The Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and the Arts, July-December, 1827Various
Science
The Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and the Arts, July-December, 1827
Various
Arts -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
At this meeting a paper was read from the President, T. A. Knight,
Esq., upon the culture of the mango and cherimoyer. Its object was to
suggest some improvements in the management of these and other trees
cultivated in stoves, deduced from an application of Dutrochet’s
electrical theory of vegetation to practice. It has now become
generally known that this observer is of opinion that the motion
of the fluids in plants depends upon two currents of electricity,
setting with very unequal force between the denser fluid of the tree
and the lighter fluid of the soil in which the tree is planted; the
more powerful current setting from the latter to the former, and
so producing absorption, by conveying aqueous particles into the
roots, through the vegetable membrane of the epidermis. In applying
this theory to practical purposes, Mr. Knight recommends that the
pot in which the cherimoyer or mango is planted, should itself be
surrounded by a medium through which an equable and regular supply
of fluid may be conveyed to the roots, and that the naked surface
of the pot should by no means be exposed to the free action of the
atmosphere. Without entering upon any question of the accuracy of
the French philosopher’s observations, it is quite certain that such
a mode of cultivation is that which is most congenial to plants,
and which is indispensable to those of a habit at all delicate. The
common practice of plunging pots into a tan-bed, or among sand, if
in glass-houses, or in the earth if in open borders, is a proof of
the necessity that gardeners have found, of securing as regular a
temperature and degree of humidity as is possible for the outside of
their flower-pots; through the pores in which, moisture is chiefly
conveyed to the roots, which always cling to the inside surface of
the pot.
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