thought the original individual would not generally become more hardy, but that the only way to acclimate a plant was to do it by raising seedlings. Mr. Jackson also thought that a plant could only be rendered more hardy by seedlings-except, perhaps the Ailanthus, which he found much more hardy now than it was originally. Mr. Sleath thought no southern plant could be acclimated nor rendered more hardy than at first. He had found the seedling Cucumbers, Tomatos and other delicate plants were just as tender now as when they were first introduced. better than one of the same kind grown on low ground; but take a bud from the apparently acclimated peach-tree on the Alleghany mountain, and insert it into a tree at its base, and you will find that the virtues of the parent will not descend to its offspring. To acclimate a plant, it would be necessary to change its material, and if we can do that, we shall doubtless also have quite a different plant; chemistry teaches that it only requires a different proportion of the same elements to produce something of a very opposite character. October 22, 1852. The Secretary, having been too much oc Mr. C. G. Siewers wrote as follows to the cupied in noting the rapid remarks of the Horticultural Society: GENTLEMEN :-Some twenty years ago, the nurseries in Pennsylvania were doing a land office business with the Paper Mulberry, which business was, however, cut short by the severe cold of February, 1833, which destroyed them almost totally. Since then, this tree has been seldom recommended by nurserymen, and the last winter has again almost exterminated it. On examining the dead trees in the spring, the bark is found in whole or in part, burst off from the wood of the trunk, (the branches escaping with less damage,) and where the separation is only partial, the tree often recovers. This is no doubt caused by the expansion of the freezing sap and the unyielding nature of the bark of this tree. I recollect some twenty large apricot trees that were nearly ruined in 1833, by the same cause. They had been budded on plum stocks, about six feet from the ground; the apricot bark remained sound while the plum bark was very much torn and loosened. The Ailanthus doubtless escapes on account of its porous and expansive bark. I believe that a tree cultivated on an elevation, will bear the same degree of cold, many energetic speakers upon this wordy topic, begs to be allowed a corner now, to express his views quietly. He is disposed to sustain partially the propositions of the communication and those of the report also, believing them to be founded in the plainest common sense, and in the axioms of physics and physiology. According to the latter, vegetable physiology, the warmth of spring, acting upon the terminal and other buds, the foci of the vitality of a tree, excites them into action, and they mysteriously send down word to the rootlets to open their mouths, spongioles; not only so, but they send the material to make new mouths, and thereby a supply of fluid is obtained from the moist earth to fill the vessels conveying the upward current or flow of sap. According to the former, physics, when the tree is in this condition, with its vessels distended with sap or fluid, susceptible to the action of freezing, if now it be subjected to one of those changes of temperature called late frosts, the natural result must be in accordance with the axioms referred to, that the fluids become solid, and expanding, burst the connections of the organs, to the manifest injury of the tree, and DEATH OF THE BROUSSONETTIA. as these vessels lie between the bark and the wood, the former, in severe, cases, will be reft from the latter. Now this will occur after a single night's frost, if the depression of the temperature have been considerable, just as readily as if the cold have been continued longer and not more extreme; for the injury depends upon a previous flow of sap. even True, the sunshine is always injurious in its action upon frozen succulent vegetation, and they will frequently recover, very delicate plants, if they be thawed in the dark or under the earth. But it will not do to blame old Sol with all the damage, when it has been proved by the laws of physics that the action of the frost alone is sufficient to account for the injury in question; and its having been observed to occur most fatally "on the sunny side," may only indicate that the previous influence of the sunshine had enabled the roots on the warmer sides of the tree to respond to the call of the buds above, and send up the juices. through the vessels on the side of the tree belonging to them. Hence, as these are not always exactly straight, but often tortuous, winding sometimes round the tree, so we find the loosened bark often inclined more or less in a spiral manner. 119 higher degree of temperature than that incident to its natural habitat. Now whether there be in plants any such power of accommodating themselves to surrounding circumstances not native to them, or to a climate the means or extremes of which differ materially from its own; is a very difficult question. The investigation involves a long and extensive series of observations, not only upon the individual plant in various localities, but, before this, we must have accurately ascertained the natural range of the species and variety under consideration; and it appears that this range is naturally very wide in certain plants. The report has very wisely assumed that the use of the term acclimation, should be applied to an individual, and its offsets, not to any nor all of the possible varieties that shall spring from its seed, which may have been even fertilized by hardy plants of the same, or closely allied species-that would involve other questions. This question of seedlings, though not now on the tapis, has been frequently alluded to in this discussion, and may be noticed en passant, for I think too much importance has been accorded to it, and, except by hybridation from a hardier specimen, I do not believe the probability of procuring one tender plants, would be worth calculating as hardy seedling among ten thousand, from a fraction of a chance. Look at the myriads of our herbaceous annuals that spring up in the seed beds, and as volunteers, they are as susceptible to the depressions of temperature now, as they were when first introduced from more genial and equable climes. The greatest difficulty, in this as in many other similar discussions, has grown out of the want of a proper understanding of terms. Acclimated is a term borrowed from medical science, where its precise meaning is, according to the lexicographers, "habituated to a foreign climate, or a climate not native; or so far accustomed to a foreign climate as not to be peculiarly liable to its endemic dis- But enough has been said already; the eases." Here, in its legitimate sphere, it ap- honest and earnest chairman of the commitpears to have no reference to temperature, tee, evidently desired to set forth the fallacy, but exclusively to disease. In our use of as he considers it, which has been advocated the word, however, we have applied it to a by some, respecting the acclimation of trees plant becoming accustomed to a lower or to the particular neighborhood where they That none of the elements are grown. Whereas, difficulties referred to organ is torn by the action of frost, except a want of acclimation are all explicable, in rare cases. much more satisfactorily, by reference to the exposure of a long journey, to bad growing, to bad packing, to an occasional freezing and drying while out of the ground, to a great change of soil, and partly, also, no doubt, to a higher or lower mean temperature, or to greater extremes in their new homes, than had been their wont, Those who advocate the necessity of acclimating nursery stocks, certainly do a good and kind act to their neighbors, by receiving and nursing the far-brought trees, that are indeed too often in an unfit condition to are indeed too often in an unfit condition to bear the chances for life, presented them by field or orchard culture, but which, in a year or two of good care, become stout and well rooted, so as to be "acclimated" to the region where they are to be planted out. of plants contained in the vegetable tissue undergo any alteration, except the starch, which is sometimes changed into sugar. That the dilation is chiefly owing to the separation of the air contained in the water. rious of all the phenomena attendant upon That this separation of air is the most injufreezing, because gases are thus introduced into organs not intended to elaborate them, and bring about the first stages of the decomchemical action commences, destructive of position of the sap, so that with a thaw, a new vegetable life. Water is also driven into the air-cells and air-vessels, so that the functions of organs are inverted, in a way to produced in frozen plants by the decompodestroy the plants, even if death were not sition of their juices, the loss of their excitability and the chemical disturbance of all their contents.'' The Professor's observations were made upon various plants, frozen at a temperature of from four to nine degrees below zero of Fahrenheit. In a frozen apple, he says, "the of a multitude of little microscopic icicles. If we thaw them, it is seen that a large number of little air-bubbles are extricated from the juice of the fruit, which has there acquired new chemical properties. On examination, he found that each cell is filled with a small icicle, in the middle of which is a bubble of air; each cell is consequently expanded by freezing." This effect of frost upon vegetation ap-ice is not a continuous mass, but is made up pears to have attracted the attention of other observers, and among them, some of the most accurate and scientific in Europe. Dr. Lindley, who stands at the head of English Horticulture, has recently analyzed some of the statements of European naturalists, and his remarks and quotations furnish some passages which may be cited with advantage in this place. He says:* he was led to inquire into the exact manner in which the death of plants is caused by cold; very little, however, is to be learned upon this subject from the writings of physiologists. The common opinion is, that frost acts mechanically upon the tissue of plants by expanding the fluid they contain, and bursting the cells or vessels in which it is inclosed.' Mr. Geppert, of Breslau, denies that this supposed laceration of the vessels takes place, and attributes the death of plants solely to an extinction of vitality, followed by changes in the chemical composition of their juices.' 'Professor Morren, of Liege, also denies the statement as to bursting, and assigns the effect to other causes. He says that no Condensed from the London Horticultural Society's Transactions. Professor Lindley adds, that "in plants easily killed by exposure to a similar degree of cold, he could not find the vesicles of cellular tissue separable from each other, even in the most succulent species, and concludes that this circumstance is not so much connected with the destruction of vegetable life, as a result produced upon the tissue by a great intensity of cold. He did find it lacerated in several instances, however, as if by the distension of the fluid it had contained. In a Stapelia, the whole cellular tissue was soft and deformed, as if it had been distended, with but little power of recovering itself again, and several large irregular lacerated cavities were observed. The same thing was noticed in cther plants, but in no case did he find any kind of tissue ruptured, except the soft cellular dodecahedral or pris TABLE OF ANALYSIS OF THE ASH OF GRAINS. matical. Payen also recognizes the lacera-1 tion of tissue by frost. Independently of these observations, it is not to be doubted that frost does split the tissue of plants-the youngest shoots of Erica mediterranea, cinerea and others, were shivered into thousands of pieces, on the morning of the 20th of January; the branches of the melaleuca were rent to their points. Even the common holly was observed with its bark split and rent asunder from the wood below it. 'An oak tree of six feet girth, in a sheltered situation, was rent to the heart, in the severe frost of last winter, in two different places, eleven inches apart, to the hight of thirteen feet three inches.' Professor Lindley found that many plants "in a frozen state, and when thawed, contained air where fluid naturally existed, and the reverse; to this he attributes the injury of rapid thawing, because time is not allowed for nature to restore the equilibrium; the air, forced into parts not intended to contain it, is expanded violently, increasing the disturbance. . The amylaceous matter undergoes alterations. Professor Morren found that when potatos are frozen, a part of their starch disappears, and he suspected that this portion had furnished the sugar found in frozen potatos? He believes that generally, starch is materially altered by freezing, for it is diminished in quantity and the residue is altered in its arrangement and appearance." А He sums up the whole in the following words: "The mechanical action of frost may be guarded against, to a great extent. A plant, growing in a dry climate or in a dry soil, thoroughly drained from water during winter, will resist much more cold, than if cultivated in a damp climate, in wet soil, or in a situation affected by water in winter. Whatever renders tissue moist, increases its power of conducting heat, and increases the susceptibility of pants to the influence of frost, and whatever tends to diminish this humidity will diminish their conducting power. This is an invariable law, and must be regarded as a fundamental principle in horticulture, upon attention to which all success in the adaptation of plants to a climate less warm than their own will essentially depend." These are sensible views of "acclimation," and from the highest authority. Analysis. 121 Che Garden. ACHIMENES. THE achimenes are a family of plants | bottom, fill it up to the hight of one and a well adapted for decorating purposes. They half inches with smaller pieces, put on a little are so accommodating in their season of flower, that, where you can have the command of a little fire heat, they may be had in flower the whole year round. I know of no other plant that gives a greater amount of pleasure to the lovers of Flora, than a huge mass of achimenes, suspended in a rustic basket, and in full bloom. Their pretty foliage, the delicacy of their flowers, and, above all, their richness of color, will always make them favorites. moss, and then the compost; take out the plants with a small portion of soil adhering to their roots, taking care not to separate the tubers, and place them in the pans. Twelve plants are sufficient for a pan sixteen inches in diameter. Lay the plants down about one inch below the surface, leaving only about two inches of the top to be turned up perpendicularly, and secured to neat little stakes; water them freely without wetting the leaves, and never use the syringe; place The achimenes are natives of South Am- the plants in the stove, where they will have erica; they are produced from small scaly a tolerably moist atmosphere, and a temtubers, and grow from one to five feet perature ranging from seventy to eighty high; they have opposite hairy leaves, from degrees, till they begin to flower; then rethe axils of which they produce their flow-move them to a house that is a little cooler, ers. The usual time of blooming is from to prolong their flowering. When the stems early spring till the end of summer. have done blooming, they naturally die down; the tubers are then stowed away in pots in a dry situation, until the time for planting them again returns. Soil. The compost that I recommend is a mixture of rough, fibrous peat, and leaf mold, in equal proportions, mixing with them a little fine, clean sand, and some decayed sphagnum moss, chopped fine. Culture. About the early part of February, shake out the tubers from the pots in which they have been at rest, and plant them in pans placed in the stove, in order to start them; when they have attained the hight of six or seven inches take some neat, clean pans, five or six inches deep, place a large piece of potsherd over the hole at the Propagation.-Achimenes may be propagated by scales, leaves, or cuttings. First, by scales: take the tubers and rub the scales one from another; place them in a pan in a mixture of peat, leaf mold, and sand; and you will have as many plants as there were scales. Second, by leaves: choose nice, healthy leaves, separate them from the parent plant, make a clean transverse cut at the base of the petiole, stick their ends |