with a broad grass walk in front (b b). The centre of this wall forms a semicircle, ornamented with niches, and a foun- • tain of pure spring water, conducted from the chalk hills (c), and beneath it is a grotto (d), which opens into the kitchengarden (e). This place is a sweet, retired, and romantic seat, having only one defect, a want of sun in winter. It now, on the 1st of October, began to look gloomy, from the length of the shadow. In other respects, the soil is very warm and dry, and Mr. Drummond has been most successful in making water meadows, which I went particularly to see. The work is done in the best manner, at a great expense, it is true, but the early grass is invaluable for the ewes and lambs, and the hay is cut twice.

From this I went to Lord Onslow's, at Clandon, a vast cold mansion, now deserted, and never very habitable, having the garden, stable, and all appendages of a mansion at the distance of nearly half a mile. I finished my ride by looking at Lord Middleton's seat at Pepperharrow, a gentleman-like residence, on the banks of the Wey. In this county large crops of carrots are grown for the London market. If agreeable, I will send you an account of some gardens and farms in Kent for a future Number.

October 10. 1828.

I am, Sir, &c.

J. GALE.

THE Continuation of our correspondent's remarks, we are sure, will be highly acceptable to our readers, and we should be most happy if he would supply us with a portion of his gardening tours for each succeeding Number, till he has described all that he has seen. Such papers are well calculated to excite emulation both in masters and servants, and they are also very gratifying to such as have little opportunity of travelling, and to foreign readers.- Cond.

ART. III. Outlines of Horticultural Chemistry:

Vegetable Phy

siology. By G. W. JOHNSON, Esq., Great Totham, Essex.

(Continued from Vol. IV. p. 452.)

THE flowers and seeds are those essential parts of a plant by which it is preserved from extinction. Linnæus has compendiously designated the parts of fructification "a temporary part of vegetables, terminating the old individual and beginning the new;" a definition, however, only strictly true when applied to annuals.

The petals of the flower evidently act an important part in nourishing the more essential parts of fructification, since, if they are removed from plants naturally possessing them, I am not aware of a single instance in which the seeds will advance a grade further towards maturity. The stamens and pistils are the most essential parts. The first are the members that secrete the pollen, or fecundating dust, without the application of which to the pistils the seed is never fertile. It is the anther, or summit of each stamen, that secretes this fecundating matter. The pollen appears to the unassisted vision merely a fine powder; but, in fact, each grain is commonly a membranous bag, varying in form in different species. Pollen is chiefly discharged from the anthers during dry warm weather; but each vesicle of it remains entire until it comes in contact with moisture, when it immediately bursts, and discharges its minute particles in a form absorbable by the small ducts of the pistil. The necessary degree of moisture usually exists upon the summit of the pistils, to which the bags of pollen cling, and thus more securely determine the impregnation of the seeds. We are furnished, by a knowledge of these facts, with a reason for the great injury occasioned to orchards, &c., by excessive wet weather during the time of flowering. The pollen is washed away from the anthers as it is secreted, and, exploding at the instant, either does not settle at all upon the pistils, or alights upon them whilst loaded with unnatural moisture which is again shaken off, or is prevented entering their orifice. They warn us, also, from watering or disturbing unnecessarily the herbage of plants under our care whilst they are in bloom. It is a fact of some importance to be known by the cultivators of hybrids and new varieties, that in dry weather pollen may be conveyed to a considerable distance uninjured. This is demonstrated by many observations on accidental impregnations by the agency of winds, &c.; and still more decidedly by Linnæus, who kept some of the pollen of the Jatropha ùrens in paper for more than a month, which afterwards fertilised the pistils to which it was applied. In the present general diffusion of botanical knowledge, it seems almost trite to observe that the seed-grower should neither exterminate the barren plants of the diœcious class, as in spinach, asparagus, &c., nor remove the unfertile flowers of cucumbers, &c.; for, without these, the female blossoms would be equally unproductive. Many insects are highly injurious in the hot-house, &c., to the plants they contain; but an indiscriminate destruction is not to be recommended. Many of them bear pollen on their wings, &c., temale flowers, which otherwise would remain unimpreg

nated. The humblebee, above all other insects, I would have befriended, for its robust and hardy form enables it to get abroad and be employed in this useful work, when weaker insects are confined by inclement weather.

The stamens are changed into petals in double flowers, which are consequently unfertile: they are often likewise obliterated, either by excessive nourishment, or when the plant increases much by root, as in the Fiery Lily (Lilium bulbiferum). If this excessive production of root is very remarkable, it sometimes prevents the production of the flowers of the plant entirely, as is the case with some early varieties of the potato; for Mr. Knight demonstrated that it the tubers of such were removed as they were produced, the plants blossomed as freely as later-tubering varieties; and, vice versa, the removal of the blossoms of tuberous-rooted plants promotes the size and number of the tubers. It is not to be supposed, however, that fibrous-rooted plants are not similarly affected. I have observed a gooseberry bush, that, from being under the shade of trees, &c., had never borne fruit during a series of years, to throw out annually a very excessive number of suckers. Again, fibrous-rooted land plants, which by accident are growing in water, increase the number of their radiculæ enormously, whilst their fructification is diminished and abortive in proportion.

Of the pistils, the two essential parts are the stigma, or orifice for the admission of the pollen, generally on the summit; and the germen, which is the rudiment of the future seedvessel. Pistils, like stamens, are obliterated in double flowers, otherwise they are not so liable to become petals.

The production of the seed is "the being's end and aim" of every plant: all its other parts, by ministering in some way or other to its maturity, indicate its importance. Not perceiving that a description of the various parts of a seed would lead to any practical hints to the gardener, I shall proceed to the consideration of the phenomena of germination.

When a seed is placed in a situation favourable for vegetation, it soon swells, its skin, or testa, bursts, and a shoot, denominated the radicle, is protruded; and, in a short time, this is followed by a second, which is named the plumula. The radicle by degrees sinks into the earth, and becomes a perfect root; whilst the plumula rises above the surface, to expand, and complete the form of the perfect plant. The essentials for germination are several. The first of these appears to be the perfect maturity of the seed; for, although Sennebier found that peas will sometimes vegetate, though sown in a green and soft state, yet it is certain that the plants raised

from immature seed are always weak in their growth, and unproductive. Some seeds require to be sown immediately after they ripen. The coffee bean, and the seeds of angelica and fraxinella, refuse to germinate if not sown within five or six weeks after they have been gathered; but by far the majority of seeds retain their powers of vegetating, if carefully preserved, for years. Home sowed barley, which vegetated after being gathered 140 years. Farinaceous seeds, that is, such as contain a large proportion of starch, usually are those which retain their vitality the longest (barley, wheat, and oats, are of this number), inasmuch as that that constituent is very slow in decomposing. Oily seeds, and those enclosed in juicy berries, or other seed-vessels of a mucilaginous or saccharine quality, are the most liable to spoil. It is to be observed that, for the gardener, old seed is sometimes desirable; the plants from it run less luxuriantly in foliage, and produce their blossom and fruit more early than those from new seeds: hence, for melons, early and late crops of peas, &c., seed that is a year or two old is to be preferred.

No seed will germinate without oxygen gas, moisture, and a certain degree of heat are present. The requisite proportions of these vary in different individuals; but, in the total absence of any one, no seed will advance a single grade in vegetation. When all are present to a seed, carbonic acid gas is evolved, and oxygen absorbed. This gas is afforded to the seed from the atmosphere, in which we shall see hereafter it exists in the proportion of about 21 per cent. From the experiments of Saussure we learn that, weight for weight, wheat and barley, during germination, absorb less oxygen than peas; whilst these consume less than beans and kidney beans. The first two may, therefore, be buried at a greater depth below the surface of the earth than the last three, without vegetation being prevented; for it is the want of a due supply of oxygen, at great depths from the surface, that prevents the germination of seeds so buried. Seeds that are thus situated, however, will often retain their vegetative power for an apparently unlimited period: hence earth, taken from a considerable depth, will often, when brought to the surface, be covered with thistles, charlock, &c. In botanic gardens, plants, that were supposed to be lost to the establishments, have often been recovered by the casual digging over the borders where they had been grown; some of their seed having been buried in by a previous turning over of the soil. Seeds abounding in oil have been observed to retain their vitality the longest when so buried.

Oxygen gas is so essential to germination, that any application to seeds that affords it to them in abundance greatly accelerates the process: hence, M. Humboldt found that chlorine, which yields abundance of that gas when in contact with water, by combining with its hydrogen and setting the oxygen at liberty, produced this acceleration of vegetation. At Vienna several seeds, which were of considerable age, and had constantly refused to germinate, did so readily when treated with it. Plants raised from such seeds are undoubtedly more weak than others raised from seed in which no such extra-stimulus is required. Mr. George Sinclair, author of the excellent Hortus Gramineus Woburnénsis, however, informs me that he has employed chlorine with singular success. He obtains it by mixing a table-spoonful of muriatic acid with a similar quantity of black oxide of manganese, and half a pint of water. After allowing the mixture to remain two or three hours, the seed is to be immersed in the liquid for a similar period, and then sown. Another, and, I consider, the most eligible mode of applying the chlorine, was also suggested to me by the same distinguished horticulturist. In this way, he says, he has made tropical seeds vegetate, which refused to germinate by other modes of treatment. He placed the mixed ingredients mentioned above in a glass retort, inserting its bulb in the hot-bed, and bringing its beak under the pot in which the seeds were sown, connecting it with the draining aperture of the pot. The chlorine gas is gradually evolved, passing through the earth of the pot to the seeds, accordingly as the heat required for the different species induces.

Aghard and others have proved that seeds will not germinate in any gas without a mixture of oxygen.

(To be continued.)

ART. IV. On the Tendency to Prejudice among Gardeners; and on the Importance of the Study of Botany for every Class of Cultivators. By W. D.

Sir,

It is well known that, in many of the humbler professions of life, a great antipathy is generally manifested to every thing which bears on its face theappearance of novelty; and this prejudice is formed without any one ever taking the trouble to examine whether the novelty, whatever it may be, is decidedly an important one, and calculated to be of essential benefit, or not. This evil spirit, for we can call it by no more appro