a state of

78 DR. V. MAKTIUS

nature, if it were possible to force a proper degree of heat upon
plants by means of red-hot ovens placed at safe distances, or
increase the quantum of light by means of multiplied mirrors ;
but such schemes can only be imaginary. Solar heat will for
ever remain a desideratum in the cultivation of tropical or
untropical plants, which can only partially be realised, and we
can only approach the natural state of things by means of
bottom heat, producing a proper radiation, and aided by moisture
of a suitable temperature. If I err not, proper attention has
not always been paid in the construction of glass-houses to these
several sources of heat, the influence of the rays of light and of
warmth have been confounded together, especially as regards our
chief artificial medium, namely, ground heat. Our ancestors
used to derive great results from low forcing-beds ; I may notice,
among others, the rare exotics of Trew, which were I'eared in the
low manure and bark-beds of his little plant-house, and brought
to blossom and fruit in these. I saw the remnants of this
pariarchal simplicity some forty years ago at Nuremberg. So
also in regard to Jacquin, whose costly works bear witness to
great results obtained from comparatively humble means.

It is known that the mean temperature of wells between the
tropics continues high all the year round. In the Villa da
Barra do Ilio Negi'o in the Amazon territory, I observed the
temperature of a well in the sandstone of a forest through twelve
days, at seven o'clock, and found its temperature to be 19° R.,
and the prevailing ground temperature I should in no case rate at
a less degree. The Amazon water showed commonly 21° R.,
and so do its grand tributaries near their sources. But the
stream constantly exposed to the rays of the sun, exhibited very
often the prodigious height of 37° to 40° R. It may be easily
concluded that the lands in those latitudes even of primeval forests
must have a constant high temperature. In some regions not
overgrown with forest, situated even beyond the tropics, the tempe-
rature was still higher, though not with the same constancy. Thus,
Sir J. Herschell has communicated to Dr. Lindley most impor-
tant observations made by him at the Caps of Good Hope.''' " On
the 5th of December, 1837, Sir John found that the temperature
of the earth in a bulb-garden was 159° F. between 1 and 2 in
the afternoon (= 56° 44 R ); at three o'clock i50°F. (= 52° 44
R.) ; and even in shady situations 1 1 9° F. ( = 38° 67 R.) ; while the

Lindley's Theory of Horticulture, p. 99.

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 79

temperature of the air in the shade was at the same times 98° F.
(= 29° 33 R.) and 92° F. (= 26° 27 R.). At five p. m., and
four inches below the surface, the ground which had been much
shaded, had still a teaiperature of ]02° F. He points out that
these observations prove that in the hot months at the Cape, roots
and bulbs, which do not derive their support from any great depth,
endure commonly a temperature which could only be imitated in
our hot-houses by holding red-hot iron plates over the earth ; for
it is to be remembered that bottom heat imparted from below
would by no means disti'ibute such a degree of temperature." So
far the experienced Lindley.

I need not observe that the bottom-heat of our glasshouses,
that is where bark-beds are not used, is not very high ; so that if
a person were to sleep during a night on the floor, he would not
escape unhurt, as travellers do in hot zones. In places where the
ground is heated by subterraneous fires and solfatores tropical and
subtropical plants often thrive well ; they are thrown back at the
beginning of the cold season, but in the warm nest below the sur-
face that part is sufficiently supported to shoot forth again in
spring. These are facts which ought to guide us ; and as a proof
of this I may instance the splendid effect of the ground heat in
the grand palm-house at St. Petersburgh.

The consequence of a diminished degree of heat in the root
and stem system of tropical forest trees is condensation of the
wood and tardiness in flowering resulting therefrom ; for although
the monocotyledons among them are unremittingly forming fresli
inflorescences, yet these remain for the most part concealed and
in an undisclosed state within the base of the leaves to be brought
forth only during an especially favourable summer. The Agave
Americana blossoms proverbially only once in a hundred years;
although in the southern parts of Europe this period is much
shortened, and within the tropics still more. All this demonstrates
that a certain and successive degree of heat produces regularity in
the flowering periods, especially among monocotyledons ; and
therefore it is that the experienced cultivator, in order to attain
this object, transports the hardy blossoms from a high to a low glass-
house. But dicotyledonous trees which have been long kept
under a low temperature have their wood often so much condensed
that neither the pruning-knife nor anything else will make them
produce even a rudimentary inflorescence.

In general, we can more readily command the temperature of
the air than the ground in our plant-houses ; but still we fall short

80 DR. V. MAliTIUS

in regard to the measure, succession, and duration of heat in the
tropics. During our winter we miglit approach the actual
temperature of the cold months in those countries : but we must
not attempt it ; on the contrary, we should endeavour to bring
about a compromise between our summer and winter, so as to
bring the annual mean temperature below that of tropical coun-
tries. The temperature in our large plant-houses ranges probably
to the height of ^5° C, or 20° R. In hot summers, provided
there is due moisture and atmospheric currents within, the siin
will raise that heat to '24° — 30° R. It is obvious that we cannot
raise the heat from so dark a source as a stove to equal that
emanating from the sun without danger to the plants, because
light must be proportionally increased, as must also the hygrosco-
pical condition of the air, since by far the greater number of plants
experience in their native countries the greatest heat in the wettest
season, that is, in that of the rains. We allow the temperature
during winter to come down to 12° R. at night, and to 13° and
14° during the day, which the plants very rarely experience in the
tropics. Mr. Scbott, one of our most successful cultivators, and
who has had local experience, considers 16° to 18° R. the most
appropriate temperature during day time, lowering at night from
14° to 15° R. I agree with him that at Munich a high plant-
house will bear 18° R., provided the glass covering is double and
the heating apparatus effective enough. 1 need not observe here
that this degree of heat, which is two or tliree or even more
degrees higher than the usual amount, should be uniform througli-
out the building, and that there should be a constant current
in the air, so that its different layers may become duly mixed ;
otherwise the upper parts of the liouse would be suffocatingly
hot and sultry ; I know indeed of a celebrated instance where
the plants above require to be frequently shifted or exchanged.
Glass covering to the north contributes essentially towards
causing such an invisible interchange of the differently heated
layers of air, and serves therefore not alone for the admission
of light. The ordinary means of ventilation will not produce
this salutary effect, however beneficial it may be to Cape or New
Holland plants. An hygroscopical increase by means of vapour
is here of great importance. A proper system of shading is like-
wise indispensable for the due regulation of those two powerful
agencies — ligbt and heat. Nevertheless the crowded plants will
not always thrive equally well under the most favourable circum-
stances ; while some will grow and expand luxuriantly, others will

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 81

suffei" from excess in this respect, and the hope of their flowering
will be frustrated ; indeed, it may be taken as a rule, that the
processes of vegetation and fructification are not the result of a
uniform continuance of these conditions. Plants frequently require
strong heat and moisture for their free growth and preparation for
blossoming, while to ensure this latter stage they must have more
light and a drier heat. A sudden change from a favourable com-
bination of circumstaAces to one less so, will also produce this
effect. Considering the multifarious exigencies of each particular
sort of plant, how difficult, rather how impossible, to meet
them in detail ! All we can do is to individualise our cultures
by means of numerous plant-houses, each adapted for a limited
assemblage of those plants, which correspond most in their various
conditions of life.

The modern labours of Dove, Quetelet, Kreil * and others, on
the dispersion and motion of caloric, exhibiting a mighty
system of causes and effects which influence all living creatures,
cannot fail to be productive of the greatest practical results in
agriculture and gardening. The time may come, perhaps, when
the difference of zones will to a certain extent be overcome in
our gardens. But, as yet, our cultures are subject to severe
difficulties, not the least of these being the complete reversion
of seasons in our hemisphere, as compared with the other,
and the difference in the periods of development, depending
thereon ; not to mention the countless local differences which
influence the vegetation of the same hemisphere and the
same latitude. Hence it would be of the greatest use if an
attempt were made to furnish the art of horticulture with an
appropriate geography of plants, combining besides a general
account of the distribution of heat and the climate, also a
minute detail of the local peculiarities of those parts of the
world which possess a peculiar Flora. It is my humble opinion
that considerations of this sort have not been sufficiently attended
to in practical horticulture, in as much as we collect together
plants from the most different parts of the world and crowd them
together indiscriminately, within one and the same building.

The following two tables, which I have extracted from Dove's
work, will serve to convey to the eye what I have briefly sketched
out above.

* Dove, Connexion of the Changes of Atmospliericai Heat with the
Development of Plants, Berlin, 1846, 4to. ; Movement of Heat in Strata of
Different Geognostic Characters, ISiS ; Tables of Temperature, with Remarls

VOIi. IX. G

82

DR. V. MAKTIUS

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UPON PLANT-HOUSES.

83

MEAN TEMPERATURE OF THE SEASONS.

Dififereuce

Difference

u

a

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Place.

1

g)

a

§

hottest and

Summer

a

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.y

U

coldest

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^

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>>

Months.

Whiter.

Munich .

0.22

7.36

14.06 7.47, 7.28

15.62

13.84

Lisbon . . .

9.12

12.29

17.31 13.55 13.07

9.20

8.19

Cairo

11.79

18.48

23.60il7.55']7.85

13.20

11.81

New Orleans , .

10.58

17.82

22.24116.57 16.80

1-3.32

11.66

Ava

16.36

22.18

^! 2.92 20.95,20.61

9.56

6.56

Madras . . .

20.84

24.27

24.46

22.65 123.07

4.82

3.62

Colombo

20.96

22.89

21.72

21.10 21.67

2.88

0.76

Havanah . . .

18.21

19.65

21.93

20.5020.07

4.53

3.72

Paramaribo .

20.73

21.03

21.56

22.5421.47

2.41

0.83

Batavia . . .

20.73

21.10

20.51

20.00,20.59

2.22

—0.22

Lima

20.27

20.64

16.03

16.51 18.36

6.16

—4.24

Rio de Janeiro . .

20.95

18.98

16.26 18.0.3 18.56

5.77

—4.69

Cape Town •

18.77

15.70

11.86114.96 15.32

8.17

—6.91

Montevideo . .

20.15

16.00

11.26 14.52 15.45;

10.22

—8.89

Macquarie Harbour

14.32

9.84

6.06 11.44 10.42|

1

9.41

—8.26

These tables exhibit the mean temperature of each month and
of each season, in fifteen places, nine of them being north, and
six south of the equator, selected on purpose, each belonging to a
different floral domain. I have placed Munich at the head, as
the point of comparison ; and this place, with Lima, are the only-
ones in the list, which do not lie near the sea, or are little
elevated above it. Now, if the mean temperatures are represented
by means of lines, curves will be obtained, by which the
horticulturist may at a glance learn the changes of heat of each
place, and how the two seasons are reversed in the two hemi-
spheres. The heat regulates the vegetation of each place,
both north and south of the equator ; but as to the hemi-
spheres, what we cultivate at Munich from the southern, must
throw off its native course of development and accommodate
itself to its altered location. While our mean temperature at

on tlie Distribution of Heat over the Earth's Surface, and its Annual Periodical
Changes, 1848 ; The Non-periodical Changes in the Distribution of Temperature
over the Earth's Surface, 4 vols., 1840-47 ; Distribution of Heat throwjh the
Isotheimis, Tliermic Isanomals, and Ternperaturc Cui'ves, 1852. Quetelet, Sur
le CUmat de la Be^giqm ; and his numerous papers on periodical pheno-
mena in the vegetable kingdom, in the Brussels Memoirs. Kreil, in the
Magnetical and Meteorological Observations made at Prague (in 1844-45),
and in Proceedings of the Imperial Academy at Vienna. Not to mention
the labours of Melloni, Forbes, Pouillet and others, on other questions
connected with heat.

g2

84 DR. V. MARTIUS

Munich, in June and July, is 13° 38 R., and 14° 55 R. respec-
tively, it is at Port Macquarie 4° 91 and 5° 98; and while our
December and January indicate 1° 29 and 1° 07 ; they are at
that place 14° 32. The practical gardener may derive many
valuable hints from tables of this nature. He will avoid crowding
together in one house natives of both hemispheres, for it is
obvious, that those from the northern will better endure the
diminished winter temperature than those from the southern,
which at that very period experience their warmest summer;
they will even benefit to a certain extent by such a diminution,
provided it does not greatly exceed in degree that of their
native place. In all cases where quiescence of vegetation and
winter-rest are caused, not by want of moisture, but by a low
temperature, we may apply it during winter to plants from the
northern hemisphere. But the plants of the other half of the
globe require very great nicety of adjustment on account of the
reversed seasons to which they are accustomed. Experience
teaches us, that plants possess, to a certain degree, the power of
accommodating themselves to modifications in the ordinary course
of seasons, even in their own countries. The same plant will
submit to a shortened period of vegetation, the more it approaches
the pole or ascends mountains. In his paper entitled "Observa-
tions upon the Temperature to which plants are naturally
exposed in New Holland," contained in tlie journal of the
Horticultural Society of London, vol. iii. (for 1848) p. 282,
Dr. Lindley furnishes us with most important information upon
the subject before us, and which I strongly recommend to
careful study.*

I cannot entertain a doubt, but that in the distant future, the
cultivation which is now carried on in plant-houses — those sub-
stitutes for tropical zones — will acquire a degree of perfection
which it is almost impossible to anticipate even in imagination.
Not that we can ever expect to see the pine-apple growing in our
fields, or our streets and squares lined with bananas, coffee-trees,
or palms ; but some mighty potentate or wealthy people will im-
prove upon the wonderful Crystal Palace at this moment rising at
Sydenham, and bring us in bodily contact with the luxury and
magnificence of a tropical world. All sciences will combine to
produce such results, and posterity will look back on us with the
proud humility of a Watt, or a Konig — the discoverers of the

* As the above Journal is not generally known in Germany, the author
{rives here an extract from the memoir.

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 85

Bteam engine and steam printing. As yet our glass-houses are
mere make-shifts ; — science aloue, in the most extended sense of
tlie word, can perfect them ; and here, too, the Enghsh saying,
"Knowledge is power," will have its full application. The
researches of Dove convince us, that there exist influences in nature,
which those structures either do not admit at all, or only in a very
imperfect degree. Granting that we could introduce a due pro-
portion of heat, light, and moisture: still the real solar influence,
with all its thermic, chemical, and other powers, the radiation from
the soil, and its other properties of conducting heat and moisture,
&c., helonging to tropical countries, are impossibilities to us. Our
vegetable wards, properly speaking, have neither the proper loca-
tion nor soil, accorded to them in their own native climate, they are
doomed to a sort of anchorite life of solitude, in some tub or cask,
instead of the free expanse of land and air, to which they have been
habituated ; and how much they suffer in consequence, is proved
by the contortions of roots and stems, and the excrescences, &c, to
which they become subject. The sun's light conveyed to them
has to pass through panes of glass differing in colour and thick-
ness, placed at various inclinations towards the horizon and
ecliptic : all these are deviations from the natural state of things,
so great as not to be counterbalanced. A distinguished English
natural philosopher, whom I consulted on the best mode of con-
structing glass-houses, expresses himself in this manner ; " The
rays of heat pass through glass, as well as liquid substances, and
probably also through vapour in the atmosphere, in a veiy capricious
manner. If it is considered, besides, how small a portion of the
entire solar spectrum is luminous, and how extremely variable
is the absorbent action of the media, we are led to a belief, that
the question of the most appropriate construction for the recep-
tion of light still remains unanswered. We can only advance by
direct experiments." The problem receives further complications,
according to each locality, from latitude, clime, exposure of the
house, &c., and even from the chemical structure of the glass
used. Respecting this last article, a talented botanist, who has
at the same time a great degree of practical experience in
gardening, writes to me as follows : " Part of our house had
colourless, the other green glass ; the former we are now obliged to
paint white, and the latter has lost its colour, which has happened
.also at various other places. With all respect for the progress of
.chemical science, it must be admitted, that the old glass-manufac-
turers delivered articles of durable colour, while at present this

86 DR. V. MARTIUS

result can only be secured by means of a binding contract. The
green colour of glass becomes a breakfast to the sun, which, when
thirsty, dniiks up all the green and leaves the glass vacant. I
think with Hooker that blueish-green glass is best suited for our
purposes." Finally — what suits one place does not suit another ;
for instance, Paxtou's system of numerous ridge and furrow roofs,
so highly prized in England, would certainly not answer in our
snowy climate.

Tiie nearest approximation to a perfect influence of the sun
would be effected, if it were possible in summer, and in favourable
weather, to remove the glass covering altogether during the day-
time, as is done in conservatories in southern Europe. But
as such an arrangement is impracticable, we must endeavour
to accommodate ourselves to circumstances as well as we can,
and take care to provide the greatest quantity of light ; but the
intense luminous, heating, and chemical powers of a tropical
sun, we must, once for all, give up the hope of imitating in our
latitudes. Thus situated, we will try to find out the degree at
which plants are really dependent upon light ; and as data for
this investigation must be derived chiefly from our own Flora,
we must apply them on the principle that, since each Floral
Domain, in every climate, is subject to the same laws of nature,
observations made in Germany may furnish us with certain
general rules, applicable to the productions of all other countries.

Let us take the common fir as an example of the influence of
light and heat on the growth of forest trees. When raised from
seed in an open plain, it will grow regularly in height, and ex-
pand its branches in all directions, which will remain a longtime
in the form altogether of an upright cone. When the lowermost
become so long as to touch the ground, they die off, and the next
in succession take the place of them : and this process is repeated
as the tree advances in age and dimensions, so that, if no dis-
turbing injuries intervene, its coniform appearance remains still
the same, at a height of above eighty feet, as it was when it
measured only fifteen feet. At a certain age, proportioned probably
to the production of its branches, the individual becomes fertile,
and seeds are matured, of which, again, according to certain
influences, the proportion of barren ones gradually decreases. As
the fertile seeds meet in the immediate neighbourhood with
favourable conditions for their growth, a little grove springs up
round the parent stem, and a struggle of development takes
place among the crowded seedlings, in which some succumb, and

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 87

thus the commenchig forest thins itself, according as the locality
is favourable or otherwise. The denser the crowd is, the less are
the young trees able to send forth branches, and the more are
these shortened and impoverished ; while, at the same time, the
stems themselves push on rapidly in perpendicular height, in
order to lift their crown towards the light. Gradually fertility
comes on, the forest extends itself centrifugally in all directions,
most of the seedlings under the shade perishing off in their
infancy. The open plain is now converted into a green and
shady forest ; the underwood is gradually suppressed by the
powerful growth of the trees, giving way to a vegetation of shade-
plants and of mosses. But now the parent tree shares the lot of
part of its own progeny ; these deprive it of its means of existence,
the soil furnishes insufficient food, the air supplies inadequate
light, heat, and moisture, and gradually it dies down to the root.
Such is the universal course of nature ; and, modified according
to local diversity, it prevails all over the vegetable world. The
sagacious forester knows how to turn this to advantage, by
thinning and other processes. He notices that where a vacant
space occurs, the nearest trees extend their branches most actively
in that direction ; and that the trees on the skirts of the forest
produce the strongest branches outwardly; in short, that the
trees, as well as their boughs, entirely obey the light and its
concomitant heat in their development — that this is greatest on
the open, least on the shady side. But he perceives at the same
time, that reflected heat and its radiation, as well as the quality
of the soil and its moisture, essentially qualify these effects ; that
trees differ much in their predilection as regards light and
shade ; some demanding the former, some requiring the latter,
while others will barely, or not at all, endure shade ; finally, that
all these combined phenomena vary according to the different
periods of life in individuals.

In a narrow valley, extending south and north, all other con-
ditions being equal, the western aspect will be most luxuriant,
because the solar influence is greater and lasts longest on that
side, producing greater radiation. If vertical rocks are present,
especially of white colour, there will be an active reflection of
light, illuminating as well as heating. In case the direction of
the valley is east and -west, the vegetation will be strongest
towards the south from a similar cause. A tree on a northern
declivity of a hill will send forth more slender branches to the
north, and stouter and more leafy to the south, and vice versa.

88 DR. V. MARTIUS

There are deviations which will have to be ascribed to the
jDrevalent direction of winds, or thunder storros, the peculiarities of
seasons, sources of irrigation, the physical and chemical qualities
of the soil, &c. But there will still remain phenomena which
admit of no satisfactory solution ; as, for instance, the torsion
of trunks, especially of Conifers, producing a corresponding
structure in the wood, the fibres turning with (that is, from right
to left), or contrary to (from left to right), the course of the sun
[nachsonniges nnd widersonniyes Holz), and which varieties are
practically attended to in the highlands of Bavaria.

I feel convinced, that our plant-houses ought to be constructed
in accordance with the preceding considerations, the chief results
of which are — 1, that each tree possesses, originally, the con-
ditions of uniform and symmetrical development ; 2, that a
variety of external influences interferes with that development ;
and 3, these influences, though they may degenerate into cases of
sickness, are by no means to be looked upon as unnatural, but
belong to the ordinary system of nature in the vegetable creation,
constituting what the ingenious Kielmeyer calls Politia verjeta-
biliiun. Hence this twofold corollary ; the number of plants in a
house must be judiciously limited, and partial developments will
sometimes occur among the plants contained in it, since nature
allows such to exist in the wild state. In England, where
numerous establishments of this sort exist, and on a large scale,
such overcrowdings are rarely seen ; and besides, cultivators
frequently limit their efforts to particular objects. Not so in
Germany, where the contrary tendency prevails, and a stranger
consequently forms an unfavourable opinion of our so-called
riches, especially in public gardens. Again, inexperienced, only
half-informed people, are apt to blame the cultivator, when he sees
that plants in a hot-house strive to elongate themselves towards
the light, although he would hardly notice the much more
frequent and still stronger tendency of that description in open
nature. Excess may of course be the result of a faulty con-
struction of the building, and become offensive to the eye ; but
my experience has taught me, that so far from the turning of a
woody plant towards the light being injurious to their production
of flowers, it has occurred most frequently in years which were
the most prolific in flowers. I conclude that both these
events resulted from one source, namely, a favourable com-
bination of circumstances, causing a higher degree of vegetable
activity.

UPON PLANT-HOUSES, 89

The most impenetrable of all wonders are the three-twins :
light, heat, and shadow. They appear ever combined together,
and as regards the two first, they grow into each other in such
a wise, that no mortal has ever pointed out then" line of demarca-
tion ; while the third brother, shadow, is an unsubstantial
negative, likewise intimately united with the two others. Unseen
it traverses the eye of the smallest needle, and the widest
church gate ; only when its brothers are obstructed in their
course does it make itself perceptible. The vegetable world
is dependent on light and heat, as well as their negative, shade.
Leaving out of consideration the class of countless Diatomese
which have been given to science, if not to the animal kingdom,
by the I'esearches of Ehrenberg ; and the fungi of dark and damp
recesses, the world of green plants is so powerfully influenced by
light and shade, that we must bring certain practical results,
connected with them, to bear upon the construction of our glass-
houses. Gustav Heyer has recently published a graduated list of
timber trees'-' which endure shade, or require light.

The author points out that the relation of these important
timber trees towai'ds light and shade, is indicated by their
dense or light foliage (in forests), the extent of time in which
oppressed branches and stems will keep alive, and the ability of
the young plants to thrive under the old stems. But this
dependence on light and shade becomes modified by interfering
circumstances. Thus, on rich and fertile, or moist lands, plants
which would otherwise require light, will thrive in shade. In the
rich loam of the mild Wetterau, potatoes and grain thrive quite
freely under the shade of fruit-trees ; while a little further north-
ward, in the less fertile soils of Giessen and Marburg, the area
under trees remains naked. Great difference occurs also in hilly
situations, where frequent fogs and rain prevail. We must bear
in mind, further, that northern declivities of mountains have often
a thicker layer of mould than southern ones, in which it becomes
more rapidly decomposed and is dispersed, as may be observed in
primaeval forests of tropical countries. All these matters should
assist us in our work, as far as the scanty information we possess
concerning the specific relation of tropical plants towards light
and shade, &c., will enable us. But, in fact, we are unable satisr
factorily to limit the boundaries between the luminous and

* Das Vei-halten, &c. (" Relation of Forest-trees to Light and Siiade.")
-Erlaugen, 1852. 8vo, p. 3.

90 DR. V. MARTIUS

chemical effect of light on plants ; because we perceive the former
of these exclusively by the aid of an organ, which is wliolly denied
to the vegetable world, and even to the lower orders of animals.

Wliat we call eyes or buds in plants, are undoubtedly more
affected by light, as an illuminating power, than any other organs,
as far as regards their growth, which I consider, moreover, as a
mechanical result. By way of objection to this apparently heterodox
view, it will be asked, — Is not light the universal stimulus of
plants ? Does it not operate on those green, and blind, deaf,
and dumb beings in the same way, as it does on those many-
coloured ones among lower animals ? Is not M. Treviranus
correct in assuming, that the influence of light among plants
supplies that of a nervous system ? Is not the graduated predi-
lection of plants for light and shade a proof that they cannot
exist without some degree of light, as such ? Is it not the same
as regards the indispensable succession of light required by all
plants ? And, lastly, have not the various movements of plants a
direct dependence on light, apart from heat? I answer in
the aflBrmative to all these queries : light, as an illuminating
power, is an essential life-stimulus to plants, even though they
do not see it ; but only in so far as the plant is, and must be,
a moving being. Let us, by way of explaining my meaning, take
the homely example of a dark cellar, in which is kept a quantity of
fresh potatoes with eyes, and unseemly shaped sprouts. If a
pencil of light is thrown among them, so as to touch almost the
hinder wall against which the potatoes are piled, when the sun
reaches a certain point, the shoots will be seen to strain and
elongate themselves in a remarkable degree towards the luminous
opening, especially those that are opposite to it. What is the
influence which the light exercises in this case, where it does not
touch the roots, and cannot therefore operate either by its heating
or chemical properties ? It is growth : a sort of organic reacting
movement called forth by the undulating motion of the ether
caused by light. Thousands of similar observations serve to point
at this innate tendency of plants towards light. But this reaction,
though proportionate to the inappreciably minute motion of the
ether, so that it will probably never be observed in the single
cell, is something mechanical, in as far as it affects a body moving
in space. It follows hence: — 1, that light, as luminous, belongs
not to general stimulants ; 2, that it operates not directly, but
indirectly through the atmosphere, or water, or ether; and
3, since the calorific and chemical effects of light depend on the

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 91

quality of matter, light itself is neither a universal nor a direct
stimulant of vegetable life.

Since plants do not see that light which causes their growth ;
there must necessarily exist, to them, a sort of dark light ; in
other words, the light which we see and feel can only exercise an
indirect power on the vegetable creation. Plants have no nervous
system, and what I call their soul is nothing hut their
inherent nisus formatlviis. Hence, they are not susceptible of
any real dynamic irritation that is unaccompanied by mechanical
or chemical power. Light must consequently operate differently
upon them by something dififerent from its luminous quality. A
plant which turns towards the light reacts on its dark, not its
luminous power. To the question, is light per se cold or warm,
I reply it is neither ; it possesses no temperature, but it makes it.

Ingenhouss has long ago laid down the maxim, that solar light
is hurtful to the commencing germination in proportion as it is
beneficial to the growing plant. Meese, A. v. Humboldt, and
many others have corroborated it, and so does our daily experience.
The bud, however, is accelerated in its development by the
influence of light, especially direct from the sun, and this appears
in a more marked manner in the covered (gemmae perulatse) than
the naked buds. As a general law, subject of course to partial
modifications, our most eminent Treviranus has stated, in concise
terms, that the ascending axis, the upper surface of the leaf, and
the flower, require the stimulus of light; whereas the descending
axis, the under leaf-surface, and the fruit either require it not, or
are even injured by it. In conformity with these postulates we
must construct our glass-houses, and I believe a strong reflection
of light is better than a weak one, and that a bluish durable
colour is preferable to others.

According to Aubert du Petit Thenars and his followers, it is
the leaves that build the tree ; a truth which might be modified by
saying that light, supported partially by heat, builds the tree.
We must, accordingly, provide as much, and as diffused light as
possible in our houses, in order that the contents may spread their
branches symmetrically in all directions. It is a matter of course,
that a proportionate degree of heat is likewise indispensable. All
this is plain enough, when the question is simply the cultivation
of trees and shrubs for the sake of exhibiting their natural habitus
to greatest advantage, but since we have to provide also for their
periods of flowering and fruiting in perfection, certain points are
to be considered. Those periods may be fitly divided into four

92 UK. V. MARTIUS

stages, namely: l.the incipient stage; 3, the formation of the
infloresceuce ; 3, the expansion of the flower from its bud, and
its anthesis ; and, lastly, 4, the production of fruit and seed. On
the three first stages light exercises a powerfully promoting
influence ; on the last, this is the case only in some plants, while
the fruits of others are indifferent to light, or even hurt by it^
Of the powerfully beneficial influence of heat and light on fruit,
the Mango, to me the most delicious of all, affords a striking
instance. The tree is densely leafy and shady. Those of its
large fruits which are produced on the outside of the crown of the
tree, being exposed to the direct solar power, possess a nobler
aroma than the others placed in comparative shade, and thus may
a great variety of nuances be discovered among the produce of
one and the same tree, as regards sweetness, acidity, aroma, resin,
.&c.* The same applies to other fruit-trees.

A botanic garden may be considered as an observatory (specula
botanica) in which the different plant-houses form the principal
parts. We have now to consider what are the plants to be cultivated
in these, for the mode of cultivation is only a secondary object of
my present enquiry. In the first place the principal types of the
vegetable world ought to be found in the houses, and the more
judicious and complete tlie selection is in that respect, the more
is the intention of the institution realised. But this is a
matter of great difiiculty ; and hence, the richest gardens, such
as those at Paris, Kew, Ber'lin, and Vienna, are still far from the
mark. Some families of plants do not admit of being brought
into cultivation, or only to a very limited extent, such as
Xyridese, Eriocaulese, Burmanniaceae, Gilliesiaceae, Taccacese,
Brunoniacese, Chlaenaceae, Dipterocarpefe, Ehizoboleae, Vochy-
siacete, Alangiacete, Olacineae, Podostemaceae, and Lacistemacese.
It is not simply the actual rarity of certain plants in their native

* My heart warms in this gloom of long continued confinement from
indisposition, at the distant recollection called forth by the above just
picture of the far-famed fruit, which I and other old Indians might very
properly call our Mango food, because, when in season, it is truly the daily
food, morning, noon, and evening, of genuine amateurs. Nothing can be
more correct, than what the eminent author says concerning the striking
influence of strong solar heat and light, on the produce of those trees.
While the fruits of some favourite and choice individual, most intensely
exposed to those influences, are exqui«itely balsamic, sweet and delicious,
the rest become gradually less so, participating more or less of the vulgar
uneducated Mango, graphically and not inappropriately assimilated in its
flaypur to a carrot steeped in turpentine. A Crab-mango, if I may use the
term, is indeed veiy kh'arab (which means bad or vile in Hindustani). —
Translator.

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 93

places, but also the difficulty to procure perfect seeds, or to
preserve growing plants alive which oppose our endeavours, Not
to mention such tribes as Lorauthaceae, Cytineae, Balauophoreae,
EafflesieacefE, and the like, who has ever been so fortunate as to
study in a glass-house a Lardizabalea, Schizandracea, Lacistemea,
or Gyrocarpea? It is curious that many kinds of seeds will out-
live long voyages, while others similarly constituted soon perish.

But something more than the mere existence of some rare
productions is required to compensate for the cost and trouble of
obtaining them. The Seedling Bertholletia, Caryocar, Lecythis
and the like, which are annually imported from the colonies, perish
soon, and without being of the least use, that could not be equally
well derived from Herbarium specimens. Such articles may
parade in garden catalogues as great rarities, but are in reality
very worthless items. The longe^dty of trees, such as those just
mentioned, is generally in a reversed ratio as regards their period
of development ; but there are exceptions ; f. e. the Bombaceae,
which will grow with rapidity when transported into our houses.
We ought further to consider well, whether certain forms, which
may be easily made to flower, are of sufficient importance to take
up room that might be more usefully occupied by others. Whether
we cultivate 20 or 100 sorts of Erica is, scientifically speaking,
indifFereut ; and the same may be said of many Cape and New-
Holland Thymelacese, Proteacese, Epacridefe, Leguminosae, and
Rutacese. A botanic institution should enable the student to
examine the characters of living genera; but of numerous species
only in such cases, where the Herbarium renders their study
difficult. The sorts of Gnidia, Pimelea, Erica, many Proteaceae,
Rutacefe, Grasses, Cyperacefe, &c., may be quite satisfactorily ex-
amined in their dried state ; but the beautiful and minute syste-
matic character's of Schott's Aroidese, Roscoe's Scitamineae and
Nees V. Esenbeck's Acanthacese, require to be examined in the
hot-house ; so also with respect to the fertile researches of Gaspar-
rini and Miquel on the diversity of the floral structure in the
fig tribes.

Owing to some peculiar predilection in favour of certain forms,
many of them are admitted in exorbitant numbers ; such as
Cape and New-Holland, Mexican and South European Compositse,
which are represented to a very disproportionate extent in many
botanic gardens. Thus the Paris Garden contained in 1850, 350
genera of that family, according to H. Brongniart's catalogue.
Peculiar moi'phological forms give great eclat to the house ; f. e. the

94 DR. V. MARTIUS

ampuUse of Utricularia ; the ascidia of Cephalotus, Nepenthes, and
Sarracenia ; the ciliated and irritable leaves of Diontea ; the
coral-red two-lobed bracts of Ruyschia or the many-coloured
swollen ones of Souroubea ; the elegantly coloured leaflet on one
of the calycine teeth of Calycophyllum ; the ornamented gland-
ular usually involute leaves of Dracophyllum ; the red calyx of
Erythrochiton ; the divers forms of petals in Erythroxylon and
many Sapindaceae ; the white involucre of various forms in the
Australian umbelliferous genus Leucolajna ; the curious spathe in
Pistia and Ambrosinia ; the tendril-forms of various Cucurbitacese ;
the double floral torsion in Disa ; the indusiate stigma in Gooden-
oviacete ; the unusual forms of flower in Aristolochise, Passiflorese,
Belvisieje and Loasese. I need the less to extend this list, which
would be easy enough, had not professor Schitzlein promised me
that he would publish, for the use of Directors of botanic gardens,
an enumeration of such morphological forms. These connect
themselves often with facts and considerations appertaining to
vegetable geography ; certain forms spreading all over the world ;
others extending over hemispheres or extensive countries, while
some are confined within narrower limits. The more such forms
are brought together in geographical proximity in our plant-houses,
the more will they serve to exhibit the vegetable physiognomy of
their native places. The distinguished Japanese traveller and
author Von Siebold observes, that no country produces so great a
variety of plants with variegated leaves as that ; to produce them
forms an occupation among Japanese gardeners, but their proce-
dure is unknown. It is reported that there are plants in Mada-
gascar, which produce many-shaped leaves in one and the same
individual (as we see in Ruizia variabilis of our hot-houses).
Perforated leaves (folia pertusa) are likewise said to belong to
that Flora. It belongs assuredly to the destination of plant-
houses to exhibit and as far as possible to trace such forms.

But physiognomical characters of floral regions ought likewise
to be represented, by cultivating such species as are peculiarly
suited to that end. Heaths and Thymelese with their slender
branches and minute leaves ; the rush-like Restiacese ; the arid,
splendid floral heads of Proteacese ; the succulent Aloes and
Stapeliae from the Cape ; the shrubby Rutaceee ; the Epacridese ;
the leafless Acacias, with vertical phyllodia, from New Holland ;
the Mexican Cacti, Dasyliria, Hechtiae, Agavae, Yuccae, and
Cycadeas, should not be wanting in establishments which lay claim
to any degree of perfection.

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 95

A very important object in our selection consists in plants which
possess medicinal, technical, economical, commercial, and the like
properties and utilities. Of vital interest among primeval forest
trees, are, among others, the Teak, various stately Laurinese, the
light and aromatic woods used in the manufacture »f cigars and
pencils, the different sorts of Sappan, Brazil, Brazilet, and St.
Martha woods, or the red, yellow, and white Sanders (Cajsalpinia,
Santalum, Pterocarpus), or the species of Madura, the sources of
the divers Yellow woods (Fustic) of North and South America, the
species of Myrospermum, Copaifera, Icica, and Hymenasa, which
produce the Peruvian Balsam, the Copaiva oil, the Elemi and
Copal resins, the little known, precious, hard and dark-coloured
woods of the Palisander (i. e. Palo santo, a leguminous tree), the
American Rose and Satin woods. These magnificent trees are
little known, and either totally wanting in our botanic gardens, or
they only exist there in a very stinted and poor condition. But
even smaller trees or shrubs, and other perennials of the above
class, are rarely or not at all seen in our gardens : for instance, the
various Cassife yielding senna leaves, the plant yielding the ringed,
white, and striped Ipecacuanha, the different gum plants of
Arabia, the incense-producing plants of the East Indies and
Arabia, the numerous Indigoferae, from which the dye is manu-
factured in different countries, the genuine plants of the East
Indies producing gambir, kino, and catechu, the Molucca Sago
Palm (Metroxylon) reproducing itself from the root ; besides many
others. It is only in later times that, thanks to the zealous
labours of Weddell, several species of Cinchona have been brought
into cultivation, and it is in England only that they have been
so fortunate as to obtain flowers, and even fruit, of some of the
noblest tropical fruit-trees, such as Mangifera indica, Garcinia
Mangostana, Averrhoa Carambola, and Bilimbi, Euphoria,
Nephelium, and many delicious large-fruited Myrtacea), (Psidium,
Eugenia, Jambosa). Still even among perennial and annual
useful plants are still absent from our glass-houses, notwith-
standing our vastly improved intercourse with distant parts of
the globe. We still miss many Cucurbitacese (among these
the remarkable Sechium edule), the esculent Oxalis and Tro-
paeolum species from Chili, various vegetables of tropical
countries, also oil-plants, and even their different cereals, such
as the maize of Paraguay with the seeds enveloped in the
large covering (Pinsingalo of Buenos Ayres, Zea Mais tunicata,
St. Hil., Zea cryptosperma Bonafous), or the small-seeded sort

96 DB. V. MARTI US

found in Peruvian tombs (differing, seemingly, from Z. Curagua
Molina).

The author concludes his memoir with the following aphoristic
summary : —

1. First of all it is to be determined what plants are to be
cultivated in a given Plant-house, or its separate parts. The
more select the choice, the more judicious their grouping ac-
cording to habits and culture, the easier and cheaper will be the
execution of the structure, and the treatment of its contents.

2. The distinction between a Serre d' exhibition, "ein hohes
Schauhaus " (large stove conservatory ?) and a low stove, " eiu
niedrigeres Gewachshaus," must be kept rigidly in view, accord-
ing to their different requirements ; and it is preferable,
accordingly, as regards economy and management, to have two
separate buildings, instead of one, for accomplisliing the objects
in contemplation. Plants of low and humble growth should be
banished from a large building destined chiefly for trees and tall
shrubs, and placed in one of suitable elevation.

3. In the construction of a Stove-Conservatory, it is an impor-
tant consideration, whether the intention is to exhibit the growth
and habit of its inmates, or chiefly their flowers and fruits.

4. In order to favour, in the greatest degree possible, the har-
monious growth of the plants, to obtain a uniform development of
branches and leaves, such a building must be capable of admitting
light from all sides,

5. But this object may be attained in our climate, by admitting
light to the North, from above, independent of its indispensable
access from the South, and also the East and West; for reflected
light acts more powerfully than direct, in proportion as the angle
of incidence of its rays is greater.

6. If it is found desirable to apply glass extensively on the
north-side, this important result will be attained, that it will con-
tribute towards maintaining as uniform a degree of heat within as
possible (by preventing its accumulation in the higher strata of
air), and promoting transversal currents.

7. In both the one and the other description of buildings, it is
particularly to be attended to, that shade-plants are kept entirely
apart from others ; if in the same house, they require distinct
treatment.

8. The plants which belong to the Stove-Conservatory are
those peculiar to the forest vegetation, both the loftiest and ordi-
nary, of their native country ; and as the denseness of a forest

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 97

impedes the full development of its trees, so does the same
happen in a crowded house. Hence the area must be propor-
tionate to the production of branches and leaves. That those
structures are in many cases overloaded with plants, is proved
by the practice of removing many of these out of doors, into the
open air, in summer; the remnant being mostly numerous
enough to occupy the entire space, without preventing commo-
dious access.

9. The more spacious the building is, the greater opportunity
does it afford for cultivating also plants which thrive under con-
siderable privation of light ; that is to say, such of these as are
kept irrespectively of their flowering, or which may be accom'
modated with light at that particular period, or else are accustomed
to blossom in the shade.

10. The organisation of trees fits them, in a greater degree
than plants of lower stature, to have the loss of light compensated
by an increase of temperature in the soil ; and they demand,
accordingly, especial care in that respect, during the season of the
year, when the scanty supply of light indicates a judicious and
cautious increase of bottom -heat in the building.

1 1. Since the forest- vegetation is, on the whole, more dependent
on periodical light than the ground- vegetation (Flurvegetation), it
follows that we must em ploy a variety and complication of appliances,
in order to modify the effect of light and shade, which are less
indispensable in the low houses (propagating stoves) where her-
baceous and the like plants are chiefly and extensively cultivated.

1'2. These last-mentioned buildings and plants ought to have
as much as possible continuous daylight, in conformity to what
takes place in their natural place of gi'owth ; whereas

13. The lower forest- vegetation demands a strong degree of
direct light, and if equinoctial, or from hot tropical countries, a
long-continued and uniform increase of heat.

14. The ground-vegetation of various tropical and subtropical
regions are subject, sometimes, to a very considerable reduction of
temperature, owing to the powerful nocturnal radiation of heat ;
so that plants from thence should be carefully separated from
those which are impatient of any considerable diminution of
temperature. It is in this respect that mountain plants from
the tropics will bear being associated with those of subtropical
regions.

15. As far as it is practicable, such plants only as agree in
their periods of vegetation should be associated together in any

98 DR. V. MARTIUS

description of house ; especially in those cases where the transi-
tion from one vital period into another is very energetic, and
where the state of rest is in consequence strongly marked. In
short, plants of very different periodicity should always be kept
apart from each other.

16. In the reconstruction or arrangement of houses, the pro-
ductions of one and the same native couutiy ought, wherever
possible, to be assembled together. It is advantageous to go
beyond even the common classification of Cape of Good Hope
houses. New Holland houses, etc., and to establish single floral
regions, in separate buildings, or divisions of them.

17. Whenever it is required to subdivide and accommodate a
house for different cultures, those plants which are nearest allied
in their life-periods ought to be grouped together ; while others,
which differ greatly on that point, should be kept farthest remote
from each other.

1 8. In selecting the proper site in a given locality, the first
consideration should be, whether the intended building admits of
being erected at right angles to the meridian, or at what declina-
tion from it ; and consequently, what light can be obtained at
certain times of the year, or the day. So likewise must attention
be paid to the peculiarities of the climate in which the garden is
situated, in apportioning the different localities in the building
itself. Under this head comes especially the direction of the pre-
vailing winds at different seasons, by which the temperature of one
or the other aspect of the house may become particularly lowered.

1 9. Accordiiig to the nature of the plants in the house and its
subdivisions, the amount of moisture given to them by various
contrivances must be regulated. The antiquated terms hot and
moist, hot and dry, cold and moist, cold and dry, find an appli-
cation here to some extent ; for example, plants from dry places
require being heated exclusively by means of hot air conveyed in
pipes, while others are best suited by tubes conveying hot
water, or by a regulated admission of warm vapours. On these
important differences depend the terms of dry and damp stoves
(to which latter belong those for Orchidea) ; but as we become
nearer acquainted with the wants of certain families and floras,
according to the degree and periodicity of a variety of influences,
we shall have to proceed further in these subdivisions ; and this
points out, that the cultivation of Orchidece, Ferns, Bromeliaceo',
AroidefB, ScitaminefB, etc. ought, as far as practicable, to be kept
asunder.

UPON PLANT-HOUSES. 99

20. The ventilation of the building is another point of great
weight ; for free air furnishes not only the ixihidum vita to plants,
causing the manifold internal movements of vegetation ; but it
promotes the act of impregnation, among others by the aid of
small insects. The cultivator has moreover the power of adding
certain gases to the atmosphere in the house, which may serve,
under certain circumstances, to promote vegetation.

21. Aquatic plants being, with few exceptions, of humble
stature, their cultivation belongs properly to low stoves. Some
kinds of a taller growth might be suitably provided for in conser-
vatory stoves by placing them round fountains or artificial cascades.
They will however attain their greatest perfection in stoves espe-
cially devoted to their culture, and heated by hot water.

VII. — Some Account of the Horticulture of Tacna in Peru.
By John Reid, Esq.

(Communicated by Wm. Reid, Esq., Rose Bank.)

The cultivation of Tacna, as well as that of all other parts of
the coast of Peru, is carried on by irrigation. The small stream,
dignified by the name of river, has its rise in the neighboui'ing
mountains : and the " chacras " or farms extend on either side from
where the water leaves the ravine to about two miles below the
town, beyond which point the moisture rarely or never reaches.
The whole length of the cultivated track is about twelve miles,
but its breadth is extremely unequal, caused by inequalities of the
surface in some places, and the stony and uncultivable nature of
the soil in others ; in no part, however, does it exceed a few
hundred yards, and 3000 acres may be taken as a fair approxi-
mation to the area of the whole cultivated land. When the
Spaniards first took possession of Peru, they parcelled out the
ground along the rivers on the coast amongst the Indians,
allotting to each division its proportion of water, and fixing the
hours at which it was to be taken ; this original regulation is still
followed. The valley (all cultivated tracks in Peru are called
valleys) is divided into seven districts, to each of which the river
belongs exclusively, on one certain day of the week, and is sub-
divided among the farms of that part, under the superintendence

H 2

100 HORTICULTURE

of a "principal," named yearly for the purpose. The whole body
of water in ordinary times occupies only a channel about four feet
in width, by sixteen inches deep, and runs with a very moderate
current, so that it is astonishing to see the effects it is made to pro-
duce; three hours weekly of the twentieth part of this streamlet
is called a " particion," and is barelys ufficient for about two acres,
which seems to have been the extent of the original divisions.

Where water is so precious, of course great care is. taken in
applying it in the most economical manner ; the ground is divided
into a series of squares, of six or eight yards on the side, by ridges
of earth thrown up between them, sufficiently thick to resist the
water, and to serve as footpaths or alleys ; these communicate
with each other, and are successively filled with water to the
depth considered necessary ; or ridges are thrown up in parallel
lines, through which the water flows in a zig-zag dii'ectiou, until
all is sufficiently moistened.

The staple productions of the valley are " Alfalfa " or Lucerne,
and " Mais " or Indian Corn ; the first for the support of the large
gangs of mules, and the last forming an important item in the
food of the people.

When Alfalfa is to be sown, the preparation made for it is
scratching the soil to about the depth of six inches, with a plough
formed of the trunk of a crooked tree, and drawn by a pair of oxen ;
the ground is then divided into " eras," or squares, by the "lampa,"
a heavy, ill formed, concave shovel, made in the country, and the
only implement besides the plough they ever use ; the surface of
the beds is then levelled, they are watered on next watering day,
and sown, as thickly as we sow Cresses at home, in a few days
after, the seed being covered in by dragging a branch over the
surface. In the course of two months the Lucerne is fit for
cutting ; an operation ingeniously and elegantly perfoi'med by
means of a " cuchuna," or the blade of a common table knife, tied
at right angles into the end of a slit piece of wood, the operator
meanwhile being on his knees. Shortly after cutting the gi'ound
is again irrigated, and thus alternately cutting and watering the
plant retains its vigour for years, giving, when well attended to,
eight or nine crops annuall}', and this without manure of any kind
except a slight powdering of guano every second year.

After the Lucerne, in point of importance, comes the Indian
Corn. For this crop the ground is formed into ridges with the
lampa, and the seeds flung into holes, six or eight in each, at the
distance of fifteen inches, and covered in whh the foot, the usual

AT TACNA. 101

watering tlieu follows, and in a fortnight after the braird is several
inches high. The general crop is sown about the end of June,
and reaped in December, the return being from 300 to 500 fold,
although even this might be greatly increased, were the plants
grown at a greater distance from each other, for more than one
half of them are literally smothered. This grain is a most ex-
hausting crop, and its success depends altogether on the applica-
tion of guano, a substance I shall now attempt to describe.

Guano, or huano, is a reddish brown earth of a disagreeable
smell, found on several parts of the coast and the small rocky
island adjoining ; it is supposed by some to be the decomposed
excrement of sea birds, millions of which still frequent the neigh-
bourhood of the places where it is found, whilst others contend
that it is a fossil earth of a peculiar kind. The strongest argu-
ments are on the side of the former opinion ; the upper stratum
of the beds is always white, and evidently the recent deposition of
birds ; it is found gradually darkening in colour, as it deepens,
and for several feet under the surface, the bones and feathers of
birds are plentifully discovered in it ; nor is this all, it has been
examined by French chemists of eminence, who pronounce it as
of animal origin. Opposed to these mighty facts, is the difficulty
of conceiving it possible that any number of birds, even in a
period of time as remote as the wildest tradition of Chinese chro-
nology, could have suflBced to produce the guano in the immense
quantities in which it exists. It seems, indeed, inexhaustible ;
there are large hills of it hundreds of feet in height still un-
touched, and the supply in our time is still drawn from the very
same deposits that furnished the Indians with manure anterior to
the conquest. Numbers of small vessels are employed in carrying
it to the different ports, where it is generally sold at the rate of
from 10 to 12 reals (5s. to (3s.) per funega, nominally weighing
150 lbs. and is conveyed on jackasses to all parts of the country
within fifty leagues of the sea.

Before using the guano it is mixed with three or four times its
bulk of dry horse-dung, broken down to chaff, not for the pur-
pose of adding any new or increased virtue to it, but to make it
more easily managed, and to increase the volume of the substance
to be handled, and thus facilitate its economical distribution.
When the Maize is a few inches high, owing to the poverty of the
exhausted soil, it always assumes the appearance of, what at home
is technically called, "setting up;" it gets yellow, hard, and sickly
looking, and this is the signal for the first application of guano.

102 HORTICULTURE

One man, with a " lampa," makes a small hole at the root of every
clump of plants ; another follows with the guano in a bag, who,
dropping a little of the compound in the hole, covers it in with his
foot ; irrigation follows, and within a few days the appearance of
the braird is totally altered : it is now green, succulent, and
healthy, and gi'ows with a rapidity and vigour hardly credible.
Just before the plants cover the whole surface, the process is
repeated and the cares of the husbandman are at an end till, in
due time, he gathers in his abundant harvest. Now, when it is
considered that three bushels of this manure is sufficient for an
acre of corn, growing to the height of eight or ten feet, and that
each clump of five or six such plants does not get more of it in all
than about half an ounce in weight, its nutritive qualities must be
allowed to be most wonderful, and far to exceed bone-dust, or any
of the agriculto-cbemical discoveries of England.

Potatoes are grown in considerable quantities, but they are
never good, either the climate or the water disagreeing with them ;
they produce abundantly, but do not seem to ripen, and are
always watery and insipid, whilst those grown by the Indians on
the skirts of the Cordillera, from 6000 to 8000 feet above the
sea, and brought here for sale, are excellent. They are planted
like the Maize in I'idges, at all seasons indifferently, but the
principal crop is put into the earth in June, and gathered in
September, in an abundance proportioned to the guano and water
it has received.

Capsicum, or Aji. — This pungent seed-pod is here reckoned an
indispensable necessary of life ; it is used, in some form, in all
sorts of food, is eaten alone, with bread or Potatoes ; beaten into
a paste, betwixt two stones, a plateful is on every dinner-table ;
whilst soup, stew, and salad all witness separately to its presence.
Various kinds are cultivated, but the sort of most value, and the
most productive of all, yields a long, coarse-looking, and almost
black pod. The plants are raised on a seed-bed sown in July,
and planted out on previously well-watered ridges in October and
November. When freely irrigated, for Aji requires more water
than any other crop, and supplied with the necessary guano, the
growth is extremely rapid ; in April the first pods are ripe, and
there is a constant succession till the end of August ; they are
gathered as they mature, dried in the sun, and then packed up in
sedge bags, holding an arroba or 25 lbs. each, for sale. The
valley of Tacna produces but little more Capsicum than what is
necessary for home consumption, the interior being supphed by

AT TACNA. 103

the neighbouring valleys of Sania, Asapa, and Lluta ; some thirty
years ago, the value of this crop in the province of Arica was
reckoned at 600,000 dollars annually ! it can now be but a small
fraction of this large sum, the scarcity of water in Asapa, the ruin
brought on many estates by the devastations of the revolutionary
war, the almost total breaking up of slavery, and the general
poverty of the country, are the causes which have brought about
the diminution.

The utter ignorance of the people here, of the very first princi-
ples of vegetable economy, is in nothing more conspicuous than
in the management of this, their most valuable crop. The seed
is sown as thick as it can lie on the surface, and the plants
of course, deprived of air, become drawn and weak ; nothing
would be easier than to prick them out on a succession bed, where
they would soon acquire strength in both root and stem, but this
simple plan is never thought of, and those to whom I have
recommended it are too idle, or too prejudiced, to adopt the practice.
When the seedlings are " drawn " to the height of a foot or fourteen
inches, they are considered sufficiently long (not strong) to plant
out ; and as it is evident that a great part of plants so raised
must die under the heat of a tropical sun, recourse is had to the
ingenious device of sticking two or three into the same hole ! the
consequences are self-evident : if one plant survives, it is still only
a comparatively weak single-stemmed thing, with a bush of
branches at the top, liable to be broken over by a puff of wind, or
the passing friction of any animal ; should two or more happen to
live, their energies are spent in a struggle with each other — they
are jointly and severally deprived of the necessary air, the
original process of drawing is followed by that of smothering, and
a corresponding diminution in the produce is the necessary
consequence.

Onions. — This bulb is used in great quantities, it being a
principal ingredient in the " chupe," or stew of the country. I
have never seen it raised from seed ; in fact, the process would
be considered too tedious a one by our " chacareros : " the only
kind grown is what is called at home, I believe, the Tree Onion,
which produces its succession in a bunch of small bulbs on the
top of what, in other plants, would be called the flower-stalk.
These bulbs are sown in ridges, four or five always adhering
together, and, with guano and water, soon swell to a large size ;
but they are not considered in perfection until they have " shot."
Previous to this time they are called " hembras," or females, and

104 HORTICULTURE

looked upon as immature and insipid ; when, liowever, the seed-
stem has fully developed itself, and " a rung " as hard and as dry
as a Bamboo cane occupies the heart of every bulb, they are dig-
nified with the title of " Zebollas machos " (male Onions), and
thought worthy of all acceptation. Nothing appears more ridicu-
lous to an eye accustomed to the gardens of Scotland than a large
bed of Onions in Peru ; in the vigour of its growth, it appears as
a mere jumble of immense, irregular clumps of green stems
running into seed at high pressure power ; and when the water is
withheld, for the purpose of ripening the crop, within a mouth it
has all the resemblance possible to a field of half-burnt, sun-dried
Canes. The clumps are seldom divided ; they are generally in
size larger than a man's hat, and the tops being cut off, they are
sent to market in their primitive state. The plant is grown at
all seasons, but the superfine hard-hearted ones are raised in
greatest perfection from June till December. Of course, anything
like a round or civilised-shaped Onion is never seen here, that
being quite incompatible with the presence of the " rung." I hope
I have spoken on this subject with no undue asperity. I am and
always have been fond of this vegetable ; and it is no joke to
have my teeth — the few the toothache has left me — continually
exposed to lesion when I choose to venture on an Onion.

Cabbage. — Of Cabbage, only one kind is grown here ; and if a
specific name was wanting for it, I can think of none more
apropos than the " Coai'se Everlasting; " its heart, although not
quite so hard as the walking-stick, is sufficiently so to justify the
former epithet, and, as it does not run to seed, but is propagated
by offsets from the old stem, roughly torn off, and as roughly
stuck into the soil, the latter seems not misapplied. This plant
affords one of the many instances of the power of a long-continued
habit, over natural tendency. There cannot be a doubt that, like
all other species of its tribe, it originally ran to seed in its second
year, but the continual interference of man, in checking this
propensity, by breaking off its branches, has at length, in the
course of time, almost eradicated the principle, and it would now
be no easy operation to force it into flower.

Caulifloweb. — This excellent vegetable is plentiful in Chili
and Lima, but has only lately been brought to Tacna. About
three years ago some hundreds of plants were raised in one of the
*' chaci'as " in the vicinity ; in due time they were planted out, and
produced very fair heads ; the propagation, as of Cabbage, by
offsets, was tried, but this member of the Brassica family would

AT TACNA. 105

by no means consent to it, and the result lias been that the
sprouts from the origuial stems are cut off as they appear, and
sold for " Coliflores ; " while the parent stems are gradually
approaching that ligneous state, when neither leaves nor flowers
can be produced by them, and unless a new generation from seed
be speedily obtained, the Cauliflower, as formerly, will become
unknown.

Lettuce. — Of all European vegetables this is the one which
is produced here in the greatest abundance and perfection ; there
is but one sort, and it appears a hybrid between our long green
Coss and Cabbage kinds ; little care is taken of this plant, it is
generally self-sown from the numbers that are allowed to run to
seed, which is sold for bird's-meat at Is. the pound, and thus pro-
duces heads as large, and nearly as heavy, as our best dwarf
Cabbage in Scotland. It is in season all the year round and is in
universal use.

I have now mentioned the principal vegetables of European
extraction in cultivation here, and although a few others are now
and then met with, they are hardly worthy of a separate notice.
We have occasionally, as a paper of seed may chance to arrive, a
few Carrots, and they are good of their kind, and seem to agree
well with the climate and soil. Radishes I have once or twice
seen, but as the growers did not think they had arrived at perfec-
tion until they were adorned with a flower several feet in height,
it was found that even boiling could not reduce the root to a fit
state for mastication, and it was voted into oblivion forthwith.
Beet-root, of the Turnip-rooted kind, is to be found in one or two
places ; it is boiled and eaten cold with oil and vinegar as a salad.
I took it into my head, some months ago, to make a bottle or two
of Beet-root pickle, and applied to an old clergyman, a friend of
mine, who prides himself on having all foreign plants in his
garden, for two roots, for that purpose ; he answered me that they
were yet too young, but that he would not forget me at the proper
season, and I thought nothing more about the matter. About a
fortnight ago he sent his servant, bearing on his shoulder four
roots, each with a seed-stalk as thick as my arm, and above 4 feet
long, assuring me that he had now the immense pleasure of
complying with my request ; but I very ungratefully returned
them to him, with a written recommendation that he should cut
them down into gumsticks, and make his penitents chew them
soft, before he gave them absolution. I went down next day to
see my friend the "Padre," and I found that he had cut each root

106 HORTICULTURE

iuto four pieces, aud replanted them again, so that, as he said,
they might not be lost ! We have a small long-pod Bean grown
here in considerable quantities, but it is never topped, and this
produces only a few pods in perfection at the upper extremity.
I ventured one day to suggest this simple operation to the Padre,
but he treated the very idea with contempt, scientifically illus-
trating his opposition, by asking me if it would conduce to my
health to be made a head shorter? The logic was unanswerable,
the old man had made out his " reductio ad absurdum," and I had
nothing more to say for myself.

Parsley is a much esteemed plant, but seems always, I know
not from what cause, extremely scarce. Celery is unknown in
a cultivated state, but grows wild in the ravines of the neigh-
bourhood.

Mint, Chervil, Dill, Basil, and Marjoram, are grown and used,
but Sage and Thyme are unknown. The leaves of Prince's
Feather and Love Lies Bleeding, both wild and indigenous
plants, are boiled, and eaten as we do Spinach, and are tolerably
good. The Tomato, or Love Apple, is produced in abundance,
and enters, boiled and raw, into the composition of many
dishes. Turnips have been frequently sown, and at proper
seasons I have no doubt would do well, but in the experiments
hitherto made, were never thinned out, and of course came to
nothing.

T have stated above that the Potato of Tacna is not good, but
this in a great degree is compensated for by the excellence of the
Camote, or Sweet Batata, a Convolvulus producing large, nutritive,
and well-tasted roots ; the Arracacha, something like our
Parsnep ; and several varieties of Pompions, which are truly
excellent ; and all these valuable plants require no further care
than an occasional watering.

Of fruits in this valley we have hardly one species peculiar to
the latitude or the country, but an abundant supply of tropical
kinds is brought from the warmer places nearest to us ; the few
we have are as follows : —

Figs, of excellent quality and in great abundance ; the trees
grow to upwards of forty feet in height, and no care is
taken of them whatever ; the first crop is ripe in December,
and the second or main one in March and April.

Grapes, of several kinds in plenty, but not nearly so fine in
quality as those brought from Locumba, twenty leagues to the
north, where immense quantities of wine and brandy are made

AT TACNA. 107

from tbem ; Tacna had at one time extensive Vineyards, but some
pi'ejudicial change took place in the quaUty of the water, and they
were given up.

Olives are abundant, and those who like them say they are
superior; the demand for the table is so great that hardly any
oil is made near Tacna : they are eaten here when quite ripe,
black, and full of oil. A full crop of Olives is only obtained
every third or fourth year, and the reason of this, I have no
doubt, is to be found in the clumsy and destructive way in which
the fruit is gathered, the branches being beaten with canes until
the Olives fall on mats placed under the trees to receive them,
and this rough work cannot fail to destroy many of the fruit-buds
on the long, tender, and wiry branches.

Peaches of three or four sorts are abundant, and the people are
very fond of them, looking on this as the healthiest of all fruits ;
it may be so, but those grown in Tacna have nothing else to
recommend them ; they, with the exception of one kind, are hard
and flavourless, never ripen properly, and in fact do not agree
with the locality ; they are in season in January and February.

Pears are of two kinds, a small one in shape and size
resembling the " Green Chisel," in immense quantities, and
another, a small Bergamot, not so plentiful ; neither sort will
keep above a few days, and it is astonishing how so many can
be consumed during the very short time they remain in season;
they ripen in December.

Apples : We have but one kind, something like a " Keswick
Codlin." The trees are stunted and cankering, and do not
thrive ; they are first raised from cuttings, and afterwards
ingeniously grafted from the same tree ! In Lima there are
several good sorts, and this fruit, wrought on proper stocks,
would be sure to do well here.

Pomegranates : All the hedges are of this plant, and they bear
fruit in abundance, but no use is made of this most beautiful
Apple.

Mulberries are plentiful and fine. Any other nation than the
Spaniards would have introduced the silkworm in Peru.

Strawberries are sometimes seen as a curiosity, but of an
indifferent sort ; the necessity of irrigation excludes the fruit.

Plums of one kind, like the Black Jack, are mostly brought
from the higher valleys on the borders of the Cordillera.

Melons, both musk and water, are grown in the greatest
abundance, and are very large and fine ; the seed is sown in

108 HORTICULTURE

ridges, in October and November, gets a little guanu afterwards,
and tlie produce is reaped iu thousands from January till May.

Oranges, Lemons, Limes, Guavas, Pacays, Plantains, and
Granadillas (the egg-shaped fruit of a Passion flower, with a pulp
exactly like a Gooseberry), are all grown in small quantities in
Tacna, but the principal supply of them, and other tropical
fruits, is derived from the warmer valleys in the province.

Postscript. — In the above hasty sketch, I find no notice has
been taken of two important productions, viz. Cotton and the
Sugar-Cane. Cotton is grown in considerable quantities ; it is
of the perennial kind, and forms a dwarf tree of eight or ten feet
high. The plants are raised from seed, and begin to bear when
two years old; iOOlbs of the Cotton, as taken from the plant,
weigh only 40lbs. when separated from the seed. The Sugai--
cane grown in Tacna is sold to and eaten by the lower class of
people, and is never manufactured.

The climate of Tacna is one of the finest in the world ;
although 6° within the southern tropic the extremes of heat
common to the same latitude, in other parts of the world, are
here unknown. The fervid rays of a vertical sun are tempered
by the daily trade-wind sweeping over the bosom of the Pacific
ocean on the west ; while to the east, and at the distance of only
about forty miles, rise the mighty snow-covered turrets of the
Andes, whose pure atmosphere of everlasting frost also lends its
influence in tempering the solar rays. But much of the modera-
tion of the climate depends on the open nature of the country
in the immediate neighbourhood ; in other valleys, only a few
leagues off", which are shut in by high hills on either side, the
free circulation of air is impeded, the direct rays of the sun are
strengthened by the reflected heat from the inclosing hills, and
the temperature at certain seasons is insuff'erably warm. Every
modification of climate is to be met with in Peru; in open
situations, at 2000 feet above the level of the sea, we have the
genial temperature of Tacna ; at double that height, the region
where Wheat begins to be cultivable ; at 6000 feet a region of
perpetual spring ; at 8000 feet the Fig-tree becomes stunted and
dwarfish, but AVheat is in its native climate ; and at 10,000 feet
we are on the high plains of the Cordillei'a, in the region of
Condors and Guauacors and Viccenas ; where the Indians rear
their flocks of llamas and sheep on the scanty vegetation, and
extort from the unwilling soil a miserable half-ripened crop of
Barley and Quinua for their own subsistence. But even here

AT TACNA. 109

other climates are still observable ; these immense plains,
hundreds of miles in breadth, are but the base for other moun-
tains as high above their surface as they themselves are above
the sea ! and along the side of which is distinctly visible that
definite and unerring line where all vegetation ceases ! a narrow
barren zone is then observable ; and this is succeeded by eternal
snow, the inferior limit of which, in this latitude, seems to be
about 15,000 feet above the level of the ocean.

VIII. — Notice of a new Chinese Spik^a (S. Reevesiana,
FL. PL. ?) otscoyered AT Foo-cHOW-FOO. By R. Fortune.

During my last visit to China I discovered in a garden at
Foo-chow, on the river Min, a very beautiful double Spiraea, which
1 think will prove a great acquisition to our gardens in Europe
and America. I had no opportunity of seeing it in flower at
Foo-chow, but I took a plant north to Shaughae, and presented
it to Mr. Beale, in whose garden it flowered in 1850. It was
from this my specimens were taken, which are amongst my last
collections of dried plants. When these were gathered I had no
idea of the beauty of this variety when in good health and in full
flower, but I have seen it again this spring under more favourable
circumstances. In the month of April it was loaded with daisy-
like blossoms of the purest white, each as large and as double as
the Spiraea prunifolia introduced by the Society through me some
years ago. (The accompanying drawing kindly made for me by
Mrs. J. C. Smith of Shanghae will give a good idea of the beauty
of this fine shrub, and I also enclose a portion of a dried
specimen for your inspection. '••)

The winter of 185'2-53 at Shanghae was a severe one — more
severe than had been experienced for some years — but this Spiraea
has not been affected in the slightest degree, and seems quite as
hai'dy as Spiraea Reevesiana, or perhaps more so. Although found
in cultivation at Foo-chow, it has evidently a more northern
origin, and as it is not met with in the gardens of Ningpo or
Shanghae, it is probably one of those Japan plants introduced to
China by the Loo-chow trading junks which visit Foo-chow every
year. In 1845 I boarded two of these junks at the mouth of the

* These illustrations were received, and confirm Mr. Fortune's statements.

110 NEW SPIRiBA.

river Min on their homeward-bound voyage, and observed a
number of Foo-chow plants which the sailors were carrying over
to Loo-chow, and I have no doubt they also bring Loo-chow and
Japan plants to Foo-chow. But whether the shrub in question be
a Japanese plant or not, there can be little doubt of its proving
perfectly hardy in England, and if it flowers as it has done at
Shanghae this spring, I am sure it will be greatly admired. As
it flowers early in the year it will probably be well adapted for
forcing, and if so, its beautiful wreaths of snow-white blossoms
will do well for bouquets or for ornamenting the hair ; for the
latter purpose it is much prized by the Chinese ladies at Foo-chow.

NiNGPO, Aiugmt 14, 1853.

IX. On the rRICKLY-FETJITED AND DOUBLE-FLOWERED STRAW-
BERRIES. By Professor L. C. Treviranus. Read
before the Association of Naturalists for the Rhenish
Countries and Westphalia in May, 1853.

(Translated from the German by Dr. Wallicli, F.M.H.S.)

Not only is the nomenclature of varieties, which are objects
of horticulture, a very difficult matter; but their origin and
history occupies a very obscure part of vegetable physiology.
The complaint of Vilraorin {mhinn. Transact. 2 Ser. II. p. 340)
that varieties are too little inquired into, does not affect the
botanist. Among a number of genera, the Strawberry is pecu-
liarly rich in forms, some of tliem striking and curious. M.
Duchesne, an advocate in Paris, who lived during the last half
of the past century, and corresponded with the greatest botanists
of the time, Haller, Linnaeus, the Jussieus, Lamarck, &c,.
devoted his spare time to this genus ; for which he must have
enjoyed many favourable opportunities, as Haller says of him,
that he was born in " mediis hortis." The fruit of leisure hours
was, besides his memoirs on cucumbers and cabbages, his
Histoire nahir. des Fraisiers (Paris, 176G), his treatise Sur les
Frnisiers (Encycl. Botan. II. 1786), and the article Fraisier in
Nouv. Cours(V At/riculture (VI. Paris, 1809). These papers con-
tain a great deal of research derived from nature, and form
therefore the principal sources of our information respecting the

FORMS OF THE STRAWBERRY. Ill

various forms of the genus of Strawberr}'. On the present
occasion we shall speak only of two of those forms, namely, of what
he calls the Plymouth Strawberry, which is the prickly fruited
of Linnaeus, and of that with double flowers. The character
of the first of these, which does not differ from our common wild
Strawberry in growth, stem, and leaves (rather I should say, did
not differ, for it exists no longer) consists in bearing smaller
petals than usual, which are greenish and terminated each by three
or four toothlets. The fruit — that is, the berry-like receptacle —
is thickly beset with greenish hairs, which are nothing else than
mishapen ovaries, elongated above in a long straight or curved point,
soft at first, but afterwards becoming hard and stiff; there being
no sign of any style, which, as is known, originates from the base
of the ovary. {Duchesne Herb. p. 93.) Barrelier {Plant. Ic, 90)
has exhibited the character of the fruit, also the flower, which
is tolerably good ; at least, it is better than Zanoni's {Hist. ed.
Monti, t. 78, f. 1). This monstrosity (for it is clear from the
description that such it must be) was first exhibited by Parkinson
in 1629 in a poor woodcut, and next described by Johnson in
1633. Since then the plant is mentioned in various works, and
last of all in 1686 by Ray, since which time it seems to have
disappeared from all the gardens of England and on the continent
of Europe. It must therefore have been on the testimonies
of those authors that Linnaeus published the plant as a second
species of Strawberry, which he called Fr. muricata, giving it
characters which do not exist in nature. It was only in his last
work on plants, namely the Mantissa secunda, that he corrected
his error and declared that Fr. muricata was only a variety of
Fr. vesca. The most remarkable feature of this monstrous
form was, that a so-called berry was produced notwithstanding the
impaired fertilisation on account of the deficient style, that it
was eatable after removing the prickles, and, though pronounced
bad and tasteless by Zanoni, was considered palatable" by
Barrelier. The same is the case with the other of the two vari-
eties, namely the double and semi-double one. This too originates
from England, for it is called auglica fthe English sort) in the
writings which first treated of it, and was likewise known already
in the middle of the seventeenth century. Fortunately, this form
has not perished like the last, but is still preserved, and the
specimens which I have now the honour to exhibit are from
the garden here of *the horticulturist, Mr. Giinther. With
exception of the flower, you will find no difference between it and

112 FORMS OF THE STRAWBERRY.

the common Strawberry. The tips of the calyx are a little elon-
gated ; the greenish-white, sometimes red-margined petals, instead
of beinc in one row, are produced in four or five rows ; the number
of stamens does not exceed fifteen, sometimes not ten ; occasion-
ally none are clearly developed ; the anthers flat, frequently one
half changed into a petal, and contain occasionally some pollen
consisting of transparent vesicles not changed in water, and
therefore seemingly destitute of fovilla. Although the usual
number and form of petals exist, fertilisation can hardly take
place ; '■• the receptacle swells, nevertheless, as in the perfect forms
of the plant, into a so-called berry which Duchesne mentions as
being somewhat smaller than the common sort, but otherwise of
the same colour and taste, while Barrelier pronounces it as being
larger, of reddish colour, and excellent flavour. The circumstance
which occurs in some plants (I will adduce only the Banana and
Pine-apple among monocotyledons, and the Hop and Mulberry
among dicotyledons) that a perfect development of fruit, though
with barren seeds, will take place without the process of fertilisa-
tion, while in most others, under similar circumstances, no fruit is
produced, is in the highest degree remarkable, and is a fact which
has hitherto received no sort of satisfactory explanation.

X. — A BRIEF Sketch of the present state of the Question

RELATIVE TO THE ViNE MiLDEW. By Dr. C. MontagUCf

My design in this general survey of the cause and progress of
the fatal malady which has for some j^ears affected the European
vineyards, is to state briefly and methodically the principal facts
wliich are scattered about in the multiplicity of pamphlets,
reports, and documents which appear daily from every quarter.
The question affects so gravely one of the most important branches
of our rural economy, that I liave thought that it would not be an
ill-timed and much less a useless task to review its past history,
to follow the different phases under which it has appeared, and

* I mixst remark, however, that later flowers must have contained active
pollen, for I found well-formed fruits, containing perfect embrj'os.
(Subsequent remark, by the author.) «

t Translated from Coup d'osil rapide sur I'efat actuel de la question relative a
la maladk de la Vi<jne parle Dr. Movtar/ne. Paris, 1852.

MONTAGNE ON VINE MILDEW. 11:^

finally to indicate the present state of the question. I do not
conceal from myself the difficulty of the task, nor the feebleness
of my own powers for its accomplishment ; I trust, however, to
make up any deficiency by my ardent desire to be useful.

Historical. All the authors who have treated of the Vine
Mildew have properly inquired whether there are any indications
of it in earlier times. Many have gone back as far as Theophi'astus,
the author of the most ancient work on Botany. Two passages
appear in this author, who lived three centuries before the
Christian era, which have been supposed to indicate the existence
of the same malady in those remote ages. The first passage is as
follows : — " Such are the diseases and affections of the trees
themselves. There are also diseases of the fruit, as for instance
that of grapes called Kpaix^os (burnt or scorched), which resembles
rust. For it takes place when the sun burns more vehemently
after the falling of the dew. The same thing happens also to the
leaves."

It is easy to perceive that this malady of the bunches, which
the Greeks call KpaixjSos and which Theophi-astus compares to the
rust of corn, has no relation to the Oidium ; at the furthest, we
find only the brown spots on the berries and leaves which are
produced by the Oidium ; but even this much is uncertain.

The second passage is a little more explicit, but not much more
conclusive. " There is also another disease in the olive trees
called Arachnion. It is produced on them and destroys the fruit.
The rays of the sun, also, sometimes burn the olives, grapes, and
other kinds of fruit."

Such are the words used by the author, in which it is clear
there is no mention of any disease, but a mere intimation that,
like other fruits, grapes are sometimes injured by the rays of the
sun when unusually fierce.

Pliny, however, who has reproduced this passage, explains the
term Arachnion and extends it to grapes, of which Theophrastus
does not say a single word : — " Est etiamnum olivis et vitibus
(araneum vocant) cum veluti telse involvunt fi'uctum et absumunt."

This is all that appears on the diseases of gi-apes in ancient
authors, and even this must be strained to accommodate it to the
present malady. We may, however, allow that there is, if not a
perfect identity, at least a very great analogy between the Arachnion
and our mould. I shall only remark that Theophrastus and Pliny do
not insist sufficiently on its injurious influence to make us think
that at this remote epoch its diffusion was as extended and its

114 MONTAGNE ON

action as fatal as in our times, and since many other moulds, as
Tricothecium roseum, Polyactis vulgaris, &c., grow upon grapes
when approaching decomposition, it is still very doubtful whether
these authors were acquainted with the Oidium.

Amongst the authors more nearly approaching our times many
passages of Rannazzini (Constitutiones Epidemicte Mutinenses,
p. 115. 1 690) have been quoted, which refer rather to Uredines or
Cladosporium herbarum. The most striking is as follows : " Sicut
enim anno huic praecedenti hsec lues (rubigo) rubro colore fruges
infecerat, ita hoc anno, non cretd sed carhone notando easdem
magna atredine resperserat." This has clearly nothing to do with
our Oidium, which is white.

We find moreover in a modern Botanist, who has long dwelt
in the United States of America, and who has described its
myeological productions, the indication of an Erysiphe, which he
has called E. necator. This Erysiphe, which attacks the grapes of
some cultivated varieties of the Vitis Labrusca and destroys them,
(ubi omnino evoluta hsec species destruit uvas) may possibly be
tbe same fungus as that which now attacks our vines, or one very
nearly allied. Another species, which he calls Erysiphe Mors
Uva3, because it attacks exclusively the fruit of the Gooseberry,
constitutes a grievous malady, sometimes causing the fruit to
perish for many successive years. Schweinitz speaks of it as
follows : — " Species nostra . . .tam vulgatissima in Pennsylvania. . .
tam lethalem morbum his (uvis Grossularife) infert ut hortulani
vix valeant nisi tempore faustissimo hos fructus deliciosos educare
apud nos. Antequam maturitatem nempe in illis nascens tomento
aut hyphasmate suo ita hos circum circa investit atque con-
stringit ut enecantur nee possunt comedi. Quibusdam equidem
pluribus annis vix singulam invenies illaesam ab hoc hoste." I
the more willingly transcribe this passage because it seems
calculated to explain certain facts which are daily occurring under
our eyes.

I shall not dwell at length on the histoiy of the appearance of
the vine mildew, or, if you will, its reappearance amongst us. Every
one knows that it was first observed at Margate in the stoves, and
according to some in the open air, by a gardener named Tucker,
a name at present of such mournful celebrity, and described by
my friend the Rev. M. J. Berkeley in the Gardeners' Chronicle,
Nov. 17. 1847. Its manner of production is difficult to explain,
though it is easy to relate how from thence it proceeded to infest
in its unceasing course all the vines of Europe. It is enough in

VINE MILDEW. 115

fact for this purpose, to know that it is reproduced by the easy
dissemination and rapid germination of its spores which are
formed in such prodigious numbers on its fertile stems.

The Biological Societj^ will remember that I was the first in
France, not perhaps to denounce the malady, but to give a
description of it, accompanied by its proper name, which was
inserted in the Compte Rendu of the Session of May 11, 1850,
and in the Bulletin of the first of May of the same year.* Since
that period the malady proceeding from the stoves of Versailles
extended to the trellises, and from thence to the neighbouring
vineyards, till by degrees it has attacked the whole of Europe
and has extended even to Madeira.

Etiological. Were we to judge from the concurrent efforts
to throw some light on the origin and nature of the evil, one
would imagine that nothing is clearer than the etiology of the
vine mildew, that universal pest which menaces the future
■welfare of our vine-producing departments, and which has already
produced such disasters. But alas ! we should make a great
mistake if we thought so, for there is little agreement on this
point. Amongst those who have endeavoured to trace out the
source of the evil, there are two principal opinions diametrically
opposite. The one assumes that the vines are intimately affected as
regards their physiological functions, without however sayingexactly
how; and that it is in consequence of their morbid state, attributed
sometimes to plethora, sometimes to radical weakness, an argu-
ment as we perceive extremely shifty and elastic, that the parasitic
fungus is enabled to establish and propagate itself on parts
already diseased. Tiie others, on the contrary, amongst whom I
am one, attribute to the presence of the Oidium the essential and
sufficient cause of all the injury inflicted on the vines and grapes. f
Among competent persons who pi-ofess the first opinion we may
quote Berenger, Count Brignoli, Baron Cesati, Crocq, Decaisne,
Leon Dufour, Guerin-Meneville, Heuze, C. Laterrade, reporter

* M. Dnpuis has claimed the honour of having first observed it on the
borders of the Rhone in 1834, and of having recorded it in the Annals of
the Agricultural Society of Lyons for 1839. This is possible, but it still
remains to be shown that M. Dupuis was acquainted with the fungus
which either causes or accompanies it.

+ Mohl, in his first memoir (see my translation in the Memoirs of the
Imperial Arjricidtural Society, Part I., 1852), compares the action of the
Oidium on the grapes to that of a parasite of another order, Achlya pro-
lifera Nees, or Saprolegnia ferox Kiitz, upon fresh-water fish. See Rohin
Hist. Nat. des Vege't. j'^arasites suv les Animauxvivans. Nouv. ed., 1853, p. 372.
See also this journal, April, 1852.

I 2

lin MONTAGNE ON"

of the Bordeaux Commission, Letellier, Leveille, C. des Moulins,
I'eporter of the Orleans Commission, Oudart, Panizzi, Targioni-
Tozzetti, and Count de Treviran.

Amici in his memoir, and Victor Rendu in his remarkable
report to the Minister of the Interior for Agriculture and Com-
merce, remain in a state of philosophic doubt, and do not venture
to pronounce for either the one or the other opinion.

Those who adhere to the second opinion, viz., that the Oidiura
is the cause of the disease, are Berkeley, Berthola,'" reporter of
the Turin Commission, Bouchardat, Cuppari, Gaddi, Keller,
Louis Leclerc, Hugo Mohl, Morren, Payen, Marquis Piidolfi,
Savi, Tulasne, and Visiani and Vittadini, reporters of the Venice
Commission. The latter view has been signally confirmed by
a discovery made by the Venetian botanist, Zanardini, a distin-
guished phycologist, and the reporter of the Venice Commission.
He lias shown, by microscopical observations, that the threads of
Oidium Tuckeri throw out at irregular intervals on their under
side cei'tain processes which serve at once as means of attachment
to the subjacent tissue, and as suckers, by means of which the
juices necessary for the sustenance of the fungus are imbibed.
This discovery, sanctioned by every member of the commission,
has been recently confirmed by a celebrated botanist, Hugo Mohl,
a corresponding member of the French Academy. He has deeply
studied the disease; and in two memoirs,! both of which, inconse-
quence of their importance, I have translated, he details the
facts which he has observed in Italy and Southern Switzerland.

I cannot enter into the details which the interesting observations
made by Mohl through two consecutive years would require.
The facts which he adduces appear to me irrefragable, j

Now, if without the slightest degree of prejudice or party spirit

* Those who have still any doubts may be confidently referred to the
report of Berthola. He exhausts the arguments for and against, and
remains convinced that the Oidium is the priraaiy cause of the vine mil-
dew. Those who do not read Italian -will find a translation in the report
of the Bordeaux Commission by Dr. Cuigneau.

t The translations were read before the Imperal Society of Agriculture,
April 7, 1852, and Nov. 9, 1853, and are printed in the Transactions of
the Society. A translation of the former memoir will be found in this
journal April, 1852, and of the second, Jan., 1854.

X In the original a long extract from Mohl's second memoir follows,
which it is unnecessary to reproduce here, as it will be found in oiu' last
number from p. 6 to the middle of p. 8. Dr. Montague refers in a note to
the fact of his discovery of processes at the base of the threads of Botrytis
infestaus. resembling the suckers of the Oidium.

VINE MILDEW. 1X7

we consult the reports of the ditferent commissions, and amongst
thera those of Victor Rendu to the Minister of Agriculture and
Commerce, and Louis Leclei'c to the Minister of the Interior,
we shall find in almost every page new proofs confirmatory of the
opinion of those who, like H. Mohl, consider the fungus as the
essential cause of the evil, and very little to corroborate the
conti'ary opinion, or which at least does not admit of some other
mode of explanation. In the first of these reports, for instance,
we read, " All other circumstances being equal, the disease has
been more severe in those vines which were remarkable for their
precocious or vigorous vegetation. . . The young vines, laden
with grapes, have been everywhere more severely attacked than
the others (F. Rendu Rapport, p. 30). . . Vines situated in the
best soils, and the most vigorous are much the most diseased
(I.e., p. 56; and again p. 58 :) The most vigorous vines have been
the most afflicted."

It should be observed that Victor Rendu does not profess any
precise opinion, and that he relates faithfully what he has observed.
Great stress may thei'efore be laid upon his facts, which, more-
over, accord perfectly with those of Louis Leclerc, from whom I
shall quote only the following passage : — " The vegetation of the
vine, in the present year, with the exception of a very small
number of vineyards, has been everywhere strong and vigorous,
even in the places where it suffered most in 1851. The vine is
everywhere, in the language of the workmen, (jaillarde. Some
persons, indeed, have discovered in this beauty and richness with
which the tree is clothed, an aggravating circumstance and
additional proof that its constitution is deeply impaired. I must
avow that this passes the limits of my weak intellect, and that it
is still impossible to admit that a plant is diseased for the very
reason that it is in too excellent a state of health."

The arguments brought by the adherents of the other opinion
are without weight ; they are for the most part vague, or rest on
that multitude of particular cases which in agriculture, as in
medicine, prove absolutely nothing. And in relation to this
subject I shall transcribe the following passage from Mohl's
second memoir: — "Far less are the vines affected by a local
malady ; for, as is proved by the phenomena which I am about
to relate, the fungus does not appear on parts of the plant already
impaired by disease, but on the contrary on perfectly sound
organs, and the disease of the tissues begins precisely at those
spots to which the fungus adheres by special organs of attachment.

118 MONTAGNE ON

Here then the connection is so clear between cause and effect,
between the agency of the fungus and the disease of the plants,
that the opposite view, which is not confirmed by a single positive
fact, appears to me to be flatly contradicted." Such are the
expressions of Mohl. When I come to the question of the proper
treatment and prevention of the malady, T shall have some new
arguments to bring forward in support of this opinion.

Since it is abandoned now by everybody, even by some of the
authors who first pronounced in its favour, I shall leave in the
deep oblivion, from which it ought never to have been rescued,
that opinion which would refer all the serious phenomena which
attend the grape mildew to the presence of a species of Acarus.

The popular and absurd notion, again, can only be mentioned
to be deplored, which ascribes the malady to the deleterious
influence of street gas and the steam of locomotives. This foolish
notion, participated by some who do not belong to the inferior
ranks of society, is no less diffused in Italy than in many of our
provinces.

I cannot, however, omit mentioning a theory proposed by
M. Oudart, a clever and experienced cultivator of vines. It was
presented by him to the Royal Agricultural Society of Turin, and
it is to the report of M. Bertola that I am indebted for my know-
ledge. The author of this theory, resting on numerous observa-
tions made during a long tour through the vine districts, refers
the cause to atmospheric changes and influences. He attributes
the adherence of the Oidium to the berries, branches, and under-
surface of the leaves to the exudation of a viscid moisture which
commences by retaining the parasite, and as it hardens by
obstructing the stomates and pores of the plant. The variations
of temperatui'e also play a prominent part in this theory, from
which, if I mistake not, that which M. Guerin-Meneville has just
propounded differs but slightly.

Oidium Tuckeri.^' — The description and figures of the Oidium
of the Vine have been so frequently reproduced that it seems
useless to dwell longer upon it. Nevertheless, as neither Mr.
Berkeley nor myself were acquainted with the important form of

* The vine mildew is now so well known by this name that there would
he some inconvenience in changing it, even in order to adopt one more
conformable to the ideas which have been recently propounded as to the
real nature and position which this production ought to occupy in the
system of Mycology. 1 shall continue then to use the name in preference
to that of Erysiphe Tuckei-i.

VINE MILDEW. 119

fructification discovered by Amici, when vve described the species,
it will be right to add a few words.

It appears that the organs which we had taken at first for spores,
and which we found successively at the extremity of the erect
threads of the Oidium, are merely a sort of buds which, ger-
minating like true spores, are enabled in their absence to propagate
the species. In fact, at the end of 1851, Amici found on gourds
a form of fruit which was not even then * known in Erysiphe,
where it has since been detected. This fruit, named Sporangium
by Amici, Pycnidium by Tulasne, according to the different point
of view in which they regard it, is formed in the joints of the
necklaces of the fertile threads which swell, become yellow,
assume a cellular structure, that is cease to be continuous and
anhistous, and finally generate in their cavity many hundreds of
exceedingly small ovoid slightly reniform spores presenting a
little nucleus at either extremity. They have been observed
to germinate. Baron Cesati, who has also detected them in
Lombardy, thought that they authorised the creation of a new
genus. In a recent letter, Mr. Berkeley informs me that he has
detected them in grapes from Madeira.f Hitherto sporangia or
pycnidia had been found only in the southern parts of Europe.
Tulasne, however, in a recent communication to the Academy,
informs us that he has detected them near Paris, where they bad
not been previously observed.

Even before the researches of Tulasne, an account of which
must now be given to complete the history of the Oidium, this
production had already received different names. M. Crocq,]:
although he confesses that he is not acquainted with Fries'
Systema My color/ ica, and had not seen any Oidium except that of
the vine, regards it, nevertheless, on very iu sufficient and con-
testable grounds, for he had never seen the sporangia, as worthy
to be raised to the rank of a genus under the name of Eudogenium,
Ehrenberg, to whom the fructification had been communicated
by Amici, considered it the type of a new genus, and gave it the

* Dr. Plomley first detected it in the hop mildew in England almost at
the same time. See Gardeners' Chronicle, 1851, p. 5S2.

+ There is some mistake about this. A peculiar production was found
in specimens of diseased grapes and vine-leaves from Madeira and the
upper and lower Corgo, wliich has been figured under the name of Coni-
sporium commilitans in the last part of this jom-nal, p. 58, fig. 9. — Tr.

J Memou- on the vine mildew which obtained the especial approbation
of the Academy of Brussels, p. 15.

120 MONTAGNE ON

name of Circiuobolus Florentinus, a genus, founded on the presence
of the pycnidia, which did not differ from Ampelomyces quisqualis,
instituted some time before by Cesati on the same character.* I
participate in the opinion of Tulasne, who considers the genus
Byssocystis, Riess {Hedwigia, J 858, p. 23, tab. III., fig. 2, d.) as
belonging to this form of the fruit of Oidium. Finally I perceive
from the report of Victor Rendu, that Dr. Castagne had proposed
the name of Leucostroma infestans (not Leucostoma as erroneously
printed) ; a sad instance of the injurious practice of overloading
nomenclature with new synonyms which teach nothing.

In the course of last April, M. Tulasne published a memoir
in the Botanische Zeitung, entitled De Erysi])his anhnadversiones,
in which he recorded the result of his observations on the fruit of
Erysiphe. The communication which he has just made to the
Academy (Oct. 17, 1853) is a sort of recapitulation of that memoir
with an especial reference to the vine mildew.

M. Tulasne considers Oidium leucoconium, Erysiphoides,
Tuckeri, &c. as mere forms of fructification of the genus
Erysiphe, of which there are occasionally three ; 1, Acrogenous
spores ; 2, pyxidia, the fructification described by Amici ;
3, peridia, or ascophorous fruit inclosing spores contained in
transparent utricles known by the name of asci. Having esta-
blished the presence of three kinds of organs of reproduction in
certain species of Erysiphe he concluded tliat those which exhibit
one or two only as E. Martii LSv., communis Fr., lamprocarpa
Duby, are no less true members of the genus. And on these
principles he includes, not without reason, our Oidium in the
genus. If, as everything seems to show, M. Tulasne is right,
should I not be correct, as I at first intended, in considering my
genus Capnodium, which attacks the leaves of oranges and many
other trees, as the most elevated form of Antenuaria Lk. since it
is ascophorous, and only differs from Antennariaas Erysiphe from
Ampelomyces ?

I may mention a matter here, which, though apparently
foreign to the subject, seems to me to have some relation with
those different forms which the fructification of one and the same
fungal can assume ; I mean that of Eurotium lateritium found on
the garrison bread by Dr. Rayer, in the peridia of which I have
detected asci containing spores, though this genus was previously

*' He did not, however, perceive like Amici, tliat it was connected with
Oidium Tuckeri.

VINE MILDEW. 121

considered as producing only naked spores. A German botanist
{Bot. Zeit., 1853, p. 134), who has either not read or forgotten
my observation, has, after a lapse of four years, published this
fact as new, though professedly passing in review all the writers
who have spoken of Eurotium. The Annales des Sciences
Naturelles is not, however, a publication of such obscurity as
may justify a writer who has not consulted it. Some doubtless
would have taken occasion to propose a new genus. We may
therefore at least be thankful to him so far for his reserve.

A new question now arises ; is Oidium or Erysipbe Tuckeri,
by whichever name it may be known, really an autonomous species
and distinct from its allied congeners, and especially from
O. Erysiphoides, to which it comes the nearest ; or is it merely a
form or variety '? The peculiar habitat which it has chosen, from
which it has not migrated to surrounding plants, the observation
of Molil in his first memoir of an infected vine which did not
communicate the disease to Ampelopsis quinquefolia, which was
intertwined with it, and finally the fruitless attempts of Mohl and
others to propagate it on other plants, lead to the belief that it is
not a modification of some species already known, but a legitimate
species in the sense applied to this word by botanists. But it
may be asked, where was the Oidium before it attacked the vines ?
Is it a spontaneous production ? To such questions I can only
answer with Montaigne — Que sais-je ?

As regards the first development of the parasite, or rather its
invasion in spring, the opinion of Mohl, whom T quote in preference
because he appears to have observed accurately, is that it first
shows itself on the lowest internode of the new shoot. " On the
branches the parasite occurs regularly on the lowest and oldest
internodes ; large spots covered with the fungus appear on these,
and at a later period on the intermediate internodes, while the
upper internodes (as is at present universally the case here) are
altogetlier free. The fungus often spreads to the ovaries from the
peduncles, which are already attacked before the blossoms expand,
since the threads of the mycelium, a short time after the corolla
falls, creep over the nectary and involve the berries, commencing
at their base." I cannot quit this vexatious parasite without
speaking of some experiments of which it has been the subject, and
which have given occasion to certain strange and, as I believe,
erroneous assertions. A botanist, known for many excellent
works on other matters of Botany, has been induced by observation
of the artificial germination of the acrogenous spores of the

123 MONTAGNE ON

Oidium to advance au opinion that this mould is capable of being
transformed into four other fungals belonging to different tribes ;
viz., Penicillium candidura, Trichothecium roseura, Alternaria
tenuis, and Cladosporium Fumago.

Without suggesting doubts as to the exactness of the facts
observed, we may contest their interpretation. On points of such
delicacy and difficulty, the best observers are subject to deception.
It is not long since another distinguished observer, but not a
mycologist, and mycology is a more difficult science than is
frequently imagined, attempted experiments on an analogous
subject, taking, as his point of departure, the curious observation
of a mycelium found by M. Rayer in a hen's egg, the evolution of
which gave rise to a new Dactylium ; * experiments which led to
consequences as singular, and to which it may be permitted to
oppose, if not an absolute incredulity, at least a prudent degree of
doubt.

In experiments of this kind, it is well to be assured that
nothing is more difficult, or even, I might say, impossible, than
to guard against every source of error. It is not as in experi-
ments with higher plants, where one can see what one is about.
We believe that we have sown a spore, where nature, without our
knowledge or without its being possible to guard against it, has
substituted one totally different.f In other cases the error arises
from the fact that the spores of the different species which we
imagine to px'oceed from one another, are propagated at the same
time because they inhabit at the same time the same matrix, I
cannot indeed indicate all the sources of error. It is not suffi-
ciently remembered that the atmosphere is a vast receptacle
where innumerable spores of every kind float together, mixed and
invisible, and which wait only the peculiar circumstance necessary
for their individual development.

Whatever one may do, or whatever precautions may be taken,
we cannot avoid this substitution of one spore for another on
which we wished to make experiment. If, therefore, with my
own eyes I were witness to the extraordinary metamorphoses in
question, far from giving them credit I should not even try to
give an explanation. We have in fact aiTived at a period when
people wish at all risks to speak of themselves, and when simple
observations do not satisfy the mind unless they are foi'ced beyond

* Rayer, Arch, de Med. Comp., 1843, p. 175 ; and C. Robin, 1. c. p. 543.
+ See Coinptcs Rendus, Aug. 18, 1836. Annates de la Soc. sericicole,
1847. Robiu, 1. c. p. SCO, 603.

VINE MILDEW. 123

their legitimate consequences as the ground of absurd hypotheses.
Ought we not rather to be deeply impressed with those four
words of the first aphorism of our common philosophic parent,
" Experientia fallax, judicium difficile ? "

I regret much that I feel compelled to say all I think,
respecting these pretended metamorphoses. The question is not
respecting those which a multitude of fungals undergo, in the
different phases of their frequently ephemeral existence, and
which make them so analogous, in this respect at least, to insects.
But the fact is that botanists, in consequence of this natural pro-
pensity to estimate at a high rate their own works, and to despise
those of others, have with a secret complacence rested on these
more than hazardous assertions, in denying or impairing the
solidity of the principles on which the distinction of genera and
species is founded in mycology. In consequence, there is in their
opinion nothing better to do with the mass of books, in which the
principles of the Science are taught, than to burn them at once,
for they have not the courage to master them. Is it possible, I
would ask, to hear accusations so gratuitous and malevolent without
reply ?

A far more important object is to discover what becomes of the
spores of the Oidiura during winter, and on what part of the
plant they sojourn till the following spring. The difficulty of
such investigation will at once appear if we consider the smallness
of the ovoid spore, and the still more extreme minuteness of those
which are contained in the pycnidia.

Disposition to Disease. — I have exhausted what I had to say of
Oidium Tuckeri considered as the cause of disease ; I have still
to speak of the greater and less disposition to disease of certain
kinds of vine. The subject, however, is so extensive, and the
materials so abundant, that I must confine myself to a mere
summary. Those who desire more circumstantial details cannot
do better than consult the important work just published by my
friend and colleague, M. Bouchardat, in the Supplement to the
Memoirs of the Imperial Society of Agriculture for 1852, which
contains also a very exact chronological calendar of all the works
hitherto published on the subject. The following information is
taken from it : —

All other things being equal, the grapes which have the finest
and most delicate skin, and the most succulent fruit, have been
the 'most seriously affected, while those with a hard flesh and a
thick resistant skin have been comparatively spared. At the

1^4 MONTAGNE ON

head of the first must be placed the Frankenthal, a variety frequently
cultivated in our stoves, and which was the first nurse of the
Oidiura. Next in order are the different varieties of Chasselas,
all the Muscats, but especially the white, the Malvoisies, the late
white grapes, the Tressaux, most of the Hungarian grapes, the
Hermitage, &c. The vines of trellises have also been affected
sooner, more frequently, and more seriously than those which
are kept low, and the vineyards in low moist situations than
those of lofty hills.

The sorts which have offered the greatest resistance to the
Oidium are unhappily those which are least esteemed ; as, for
instance, all the grapes of North America, the Teinturiers, the
Cots of Touraine, the Gamays, the Servoniens, and the Melons.
The Pinaux of Burgundy have for the most part suffered less
than the others. The vines of Madeira have been so ravaged,
that it is a question whether their cultivation shall not be
abandoned for that of oranges, a notorious fact which must in no
slight degi'ee perplex those who attribute the disease principally
to temperature or site.

It is evident that as regards the question of predisposition, I
must confine myself to generalities, and these are subject to a
host of exceptions, varying with time and place, the method of
cultivation, and a thousand other circumstances of which it is
right to take account when they admit of estimation.

Treatment. — We may divide the means of opposing the disease
into two heads: 1. The means of prevention; 2. Those of
curing and alleviating the malady when once established.

Prevention. — In the first rank must be placed beyond all
doubt the layering of vines recommended by Bouchardat, who,
however, is far from pretending tliat this method is infallible,
though he has witnessed its good effects.

Another method which has some analogy with this, to the
incontestable benefit of which I can myself bear testimony, con-
sists in bringing down the branches or plants which it is desired
to protect from Oidium to the naked soil, or better still on turf
laid upon it. Dr. Robouam, who conceived the plan which he
laid before the Academy on several occasions, especially Sept. 5,
1853, has derived considerable advantage from it. I have myself
seen on his property at Montrouge plants the upper part of which
was diseased and the grapes destroyed, while the branches which
were brought down to the soil covered with turf, or gravel, or on
stones bore numerous branches perfectly sound. One must not

VINE MILDEW. 125

imagine that this was exceptional or confined to a few feet ; for in
every part of his garden, which is of considerable extent, the
branches resting on the ground presented the most beautiful
appearance, as also the bunches which they bore.* Is not this
a new argument in addition to a thousand others against the
notion of a morbid alteration in the vine anterior to, or promotive
of the invasion of the parasite ? In truth, on this hypothesis
how can we explain the facts which I have just related ?

The following, observed last October at Beaumont Sur Oise is
not less conclusive, viz., that of an espalier exposed entirely to
the east, half of which was completely destroyed by the Oidium,
while the other half in the most vigorous state of vegetation bore
magnificent clusters. I pass on to certain practical methods
recommended for the annihilation of the disease, viz., cutting
down, incision at the foot of the stem, washing and rubbing the
trunk, and finally cutting off the plant on a level with the soil.

According to M. Bouchardat the first is useless. The second
recommended in Italy by M. Guida, of which the worthlessness
was established in the very same locality, Dulgazo, by Victor
Reudu, has not succeeded better, as reported by Louis Leclerc, in
the hand of our cultivators.

Late pruning, according to Bouchardat, is preferable to
autumnal pruning.

The washing the stems, especially with lime water, and friction
are not to be despised in cultivation on a small scale. Baron
Seguier communicated last July to the Agricultural Societj' a fact
which had occurred to himself, and which comes in support of this
practice.

As regards the cutting off the plants on a level with the
ground, it has been tried in Herault by M. Camille Cambon.
Mohl, who has established its uselessness in Venice, and denounces
it as showing the fatal influence which preconceived notions of the
causes of the disease have had on the subject, speaks of it as
follows : — " It is of immense practical importance to give currency
to this view, since tVie proprietors fancied that they had a remedy
against the disease in cutting the vines down to the ground, and
the consequent renovation of the shoots, a process, however,
which entailed a certain loss for some years. "f This practice has

* This confirms the law established by M. Bouchardat. Other things
beinc; equal, the nearer the gi-ound, the less subject is the vine to infection.
M. Keller (// Bianco del grappoli,-p. 17) has made the same observation at
Padua .

•j- Les Maladies d^s pommes de terre, des betferaves, des hies et des vir/nes

126 MONTAGNE ON

been happily abandoned, in consequence of the wise counsel
given above.

Remedial Measiires. — We now come to the curative means
employed to check the progress of the disease and to save the
vintage, and shall state the measures which have proved most
efficacious, referring to the excellent treatise by M. Payen and
the works already quoted by Bouchardat.

One of the first means used successfully against the Oidium
which had attacked the graperies at Margate in 1845 was a
mixture of sulphur and lime, with which the diseased grapes
were washed or sprinkled.

Since that period sulphur or combinations of sulphur have
always held the first rank as capable of arresting the malady.
Lime has also produced equally good results, but has sometimes
failed. Other mineral and vegetable substances have also been
employed successfully. Sulphuret of calcium has been recom-
mended by M. Turrell ; the marc of crude soda by M. Payen ;
sulphuret of calcium,-''- with the addition of an acid, that is, the
magisterium of sulphur, by M. Becquerel ; wood-ashes by M.
Nadault de Buffa; hydrated sulphate of lime combined with
nitrate of potash by M. Blain ; protosulphate of iron by Messrs.
Heuze and Veza; and finally decoctions of Euphorbia, tobacco,
walnut leaves, &c. I cannot enter into a full detail of the mode
of applying these numerous agents, nor can I undertake to
estimate their relative value. T shall, however, beg to say a few
words on the most efficacious of them, viz., sulphur, whether in
powder or in the form of solutions of its combinations. The
following details are abridged from the works of Payen and
Bouchardat : —

Floivers of Sulphur. — The leaves, branches, and shoots are
first moistened as equally as possible with a syringe. Then by
the aid of Gontier s fumigator the whole is dusted with sulphur,
which adheres to the moistened surface. When the operation is
carefully performed, says M. Payen, the success is certain, pro-
vided it be renewed if a too long interval before the approach of
maturity and the dryness of the branches allow the greater part
of the sulphur to be detached.

de 1845 ci 18.53, avec l' indication des meilleicrs moyens a employer pour les
combattre. Paris, 1853.

* Sulphuret of Potassium is mentioned afterwards as employed by M.
Becquerel, but tlie chemical principle is the same in either case, the object
being to produce a magisterium or fine impalpable pi-ecijiitate of sulphur,
ivhieh enters into every crevice or inequality. — Tb.

VINE MILDEW. 127

This ingenious and economical process, especially applicable
to vines cultivated in the stove or on trellises has also been
attended with success in dwarfed plants. Leclerc mentions the
example of a proprietor in Medoc who has employed Gontier's
plan on a large scale ; but it is Payen that informs us of its
complete success, and that Count Ducbatel has found it equally
beneficial in another vinej'ard of from 45 to 50 ares (1,224 —
1,235 acres).

Sulphuret of Calcium. — The employment of sulphuret of cal-
cium by means of a syringe is due to Grison, a gardener at
Versailles. M. Turrel tried it at Toulon on a vineyard of ten
hectares (24,711 acres). It at first removed the evil as if by
enchantment, but it would have been necessary to repeat the
operation several times to ensure complete success because new
spores of Oidium from neighbouring vineyards which had not
been disinfected are apt to cause its reappearance.

Sulphuret of Potassium. — In a late session of the Imperial
Society of Agi-iculture, M. Becquerel reported a method which he
has found to answer well, which consists in washing the diseased
bunches with a solution of sulphuret of potassium to which a
small quantity of acid had been added in order to precipitate the
sulphur, that is to say, with a magisterium of sulphur. He has
by this simple method caused the sulphur to adhere to the fruit
and to act efficaciously against the parasite.

Use of Diseased Grapes. — Are diseased grapes when used
deleterious ? Every observation tends to show their perfect harm-
lessness ; and, besides, it is clear that not even a child would be
tempted to eat the grapes infected to such a degree with the
fungus as to remain as sour as veijuice. But is the wine made
from diseased grapes harmless ? The following is the answer to
this question by the report of the commission of the Linneau
Society of Bordeaux : — " The commission does not hesitate to
affirm that the alarm too generally dispersed, and favoured by
speculators, is without foundation, and that the injurious qualities
of the grapes when they are made into wine do not give rise to
very serious maladies." All that I have been able to collect on
this subject is confirmatory of this declaration.

Prognostics. — The future prospects of the disease are beyond
doubt an impenetrable mystery; for we have in the Oidium a
formidable enemy, all whose habits are not at present perfectly
known, and whose capabilities of dissemination are immense.
Will it then be transitory, or is it likely for a long period to

128 MONTAGNE ON VINE MILDEW.

ravage oui" vineyards ? Such questions cannot be answered in a
satisfactory manner. Nevertheless, as nothing violent is durable,
it is probable that we shall be relieved in time. We should
above all hope to see it cease or be modified, if one of those drj'
and severe winters, which are now so infrequent, should chance
to destroy the seeds of the parasite. But should this not be the
case, we must patiently submit, using every means of pi'evention
which that divine Providence which is constantly at work has
placed in our hands, and which cannot permit such a calamity to
be perpetual and to press indefinitely upon one of the most useful
conquests of human industry.

I firmly trust that such will be the case with this as with some
other afflictions of which we have witnessed the alleviation, as also
of some epidemics of which men and animals have been the
victims at more or less distant epochs ; I doubt not that it will
gradually wear out. What has taken place in many localities, and
especially this year in the environs of Paris, confirms us in the
hope that it will halt in its march, and that we shall at last be
relieved from the most terrible scourge which has ever affected
the productions of our soil.

Though arrived at the end of my task, I am so far from having
exhausted it that I have scarcely skimmed over the surface. I
have been obliged to pass lightly over many questions which
demand new researches. T have nevertheless thought that this
summar)^ imperfect as it is, which has extended to a greater
length than I imagined, will be sufficient to show, in its true
light, the state of the agitating question which is debated under
our eyes, the solution of which from its grave interest deserves
our care, but which demands nothing less than the union of all
our efforts, and the concurrence of every degree of light and
intelligence.

Paris, November 25, 1853.

HOKTICULTUKAL STRUCTURES. 129

XI. — On Structures for Horticultural Purposes. Bj
R. Erringtou, C.M.H.S., Gardener to Sir Philip de
Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart., F.H.S., Oulton Park,
Tarporley, Cbesliire.

(Communicated February l'2tli, 1S.54.)

It is really somewhat surprising, amidst the numerous changes
which have been taking place in almost every thing connected
with gardening affairs, that hothouses, greenhouses, and most of
the other in-door appliances, awarded to the Gardener, in order
to imitate brighter skies, remain very nearly as they did a score
or more years since, as to the question of form. How is this ?
If correct, it would seem that the affair is what our printers call
stei-eotyped. Sir Joseph Paxton was perhaps one of the first
to show the public, that there was no absolute necessity in all
cases to erect what have been termed " lean-to" structures ; and
that such, in many cases, were not only destitute of effect,
but were indeed not particularly qualified to carry out the aims
of those who erected them, in deference to mere prescription.

That the first general idea of forcing structures in Britain
should be the " lean-to" was natural enough ; glass was bad,
and doubtless long before the modern Vinery or Pinery was in
being, our " rude forefather " would, in trying to protect things
of doubtful hardihood, or to accelerate, seize on a warm slope
having a southern inclination ; and moreover hoist occasionally a
rugged covering, to ward off severe weather : this would be a kind
of " lean-to."

Forty or fifty years since, when our glass was almost as opaque
as the horn panes of a stable lanthorn, there was indeed every
reason for lean-to structures ; " burning" was almost unknown,
and indeed every ray of the most intense sunshine was needed,
and then fell far sliort of the needs of the vegetation within.
But, surely with the production of fine crown glass, the whole
question should have been reconsidered ; and strange it is, that
no one came forward bold enough to dare to give it a free handling
apart from mere custom. When we take into consideration the
continual recurrence as years roll on of " scorching," " blistering,"
" burning," and the various technicalities in gardening phraseo-
logy, expressive of injury through the intensity of the solar rays,
the question of form may surely be considered an open one, and

130 HORTICULTURAL STRUCTURES.

moreover one of a most inviting character. One great fact
should be hud in view, in approaching this question ; the fact
that most of the injuries from intense sunlight occur from about
eleven a.m. to two p.m.

Now span roofs, or any multiple of them ; call them ridge and
furrow or what we will, if running north and south, and conse-
quently presenting morning and evening slopes, are just calcu-
lated to avert that evil ; and not only that, but to present such
advantages as at once to carry weight, whatever defects they may
have. I have certainly known this burning, blistei'ing, &c., occur
at four or five in the afternoon, but then it has invariably been
through bad management : the person in charge of the houses
has closed them injudiciously, or your "stoke-hole-man'' has
been wasting his fuel.

It is really lamentable to see (as is no very uncommon thing
with metallic structures) the gardener driven to shading, and not
only that, but prevented closing his house, or at least reducing
his air betimes in the afternoon, through dread of this scorching.
And yet, such is at times the case, and thus that great maxim
with the forcing gardeners of shutting in much solar lieat betimes,
both on principle and economy, is set at nought, and after perhaps
extreme aridity with a shifting air, he is obliged to betake himself
to extra fire heat in order to make sufficient progress ; it is surely
almost needless to say how much inferior in principle, as well as
more costly, is the latter proceeding.

The great accumulation of heat, too, at the upper portion of
the roof; how unnatural, how wasteful ! It is scarcely too much
to affirm that ten per cent of the fuel is wasted in this angle,
especially in high houses with a smart incline. And then the old
sliding upper sashes to let this unnecessary accumulation escape ;
how liable to cause expense ! But, in a ridge and furrow running
north and south, it may be presumed that in ordinary cases bold
pediment ends, capable of being thrown open, together with ample
provision at low levels for the ingress of fresh air, will generally
suffice. I have, during the last four or five years, made a point
of talking this subject over with really experienced gardeners,
when I could fall in with them, and of inviting them to urge as
many real difiiculties as they could in the way of the north and
south span roof ; but I have never been able to collect opposing
evidence worthy of grave consideration.

I therefore respectfully submit the question to tlie consideration
of the readers of the Horticultural Societv's Journal, and should

HORTICULTURAL STRUCTURES. 131

be most happy to see the pros and cons fairly grappled with by
men of science and horticultural experience combined.

For my own part, I believe that before many years pass we
shall have structures of this class exceedingly multiplied, and
persons establishing new gardens on a bold and well-concerted
plan, covering at once an extent of ground in a way that now
might be thought chimerical.

There seems a growing desire for orchard houses ; in other
words, a desire to command a crop of fruit, bidding defiance to all
casualties. I believe this to be perfectly attainable, and if so a
low and continuous ridge and furrow structin'e, being thrown over
a considerable extent at once, will doubtless be made to form
a system complete in itself, and highly conducive to the dignified
appearance of fine gardens.

XT I. — On the CuLTtVATroN of Hyacinths in Glasses.
By the Rev. W. B. Hawkins, F H.S.

(Read at a Meeting of the Society, held March 21st, 1854.)

The cultivation of Hyacinths in glasses is so universally prac-
tised, and affords so much amusement and gratification to pei'sous
who do not otherwise engage in floricultural pursuits, that perhaps
a few remarks on a more easy and successful method of producing
these very beautiful flowers may not be without interest to the
Society.

I have, for several years past, raised these flowers in water-
glasses in the manner usually adopted, namely, occasionally
changing the temperature by removing the glasses from a cold
room, when the weather became more severe, to an apartment
with a fire, and at a more advanced period of growth, keeping the
plants entirely in a warm room until the flowers fully develop
themselves. I found, however, as many persons, I believe,
experience, great difficulty in preventing the stem and the leaves
from growing too high, and thus diminishing the size of the
flower by diverting its proper nutriment, and also in preserving
the stem of the plant in an upright position.

I determined, therefore, to try a different plan this last season,
and, accordingly, after keeping the bulbs in water-glasses from

K 2

I'.H HYACINTHS.

the middle of October until the latter part of November in a
darkened room, in order that tbey might produce strong roots,
after that period I retained them altogether in an apartment in
which no fire was ever lighted, placed on a table close to a win-
dow. In this situation they remained without any other pi'otection
from the external air, even during the night, than the window,
as the shutters were never closed, and a linen blind only was
drawn down at night to mitigate the extreme cold. On four or
five nights only, during the very severe weather of the past
winter, when the snow was on the ground, were they removed
from this situation, and then only to another table placed
between the windows of the room, and at a distance of not more
than three or four feet from either window. Notwithstanding,
however, this very low temperature to which they were constantly
exposed, each bulb produced a remarkably fine flower of con-
siderable size, much larger, indeed, than those grown in what are
usually considered the most favourable situations, and equalling
in size many of those Hyacinths grown in pots, which have been
exhibited at different times in the rooms of the Society. The
stems and foliage also displayed a particularly healthy and
vigorous appearance.

The bulbs which I selected for this experiment were some of
the choicest sorts, which are more diflBcult to raise, and more
capricious in their mode of flowering. When the great and
unusual severity of the weather during the past winter is recol-
lected, I think this experiment may be considered as affording a
good proof that the Hyacinth is a much more hardy flower than
is usually imagined, and that it does not want the species of
hothouse culture and high temperature which are generally
given to it.

What these flowers appear to require, is, as much light as
possible, a tolerably pure atmosphere, occasional change of the
water in the glasses, which should be effected not by merely
filling up the glass, but by pouring off the whole of the water
in each, and filling it up entirely with that which is fresh. A
frequent change of position also is wanted, so that each part of
the plant may be brought in tui'n to the light, which will not only
render it more strong but more upright as well.

HISTORY OF CULTIVATED PLANTS. 133

XIII. — Historical Notes on the Introduction of various
Plants into the Agriculture and Horticulture of
Tuscany : a summary of a work entitled Cenni storici sulla
introduzione di varie piante nelVagricoltura cd orticultura
Toscana. By Dr. Antonio Targioni-Tozzetti. Florence, 1850.

The investigation of the origin and introduction of the vegetable
productions raised for the use of man, is not only an interesting
study in a critical, historical, or geographical point of vfew, but it
may be applied to practical use by the cultivator. In showing how
very few of these plants are to be met with naturally in the
state in which we grow them, and how by careful and persevering
cultivation, their natural properties have been modified, so as to
suit the purposes they are applied to, a stimulus is given to our
exertions in the still further improvement of those already
known, as well as for the introduction and conversion of new
species or varieties to the use of man. At the same time the
knowledge of the readiness with which, in some instances, a
worthless weed has been changed into a valuable esculent, and
of the lengthened period which has at other times been required
to effect the conversion, may often suggest to us the modus
ojyerandi to be attempted on future occasions.

But this enquiry is often attended with no small difficulty.
However readily we may trace the process by which our European
cabbages and carrots, or apples and pears, have been received
into our gardens and orchards, and there made to produce the
luxuriant vegetables and fruits of modern days ; however
authentic may be the records of the introduction of the tobacco,
the potato, and other additions to our esculent, economical, or
ornamental plants, since the discovery of America, and the inven-
tion of printing, it is a very different matter to trace with any great
degree of plausibility the origin of the majority of tVie Cerealia
and fruits of more ancient cultivation, and which still supply so
important a part of our agricultural and horticultural productions.
Tradition ascribes "the East" as the source from whence many
of them sprung, and so much is this relied upon, that in all
cases where a plant, known to have been cultivated in early ages,
cannot now be found growing wild, there is a natural tendency
to assign as its probable native station some unknown district
among the mountains of Central Asia. It is indeed probable,
that the populous herbivorous nations which early occupied the

IM< HISTOKICAL NOTES ON

vvarmei' climates of that continent, liad become cultivators for
ages before the wilder and more carnivorous hordes which
wandered over the colder regions of Europe, and that civilisation,
as it spread from the former over the latter, carried with it the
more useful Cerealia and fruits then known. But all were already
in a state of cultivation, that is, more or less modified by human
labour and skill. It seldom has occurred in modern days, still less
is it likely to have happened in early ages, that a wild plant has
been brought from a distant country to be grown in our own, for
the use of man. The conversion must have been gradual, and
generally, if not universally, in the district where the species was
indigenous.

Wherever, therefore, the origin of a plant, cultivated in a
given country, is involved in doubt, all enquiries tending to clear
up that doubt must resolve into the following queries : —

1, When was it first known to have been there cultivated ?

y. In what countries, if any, was it previously cultivated, and
if so, when and how could it have been from thence transported ?

3. What are the plants indigenous to the region where it was
first made use of, which could have been the wild origin of the
cultivated varieties ?

The answers to the two first questions may be derived from
actual record, or from collateral historical evidence. But in
early ages agricultural and horticultural nomenclature was ex-
ceedingly vague, and the allusion to vegetable productions is often
so slight in ancient works, that it requires very great critical
acumen to form any plausible opinion as to the identity of the
plants mentioned. The conclusions come to require moreover
to be constantly checked by a judicious study as well of geogra-
phical botany and local floras, as of the general principles of
vegetable physiology as applied to horticultural and agricultural
metamorphosis ; and these geographical and pliysiological studies
can alone supply the answers to the third of our queries.

Professor Targioni-Tozzetti's work applies more especially to
the two first questions ; and he has bestowed great pains in the
historical investigation of the more important species and
varieties now cultivated in Italy, and more especially in Tuscany.
He appears to have carefully consulted and critically examined
all the works bearing upon the subject which he had within his
reach, including the writings of tlie ancient Greeks and Romans,
those of Italian naturalists from the fifteenth century down to
our own dav, and a considei'ablc number of modern French.

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 135

English, and German books of reference. He does not appear,
however, to have had access to all the works of Royle and others
in our own country, which have thrown so much light on the
botany of the Bible, and of the early Asiatic nations, nor yet to
numerous memoirs on detached points, which have appeared in
L'rench and German Transactions and periodicals. He is
thoroughly acquainted with the agricultural botany of his own
country, but has necessarily but a slight knowledge of the actual
Horas of those Eastern regions wliich are supposed to have
poured forth so many vegetable treasures. Whilst, therefore,
he has in the present work collected a great mass of valuable
historical information, which should be consulted by all who are
engaged in these investigations, he has contributed comparatively
little to the solution of our third question.

Following the order he has adopted, partly systematical partly
economical, though scarcely definite enough to be called a method,
the GraniinecB and especially the Cerealia, as the most im-
portant, are the first treated of, although with less detail than
some others. No conclusion is come to as to the real origin of
our four staple species, Wheat, Barley, Rye, and Oats. They
are all shown to have been amongst the earliest grains culti-
vated in Italy ; it is admitted that none of the indications of
stations where they have been supposed to have been indigenous
are to be relied upon, yet it seems still to be presumed that
these cultivated forms are distinct species, which still exist, or
have existed, wild in some hitherto unknown regions, with the
same characters which they exhibit in our fields. The recent
investigations of Mr. Fabre, of Agde, as to the effect of culti-
vation upon jEyilops, and the conclusions to be deduced from
them, if accurate, appear to be unknown to him. Yet, however
little the remarkable changes observed by Mr. Fabre may be
credited by some, they bear so sti'ongly upon the question,
that, until refuted, they must be taken into account by all who
would write on the subject." We ourselves have no hesitation

* The various specimens of ^gilops grown in the botanical garden of
Avignon, where the late M. Requien had bestowed particular attention to
the genus, showed modifications produced by culture which were many
years since most puzzling to us as to the intermediates between ^Egilops
ovata and Triticum sativum. One great character relied upon as the
strongest proof of the impossibility of their having a common origin, the
articulation of the rachis in JEriilops, has alwHj's a tendency to disap-
pear by luxuriant cultivatiou, not only ia the ears of the GraminecB, but
also in the pods of Lrcjununosce and Orucifcrce, and in other parts of various

l.'iG H18TU1U(JAL IS'UTES ON

ill stating our conviction, as the result of all the most reliahle
evidence bearing upon the subject, that none of these Cerealia
exist, or have existed, truly wild in their present state, but that
all are cultivated varieties of species now growing in great
abundance in Southern Europe or Western Asia. We believe
that most, if not all, of our cultivated varieties of wheat originally
sprung from one botanical species of ^gilops {JE. ovata), except-
ing the smaller spelts of southern Europe, which are modifications
of ^'Egilops camluta and Crithodium (eyilojwides ; that our barley
and oats now grow wild in Europe in the form of some one of
the recognised species of Hordeuni and Arena respectively,
although data are still wanting to determine precisely which is in
each case the true type, and how many of the forms described as
species it should include ; and that our rye is a South European
and Asiatic plant chiefly from the neighbourhood of the Black
Sea, the Secale montannm of Gussone and S. fragile of Bieberstein
being varieties at least of the original botanical species.

The different Millets mentioned as cultivated in Tuscany belong
to four botanical species, the miglio (Panicum miliaceum), the
paiiico (Setaria italica), the saggine in spiga (Penicillaria spicata),
and five varieties (or, according to some, species) of saggine proper,
(Sorghum). Of these the Panicum niiliacexnn and the Setaria
were already known to the ancient Romans from a very remote
period ; the black-seeded Sorghum is recorded as having been
introduced from India in the time of Pliny; and the other varieties,
as well as the Penicillaria, are of more recent introduction from
India or from Africa, All four species appear to have supplied
grain for food, in periods of very remote antiquity, in Egypt or
India, where their wild prototypes must be sought for. The
Panicum miliaceum, and some varieties of the Penicillaria, are
but little altered from the original forms as still found in those
countries. The Setaria italica is not unlikely to be a luxuriant
cultivated form of the S. glauca, a most abundant weed in all
warm countries. As to the cultivated Sorghums, most botanists
distinguish several species, although none are to be found in a
wild state, except perhaps those which have a more, diffuse
panicle with less crowded flowers, and which come the nearest to
the more luxuriant specimens of the Sorghum halepense, which is

plants. The fact that wheat, cultivated as it is in all climates where it can
be made to grow, will nowhere propagate itself as a weed of cultivation,
is a further proof that it is in a state much altered from its original wild
form.

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 137

very abundant wild in some parts of Southern Europe, and all
over Africa and India. Indeed, we believe it to be the opinion
of an eminent agrostologist who has shown the soundest judgment
in the investigation of East Indian and other Graviiiiem, an
opinion in which we fully concur, that the described species of
Sorghnm are mostly, if not all, mere varieties of the Soryhum
halepense, produced by extensive cultivation during a long series of
ages.

Maize or Indian Com (Zea mays) now so widely spread over
the South of Europe, does not appear to have been introduced
from America till near a century after the discovery of that
continent, though mentioned as a valuable article of food in the
West Indies by several travellers of the 16th century ; it is shown
to have been still unknown in Spain at the close of that period,
and it was not until after the year 161 U that it found its way
through Spain and Sicily into Italy. Professor Targioni-Tozzetti
satisfactorily shows that all supposed mention of this grain by
earlier writers before the discovery of America referred to other
kinds of grain, though under some of the names since given to the
Maize. We are not yet sufficiently acquainted with the American
flora to ascertain, with any probability, what is the original
indigenous form of this, apparently, the earliest cultivated
American grain.

Rice was in the year 1400 still only known in Italy as an article
of import from the East. Its cultivation was introduced into
Piedmont and Lombardy in the end of the 15th or commencement
of the 10th century, either directly from India by the Portuguese,
or through Spain and Naples by the Spaniards. Some of the
varieties now grown in India appear to be but little removed
from their wild prototype.

The Sugar-Cane is merely alluded to because its cultivation
was attempted in Tuscany in the 16th century, but found totally
unsuited to the climate. Of Asiatic origin, where the wild type
is not uncommon, it was carried to the West Indies, and thence
introduced into Sicily in the time of the Saracens. It was also,
perhaps, for a short time cultivated in Calabria, a point which
has been much disputed, although of no importance, as no success
attended the experiment if made.

Leguminous jdants, either as forage or as pulse, cover a wide
extent of the fields of Tuscany, and in the latter shape form a
much greater proportion of the food of the inhabitants than in our
own country. The introduction of most of the kinds into Italy

138 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

dates from a period of very remote antiquity, for Professor
Targioui finds them mentioned by nearly all the ancient Greek
and Latin writers on Georgics, and their origin is difficult to
trace. Some of them, indeed, are but little altered from the
wild forms not uncommon in Italy ; but whether these be in-
digenous, or have become naturalised there in consequence of
their cultivation, remains doubtful. Taking them in the order in
which they are here mentioned : the Pea has been stated by
several authors to be a native of Italy, and Professor Targioui
admits this to be the case with the Jield jiea, ox ruhiglio (Pisum
arvense), but with most botanists, insists on the r/arden-pca, or
pisello (Pisum sativum), being a distinct species of unknown
origin. In this conclusion we cannot join ; all our cultivated
Pisums are surely referrible to one species, which is most
probably really indigenous only in the more eastern of the
districts, where it is now found apparently wild.

Of the Haricots, or French beans, Fagioli (Phaseolese), only
two are mentioned as grown in Tuscany, both indigenous to and
introduced from East India, where the cultivated species are very
numerous.* One is our common Haricot, or French bean
(Phaseolus vulgaris), so well known in all civilised countries ;
the other is the Fagiolo del' Occhio (Dolichos melanophthalmus of
Savi), a mere variety of the Dolichos or Vujna Sinensis, much
cultivated in India and Egypt, but only very sparingly so in
Southern Europe, and entirely unknown in this country.

The common Bean (Vicia Faba), has been vainly sought for in
a wild state. The vague indication of supposed habitats in Persia,
or on the shores of the Caspian, have not been confirmed by
modern researches. May it not, however, have had its origin in
the Vicia Narbonensis ? a species not uncommon in the Mediter-
ranean region from Spain to the Caucasus, and very much
resembling the Bean in every respect, except in the thinness of
the pod and the smallness of the seeds.

* These, however, are not nearly so numerous as is generally supposed;
thus, the Phaseolus vulyaris includes at least eight of the commonly
ado2")ted species of modern botanists, the P. lunatus foui", the P. Max or
Munqo (which is either dwarf or climbing, like the P. vulgaris) five or six,
the P. Truxillensis three or four, Dolichos (or rather Viyna) Sinensis four or
five, Lablab vulgaris at least as many, Canavalia gladiata^ two or three, and
so on. This multiplication of species has not been owing entirely to the
considering as botanical species what are mere varieties of cultivation, but
in scvei-al instances it has arisen from the same varieties having been
received from Asia, Africa, and America, and separately described without
adverting to their common origin.

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 139

The seven following are stated to be all spontaneous in Asia,
and slightly improved by long cultivation in European fields,
being all mentioned by ancient Greek and Roman writers, viz. :
the Liipin (Lupinus albus), the ilfoc/a' (Lathyrus cicer, Pois cornu
of the French), the Cicerchie (Lathyrus sativus, or Gesse of the
French), the Lerl, or Zirli (Vicia ervilia), the Vetch (Vicia sativa),
the Cece (Cicer arietinum, or Pois chiche), and the Lentil (Ervum
Lens). Several of these are now wild also in Italy, and the two
Lathyri, and the common Vetch, may be indigenous ; but they
may with equal probability be only naturalised, as they are
evidently so little altered by cultivation, that they may readily
propagate naturally when they meet with a genial soil and climate.
All of these are more or less eaten by the Italians as pulse, but
few would be palatable to the English tastes. The Cicer indeed,
though rather coarse, is very fair when properly dressed and
seasoned, but the only one really deserving importation is the
Lentil, which is both wholesome and nuti'itious, and excellent
en puree, in various stews and made dishes, &c. It is very much
consumed all over Southern Europe, and constitutes, in all
probability, that much puffed article, so absurdly disguised for
the purpose of sale under the high-sounding name of Revalodit
arahica, an evident corruption of Erba lenta.

Numerous as are the Leguminosce used for forage in Southern
Italy and Sicily, four only ai'e mentioned as cultivated for that
purpose in Tuscany : the Lucern (Medicago sativa), introduced,
according to the ancient writers, from Media into Greece, in the
time of Darius, and thence into Italy; the Sainfoin (Onobrychis
sativa), the Sulla or Lupinella (Hedysarum coronarium, or French
honeysuckle), and the Trafogliolo (Trifolium incarnatum), the
three last indigenous to Italy, and of comparatively modern
cultivation. Allusion is made to the confusion and frequent
interchange of names between the Lucern and the Sainfoin,
which appears to be as prevalent in Italy as it is in many parts of
Fi-ance, and has often led to error in regai'd to their agricultural
statistics. No mention is made of our common red or white
clovers, nor of the Medicago lupulina, so much cultivated in
Britain and Central Europe.

Four esculent Solanea; are e.xtensively cultivated in Tuscany:
the Potato, the Tomato, the Egg-plant, and the Capsicum, the
two first of American origin, the third East Indian, and the fourth
either American or African, or both.

The historv of the introduction of the Potato (Solanuai tube-

140 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

rosum), is well known. Although mentioned occasionally by
American explorers of the 16th century (by some confounded
with the siveet potato, a convolvulaceous plant)^ it was not other-
wise known in Europe till brought to England by Sir Walter
Raleigh in 1586. Two years afterwards, Clusius at Vienna
obtained two tubers through the Prefect of Mons, in Belgium,
from a servant of the Pontifical Nuntiate in the Low Countries.
It may have been transmitted to Italy at about the same time
from tlie same source. At any rate, it was certainly in cultivation
in Tuscany at the commencement of the 17th century, for
Father Magazzini of Valombrosa, in a work on Tuscan agriculture,
published in 16-23, after his death, gives directions as to its
cultivation, which he alludes to as being then habitual, having
been introduced from Spain and Portugal by the barefooted
Carmelite monks.

Professor Targioni, led into error by the insertion of the
Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum), in the first floras of Cochin-
China and Amboyna, considers it as a native of India, as well as of
Peru, and e.x.presses, therefore, some surprise that it should have
been unknown to the ancients. But, if ever found wild in the
Eastern Archipelago, it is only as spread from cultivation, for it
is now ascertained to be exclusively of Peruvian origin, and was
not known in Europe until after the discovery of America. It
appears, however, to have preceded the more useful maize and
potato, for Matthioli mentions its introduction in his days, that
is, in the commencement of the 16th century. It was first
cultivated rather for ornament than for food, which may, perhaps,
explain its more rapid introduction.

The Mehutzane or Petonciani (Solanum Melongena, Aubergine
of the French, the Egg-plant "'' or Bringall of the West Indies)
is most probably a native of Asia or Africa, altliough the precise
original indigenous form has not as yet been satisfactorily made
out. Many of the supposed botanical species of the most recent
monographist are mere cultivated varieties, and their connection
with allied forms stated to be wild in India or in America
requires much critical investigation. Its cultivation in Italy can-
not have been extensive before the discovery of America. It is
indeed generally supposed to be referred to by Theophrastus

* This name is generally given in our gardens to the short white-fruited
variety which we grow merely as an object of curiosity. It is the long
purple-fruited variety that is so much cultivated iu the South as an article
of food.

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 141

under the name of Strychnos, by Avicenna under that of
Bedaugian, and especially by St. Hildeguarda, Abbess of
Bingen, who died in 1180, under that of Megilnna, yet the
identity is in no case placed beyond doubt, and requires colla-
teral proof to be derived from the botanical and geographical
investigation of the original wild type of the species.

There is still greater uncertainty as to the real native country
of the Capsicum or Hot-pepper (Capsicum annuum, Peperoni of
the Italians, Pimeut of the French), now so universally spread
over all tropical countries. Although long known under the
name of Indian Pepjjer, it appears not to be indigenous in Asia,
and there is no authentic record of its cultivation in Europe
before the discovery of America. It is said to be really wild in
that continent, and Csesalpin and Clusius, late in the 16th
century, both speak of it as introduced from thence. Yet, in
the time of Matthioli, early in the same century, and conse-
quently, at a period when very little of the natural productions
of the New World had been transplanted to the Old, we find at
least three varieties well established and abundantly cultivated in
Italy under the name of Indian pepper, which is hardly probable
if it had been really introduced from America, then so recently
discovered.

A curious instance of the slowness with which the use of
culinary vegetables is spread, is afforded by the large green mild
variety of Capsicum, which is so much eaten over a great part
of Spain and some of the adjoining French departments. It
was carried by the Spaniards into Naples during their dominion
in the 16th and 17th centuries, and has ever since remained
in common use there without spreading further. In Tuscany
it is scarcely known, except as an object of curiosity in botanical
gardens. It makes an excellent salad, having all the flavour
of the capsicum without the slightest pungency.

The cultivation of the Su-eet potato or Batata (Ipomcea Batatas
or Batatas edulis) has been at various times attempted in
different parts of Italy, but as yet without success, notwith-
standing the strongest and repeated recommendations of its
importance. In a wild state, it is one of those maritime plants
which is spread over the shores of both the New and the Old
World, within or near the tropics, but its cultivation appears to
have originated with the Americans. It was evidently unknown
to the ancients, and the first mention of it on record is by
Pigafetta, who found it used as an article of food in Brazil, where

142 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

lie landed in 1519. Its first introduction into Europe was
probably by Oviedo, after whose return to Spain, in 1 520, it was
cultivated at IMalaga, and from thence sent out to different parts
of Europe. Clusius purchased some fresh roots in London in 1581,
to carry with him to Vienna. Since then, various attempts to turn
the Batata to account, have been made in Tuscany, in Lombardy,
at Rome, and in other parts of Italy ; but have all failed, either
from the ungenial climate or still more from the difficulty of
preserving the roots through the winter. The Marchese Ridolfi
is said more recently to have discovered a mode of treatment, by
which these obstacles may be in a great measure removed, and
to have given an account of it in the Acts of the Academy of
Georgofili of Florence. Yet the cultivation of the root is cer-
tainly not yet carried to any extent in Italy.

In his note on the Jerusalem articlioke (Helianthus tuberosus)
Professor Targioni repeats the common tale of its being of
Brazilian origin and deriving its French name of Topiitamhonr
from that of the tribe of Indians occupying the district of
which it is supposed to be a native. But this assertion,
copied by one writer after another, appears to rest solely on
a dictum of Clusius, and certainly no traveller in the land
of the Topinambas has found anything approaching to
it in botanical affinity or in physiological constitution. It is a
hai-dy plant, introduced into Europe from the more temperate
regions of North America, and it is amongst the Helianthi of
that continent, and more especially of the Mexican dominions,
that its wild prototype must be sought for. It was carried from
France into Tuscany in the end of the 10th or the com-
mencement of the 17th centuries, and is now sparingly
cultivated there under the name of tortufi di cannn, or cane
truffles

The Artichoke (Cynara Scolymus) is a mere cultivated variety of
the Cfl?'c?oo7t (Cynara Cardunculus), of which the still more reduced
wild form is common over Southern Europe and a portion of
Central Asia. What part of this wide district may have been its
original native country cannot well be now ascertained ; for, like
all thistles, it spreads with remarkable facility wherever it finds
a genial soil. Carried out from Europe to the gardens of
Buenos Ayres, and escaped from them over the country, it is said
to constitute that gigantic thistle of the Pampas so feelingly
described by Sir Francis Head; To the ancient Romans it was
only known in the shape of the Cardoon, cultivated as a culinai'v

CULTIVATED PLANTS. ] 43

vegetable, the part eaten beiug the petioles of the leaves. In
Italy the first record of tlie artichoke cultivated for the sake of
the head, or rather the receptacle of the flower, was at Naples,
in the beginning or middle of the 15th century. It was
thence carried to Florence, in 1466; and at Venice, Ermolao
Barbaro, who died as late as 1493, only knew of a single plant
grown as a novelty in a private garden, although it soon after
became a staple article of food over a great part of the
Peninsula.

Lettuces, Chicory and Endive, appear all to have been in
cultivation ever since the times of the ancient Greeks and
Romans, without any record of their first introduction. The
numerous varieties of the Lettuce have been referred by modern
botanists to three supposed species, (Lactuca sativa, L. capitata, and
L. crispa), and, as no plants so characterised are now to be found
wild in our own quarter of the globe, their origin is vaguely
assigned, as usual, to East India. That country may, however,
be well ransacked before cabbage- or cos-lettuces are met with
growing wild in the mountains. Their prototypes may be sought
for with much better chance of success amongst the common wild
LactuccB of the Mediterranean region, but can only be determined
with any degree of probability by a more correct knowledge of the
changes pi'oduced by luxuriant cultivation on their foliage thqn
we now possess. The cultivated Chicory is universally acknow-
ledged to be but a slightly altered variety of the wild plant
(Cichorium intybus) so common over a great part of Europe ;
the Endive, on the contrary, is always enumerated as a distinct
species (Cichoiium endivia) of unknown origin, unless it be " East
India." We fear it must share the fate of the Lettuces, be
erased from the list of botanical species, and reduced to the rank
of a cultivated variety of the Chicory.

UmhcllifercB abound in the hot regions which surround the
Mediterranean, and the strong flavour which pervades every part
of many species has brought several of them into use in very
early ages, eitlier as condiments, or as articles of food. Some of
them, either from inattention, or from not being considered of
sufiicieut value to cultivate, have remained unaltered, and their
use has not been extended beyond the limited circles in which
they are found wild, whilst in others man has succeeded in pro-
ducing such a development of the tap-root, or of the lower part
of the stem and leaves, with a corresponding softening down of
the asperity of the flavour, as to supply excellent culinary

144 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

vegetables. Hence the Carrot (Daucus Carota), the Parsnip
(Pastiuaca sativa), and the Celery (Apiura graveolens), in uni-
versal use among European races, and the Finocchio (Anethum
foeniculum), more especially appreciated in tlie Italian peninsula.
All of these are indigenous to Southern Europe, and are now
found in a wild state in most countries colonised by European
races.

Professor Targioni's researches convince him that the Carrot
and Parsnip were both known to, and cultivated by, the ancient
Greeks and Piomans ; but that, until the middle ages, as far as
can be traced from the vague descriptions of early writers, the
parsnip was very much more general than the carrot, although
since then the proportions have been everywhere reversed. The
carrot, indeed, appears much more susceptible of improvement
under the enlightened cultivation of modern days, and the
readers of our " Horticultural Transactions " will recollect, in the
second volume of the second series, a paper of Vilmorin-Audrieux's,
in which he gives an account of the manner in which he succeeded,
in the course of a very few years, in converting the thin, wiry,
useless white roots of the wild carrot into a crop of fine, well-
shaped, rich-coloured roots, equal to our best garden varieties ;
whilst in the case of the parsnip he has, we believe, never yet
succeeded in effecting any perceptible change.

Celery was known to the ancients, but was considered rather
as a funereal or ill-omened plant than as an article of food. By
early modern writers it is mentioned only as a medicinal plant.
Even as late as the 16th century it is spoken of as such by
Alamanui, who praises at the same time ihe Maceroni (Smyrnium
Olusatrum) for its sweet I'oots as an article of food. It is certain,
however, that celery was already begun to be grown for the table
in Tuscany at about the same time, and has now entirely super-
seded the Maceroni which was once much cultivated in Italian
gardens in a similar way.

The Finocchio, so highly prized by the Italians, especially in
the southern portion of the peninsula, is comparatively a modern
vegetable. It has however produced several marked races or
permanent varieties, amongst which the principal are the
finocchio forte, but little removed from the common wild fennel,
the finocchio dolce or sweet fennel, and the finocchio di Bologna
or finocchione, with the lower part of the stem (or head) much
enlarged and succulent. These three varieties are considered by
modern Italian botanists as so many distinct species, the two last

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 14-5

stated to be of unknown but probably of " Grecian or Syrian "
origin. But Professor Targioni admits that they are not
mentioned by any Greek writers, and that the finocchio di
Bologna was a new vegetable brought to Florence from Bologna
in the middle of the sixteenth century. They are surely all
cultivated varieties or races of the common fennel, which is truly
wild in most parts of Mediterraneaxi Europe.

Four other Umbelliferae are cultivated in Tuscany as condi-
ments. Parsley (Apium Petroselinum), a native of Southern
Europe as well as of other countries, was cultivated for its leaves
by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and has maintained its ground
with little alteration to the present day. Aniseed (Pimpinella
Anisum), now much grown in Tuscany, appears to have been
formerly imported as an article of trade from Crete and Egypt,
where it is indigenous. The first mention of its culture in Italy
is by Palladius under the Pioman empire. Dillseed (Anethura
graveolens) and Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), natives of
Southern and Eastern Europe, are also cultivated in Tuscany for
their seeds, but are little appreciated in AYestern Europe. The
Caraway (Carum Carvi), though as common in a wild state in
Italy as in other parts of Eui'ope, is not mentioned among Tuscan
products.

The Cruci/ercB, notwithstanding their importance in culinary
and rural economy, are dismissed in a few words, the Cahhaye,
the Turnip, the Eajyeseed, and the Radish being the only ones
mentioned. The Cahhaye (Brassica oleracea), which in some
Northern countries constitutes a principal item in the food of the
peasantry, is almost lost among the variety of culinary vegetables
of the more favoured South. It is indigenous to the rocky shores
of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and has been brought into
cultivation from the remotest ages. There is perhaps no species
of vegetable which sports so readily, and of whieli a greater
number of more or less permanent races and varieties have been
established in our gardens. For a detailed account of the most
important of them, the reader is referred by Targioni to De
Candolle's well known dissertation.

The Turnip (Brassica napus) is still less appreciated in Italy ;
indeed the climate appears to be scarcely suitable for its extensive
agricultural cultivation, and in southern gardens it turns out a
hard fibrous strong-tasting root, which we cannot blame them for
neglecting. Iii its wild state it is so widely spread a weed, that
it is impossible to say from data as yet recorded, what is its

146 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

original country. The Rapeseed or Colza (Brassica rapa), culti-
vated for the oil extracted from its seed, is mentioned by Columella
and Martial. It is probably of a similar origin, and is indeed
by some supposed to be a mere variety of the same species.

Radishes (Kaphanus sativus) find in the South and East,
climates much more genial to their constitution than with us,
and the roots acquire a large size, red, white or black (although we
have never seen any of those yard-long black radishes mentioned
as having been exhibited at Moscow), but the flavour is seldom so
mild and delicate as in our gardens. Both the long and the
turnip-rooted were known to the ancient Romans, and Professor
Targioni, reading in botanical works that Raphanus sativus is a
native of China, appears somewhat puzzled to imagine in what
remote times it could have been imported from thence to Rome.
The fact is, there are no more wild succulent-rooted radishes in
China than elsewhere, and any one who observes with an unpre-
judiced eye the varieties of shapes assumed by the pod of the
R. raphanistrum on the shores of the Mediterranean, can scarcely
fail to come to the conclusion, that he sees in that species the
wild prototype of our garden radish.

The innumerable varieties of Cucurhitaceai cultivated in
Tuscany, are reducible for the most part to five botanical species,
the Gourd or Pumpkin (Cucurbita Pepo), the Bottle-Gourd (Cucur-
bitalagenaria), the Water-Melon{G\iQ,uxm?> Citrullus), the Cucumber
(Cucumis sativa), and the Melon (Cucumis Melo). They are none
of them indigenous in Europe, but were all introduced in very
early times from Asia or Africa. They all, as well as some other
species not known in Europe, have from time immemorial been
cultivated all over the warmer parts of Asia, yet some of them are
positively stated never to be found there wild. Very little
however is as yet known on the subject, for sufficient care has
not been taken to investigate how far the characteristic forms are
due to cultivation, nor to distinguish the real botanical species, so
as fairly to compare them with the wild ones. We have no data
at present for discussing the question, which can only be satis-
factorily resolved when taken up by some intelligent Indian
botanist, who will not rest satisfied with the validity of a botanical
species till he has traced it to its really wild form.

The first introduction into use of Alliaceous hulls is lost in the
remotest ages of antiquity. They were cultivated as objects of
adoration by the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks had many
varieties, of which several are recorded by Theophrastus under

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 147

names derived from the Asiatic towns whence they were intro-
duced, and they were also in common use among the Romans.
Of the five species mentioned as now grown in Tuscany, the
Chives (AlHum schcenoprasum), a common European plant, already
cultivated in the time of Theophrastus, is the only one admitted
to be indigenous, but the Leek (Allium porrum) is evidently a
mere variety of the Allium ampeloprasum, which also ranges
over a great part of Europe. The Shallot (Allium ascalonicum)
was very early introduced from Syria or Asia Minor, where it is
still found wild. The Onion (Allium cepa *) will probably prove
identical with the Allium fistulosum, a species having a rather
extended range in the mountains of South Russia, and whose
south-western limits are as yet unascertained. The Garlic
(Allium sativum), including the Rocambole (Allium ophioscorodon),
which is a mere variety, is indicated in several South
Mediterranean floras, but in some instances the evidence of its
being really wild is far from satisfactory.

The cultivated Beets are refen-ed by Italian botanists to two
species, of which one only. Beta cicla, is admitted to be of native
origin, whilst the true Beta vulgaris is stated to be indigenous to
Central Asia, Egypt, and the shores of the Mediterranean, to the
exclusion of Italy. Moquin-Tandon has, however, more correctly
reunited the whole under the Linnean name of Beta vulgaris,
of which he reduces the numerous forms to three principal races :
First, the Wild Beet, with a slender, hard root, spai'ingly intro-
duced into kitchen-gardens for the foliage, occasionally cooked
with sorrel to diminish the acidity of the latter. Second, the
White Beet, poiree or jwiree-carde of the French, with a thicker,
but still hard root, with enlarged leaves and a great tendency to
succulence in the petioles, which are blanched like cardoons for
culinary purposes. This vegetable is frequently mentioned by
ancient Greek and Roman writers. Third, the beet-root, barha-
bietola of Italian gardens, betterave of the French, so well known
for its sweet and succulent root, was first introduced into Italy
in the sixteenth century, from Germany, where it was probably
first produced. A sub-variety of the beet-root, with a somewhat
coarser and larger root, now become so important an article in
agriculture, was originally put forward under the name of root of
scarcity, racine de disette in French, or mangel vrnrzel m German,

* The supposed principal botanical character, the dilatation and lateral
tooth of three of the filaments, is often ill-defined or disappears altogether
in our garden onions.

L 2

148 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

which latter translation is now adopted by our farmers, absurdly
corrupted into mangold wurzel.

Spuiage (Spinacia oleracea) was unknown to the ancient Greeks
and Iloraans, but appears to have been early used by the Arabs,
transferred to their gardens from the plains and lower hills of
Western Asia, where it is now found wild. The Moors carried it
with them into Spain, from whence it gradually spread, in the
middle ages, over the rest of Europe. It has now generally
replaced the Orache (Atriplex hortensis), a plant also of Eastern
origin, but of much earlier introduction, as it appears to have
been known to the ancient Greeks under the name of Atraphaons,
and to the Romans under that of Atriplex.

Asparaf/us (A. officinalis), indigenous to Italy, as well as other
parts of Europe, is mentioned both by Cato and Pliny as care-
fully cultivated, and attaining a considerable thickness in their
days, and has ever been a favourite vegetable among the Italians,
who grow it to great perfection ; they likewise eat the thin,
almost thread-like shoots of the wild plant.

Among sweet herbs, Basil (Ocimura basilicum) has been much
grown, as a condiment or for medicinal purposes, in all hot countries
from the very earliest times on record. It is an annual that
sows itself so abundantly over the warmer regions of Asia and
Africa, that it is impossible to say which may have been its
original native country. Numerous varieties are recorded as •
produced by cultivation, and some other species are grown in
India and Africa, but the common 0. basilicum (which I am now
convinced should include the O. miims) is the only botanical
species known in Italy, where several varieties are great fovourites
in the cottage windows of the lower orders. Sweet Marjoram
(Origanum Majorana) was introduced by the ancient Rom.ans
from Egypt or Syria, where it is still common in a wild state.
Tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus), widely spread over South
Russia, was brought, probably from the shores of the Black Sea,
in more recent times. The first mention on record is by Simon
Seth, in the middle of the twelfth century, but it appears to have
been scarcely known as a condiment till the sixteenth century.

Among textile plants. Flax (Linum usitatissimum) was exten-
siveljf cultivated and used by the ancient Egyptians, and formed
a considerable article of trade between them and the Greeks,
who, besides weaving its fibres, were acquainted with the medi-
cinal proi^erties of its seeds, which they even mixed with their
bread. It was cultivated in Italy by the Etruscan Falisci in the

CULTIVATED PLANTS. ]4y

time of Silius Italicus, bur, was thought little of by the early
Romans, who wore chiefly woollen clothing, till the time of the
Empire, and even then its cultivation was not much favoured, in
the belief that it exhausted the soil. In modern Italy it has
been more generally grown, but still rather for local consumption
than for exportation.

With regard to the origin of the species there is still consi-
derable doubt. Professor Targioni follows other botanists in
considering it as a common l^^uropean plant ; and it certainly is
found wild in most countries where it is or has been cultivated ;
but all the evidence we possess tends to show that (with the
characters assigned to the species by botanistsi it is evei-ywhere
rather escaped from cultivation than really wild. Planchon, the
last monographist of the genus, divides it into two species,
neither of them known in their original indigenous stations.
The species nearest allied, L. angustifolium, is indeed a common
European one ; but, amongst other characters, the differences in
the size and colour of the petals, generally constant among
Linums, prevent our pronouncing for their identity without
further evidence.

Hemp (Cannabis sativa) is of East Indian origin. It is common
in the hills and mountains of Northern India, and was very early
cultivated throughout the East, though more for its intoxicating
properties than for the fibre. Herodotus mentions it as grown by
the Scythians, Dioscorides alludes to the strength of the ropes
made from its fibre, and Galen to its medicinal properties. It was
introduced into Italy by the Romans, apparently under the
Empire, and much later than flax. It is now an object of very
extensive culture in the plains of Lombardy, and in the Romagna.

Cotton (Gossypium) was imported from India by the ancient
Egyptians, by the Greeks, and by the Romans, but appears never
to have been cultivated in Europe till the Moors introduced it
into Spain towards the twelfth century, although some assert
that it was already grown in Sicily in the eleventh century.
From Spain it waS' carried to Southern Italy, where thei'e was
much of it in the time of Porta, who died in 1515. Its culture is
still kept up in Calabria and about Naples, and under Napoleon's
continental regime it was in some measure profitable, but is now
of no importance. In Tuscany it has been repeatedly tried, but
as often abandoned, the crop being in that climate far too uncer-
tain to afford any chances of profit.

Among tinctorial plants, Woad (Isatis tinctoria), much culti-

150 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

vated in early days for its blue dye, has now been generally
replaced by the importation of indigo, excepting some partial use
as a fouudation for the darker colours. It was well known to the
ancients, for its use for dyeing wool is spoken of as habitual by
Dioscorides, Vitruvius, Pliny, and Galen ; and the ancient
Britons, according to Ctesar, and the Dacians and Sarmatians,
according to Pomponius Mela and Pliny, were in the habit of
colouring their bodies with it. Ancient authors distinguished the
wild and the cultivated woad, but the former was probably some
very different plant, and they, perhaps, only knew the real one
in a state of cultivation. It was certainly grown in Spain before
the twelfth century, and extensively so in Tuscany during the
floui'ishing times of the wool-trade, in the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries, and up to the sixteenth. After that, however,
it gradually diminished, as indigo came to be imported from
America. To stop this decay, protective regulations prohibiting
the importation of indigo were enacted in the Eoman states in
1652, but they had but little success in the encouragement of the
woad-growers ; even Napoleon's continental system gave them but
a short temporary stimulus, and they have now quite disappeared
from central Italy. As a wild plant the woad has an extensive
range over Europe and the temperate parts of Asia, but in the
former continent it is probably only really indigenous in the
southern and eastern districts. In England, at least, it is only to
be found wild where it has escaped from cultivation.

Madder (Kubia tinctoria), furnishing the well-known beautiful
scarlet dye, is another among the earliest cultivated for tinctorial
purposes. Two sorts were known in the days of Dioscorides, and
are still distinguished by botanists, but whether they be really
species or races which have acquired a certain degree of perma-
nency by long cultivation remains to be ascertained. The one,
the cultivated Ptubia tinctoria, with a thick succulent intensely
coloured root, and annual stems and leaves, is said to be of
Eastern origin, and is only found in Europe where escaped from
cultivation ; the other, the Eubia peregrina, is common in a wild
state in the south of Europe. Its leaves and stems are of longer
duration, and the root is much smaller and paler coloui'ed, but is
occasionally collected for the dyer even in the present day. In
Tuscany, the cultivation of the more valuable Tl. tinctoria has
been frequently attempted, but generally abandoned as not suffi-
ciently profitable, owing either to unfavourable local circumstances,
or to bad management, the dyer importing it from the Levant at

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 151

a very low rate. The Marquis Cosimo Ridolfi, however, whose
name is so frequently meutioned iu these pages in connection with
the improvement and extension of the agriculture of his country,
appears recently to have met with better success iu the estab-
lishment of the growth of madder in the neighbourhood of
Spoleto.

Sajioicer (Carthamus tinctorius), much cultivated in some
parts of Italy, especially in the Eomagna, some two or three
centuries back, when first it came to be generally used for dyeing
silk, is now much neglected there, for it is found that that which
is imported from Spain or from East India yields a richer colour;
and even that from the Levant and from Egypt, although con-
sidered as inferior to the Indian and Spanish, is still superior to
the Italian. The plant was probably unknown to the ancient
Romans, but Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and many other Greek
authors mention it under the name of Cnecon or Cnicon. It was
not then grown as a tinctorial plant, but for the medicinal
properties of its seeds, and the flowers were only used as a
condiment. The exact period of its introduction into Italy is
doubtful. Pegoletti in the fourteenth century speaks of it
as an article of importation only for the use of the dyers ;
Matthioli, in the sixteenth, mentions its cultivation, although he
alludes only to its medicinal, not to its tinctorial, properties.
One of the popular names quoted by Targioni, that of Sardcenic
saffron, would seem to indicate that the Italians had it from the
Moors, probably dui'ing their dominion in Sicily.

The native country of the safflower is involved in great
obscurity. East India is given by Professor Targioni on the
authoi'ity of systematic botanical works, but we learn from the
Indian botanists of the present day that it is there only known in
cultivation, and that in the cold season, a circumstance showing
clearly that it is not an indigenous plant brought into cultivation,
but an importation from a different climate. It may possibly
prove to be of African origin, if we may judge iJrom the
Abyssinian specimens distributed as indigenous among SJhimper's
collection. These specimens have much more spinous involucres
than the variety commonly cultivated, and, in other respects,
seem to show, at any rate, a nearer approach to a wild state.

Saffron (Crocus sativus) is a native of Italy, as well as of many
other parts of Europe and of the Levant, and has long been
cultivated for the odour and flavour, as well as in more modern
days for the tinctorial properties, of the styles. It is mentioned

152 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

by many ancient writers, and was certainly cultivated in Southern
Ital}' and Sicily as far back as the time of Pliny. It was also
extensively and profitably grown in Tuscany in the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, when it was made the subject of many
fiscal and protective regulations, but it is now entirely neglected
as being imported at much less cost and of better quality from
Southern Italy, Spain, Barbary and Greece, and even from
Orange in France. Besides its consumption by dyers it is much
used for colouring Parmesan cheese and several kinds of Italian
paste for soups.

Yellow Woad, Weld, or Dijer's-nred (Reseda luteola) is another
tinctorial plant indigenous to Europe. The ancient Romans
made use of the wild plant only, but in more modern times it has
been made to produce a much finer dye by cultivation, which
appears in Tuscany to have commenced in the flourishing days of
the wool-trade. In the sixteenth century it was very general,
and, like saffron, the subject of numerous fiscal and protective
ordinances. It still continues to form an article in the agricul-
tural produce of the Cortona district,

Datisca cannahina, an oriental plant, first discovered in Crete
in 1594, has, in our own days, and especially by Braconnot iu
1810, been shown to produce a very fine and permanent yellow
dye, and to be well adapted for growth in the climate of Tuscany.
Prof. Targioni refers on this occasion to several other papers in
which he has strongly recommended its extended cultivation,
especially in the Maremma, but it does not appear how far his
recommendations have been practically adopted.

The cultivation of the Poppy (Papaver somniferum) dates from
the most remote ages. It varies considerably in the colour and
size of the flower, in the form of the capsule, in the colour of the
seeds, etc. ; but all these varieties constitute a single species,
which is found abundantly in a wild state in South-eastern
Europe, and in the Levant. In many cases it may indeed have
escaped from cultivation, but there is every reason to believe that,
iu a great part of the East Mediterranean region, it is a truly
indigenous plant. That the ancient inhabitants of Italy were
aware of its narcotic properties is proved by the frequent allusions
in the verses of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and other Roman poets ;
we learn from Pliny that poppies were cultivated and held in
high estimation in his time, and Livy's story of the answer given
by Tarquinius Superbus to his son's envoy, by cutting off the
heads of the poppies of his garden, would carry us back to a much

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 158

earlier date In Tuscany, at the present time, poppies are
extensively sown for roedicinal purposes, for the extraction of oil
from the seeds for the use of artists, and also when olive oil is
scarce to supply its place as a condiment, or for burning, or making
soap, &c. Its seeds are also eaten, but the climate is not hot
enough to grow it for the extraction of opium.

There is no plant, observes Prof. Targioni, whose history shows
so many vicissitudes as that of the Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum).
Imported from America soon after the discovery of that continent,
it was received into the old world with a species of enthusiasm,
and Europeans, Asiatics, and Africans began everywhere to
smoke, to chew, and to snuff. It was not long, however, before
some of the evils and inconveniences involved in the practice
began to appear, and a host of enemies were raised up against it.
Theologists pronounced it an invention of Satan which destroyed
the efficacy of fasting, a point much disputed in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. Councils forbade it to all ecclesiastics
under their control. Popes Ui'ban VIII. and Innocent XI.
punished the use of it with excommunication ; Sultan Amurat IV.
with the most cruel kinds of death ; Schah Abbas II. with penal-
ties almost as severe ; Michael Feodorovitch Tourieff ordered a
bastonade for the first offence, cutting off the nose for the second,
and the head for the third offence : Prussia and Denmark simply
prohibited, and James, of England, wrote against it. Finding,
however, that no penalties, however severe, could check the
indulgence in a luxury so highly appreciated, sovereigns and their
governments soon found it much more advantageous to turn it
into a source of revenue, and the cultivation and manufacture of
tobacco was gradually subjected almost everywhere to fiscal
regulations, restrictions, or monopolies, which still prevail under
various forms over the greater part of Europe. In Tuscany its
growth was prohibited, except in a few localities where it was
allowed under certain restrictions from 1C4.5 till 1789, when the
enlightened Grand Duke Peter Leopold declared free the culti-
vation of tobacco over the whole territory. But the country did
not long enjoy this privilege ; the intrigues of private speculators
prevailed on Ferdinand III. to restrict it to the same localities
only which had previously possessed it. The number of these
was further reduced in 18'^6, and the permission totally with-
drawn in 1830, and tobacco is now only grown here and there by
stealth.

Tobacco was in such general use in America when first dis-

154 IIISTOKICAL NOTES ON

covei'ed, and is there so widely spread, that it is difficult to come
to any conclusion as to what precise part of that vast continent is
its native country ; probably some portion of the Mexican empire.
As to the precise dates of its introduction into Europe it has
been already stated that it followed closely upon the discovery of
America. The Spaniards under Columbus had scarcely lauded
in Cuba in 1492 when they began to smoke cigars ; but they
could only fully appreciate its luxuries when, in 1518, Fernando
Cortez occupied the island of Tobago, where the plant was found
growing in great abundance. Hernandez, the naturalist, was, it
is beheved, the first who brought it into Spain from Mexico, in
1539. It was introduced into Portugal from Florida by one
Flamingo, and into France by Father Andre Thevet, or by some
friend of his, although the more common opinion is that the first
seeds received there were those sent about the year 1560 to
Queen Catharine of Medicis by Jean Nicot, French ambassador
in Portugal. It was probably raised also in England a few years
later, but received no notice till its well known introduction by
Sir Francis Drake from Virginia in 1586. In Tuscany it was
first cultivated under Cosmo dei Medici, who died in 1574,
having been originally raised by Bishop Alfonso Tornabuoni from
seeds received from his nephew Monsignor Nicolo Tornabuoni,
then ambassador at Paris, a great amateur of plants. After him
it long bore the name of Erha ToriKtbuoni.

A second but smaller and coarser species, Nicotiana rustica,
much grown in some parts of South-eastern Europe, is generally
said to be a native of Europe and Asia, but this is a mistake ;
like the N. tabacum it is of American origin. So also is the long
white-flowered Shiraz tobacco, recently published under the name
of Nicotiana persica, but which is a mere variety of the N.
longiflora, a species not uncommon in South America, and intro-
duced from thence like the others since Columbus' discovery.

Amongst the Cassias supplying the Senna leaves of our
Pharmacopoeias, the annual species (Cassia obovata), introduced
most probably by the Moors during their dominion in Sicily,
from Egypt and Arabia, was much cultivated in Italy, especially
in Tuscany, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It
is now totally neglected, nor would it be profitable except in the
Maremma, where its cultivation is strongly recommended by
Prof. Targioni.

The Castor-oil j^i^oit, or Pahna-Cliristi (Pticinus communis),
was known to the ancient Hebrews, Egyptians, and Greeks, as

CULTIVATED PLANTS, 155

supplying an oil for burning, for which purpose it was much
cultivated in Egypt, Arabia, and India, and is so to this day,
although the consumption of the oil is now for medicinal
rather than for economical purposes. It had never till of late
years been cultivated in Italy, but is among the plants recom-
mended for fertihzing the Maremma. Its native country is
uncertain. The south of Europe, the coasts of Africa, and East
India are generally indicated, but it is certainly not wild in India,
and apparently only self-sown in the south of Europe. It may
however be really indigenous in Upper Egypt and other districts
of Northern Africa.

Of Fruit-trees the first in importance for the Italians is the
Olive (Olea europea). Its great productiveness, longevity, and
hardihood against every thing except cold, have extended it over
all countries whose climates it will bear, and the origin of its
cultivation is lost in the remotest ages of antiquity. From the
Holy Scriptures, as well as from the early Greek writers, it
appears to have been as general in their days as in ours in Greece,
the Holy Land, and North Africa. There has been some discussion
as to the period when the Romans first planted it in Italy,
Pliny asserting, on the authority of Fenestella, that it was unknown
iu Italy, Spain, or Africa, in the time of Tarquinius Priscus (in the
year of Rome 133). Yet Pliny also states that the Gauls' inroad
into Italy at about the same period was for the acquisition of oil,
grapes, wine, figs, &c. However that may be, it is very certain
that the Greeks long preceded the Romans iu the cultivation of a
number of varieties of olive more productive than the wild plant.

The olive is perhaps the longest lived amongst European trees.
The youthful vigour of individuals known to be three or four
hundred years old ; the great tenacity of life observed in the root
or stock, throwing up suckers for instance in olive grounds
abandoned and converted into sheep walks for upwards of two
centuries, and that in a climate where the branches are frozen
down two or three times every century ; the numerous traditions
of trees supposed to be eight hundred, a thousand, or more years
of age ; the extraordinary manner iu which it will resist every
ill-treatment inflicted on it by neglect or wantonness, and which
gives rise to the common saying in the South, that you cannot
kill an olive-tree — all render it more than probable that those
venerable olive-trees so beautifully described by Lamartine as now
overshadowing the vale of Gethsemane are the identical trees under
which our Saviour underwent his blessed agony.

156 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

The olive grows naturally in the East, from Greece and Syria
to Persia and Affghanistan, and is without doubt I'eally indigenous
to the whole of that region. It is also found wild in great
abundance in Southern Italy, but how far it may there be the
degenerate offspring of self-sown olives from cultivated sources, is
a matter of much dispute among Italian writers, and is here
discussed by Prof. Targioni, who concludes with much plausibility
that it is a true native.

The Grape Vine (Vitis vinifera) must, as already observed by
Pliny, be ranked amongst trees on account of the prodigious size
it will attain."' This may be more especially observed in the
Maremma, Avhere it grows wild in the greatest abundance. It
appears to be there, as in other parts of Southern Europe, truly
indigenous, extending from thence over the greater part of South-
central Asia, for the Vitis indica, on the testimony of the more
recent Indian botanists, is by no means specifically distinct.
From these wild vines have evidently been raised the
innumerable varieties cultivated over the greater part of Europe,
Asia, and North Africa, and now carried out to all parts of the
globe where the climate will admit of it. But the period when
it was first taken into cultivation, is lost in the obscure ages of
antiquity. We read in the Genesis that after the flood Noah
began to plant the vine ; the heathens ascribed its first intro-
duction to their fabulous heroes or divinities, Diodorus Siculus to
Osiris, Servius to Saturn, and in the most ancient times Italy was
called (Enotria from the wine that it produced.

* Among the instances given of enormous vines, we may quote the
following : Pliny records a vine in the Porticos of Livia, which over-
shadowed the whole area used as a promenade, and yielded annually twenty-
two amphoras (1 54 gallons) of wine ; the same writer states that he had seen
at Populonia a statue of Jupiter, made of the trunk of a vine, and that the
columns of the temple of Juno at Metapoutus, and the steps of that of
Diana of Ephesus, were also of vine wood. In more modern days, Soderini
mentions a vine in Portico di Romagua, which extended over 1000 hraccia
(2000 feet) ; in the Mdm. de I'Academic of Paris for 1737, a muscat vine at
Balanfon, is described, which at twenty years old produced 4206 bunches of
grapes. Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, our author's grandfather, in his
travels in Tuscany, quotes one in the woods near Montebamboli, the ti-unk
of which two men could not embrace. Santi found a vine at Castellottieri
in the Maremma, torn up by a storm in 1787, who.se trunk is preserved in
tlie botanic garden at Pisa, with a stem five and a half feet in circumference ;
aud Prof Targioni has himself recordedin the article "Botanical Chronology "
in tlie Dictionary of Natural History, printed at Florence by Batelli, two
vines near Piglini, in the upper Val d'Arno, with trunks five feet in
circumfei-ence. The doors of the Cathedral of Ravenna ai-e made of vine
wood.

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 157

We have already observed that the varieties of the grape are
most numerous ; they are also often so strongly marked as to cause
many writers to deny the possibility of their having all sprung
from the wild vine, but their apparent permanence is in most
instances only due to their universal propagation, by cuttings or
layers, not by seed. Pliny records eighty kinds, and many others
are mentioned by Virgil, Columella, Varro, Macrobius and other
writers, which it is now impossible to recognise with certainty
amongst the modern varieties, amounting in some collections to
above three hundred. Fee, Gallesio, and others have however
endeavoured to identify some with more or less plausibility, of
which the following are a few instances : —

The Apiana of Pliny, or Apicea of Cato, is supposed to be a
muscat imported from Greece, and it is believed that most of the
muscat-flavoured varieties were originally raised in the Archi-
pelago.

The mnhrosiaca is believed to be another muscat.

The grtpcula is the Corinth stoneless, or currant grape.

The rhcBtica the uva passa of Spoleto, another stoneless and
■currant grape.

The venicula, sircula, or stacula, is the marzemina of the
Venetians.

The dactylites is perhaps the uva galletta of modern Italy.

The trifera, the uva di tre volte from Chio.

The picina, perhaps the uva colore.

The trehulana, the Trebbiano, yielding a wine celebrated for
its excellence by Tasso.

Others of the Roman names are derived from the countries
whence the varieties were imported, such as the hiturgica from
Bordeaux, the j^haia from lUyria, the 2>rusina from Broussa in
Anatolia, the cBgios from vEgia near Corinth, the alexandrina
from Alexandria in the Troas, the aminea, a highly prized variety,
from Aminei near Falerno, &c. The eagerness to import into Italy
the vines of other countries celebrated for the excellence of theii*
wines has continued to the present day. Prof. Targioni adducing
many proofs of its prevalence in the middle ages. It is a pity
the Italians do not at the same time introduce the modes of
treatment and manipulation, to the deficiencies in which must be
mainly attributed the general inferiority of Italian wines to
those produced in similar climates in France and Spain.

Great attention has been paid in Tuscany to the cultivation of
dessert fruits, from the time of the ancient Etruscans, as

158 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

attested by numerous early Koman writers, and continued to the
present day. Tlie discovery of the cultivation of fruits was
attributed by the Romans to Janus, their amelioration and exten-
sion to Vertumnus and Pomona, all three of them Etruscan
divinities ; and the origin of the multiplication of garden varieties
is therefore lost in the fabulous ages. Pliny, and other even
earlier geoponical writers, give indications of no small number of
varieties of pears, apples, cherries, plums, &c., of wliich it is
probable that several have descended to us, but from the mere
names handed down without descriptions, it is hopeless to attempt
to identify any considerable proportion of them ; moreover it is
very certain that entirely new varieties are daily introduced,
whilst several of the old ones are as undoubtedly lost.

The flourishing times of the Florentine republic were
peculiarly favourable to the development of horticulture and
agriculture. The unquiet life which the nobles and great families
led within the town, exposed as they were to the suspicions of a
turbulent populace, induced them to retire for security to their
estates, occupying themselves with their improvement, whilst the
rich merchants and magistrates spent their holidays in their
suburban villas, which they adorned with gardens, importing plants
from all countries, and especially introducing new fruits from
Greece. A manuscript piece of poetry in the Magliabecchian
library, entitled " Verses (Capitolo) on the table of fruits to be
offered to a guest," shows the great variety cultivated in the
neighbourhood of Florence in the fifteenth century. Three
baskets are there represented; the one full of grapes, figs,
pears, apples, lemons, &c. ; the second with cherries, plums,
peaches, apricots, and other stone fruits ; the third with almonds,
walnuts, oranges, citrons, chesnuts, and several inferior fruits ;
thus supplying a list of those most generally known at that period.
The Grand Dukes of the Medici family paid particular attention
to the enrichment of their gardens. Father Agostino del Piiccio
informs us that Cosmo I. was the first to introduce plantations of
dwarf fruit-trees, and that he and his successors annually
increased the number of varieties introduced and cultivated for
their tables.

The Pear (Pyrus communis) and Api^le (Pyrus malus) are
found in their wild state in the mountain woods of all Italy, as
well as of the greater part of Europe, and from these indigenous
species have been raised the whole of our orchard and garden
varieties. Their amelioration by cultivation, and the perpetu-

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 159

ation of varieties by grafting, have been celebrated by poets from
the time of Ovid, and continue to the present day. Pliny enumerates
thirty-nine different pears known to the Romans, several of them
being also mentioned by Virgil, Cato, Columella, Juvenal,
Macrobius, &c. Fee has endeavoured to identify some of them
with modern French varieties, and Gallesio with Italian ones, as in
the following examples : —

Plinian Names. Supposed Corresponding Modern Names

Ameriua serotina . . . San Tommaso.

Lactea Porle or Blanquette.

Dolabelliana Winter Bon-Chretien.

Falerna succosa .... Bei'gamot.
Favoriana rubra .... Large muscat.
Superba parva .... Little muscat.

Hordearia Common muscat.

Mustea A variety of Bou-Chr<5tien.

Pieena or picentina. . . Spina.
Pompeiana mammosa. . Campana.

Viridis Spadona vemina, considered by Gallesio as

a most ancient Italian Pear.

Myrapia Guignoline.

Volema Another Bon-Chr^tieu.

In Tuscany, under the Medici, we find, in a manuscript list by
Micheli of the fruits served up in the course of the year at the
table of the Grand Duke Cosmo III., an enumeration of two
hundred and nine different varieties of pears, and another
manuscript of that time raises the number to two hundred and
thirty-two. Among them grafts of the Dorice pear of Portugal
were introduced by the same Grand Duke, at a cost of one
hundred golden doubloons, whence it received the name of Pera
cento doppie, by which it is still known, as well as by that of the
Ducal pear.

Ajyples have been believed by some to have been introduced
into Italy from Media, and that the Falisci, or inhabitants of
Montefiascone, were the first to plant them in rows. But this
must apply to some particular variety, not to the species, which
we have already stated to be indigenous, but very early cultivated.
Pliny enumerates twenty-three varieties, which appear still more
difficult to identify with ours than the pears. Among the few
that modern authors have recognised, the Appiani of the Ptomans
are supposed to be the Apple or Appiole of modern Italians, the
Appia piriformis to be the Appiolona lunga, the Syriaca ruherrima
to be the red Calvetto, &c. In more modern Tuscany, Micheli, in
his above-mentioned manuscript, describes fifty-six sorts under the
Medici princes, fifty-two of which are figured by Castello.

160 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

The Quince (Pyrus cydonia), also a European plaut and
indigenous in Italy, has given rise to much fewer varieties, although
equally in cultivation since the days of the ancient Greeks and
Romans. Pliny enumerates five only, including probably the
three principal ones of moi'e modern days, described by Matthioli
in the sixteenth century, viz. : 1. the common large apple-shaped
quince, melo cotogna of the Italians, the best and highest flavoured
variety, which is the 7nala aurea and the mala cana lanugine of
Virgil, and mala cotonea of Pliny, said by him to have been
introduced from Crete in the days of Galen ; 2. the pear-
shaped quince orpera cotogna, called by Dioscorides, Galen, and
Pliny StrutJiium, which attains a larger size than any of the others ;
and 3. the Milviana of Pliny, called in Matthioli's days bastard
quince, probably our wild indigenous variety. The two former,
especially the first, may have been originally raised in Palestine,
where quinces are common, and were appreciated for their odour in
very ancient days, as appears by their mention in the Bible. The
golden apples of the garden of the Hesperides have by some been
supposed to be quinces, whilst others have with more plausibility
referred them to the orange. On the other hand, the nuptial
apple prescribed by Solon was evidently the quince and not the
lemon. Quinces are at the present day much prized by the
peasantry in some parts of the south of Europe for perfuming
their stores of linen, independently of their consumption for
culinary and confectionery purposes.

The Medlar (Mespilus germanica) is common in the woods of
Italy and Sicily, and the assertion of Pliny that it did not exist
in Italy at the time of Cato must be erroneous. Theophrastus
calls it setaneios, as does Dioscorides, who also gives it the names
of mcsjnlon and epimelida, and says that it is a native of Italy. It
extends over a great part of Europe, and is cultivated in Italy,
though more sparingly and less appreciated than in Germany and
England. Besides the common one the Italians have a larger
variety, and a small one without stones.

We fully concur with Prof. Targioni in his conviction that the
wild Cherry (Prunus cerasus), common in the woods of Italy and
other parts of Europe and Asia, is the mother plant of all the
kinds of that fruit now in cultivation, in opposition to many
modern botanists, who follow De CandoUe in distinguishing four
species, Cerasus avium, C. duracina, C.Juliana, and C. caproniana,
or even go far beyond him in their multiplication. The species
is also evidently indigenous, notwithstanding Pliny's statement

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 161

that there were no cherries in Italy, before the victory obtained
over Mithridates by Lucullus, who was tlie first to bring cherries
to Rome in the year of Rome 680, and that within one hundred
and twenty years after that, they were spread over the empire as
far as Britain. This statement gave rise to the tale that clierries
came originally from Cerasunte, now Zefano, and were therefore
called cerasus by the Latins. Lucullus may, however, have first
imported the cultivated varieties, which the Romans may not
have recognised as identical with the wild cherry. In Greece,
cherries were certainly known long before his time, for Diphilns
Siphnius, according to Athenaeus, mentions them under the govern-
ment of Lysimachus, one of the dukes of Alexander the Great.

Among the numerous varieties of cherries of modern days,
Pliny records only eight, of which the Juliana, according to
Matthioli and Micheli, is the acquaiola of modern Italy, and the
ceciliana, according to Micheli and Gallesio, is the viscioJona,
believed to have been brought from Arabia into Spain, and thence
to Rome. The varieties known in modern Tuscany are chiefly
due to the exertions of the Grand Dukes of the Medici family.
Micheli, in the catalogue already quoted, enumerates forty-seven
sorts, and Casfello has figured ninety- three. The double-
flowering variety was first introduced into the gardens of Florence,
by Giuseppe Benincasa Fiammingo, curator, under Francis I. of
Medicis, of the botanic garden then called delle Stalle, afterwards
del SenqMci.

The cherry-tree, especially of the Bigarreau variety, grows to a
very large size ; one is recorded on the shores of the gulf of
Nicomedia, of which the circumference of the trunk was four and
a half braccie (about nine feet), and Prof. Targioni himself had
one cut down in his own podere, which was beginning to decay,
and had a trunk of eight feet in circumference.

The Plum (Prunus domestica) is said by Prof. Targioni, after
the generality of systematic botanists, to be indigenous to the
woods of Italy, and an expression is quoted of Pliny's to the same
effect, " sed pruna sylvestria ubique nasci certum est." But
these prima sylvestria must have been the Sloe (Prunus spinosa).
Our garden plums appear, from the investigations of our Indian
botanists, to be varieties produced by long cultivation of the
Prunus insititia, a species common in the mountains of Asia,
from the Caucasus to the Eastern Himalaya, but which we have
no authentic evidence of being a native of Europe. In all the
more accurate European floras, the P. domestica and insititia are

VOL. IX. M

1G2 IIISTOBICAL NOTES ON

either omitted, or inserted as doubtful natives or escaped from
cultivation ; or if in some instances positive native stations are
given for the P. insititia, it is generally some variety of the
P. spinosa that has been mistaken for it.

Several varieties of the garden plum were introduced by the
ancient Romans from the P]ast, as we are informed by Pliny,
since the days of Cato, who was born two hundred and thirty-two
vears before the Christian era. Such was, for instance, the davisnn
or damascene jjlton, corrupted into moscive by the Italians, which
came from Damascus in Syria, and was very early cultivated by
the Romans. This was probably the early or summer damson,
not known in Tuscany in the time of Micheli ; but another similar
variety, much cultivated in Liguria, the autumn or winter
damson, was brought there from the I^ast by the Genoese
returning from the Crusades. Muratori says that the Italian
name for the plum, Siislne, was derived from Susa in Persia, whence
it had been introduced into Italy. But the most ancient Latin
name was primus, and with the Greeks coccymela.

Pliny enumerates eleven varieties of plums, amongst which the
ceriva, mentioned also by Virgil and Ovid, is, according to Fee,
the Mirabelle ; the j)!f»7)!f)w/, is said to be the inyrobolan, which
however cannot be the case, if the latter be, as is supposed, of
American origin ; and the damascena is the summer damson.
In Tuscany a considerable number are enumerated as very
common, by Matthioli, in the sixteenth century. At a later
period, Father Agostino del Riccio mentions several as new
since he was young, and amongst them the myrobolans, said to be
natives of North America. Canon Lorenzo Panciatichi gives the
names of eigliteen sorts, as common in the seventeenth century ;
and Micheli has fifty-two in the above-quoted manuscript list of
fruits for the Grand Ducal table, and seventy-three in another of
rare plants cultivated in Tuscany.

The Almond (Amygdalus communis) is said to be really
indigenous in several of the floras of the Southern and Eastern
Mediterranean regions, including Southern Italy and Sicily, but
it is extensively cultivated and grows so readily over the whole of
South Europe that it may in many instances have spread from
cultivation. It is liowever probably a true native, at least of
Crete and Syria. It was well known to the ancients, and is
supposed to be the Sciakedln of Scripture, sent as a present to
Joseph in Egypt, from the land of Canaan. Dioscorides and
Galenus speak of its medicinal properties under the name of

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 163

Thassia picra, and amygdaleas. Pliny doubts whether almonds
were known in Cato's time, because he considers that the last-
named writer meant walnuts when speaking of Greek nuts, but
the majority of commentators agree in referring that name to
almonds. In modern days the varieties grown in Southern
Europe have become very numerous. Micheli describes ninety-
four, but his distinctions are very refined, and taken often from
accidental forms ; the specimens from which he described them
ai'e still preserved in Prof. Targioni's collections.

Pliny, as well as Linnfeus and most modern botanists, includes
amongst plums the Apricot (Prunus armeniaca), a tree most
extensively cultivated, and which sows itself very readily in culti-
vated grounds over South-eastern Europe, Western Asia, and
East India, but its native country is very uncertain. Targioni
says, on the authority of Reyner, an Egyptian traveller, that it is
of African origin, but does not give the precise locality, and we
have neither seen nor heard of any really wild specimens. The
ancients called it Armeniaca as having been brought from Armenia
into Italy, where it is not indigenous ; also pracoca, pracoqua, and
prcBcocca ; and under one or other of these names it is mentioned
by Dioscorides, by Galen, by Columella (who is the first who
speaks of its cultivation), by Pliny, (who, about ten years after
Columella, asserts that it had been introduced into Rome thirty
years), by JMartial, &c. Democritus and Diophanes give it the
name of hericocca, analogous to the Arabian hcrkac and herikhach,
the probable origin of the Italian names of hacocca, albicocca,
and even, according to Cesalpin, haracocca ; and, lastly, Paolo
Egineta, according to Matthioli, has spoken of these fruits under
the name of fZorrtctrt. Although some of these names, even in
modern times, have been occasionally misapplied to a variety of
peach, yet they all properly designate the apricot, and show that
that fruit was known in very remote times. Having never been
much appreciated, except for its odour, there was not in former
days any great propagation of varieties of it, Micheli, however,
under the Medicis, enumerates thirteen among the fruits culti-
vated for the table of Cosmo III.

The Peach (Amygdalus persica) is, according to the common
opinion, of Persian origin. Diodorus Siculus says that it was
carried from Persia into Egypt during the time that Cambyses
ruled over that country. It is supposed to have been transported
from thence into Greece, and, after a lapse of time, into Italy,
where it only began to be known about twenty years before the

M 2

1G4< HISTORICAL NOTES ON

birth of Pliny, that is, about seven years before the Christian era,
and it appears that Columella was the first to treat of its cultiva-
tion there. According to Nicander it was brought to Greece by
the agency of Perseus from Cepheia, a locality affirmed by some
to have been in Persia, by others in iEthiopia or in Chaldsea,
The peach is also sj)oken of by Theophi'astus, Dioscorides, and
other (xreek writers. We must therefore conclude that this
fruit was well known in the East very long before its introduction
into Italy. Many ancient writers, including Athenteus and Pliny,
and some more recent ones, as, for instance, Marcellus Virgilius,
in his Commentaries on Dioscorides, confound the peach with
the 2^ersea, a fruit the identity of which is uncertain, some sup-
posing it to be a Cordia, others a Balanites. IMacrobius again
confounds the peach with the persicum of Suevius, which is the
walnut, and with that of Cloatius, which is the citron ; all fruits
resembling the peach in nothing but in the name, a clear proof
that it cannot have been in their days by any means a common
fruit. How few were the varieties of peach known to the ancients
appears from Dioscorides who only names two, from Pliny who
enumerates five, and Palladius four only, giving at the same time
accurate information on the mode of cultivating them.

With regard to the introduction of the peach into Tuscany, it
appears that several varieties were known already in the days of
the Republic, but that the greater number were, as in the case of
other fruits, due to the exertions of the Medici sovereigns.
Matthioli, in the sixteenth century, enumerates a considerable
number as then in the possession of Tuscan cultivators ; Micheli,
under Cosmo III., has forty-three, and in the drawings of
Castello are represented about thirty. That called Po2)pe di
Vencre (the Late Admirahle of our Horticultural Catalogue) is
supposed to be one of the most ancient in Italy, and is mentioned
by Agostino del Pdccio and Micheli, under the name of Pesche
Lucvlicsi.

Although all the evidence collected by Prof. Targioni tends to
show that the peach was originally brought from Persia, and he
therefore does not consider it necessary to proceed further with
the investigation, yet no traveller whom we can rely upon has
ever found it growing really wild there or anywhere else. We
are therefore left in doubt whether its native stations remain yet
to be discovered, or whether its original wild type must be sought
for in some species of Amygdalus known to be indigenous in the
East. It has been more than once suggested that this original

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 165

parent is no other than the common almond, a conjecture founded
perhaps on the similarity in the leaves and in the perforations of
the endocarp, but rejected as absurd by those who attach even
generic importance to the succulence of the indehiscent pericarp.
This point cannot be decided with any degree of plausibility until
we shall have a better knowledge of the different forms which the
fruits of wild Amygdali may assume under various circum-
stances ; but we may mention, as circumstances in some degree
favouring the supposition that some kind of almond is the parent
of the peach, the ancient tradition referred to by Targioni (with
the remark that it is contradicted by Pliny, and by common
sense) that the peach in Persia was poisonous, and became
innocuous when transported to Egypt, and the case quoted of a
supposed hybrid raised in 1831 in Sig. Giuseppe Bartolucci's
garden, at Colle di Val d' Else, from a peach-stone which
produced fruits at first exactly like almonds, but which, as they
ripened, assumed the appearance and succulence of peaches,
whilst the kernel remained sweet and oily, like those of almonds.
We might also refer to some bad varieties of peach with very
little juice to their pericarps, although we do not know of any
which assume the flattened form of our almond, a distinctive
character which appears to us to be of considerable importance.
The foliage and flowers of the two trees show little or no specific
difference.

The Jujube (Zizyphus vulgaris), a common tree in the Levant,
is also now found wild in various parts of South Italy and Sicily,
but Italian botanists are much divided in opinion as to whether it
is really indigenous, or become naturalised only after cultivation.
Prof. Targioni, after Bertoloni, adopts the former opinion, and
considers that the erroneous belief in its exotic origin arises from
a mistaken assertion of Pliny's that jujubes did not exist in Italy
prior to their importation from Syria by the Consul Sextus
Papinius towards the end of the age of Augustus. Among the
ancients, Hippocrates considered the fruits as medicinal; Galen
depreciated them both as medicine and as food. Modern cultiva-
tion has produced a few varieties, and there is a considerable
consumption of them in some parts of the south of Europe either
as an inferior raw fruit, or for the manufacture of the pectoral
lozenges known as 2Jdte de jujube ; but they are little appreciated
in modern Italy, and were still less so in earlier times.

We learn from Pliny and Galen that the Pistachio-nut
(Pistacia vera) is a native of Syria, and from the former writer

166 HISTOKICAL NOTES ON

that it was first introduced iuto Italy towards the end of the reign
of Tiberius (wlio died a.d. 37) by Lucius Vitellius, afterwards
Emperor, and that at about the same time it was carried into Spain
by Flavins Pompeius, a Roman knight, companion in arms to
Vitellius. AVell known to the ancients, it is supposed by some to
be the hatnim of Scripture, and generally believed to be the
Indian terebinth indicated by Theophrastus as a native of Bactria.
It is mentioned by Nicander and Dioscorides under the names of
pistacia, bistacia, and _///; j-s^/cw. In Sicily it is of very ancient
cultivation, and there called fustiicha or fastuca. It is now
extensively planted in some parts of the Southern and Eastern
Mediterranean regions, and miglit be so in Tuscany, where a few
trees, scattered here and there, ripen their fruits well.

Notwithstanding the above-quoted indications of the eastern
origin of the pistachio, it remains to be ascertained where it is
truly indigenous, and what is its real wild typical form. Botanists
give as its native habitat Syria, Persia, East India, Arabia, and
Barbary, but in most of those countries it is certainly only known
in a cultivated state. We have seen no wild specimens in our
largest herbaria, and find no reliable indications of any
native stations in local floras. Targioni mentions a variety
narbonensis as having become wild in great abundance in the
neighbourhood of Montpellier, but during several years' herborisa-
tions in that country we never saw any species at all allied to it
except the common small-fruited Pistacia terebinthus. The
authority of Gasparrini is also quoted for a hybrid between P. vera
and P. terebinthus, which, according to Sestini and Boccone, has
multiplied itself in various parts of Sicily. If that be the case it
would lead to a strong presumption that notwithstanding the great
diffei'ence in the size and shape of the fruit, tlie P. vera and the
P. terebinthus, and consequently also the P. mutica of the Crimea
and Asia Minor, are mere varieties of one botanical species common
in the Mediterranean region from Spain to the Black Sea and
Asia Minor.

The Walnut (Juglans regia) is a native of the mountains of
Asia, from the Caucasus almost to China. It is supposed to be
the Enoz of the Bible. The Greeks had it from Asia; and
Nicander, Theophrastus, and others mention it under the names
o{ carija, carya j)ersica, -dudi carijd. busilike (or royal nut). Pliny
informs us that it was introduced into Italy from Persia, an intro-
duction which must have been of early date, for, although it be
doubtful whetlierit is alluded to by Cato, it certainly is mentioned

CULTIVATED PLANTS. J 6?

by Varro, who was born iu the year 116 b.g. The Romans
called it nux ijersica, nux rerjia, mix Euhcea, Jovis glans, DJiu-
glans, Jiiglans, &c. They recognised several varieties, and
amongst them the soft-shelled walnut still cultivated, which several
commentators have confounded with the peach. In modern days
the cultivation has much extended, and the number of varieties
considerably increased. Jean Bauhin noticed six only. Micheli,
under Cosmo III. of Medicis, describes thirty-seven, of which the
original specimens are still preserved ; some of these, however,
are scarcely sufficiently distinct from each other.

The Nut (Corylus avellanaj is said by Pliny to derive the name
of Avellana from Abellina in Asia, supposed to be the valley of
Damascus, its native country. He adds that it had been brought
into Asia and Greece from the Pontus, whence it was also called
nux pontica. Theophrastus calls these nuts by the name of
Heracleotic nuts, a name derived from Heraclea, now Ponderachi,
on the Asiatic shores of the Black Sea. Hippocrates gives them
the name of carya thusia. Dioscorides says they were also known
by the name of leptocarya, or small nuts. Other ancient writers
confound the nut with the chesnut and the walnut. But all the
above indications of importation from the East relate only to par-
ticular varieties, for the species, as is well known, is common
enough in Italy as in the rest of Europe and a great part of Asia
iu a really wild indigenous state.

The Chesnut (Castanea vesca), celebrated amongst European
trees for the enormous size it will attain, is already mentioned in
the Bible. Theophrastus and Athenseus give it the name of
Eubcean nut, from the island of Eubeea, now Negroponte, where it
was peculiarly abundant. Pliny says that chesnuts first came
from Sardi, the ancient capital of Lydia, and not far from the
modern Smyrna, Galen, who was a Lydian, confirms that
origin, and says that they were also called hulani leuceni, from
Leucene, situated on Mount Ida. Other writers, ancient and
modern, give various Eastern countries as the native stations of
the chesnut, and even Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, our author's
grandfather, believed them to be introduced only into Italy ; but
not only have the extensive chesnut woods in the Apuan Alps
and other parts of the Apennines, mentioned by Bertoloui, every
appearance of being really indigenous, but further evidence that
woods of this tree existed in Tuscany from very remote times,
may be found in the number of places which have derived their
names from them, such as Castagna, Castagnaia, Castagneta, &c.

168 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

We may iudeed safely give as tlie native country of the wild
chesnut, the south of Europe from Spain to the Caucasus. It
does not extend to East India.

The larger fruited varieties which we import for eating, and
which are generally distinguished in France and Italy under the
name of marrons or viarrone, "were probahly those which
were first introduced from the East by the Romans. Pliny
enumerates eight different varieties. Micheli has forty-nine,
most of which, however, from his own specimens are, as in the
case of the other fruits mentioned in his manuscript, founded
upon distinctions too slight to be really available for their
separation.

The Fuj (Ficus carica) is a native of the south of Europe,
including Greece and Italy, of Northern Africa and of Western
Asia. The wild type known in Italy by the name of Caprlfico,
has indeed been distinguished by Gasparrini not only as a species
but as a separate genus, but we cannot but concur with Prof.
Targioni in the opinion, confirmed by positive assertion on the
part of practical pomologists both ancient and modern, that our
garden figs are of the same species and have repeatedly been
raised from seeds of the wild caprifico.

We find mention of the cultivation of figs, and of the high esti-
mation in which these fruits were held, in the very earliest writings,
in the Holy Scriptures, as in Homer's Iliad. Those of Athens
were celebrated for their exquisite flavour. Xerxes was tempted
by them to undertake the conquest of Attica, in the same way
that Cato urged the Piomans to that of Carthage, a fig in his hand.
The number of varieties, however, produced in ancient Italy were
not numerous. Six only were known in the time of Cato. Others
were afterwards introduced from Negropont and Scio, according
to Pliny, who gives a catalogue of thirty sorts. Their names are
mostly taken from the countries whence they had been brought,
such as the African, the Rhodiote, the Alexandrine, the Saguntine,
&c., or from some great personage who had introduced or
patronised them, such as the Pompeian from the great Pompey,
the Livian from Livia, the wife of Augustus, &c. Macrobius,
two centuries after Pliny, enumerates twenty-five, but generally
under names different from those of Pliny, Gallesio, in his
Pomona Italiana, has referred a few of those ancient names to
modern Italian varieties, as for instance : —

The Alhkcrata to the white fig of the Italians.

The Tlhnrtina to the gentile.

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 169

The Africaim to the brogiotto nero, which some believe to be
also the Emonio of Atheuaeus.

The Liviana to the pissalutto.

The Lydia to the^co trojano, very abundant at Naples.

The Carica to the dottato, common in the Levant, and origin-
ally from Cauni in Caria, from whence so many were sent to
Greece and called on that account cauni figs and Carica.

In Tuscany, the varieties of figs cultivated are numerous, many
of them due to the days of the Piepublic. Fra Agostino del
Kiccio, in his already-quoted manuscripts, gives a selection of
thirty-one sorts cultivated in Tuscany in the middle of the sixteenth
century, adding that there were many others which he had not
included, not having seen them himself. Those of the Medici
gardens represented in the drawings of Castello comprise eighteen
early and thirty-two late sorts, in all fifty ; and JMicheli in his
manuscripts carries the number up to ninety-five.

Notwithstanding the softness of the wood, and the readiness
with which the branches are killed down, the trunk of the fig-tree
is remarkable for its longevity. Pliny tells us of an aged wild fig
in the forum, which was in a dying state in his days, but which
they dared not cut down on account of the tradition that under its
shade the wolf had suckled Piomulus and Remus ; that another
wild fig in the forum had arisen over the chasm into which Curtius
had precipitated himself, and was preserved in memory of that
feat ; and that a third similar tree, which dated from before the
time of Saturn, was cut down in the year of Rome 260 to erect
the building where the vestals were placed. These tales may
indeed not be true in their details, but the trees they relate to
must have been known to have been several centuries old.

Prof. Targioni alludes to the practice of caprification, or of
the supposed artificial fecundation of cultivated figs by the capri-
fico or wild fig, and quotes several writers, ancient and modern,
who describe the operation. He does not appear to be aware of
the able memoir of Gasparrini, translated iu the 3rd Vol. of this
Journal, giving a detailed history of the origin and extent of the
practice, and satisfactorily proving its inutility as well by practical
experiment as by theoretical ai'gument, and showing at the same
time how we must account for the pereeverance with which the
inhabitants of certain localities have kept it up from the earliest
ages on record to the present day.

Mulberries, of Asiatic origin, were well known to the ancients,
who cultivated them for their fruit, either for eating or as medicinal.

170 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

They are mentioned by Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and also by
Atlienjeus and Galen, and, among the Romans, Virgil, Horace,;
Pliny, Columella, and Palladius speak of them as common and
well known. All these writers ai'e supposed to refer to tlie Black
Mulberry only (Morus nigra), now but little valued and seldom
to be met "with in Italy, although at the first introduction of silk-
worms it is supposed to have been exclusively made use of in
raising them. It is even said to be indigenous to the Italian
sea coasts as well as to Persia. We have, however, been unable
to find any wild specimens in any of our herbaria, and modern
botanists meet with it only in a cultivated state in East India, as
in Europe. The only native station given with any confidence in
modem floras is the chain of the Caucasus and some adjoining
mountains.

The White Mulberry (Morus alba), now spread over all parts of
Eui'ope and Asia where the silkworm is raised, and almost every-
where the only species cultivated for that purpose, is a native of
Northern India and China. It is said to have been unknown to
the ancients. A passage of Ovid, quoted by Prof. Targioni,
alludes indeed to the white fruits of the mulberry, but this is
considered by the late Prof. Moretti, who devoted a great part of
his scientific life to the mulberry, to be a mere poetical license.
Another of Berytius, also quoted by Targioni, states that the
Mulberry bears white fruits when grafted on the white poplar, but
in our days this can only provoke a smile at its evident
absurdity. Yet a variety of the white mulberry, said to be deli-
cious eating, but unknown in Europe, is now abundant in
Reloochistan, Affghanistan, and probably in Persia, and apparently
of very ancient cultivation there. It is therefore by no means
impossible that some knowledge of it may have reached such of
the ancient writers as may have been in the East, or had
communication with it.

However that may be, it appears certain that the introduction
of the white mulberry into Italy is of a date long posterior to
that of the silkworm. These valuable insects were imported into
Sicily, in 1148, by King Piuggieri, after he had in his wars with
Manuel Comnenus conquered Thebes, Athens, and Corinth, It
is commonly said that the Lucchese learnt the art of raising
them from the Sicilians, and introduced it into Florence, when,
in 1815, they took refuge there from the sack of their own city.
Pagnini has however proved that silk was produced in Florence
in and previous to the year 1225, and from the histories and

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 171

chronicles of Malespiui, Villani, and Ammirato, it would appear
that there were silk factories there before 1266. All this time the
leaves used were those of the black mulberry, as clearly appears
from a passage of Pier Crescenzio, who wrote about the
year 1280. Several statutes of the fourteenth century relate to
the plantation of the mulberry without any thing to indicate
which species they allude to, whilst all writers of the sixteenth
clearly distinguish the white silkworm mulberry from the black-
fruited. It would appear then that in the course of the fifteenth
century, the former had gradually, but entirely, superseded the
latter. It is indeed commonly supposed that the cuttings were
first brought into Tuscany from the Levant, by Francesco
Buonvicini, in 1434, and that already in the following year 1435,
a law dated 7th of April encouraging its cultivation related to this
new species.

The Red Mulberry (Morus rubra), a Korth American species, is
to be found here and there in Italian gardens ; it is of recent
introduction and does not appear ever to have been planted for
silkworms. The one so called which Father Agostino del Riccio
says that Francis I. of Medicis had extensively sown in the
Boboli Gardens, and in the islands of the Cascine at Florence,
is supposed to have been a red-fruited variety of JMorus alba.
Several other varieties of this species have also, in modem days,
been brought from Eastern Asia or raised in European planta-
tions, and sent forth as new and most valuable species under the
names of Morus latifoUa, 7nacrophyUa or MorettUuia, midttcaulis,
sinensis, iMlippinensis, jajwnica, &c.

A long chapter is devoted by Prof. Targioni to the Agrumi,
that is, to the oranges, lemons, citrons, and others belonging to
the genus Citrus of the family of AurantiacecR. They have long
been objects of great interest to the Italians and the subject of
many valuable works, being extensively cultivated for profit
wherever the climate will admit of it, and for ornament or
curiosity in public or private gardens in the more northern parts
of the Peninsula, where they still require protection in winter.
They are all of Eastern origin, and mostly introduced into Europe
in comparatively modern days, but of veiy ancient and general
cultivation in Asia. The varieties known are very numerous and
difficult to reduce accurately to their species, on the limits of
which botanists are much divided in opinion. Those who have
bestowed the most pains in the investigation of Indian botany and
in whose judgment we should place the most confidence, have

172 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

come to the conclusion that the citron, the orange, the lemon, the
lime, and their numerous varieties now in circulation, are all
derived from one botanical species, Citrus medica, indigenous to,
and still found wild in, the mountains of East India. Others,
it is true, tell us that the citron, the orange, and the lime
are to be found as distinct types in different valleys, even
in the wild states ; but these observations do not appear
to have been made with that accuracy and critical caution which
would be necessary in the case of trees so long and so generally
cultivated.

With regard to the Shaddock (Citrus decumana), it is almost
universally admitted as a distinct sj)ecies, although at present
only known in the state of cultivation. It must be admitted also
that it appears to present more constant characters than most of
the others in the pubescence of its young shoots and in the size
of its flowers, besides the differences in the fruit ; but Dr. Buchanan
Hamilton, who is of great authority on such matters, and some
others, are inclined to believe that this also may have originated
in the Citrus medica. This point requires much farther investi-
gation, and a better knowledge of the floras of South-eastern
Asia, before we can come to any plausible conclusion.

Prof. Targioni gives copious details of the introduction into
Tuscany and other parts of Italy, of many of the yarieties there
cultivated, for which we must refer to the work itself. It may
sufBce, for our present purpose, to extract a few notes on some of
the more important races or species according as they may be
considered. Among them all the earliest known was the citron.
It is not, however, that fruit nor any other citrus, according to
Prof. Targioni, that we read of in the Bible under the name of
Hadar as is asserted by some, nor yet is it anywhere alluded to
by Homer. The first mention we have of it is in a comedy of
Antiphanes quoted by Athenseus, in which it is said that the
seeds of the citron had then recently been sent by the King of
Persia as a present to the Greeks. Theophrastus is the first
who describes it ; he tells us that the fruit was not eaten, but
solely prized for its odour and as a means of keeping the moths
off woollen clothing. Among the Romans we find an allusion to
the citron in Virgil's Georgics, but it does not appear to have been
then yet introduced into Italy, for Columella, long after Virgil's
death, made no mention of it, and Pliny, in his paraphrase as it
were of the passage of Theophrastus, adds that it had been
endeavoured to transport plants of the citron which he calls

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 173

mains medica or mains assyria into Italy, but without effect, as it
would only grow in Media and Persia. Palladius, however, in the
fifth century, gives many details of the modes of propagating
and cultivating this tree, which he says he had carried on with
success on his Sardinian and Neapolitan possessions. It was
therefore, in all probability, in the course of the third or fourth
centuries that the citron was introduced and established in Italy.

The mass of evidence collected by Prof. Targioni seems to
show that oranges were first brought from India into Arabia in
the ninth century, that they were unknown in Europe, or at any
rate in Italy in the eleventh, but were shortly afterwards carried
westwards by the Moors. They were in cultivation at Seville
towards the end of the twelfth century, and at Palermo in the
thirteenth, and probably also in Italy, for it is said that St.
Dominic planted an orange for the convent of S. Sabina in
Rome, in the year 1200. In the course of the same thirteenth
century, the crusaders found citrons, oranges, and lemons very
abundant in Palestine ; and, in the following fourteenth, both
oranges and lemons became common in several parts of Italy. It
appears, however, that the original importation of lemons from
India into Arabia and Syria occurred about a century later than
that of oranges.

The shaddock is believed to have followed a different route in
its migration into Europe. Most abundantly cultivated in, and
possibly indigenous to, the south-eastern extremity of the Asiatic
continent, it is said to have been carried from thence to the
West Indies, and from Jamaica and Barbadoes to England early
in the eighteenth century. It was, however, certainly previously
known in Italy, for it is described and figured by Ferrari, in 1646,
as having been sent from Genoa to the garden of Carlo Cadenas,
near Naples. There is no record of its first introduction -to
Genoa, whether from the East or the West.

Innumerable varieties of citrons are cultivated at Florence,
where they have ever been great favourites as objects of curiosity
as much as for their flowers and fruits. Among them is a very
singular one called hizzarria, raised by hybridising and cross-
grafting, in which the same tree produces oranges, lemons, and
citrons, often on the same branch, and sometimes combined into
one fruit, a curious case analogous to that of the well-known
hybrid by grafting between the Cytisus laburnum and C. purpureus.

The two last chapters of Prof. Targioni's work are devoted
to ornamental trees, shrubs, and herbs of exotic origin, which have,

174 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

at various times been introduced into Italy, and are now become
move or less common in Tuscany. The list comprises nearly one
hundred, but among them there are many which have only been
carried there from English gardens in the latter half of the
eighteenth century, whose history is of little interest, or may be
found in any of our Garden Catalogues, and which are therefore here
omitted. It will be suflBcient for our present purpose to extract
some notes relative to the more important, especially to those
which have been so long cultivated in Italy as to have become
almost naturalised.

Among them one of the earliest known is the Oriental Plane-
tree (Platanus orientalis), a native of Western Asia, highly
prized by the Romans, as we learn from Pliny, for its grateful
shade, and celebrated by their most distinguished poets and
orators. The same naturalist informs us that it was brought
from Asia across the Ionian sea to plant round the sepulchre of
Diomedes, in the island named after him, now Pelagosa, one of
the Tremiti isles off the Adriatic coast of the kingdom of
Naples. Plane-trees were subsequently imported into Sicily, and
from thence by Dionysius the First to a garden of his at Reggio
in Calabria, whence they spread over the rest of Italy. They
were, according to Pliny, brought to the neighbourhood of Rome
by a freedman of Marcellus Exerminus in the time of the
Emperor Claudius, and have ever since been extensively planted
in Italy, where they attain a great age and size."* It is there-
fore a matter of no small surprise that so many ages should
have elapsed before this tree found its way into other European
states. It was not known in France until Buffon planted it in the
Jardin du Roi in the middle of the eighteenth century ; but
Clusius had already carried it to Vienna as early as 1576, and in
England it had been imported somewhat earlier still by Sir
Nicholas Bacon, father of the Chancellor, who planted it in his
garden at Verulam in 1548.

The American Plane (Platanus occidentalis), now become very
common in Italy, and generally preferred to the Oriental, was
only introduced there long after Tradescant had brought it to
England from Virginia about the year 1640.

Another tree, no less celebrated for the beauty of its shade, so
valuable a quality in Italian climates, is the Diospyros lotus, like

* A plane-tree is mentioned as still existing at Arcoli in 1813, which,
from authentic records, was then at least five centuries old.

CULTTYATED PLANTS. 175

the plane-tree a native of Asia Minor, but of very early intro-
duction into Italy. It was confounded by ancient Greek and
Roman writers with the Zizyphus lotus, or with the Celtis australis,
under the name of tree lotus. But those lofty and ancient trees
recorded by Pliny, one on the square of the temple of Lucian,
another near the temple of Vulcan, and some others near the
house of Lucius Crassus, as celebrated for their spreading
branches and thick shade, could have been no other than the
Diospyros lotus, and not the Celtis as supposed by some com-
mentators. From having been for ages extensively planted in
Italy, and from its readiness to sow itself there, the Diospyros
has now become naturalised in some localities in such abundance
as to induce its insertion in several local floras as indigenous.
The American Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) with larger
fruits, now also to be met with in Italy, was only introduced
there from England about the year 1793.

Professor Targioni's notes on the history and geography of the
Cedar of Lebanon (Pinus cedrus) are now superseded by the
discussions which have of late occupied some of our most
distinguished botanists and horticulturists, and which it would
be out of place to enter into on the present occasion. We will
merely mention as a curious fact, that a tree, said to have been
known to the ancients as of great value, and growing in parts of
Western Asia and North Africa, with which the Romans had
much intercourse, should never have been planted in Italy till it
was carried from England to the Botanic garden at Pisa in the
year 1787 ; that is, above a century after Miller had introduced
it into the Apothecaries' Garden at Chelsea, and fifty-three years
after Bernard de Jussieu deposited one with so much ceremony in
the Jardin du Roi at Paris. The original Pisa tree is now in
great beauty, and the species is becoming very generally planted
in Tuscany.

The Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens), generally admitted to be
a native of Crete, Syria, and Asia Minor, has for ages been
common in Tuscany, where it attains great size and beauty,
although individuals of extraordinary dimensions were more
frequent in past times in the avenues of seignorial villas than
they are at present. The wood was much celebrated by the
ancients for its durability. Pliny, as well as modern writers,
quotes several instances of its remaining sound for many centuries.
We learn from Thucydides that this incorruptibility caused it to
be used by the Athenians for the coflSns of distinguished

176 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

personages, and that the tree was then already considered as an
emblem of sorrow and death, whence the ancient custom of
planting it in burial-grounds. Recognised as exotic by Pliny,
it had however already been introduced into Italy before the
time of Cato, who was born in the year 232 b,c. The two
remarkable varieties now known, with upright and with spreading
branches, were equally distinguished by Pliny.

The Horse Chesnnt (iEsculus hippocastanum), a native of the
mountains of Central Asia, was unknown to the ancients. It was
first introduced into Constantinople in 1540, whence Qualcebeno,
physician to the German Embassy, sent a branch with leaves and
fruit to Matthioli in 1557, and it was probably raised at
Florence at about that time, for in 1569 Jean Bauhin saw a tree
of it about the size of a mulberry in the garden of the Grand
Duke Cosmo I. Clusius planted one at Vienna in 1576, and
Bachelier introduced it into France from Constantinople in 1015.
Two from the same source were planted soon after 15 90 at the
entrance of the botanic garden at Pisa and attained an immense
size. One was destroyed in a storm in 1800, the other still remains.

The Cherry Laurel, or common laurel of our gardens (Prunus
laurocerasus), a native of the Asiatic coast of the Black Sea, is
frequent in Italian gardens of comparatively mild climate, for,
like many evergreens, it seems moi-e impatient of severe frost
there than with us. Unknown to the ancients, it was first
brought from Trebizonde to Constantinople about the year 1540,
and thence sent by the Austrian Ambassador, David Ugnard, to
Clusius at Vienna in the year 1576. From the individuals there
raised, it has since spread over the rest of Europe. In Tuscany
it was within a very few years of that time procured by Cesalpiii,
then Professor at Pisa, from the garden of Genoa.

This cherry laurel must not be confounded with the real
classical laurel, our bay-tree (Laurus nobilis), which is indigenous
to Italy and other parts of Southern Europe.

The Weepiiui Willow (Salix babylonica), a native of Western
Asia, is generally supposed to be the willow of the Euphrates,
upon which, as we read in the Bible (Ps. cxxxvii.), the Jewish
sinsers hung their musical instruments. It is not however
mentioned by any ancient Greek or Roman writers, nor yet by
the Italians of the middle ages, and, common as it now is all
over Europe, it does not appear in any catalogue of Italian
gardens until that compiled by Micheli, in 1715, of the
botanical gardens of Florence. It is however clearly represented

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 177

by Benvenuto Cellini on a basin iu the Royal collection at
Florence, executed in the sixteenth century, but whence that
artist derived his models is unknown.

The Pride of India (Melia azedarach), now common in
Southern Europe, is an East Indian tree, first brought into
Italy from the Levant in the sixteenth century, as it is supposed,
by the Franciscan friars. It was then chiefly planted about
convents, the perforated kernels being used for making paternoster
chaplets. It is first mentioned in Tuscan catalogues in 1(335.

The JuUbrissiii (Albizzia julibrissin), a favourite ornamental
tree in Southern Europe, as well as in Northern Africa, the
Levant, and East India, is a native of the mountains of Central
Asia, from the Caucasus to China. It was first brought into
Italy from Constantinople in 1749, by the Cavaliere FiUppo
Albizzi, to whom Durazzini dedicated the genus he founded
upon it, which has been adopted by botanists since the last revision
of the Mimosas of Linnaeus.

The Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) is supposed to be a Persian
shrub, introduced into Europe about the year 1597. It was,
however, certainly in the botanical garden at Padua before 1577,
for Matthioli, who died in that year, tells us he had received a
fresh specimen in flower from Cortusa, then director of the
Padua garden, during the time that he was finishing his com-
mentary on Dioscorides. The small-leaved Persian lilac
(Syringa persica) is of still more recent introduction, and said to
come from the same country. We are not aware of any really
wild specimens of either species having been deposited in our
herbaria, or having been actually met with by modern travellers,
but we should be inclined to believe that the common lilac is but
a luxuriant variety of the Persian produced by cultivation, and
the more so as some intermediate forms known by the names of
lilas varin, &c., have been raised from seeds of the latter. The
Transylvanian Syringa Josikaea, now occasionally to be met with
in gardens, is a perfectly distinct scentless species.

Hibiscus syriacus, the Althaia frutex of om' gardens, of Syrian
origin, as its name implies, has become naturalised in the hedges
of some parts of Northern Italy. The precise date of its
introduction is unknown, but it certainly had already been for
some years in Florentine gardens previous to 1596, the period
assigned for its introduction into England.

Amongst the North American trees, more or less generally
established in Italy, Professor Targioni enters into some details

178 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

respecting the following species : the Acacia or Locust-tree
(Robinia pseudacacia), the Tulip-tree (Liriodendron tulipiferum),
the Mai/noJia (Magnolia grandiflora), the Black Wahmt (Juglans
nigra), the Nerfundo Ash (Negundo fraxinifolia), the Deciduous
Cypress (Taxodium distichuni), the Gleditschia triacanthos,
Bignonia Catalpa, Pyrus coronaria, and Jnniperus viryiniana.
They all succeed remarkably well in Italian climates, to which
they had been introduced at various periods during the course
of the eighteenth century.

The Casse or Cassis of French perfumers (Acacia farne-
siana), of South American origin, is much cultivated in
Southern Europe for ornament, and in some localities for the
exti-action of the essence from its flowers. It is so generally
spread over the hotter regions of both hemispheres, that it
has been recorded as indigenous to many parts of the Old World,
as well as of America ; and some of the most careful observers
among modern East Indian botanists, seeing it so abundant in
parts of the peninsula at considerable distances from the haunts
of Em-opeans, have felt convinced that it was a real denizen.
Yet there are many circumstances which induce us to come to
the conclusion that it has only become naturalised after cultiva-
tion. It has ever found much favour with the Arabs and other
Mahometan races, and sows itself with remarkable facility, and it
is most frequently found in India around villages. On the other
hand it is an undoubted native of the West Indies and of South
America, and was never known in the Mediterranean region until
introduced from thence. We are told that the first seeds were
raised at Rome in 1611, in the garden of Cardinal Odoardo
Farnese, having been imported direct from St. Domingo, and
that from the issue of these plants it subsequently spread over
Southern Europe. It is not stated whether it may not also
have been at an early period brought over from South America
by the Spaniards.

Schinus moUe, commonly but improperly called the p)epper-tree,
was certainly first introduced by the Spaniards from Chili or
Peru before the year 1570, when a fruiting branch was sent to
Clusius from Spain. It is now very common in Southern Italy,
but less so in Tuscany, where it is often injured by the winter
frosts.

Among Eastern trees introduced' into Italy through France or
England in the course of last century, the Broussonetia jjapyrifera,
Ailmithus glandtdosa, Sterculia X)l(itanifolia, and Oinkyo biloha

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 179

(commonly called in this country Salishuria adiantifolia), are
not unfrequently to be met with in Southern Europe ; and the
Camellia, first cultivated in Italy in the Caserta garden, near
Naples, in 1760, is now a great favourite in Tuscany, where, in
sheltered situations, it vrill attain great size and beauty in the
open air.

The common Roses of Italian gardens are none of them
indigenous, but the native country and precise form of the wild
type of most of them is involved in much uncertainty. The most
anciefitly and generally cultivated one, the common Cabbage Rose
(Rosa centifolia), is that which is the most generally alluded to by
poets and other writers, from the days of Virgil and Pliny, to
our own times. It is also much cultivated in Southern Europe
for the use of perfumers. It is said to have been brought from
Persia into Greece and Italy in very remote times. The Provence
Rose (Rosa gallica) is found wild in France and Germany, but
whether indigenous or not, is uncertain. It is believed to have
been referred to by Pliny, under the names of Rosa j^f'^i^^stina,
carthaginensis, and milesia. The Damask Rose (R. damasceua),
and the common White Rose (R. alba), are also believed to have
been among those enumerated by Pliny, and to be natives of
Southern Europe, though not of Italy. The Rosa moschata
appears to have been introduced from the Levant in the sixteenth
century. The climbing roses now forming so beautiful a feature
in Italian promenades and gardens (Rosa indica, R. Banksiana,
and R. multiflora), are of very recent importation from French
and English gardens, as none of them appear to have been known
in Italy before the commencement of the present century.

From the latter end of the sixteenth century, there arose in
various parts of Italy, especially at Florence, a great rage for the
cultivation of innumerable varieties of Anemones (A. coronaria),
Ranunculus (R. asiaticus), Hyacinths (H. orientalis). Tulips (T.
Gesneriana), and Narcissus (N. poeticus). The wild types of
most of them, perhaps of all except the ranunculus, are to be
found in Italy and Greece as well as in the Levant, but the
production and cultivation of the garden varieties of all of them
commenced in the East. They were all introduced into Western
Europe from Constantinople at various periods between the years
1550 and 1600, together with the Crotni Imperial (Fritillaria
imperialis), said to be a native of Persia, the Muscari moschatum
from the shores of the Bosphorus, the Liliinn chalceclonicum from
the Levant, which had all been then for some time in Constanti-

N 2

180 HISTORICAL NOTES ON

nopolitan gardens. Of all the above-mentioned flowers, the
anemone and narcissus alone can be recognised under those
names in the writings of the ancient Romans, for the various
hyacinths of Virgil and Pliny were evidently very different from
the plant we give that name to.

The Tuberose (Polyanthes tuberosa) is generally said to be a
native of East India, Java, and Ceylon, but it is there everywhere
cultivated, as it is also in almost every South American garden,
and its origin is very uncertain. Judging from the localities of
its nearest allies in the genera Agave and Beschorneria, we should
consider some part of the Mexican empire as its most probable
fatherland, and that it was carried to Europe and to Asia very
early after the conquest of that tei'ritory. It was known to Clusius
at Vienna, in 1594. Eumphius tells us that it was introduced
into Amboyna, in 1694, from Batavia, where it was very common,
meaning probably in gardens there. He also tells us that the
Italian ones were the most esteemed in India. Yet in Italy
tuberoses were still very scarce in the beginning of the eighteenth
century.

The Jessamine (Jasminum oflBcinale), a native of East India,
now as it were naturalised in some parts of Italy, is believed to
have passed from East India into Arabia, thence into Egypt, and
lastly, in the middle ages, into Italy. It appears to have been
unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans, for the references
made to it by some commentators are evidently erroneous. The
first mention of it in Italy is in a poem by Rucellai, written about
1524, where it is spoken of as a new flower unknown to the
ancients. Matthioli, about 1559, also tells us it had not been
long imported into Italy, although it was then already common in
every garden. The Jasmiunm grandiflormn, a mere variety of
the common one and very abundant in India in the wild state,
was imported from Spain in the sixteenth century, and the
Mugherlno or SamhaJc (Jasminum Sambak), direct from Goa in
the seventeenth.

Carnations (Dianthus caryophyllus) are first recorded as having
been cultivated by King Rene of Anjou and Provence, at Aix, in
the thirteenth century, but whether there raised or impoi'ted from
more southern climates does not appear. The wild type is
common in Southern Europe, but with flowers of such very reduced
dimensions that we must presume a period of several ages requisite
to produce those splendid varieties now in cultivation.

In the latter half of the sixteenth or in the early years of the

CULTIVATED PLANTS. 181

seventeenth century, a considerable number of South American
plants were introduced into Italian gardens either direct from
Brazil, Mexico, or Peru, or through the Spaniards. Among those
which speedily became generally cultivated, we may mention
the Sunflower (Helianthus annuus), from Mexico or Peru ; the
Nasturtium (Tropseolum majus), the Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis
Jalapa), and the QuamocUt (Ipomcea Quamoclit),from Peru; and the
Passiouflou-er (Passiflora cserulea), from Brazil. Dahlias, from
Mexico, and Fuchsias, from Peru, were not imported till the close
of the eighteenth century. The East Indian Chrysanthemums, the
Japanese Hydrangeas, and the Cape Pelargoniums, all well-
established in Italian gardens, were brought there from England
or France at the close of the last or the commencement of the
present century.

Having thus passed in review the long list of plants generally
cultivated in Tuscany, whose history is investigated by Professor
Targioni-Tozzetti, it remains for us to express our regret that our
limited space has prevented our entering into numerous interesting
details, for which we must refer to the work itself, as well as for
the authorities upon which they are founded, which are carefully
given on every occasion. They show a vast amount of patient
research, and supply a body of facts and references which it will
be necessary for every one to consult who interests himself in this
branch of botanical history and geography. We must also express
our obligations to the several botanists recently returned from
long and active explorations of Northern and Western India, whose
important observations and enlightened views have materially
assisted us in the investigation of the wild types of cultivated
species of real or supposed Asiatic origin.

By some transposition of words at page 137 of this Vol. we
are made to say, that the sugar-cane was brought from the West
Indies in the time of the Saracens. It was introduced both to
the West Indies and to Southern Europe frqm Asia.

REPORT FROM THE COUNCIL

ANNIVERSARY MEETING, MAY 1, 1854.

At the last Anniversary the Council had to report that the
debt of the Society had been increased by the sum of 121L 1 6s. 6d.
It is their duty now to state that, although the income of
the Society has improved, yet an addition has been unavoidably
made to the debt of 1Q21. 14s. 8(/.

The Debt on April 1, 1853, was . . ,£7408 8 2
Since diminished by Compositions, to

the extent of 367 10

£'7040 18 2
But the Ordinary Income having been
less than the Expenditure by the
sum of 530Z. 4s. 8d., that sum has
to be added to the Debt . . . 530 4 8

Making the Debt on April 1, 1854 . £'7571 2 10

Showing a Balance against the Society upon the Year
of 162L 14^. Sd.

On the other hand, they are able to announce the reduction of
the interest upon the Society's loan notes from five to four per
cent. ; the discontinuance of an allowance of 60Z. a year to the
late Mr. Munro, and an increase in the rents receivable from
the tenants of the House in Regent Street.

The balance sheet as signed by the Auditors is as follows ; —

H . o ■»** N e4Cl Cl Ci
J;* oocit- Oios t-QO

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- ^ - ■ — " *^ " -~ -^* CO

cot-

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a

REPORT OP THE COUNCIL, MAY 1, 1S54. 185

The items in the foregoing document, relating merely to income
and expenditure, are as follows : —

A RETURN OF THE INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OP THE HORTI-
CULTURAL SOCIETY, POR THE TEARS 1852-3 and 1853-4.

Annual Subscriptions

Admission Fees from Fellows

Quarterly Journal sold

Transactions and Fruit Catalogue sold . .
Rent of Apartments let 02? in Regent-street

Garden Produce sold

Receipts from Members for Garden charges

Miscellaneous Receipts

Garden Exhibitions

Total . . .

1853-4.

& s.

d.

£ s.

d.

2685 1

8

2364 12

75 12

84

80 16

3

38 17

9 18

13 18

6

150

135

25 11

1

34 13

4

28 18

26 5

34 1

10

17 4

6

3226 14

6

3633 19

6

6315 13

4

6348 9

10

Expenditure.

Interest on loan notes, &c

Rent, taxes, &c., Regent Street and Chiswick
Repairs, furniture, &c.. Regent Street . . .

Housekeeping expenses ditto

Salaries and wages, collector's poundage, &c.

Cost of Quarterly Journal

Cost of Transactions and Fruit Catalogues .

Libraiy charges

Printing, stationery, &c

Foreign missions and imports

Expenses of meetings, postage, carriage, &c. .

Garden labour

Implements, mats, seeds, &c

Tan, dung, &c

Coals and coke for Garden

Miscellaneous expenses at Garden ....

Garden repairs . . . .'

Distribution expenses

Exhibition expenses

New woi-ks at Garden

Cost of medals awarded

Total . , .

£

s.

d.

£

s. d.

280

8

5

3]#

8 6

645

3

645

7 10

92

4

11

114

6 1

41

5

46

9 5

969

15

9

892

19 9

301

2

1

308

17 6

13

14

3

24

11 9

18

5

4

16

16 6

73

6

9

48

18

5

9

12

1 4

98

5

1

86

15 1

1329

3

1387

4 10

99

14

95

15 9

34

15

2

35

18

153

9

9

158

14 4

115

12

5

125

13 8

130

18

10

86

17 7

120

13

10

119

18 10

1029

10

942

16 11

158

13

4

356

7 10

1299

5

1055

15

1853-4.

7009 14 9 6878 14 6

It appears from the foregoing return, that the ordinary income
of the Society has increased by the sum of 32Z. 16s. 6d., and that
the entire expenditure has diminished to the extent of 1311. Os, Sd.

ISO REPORT OF THE COUNCIL,

nmkiug the financial position better, in this point of view,
than in 1853, to the extent of 103/. 16s. 9d. Doubtless it would
have been in the power of the Council to augment this improve-
ment by the discontinuance of all attempts to improve the
property and increase the efficiency of the Society. But on the
one hand, they did not feel justified in delaying the repair of the
house in Regent Street, which had long been necessary, and on
which a sum of Sil. has now been expended ; and on the other,
the state of the Arboretum and its approaches called for improve-
ment, which had in fact been decided upon in 1852, but was
arrested by the incessant rains of that year and the following.
At a cost of 149/. 18s. 2d. extensive alterations have been
effected; the American garden has been connected with the
Arboretum, the beds of Rhododendrons have been wholly re-
modelled, a large portion of the turf has been raised and relaid,
and such changes in the level of the surrounding ground as
attention to effect demanded have been carried out. A new roof
has been also fixed upon the great iron Tent, and the glass wall,
erected by Mr. Pilkington, has been purchased on very advan-
tageous terms. Altogether these expenses have amounted to
350/. Tip. lOd. The ordinary garden disbursements of the
Society have moreover been unexpectedly increased by the high
price of coals, and by the necessity of advancing the wages of the
labourers in the Garden, in order to enable them to meet the
general rise in price of food and fuel. It is to be expected that
the last-mentioned source of expense is merely temporary.

Passing from the subject of expenditure to that of income, the
Council have to advert to the fact, that although there has been
on the whole an increase of income, and although the present
year's account is decidedly better than the last, yet the receipts
from annual subscriptions appear less by the sum of 320/. Os. Sd.
This is principally owing to a large amount of arrears outstanding
having been collected dm*ing the previous year, and which has
left a smaller amount to be received this year ; but partly also to
a diminution in the number of Fellows from deaths, resignations,
removals, and life subscriptions. The number of elections this
year has been forty-one, against thirtj'-eight in 1852-3, and the
loss of members from all causes has been forty-nine against sixty ;
so that here also an improvement is manifested. But it is
evident that unless the elections exceed the losses from death,
resignation or removal taken together, this part of the revenue
must be expected to diminish. The Fellows of the Society are

MAY 1, 1854.

187

therefore urged to exercise their individual influence, in proposing
new Fellows for election. Such co-operation affords the readiest
means of enabling the Council to maintain the Society in a per-
manent state of efficiency. They would further add that the
forty-one elections that have this year taken place, were upon the
recommendation of only twenty-seven Fellows.

The Admission fee being only 2Z. iis. Od. and the Annual
Subscription not being in advance, every facility is given to
candidates for admission, and the Council are persuaded that if
this were more extensively known, it may be expected that our
numbers will again increase, especially when the solid advantages
connected with the Fellowship of the Society are better appreciated.

From the mere distribution of plants and seeds, no inconsidera-
ble advantage is derived, as is shown by the following return.

! NUMBER OF PLANTS, &c., GIVEN AWAY BY THE SOCIETY FROM
MARCH 31, 1S53, TO MARCH 31, 1854.

Plants.

Seeds.

Cuttings.

To Members

4,401
357

50,510
687
214

1,331

314

60

To Foreign Countries, Correspondents, &c.
To Her Majesty's Colonies

Total

4,758

51,411

1,705

When it is considered that the distribution of such articles is
necessarily governed by the general principle that nothing shall
be propagated which can be procured readily among nurserymen,
it will be seen that these figures represent a considerable amount
of value. The increasing demands made for Kitchen Garden and
other seeds, which are procured from the Continent and given
away as samples of what esculents of the finest quality should be,
attest the advantage that is derived from the continual dispersion
of such articles through the country. The Council believe
that the propagation of novelties in the Garden is more successful
now than it has ever been before, the organisation of the distri-
bution department having been greatly improved of late years ;
and they anticipate largely increased activity in this department
as soon as the collections to be made in Mexico by Mr. Botteri,
now engaged in the service of the Society, shall have begun to
arrive in England.

Many unforeseen circumstances detained this gentleman in
Dalmatia much longer than was anticipated. When he undertook

188 liEPORT OF THE COUNCIL,

the office of collector he was residing in the island of Lesina,
where he held an employment under the Austrian Government ;
time was required to arrange his official engagements, and to
pi'epare for an absence of uncertain duration in a distant country.
The consequence was that Mr. Botteri only reached England a
few weeks ago. The Council are now able to report that he took
his departure for Liverpool some days since, and has probably
sailed for Vera Cruz. His first consignments may therefore be
expected in the autumn. In connection with, this part of their
Report, the Council desire to e.xpress their obligations to the
house of Messrs. Antony Gibbs and Co., for providing Mr. Botteri
with letters of credit on Mexico.

The Council have to record their disappointment at the
supplies of Coniferous and other seeds expected from Real del
Monte not having reached England. The cause of this delay is
unknown, but it is hoped they may arrive in the course of the
present summer. Nor has any such advantage as was anticipated
been derived from the Society's subscription to the Scotch
expedition to Oregon formerly reported. The collections made
by Mr. Jeffreys have given so little satisfaction that the Com-
mittee under whom he acted have announced his recal. The
Council must at the same time declare that the Horticultural
Society has been treated by the Oregon Committee with the
utmost possible liberality.

The plan of effecting Life Subscriptions upon the scale
authorised Feb. 17, 1852, has been taken advantage of by
3 Fellows only, viz. : —

£ s. d.

By Arthur Currie, Esq., after paying 20 years' .sub- 1 91 n

scriptiou, by further payment of . . ■ j "

By James Malcolmson, Esq., after paying 21 years' 1 o^ q

subscription, by further payment of . • } "

By Richard Davis, Esq., after paying 7 years' sub- 1 ^i iQ q

scription, by further payment of . . .J ^^__^_

£73 10

The Exhibitions in the Garden shew a marked improvement,
the value of the tickets sold having increased to the extent of
408L 5s, beyond that of 1852-3, while the expenses have been
diminished by 337Z. 13s. lid.

The following return shows under what heads the expenses
have been distributed, and in what way those of 1853 differ from
those of 1852 : —

MAY 1, 1854.

189

Expense of Exhibitions.

1. Miscellaneous timber . . .

2. Miscellaneous repairs . . .

3. Carpenters, painters, tent-pitchers,

&c

4. Miscellaneous labour beyond the

ordinary service of the Garden

5. Miscellaneous printing , .

6. Admission tickets

7. Advertisements

8. Judges

9. Extra clerks and temporary rooms

10. Police

11. Bands and all musical expenses ,

12. Provisions for exhibitors,police,&e.

13. Watering roads

14. Miscellaneous expenses, including

stationery, carriage, postage, &c.

15. Cost of new tents

16. Green baize for tables

Medals awarded .

1852.

1S53.

£

27

3y

S. d.

3 6
6

■121 10 11

■ 69 17 6

17 10

14
4 6

10

16

9

11

15

48 3

64

30
125
31
22
81
300
56
15

65
46

3 9

1145 6 6
1033 5

2178 11 6

£ s. d.

18 7 7

45 13 4

140 2 5

72 13 8

59 17

25 7

119 1

31 10
24
71 12

270
56 16 10
15 15

41 4 8

32
5

£ s. d

9 11 10

30 2

118 2 3
77 17

56 7
23 5

104 1

34 13

28 11

76 13
270 10

61 13

10 10

40 19 3

1029 lO! 942 16 11
1227 0i*975 10

2256 10;1918 6 11

The number of tickets sold at 3s. 6fZ. diminished by 605, those
at 5s. increased by 1926, and those at 7s. M. also increased by
87. The total number of tickets sold in 1853 was 1408 more
than in 1852. The number of persons attending, exclusive of
Exhibitors and the Garden staff, was,

May
June
July

In 1852.

In 1853

2755 .

2381

. 4719 . .

. . 7044

8820 .

7225

16,294

16,650

It will be seen from this how much the coldness of our springs
continues to affect the presence of visitors in May.

In settling the details of the Exhibitions now about to take
place, it has been found necessary to introduce some important
changes. Representations were more especially made to the

* This is part of the sum of 1055Z. 15s. entered in the balance-sheet as
Medals awarded — the balance of 80?. 5s. being for Awards at Meetings in
Regent Street.

190

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL,

Council that the value of the prizes no longer corresponded
sufficiently with the expenses incurred by Exhibitors ; that the
difference in value among the prizes was now too great, there
being much less difference in the merits of competitors than
formerly existed, and that a better graduated scale of prizes was
required. The Committee appointed to consider these and
similar representations was especially instructed to make such
arrangements as should appear most conducive to the general
interests of Horticulture.

The Committee recommended that the scale of prizes should
be better graduated, and proposed the following plan.

IN FUTUKE

LG 1.— First Large Gold Medal

LG 2.— Second Large Gold Medal

GK 1.— First Gold Knightian Medal 10

GK 2.— Second Gold Knightian Meilal

GB 1.— First Gold Banksian Medal .

GB 2.- — Second Gold Banksian Medal

SG. — SUver GUt Medal

LS. — Large Silver Medal

SK. —SUver Knightian Medal

SB. ^-SUver Banksian Medal

C 1. —First Certificate .

C 2. — Second Certificate .

£

i.

15

12

10

8

7

5

4

3

2

1

15

10

68

5

INSTEAD OP

LG. Large Gold Medal .
GK. Gold Knightian Medal
GB. Gold Banksian Medal

15

10

SG.

Large Silver Gilt Medal .

4

CE.

Certificate of Excellence .

2

10

LS.

Large Silver Medal

1

15

SK.

Silver Knightian Medal .

1

5

SB.

SUver Banksian Medal .

1

C.

The Certificate of Merit .

10

43

thus raising the whole value of the scale from 43i. to 68Z. 5s. 0(Z.

But as this change has the effect of largely increasing the
amount that may be awarded in any class, it became necessary
to alter the classes themselves, omitting some articles of exhi-
bition altogether, so as to provide by such exclusion the funds
required for the augmentation of the prizes in other classes.
The Committee believe that this has been so effected that the
amount for which the Society is made liable for Medals, &c., in
1854 is not essentially different from that of 1853.

The number of tickets which each Fellow should be privileged
to purchase at 3s. M. has been the subject of discussion on former
occasions. Originally it was twenty-four; in 1851, the year of
the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, it was increased to forty-
eight; and the same number was allowed in 1852 and 1853.
It has been suggested that the number should be even unlimited.
Experience has however shown, that even forty-eight is a larger
issue than is advantageous financially.

MAY 1, 1854.

191

In 1850, when twenty-four only were issued, the sale of 8s. %d.
tickets was as 7644 to 10,389 of the others. When forty-eight
were allowed, the numbers were as follows : —

1851

1852
1853

13,405 to 10,227

10,102 to 5,317

9,497 to 7,330

Thus it appeared that while the proportion between 3s. M.
tickets and other tickets was as seven to ten where twenty-four
only were allowed, the proportion became reversed from the moment
when the number was extended to forty-eight, the numbers in the
three years during which the trial lasted having been as thirteen
to ten, ten to five, and nine to seven. This appeared to be so
manifestly detrimental to the finances of the Society, that it has
been thought expedient to reduce the number of privileged
tickets from forty-eight to thirty-six for the ensuing year.

It is satisfactory to add that the meetings in Regent Street
have been unusually well attended. The introduction of subjects
connected with the collateral branches of Horticulture has proved
interesting, especially those of which utility,- not mere beauty, is
the principal feature. It is therefore hoped that the produce of
plants cultivated for the sake of their value in arts and manu-
factures, whether at home or abroad, will continue to be brought
forward by those who possess information concerning them.
Colonial as well as home produce is admissible to Exhibition, and
if it should hereafter appear desirable to do so, the Council are
prepared to authorise the award of medals to such subjects as well
as to the more usual descriptions of horticultural produce.

The following return shows the number of Medals awarded in
Regent Street from April 1, 1853, to April 1, 1854 : —

1. Flowers.

2 Large Silver Medals.

6 Kniglitian Medals.
12 Banksian Medals.
22 Certificates of Merit.

42

Fruits.

2 Knightian Medals.
18 Banksian Medals.

25 Certificates of Merit.

45

Vegetables.

3 Knightian Medals.
7 Banksian Medals.

7 Certificates of Merit.

17

In the course of the year Mr. Robert Thompson, the super-
intendent of the Orchard and Kitchen Garden department, has

192 REPORT OP THE COUNCIL,

prepared a supplement to the Society's Fruit Catalogue, which has
appeared in the Journal.

The Council continue to receive numerous valuable contribu-
tions to the Garden, among which they have most especially to
notice large supplies of American and other hardy plants,
presented by Mr. Dancer of Fulham, Mr. Osborne of Fulham,
Mr. Cunningham of Liverpool, Mr. Groom of Clapliam, and
Mr. John Waterer of Bagshot, in aid of the alterations in the
Arboretum already alluded to. Without such extensive assistance
the work could not have been executed, except at a largely
increased cost to the Society.

Among those presents which more particularly claim a record
here are the following ; —

From G. U. Skinner, Esq., 15 sorts of Seeds and some Bulbs from
Teueriffe ; pieces of various newly imported Orchids, including
Barkeria spectabilis, and Barkeria Skinneri ; two very large
plants of Sobralia macrantha and Cyrtopodium punctatum.

From E. A. Brande, Esq., Seeds of Glycine sinensis alba and two
other sorts of Seeds from China.

From The Lord WharnclifFe, Posoqueria longiflora and 16 other
Plants, Seeds of Wild Coffee from Grenada.

From James Warren, Esq., of 96, Houndsditch, a quantity of Assam
Tea Seed,

From M. Andre Leroy, of Angers, Cuttings of 33 sorts of Pears, 5 of
Apples and 1 Plum ; and plants of 3 sorts of Grape Vines.

From The Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company,
vai-ious living plants, 36 sorts of Seeds from Kooloo, and a large
quantity of other Seeds from different parts of India, including
Berberis Leschenaulti, and varieties of Indian Balsams.

From M. Vilmorin, of Paris, Plants of 3 sorts of new Strawberries, 2
of Fruit-trees, and a quantity of Ornamental Flower Seeds.

From G. T. Davy, Esq., 18, Sussex Square, Hyde Park, Roots of
Tropajolum azureum and Tropseolum tricolorum.

From the Garden of the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries at
Chelsea, Brillantaisia owariensis, Begonia margaritacea, and 23
other plants.

From Dr. J. E. Stocks, Superintendent of the Botanic Garden,
Dapooree, Poonah, Bombay, 10 sorts of Indian Seeds.

From H. Houghton, Esq., Friday Street, City, 10 varieties of Orchids
from La Guayra.

From Dr. Maclean, of Colchester, Roots and Seeds of his Seedling
Tigridias.

From Mr. Fowke, a plant of Rhododendron Hursleyanum.

From R. Trevor Clarke, Esq., a plant of an Hybrid Begonia.

From James Bateman, Esq., a plant of Sobralia macrantha.

From His Excellency Lord Harris, Trinidad, a Wardian Case, contain-
ing 22 living plants.

From M. Weddell, of Paris, Seeds of Cinchona ovata, and 3 other
sorts of Seeds from Bolivia.

From Mr. Francis Rauch, Belvidere, near Vienna, Seeds of Abies
Apolliuea, and Pinus halepensis.

MAY 1, 1854. 193

From Mrs. irAdatn Catbcart, a plant of the Green-flowering Primrose.
From Edward Delius, Esq., of Malaga, a bag containing 3 quarts of

Seed of Abies Pinsapo.
From Isaac Anderson, Esq., of Edinburgh, a species of Melastoma and

11 other plants from the Andes.
From Mr. James Duncan, Botanic Garden, Mauritius, two Wardian

Cases, containing Ochna Madagascariensis, Stravadium rubrum,

Phyllarthron Comorense, and 54 other plants.
From Sir \V. C. Trevelyan, Bt., Seeds of Trichosanthes palmata.
From John Ferme, Esq., of Haddington, 20 sorts of Seeds from

Caffraria.
From James Leech Ridgway, Esq., of 169, Piccadilly, Seeds of 4

varieties of Nelumbium, and 4 of Nymphsea.
From H. C. Calvert, Esq., of Erzeroum, a collection of Seeds col-
lected in the neighbourhood of Erzeroum.
From A. Mun-ay, Esq., Seeds of Pinus macrocarpa, and 2 sorts of

Acorns.
From Capt. George Elliott, R. Marines, 5 sorts of Seeds, and 5 of Acorns

from Asia Minor.
From Capt. Vetch, R.N., Seed of Abies religiosa.
From Dr. Asa Gray, roots of Tipularia discolor.
From E. W. Mark, Esq., of 12, Upper Eccleston Place, Eccleston Square,

Seed-heads of a plant called " La Bellissima."
From Mr. Thomas Long, of Kilmarnock, a plant of Salix Caprea

pendula.
From Mr. R. Glendinning, a large plant of Araucaria imbricata.
From Mr. Hugh Low, Lapageria rosea, Cupressus australis, and 4 otlier

plants.
From Mr. R. T. Pince, a plant of Begonia Prestonensis.
From Messrs. Weeks & Co , Seeds of a "Water Lily from Santa Martha

and various other Seeds.
From Mr. John Waterer, of Bagshot, Plants of six Rhododendrons.
From 'Mr. Henry Groom, a quantity of Lilium Bulbs.
From Mr. George Cunningham, 31 young Hybrid Rhododendrons.
From Mr. Alexander Dancer, Plants of 60 sorts of Rhododendrons,

45 sorts of Hardy Azaleas, and Abies Jesoeusis.
From Messi-s. Osborne, Andromeda speciosa, and 23 other hardy

Ornamental Plants.
From Mr. W. J. Epps, Plants of 24 new Greenhouse Azaleas, and

Begonia xanthina.
From Messrs. Minier & Co., 15 sorts of Kitchen Garden Seeds.
From Messrs. Peter Lawson & Son, Seeds of Pinus Sabiniana.

In this manner the efficiency of the Garden is greatly promoted
without recourse to the funds of the Society.

The number of visitors to the Garden during the year has
been 6573, or 642 more than in 1852-3.

From what has now been stated the Council venture to believe
that if the pecuniary position of the Society is not so brilliant as
in some former years when it was their pleasing office annually
to announce a large e.\cess of income over expenditure, yet that it
is in a state of decided improvement, which they trast to be able

VOL. IX. o

194 REPORT OF THE COUNCIL, MAY 1, 1854.

next year to say has undergone further advance. The Fellows
may be assured that this fundamental subject receives constant
attention ; and that the Council feel it to be their first duty to
consider what measures are most likely to be useful to the
Fellows, attractive to the public, and of solid value in promotinfr
the great objects for which tlie Horticultural Society of London
was incorporated.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

XIV. — An Abstract of Meteorological Observations in the
Garden of the Society ; iu continuation of those pub-
lished vol. vii., p. l^-'*. By Robert Thompson.

1852.

Thermometer.

Rain.

Barometer.

j

Mean 1
Mois-

^°

O-g g

Siui.

.31

« rt o

In pts.

Max.

Min.

Mean.

ture.

January . .

59

13

39-66

2-72

30-326

29022

29-717

988

February . .

62

11

38-72

1-06

30-637

29111

29-967

931

March . . .

78

8

39-62

0-25

30-739

29-200

30-127

833

April . . .

95

12

44-81

0-52

30-326

29-546

30-073

760

May. . . .

87

18

51-45

1-74

30-240

29-569

29-899

810

June . . .

85

37

58-01

4-69

30-075

29-214

29-687

895

July . . .

120

43

67-61

2-27

30-158

29-640 29-970

830

August . .

102

42

63-67

3-71

30-260

29-123 29-758

886

September

103

31

56-21

3-64

30-462

29-179 29-867

928

October . .

91

25

46-22

3-87

30-451

28-877 29-824

948

November

71

20

47-38

6-20

30-164

28-8481 29-553

980

December

60

24

46-56

1-97

30-259

28-983

29-672

991

Means . . .

84-41

23-66

49-99

32-64

30-341

29-192

29-842

898

lOG

METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL

GEOTHERMOMETRICAL OBSERVATIONS.

1852.

Day of

the
Month.

Tbmpebatuke
OF THE Earth.

Day of

the
Month.

Temperature
OF THE Air.

Day of

the
Mouth.

Monthly

mean
Tempera-
ture of the
Air.

1 Foot.

2 Feet.

Day.

Night.

. fMax.
§ \ Min.
■^ [Mean

16">

2nd

45°
37-
40-06

43°-

38- 1
39-77

15"-

1st

56-
35-

48-00

44-
20-
31-32

IS"-
4th

39-66

. fMax.
g J. Min.
^ [Mean

6">
21^'

46-
36-
4010

43-
38-
39-73

1st

20"'

57-
38-
47-20

44-
15-
30-24

4 th
20'"

38-72

^ [Max.
< < Min.
^ [Mean

31^'

7,h

44-50
35-50
39-13

42-
36-
38-89

22"''
18"'

66-
44.

50-61

45-
15-
28-64

30"'
4th

39-62

ti [Max.
S -| Min.
^ [Mean

30'"
4th

49-

41-50
44-51

45-
41-
43-56

14"'
ID'h

73-

48-
57-63

50-
20-
32-00

29'"
19"'

44-81

^- [Max.
^ < Min.
^ [Mean

20"'
3rd

55-

45-
51-42

53-
46-
49-30

16"'

2nd

74-
51-
61-61

51-
25-
41-29

13'"

2nJ

51-45

p4 [Max.
g -^ Min.
i-s [ Mean

2r"'

1st

60-50

52-

56-71

58-
50-
54-13

24th
11"'

76-
57-
67-23

57-
40-
48-80

25'"
11'"

58-01

^ [Max.
g 1 Min.
i-s [Mean

17.h

1st

68-
60-
65-48

65-
57-
62-79

5"'

1st

97-
72-
81-16

61-
44.

54-06

6'"
22'"'

67-61

^ JMax.
P ■< Mm.
"^ [Mean

2nd

13"'

66-
59-
62-32

63-50

58-

60-56

1st

12">

82-
60-
75-32

62-
44-
52-03

16'"
3P'

63-67

^ fMax.
S ^ Min.
«2 [Mean

5th
22'"'

62-
53-
57-65

60-
53-
56-85

2..d
21''

77.

57-
66-23

59-
34-
46-20

9'"
21"

56-21

. [Max.
o ■< Min.
^ [Mean

1st

SO'h

53-50

46-

48-55

53-50

46-

48-55

31"

27th

61-
46-
54-32

51-
28-
38-12

1 22'"'
8'"

46-22

^ f Max.
o -^ Min.
-^ [ Mean

9.1,
30"'

53-
43-
47-97

50-50
43-50
47-85

5th

29"'

63-
39-
53-26

57-

25- .
41-50

1 1st

30'"

47-38

. [ Max.
w J Min.
<=• [Mean

1st

48-
43-
45-69

46-

43-50

45-17

11th

1st

57-
48-
52-38

52-
26-
40-74

4'"

28'"

46-56

METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL. 197

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

January. — It has been ascertained, from an average of twenty-
seven years, that the mean depth of rain which falls at Chiswick
is at the rate of twenty-four inches per annum or a small fraction
more, the exact average being 24"024 inches. In the ten years
from 1826 to 1835 inclusive, the average was 24"01 inches ; and
in the ten years from 1830 to 1845, the average was 24"07
inches. But the amount in the six years from 1840 to the end
of 1851 was deficient to the extent of nine inches. One of these
years, 1848, was rather a wet season, but three consecutive years,
immediately preceding the present, were short of the average
about ten inches. The consequence was, that although at this
season the surface was moist, yet the lower roots of almost every
tree were in compact dry loam. _ The amount of rain in this
month was about an inch above the average. The temperature
was also higher than usual, especially during the day ; the nights
only maintained the average temperature. The wind was chieliy
from south-west, and was frequently boisterous, particularly on
the nights of the 3rd, 8th, and 21st.

February. — The mean temperature of this month was about
a degree below that of the preceding, and a little more than
half a degree below the mean of February. This was owing to
the nights being generally frosty ; for the days were not colder
than usual. The first eight days were even mild for the period
of the season. The depth of rain was fully half an inch below the
average. North-west and south-west winds were most prevalent.
There was a little snow on the 10th, but scarcely so much as to
whiten the surface of the ground. The 8th, ITth, and 18th were
boisterous.

March. — This was a very dry month, with a daily temperature
nearly equal to the average, but the nights were cold, the mean
minimum being upwards of 5° colder than usual. The nights of
February were colder than those of January ; and those of the
present month were still colder than those of February ; so that
as the season advanced the cold at night increased. There was a
sudden rise of temperature during the day between the 20th
and 24th ; but the nights continued frosty. The wind was nine-
teen days from the north-east, and five from east; and always
accompanied with frost at night when the sky was clear.

April. — The weather in this month proved highly injurious to

198 METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL.

various important productions. Tlie mean maximum temperature
of the days was fully equal to the average, and the blossoms of
fruit-trees were in consequence brought forward, but in many
cases only to be destroyed by unusually severe frosts at night.
The wind still continued to blow, cold and dry, from east and
north-east. There was not sufficient moisture to form clouds to
prevent the escape of heat from the earth by radiation. On the
nights of the 19th and 20th the thermometer indicated respec-
tively 12° and 11° below freezing. This was lower than liad ever
been registered in the Garden so late in the season ; eighteen
nights in the month were more or less frosty. Apples were
killed even in the unexpanded flower-buds. Peach and Nec-
tarine blossoms situated close to the wall, and having a thin
screen in front were saved ; those more distant from the wall
perished.

May. — After two days of south-west wind, accompanied with
rain, in the end of last month, the wind veered by west and
north, and again from north-east, very dry through the day and
frosty at night, up to the 6th of the present month. On this day,
the highest temperature was 54° ; next day the wind having
changed to west the temperature rose to 70°. After the 17th,
north-east winds were prevalent ; but the sky was generally
overcast till the night of the 29th, and then the radiating
thermometer indicated 2° of frost. The mean temperature of the
month was 2|^° below the average. Nearly the usual quantity of
rain fell. The 1 1th was boisterous, with hail showers in the
forenoon and thunder in the afternoon. Thunder was also heard
on the 12th and 17th.

June. — This month was cold and exceedingly wet. Want of
sun-heat occasioned the mean maximum temperature to be
upwards of 4^° below the average ; but the temperature at night
was not correspondingly low, radiation being greatly prevented by
the cloudy state of the atmosphere. Tliere were only four days
in which rain did not fall, namely the 22nd and 23rd, and the
last two days of the month. The total amount was nearly three
inches in excess as compared with the usual quantity for the
month. Nearly an inch and a half fell on the ninth alone. In
three preceding months the wind was for sixty-two days either
from north, north-east, or east ; but in the present month it was
from none of these points. On the contrary, it was for more
than half the day in the month from south-west. The barometer
averaged low, yet it was not in any instance particularly so.

METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL. 199

July. — This was the hottest mouth in the present century. The
ujean maxinium was upwards of ^h° above the average maximum
of the mouth. The mean minimum was "2° above the average.
On the 5th the thermometer in the shade stood as high as 97°
and on the following day at 95°. No raiu fell till the 14th. The
total quantity was oue-tenth of an inch below the average and fell
mostly on the 14th, 10th, aud 25th ; only a very little falling on
three other days. Upwards of an inch aud a half fell on the 10th
alone. Thunder and lightuiug were of frequent occurrence
throughout the month.

AiKjust. — This was also a hot month, the mean temperature
being nearly two degrees above the average. Tlie quantity of
rain was upwards of an inch above the usual quantity for the
month; but it fell in large quantities on six days, so that it was
but slight on the eight others on which there was rain after dry
intervals ; seventeen days were dry, and on the whole remarkably
line. There was a very heavy thunderstorm on the 17th; the
lightning was chiefly sheet-lightuing till 1 1 p.m.; there was then much
forked lightuiug, with loud thunder, followed by raiu in torrents.

Septeuther. — The temperature was above the average in the
first half of the month ; but it afterwards fell considerably, so
that the mean v.-as below the average nearly a degree. It was
within two degrees of freezing on tl)e night of the 10th, and it
was also low on that of the 17th; This sudden fall of tempera-
ture was followed by heavy rain on the 18th. The total amount
of rain was fully an inch above the average for the month. It
fell in large quantities on the 7th, 18th, and ■27th. It was
heavy on the morning of the 8th, accompanied with thunder and
lightning. Fogs were of frequent occurrence throughout the
month. The 21st and 30th were boisterous.

October. — This mouth was wet and cold. The mean tempera-
ture was nearly 4° below the average. On eight nights it was
below freezing. It was 4° below this point so early in the
mouth as the 8th. The amount of rain was nearly an inch and
a quarter above the average. Upwards of an inch fell on the 4th.
There was a dry period favourable for many operations between
the 9th and 20th. Much rain fell between the 21st and 30th
inclusive, more especially on the 24th and 25th. The barometer
on those days was not remarkably low, but with less rain aud a
strong south wind it became much depressed on the 20th. With
north and easterly winds it was steadily high during the dry
period of the month.

200

METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL.

November. — This month was mild for the period of the season,
the mean temperature being upwards of 4° above the average. A
most unusual quantity of rain fell. On the 11th more than an
inch, and again on the 14th about an inch and a quarter depth of
rain was measured. The tide in the Thames at Chiswick was
four inches higher than it had been known for fifty years.
Within this period the highest tide was noted to have occurred
on the 28th of December, 1821, but it has been exceeded by that
of the 12th of the present month.

December. — The wind was from south-west and south for
twenty-eight days, and, owing to this, the temperature was
remarkably high for the period of the season. The mean
temperature was higher than in any December since 1806 ;
it was higher than that of last October ; the nights were fully 10°
warmer than those of April of the present year, and within a
degree of being as warm as those of May. The minimum was
fully 6i° above the average minimum for December. The quantity
of rain was about half an inch above the average, and completed
the unusual amount of fully thirty-two inches and a half for the
year. The 16th was clear and boisterous, with lightning. The
26th and 27th were also very boisterous.

1853.

Thermometer.

Rain.

Barometer. i

Max. in
Sun.

1

In. pts.

Max.

Min.

Mois-
^^^^"- ;tm-e.

s«

Smh

January . .

67

20

40°85

214

30-204

28-996 29-663

978

February . .

48

10

32-53

0-59

30-192

28-978' 29-620

974

1 March . . .

70

12

37-41

1-48

30-191

29-389, 29-887

917

April . . .

80

20

45-44

2-58

30-304

29-266 29-825

883

May. . . .

100

25

51-27

1-60

30-141

29-407 29-837

792

June . . .

92

32

59-16

2-54

30-127

29-5281 29-825

815

July . . .

95

44

61-94

4-17

30-237

29-1761 29-835

899

August . .

95

39

59-69

1-87

30-322 29-116i 29-901

902

September .

90

29

55-45

2-41

30-373

29-083, 29-925

938

October . .

90

24

49-99

3-78

30-080

28-940! 29-653

966

Novembei-

83

14

40-14

0-91

30-517

29-631 30-022

984

December

57

5

32-49

0-30

30-336

29-196 29-855

990

Means . . .

80-58

22-83

47-19

24-37

30-252

29-226 29-820

920

METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL.

201

GEOTHERMOMETRICAL

OBSERVATIONS.

1853.

Day of
the

Month.

Temperatl-re
OF THE Earth.

Day of

the
Month.

Temperature

OF THE Am.

Day of

the
Month.

Monthly

mean
Tempera-
ture of the
Air.

1 Foot.

2 Feet.

Day.

Night.

fMax.
§ J. Mm.
i-i [Mean

3rd
27th

46-
39-

42-29

45-
39-
42-16

20"»
26"'

55-
40-
47-35

47-
24-
34-35

19'"
31"

40-85

. ("Max.
§ ^ Min.
^ [Mean

24ih

39-

34-50

36-32

39-50

35-

36-73

7th
14th

45-
32-
38-32

34-
16-
26-75

6'"
IS'"

32-53

^ fMax.
< J. Min.
-^ [Mean

14th

1st

43-
35-
38-14

41-
35-
38-11 '

13""
17th

61-
33-
47-32

44-
17-
27-51

6'"
24'"

37-41

J fMax.
<; [Mean

yth
1"

48-
43-
45-30

46-
40-
43-90

30'"
25"'

66-
41-
55-36

50-
22-
35-53

1 4'"
13'"

45-44

^- [Max.
< < Min.
1^ [ Mean

9th

58-
46-
51-53

54-
45-
49-46

26"'
7.h

76-
42-
62-77

50-
27-
39-77

3P'
10'"

75-03

f4 fMax.
g^Min.
•-5 [Mean

25"'
3rd

61-50

54-

58-38

58-
52-
55-96

7th

1st

75-
57-
69-70

59-
37-
48-63

27'"
3rd

59-16

^ fMax.
g \ Min.
•-:> I Mean

gtb
3rd

65-

59-50

61-40

60-
57-
58-93

7th
14th

84-
61-
71-67

63-
46-
52-22

7'"
1"

61-94

^ rMax.

p < Min.

! "*< [ Mean

2nd
31«

64-50

58-

61-11

61-50

57-
58-90

19""
23'-''

77-
63-
70-03

61-
41-
49-35

19'"
17'"

59-69

^ fMax.
: ^ ^ mn.
cc [Mean

2nd

27"'

59-
.51-
57-65

57-

52-50

56-85

11th
26"'

73-
57-
65-00

55-
32-
45-90

15'"
26'"

55-45

. fMax.
S \ Min.
*=> [Mean

28"'
21^'

54-
49-

48-55

55-50
52-

48-55

26"'
19'"

67-
53-
58-77

52-
27-
41-22

27'"

2nd

49-99

. fMax.
5 ^ Min.
•^ [Mean

8th
24th

51-
38-
47-97

52-50
42-

47-85

1"
23"'

60-
33-
48-13

46-
18-
32-16

7th

17'"

4014

^ fMax.
§ < Min.
'"' [Mean

gth
31'»

42-
34-
45-69

44-50

38-

45-17

g.h
29'"

51-
.32-
39-03

36-
7-
25-96

13'"
16'"

32-49

202 METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

Jaiiuari/. — This was the mildest January since I^lU. The
uights were warmer on the average than thej generally are in
March, and this is doubtless attributable to the prevalence of
south-west winds, for these blew from that quarter in the course
of the month during fourteen days, and sometimes very strongly.
The quantity of rain was nearly an inch and a half above the
average. The 4th, Otli, 7th, l^th, lyth, and 2Uth were boiste-
rous, with rain. A hurricane from north on the night of the il;lnd
was not accompanied, with rain. Lightning was seen on the
evening of the 11th.

February. — This was a cold month, the mean temperature
being upwards of 0° below the average, or y° colder than in the
preceding month. The temperature was not in any instance
remarkably low ; but on the average it was lower than in
any corresponding month for twenty-seven previous years at
least. The wind was chiefly from north and north-east. Tlie
quantity of rain was nearly an inch below the average ; yet it is
remarkable that the barometer averaged lower than in the
preceding month, when the quantity of rain was much in excess.
Snow fell in small quantities on the nights of the 10th, 11th,
12th, and 15 th ; and some very broad flakes on the forenoon of
the 23nd.

March. — This was a cold month, the mean temperature being
4"82° below the average ; and it may be remarked that the days
were not so much colder than usual as the nights were ; for the
mean maximum was only 3 '42°, whilst the mean minimum was
6'21° below their respective averages. From the 17th to the
26th the weather was very cold night and day, and snow fell
occasionally. The 17th was densely overcast, and the tempera-
ture at the highest point on that day was only 1° above freezing.
The quantity of rain was little more than the average. There
was a dense fog on the morning of the 12th.

April. — The mean temperature, though still below, was nearer
the average than in the two preceding months. The amount of
rain was nearly an inch above the usual quantity ; but at intervals
there was generally a considerable amount of dryness in the
air. North, north-west, w^est, and south-west winds were almost
equally prevalent; but, with a brisk north wind, on the 13th, a
frost occurred which greatly injured the crops of Apples, Pears,

MEiTEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL, 208

and other fruits, the thermometer falling 10° below freezing, and
it was also 7° below that point on the night of the '26ih. Snow
fell on the morning of the y5th. There was a very heavy
thunder-storm in London on the 8th between 1 and 2 p.m. ;
some hail fell in the Garden in the afternoon.

May. — This month was still unfavourable to vegetation ; for
the winds were generally cold and diy, from north, north-east, and
east ; and in six nights the thermometer indicated below freezing.
On the 10th it was 5° below that point. The mean temperature
of the month was upwards of 2^° below the average, and there
was scarcely the usual quantity of rain. None fell between the
15th and 27th inclusive. The 9th and- 10th were boisterous,
with rain. There was lightning on the evening of the 27th, and
the 29th was cold and cloudy with thunder-showers.

June. — Dry weather prevailed till the ^th, and between this
and the 14th there fell an abundant supply of rain. The weather
on the whole was favourable to vegetation. The mean temperature
was little more than a degree below the average, whilst the
amount of rain was upwards of half an inch above the usual
quantity, and nearly one-third of it fell on the 13th alone.
South-west winds set in on the 24th, and were strong from the
27th to the end of the month; the 28th and 29th were even
boisterous. Heavy thunder-showers occurred on the 1 4th between
2 and 3 p.m.

July. — The mean temperature was nearly 1^° below the
average. The mean minimum was however j° higher than
usual; whilst the mean maximum was 2 "69° lower than its
average for July. These conditions may be thus respectively
accounted for : twenty-three days in this month of warm south
and south-west winds maintained a mild temperature at night,
but the great amount of vapour which they brought along with
them prevented the sun's rays from raising the temperature
of the days to its usual height. The quantity of rain was about
one and one-third of an inch above the average. On two days,
the 13th and 27th, nearly an inch of rain fell on each day, and
on the 14th more than half an inch in four hours. There was
much lightning, with thunder and rain, on the nights of the 8th
and 27th. The 30th was very boisterous.

August. — The mean temperature was upwards of 2° below the
average ; and, as in the last month, the diminution was owing
more to lowness of day temperature than that of the night, the
former being 3° below its average, the latter but little more than

204 METEOKOLOGICAL JOUKNAL.

\h°. This was against the ripening of crops, which of course
depends more in this month on the day temperature than that of
the night. The amount of rain was upwards of lialf an inch
below the usual quantity. With the exception of a little on the
1st, none fell till the 16th. The wind was nine days from the
south-west, and as many from the north-east, so that as regards
time it was equal from these directly opposite quarters ; but those
from the southwest were the strongest. The 25th was boisterous
at night, and the 26th and 27th were very boisterous.

September. — After several days of strong south-west wind in
the end of last month, nearly an inch and a quarter of rain
fell in the first two days of this, being more than half the quantity
which fell throughout the month. The total amount was a little
below the average. Four-tenths of an inch fell between 12 and
1 p.m. on the 1st. The mean temperature was l|-° lower than
usual. In many parts of the country the weather was generally
very fine ; but near London there was a want of sunshine, in
consequence of which neither the fruit nor the shoots of fruit-trees
were perfectly matured. The mornings were often foggy. On
the night of the 10th the fog was very dense. The evening
of the 2J:th was clear, with lightning. The 25th was boisterous.

October. — Vegetation was checked by frost on the nights of the
2nd and 3rd, the thermometer on the former indicating 5° below
freezing, and the radiating thermometer 8° below that point.
The mean temperature of the month was however about the
average. The depth of rain was upwards of an inch more than
usual for this month. The barometer averaged low. The winds
were chiefly from the south and south-west. On the 8th, thunder
was heard at 4 p.m., and from that time till nearly 6 p.m., there
was much lightning, heavy peals of thunder, and rain in torrents.
The drops of rain were very large. Lightning was also seen on
the 27th.

November. — The mean temperature was nearly ;3° below the
average. Very little rain fell till the 26th, and altogether the
amount was limited, being nearly one and a half inch below the
average. Although there was not much rain, yet the air was
almost constantly damp, and fogs were very prevalent ; the latter
were particularly dense on the 11th, 15th, 22nd, and 23rd. The
barometer averaged high.

December. — This was the coldest December since 1846, and
with that exception it was colder than any corresponding month
for the last 28 years at least. The mean temperature was

ECONOMICAL PLAN OP PROTECTING WALL-TREES. 205

upwards of 7° below the average. Snow fell on the 15th, there
was bright sunshine on the 1 6th ; the evening of that day con-
tinued clear, and before morning the thermometer fell iJ5° below
freezing ; on the 25th it fell 18°, and on the 28th 24° below the
freezing point. The consequence was that plants which were not
quite hardy suffered much ; and many were entirely destroyed
that had withstood the cold of every winter since 1838. The
amount of rain was only one-fifth of the usual quantity, but with
two exceptions the air was always found saturated with moisture.

XV. — An effectual akd unexpenstve mode of Protecting
Wall-Trees from Spring-Frosts.

The following method of protecting his wall-fruit from spring
frost has been practised for several years, with great success by
John Harrison, Esq., F.H.S., of Snelstone Hall, near Ashbourne
in Derbyshire.

A rod is placed horizontally beneath the coping of the wall.
Another horizontal rod is fixed upon posts three feet from the
bottom of the wall, and eighteen inches from the ground ; the
two horizontal rods are connected at intervals by slight braces or
rods as is shown in the annexed woodcut.

A covering, prepared by sowing woollen netting, on its upper
and lower edges, to coarse calico, is then attached to the upper
rod by loops and to the lower by pieces of tape ; when the
protection is complete.

Mr. Harrison states that the cost of the worsted net (which is
two yards wide), is Is. Scl. per yard running. The calico
one yard wide is 2fZ or 2^d. according to quality, and when used
is slit down the middle, and one half being sewn to the top, and
the other to the bottom of the net, the covering becomes three
yards wide. The tape and making up he finds of small cost,
while of poles he has abundance of no value. The whole
together in London, where every article has to be purchased,
ought to be under 2s. a yard running, including making and
putting up.

The walls at Snelstone are brick, eleven feet high, with stone
coping which projects about two inches on each side. The trees
are unnailed before winter, and fastened loosely to the wall to

300

ECONOMICAL PLAN OF

prevent their being broken by tlie wind. In this state they are
kept until they are ready to burst into flower, the object being to
retard vegetation at that season as much as possible. They are

dressed Avith the following composition, namely: — Take equal
quantities of sulphur vivum. scotch snuff and unslaked lime, the
lime to be sifted through a fine sieve ; then add half quantities
of lamp-black, and mix the whole with urine and soft soap-suds
to the consistency of thick paint. The old and young wood is
dressed with this with a painter's brash, after the trees are
pruned, after which they are nailed all from the upper side of the
leading branches.

Mr. Harrison's walls are fined, but the fire is used only to
ripen the fruit in succession if required, and in a very wet season

PROTECTING WALL-TREES. 207

to ripen the wood after the fruit is gathered. The flues are
never used in the spring.

The advantages of this netting are very great. The walls at
Snelstone contain eight peach and eight nectarine trees. The
netting is fixed up and taken down in two or three hours, is set
up when the blossom cannot longer be kept back, and remains
permanently fixed, until taken down about the latter end of May,
when all danger from frost is over. The gardener can walk and
work under it, to nail or disbud the trees ; there are no blistered
leaves, and the first shoots always ripen their wood, insuring fruit
for the following year. Last year, upon these eight peach and
eight nectarine trees, there were ripened upwards of a thousand
dozen of fruit (at a small estimate), and there has not been less
in any year, since the mode of netting now described was used.
In the present year there is quite as good a crop, and the trees
are perfectly clean and healthy. The fruit underwent its first
thinning in the beginning of June, when of full-sized young fi'uit,
besides many not so large, there were taken off three hundred
dozen nectarines, and nine hundred and fifty-four dozen peaches ;
and a further thinning will be requisite after stoneing.

It may be added that the woollen netting used by Mr. Harrison,
is purchased of Messrs. Weatherhead, Irongate, Derby.

XV^T. — Ascertained effects of the winter of l85;)-4 upon

EXOTICS CULTIVATED IN THE GARDENS, &C. OF GrEAT

Britain. Compiled from various sources.

The extensive injury sustained by exotic trees and other plants,
in consequence of the severity of the frost experienced in the winter
of 1853-4, has suggested the importance of collecting what informa-
tion upon the subject could be entirely relied upon. The succeed-
ing memoranda, partly obtained from direct communication, and
partly thi'ough the Gardeners' Chrouiclc (marked G. C.) will
probably be found to include the most material of the facts bear-
ing upon the question. Possibly in some cases the reporters may
have their plants under wrong names ; or, what is called death
from frost may be in truth ascribable to some other cause. It is
believed, however, that such sources of error, if they exist, will be
sufficiently checked by the number of observations made, and

208 EFFECTS OF THE WINTER OF 1853-4.

that, upon the wliole, as much certainty has been arrived at as is
in tlie nature of things attainable.*

The following are the places whence returns have been
obtained: —

1. Royal Botanic Garden, Kew.

The plants that have been more or less injured by the cold
of last winter are chiefly such as are considered sufficiently hardy
to bear the cold of our ordinary winters : most of them are
planted against walls of east, west, and south aspects, and were
protected by a covering of mats and fern. In the winter of 1838
the thermometer was observed at 0° : last winter it fell to ] 3°. —
Jno. Smith.

2. Garden of the Society, C'hisicick.

The autumn of 1853 was unfavourable for the maturing of
the wood of trees and shrubs, and they were consequently more
liable to suffer from the severe frosts in December and January.
On the night of the 2Sth of December, 1853, the common ther-
mometer was as low as 8°, and the radiating thermometer 5°.
On the night of the 2nd of January, 1854, the common ther-
mometer indicated 4°, and the radiating thermometer 2°. These
were the most destructive winter frosts which have occurred since
1838, hut not the most intense, for, on the night of the 7th of
February, 1845, the common thermometer was 3° below zero, and
the radiating thermometer was 9° below that point. On the 9th of
February, 1847, both thermometers were just as low as they were
on the 2nd of January, of the present year. These frosts, it may
however be observed, occurred later in the season than those of
last winter. No frost so intense as that of the 28th of last
December, has occurred in any corresponding month for the last
twenty-seven years at least. — Eobert Thompson.

3. Dr. Lindley, Acton Green.

A heavy imperfectly drained clay, with the ground raised in
places above the surrounding level. Temperature, &c., the same
as at Chiswick.

4. Messrs. Standish and Noble, Bagshot. {G. C. 358.) _

The effects of the frost upon plants at Bagshot, up to the

* All these sources of infoi-mation are referred to in the svicceediiig
pages by the name here printed in Italics.

EFFECTS OF THE WINTER OF 1853-4. 209

25tli of April last, was comparatively trifling. To say, therefore,
that any given plant is not hardy because it was materially
injured by that very late, and unusually severe frost, would be
calculated to mislead, for vegetation then was in a very active
state. It is, however, worthy of observation, that well-established
plants invariably suffered less than others that were transplanted
in the previous autumn. Fitz-Roya patagonica, of two plants,
one planted out two seasons ago, the other last autumn, the
former is uninjured, and the latter has lost its leader, and the
tips of a few of its upper branches.

5. The Lady Grenville, Dropmore. [G. C. 3-11.)

The coldest night was on the 3rd of January, when the
thermometer fell '28° below the freezing point. — Philip Frost.

6. W. R. Baker, Esq., Bayfordhury, Herts. {G. C. 302.)

7. Robert Hanbury, Esq., Poles, jiear Ware, Herts. [G. C.
101.)

8. Joseph Martineau, Esq., Basing Park, Alton, Hants.

The effect of the frost upon the plants at this place up to the
25th of April, was comparatively trifling, and a few only of the
more doubtful or recently planted sorts, had the advantage of a
covering of Fir branches during the intensity of tlie frosts in
winter. All however stood uncovered for many weeks previous
to the period which proved so destructive to vegetation generally.
The situation of the gardens here is of considerable elevation
and exposure. The ground generally is thin and light, on a very
stiff clay subsoil intermixed with flint. It may not be out of
place to remark, that on a north wall border at this place, there
is a nursery for plants of Pinus and other kindred genera, where
the plants are as green and beautiful, as if they had been wintered
in a warm greenhouse, and they present a striking contrast to
many of their compeers, in a more open situation. — James Duncan.

9. A. R. Bromley, Kent. {G. C. 342.)

The thermometer on the night of January 2nd, stood at 5°.

10. Mr. William Masters, Canterbury. (G. C. 357.)

11. H. M. Worcester. {G. C. 390.)
Soil diy and gravelly.

VOL. IX. p

210 EFFECTS OF THE WINTER OF 1853-4.

12. Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., RoUeston, Derbyshire. {G. C.
390.)

Fifteen miles to the north of Rollestou, at Osraaston and
Snelstone, in the neighbourhood of Ashbourne, the leaves of the
Deodar and Araucaria were not injured in the slightest degree.
Many of the plants at Rolleston appear to have suffered more
from the continued drought of the spring, than from the severity
of the frost,

13. Badger Hall, Shiffnal, Shropshire. (G. C. 373.)

On the nights of the 2nd and 3rd of January, the ther-
mometer was down to 1° above zero, Fahrenheit. The soil here
is sandy, and the situation has been found favourable for semi-
hardy plants. — Geo. Cooke.

14. J. E. Denison,Esq.,M.P., Ossington, Notts. [G. C. 373.)
Ossington is ten miles north of Newai'k, three miles from the

banks of the Trent, on a clay soil, and on an elevation generally
at forty feet above water. The thermometer, January 3rd, 1854,
was down to zero, perhaps something below it.

15. Highfield House, Nottiiuiham. {G. C. 253.)
Temperature, January 3rd, 4° below zero — on grass 6° below

zero ; in the valley in the neighbourhood 8° below zero.
Probably no part of England has suffered to the extent that we
have near here, especially between this place and the Earl of
Harrington's and Newark. — E. J. Loiv.

16. Sir P. de Malpas Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P. Oiilton,
Cheshire. {G. C. 373.)

Lat. 53° 10' N., Long. 2° 30' W. Soil, sandy loam.
Thermometer, December 29th, 1853, at eight a.m. 11° Fahr. ;
December 30th, at the same hour, 39° Fahr. ; January 2nd, 1854,
at eight a.m., 27° Fahr. ; January 3rd, at the same hour, 1^°
Fahr.

17. James Bateman, Esq., Biddulph Grange, Congleton. {G. C.
340.)

Biddulph Grange is about thirty miles in a direct line from
the sea, and about three hundred feet above the sea level ; the
situation rather exposed, and the climate cold and damp.

18. A Devonian, South Devon. [G. C. 389.)

EFFECTS OP THE WINTER OF 1853-4. 211

19. H., Windermere. [G. C. 357.)

20. Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.

During Monday night the 2ud of January, the thermometer
fell to 1 1°, and during Tuesday night the ord of January, the
instrument fell to 14°. The next lowest during January was
on the night of the llth, when the thermometer fell to 20°.
During February, the lowest was on the night of the 10th, when
the thermometer fell to 25°. The effects of the past winter upon
vegetation have not been so bad here as in many districts of the
country. During the January frost, the plants were all in a fit
state to stand it, the wood being well ripened the previous year,
and no excitement in the plants by previous mild weather, which
proves so injurious with a less degree of frost at a later period
of the spring. Of the half-hardy shrubby plants very few indeed
have been killed, although many on the south-aspected wall
suffered much above their temporary winter coverings of grass
mats. In the open ground the greatest havoc committed was
amongst the biennial plants ; and of the shrubby open-air plants,
some small ones planted during the previous summer, and not
sufiiciently sti'ong to enable them to stand a severe winter, were
cut up. — J. McNab.

21. Messrs. Veitch and Son, Exeter.

22. Botanic Garden, Liverpool. (G. C. 405.)

23. R. A. Hornby, Esq., Warrington. (G. C. 405.)

24. Mrs. Wilson, Shirley Common, Southampton.

Gai'den exposed to the south-west, but sheltered slightly on
the north and east.

25. The Baroness Rolle, Bicton, near Honiton, Devon.
Throughout January the thermometer indicated from 8° to 17°

of frost, accompanied by cutting north and north-easterly winds.
No very serious injury was then done to the plants. The nights
of March and April were frosty, the thermometer showing, on
many mornings at sun-rise, from 6° to 10°. The sun rising
brightly, and shining fiercely on the thick hoar-frost, began to
sear and rust many plants ; but it was on the two last weeks in
April the most serious injury was done here, after the sap was

p 2

212 EFFECTS OF THE WINTER OF 1 853-4.

pretty well up, and many plants had been excited into free
growth. We had then from 6° to 9°, and even 10° of frost one
morning at sun-rise. Plants, however, which at the time showed
the ill-effects of the hard weather, have now completely recovered,
and are making very luxuriant growth. — James Barnes.

2G. Mr. Samuel Hereman, the Gardens, Chatsicorth.

Tn this neighbourhood the thermometer sunk to 6° below zero.
The effects on vegetation were most disastrous ; hundreds of
standard roses perished ; in the kitchen garden, where the ther-
mometer only fell to 4° below zero, currants, gooseberri