A correspondent calls our attention to the following from the Garden, and inquires whether "there is anything in it:"

"The Florist asks has any one tried hot water as a restorative for sickly plants? and then proceeds to say that M. Willermoz some time since related that plants in pots may be restored to health by means of hot water; ill health, he maintains, ensues from acid substances in the soil, which, being absorbed by the roots, act as poison. The small roots wither and cease to act, and the upper and younger shoots consequently turn yellow, or become spotted, indicative of their morbid state. In such cases the usual remedy is to transplant into fresh soil, in clean pots with good drainage, and this often with the best results. But his experience of several years has proved the unfailing efficacy of the simpler treatment, which consists in watering abundantly with hot water at a temperature of about 1450 Fahr., having previously stirred the soil of the pots so far as may be done without injury to the roots. Water is then given until it runs freely from the pots. In his experiments the water at first came out clear, afterwards it was sensibly tinged with brown, and gave an appreciable acid reaction.

After this thorough washing, the pots were kept warm, and the plants very soon made new roots, immediately followed by vigorous growth."

To our mind there is a great deal in it. We know to a certainty that sickly peach trees are often restored to vigorous health, by the old-fashioned German farmers of Pennsylvania, by pouring boiling water on the ground about the peach tree. It cools, of course, somewhat before reaching many of the roots. Here, however, it is believed to be beneficial by destroying parasitic insects and parasitic fungi, rather than chemically as suggested by the extract. But let the reasoning be what it may, we are willing to endorse it as good practice.