UC-NRLF SM E72 THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID GLIMPSES NATURAL HISTORY. BERLIN W. FRONTISPIECE. GHMPSES NAT iTf ^ What prodigies can Power Divine perform, More grand than it produces year by year, And all in sight of inattentive man ! COWPER LONDON : HARVEY AND DARTON, GRACECHURCH-STREET. LO.VDON JOSEPH RJCKERBY, PRINTER, SHBRBOURN-LANK. Hfc PREFACE. THE intention of this simple little Work is so obvious, that it perhaps scarcely requires a preface. Written to direct the attention of one much-loved child to the goodness and power of God, as displayed in all his tvorks, it is now offered to many, in the hope that from these " Glimpses of Natural History" they may be led to more extended views of so boundless a subject. LONDON, 1843. M348387 CONTENTS. Page. The Walrus and Fly ...... 1 Galls ....... 9 Snails . . . . . . . .16 The Camel ....... 26 The Sunflower . . . . . .35 Charcoal ....... 40 Sponge . . . . . . .46 Rust Indian-rubber Lead Pencils, &c. ... 58 Colours ...... 67 A Traveller ...... 73 Rain .... . ... 80 Fall of the Leaf ...... 87 On Rooks, &c. ...... 96 Insect Changes ...... 104 Variety in Nature . . . . . . .115 Water-Pimpernel . . . . . .125 v i CONTENTS. Page. Evergreens 1 K/\ Leaf-insects . 158 Mosses Horsetail . Heaths, &c, . Mother-of-l>earl THE WALRUS. Page 1. GLIMPSES OF NATURAL HISTORY. THE WALRUS AND FLY. AUNT. Do you recollect the description I read to you the other morning of that icy region, Spitzbergen, and of the animals which inhabit it ? MARY. Oh, yes, perfectly. AUNT. Then you will, perhaps, be able to answer the ques- tion I am going to ask you. What resemblance is there between a walrus and a fly ? MARY. Really, my dear aunt, you are proposing an enigma B 2 THE WALRUS AND FLY. to me. How can I discover any likeness between that large, inactive, disgusting creature, and the little alert insect I often watch with so much pleasure ? AUNT. I do not refer to their appearance, for in that there is, indeed, no similarity. But consider what I told you of the habits of the walrus ; of its manner of moving, for example. Are you not now struck with any point of resemblance ? MARY. I remember you told me the walrus can climb per- pendicular masses of ice, and I see flies ascending our glass windows, and I should think their surface some- thing like that of the smooth, polished ice, so perhaps I have found out your enigma. AUNT. You have. I did not, however, propose it merely to try your ingenuity, but in order that I may give you an explanation of the means by which both these creatures are able to surmount the law by which the motions of THE WALRUS AND FLY. 3 all others (with very few exceptions) are guided, and thus to sustain their bodies against gravity. Before attempting this I must recal to your mind a subject I alluded to in our reading yesterday, and which I pro- mised to recur to : the pressure of the atmosphere. MARY. Oh ! I have been wishing for some explanation of that term, for I cannot understand how it can be applied to a fluid, as you have told me the air is so thin and transparent, that though we are surrounded by it we can neither feel nor see it. AUNT. Our being surrounded by it is the very reason why we do not feel it. Our bodies are so equally supported by it on all sides, that we do not perceive any partial pressure ; but if I could remove the portion of air from one side of my body, the weight and consequent pres- sure would be so great that I should no longer be able to bear it. And this is proved by a machine called an air-pump, by which a vessel may be deprived of the air it contains, and a vacuum formed. A familiar instance B -2 4 THE WALRUS AND FLY. will serve to show how, by this means, we discover the pressure of air. If you were to put any body, your hand, for instance, over a jar with an opening at both ends on an air-pump, as the pump was worked you would find a gradually increasing weight on your hand, and at length, when the operation was completed, and the air in the jar quite exhausted, you would find it impossible, by any exertion of force, to lift your hand from the jar. MARY. Then, I suppose, the air above the hand presses it down, and it cannot be raised because there is no air below to offer resistance. AUNT. Exactly so ; for when air is pumped in again the hand is raised with the greatest ease. But now for the application of what I have said to our present subject, which, I fear, this long digression will almost have made you forget. MARY. No, indeed ; you said that a fly and a walrus have both the power of walking against gravity. THE WALRUS AND FLY. 5 AUNT. Very well : now, the reason of their possessing this power is, that they are furnished with an apparatus by which they can form a vacuum, and adhere to the verti- cal glass or ice by atmospheric pressure. The air is expelled from the space below their feet, and the weight of the air above their feet causes them to adhere ; but, at the same time, they are wisely provided with muscular force sufficient to raise their feet with the greatest ease, so that their movements are not impeded. If you remark the flies which congregate in our houses in the autumn, you will see that they are at first very lively and active, but that as they grow torpid they move with difficulty, as if fastened to the window. When they are well and active they easily overcome the atmospheric pressure, but as the weather becomes colder, it makes them sickly and weak, and then this resistance is too great an effort for their declining strength, and you may see them toiling along, as if their feet were too heavy for them, nay, sometimes even sticking to the glass till they die. MARY. Who first discovered that flies had this singular power ? 6 THE WALRUS AND FLY. AUNT. It is to Sir Everard Home that we are indebted for ascertaining the fact. It had been suspected by former naturalists, but he proved it by examination. For some time he was in doubt about two points with which the foot of the fly is provided, not being able to understand for what purpose they were there. It had been imagined that they were inserted in the cavities of the surface over which the insect was walking, and thus retained it in opposition to gravity ; in this opinion, however, Sir Everard Home did not agree. On examining the foot of the walrus he discovered their use : there it was evident that two toes (which answer to the points in the fly's foot) are used for the purpose of bringing the web closely down upon the surface traversed, so as to enable the animal to form a more complete vacuum, and that the ah* is readmitted on their being lifted up. MARY. What a difference there must be in size between the two feet ! AUNT. Yes, that of the fly requires magnifying one hundred THE WALRUS 'AND FLY. 7 times to make the apparatus i have described visible, while that of the walrus must be diminished four times to bring it within the compass of a quarto plate. MARY. Thank you, my dear aunt, for your, explanation : I shall now never see flies on our windows without recol- lecting it, and I shall observe them more closely. AUNT. There are other familiar instances in which you may remark this power of the atmosphere. You remember the difficulty we found the other morning in detaching the limpets you wished from the rock to which they were so firmly fixed ; if you examine them you will find that they have no apparent means adequate to resist the force you applied to them. The edge of the shell is not furnished with any mechanism by which to hold the substance on which it is placed ; this is, indeed, so hard and smooth, that it would be difficult to conceive any that would answer the purpose. It is retained in its situation by the formation of a vacuum below the shell, and the consequent pressure of the air on its outer sur- 8 THE WALRUS AND FLY. face. Sea-anemonies, again, are attached by the same means : they are such soft, gelatinous bodies, that it seems as if one had only to put one's hand to the rock to gain possession of them ; but we find a strong resist- ance. You must have remarked that when you touch an anemone it immediately shrinks ; by this movement it is, no doubt, putting itself on the defensive, and expelling the air from between it and the rock. Snails, periwinkles, &c. &c. adhere by the same means. In the same situations as limpets and periwinkles you will find, very frequently, clusters of muscles, which are also attached to the rocks, but here observe a difference in the manner : the form of the muscle does not admit of its forming a vacuum, but it has a beautiful provision of its own ; it has the power of throwing out a cluster of silky filaments, which fix themselves to the rock, and by which it hangs securely. GALLS. MARY. HERE is one of those curious mossy tufts on this rose* branch which I have often thought of asking you about. They are very pretty, but yet one only sees them occa- sionally, therefore, I suppose, they are not a usual pro- duction of the rose-tree. Perhaps you can tell me something of them. AUNT. I am not surprised at your feeling curious respecting these singular excrescences, and you will be astonished, I think, when I tell you what purpose they serve. They are the habitations of insects. MARY. The habitations of insects ! you really do surprise me. But how can that be, for I can see no opening ; not one 10 GALLS. sufficient even for a very tiny insect to have entered by, and I should imagine, from the size of the tuft, that its occupant is not so diminutive, unless its house be very much too large for it. AUNT. Your wonder is very natural, for it has perplexed many wiser persons to account for the bodies called galls, and which originate from the same cause as the moss-like appearance we are speaking of. The ancient philoso- phers, finding on opening these substances that they contained grubs, conceived justly that these proceeded from eggs, but they were embarrassed by the same cir- cumstance that perplexes you. They were at a loss to account for the conveyance of these eggs into the middle of a substance in which they could find no external orifice. They imagined that they were the eggs of insects deposited in the earth which had been drawn up by the roots of trees along with the sap, and after passing through different vessels had stopped, some in the leaves, others in the branches, and had there hatched and produced the excrescences. Modern phi- losophers, more close and accurate observers of nature, GALLS. 1 1 have accounted for their formation in a more rational way. They find that they are the habitations of the grubs of the genus cynips, (Gall-fly.) I cannot better describe to you the mode of their formation than by using the words of an elegant writer and distinguished naturalist, who observes, " They cannot with propriety be said to be constructed by the mother-insect ; but she is provided with an instrument as potent as an enchanter's wand, which has but to pierce the site of the foundation, and commodious apartments, as if by magic, spring up and surround the eggs of her future descendants." Have you not frequently observed the red, spongy- looking substances on the leaves of the oak ? MARY. You mean oak-apples. AUNT. So they are commonly called, but more properly galls. There is a great variety of galls on different plants. All owe their origin to the deposition of an egg in the substance out of which they grow. The parent insect is furnished with a curious sting, with which she 12 GALLS. makes a puncture, and then introduces her egg, and in a few hours it becomes surrounded by the fleshy cover- ing we see. All these bodies are generally more acid than the rest of the plant that bears them, and they are also greatly inclined to turn red. MARY. Pray, are they of any use to the young insect r I suppose, of course, they must be. AUNT. The careful mother has provided not only for the shelter and defence of her offspring, but also for its nourishment, the little enclosed creature feeding upon the interior, and there undergoing its changes to the fly state. MARY. But still it seems to me very extraordinary that the mere piercing of a leaf by the sting of an insect should produce galls. AUNT. How these protuberances are produced we do not GALLS. 13 comprehend, and it seems very wonderful even if, as is supposed, the egg is accompanied by a peculiar fluid, that it should cause their growth around it. It is ascer- tained that the gall, which, however large, attains its full size in a day or two, is caused by the egg or some accompanying fluid, not by the grub, which does not appear until the gall is fully formed. Now that I have made you acquainted, as far as I can, with the mode of production of these singular vegetable ex- crescences, I must not drop the subject till I have spoken of the important use to which those formed by one species of cynips (called by some authors the scriptorum) are applied. We are indebted to this little insect for that useful agent, ink, which is made from the galls it pro- duces. These galls are found on a species of oak (quercus infectorid) very common in Asia Minor. They are collected and exported from Smyrna, Aleppo, and other ports in the Levant. MARY. How extraordinary are both their formation and the use to which they are applied ! We owe a great deal to the insects that produce them, and whenever I find 14 GALLS. any gaDs on oak-leaves I shall open them, that I may make acquaintance with the useful little creatures. I should like to be so fortunate as to meet with one when it had changed to its perfect state, and was about to leave its house. But is ink composed entirely of a liquid from these substances ? AUNT. Not entirely, though in a great measure. It is an infusion of galls, copperas, and gum-arabic, I believe ; but unless the quantity of the extract from the galls greatly preponderates, the ink is not of a good colour, nor, I think I have heard, is it durable. Galls have yet another important application, though not one which contributes to our pleasure so much as ink : they are one of OUT dying materials most in use, being con- stantly employed in dying black. There is another excrescence of this nature, also, much esteemed in the Levant. This is formed on some species of salvia, (sage.) In consequence of the attacks of a cynips the young shoots swell into large, juicy balls, very like apples, and even crowned with imperfectly formed leaves, resembling the calyx of that fruit. They are GALLS. 15 eaten prepared with sugar, and have an aromatic, acid flavour, which is very refreshing and agreeable. MARY. But you have not told me whether the tufts on rose- trees are also of use. Are they caused by a similar insect ? AUNT. Yes : it takes its specific name from resorting to the rose for depositing eggs cynips rosa. Its mossy balls used to be considered to possess medicinal pro- perties, and were sold under the name of bedeguar, but modern practitioners attribute no efficacy to them. 16 SNAILS. MARY. How many snails there are crawling about this morning. I suppose the rain of the night set them in motion, for I have always remarked one sees a much greater number after wet. Can you tell me what becomes of them during winter ? I have often wished to know. AUNT. They hibernate. Page 16. SNAILS. 17 MARY. Pray what does that mean ? I do not think I remem- ber to have heard the term before. AUNT. I am glad I used it, then, for understanding a new word is an addition to one's stock of knowledge, and I am always happy to be the means of increasing your infor- mation on any subject. The verb to hibernate is derived from hybernacula, (winter- quarters,) and so applied to those animals which remain in a state of torpidity during the cold season. The manner in which snails defend themselves from cold is very curious. A number associate together, (generally about the begin- ning of October, or as soon as it becomes chilly,) in the banks of ditches, or in thickets or hedges. They cease to eat, and conceal themselves under fallen leaves or moss. Each then forms for itself a hole large enough to contain its shell, expands the collar of the mantle over the edge of the shell, and then inspires a quantity of air. The mantle soon secretes a large portion of very white fluid over its whole surface, which sets like plaster-of- Paris, thus forming a solid covering. When this lid is 18 SNAILS. hardened, the animal retires, expels a portion of air from its lungs, and forms another partition of the same fluid ; and continuing this operation several times, it sometimes forms rive or six divisions, with the intermediate spaces or cells filled with air. About three days suffice for the protection of each individual. I knew that they hid themselves during the winter, but I was not myself aware of the curious circumstances connected with their concealment, till I met with an account of them in a work on natural history a short time ago. It is highly interesting to consider what a beautiful economy of its own every creature has. How many curious operations are continually going on around us, without our being aware of them till they are pointed out by closer and better informed observers of nature than ourselves. Then, indeed, they cannot fail to fill us with delight and admi- ration, and incite us to more diligent pursuit in a study which offers so much that is new and engaging. MARY. And pray how long do snails continue torpid ? AUNT. They generally remain enclosed for six months in SNAILS. 19 their self-formed prisons, and do not reappear till the spring. It appears, from the chemical analyses to which the lids (or opercula, as they are called) have been sub- mitted, that they consist wholly of a substance called carbonate of lime. The animal obtains this calcareous fluid, not merely from its ordinary vegetable food, but from the earth, which it eats in great abundance. This circumstance accounts for some species thriving better in chalky districts. These animals eat nothing during the period of hibernation, and experiments have proved that they exist without motion, nutrition, or respiration ; in short, that they are deprived of all their usual func- tions. In our climate, it is generally about the begin- ning of April that they leave their torpid state. The mode in which they make their way from their prison is not only curious, but beautiful. The air which had been expired, is again inspired, and each division forced away by the pressure of the enclosed animal, till it reaches the lid, which being harder, requires a greater effort to burst through. Having effected this, the animal comes forth, and immediately begins feeding with appetite. Experiments show, that the return of warmth is not alone sufficient to restore their animation; moisture is c 2 20 SNAILS. also requisite. They feel, very sensibly, either extremes of heat or cold, for they frequently retire within their shells during the height of summer, where they remain a day and night, till a shower brings them out again. The effect of temperature on this class of animals has been tried, by shutting up a few snails in a perforated box, and some others in a bottle, tightly corked, so as to exclude all communication with the air : in neither situ- ation were they supplied with either food or water. Those deprived of air did not live long, but those hi the perforated box retired into their shells, (closing them as I have described,) and remained to all appearance dead. This death, however, was only apparent, for by being dropped into a glass containing water of the tem- perature of 70 or 72, they may be reanimated in about four or fire hours. A large garden-snail will sometimes support this severe confinement for several years, appa- rently dead all the time, but it will revive upon being put into milk-warm water, quite uninjured. MARY. I have one more question to ask you. Are the dark points at the ends of snails' horns their eyes ? SNAILS. 21 AUNT. That is a subject which has given rise to much dis- cussion among naturalists, and which seems still unde- termined ; but I believe the opinion of those who have devoted most attention to it is, that these organs are not organs of sight, but of feeling, answering a similar purpose to the antenna of insects. These creatures, which rank so low in the scale of organized beings, give rise to much consideration. Their manner of moving is a matter of doubt, too. They are perfectly smooth, and there are no appendages to do the office of feet. It is, therefore, imagined, that they are propelled forward by a discharge of slime, which is emitted from every part of the under surface. Dry air is observed to deprive them of the power of motion, which seems to give probability to this conjecture. MARY. They certainly seem never to move without a discharge of slime, for one may always trace the way they have taken by the shining path they have left behind. I saw a particularly large snail-shell in your cabinet the other morning, about which I have always forgotten to ask you. 22 SNAILS. AUNT. It is the helix pomatia, (edible snail,) said to be bene- ficial in consumptive cases. The specimen you remarked among my shells I prize, not for its beauty, but because I found it in Normandy , in the fosse of the Chateau d'Ar- ques, and it serves as a memento of a pleasant day passed among the remains of that ancient pile. MARY. The Chateau d'Arques ! I did not know you had ever visited it. Will you tell me something of it ? AUNT. It is a fine specimen of a Norman fortress, erected, as is generally the case, on a lofty mound of earth, sur- rounded by a deep ditch, or moat. In this instance, the mound being raised on a considerable eminence, ren- CHATEAU D'ARQUES. Page 22. SNAILS. 23 ders the situation of this venerable ruin extremely im- posing. It is in the centre of a lovely valley, through which winds a little stream that looks like a silver thread when its course is viewed from the heights. It is a de- lightful scene, one on which I dwell with peculiar plea- sure, perhaps, because I beheld it the first day I spent in France. To me, the gay costume of the female pea- sants, engaged in the labours of the harvest, added a great charm, by marking the landscape as foreign. I might have fancied myself still in the country I had so lately left ; but the Canchoises, with their high white caps and showy Rouen handkerchiefs, as they continu- ally passed before my eye in all the activity of their busy occupation, did not for a moment allow me to for- get that I was not standing on English ground. Much was I amused by the expressions of a ragged little boy, who acted as our cicerone, and exclaimed, with all the animation of his country, "Mais Monsieur, Madame voyez la campagne, qu'elle est superbe ! " Among the historical recollections which the castle suggests, perhaps the most interesting is its gallant de- fence in 1589, by that hero of French story, Henry IV., against the army of the League, commanded by the Due 24 SNAILS. de Mayenne. The result of this battle may be consi- dered as having been highly conducive to Henry's future success, for he had been reduced to such extre- mity before the walls of the adjacent town of Dieppe, that he had been on the point of relinquishing his enter- prise, and retiring into England, but was advised by Biron to make good his post at Arques. The issue proved the wisdom of the Marechal's counsel. So des- perate was Henry's condition before the engagement, that he said of himself, he was " a king without a king- dom, a husband without a wife, and a warrior without money." The inequality of numbers was fearful ; the Duke de Mayenne had an army of 31,000 men, while that of Henry only amounted to 3,000, part of which consisted of German and Swiss auxiliaries. But Henry's was one of those master spirits, which elastic ally rise from the pressure of adversity. Far from being dismayed by un- favourable appearances, he immediately applied himself to making the most of his resources, by posting his little band to the best advantage, and exerting all his energies ; he allowed himself no rest either by day or night. Sully describes him, at the moment of the enemy's ap- proach, as acting and speaking with the greatest com- SNAILS. 25 posure, and not betraying, either by his countenance or manner, the slightest perturbation ; and he mentions a noble reply he made at this juncture to a person of rank, who expressed surprise to see his scanty number of followers. " You see not all," said Henry, " for you reckon not God and my just cause, which assist me." For some time the League seemed to prevail. Though each station was long valorously defended by the devoted adherents of the king, their ruin appeared in- evitable, from the superiority of numbers on the other side, when the clearing off of a thick fog enabled the cannon to act, and by the volley discharged from the castle, the fortune of the day was decided in Henry's favour. Sixtus V. predicted Henry's success from his great activity, for he said, " He was not longer in bed, than the Due de Mayenne was at table." MARY. Thus a poor sluggish snail has led us into the tumult of the battle of Arques ! I thank you very much for the account of it ! THE CAMEL. MARY. HAVE been thinking a great deal of the account of the camel we met with in the travels we are read- ing. How admirably their soft feet, and their power of abstaining from water, adapt them to the scorched and sandy de- serts through which they travel with their Arab masters ! AUNT. I am glad, my dear, that this subject has engaged your attention, and that you have reflected so much THE GIRAFFE. Page 27. THE CAMEL. 27 upon it. This useful creature is, indeed, a striking in- stance of the goodness and wisdom of God, who has prepared all created beings for the circumstances under which they are to be placed. And you will be convinced of this pervading principle, the more minutely you exa- mine His beautiful works. There is another animal, an inhabitant of the same region as the camel ; but as its habits differ, so do its provisions. I mean the giraffe, or camel-leopard. It is not furnished with the recep- tacle for water, because it feeds on succulent plants, and therefore this would be unnecessary; nor has it the padded hoof of the camel, because it does not confine itself to sand, but delights in rocky heights. To enable it to climb these without stumbling, it is provided with two toes, defended with a horny covering, and as its tongue is very much exposed to the sun while collecting food, this organ is protected by a coating, which prevents its being blistered by the heat. Though it will be digress- ing, I cannot help mentioning a singular fact with respect to the Arabian camel, (that with one hump,) lest I should forget to call your attention to it at some future time. It is, that this camel is never found wild ; the whole race is in a state of subjection to man. 28 THE CAMEL. MARY. That is, indeed, very extraordinary ! How can it be accounted for ? AUNT. In order to discover the most probable reason, we must go back as far as the history of the deluge. We know that all the animals of the antediluvian earth perished, except the two of each species, which were kept alive to continue their kind. Now, it is supposed, that when Noah and his family quitted the ark, they carefully preserved these useful animals and their pro- geny, on account of the great services they derived from them, while they allowed the descendants of the other animals to roam abroad, and return to a state of nature. We may easily believe that the same consideration in succeeding generations of men has produced the same result, and that thus the Arabian camel has never reco- vered its liberty. But to return to our immediate sub- ject. We need not go to another quarter of the globe for examples of this wise adaptation, we are surrounded by them, and to the observer of nature they are obvious, not only in animal, but in vegetable life. We find plants THE CAMEL. 29 which require little moisture, placed in dry situations ; and again, those to whose sustenance moisture is requi- site, we find growing in damp watery places. MARY. Yes, you know how much trouble I took with some plants I found in the bog, but I never could get any taken from it to live in the garden, till, as you advised, I brought away a quantity of the earth in which they were growing. AUNT. The soil of the garden was not suited to them, and besides, there is a chemical difference between earths, which causes plants to flourish better in those in which they are placed than in those to which we remove them, evidently proving that they are put in the soil best adapted to their peculiar habits. Again, remark the pro- vision made for climbing-plants. Their stems are too weak to sustain the weight of their leaves and flowers, but they do not sink under a load so disproportioned to their slender structure. They are furnished with deli- cate threads, or fibres, called tendrils, which spring 30 THE CAMEL. from their stem and branches, and twine themselves round the neighbouring plants of firmer growth. By this means this elegant tribe of plants gain support from their stronger neighbours. We do not see tendrils pro- ceeding from the branches of trees or shrubs which can stand erect without depending on others, which proves that there is design in their appearing in those plants to which they are so useful and essential. Rising a degree higher in the scale of creation, let us consider the insect world, the adaption of their powers and organs to the situations in which they are placed, and the functions they have to perform. Do not the wings of our gay summer visitors, moths and butterflies, so broad and large in comparison to their small bodies, show for what element they are intended ? How admirably are they suited for bearing them along in their rapid flight, and how much more easily does their being able to fly enable them to collect their food, which is honey, ob- tained from the nectaries of flowers. In the caterpillar state they feed on the leaves of plants ; when arrived at the last stage of their existence, the little nourishment they require is taken from the blossoms, and as these are generally on the summits of plants, the winged THE CAMEL. 31 insect's mode of travelling gives it great command over them ; could it only crawl, it would be long in reaching the object of its pursuit. Some insects are provided with a covering, or case, for their wings, as the beetle tribe. MARY. I suppose, because their wings are so much more delicate and thin in texture than those of moths and butterflies. AUNT. That, probably, may be one reason, but there are, also, others. They undergo the last change under ground, (in some instances at a considerable depth below the surface,) and, therefore, elytra, or wing-cases, are extremely serviceable in protecting their fragile in- closures during the progress of the insect to its new element. And you must have observed that beetles are not, like our sportive butterflies, always on the wing ; their time of flight does not begin till the evening, and their strong, hard coverings prevent their being injured as they crawl on the ground, for if you inadvertently 32 THE CAMEL. tread on a beetle, you may see it as you pass on running briskly away, unhurt by a pressure which would have destroyed so small a creature had it not been provided with so good a defence. MARY. Before we go in will you tell me the peculiarity in that chrysalis which you had not time to explain when you showed it me the other day. AUNT. I am glad you have recollected it, for its peculiarity is a remarkable instance of what I have been endea- vouring to impress on your mind to-day. It was the chrysalis of the great goat-moth, (bombyx cossus.) The caterpillar, when about to change, bores into living trees, and penetrates so far into the willow, (the tree it usually selects,) that if there were not some provision for its making its way out it would be a complete prisoner. But this difficulty is guarded against, and if you will run and fetch the pupa I will show you how. Observe that the head is armed with points; these enable it to pierce its cocoon. Observe further, that THE CAMEL. 33 each joint or division of the pupa is beset with sharp, strong teeth, all turning one way, towards the head. These teeth are employed to lay hold of the wood, and when thus fastened it pushes itself a little further, till at last, by repeated efforts, it arrives at the hole in the tree which it had made when a caterpillar, through which it emerges, and becomes an inhabitant of the air. It is not usual for pupae to be toothed in this manner; we do not find it the case with those which attach themselves ; but if you were to see a willow sawn across, and to find a chrysalis in the middle of the wood, you would con- sider how it would be possible for the insect to liberate itself. The intention of the teeth as an assistance in this process is evident. I hope I have made you under- stand the manner in which they are used. MARY. Yes, I think I do perfectly. I fancy the chrysalis employing its teeth as that boy who is climbing up the 34 THE CAMEL. tree before us does his hand holding by a projection till he draws his feet a little nearer the point, and then again extending his hand to seek for another place to hold by. AUNT. Well, I think your illustration shows that you have a correct notion of the chrysalis's movements in its dark abode. 35 THE SUNFLOWER. MARY. You have lately made me acquainted in our walks with a great many useful plants, and I cannot help thinking what a pity it is that large, handsome sunflower cannot be applied to some purpose. It certainly makes a great display in a garden, but it grows to such a size that it seems as if it ought to have some use beyond this. AUNT. And so it has. You know I have often told you, and I again repeat, that we should not conclude that any- thing is useless till we have made ourselves acquainted with its properties ; we shall then find that most of the productions of nature, beyond the gratification they afford us by their beautiful forms and tints, may be em- ployed by the farmer, the manufacturer, or the chemist. Recollect that brilliant flower we examined the other D 2 36 THE SUNFLOWER. day, the saintfoin, did you not know that the fields we see sown of it were intended for the food of cattle, you would, perhaps, have imagined that it was designed only to delight the eye. Nor would you have supposed that pretty little plant, with its delicately pencilled petals, the flax, could be manufactured into such a texture as linen, nor that the mignionette, when prepared by the chemist, would prove so serviceable from the dye it yields. And how many of our gay flowers possess medicinal virtues, as the handsome fox-glove, the mea- dow-saffron, and many others which I will not now stop to enumerate.. Now the sunflower does not possess such striking and important properties as the plants I have named, yet it has uses which are not generally known, though it is so frequently cultivated as an orna- ment to the garden. The seed forms an excellent and convenient food for poultry, and it is only necessary to cut off the thickly studded receptacles and tie them up in a dry situation. These seeds are said not only to fatten poultry, but greatly to increase the number of eggs they lay. When cultivated to a considerable ex- tent, they are, also, good food for sheep, pigs, and phea- sants. The leaves, too, when dried, have their peculiar THE SUNFLOWER. 37 use ; they make a good powder for cattle. The dry stalks burn well, and yield an abundance of alkali, and you have yourself remarked how busy our little friends the bees are, loading themselves from its blossoms, which are particularly attractive to them, and must supply a great deal of matter for the composition of their winter stores. MARY. Well, I have, indeed, done the sunflower injustice, for instead of being of no value, it seems to have a great many uses, but one of them I do not understand. You said the stalks produced alkali : pray what is alkali ? AUNT. To answer your inquiry I must enter into a little che- mical explanation, which I did not recollect the sun- flower would lead me into. MARY. Oh ! 1 am very glad of that, if you will not be tired of explaining, for I have always found our conversations so amusing when you have referred to chemistry in them. 38 THE SUNFLOWER. AUNT. I am happy you have, for it is a subject on which, at a future time, I shall wish you to have much fuller knowledge than the slight allusions to it which I have occasionally made can give you. Alkalies are bodies which have an acrid, burning taste, a pungent smell, and a caustic effect on the skin and flesh ; another of their general properties is, that they turn blue vegetable infusions green. There are three, but having given you this general idea of their nature, I will now only speak of potash, the one which is left after the burning of the leaves and stalks of the sunflower. It forms a part in the composition of many vegetables, but some contain it in greater quantities than others. As the ashes of a burnt vegetable contain other substances besides pot- ash, it is not easy to obtain the potash from them in a pure state. Indeed, it is only by a process much more complicated than combustion that it can be obtained pure. But still the ashes are valuable for the alkali they contain, and are used for some purposes without fm-ther preparation. A little purified, they make what is called pearlash, which, mixed with oil or fat, makes a well-known and generally useful compound soap. A THE SUNFLOWER. 39 very remarkable property of potash is the formation of glass by its fusion with silicious earth, the substance of which sand and flint are chiefly composed. This, though infusible alone, when mixed with potash melts by the heat of a furnace, and runs into glass. MARY. Then when I look at the window, I perhaps see what has formed part of a sunflower. This is, indeed, sin- gular. Well, the sunflower has been of use to me, for it has taught me what alkalies are, and of what soap and glass are composed, neither of which I knew before. 40 CHARCOAL. AUNT. GOOD morning, my dear. You need not have prepared for walking, for it has just begun to rain, therefore we must remain within. MARY. Oh, but I hope, though we cannot go out, you will not return, because if you have nothing particular to do you will perhaps fulfil the promise you made me last week : you said you would tell me how charcoal was pre- pared. AUNT. Very true, and we cannot have a better opportunity than the present. In the first place, then, I suppose you know the substance from which it is obtained. CHARCOAL. 41 MARY. No, indeed I do not ; but what I have seen looked almost like logs of wood. AUNT. It is commonly said that charcoal is made from wood, but this is not a correct way of speaking. In order fully to make you understand the nature of charcoal, I must dip a little into chemistry, MARY. What connexion can charcoal and chemistry have ? AUNT. Carbon is a very important chemical agent, and this is nothing more than charcoal in its pure state, that is, unmixed with other ingredients ; it forms a great part of all organized bodies, and is particularly abundant in vegetables. When the oil and water (the other compo- nent parts of vegetable matter) are evaporated, a black, brittle substance remains this is carbon, or charcoal. To obtain it in the purest state in which it has yet been possible, the vegetable matter is subjected to a more 42 CHARCOAL. delicate operation than I am going to describe to you, as I shall confine myself to the common charcoal as it is prepared for culinary and other ordinary purposes. Logs of wood are closely piled, and covered with clay, in which holes are left to admit air, and a fire is lighted under it. The holes in the clay are stopped up as soon as the wood has caught fire, that it may not be com- pletely burnt. Though the fire is extinguished, suffi- cient heat remains to deprive the wood of its oily and watery particles, without reducing it to ashes. MARY. I have heard it is very unwholesome to be in a room with burning charcoal. Why is it so ? AUNT. The act of burning converts it into a gas, or vapour, which uniting with one of the principles of our atmo- sphere, (the oxygen,) forms a compound called carbonic acid gas, and this is irrespirable, and, therefore, the lungs do not obtain a supply of air, and you are aware that any cause which deprives us of air must produce death by suffocation. CHARCOAL. 43 MARY. Then the fames of charcoal are this gas. AUNT. Yes : and though so highly prejudicial in a room, or any other close place into which there is no admission of atmospheric air, yet, taken into the stomach, it is not only harmless but beneficial. It is an ingredient in many of the medicinal waters, in soda-water, for in- stance ; the effervescence of which is caused by the carbonic acid, which, being lighter than the water in which it is condensed, flies off immediately the pressure of the cork is removed. MARY. 1 have seen beer and some wines effervesce as much as soda-water, do they also contain carbonic acid ? AUNT. Yes, its escape causes the brisk, sparkling effect in all these liquors. MARY. It certainly does appear to me very extraordinary that 44 CHARCOAL. what is so injurious to inhale should be wholesome to drink, and that the fumes of a charcoal fire and the fixed air from soda-water are of the same nature. AUNT. But there is another form under which carbon appears in its solid state, which will, I suspect, surprise you more than what I have already told you. That most brilliant of all gems, the diamond, is nothing more than carbon in a crystallized state. MARY. That does seem incredible ! How is it proved ? AUNT. By analysis ; a process which discovers to us the component parts of bodies by their decomposition. Thus, if we decompose a piece of carbon by combus- tion, we find, as I have told you, that carbonic acid is the product, and if a diamond be submitted to the same trial the result is the same, which proves that their na- ture is similar. CHARCOAL. 45 MARY. Surprising ! that anything so black, heavy, and dull- looking should be composed of the same material as the most brilliant of all substances. AUNT. I could detain you much longer on the subject of carbon, for it enters into the composition of animals, vegetables, and minerals ; it is one of the components of all oils. But I must now take my leave. 46 SPONGE. MARY. As I was preparing to come out this morning, I was considering what sponge is, and wondered it had never occurred to me to ask you. I fancied it more like a fungus than anything else I know : is it one ? AUNT. No ; but I am not surprised at your imagining that it is, for it certainly has very much the appearance of some kinds of fungus, and is attached to rocks in the same manner that the fungus tribe are to wells, trees, &c. But what will you say when I tell you the various species of sponge are either animals, or the habitations of marine creatures. There have been various opinions with regard to these curious productions. They were formerly supposed to be vegetables, but their being ob- served to shrink when touched, soon led to an idea that SPONGES. Page 46. SPONGE. 47 they possessed animal life. Then it was conjectured that each cell, or hole, contained a small worm ; but later observers not having (after the most accurate attention and examination) ever been able to discover any worm in the cells, or to detect any coming out, have decided that the sponge is itself an animal, " whose mouths are so many holes, or ends of branched tubes opening on its surface, and that by these it receives its nourish- ment." MARY. You speak of various species of sponge. I was not aware that there was more than the one kind which is so commonly used. AUNT. That is, indeed, the most usual ; but 1 can show you engravings of several others of totally different form and appearance ; and in some cabinets of natural history there are a very great variety preserved. England alone, I think, affords ten sorts. MARY. Does England supply all we see used ? 48 SPONGE. AUNT. On the contrary, I rather believe you will find that that species (spongia officinalis) is not to be met with on the English coast. At any rate, great quantities are imported. It abounds on the coast of Asia Minor, and the islands of the Ar- chipelago. The inhabitants of many of these islands gain a subsistence by diving for it to the low rocks in the vicinity of their coasts. The water is extremely clear, and the experienced divers are able to distinguish from the surface the points to which the animal is at- tached below, when an unpractised eye could scarcely discern the bottom. The divers go out in boats ; each boat is furnished with a large stone fastened to a rope, which the diver seizes in his hand on plunging head foremost from the stern, in order to increase the velocity SPONGE. 49 of his descent through the water. By this means he saves unnecessary expenditure of breath, and facilitates his ascent, being pulled up by his companions when he can no longer remain under water. They can rarely bear being below more than two minutes, and the pro- cess of detaching the sponge is, of course, very tedious ; three or four divers frequently descend in succession to secure a particularly fine specimen. In some of the islands there is a regulation, that no young man shall claim his bride till he can descend with facility to the depth of twenty fathoms ; and in a little island named Himia, a girl is not permitted by her rela- tions to marry before she has brought up a certain quantity of sponges, and can give proof of her agility, by taking them from a certain depth, MARY. It must be very difficult, and require practice ! I should not like to be put to such a trial. AUNT. It would certainly be a severe one to a person un- practised in the art of diving. But I cannot dismiss this E 50 SPONGE. subject without reverting to the important office per- formed by some tribes of marine insects or worms the formation of islands. MARY. The formation of islands ! You cannot be in earnest, my dear aunt. AUNT. I assure you, my dear niece, I never was more so. MARY. Then, pray explain to me how this can be accom- plished, for I can scarcely believe it possible. They must be enormous insects. AUNT. No, they are not ; but by the extent of their works we see what may be effected through the agency of very small creatures, when labouring diligently and in concert ; and from them you may learn a useful lesson, never to relax in industry, but to remember that continued appli- cation and perseverance will conquer difficulties, which MADREPORE. Page 51. SPONGE. 51 at first appear insurmountable. The active little ani- mals to which I allude are the worms that form the various species of coral. MARY. I saw some coral in Mr. B.'s cabinet the other day. Is the coral of which these islands are formed similar to that? AUNT. Yes, and you recollect you particularly admired a large white speci- men resembling a cauliflower, which I told you was called a madrepore, and was the work of one of the species of coral worms. Now it is principally of this that the islands I am about to de- scribe are composed. It is most common in the tropical E 2 52 SPONGE. seas, and a mass of it (frequently so large as to endanger the safety of vessels) is called a reef. As it is requisite for the worms to be covered with water while they work, these reefs are rendered more dangerous by not appear- ing above the surface. It was formerly imagined that they raised these immense structures from the bottom of the sea, but now the general opinion is, that submarine hills and mountains are the foundations on which they raise them. The tiny architects work till they reach the level of the highest tide, beyond this point they cannot advance: those which began their operations lower, continue them till they reach the same height, and as they work very rapidly, you may imagine what an exten- sive surface is thus produced. The navigation of the Pacific Ocean requires the greatest caution, on account of the number of reefs that now exist, and the new ones that are constantly in progress. By day there is little danger, because when these vast edifices are not suffi- ciently lofty to be seen above water, there is a rippling over them, which marks the spot. I can scarcely ima- gine any object more splendidly beautiful than one of these reefs : the description navigators give of them is so enchanting, that one is quite inspired with a desire to SPONGE* 53 witness the scene they depict. Over many of them the water is so clear that their whole structure, and everything on them, is disclosed to view, the treasures of the mighty deep are discovered. Mixed with the beautiful coral itself are sea-weeds and sponges of all forms and colours, and shells equally varied ; fishes of all sizes and tints, and enormous sea-snakes, increasing the splendour of their lustrous skins by their undulating motions. In short, it is a new world of beauty rendered dazzlingly brilliant by the sparkling medium through which it is viewed. 54 SPONGE. But I must not allow the beauty of the reefs to draw me from the mode of their conversion into islands. Each successive colony of worms dies when their work is completed, and they are no longer washed by the water, and the interstices in their protruded abodes are, by degrees, filled with sand, shells, and other sub- stances, each tide adding some con- tribution, till at length an island is formed. The sea conveys the seeds of marine plants, and those of the trees of adjacent lands. The birds, too, which are its first visitors, bring seeds, and by other means prepare it for the occupation of man. MARY. Then, I suppose, the birds are like the worms, very numerous. SPONGE. 55 AUNT. So much so, that if we had not the testimony of eye- witnesses, whose veracity is to be depended upon, the accounts of their numbers would scarcely seem credible. Captain Flinders, a bold navigator of the Australian seas, (and who, by the bye, suffered shipwreck on a coral reef,) mentions a flight of petrels, which took an hour and a half in their passage over his vessel. He describes them as forming a solid, compact mass, which he calculated at fifty yards deep, and three hundred broad, and computing the space that each bird would occupy in flying, he considered the whole number to amount to 151,500,000, and the quantity of ground they would require to burrow in, to eighteen and a half square miles. This will give you some idea of the importance of the winged preparers of the coral islands. MARY. What kind of birds are petrels ? AUNT. They are a tribe which frequent the sea-coast, and 56 SPONGE* there form burrows for themselves, or, as in some in- stances on our shores, take possession of those of rabbits. During the day they are generally on the wing, seeking for food ; this consists of the fat of whales or fish. But the most distinguishing characteristic of the genus is, that all the species have the power of spouting oil from their bills to a considerable distance. This is a means of defence ; they spirt it in the faces of those who at- tempt to take them. From the nature of their food, they abound so much in oil, that they actually, in some countries, have wicks passed through them, and are used for candles. Does it not forcibly impress us with the wonderful power of the Creator, when we consider the feeble in- struments he employs for such great and curious works ? We see visible traces of his mighty hand on every region of his dominions ; the same beautiful adaptation to cir- cumstances, the same wisdom is evident, whether we contemplate the starry firmament, the air, the earth, or the ocean, all teem with His works, all declare His glory. We exclaim with the Psalmist, " O Lord ! how manifold are thy works ; in wisdom hast thou made them all : the earth is full of thy riches. So is the great SPONGE. 57 and wide sea also ; wherein are things, creeping things innumerable, both small and great beasts." 58 RUST INDIAN-RUBBER LEAD PENCILS, &c. MARY. You have so frequently told me that I ought not to let common objects pass without learning all I can about them, that I have kept a list of some I wish to ask you about, and perhaps you will be so good as to give me some information respecting two or three of them to- day, AUNT. I shall be very happy to do so. Let me hear what questions you have to propose. MARY. In the first place I want to know what causes steel to rust in a damp place ? AUNT. The decomposition of water. RUST ON STEEL. 59 MARY. I really do not understand your answer, for how can that be the reason of this rust on my penknife, which has not been near water? AUNT. But it has been in a damp room, and damp is water in a state of vapour. I did not expect you to under- stand my answer without further explanation, which 1 was going to give you. The components of water are two gases, oxygen and hydrogen; and the oxygen having a greater affinity for steel than for hydrogen, the former obtains it from the latter, and the brown coating is formed, which is commonly called rust, but more properly an oxyd, from oxydation, a term used to ex- press the union of bodies with oxygen. MARY. Is not oxygen the gas you told me we inhale from the atmosphere when we breathe ? AUNT. Yes, and I also told you that it is absolutely requisite 60 RUST ON STEEL, in combustion. This operation cannot go on without a supply of oxygen, and in fact oxydation is a slight com- bustion, for there is disengagement of light and heat, (the accompaniments of combustion,) though it is not sufficient to be perceptible when metals oxydate at the common temperature of the atmosphere. The attraction of metals for oxygen varies considerably ; some require to be heated to combine with it. The precious metals, gold, silver, and platina, preserve their lustre so well, because they will not oxydate without being exposed to the greatest heat the chemist can produce. There is one, manganese, which has so strong an affinity for oxygen, that it becomes an oxyd immediately on its ex- posure to the air, and is seldom found in its pure state. The oxyds of metals may be restored to their pure metallic state by a process which is called reviving. For this purpose they are placed in con- tact with charcoal heated red hot, because it has a greater attraction for oxygen than metals. The oxygen quits the metal, and combines with the charcoal. Thus the oxyd is decomposed, or unburnt, and the metal restored. INDIAN-RUBBER. 61 MARY. Then rust is an oxyd, formed by the union of a metal with oxygen. Now you will, perhaps, think my next question a very ignorant one, but I do not recollect ever having heard what Indian-rubber is ; or, if I have, I have forgotten. AUNT. You probably never have. Of what nature should you imagine it to be ? MARY. It seems like a gum. AUNT. You are right, it is something of that nature, but par- takes more of the properties of a resin, and its proper name is caoutchouc. It is procured from two or three species of trees in the East Indies and South America, from which it flows as a white milky fluid. MARY. But we generally see it in the shape of bottles ; I suppose it is made to assume that form by art. DO J^ori 6*2 INDIAN-RUBBER. AUNT. Yes ; incisions are made in the trees, and the juice collected, into which little moulds of clay are dipped, and when dry, dipped in again; and this is conti- nued till the coating has acquired sufficient consistency ; the enclosed clay is then broken, aud shaken out. MARY. That accounts for the brown earthy appearance one always sees on cutting a bottle of Indian-rubber. But you said the juice was white ; is it then coloured, because we always have it black. AUNT. In a liquid state it is white, but it blackens in drying. You frequently see lines and figures on it; these are traced on the last coating before it is quite dry. It is obtained chiefly during rain, being observed to ooze more freely at that time. It is insoluble in water, of which property the Indians avail themselves by making boats of it, which are not penetrable by water. It may used as flambeaux, and is said to give a beautifully rilliant light, and not to emit any unpleasant odour. OF LEAD IN PENCILS. 63 It is very difficult of solution, for it resists the power of all common solvents, and can only, I believe, be per- fectly dissolved in ether. MARY. The subject of Indian-rubber reminds me of another question I have often thought of asking you. How is the lead in pencils made so much more shining and bril- liant than lead generally is ? AUNT. You are not aware that you are speaking of two dif- ferent things ; of a mineral, not a metal. There is not any lead in the composition of your pencils, though from custom they are called black-lead pencils. MARY. Then, pray, dear aunt, do tell me of what they are composed. AUNT. Of carbon, (a substance you are already somewh acquainted with,) united with a small portion of iron ; 64 OF LEAD IN PENCILS. these together form a compound, called in the language of chemistry, carburet of iron. There is only one mine of it in England. MARY. And where is that ? AUNT. In Cumberland. MARY. From what you say, I suppose there is much more carbon than iron in this compound. AUNT. Yes, the carbon greatly predominates ; indeed, it is considered to approach as nearly as possible to the best prepared charcoal, for there are only five parts of iron, and no other ingredient. MARY. From what kind of tree is gum arable obtained ? GUMS AND RESINS. 65 AUNT. It is of the same genus as that beautiful shrub with its tufts of brilliant yellow flowers we were admiring the other day, and which you had been accustomed to call a mimosa, till I told you it was now classed as an acacia. The species in question grows in great abundance in Africa generally, but the gum is chiefly obtained from those trees situated in the equatorial regions. Arabia, Barbary, and Egypt supply us with the greatest quan- tity. It exudes in the same manner as that from our cherry and plum-trees. Now remark the distinction between a gum and a resin. Indian-rubber (which I have just told you is of the latter nature) is insoluble in water, and this is the general characteristic of resins, though they yield more easily to spirituous solvents than caoutchouc. Gums, on the contrary, are soluble in water. By recollecting this fact you will be possessed of a test by which you can yourself discover to which of these classes any particular body belongs. In appear- ance, there is a great resemblance between gums and resins, and therefore they may be easily mistaken till submitted to the proof of solubility in water. In Arabia gum-arabic is applied to a purpose we are not accus- F ()6 GUM-ARABIC. tomed to see it used for in England, for sealing letters, and little vases filled with it, in a liquid state, are hung outside the houses. Even such trifling differences of custom in foreign countries strike us as singular and curious, and arrest our attention. Travellers in the East remark, that the style of folding, directing, and sealing letters immediately indicates, to a person ac- quainted with the customs of Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, whence they come, for each country has its distinct mode. MARY. So that if I ever should receive a letter sealed with gum, I shall suspect it has travelled to me from Arabia, though I do not think it likely I shall ever have my discernment exercised on this point. COLOURS. AUNT. As I saw you drawing yesterday, it occurred to me that you had very probably never considered whence your colours were obtained. Am I right ? Have you ever inquired from what substances they were extracted ? MARY. Your conjecture is indeed correct, for this is a sub- ject that I have never thought on, and I am quite glad that you have directed my attention to it. Let me see I should imagine the colours were all made from vege- tables. Is this the case ? AUNT. Far from it. Some are obtained from vegetables, some from animals, but the greater number from minerals. F -2 68 COLOURS. MARY. So instead of the artist being indebted to one only of the kingdoms of nature, as I ignorantly supposed, he is supplied from the three. Will you tell me the colours that belong to each ? AUNT. I will enumerate a few of each class; but I shall merely speak of the nature and origin of the colours, without attempting to explain how they are rendered fit for the painter's use ; a process which, in some instances, is very complicated. You may take it as a general rule with respect to water-colours, that those prepared from metals are always opaque, and those from animals and vegetables transparent. Prussian-blue, which is a metallic colour, is an exception, being always transpa- rent. Now I will comply with your request, and tell you that carmine and lake are obtained from the cochineal insect, seppia from a species of cuttle-fish. Ivory-black is the soot (or fixed product of combustion) of ivory or bones burnt in a close vessel. COLOURS. 69 MARY. Then these may be called animal colours. AUNT. Certainly. The mineral and metallic colours are very numerous ; indeed, nearly all the metallic oxyds are used as paints. Ultra-marine is an oxyd of lapis lazuli, and has this great advantage, that it never fades, even when mixed with other substances ; it is therefore to be regretted that its high price prevents its being more used. Smalt is, in fact, a glass formed of an oxyd of cobalt and potash. Vermilion results from a union of sulphur and quicksilver. The ochres are earths, and owe their different shades to the degrees of oxydation in which the iron is with which they are impregnated. Umber, again, is an earth of an ochreous nature, called from Ombria, the ancient name of the duchy of Spoleto, where it was first found. The basis of Prussian-blue is iron, which, mixed with a certain portion of alkali, and exposed to the action of heat, produces this useful colour. It takes its name from having been accident- ally discovered by a chemist of Berlin. Indigo is extracted from the leaves of a plant, the 70 COLOURS. Indigofera tinctoria. Gamboge is a vegetable exuda- tion, partaking of the properties both of a gum and a resin. The madders are obtained from the root of the madder, (rubia tine tor urn,) and so strong is the colour- ing matter of this plant, that the bones of animals which feed on it are tinged of a deep red. MARY. You have not mentioned either lamp-black or Indian- ink. What are they composed of? AUNT. The best lamp-black is, I believe, prepared from the soot of burnt pine-wood; but I have known persons who have made a very good black of this kind from the soot collected from an oil-lamp, merely adding a little gum- arabic to give it consistency. Indian-ink is a mixture of lamp-black and glue. MARY. I do not recollect that you spoke of any green. PLANT-INDIGO. Page 70. COLOURS. 71 AUNT. Green is generally a compound colour. I believe the only simple green that is at all vivid is that procured from vcrdigrease. The one you most commonly use, Prus- sian-green, consists of Prussian-blue and yellow-ochre. Purples and lilacs, too, are usually compound colours. I am aware that, in the few colours I have named, I perhaps have not noticed half what you will find in your own box ; but I did not promise to go through the whole, and shall leave you to discover y our self whether those I have omitted are to be referred to an animal, vegetable, or mineral origin. MARY. Thank you, my dear aunt, for having given me as much information as you have on this subject. I shall not rest now till I have found out what each little occu- pant of my box is composed of, for I am surprised that I could open it, day after day, without feeling such a curiosity. I am determined I will no longer remain in ignorance. AUNT. It is very useful to know whence each colour is de- 72 COLOURS. rived, that you may understand how to mix it properly with another. Care must be taken not to mix the mineral and vegetable colours, for they destroy each other, and, in a short time, the effect of a drawing in which such an error has been committed is completely altered. THE COTTON-TREE. Page 73. 73 A TRAVELLER. AUNT. Now, my dear, I shall try if I can puzzle you this morn- ing, though I do not expect to succeed, for I dare say you will soon discover the adventurers I am going to introduce to you. MARY. You rather alarm me ; for if you are about to speak of any distinguished persons whose history I ought to recollect, and I should have forgotten it, you will think me very forgetful and ignorant AUNT. We shall see how your memory serves. Listen to my tale. 74 A TRAVELLER. " In India, my native clime, I commenced my career as the protector of a tender infant, and may truly say I never left the object of my care till I found myself torn from it by a power which I was unable to resist, and we parted never to meet again. Nothing could be more violent and painful than the mode of our separation. However wrong it may be, it is generally remarked that there is a feeling almost amounting to satisfaction when we find we are not greater sufferers than our neighbours ; a consolation which I certainly enjoyed, for numbers of mine were obliged to submit to the same discipline as myself, and to part from those with whom they had been, from their springing into life, most nearly connected. I soon found that we were to be entirely at the disposal of our captors, and that it was their intention shortly to transport us to a foreign country. For this purpose a receptacle was prepared for us, into which we were all unceremoniously hurried ; and though we seemed at first to be quite as close together as was at all agreeable, it was considered by those under whose direction we were that we puffed ourselves out, and occupied too much space. We were soon obliged to contract our- A TRAVELLER. 75 selves ; nay, they did not even scruple to have recourse to main force to make us lie nearer together, which it may be easily imagined was far from comfortable. After we had remained in this miserable state for some time, we were removed from the position we had hith- erto occupied, and placed on board a large vessel, where we did not meet with more consideration than in our former situation : and there was this further disad- vantage, that we were kept longer in durance, for we were nearly six months on our voyage, uncertain of our destination, and of what was to be our fate on reaching it. But, dull and uncomfortable as our life was during this half-year's imprisonment, it was delightful compared with what we had to undergo afterwards. On the ship's arrival in port all was bustle and confusion ; but from one language prevailing, which we had often heard spoken in our own dear India, we felt convinced we must be in England, that happy land of liberty, and we were certain that here, at any rate, we should meet with more humanity, and be released from bondage. We were indeed let out of our confinement, but only to be treated still more cruelly. The passengers all landed, 76 A TRAVELLER. and we anxiously expected to follow ; but our turn did not come ; we seemed to be forgotten. At last, how- ever, the anticipated moment arrived, and we found ourselves on English ground. I cannot enter into a detail of all our sufferings. One of the operations to which we were obliged to submit I can only compare to being on the rack, which will give some idea of the rigorous treatment we experienced. After suffering the inflictions of those into whose hands we had fallen, we were completely altered, our very nature seemed changed, and we discovered that we were thus disguised in order to serve the ends of our tormentors. We travelled to various parts of the country, and in several of the pro- vincial towns we were introduced into immense build- ings, in which were rooms of enormous length, where a great number of persons were assembled, whose whole attention, strange to say, seemed devoted to us. Here many of us were united together. Each of us had hith- erto led much the same kind of life, but now OUT desti- nies were exceedingly different. Some of my compa- nions, leaving the great houses I have spoken of, were allowed to revisit their native country, not to take up A TRAVELLER. 77 their abode there, but to improve their appearance, (a long way to go for such a purpose,) and after having undergone what was deemed requisite to produce this result, they were again embarked for England, where they became great favourites, and were eagerly sought for by the female part of the community. The period I am referring to is some few years ago, when such travel- lers were more esteemed than they are now. We stay- at-homes have since risen in reputation, and gained the place in society they formerly monopolized. Numbers of us are now journeying on the continent of Europe, others in America; in short, the English name has, through our means, been carried to all the quarters of the globe. We are universally valued for our useful properties. Proteus like, we assume various forms, and may be seen of every hue. The offices we fill are equally various. We are found about the persons of the monarch and the peasant of the fine lady and her meanest attendant. We assist in the diffusion of light, and are not less frequently employed in its exclusion. But it would be vain to attempt an enumeration of all 78 A TRAVELLER. our offices, and I have already told sufficient of the his- tory of myself and friends." MARY. I have listened very attentively, dear aunt, but I must confess myself so stupid as not to know of whom you have been speaking. AUNT. My riddle (or whatever you like to call it) was sug- gested by a conversation we had a very short time ago, and therefore I fancied you would not be long in making it out. Do not you remember how much interested you were by hearing of the number of hands through which cotton passes in its progress from the raw to the manu- factured state ? MARY. Ah ! now I understand ! The protectors of the tender infants are the soft envelopes of the seeds of the cotton- plant, that is, the cotton in its natural state ; and the imaginary sufferings you have described are the opera- A TRAVELLER. 79 tions to which it is submitted in its preparation for articles of clothing, and the other uses to which it is applied. COTTON-PLANT. 80 RAIN. MARY. How much I regret this wet morning ; it will prevent our taking our walk : and it is so particularly unfortunate, because you promised to take me to Wood, to seek for insects, and I have prepared my net and boxes for catching and bringing them home. AUNT. It is true, my dear, your expected pleasure is deferred by this rain ; but we must not, on such occasions, think only of ourselves and our own gratifications, but reflect on the general benefit that is received from the alterna- tion of rain and sunshine. Recollect how parched the ground looked yesterday ; you know in some places we remarked that it had actually cracked from excessive dryness. This seasonable supply of moisture will revive RAIN. 81 the whole face of nature, by affording nourishment to vegetation. MARY. And all the poor plants that looked so drooping will hold up their heads again. Pray, aunt, what is the cause of rain ? AUNT. You know I told you the other day that there is always a certain portion of moisture in the air. MARY. I recollect you did, and you said, also, that it con- tained most when it appeared the driest. AUNT. The reason of which, though it appears paradoxical without explanation, is, that when the air is the warmest it can dissolve the greatest quantity of water. Now for the cause of rain. When a portion of this warm air, charged with moisture, meets a current of colder air, it- is deprived of some of its heat, and with its heat its G 82 RAIN. power of retaining water in a state of solution is dimin- ished, and the particles (of water) approach each other, and fall in the form of rain. The refreshment and abundance produced by rain is one of the blessings for which, from their frequency and common occurrence, we are not sufficiently grateful. In our temperate cli- mate we seldom suffer from the want of it, and the verdure of our fields and trees is the consequence. This grateful freshness is so familiar to our eye that we almost cease to observe it, but it is remarkably striking to those who come from, what we are apt to consider, more favoured climes. An inhabitant of France or Italy, or of the "further East," is immediately struck by the greenness of our country, and filled with admiration of so great a beauty. This is a subject I like to dwell upon, for I think the advantage of having been placed in so temperate and healthful a climate as ours, is one of those every-day comforts of which we are too apt to be unmindful. MARY. I deserve to be censured for complaining as I did just now ; it was, indeed, very selfish. RAIN. b3 AUNT. We are all too prone to do so, and lament the vari- ableness of our climate, without considering it is to that cause we owe its healthfulness. Placed between the extremes of heat and cold, we avoid the inconveniences consequent on both. The seasons are, indeed, more regular and less changeable in other latitudes, but comfort is far from being the result of this regularity. Towards the poles the year is divided between a long, dreary winter, and a very short summer. Between the tropics, the wet and dry seasons are more accurately divided than ours ; but you would not, I imagine, con- sider this an advantage, for during the dry season the air is so heated as to become scorching and insupport- able ; and when the wet season sets in, it is with such violence as to be often appalling, and hurricanes spread devastation, uprooting the largest trees, and sweeping away the abodes of man in their course. MARY. We are indeed happy to be exempt from such ravages. You say all the various changes of weather are bene- 84 RAIX. ficial, and we certainly see and know that rain is so, but of what use is wind ? AUNT. You must yourself have remarked how, after a heavy fall of rain, the ground is dried by this useful agent, to which you do not seem able to assign an office ; if it were not for its influence, after a wet season, the water would remain so long on the ground as to become un- wholesome. Another important service is the purifica- tion of the atmosphere ; unwholesome exhalations are dispelled by it, and rendered harmless by the rushing in of a current of pure air. A remarkable instance of the instrumentality of the agitation of the atmosphere in dispelling noxious vapours, is mentioned by travellers as occurring in the neighbourhood of Vera Cruz, where great mortality is annually caused by a malignant fever, called the vomito, but this ceases as soon as the norte y a violent north wind, sets in. This wind is dreadfully tempestuous, but notwithstanding the great injuries done by the fury with which it blows, the inhabitants of Vera Cruz hail it with delight, from its being, though a rude, a certain remedy for the greater evil the malady which FISHING-BOATS IN A GALE. Page 85. RAIN. 85 rages dining the portion of the year that the norte does not blow. Then, when enumerating the services of wind we must not fail to mention the facilitation of intercourse between distant countries, by impelling vessels from one shore to others so many hundred miles apart. There are particular winds which prevail at cer- tain seasons of the year between the tropics, a know- ledge of which greatly assists the mariner in his course through the seas over which they blow. These are called trade-winds, &c., &c., and at some future time I will tell you more of them. MARY. But though wind is so essential for the progress of vessels, how much it must make the poor sailors suffer when it is very high. I always pity the fishermen, par- ticularly when I see them pushing off their boats on a windy night. AUNT. They are, indeed, very much to be commiserated during severe gales ; but they rather rejoice in a degree of wind which you would, I dare say, consider it very 86 RAIN. sad that they should be exposed to, because there are some kinds of fish the captures of which are so much more abundant during a gale. I was, last year, on the Norfolk coast, where are our principal stations for her- ring-fishing, and I felt as you do while I used to watch the industrious, persevering fishermen preparing for then* nightly task, when the wind raised the waves so high that their boats could scarcely make way against them ; but to any remark on the boisterous blowing of the wind, they always replied : " It is good for fishing ; if we have no wind we catch no herrings." So wise are the appointments of Providence, that to every station and occupation he has allotted compensating advan- tages : the fisherman's lot appears to us a hard one, but his employment is peculiarly healthy, and he is rendered, by exposure to weather, so hardy that what we should consider great inconveniences and difficulties, he thinks nothing of, and what we should deem one of the greatest evils he has to contend with, he regards with compla- cency and satisfaction, because it is the means of sup- plying him with abundance of that on which he depends for the support of his family. 87 FALL OF THE LEAF. MARY. I AM sorry to see the leaves falling ; our morning walks will soon be over, and the country looks so dismal when the trees are bare. AUNT. The naked branches certainly form a sad contrast to the gay verdure with which they are clothed in spring and summer ; and we always look with sorrow on the withering leaves, because they remind us that those charming seasons are passed, and the less agreeable divisions of the year are approaching. How great a blessing is this gradual change ! In our temperate climate we do not pass from intense heat to sudden cold, but are prepared for the frost and snow of winter by the chilly air of its precursor, autumn. And these 88 FALL OF THE 'LEAF. falling leaves, of which you complain, how useful they are ! When decomposed by moisture they make an excellent manure, and contribute to the nourishment of the trees from which they drop. The economy of nature is a beautiful consideration. The care of God for all his creatures is evinced by the provision that he has made for every individual ; the most insignificant plant, the most minute insect, is not overlooked, but finds itself placed in a situation where it meets with suste- nance suited for it. Nothing is lost, nothing useless. To how marly purposes are trees when felled applied, which, while living and covered with leaves, were so orna- mental, and afforded so grateful a shade ! The stately oak, which in its progress to maturity has been the admiration of generations, converted into a vessel, now bears the defenders of the land on which it grew ; or, guided by more peaceful hands, transports the discoverer to the dreary regions of eternal ice, or the merchant to more genial climes, in search of the various productions they yield. How grateful is the shade of this lime-walk, and how sweet the scent shed around when the trees are in blossom ! But the use of the lime does not end here. Its wood is hard and tough, which properties FALL OF THE LEAF. 89 adapt it for making axle-trees, mill-wheels, &c. The bark, dried and ground to powder, and mixed with meal, makes bread, and is thus used in Norway in times of scarcity. The flowers are gathered by the Swiss as a substitute for tea, and considered by them much more wholesome than that from the Chinese herb. How various are the benefits we derive from the inferior ani- mal creation ! When an ox or a sheep is slain for our food, those parts which are not suited for this purpose are not cast away as unavailable, but are convertible into articles for the service of man. By immersion in water, spermaceti may be obtained from the bones of horses ; the horns of deer yield the essence which gives the agreeable pungency to hartshorn. But I cannot select any animal that will more fully illustrate this sub- ject and prove the correctness of what I have said than that timid creature, the sheep. MARY. Is it so particularly useful ? I know how much it is used for food, but I was not aware that it was service- able in many other wavs. 90 FALL OF THE LEAF. AUNT. A little reflection will bring to your recollection one great benefit we derive from it, almost as great as the nutritious and wholesome food it supplies us with. Of what are our warm winter garments composed ? MARY. Oh ! very true. I remember of wool. I was cer- tainly extremely stupid and ungrateful to the poor sheep, to forget that it is to them we owe so much comfort. AUNT. And let us stop a moment to consider how many are the benefits derived from this single product, which at first might only appear as refuse. Sheep are sheared every year, and each shearing gives employment to numbers of persons. It is requisite for the wool to pass through various processes before it is fit to be made into clothing ; and it goes through more hands than I can enumerate before it is ready for the wearer, supply- ing a livelihood to the various artisans who are engaged in its preparation. When killed, we gain possession of the skin as well as the wool. This is made into parch- FALL OF THE LEAF. 91 ment, and what is not fit for this purpose is used for making glue. MARY. What a valuable creature ! AUNT. But I hare not done yet : candles are made of its fat, which is also one of the ingredients in that useful article, soap. A healing oil is extracted from the feet, and even their horns have their appropriation, being made into buttons and similar articles. MARY. Sheep were always favourites of mine, but now I shall regard them with still greater interest. AUNT. Every part of the animal has its peculiar useful pro- perties ; and so it is throughout creation, though our ignorance prevents the purpose to which all that we behold may be applied. The most disgusting objects to our senses, as decaying bodies, &c., are an acceptable 92 FALL OF THE LEAF. banquet to numbers of living creatures. Then we are apt to speak of certain things as consumed, and attach to the idea of any body that is decomposed either by combustion or by putrefaction, a complete disappear- ance of the body, or a change to nothing; but this notion is false. I cannot too strongly impress upon your mind, that in the wisely ordered economy of nature there is nothing lost. When matter is decomposed it is resolved into its elements, and these disengaged ele- ments unite with other bodies and form new compounds. Thus, in combustion, when you look at a fire of coals, it appears as if the coals were destroyed by burning, but this is not the case ; no particle of matter in nature is destroyed. The coals are only decomposed by the action of heat. MARY. Into what are they changed ? AUNT. Partly into substances which are visible, as soot and ashes, (called the fixed products of combustion,) and partly into an imperceptible gas, called the volatile pro- FALL OF THE LEAF. 93 duct. With the latter you are already in some degree acquainted, for it is no other than carbonic acid gas. MARY. But how is that ? you told me it was produced by burning charcoal. AUNT. Carbon is the principal ingredient in the composition of coals, and, therefore, they likewise produce carbonic acid, and it likewise results from the breathing of ani- mals, and the decomposition of vegetables during putre- faction, and from these sources enters into the composi- tion of the atmosphere, whence it is imbibed by the leaves of plants. Here, again, is a beautiful arrange- ment. This gas, as you know, is highly prejudicial when inhaled into the human lungs, and were it allowed to accumulate would render the air totally unfit for res- piration; but the prejudicial principle, the carbon, is seized upon by vegetables for nourishment, and the oxygen, (which you will remember is the other compo- nent,) the gas which we inhale, is returned to supply and purify the air. It is from there being no trees to absorb 94 FALL OF THE LEAF. this noxious gas that many districts are rendered so unhealthy and pestilential ; it is considered that if the Pontine Marshes were planted, the malaria, which proves so fatal in its effects, would no longer prevail. But I cannot dismiss this gas without observing that it affords a remarkable instance of the same agent possessing a productive and destructive principle. Not only does it destroy animal life, but it decomposes many of the hardest rocks. MARY. What ! as it floats in the air ? AUNT. Yes, by merely coming in contact with rocks of a cer- tain class it causes them to moulder. MARY. How extraordinary that so hard and apparently im- penetrable a substance as rock should be thus acted upon ! AUNT. This gas abounds in hot springs, and is freely disen- FALL OF THE LEAF. 95 gaged from them. Travellers tell us that it escapes so rapidly and abundantly from the Lake of Solfaterra that some parts of its surface appear as if boiling. In vol- canic districts it rises from the soil, and its effect in increasing the luxuriance of vegetation is very percep- tible ; for many trees, which would not otherwise thrive in the same soil and climate, by the abundance of grate- ful nourishment it imparts, attain to uncommon size and vigour. 96 ON ROOKS, &c. MARY. I ALWAYS observe a number of rooks on a newly ploughed field, and they seem to follow and hover about the plough as the ground is turning up. There must be something that attracts them. AUNT. They are seeking for the grubs of cockchafers. MARY. Do they look for them as food ? AUNT. Yes ; and the farmer derives great benefit from their freeing his fields from these insects, which are extremely destructive, and so numerous that if they were not thus kept in check their ravages would be fearful. Page 96. ROOKS. 97 MARY. What injury do they do ? AUNT. They destroy the crops by eating the roots of corn and grass, and as they remain four years in the grub state, you may imagine how much food would be required for the succeeding generation of each year. Nor do they, like some Insects, cease to take the same quantity of nourishment when they have undergone their last change. The appetite of the cockchafer is undiminished when it becomes a beetle, and it satisfies it by eating largely of the leaves of trees. It has sometimes been thought that it would be advisable to exterminate all the rooks in a neighbourhood, in order to prevent their taking a portion of the ripe grain, but those who have tried this experiment have invariably found that they were pursuing a wrong plan. Their fields lost their verdure, and the springing blade, withered and dry, gave the appearance of an arid plain to their green corn- lands, and they were glad to re-establish colonies of their friends the rooks, in order to stop the devastations of the destructive insects. H 98 ROOKS. MARY. I am pleased to find that these birds are so useful, for I like to watch them building their nests, and to listen to their cawing ; but I was like the farmers who destroyed them, I always fancied they did harm. AUNT. The keeping in check of one class of creatures by others which prey upon them is part of the wise scheme of Providence. By this means no order of created beings occupy too large a space on the earth, or is allowed to go beyond the bounds prescribed to it. In wild and uninhabited countries we find carnivorous beasts, which prey upon the gentler animals. When man takes up his abode in these regions he is allowed to exterminate the beasts of prey, because they are no longer wanted, man himself feeding on the creatures which they were before commissioned to remove. In a work I was reading a short time ago, I met with a remark- able instance of this restrictive power, not exercised by one order of animals on a different one, but by indivi- duals of the same species on each other. The plains of South America abound in wild horses, which are usually ROOKS. 99 particularly mild and gentle in their nature, but when their supply of water becomes scanty, they are seized with a kind of madness. They rush into the ponds, trampling upon each other ; and the carcases of thou- sands have been found round a pool, destroyed in this manner. Were it not for the mortality caused by this civil war, the plains would not supply food for these horses, so rapid is their increase. What variety do we see in the means employed by Providence to accom- plish the same ends ! The feathered tribes, too, have their devourers; and they, again, feed on insects; so that throughout nature we observe this law in force. Indeed, were it not for this wise ordination, the earth would be overrun with the immense numbers of creatures pro- duced on it, and would no longer be a fit abode for man. Even the increase of insects would be intolerable. Though these, from their rank among created things, and their diminutive size, may appear contemptible, their multiplication is in many, indeed, in most in- stances, so prodigious, that were they not kept within due limits, our trees and fields would be bare of leaves and grass, and the earth would become loathsome from the presence of such multitudes of winged and creeping H 2 100 ROOKS. things the air would be filled with them the ground covered. But you know to how many casualties these small creatures are exposed. Birds are constantly seeking for them as food to convey to their young broods; and they have many enemies among them- selves, cannibal insects as they may be called. Of this class are the different varieties of ichneumon- flies, which attack their prey in the caterpillar, chrysalis, and perfect states. MARY. And did you not once tell me that the pretty little lady -birds eat other insects ? AUNT. I did. Their office is to keep in check the plant- lice, ( aphides J and they are particularly useful in hop- grounds, which are much in- fested by aphides. It is always remarked that when the lady -birds appear in the enormous quantities they sometimes do, they are more ROOKS. 101 than usually required among the hops ; with the evil, the remedy is sent forth. MARY. I suppose a greater number of insects are destroyed by the effects of cold than by any other cause, and therefore that this may be considered one of the great preventives of their too great increase. AUNT. It is generally believed that severe cold is a certain destroyer of insects ; but this opinion is more general than just, for it is found, by experiments, that these little creatures (though apparently so fragile and delicate that one would imagine a sudden frost would sweep away the whole race) are yet able to bear a very intense degree of cold. Some of our common caterpillars are often so completely frozen as to be converted into brittle pieces of ice, that break on being dropped on a hard substance, and yet in this benumbed state, when the principle of life seems extinct, they feel the influence of a milder temperature, revive with the return of spring, and resume their ordinary functions. The fact of their 102 HOOKS. reanimation has been proved by the application of arti- ficial heat. You know I have told you that the gene- rality of insects pass the winter in the chrysalis state. Many of these, which could not sustain so great a degree of cold as those I have been speaking of, pene- trate deep into the earth, beyond the reach of frost ; and others are taught to protect themselves from cold by the warm clothing in which they envelope their little bodies. So that you see the influence of cold upon them is not so great as popular belief would lead one to conclude. The wonderful preservation of these small creatures, and the various means of defence with which they are furnished are most remarkable. Thus, though no order of crea- tion is permitted to exceed the bounds prescribed to it, so is no one allowed to become totally extinct. In both instances the wisdom of the Almighty, and his care for everything that he has made, shine forth most conspicu- ously ; indeed, this is equally the case whichever way we direct our contemplations, if they are occupied with his works. In mere beauty of form and texture how far do they surpass the productions of man; and these qualities are the more striking the more minutely we are able to examine them. The microscope shows us the ROOKS. 103 wide difference that exists between the works of nature and art. In the one it discovers new perfections, in the other it renders defects visible. If you were to see the skeleton of a leaf and a piece of muslin of the most delicate fabric that the loom can produce exposed to the influence of a powerful magnifier at the same time, you would be surprised to find how coarse and uneven its threads would appear when compared with the deli- cate and beautifully finished fibres of the leaf. I only give you this as one instance among thousands, for nothing that comes from the hand of man can stand such a test. 104 INSECT CHANGES. MARY. I WAS attracted yesterday, in the garden, by some little caterpillars, which seemed as if they were hanging from the trees, and when I put out my hand to touch them, they quickly returned to the branches. AUNT. They were no doubt some of the leaf-rollers, a tribe which abounds in every wood and garden, and as the season is approaching when they will form their leafy tents, in order to retire into them to undergo their trans- formations, I advise you to watch their operations. Though the leaf-rollers of the oak, the lilac, and rose agree in enveloping their tiny bodies in a vegetable garb, yet they all differ in their mode of preparing it. I refer you to the volume of the Library of Entertaining INSECT CHANGES. 105 Knowledge on Insect Architecture, where you will find some nice figures descriptive of their work. MARY. It must be almost as curious to watch their proceed- ings as those of the leaf-cutter bees. Indeed, I think insects must be most interesting little creatures, and I shall hope to be able to observe the habits of many during the summer. In the meantime, dear aunt, you 106 INSECT CHANGES. will, perhaps, kindly give me some information about any that you have remarked. AUNT. I will mention a few curious circumstances that have come within my own observation. I was once looking at a caterpillar, when, to my astonishment, I beheld it draw off its skin completely ; but after a few minutes' repose I was still more astonished to see it swallow the abstracted covering ! this to me seemed a most extra- ordinary proceeding, and I fancied it a whim of the individual, but on referring to a work on entomology I found it was customary in certain genera. You remem- ber, I dare say, my pointing out to you the privet sphinx-moth at the Museum the other day. MARY. Oh, yes, perfectly. It had a thick body and long wings. AUNT. Well, this moth exhibits a most singular appearance when it first emerges from the chrysalis. Its wings do INSECT CHANGES. 107 not much exceed those of a bee in size, which makes it look quite like a deformity. In the space of a quarter of an hour, however, the wings gain their fall dimen- sions. MARY. I suppose, then, they are folded up. 108 INSECT CHANGES. AUNT. You might very naturally fancy so, but this is not the case ; the expansion is caused by the impulsion of air and fluid into the vessels ; by this beautiful provision a much smaller case is required for the creature during its imprisonment in the pupa. I will show you a drawing of a caterpillar, which afforded me much amusement by the art it displayed, in preparing its place of conceal- ment so as to secure itself from the attacks of birds, and other enemies, during its period of torpidity. In a piece of dry wood it hollowed a space sufficient to admit its body ; it then began to spin a thin veil over the open- ing, which it continued till there was. only room for it to pass its head through ; it then stretched from its little hermitage, took up some of the particles of the wood, and glued them on the web, interspersed with some hair picked from its own body : the labour now concluded, the ingenious worker drew in its head, closed the aper- ture, and retired to await its change. So completely had it accomplished its object, that though I had been observing it so closely, I could scarcely distinguish the nicely covered cell from the solid wood. INSECT CHANGES. 109 MARY. How curious you must have been to see the butterfly issue forth ! AUNT. Indeed I was, but my expectations were disappointed, for the poor little creature became the prey of one of those destroyers of the hopes of entomologists, an ich- neumon-fly, and never appeared ; but I have since seen the perfect insect in a collection. MARY. I do not remember ever to have heard of the kind of fly you allude to. How did it prevent the appear- ance of the butterfly ? AUNT. There are various species of these flies, which may be regarded as insect cannibals. They lay their eggs in the bodies of other insects, and when these eggs are hatched, the young brood of grubs feed on the devoted creature ; thus, when one has been anxiously expecting from the long-kept chrysalis a beautiful moth or butter- fly, an insignificant fly is the only object one beholds. 110 INSECT CHANGES. The first time such a circumstance happened to me 1 imagined the intruder had found its way through some aperture in the gauze which covered the glass contain- ing my chrysalis, but experience soon taught me the truth. MARY. Oh, how mortifying it must have been ! AUNT. Time will only allow me to relate the deeds of one more caterpillar this morning. To attain the same object, security, it proceeded in a different manner. After hollowing out some wood, as the other had done, it formed a kind of mortar from some earth which I had put in its glass, kneading it, if I may so express myself, till sufficiently tenacious to cement the minute strips of wood it had sawn out, and these strips it laid across as rafters for its more solid tenement. In this instance no ichneumon interfered with me ; the winged insect broke through its wall, and left its abode free for my examination. I found the earth was moulded with the greatest nicety, instinct having taught the inexperienced INSECT CHANGES. Ill worker to execute its first attempt with the dexterity and precision which is only the consequence of practice, in the constructors of our habitations. MARY. I should think the eggs of insects must be often destroyed from their small size. AUNT. No doubt this is often the case, but the care which the parent takes in selecting a fit place for depositing them, is as remarkable as that with which it has pre- pared for its own change. In the instance of the ich- neumon, you observe, the safety of the eggs was pro- vided for, and a supply of nourishment furnished for the newly-hatched grubs ; and let me call your attention to the fact, that the caterpillar is always pierced deep enough to allow of its casting its coat without endanger- ing the deposited eggs. One kind of moth glues its eggs very securely round the twigs of trees. The first time I noticed one of these little bracelet-like deposi- tories I cut off the branch, and took it in to examine, not at all suspecting what it really was. I laid it in a 112 INSECT CHANGES. book-case to keep till I should meet with some one of whom I could inquire. To my surprise, on going for a book a few mornings after, I saw a multitude of minute caterpillars protruding themselves. The temperature of the drawing-room had had the effect of a premature spring, and drawn them forth ; but as no such impulse had been received out of doors, there were no leaves to give the untimely brood, and they consequently perished. MARY. Then the heat proved as inimical to your observations as the ichneumon on a former occasion. AUNT. It did, indeed, and I advise you to profit from my ex- perience, and if you meet with any doubtful subjects, avoid putting them in too warm a place. The eggs of the pretty lace-winged fly (which we have so often ad- mired) are curiously placed to preserve them from the grubs of other insects at the point of thin threads, which are attached to the twigs or leaves of trees. INSECT CHANGES. 113 MARY. Thank you, my dear aunt, I have been much inte- rested. AUNT. I am very 7 glad you have, and that you feel a desire to know something of this beautiful portion of creation, for it eminently displays the power of the almighty Creator ; and the changes which insects are appointed to pass through are so strikingly emblematical of man's abode on earth, his descent to the grave, and the ascent of his purified spirit to the mansions of bliss, that I should really think no one whose mind has been pro- perly directed, could be an attentive observer of these wonderful phenomena, without reflecting seriously on this obvious analogy, and deriving profit from the les- sons it may teach us, if studied aright. When we are watching the metamorphoses of an insect, and see it exactly fulfilling all the purposes for which its ephemeral existence was granted, often overcoming great difficul- ties to accomplish it, should we not ask ourselves how we have performed the part assigned us whether we have kept in mind the great end of our merciful Creator i 114 INSECT CHANGES. in placing us here. As certainly as the crawling cater- pillar becomes a different creature, endued with new powers and propensities, so certainly will our souls leave this tenement of clay, and appear in another state of existence. Let it be our earnest aim to prepare them for one of purity and glory ! 115 VARIETY IN NATURE. MARY. I HAVE been employing myself this fine morning in gathering some seeds, which I think are ripe unusually early this season, and as I went from plant to plant I was much struck by the great variety observable in their seeds. AUNT. Variety seems, indeed, to be one of the agents em- ployed by the great Creator for the gratification of his creatures. It was beautifully remarked by a heathen author, that "this world is a most holy temple, and highly worthy of God. Into this," says he, " man enters at his birth, not to gaze at motionless statues, or things made with hands, but to contemplate those objects which the Divine mind itself has made sensible to our I 2 116 VARIETY IN NATURE. understanding." The heart of every Christian must respond to such sentiments, and, as he is allowed a nearer approach to the almighty Former of all these wonders than was granted to the heathen, so his delight will be proportionally increased on sun eying the endless beauties that surround him, because he can exclaim, with our own sweet poet " My Father made them all ! " As the same purposes might, no doubt, have been answered without the rich variety with which all created things abound, the consideration of the relief that this diversity affords us ought to excite feelings of thankfulness as well as admiration. I often think that we are not suffi- ciently alive to this. MARY. I am sure I never am, except, perhaps, in spring, when, after the sombre tint of winter, the change that each day exhibits produces a constantly renewing de- light ; but, by the middle of summer, I am become so accustomed to the gay beauty of the fields and garden, that the vivid and thankful emotions which burst forth at the sight of the first snowdrop and crocus seem to be forgotten. But I hope the remarks you have just made, VARIETY IN NATURE. 117 as well as many others I have heard from you, my dear aunt, will render me in future more observant and more consistently grateful. AUNT. It should be our aim to establish such a frame of mind. But to return to the little basket of seeds, which led us to these reflections. Here you have seeds con- tained in pods, others, as in this strawberry-bearing spinach, embedded in a soft, pulpy substance, some retained in the dried calyx, others closely set on the receptacle in short, each tribe has its distinct mode of arrangement, so that in this respect there is infinite diversity. Then look, after considering their cases, at the individual seeds from each. How different they are. The sweet-pea and lupin, the sunflower and hawk weed, each is immediately distinguishable. MARY. How beautifully marked and polished some seeds are ! The generality, I think, are smooth. 118 VARIETY IN NATURE. AUNT. Perhaps so, for their smoothness causes them to slip easily into the earth. But there are many exceptions to this. Those of the umbelliferous tribe, for instance, are usually ribbed, or beset with minute spines. MARY. I admire the seeds of the compound flowers more than any. The down that carries them is so delicate and light. AUNT. Now you introduce a new instance of variety: the mode of distributing seeds with a view to the dissemi- nation of vegetable life. The feathery appendages you admire transport some through the air; others, when fully ripe, are scattered to a distance by a sudden jerk of the vessel that contains them. To attempt enumera- tion, however, would be endless. Remark all this beau- tiful mechanism yourself, and then, next spring, as you are distributing the seeds you have collected, you will be able to tell me by what means, if self-sown, they would have been spread to a distance from the parent plant. VARIETY IN NATURE. 119 MARY. I have often taken up seeds after having sown them a short time, and have observed the parts of the seed split asunder, and the little root and stem making their way between them. AUNT. Yes, their germination has then commenced. In order to promote this there are three essentials requisite moisture, air, and a certain degree of heat. MARY. Is air requisite ? Why, I fancied it was necessary to exclude it, and therefore always carefully cover any seeds I sow with earth. In future I may save myself the trouble, and merely scatter them on the ground in- stead of covering them. AUNT. You would not find that plan succeed, and had there- fore better follow your former method. While you were affording a larger supply you would at the same time cause exposure to light, which is inimical to germi- 120 VARIETY IN NATURE. nation, and its absence is as essential as the presence of air. A sufficient portion of the latter penetrates through the small quantity of earth you place over seeds. MARY. How great a change must take place in the nature of the plant when it has escaped from the earth, for you have often told me that the flowers and fruit could not be brought to perfection in darkness. AUNT. The genial influence of light is absolutely requisite for their developement ; so essential is it, that a German botanist remarked, after along removal of light, a shaking of the plant, as if it had been agitated by the shivering of a fever ; and I think if you recal what I told you was. the effect of light on these organs, you will the better understand why it would be injurious to seeds, when germinating, I mean, for when ripening it is highly ser- viceable. VARIETY IN NATURE. 121 MARY. I remember you said that light made the leaves part with oxygen. Is that the effect you allude to ? AUNT. Yes. Now let us apply your answer to the point. Seeds are overcharged with carbon, (for the purpose of preserving them,) and therefore it is proper to exclude light, which would supply them with it, and to give them air and moisture, which enable them to part with a portion of what they have. MARY. I recollect you told me it was the deposition of car- bon that caused the hardness of wood. I suppose the quantity seeds contain accounts for their being so hard. Those of many of our most slender annuals are exces- sively so. AUNT. There is such a collecting of carbon during the ripening of seeds, that the ground becomes quite ex- hausted by it, Carbon gives solidity to the vegetable 122 VARIETY IN NATURE. creation, lime to the animal : recollect this distinction ; and let me here mention a remarkable fact, that the quantity of lime contained in plants which grow in pure sand, or amidst granite, is not less than the quantity contained in those which grow in a calcareous soil. It is even found in those that have been reared in porce- lain vases, and nourished only by carbonic acid water. This proves that the ingredients of organized bodies are formed by themselves from the elementary materials that surround them. Lime is supposed to be a com- pound of azote and carbon. MARY. Another question, dear aunt. I saw the gardener try some seeds the other day by throwing them into water ; those that sank he kept for sowing, those that swam he rejected. Why was this ? \Vhy did he not put all into the ground ? AUNT. Because he knew by experience the lighter would not germinate. VARIETY IN NATURE. 123 MARY. Is the reason why they would not, known ? AUNT. Deficiency of carbon prevents them. The seeds which have (from some accidental circumstance) been impeded in the collection of this supporting principle of vegetable life are dead, and incapable of producing plants. This imperfection is in most cases amply com- pensated by the abundant provision of seeds yielded. Grew, speaking of the immense quantity produced, gives a calculation of the number contained in the cap- sules of a single white poppy. He says : u The white poppy commonly bears four mature heads, in each of which there are at least ten partitions, on the sides whereof the seeds grow, and upon the fourth part of one side there are about one hundred seeds, that is, eight hundred on one partition, which being multiplied by ten, (the number of partitions,) makes eight thousand, and eight thousand again by four, (the number of heads,) makes thirty-two thousand seeds the yearly product of the plant. 124 VARIETY IN NATURE. MARY. That is immense, indeed ! AUNT. Before we go to the breakfast-room I will read you a passage from a favourite little work of mine, (Botanical Theology,) apposite to the subject which has engaged us this morning. " But nothing," says the amiable author, " can more clearly, simply, and obviously dis- play the unlimited extent of that mysteriously operating Power or Spirit which has pervaded and modified, and still pervades and sustains every part of creation, from the bright centre of celestial systems, from the ellipses of the planets and the comets to the nervous ganglion of a worm, or the calyptra of a moss, than the infinite diversity of forms and modifications of the most familiar object. It seems as if an angel's voice were heard from every leaf, exclaiming, ( Look at the leaves of a hundred thousand species ! In every species they are different ; among myriads of myriads of leaves no two exactly resemble each other.'" 125 WATER-PIMPERNEL. MARY. I SEE a little plant with a white flower, that I do not know, but I am almost afraid it is beyond my reach. AUNT. Point it out to me, and I will try to assist you. MARY. It is on the other side of the brook, a very few steps further on. AUNT. 1 see perfectly where you mean, and with my parasol I can easily get it for you : there, seize your prize, lest it should fall into the water. It is the water-pimpernel, (samolus mlerandi.) 1 26 WATER-PIMPERNEL. MARY. I am very much obliged to you for aiding me to obtain it. It is quite new to me. AUNT. Had you been a more experienced botanist you would have met with this little plant before, which, though so insignificant in appearance, and though not distin- guished for any remarkable virtue or property, is, never- theless, one of the most widely distributed. Linnaeus remarked that it was to be met with in almost every part of the globe, and the observations of succeeding botanists confirm this singular fact. MARY. It looks a very delicate plant, but it must, no doubt, have a very strong constitution if it can live and flourish in such various climates. AUNT. It is very unusual to find the same plants under widely differing latitudes, but it is more frequently the case with aquatics than any others. The geography of plants is an exceedingly interesting branch of botany, WATER-PIMPERNEL. 127 leading one to remark how wisely the vegetable produc- tions of each country are suited to the climates in which they grow, and to the requirements of the animals which inhabit them. Every climate has its appropriate vege- tation, even the inhospitable polar regions, where one might imagine that the intense cold would extinguish the vital principle, even these remote climes have their flora, consisting of stunted species of poppy, saxifrage, and a few other hardy plants, mosses and lichens, which, though I mention them last, are the most abundant, and, indeed, lichens are to be met with where none of the other plants I have named will grow, that is, in a higher latitude. MARY. Lichens again ! they seem, indeed, to require but a small portion of warmth and nourishment. When you last spoke of them you told me of their flourishing on the most barren rocks, and now I hear of their being able to support the most intense cold. AUNT. Even the surface of perpetual snow bears a minute plant of this nature. 128 WATER PIMPERNEL. MARY. That is, indeed:, extraordinary ! AUNT. Yon have, I dare say, heard of red snow. MARY. Oh, yes, I remember hearing- that Captain Parry saw a good deal. What gives it this colour ? AUNT. This was for some time a matter of doubt. Those who first observed it were unable to account for so new and remarkable an appearance, but attentive investiga- tion has since discovered this red substance to be a lichen, to which the name of protococcushsis been given, from its bearing a resemblance to the insects of the genus coccus. Advancing from the poles towards the equator, vegetation becomes gradually more prolific, plants increase in number of species and in luxuriance of growth, and, in the equatorial regions, attain to the greatest magnificence of size, and the most exquisite vividness of colour. The variety of natural beauty in WATER-PIMPERNEL. 1 29 these sunny climes must be most enchanting, the plants, the insects, the birds, all are brilliant and gay ; even the products of the ocean are more beautiful in colour and form, for it is from the tropical seas that the con- chologist obtains the choicest ornaments of his cabinet. MARY. I should have imagined that the great heat of the torrid zone would have prevented the growth of plants as much as the cold of the polar regions. AUNT. But you find this is not the case, and that, on the contrary, it contributes to the development of the great- est variety and grandeur of size and colour. A due portion of humidity seems the great essential for the promotion of vegetation, and without this it cannot be supported. A Danish botanist has published a very curious set of charts, in which he shows the general distribution of plants. He calls it a Planteographish Atlas, and on each map the various tribes of plants each region affords are indicated by certain colours. K 1 30 WATER- PIMPERNEL. MARY. Then by knowing what the colours stand for, a glance at the map will tell what plants the country produces. What plants are the most numerous ? AUNT. Those of the compound order are found to be most widely spread over the globe, the siliquous next. MARY. Which I consider of all the orders (at least such as I know) the least pleasing. Most of the English plants belonging to it are so disagreeable in scent, and so ugly in growth. AUNT. Yet they have properties more valuable than sweet- ness, or perfume, or beauty of appearance : they are a very useful tribe. Remember how many of our vege- tables in daily use rank under this order. Our turnips, cabbages, radishes, &c. Many of the plants of this order are very pungent, and particularly serviceable as antiscorbutics. To this medicinal virtue of a family WATER-PIMPERNEL. 131 you seem to regard with so much dislike, I would parti- cularly direct your attention, because it leads us to re- mark a striking instance of the merciful care of God for all his creatures, not only " providing food convenient for them," but causing that food to be found where it may be most convenient and acceptable. If I tell you that sailors, after long voyages, are very apt to suffer from the complaints for which siliquous plants are bene- ficial, you will perhaps be able to form an idea of the situations in which they are usually met with. Where should you say they would grow most advantageously ? MARY. Why, as when people are ill they are glad to have relief as speedily as possible, I should say the best situations would be those near the sea, that sailors could soon reach after landing. AUNT. Certainly, on the coasts ; and thus travellers have re- marked that these plants are disposed. A view of the maps I mentioned will show a line along the shore, marking the station of these useful plants. As soon as K 2 132 WATER-PIMPERNEL. a ship's crew put their feet on land, they may generally find, within their reach, the very thing of which they stand most in need, after having been fed (perhaps for many months) on salt provisions. It is a medicine ready prepared, needing not the assistance of art. MARY. Do all the plants ranking under the same natural order invariably possess similar properties ? AUNT. Far from it. A remarkable instance to the contrary occurs to me at this moment. The fig, the bread-fruit, the mulberry, the cow-tree, are all classed under the natural order Artocarpece. You are sufficiently ac- quainted with the four former, to know that their pro- duce varies greatly, and that they are widely separated in property from the poisonous upas, to which such deleterious effects are attributed by those who hare given us accounts of it. MARY. You give me credit, my dear aunt, for more know- Page 133. WATER-PIMPERNEL. 133 ledge than I possess. Of the difference between the fig and the mulberry I can judge, from having eaten of the fruit of both, and the bread-fruit I seem to know almost as well, from having read and heard so much of it; but the cow-tree I cannot compare or contrast with either, for I do not remember ever to have heard it mentioned before. What an extraordinary name. Of what country is it a native ? AUNT. Of South America, and it derives this name, which so much amuses you, from producing milk. MARY. Milk from a tree ! AUNT. Many plants form secretions of a milky nature, (in- deed, this is the case both with the fig and the mulberry,) but the milk which flows from the tree of which we are now speaking, really resembles that of the animal from which we are supplied. It is a great blessing to the districts in which it grows, for it thrives in barren, rocky situations, not suited for pasturage, and therefore the 1 34 WATER-PIMPERNEL. inhabitants are happy to resort to this vegetable reservoir, which they generally do about sun-rise, when the largest quantity may be procured. MARY. How singular it is, that a tree producing so great a quantity of liquid should be met with in so warm a country, and in such barren places ! AUNT. It is in the warmest climates that the most juicy fruits are produced, the refreshing orange, lemon, shaddock, &c. ; and the same bountiful Providence has placed the cow-tree just in the situation where its cool- ing and wholesome liquor is most grateful. MARY. I think I remember hearing that plants with thick, succulent leaves can bear a great deal of heat, and also that they do not require much moisture. AUNT. You are quite right; they are generally found in- WATER-PIMPERNEL. 1 35 habiting sunny rocks, or sandy deserts, for which they are fitted by being endued with the power of imbibing moisture with the greatest readiness, and retaining it when imbibed, for they perspire very sparingly. MARY. Then they keep a store of nourishment within them- selves. Your speaking of the vegetable productions of the Polar regions reminded me of some specimens I saw some time ago from Melville Island, and which I re- marked were almost all very downy. Why are they thus provided ? AUNT. For the same reason, I should imagine, as we envelope ourselves in a flannel dressing gown, or a cloth pelisse, on a cold frosty day. MARY. To keep out cold ? AUNT. Or rather to keep in warmth. The materials of our 1 36 WATER-PIMPERNEL. winter clothing are what are called bad conductors of heat, that is, they do not readily part with heat, and consequently prevent its escape from the bodies they envelope. The down of plants is of a cottony nature. I believe I told you, when speaking of carbon, that cotton is chiefly composed of it, and carbon is a bad conduc- tor. MARY. And therefore the warmth of these little plants is kept in by their cottony covering. May I detain you a few minutes longer, my dear aunt ? AUNT. Certainly ; if you have any remark to make, I shall be happy to listen to you. MARY. I do not remember ever to have heard of the genus of insects from which you said the little fungus that is found in snow takes its name. AUNT. Though not known to you by the name I used, you WATER-PIMPERNEL. 137 are yet familiar with many species of this genus, some of which are noxious, others exceedingly useful to us. In speaking of the former class, I should, perhaps, rather have said, that you are more familiar with their ravages than with the insects themselves, for very pro- bably you may never have observed them in their per- fect state ; but you have only to examine the apple- trees in the garden, and you will soon make acquaintance with them. You have, no doubt, remarked little white tufts on the branches and stems of these trees. MARY. Which look, and feel like cotton ? AUNT. The same. MARY. Oh, yes, I have indeed! I remember particularly last year the trees were so covered with them, that the gardener was obliged to wash the branches with a poi- sonous mixture, in order to clear the bark. 1 38 WATER-PIMPERNEL. AUNT. Then you know this species of coccus in its first state, for this cotton is the envelope of its eggs. Vines are frequently attacked in the same manner. MARY. I have often seen the vines in the grapery with their branches quite cottony, but I do not remember that I ever remarked those in the open air with this appear- ance. AUNT. The reason of which is, that this species (coccus mils) finds our climate too cold, and therefore confines itself to the vines in houses. MARY. But it seems very extraordinary, that merely forming a little cotton on a plant should be so hurtful to it. AUNT. This is not all, though. The little creature is not satisfied with merely taking up its abode on the vine, it WATER-PIMPERNEL. 139 pierces the bark, and extracts sap, and then it is that the plant is injured. Now you discover that you know something of the injurious cocci ; consider whether you have not some knowledge of the useful kinds also. MARY. I am not aware that I have. AUNT. Do you know what yields the dye called scarlet ? MARY. Cochineal, I believe. AUNT. Cochineal is the name it commonly bears, but it is in fact a species of the genus we are speaking of, and its cor- rect name is coccus cacti. This insect is found abundantly in Mexico, upon a kind of Indian fig. The collection of it gives employment to vast numbers of persons, (for the operation is tedious,) and it forms a considerable article of trade. Coccus illicis yields a deep, or crim- son dye, and the substance called lac (of which sealing- 140 WATER-PIMPERNEL. wax is made,) is the produce of another species of coccus. MARY. These are indeed very serviceable ; they more than compensate for the mischievous properties of some of the family. WATER-PIMPERNEL. 141 EVERGREENS. MARY. I USED to imagine that evergreens never changed their leaves, but I have observed the last two or three springs, that some of the leaves do become brown, and fall off. How many years do they retain the same foliage ? AUNT. It is like that of other shrubs and trees, renewed every year. MARY. But yet we never see a laurel or a holly deprived of its leaves. AUNT. No, there would be a contradiction in terms ; for 142 EVERGREENS. were they ever seen in that state, they would cease to be evergreens. All the leaves are cast, but the young ones sprout before the old ones fall, and hence the plant never loses its verdure. MARY. As I have watched the leaves dropping from the trees in autumn, I have often wished to know the reason why they fall. Can you tell it me ? AUNT. Because they no longer receive nourishment. MARY. But how is it that they do not, because I remember your telling me, that the sap was conveyed generally throughout the plant, and that it was prepared in the leaves for nourishing the other parts. It seems strange, therefore, that these useful organs, which are the pre- parers of food, should themselves perish from want. AUNT. A little reflection will lessen your surprise. Do you EVERGREENS. 143 remember at what season I told you the flow of sap was most abundant ? MARY. I think you said it ascended most copiously in the spring, and that the supply decreased towards the autumn. AUNT. That is the very point I wished you to come to. At this season (the autumn) the vessels of the leaf-stalk become stopped up by hard particles, and no sap pass- ing to moisten them, the leaves dry up, and fall off. MARY. One more question connected with the fall of the leaf occurs to me. What is the cause of the various hues observable in leaves in autumn ? AUNT. Numerous experiments have been made to elucidate this subject, the result of which seems to be, that as the weather becomes chilly, leaves continue to absorb 144 EVERGREENS. oxygen during the day, but lose the power of expiring it during the night. MARY. Ah, I think I see how it is ! You told me, I remem- ber, that oxygen was the acidifying principle, and we know acids change colour : this must be the influence going on in the leaf. AUNT. Yes, the preponderance of oxygen destroys the green colour, produces the infinite variety we so much admire in autumnal leaves, and causes so complete a change, that the whole face of nature assumes a new garb, and which, though differing so widely from its spring attire, is not less beautiful. MARY. The change is indeed extraordinary ! What a con- trast there is between a wood in spring and in autumn ! in the former, one colour pervades the whole ; in the latter, there is every variety of hue, from sober brown to briEiant red. Yet even in spring, though green is the EVERGREENS. 145 universal colour, it is of different shades. How do you account for the avoidance of sameness ? AUNT. You recollect I have told you that carbon is a prin- cipal ingredient in the composition of vegetables. It is of a dark blue colour, and the outer covering of plants (a thin transparent membrane) is of a yellowish white ; the mixture of these two colours produces green. You can easily understand that the shade of green inclines more to yellow or blue, according to that which prepon- derates. MARY. And may not this account for the tender tint of leaves when they first burst from the bud ? AUNT. Undoubtedly. They are then of a much lighter green than later in the year, and the reason is, that they contain less carbon. As they advance in age, the quan- tity becomes greater, and they lose their youthful beauty. 146 EVERGREENS. MARY. Has oxygen anything to do with the colour of the blossoms of plants ? AUNT. It is the opinion of some naturalists that the tran- sition from the green of the leaves to the varied tints of the corolla, is caused by a change in the degree of oxydation. The green- colouring matter, as it passes into the corolla, frees itself from superfluous hydrogen and azote, and thus becomes more oxydised. The light of the sun has a powerful effect on this process. Thus we see that tropical flowers display great splendour of colour. It has also been remarked, that some of the plants of the polar regions have very warm tints. Can you account for this ? MARY. You have proposed a difficult question. What simi- larity of circumstances can possibly exist between such different latitudes ? Between the tropics the sun darts his rays vertically, exciting vegetation by profuse light and heat ; but near the poles he withdraws his cheering EVERGREENS. 147 influence for weeks : to be sure, this may be compen- sated by his remaining above the horizon for an equal length of time. AUNT. When he shines so long without setting, he must, no doubt, exert a very powerful influence, and, that he does so, is proved by the summer crop in these regions ripening with great rapidity. That delightful property of flowers, scent, is to be accounted for on the same principle as their other fascinating attribute, colour the disengagement of hydrogen, with which portions of the peculiar juices of plants are drawn out, and thus the various perfiimes are diffused. Chemists find that hydrogen abounds in all odorous matters, and experi- ments have proved the inflammability of the atmo- sphere of certain plants, caused, no doubt, by the ex- halation of this gas. MARY. Why is rain-water more desirable for plants than that yielded by springs ? AUNT. Because it contains more carbonic acid, which I have L 2 148 EVERGREENS. told you is eagerly sought by vegetables, and may, in- deed, be considered their proper nourishment. Vol- canic districts give out a large quantity of carbonic acid, hence their extreme fertility, hence also the advan- tage of strewing the earth with calcareous matter, (chalk, lime, &c.,) because the attraction of these substances for carbonic acid is very powerful. This also accounts for the luxuriant vegetation formed on the coral reefs of the South Sea. Reverting to the change in foliage in autumn, I will give you the description of a traveller in America, Mr. Mac Gregor : " In Europe, in Asia, in Africa, and even in South America, the primeval trees, how much soever their magnitude may arrest admira- tion, do not grow in the promiscuous style that prevails in the great general character of the North American woods. Many varieties of the pine, intermingled with birch, maple, beech, oak, and numerous other tribes, branch luxuriantly over the banks of lakes and rivers, extend in stately grandeur along the plains, and stretch proudly up to the very summits of the mountains. It is impossible to exaggerate the autumnal beauty of these forests : nothing can be compared to its effulgent grandeur. Two or three frosty nights in the decline of EVERGREENS. 149 autumn, transform the boundless verdure of a whole empire into every possible tint of brilliant scarlet, rich violet, every shade of blue and brown, vivid crimson, and glittering yellow. The stern, inexorable fir tribes alone maintain their eternal sombre green. All others, in mountains or in valleys, burst into the most glorious vegetable beauty, and exhibit the most splendid and most enchanting panorama on earth." 150 LEAF-INSECTS. MARY. I WAS amusing myself yesterday by reading the travels in South America you were so kind as to lend me, and was much interested by the description of natural pro- ductions they give. Trees, birds, insects, all seem to be on a grand scale ! How much I should like to visit a region of such variety and beauty ! AUNT. As I do not think there is any probability of your ex- tending your travels so far, you must content yourself with the information collected by others. There is now so pervading a taste for travelling among our country- men, so many of whom have given their observations on what they have learnt and seen, that we may form a pretty fair idea of countries the most remote ; and much LEAF-INSECTS. 151 are we indebted to the industry and perseverance of travellers, who enable us to do so, without removing from our own fire-sides. MARY. I was much struck by the account of an insect, which, though not so brilliant as many others found in the Brazils, must, I think, be one of the most curious. I mean the mantis, which is spoken of as so much resem- bling a dry leaf, that it is scarcely possible to distin- guish it from one. AUNT. There are a great many insects that bear the appear- ance of leaves. In this we see a remarkable proof of the watchful care of God for every creature he has formed. We are told "that the very hairs of our head are all numbered;" and we find that such minute crea- tures as the insect world presents are also numbered and cared for. This similitude to vegetables is a very effectual means of preservation, for, as they resemble the plant on which they feed, they are so completely identified with it, as to deceive the eye of the passing T52 LEAF-INSECTS. bird. There is a very singular circumstance attending these leaf-insects as they are called. Not only do the perfect insects re- semble vegetable productions, but the analogy likewise runs through each state ; the eggs and . pupae appearing like the seeds and pods of plants. This kind of insect abounds very much in Ceylon. Mrs. Heber, speaking of the great variety of winged creatures found in that island, says, " The most curious of these are the leaf-insects, which assume the shape, size, and general appearance of the leaf on which they feed so exactly, that it is only on minute examination one becomes aware of their real character. I saw several, but the most extraordinary was one which lived on a thorny plant, the body of which resembled a stick, and was covered with thorns LEAF-INSECTS. 153 like the shrub." Many of these fantastic creatures are mentioned by Kirby and Spence, in their delightful work on entomology, as affording instances of the various modes of defence which have been bestowed on the insect world. Another of these is being of the same colour as the plant frequented. This you may observe exemplified in the caterpillar of the privet-sphinx moth. The upper part of the body is striped, and would be more easily distinguished than the lower, which is of a tender green : the creature therefore invariably feeds on the under-side of the branch, so that its back is con- cealed. I have remarked when I have kept this cater- pillar, that it never commences feeding till it has placed itself in this position. MARY. I owe you many thanks, dear aunt, for the informa- tion you have given me on natural history ; it has re- doubled the pleasure of every walk, by leading me to remark the objects that surround me. To-day I was quite struck by the appearance of the rose-trees, and am quite at a loss to imagine what has happened to them. Most of the leaves have little pieces hollowed out all 154 LEAF-INSECTS. round their edges, as I should have concluded by in- sects, did they not appear too regular. AUNT. You are quite correct in your conjecture. I observed, the last time I was in the garden, that the leaf-cutter bees had visited the rose-leaves. MARY. But how is it possible that bees can cut them so evenly ? LEAF-INSECTS. 155 AUNT. God has bestowed on these little artificers implements with which they work as exactly as we should with com- pass and scissors, and much more expeditiously. It is highly interesting and curious to watch them. They fly to a leaf, survey it to ascertain whether it be fit for their purpose, then cut a section so quickly, that it is scarcely possible to follow them with the eye. They poise themselves in the air while severing the last fibre, and then they roll up their little treasure, and fly away. MARY. For what purpose do they take all this trouble ? What do they do with the stolen bits of leaf? AUNT. They form elegant nests with them, which you may see figured in many works on entomology. I have never been so fortunate as to find one of these ingenious constructions. I have always remarked that the bees fly to a distance after having secured their prize, pro- bably to conceal their nests. In the garden where I first saw these busy creatures, I observed that they in- 156 LEAF-INSECTS. variably rested on a wall as if fatigued with their burden. I at first fancied that they deposited it in some part of the wall ; but on further examination, I found this was not the case, and that they carried it out of sight. MARY. I shall like much to see them at work, but yet I shall not be satisfied till I discover their hiding-place. As you have not succeeded in doing so, I must not ask for directions. I wish it were possible to mark an indivi- dual bee, and then I might, perhaps, trace it to its nest. AUNT. You have proposed a plan which, strange, as it may seem, is in fact adopted by the Australasians for finding the sweet treasure of their wild bees. In Sir J. Mitchell's amusing work on Australia, he says, "We are in a ' land flowing with honey,' for the natives with their new tomahawks extracted it in abundance from the hollow branches of the trees ; and it seemed that, in the season, they could find it almost anywhere. To such inexpert clowns as they probably thought us, the honey and the bees were inaccessible, and, indeed, in- LEAF-INSECTS. 157 visible, save only when the natives cut it out, and brought it to us in little sheets of bark, thus displaying a degree of ingenuity and skill in supplying our wants, which we, with all our science, could not hope to attain. They would catch one of the bees, and attach to it with some resin or gum, the light down of the swan or owl ; thus laden, the bee would make for the branch of some lofty tree, and so betray its home of sweets to its keen- eyed pursuers, whose fee-chase presented, indeed, a laughable scene." MARY. That is ingenious, indeed ! But you do not mean to recommend this method to me. I should neither have expertness, nor courage to try it. Pray, do the leaf- cutter bees make any honey ? AUNT. Yes ; each cell has its provision, which is said to be of a lovely rose colour, contents worthy of their elegant receptacle : the whole must be so pretty, that I wish you success in your researches, and hope we may have the gratification of admiring together the leafy tents of these skilful architects. 158 MOSSES. u cannot think, my Mear aunt, how much I feel obliged to you for the pleasure you have added to my walks by teaching me not to pass anything ^without notice. I was so delighted yester- 1 day by observing the various kinds of moss on the heath ! How numerous and beauti- , tiful they are ! I can scarcely believe it possible that I should so frequently have trod the same ground without paying more attention to its elegant covering. MOSSES. 159 AUNT. You must, indeed, have been wanting in observation if you never remarked before that there were mosses in your neighbourhood ! MARY. Oh ! I do not mean to say that. I must, indeed, have walked with my eyes shut, had I not, on the con- trary, been aware that they abounded, but I passed them without distinction. I saw there was moss on the ground, but I fancied it all of the same sort. AUNT. But you have now discovered there is some little dif- ference. MARY. Indeed I have, and I am astonished and vexed at my former stupidity. I have gathered a piece of each kind, and shall be very much obliged to you if you can tell me something of them. I should like extremely to be able to examine them, as you have kindly taught 160 MOSSES. me to do other plants ; but I think you say they belong to the class cryptogamia, and therefore, I fear, I shall find them too difficult. AUNT. Never be discouraged in the acquisition of informa- tion, or in any other laudable pursuit, by apprehension of the obstacles that may occur in your progress. It MOSSES. 161 has been well said, "that difficulties, like nettles, if seized by a firm and courageous hand, lose their power of annoying." Always bear this in mind. With respect to the examination of mosses, I believe you must wait till you have become more versed in the other classes ; but as then* season of perfection com- mences when that of our gayer tribes has passed away, and when the employment these give you will have ceased for the present year, you might find it a good preparation for understanding these curious plants, were you to collect and dry specimens of all you meet with. Thus by taking notice of what seem to you the cha- racteristics of each, you would become in some measure acquainted with their singular structure, and prepared to study them at some future time. You will find that I have provided you with an interesting object for your winter walks, and one which will, I imagine, give you much more occupation than you expect. While seek- ing for mosses, you must also look for lichens; they belong to the same class, come to maturity at the same season, and are to be met with in the same situations. These will often excite your astonishment by the pecu- liarity of their appearance, and still more by their great numbers. M 162 MOSSES, MAKY. If they are so numerous, I really shall be surprised, for I only know two or three which you have pointed out to me. But do you mean that I shall be able to find many within our usual walks ? AUNT. Even within such confined limits I can answer for your making many discoveries, and this you will readily believe, when I tell you that you can scarcely pass a tree that will not afford you a variety ; nay, scarcely a Page 163. MOSSES. 163 stick or a stone that will not yield some productions of this nature. They attach themselves to all decaying substances ; dead wood, &c. &c. Every fence or wall is tesselated, as it were, with their various shades of grey. yellow, green, and brown. To the unobservant, or un- informed, vegetation seems to stop completely with the fall of the year, but it then begins to be in full activity in these all-pervading tribes, the mosses and lichens. MARY. I remember, last autumn, you told me some marks on a rose-leaf were lichens, an appearance which, till M 2 164 MOSSES. then, I had always fancied to be caused by small in- sects. AUNT. The leaf of almost every tree has its peculiar lichen. This redundancy of vegetation is exceedingly striking to a reflective mind ; it is so wonderful thus to find life upon life ! If you are desirous, you may make acquaintance with many of these leaf-lichens in the autumn. They are to me a particularly interesting division of the tribe. There is one so com- mon, that I am sure you will re- collect it directly I mention it. It is on the leaves of the sycamore and maple, to which it gives the appearance of having been singed or burnt. MOSSES. 165 MARY. You mean those large dark brown blotches, surrounded with an edge of lighter brown ; these I have frequently remarked. It seems so strange to me, that what I have always ignorantly regarded as merely a defect in the leaf, should, in fact, be another species of vegetation growing in it. Pray, can these new acquaintances of mine be sufficiently distinguished to admit of their being arranged as the plants of the other classes are ; shall I find that each has its appropriate name assigned it? AUNT. They are divided, like other plants, into genera and species ; the lichen of the sycamore-leaf, of which we have been speaking, is of the genus Xyloma, and takes its specific distinction (acerinum) from the tree it loves. Another species of xyloma, (salicinum,) similar in ap- pearance to the acerinum, but not nearly so common, stains the upper side of the leaves of Salix caprea with its dark marks. Another, more common, is found in autumn, on the leaves of Populus nigra. 166 MOSSES. MARY. I remember, in the spring, being very much puzzled by a dotted appearance on some dead umbelliferous plants. The spots were black, and had so pretty an effect on the straw-coloured glossy stems, that I used often to pull up the plants that I might examine them nearer, and discover, if I could, how they came to be thus marked ; but I could never satisfy myself on the subject, and remained quite at a loss to imagine by what they were caused. I remarked them so early in the year, that I thought no crawling or winged creature could be abroad ; and yet I fancied they must proceed from the punctures of insects, (as you remember you told me galls do,) but now I feel quite sure they must be something of the kind you have been describing. How much I wish I had a branch to show you ! AUNT. I understand perfectly to what you allude. Several minute lichens attach themselves to decaying umbelli- ferae, and other herbaceous plants. Sphceria doliolum, and Heterosph&ria Patella, are two that occur to me at the moment, as agreeing with your description; the MOSSES. 167 former may be seen as early as January ; its spots are of a darker hue, and nearer together than those of the latter. MARY. Then I think I may conclude it was the one I used to admire so much, for the spots certainly were very close together, and it was very early in the spring, that it first attracted my attention. AUNT. The only way to determine this point will be, to keep the next specimen you find. Do not pass over the common nettle when you are seeking for cryptogamic specimens ; it will afford several varieties, one of which, though very common, always pleases me by its delicacy and elegance Fmarium tremelloides. It appears in the form of small orange-coloured dots. MARY. Are these dots on the leaves ? AUNT. No, on the stems. 168 MOSSES. MARY. How pleasant it is to hear, that the plants which, in their vigour, afforded us pleasure by their examination, in decay, supply us with a new source of interest. You said that the leaf of almost every tree has its peculiar lichen. Does the same kind of leaf ever produce more than one species? AUNT. Oh, yes, very frequently. You will think I am in- troducing you to an inexhaustible family, when I tell you that the leaves of the same plant often bear several members of it. For instance, if you examine the under side of the leaves of your little favourite, the wood anemone, (Anemone nemerosa) in the spring, you will find many marked like ferns, some with green, others with brown spots. Now these may be met with in the same wood, and at the same season of the year, and yet they belong to different genera. At the first glance, the latter are often supposed to be the former in a more ad- vanced state, but a closer investigation shows that there is a difference in the form of the spots, and also that those of a green colour are punctured in the centre, which is MOSSES. 169 not the case with the brown. The leaves of the sloe (Primus spinosa) bear several, so do many species of willows and poplars. Some of these parasites are invariably found on the upper surface of the leaf to which they adhere, and others are as constant to the under side. Thus while Xyloma acerinum fixes itself to the upper side of the sycamore-leaf, Erineum aceri- num chooses the lower side. I will not multiply ex- amples, because, till you know more of the tribe, a mere repetition of names will only be tedious ; but we must not dismiss mosses and lichens without adverting to an important office they perform, covering the most barren spots with verdure, and causing trees to rear their heads, where none ever stood before. MARY. I do not understand how such a change can be wrought by means apparently so inadequate to the end. AUNT. You look astonished, as if you expected I were going to tell you of a desert suddenly transformed ; but there are many concurring causes for the changes I am about 170 MOSSES. to relate, and a considerable time is requisite for its completion. When the decomposition of rocks commences, the minute seeds of lichens lodge, and germinate among the finely-divided particles ; by the decay of this humble race, sufficient support is afforded for mosses and other plants, whose roots do not penetrate far below the sur- face ; these continue to vegetate, and die till an earth is formed capable of nourishing plants of larger size, and ultimately a sufficient depth of soil is produced to sustain trees ; and not only those of inferior growth, but the stately lords of the forest ! The great work of de- struction and reproduction which is constantly going on, is to me a wonderful contemplation, and a striking proof of the all-pervading care and mighty power of the great Creator, who sustains this earth with the same wisdom with which he formed it, keeping all things within due bounds and limits. Do we see a destructive agent employed, we are sure to discover some counter- balancing reproductive power at work. We often find the same agent endued with different powers, according to circumstances. Thus water when we watch a moun- tain torrent rushing impetuously towards the sea, dis- MOSSES. 171 placing everything that opposes its course, we think only of the devastation it has occasioned in the district through which we have observed its passage, without recollecting that if we had followed it to its destination, we should perhaps find the materials it has collected deposited at its mouth, and there forming an extension of land. Several coasts have gained considerably by the additions conveyed to them by the transporting power of water. 172 HORSETAIL. MARY. WHAT is the name of that straggling, odd-looking plant, of which there is such a quantity on the other side of the ditch. How wildly and rankly it grows ! I have heard it called horsetail, but I suppose that cannot be its right and proper name. AUNT. Though it may sound ridiculous to you, it is the one by which this plant is commonly known. It belongs to a genus, remarkable both for singularity of appearance, and peculiarity of properties. MARY. And the name of this genus ? PLANT ROUGH HORSE TAIL. Page 172. HORSETAIL. 173 AUNT. Is Equisetum ; and you will, I am sure, be surprised when I tell you the purpose to which one species may be applied. The rough horsetail, or Equisetum hyemale, operates as a powerful file, and is found exceedingly useful in manufactures. MARY. A file ! that is extraordinary ! and I can scarcely imagine in what manufacture such a one can be ser- viceable : but I suppose the substances to which it is applied are of a very delicate nature. AUNT. On the contrary, they are a kind on which it is very difficult to make impression. What think you of brass not being able to resist the action of this plant ? MARY. That it seems almost incredible. Pray where is this vegetable operation to be met with ? It is a foreign species of equisetum, I suppose. 174 HOESETAIL. AUNT. No, it grows in England (though not very abundantly, being rather local,) and I believe is found principally in Norfolk and Suffolk. MARY. And will you, if you can, account for the strength and power this plant possesses ? AUNT. They result from its containing a large portion of flint, a substance which, I dare say, you would never have expected to have found in any vegetable produc- tion, yet it enters into the composition of many. MARY. But how does it get there ? AUNT* Perhaps this may require a little explanation. I have already told you^ that the general nourishing fluid of all vegetables is called sap. From this various secre- tions are formed, which give the distinguishing scents, HORSETAIL. 175 tastes, and properties of plants ; and pure flint is the remarkable secretion of the one of which we have been speaking, and it contains it in so large a proportion, that after chemists have removed the vegetable matter, the form of the plant has been retained by the remaining flint. MARY. What a wonderful change a fluid like sap must un- dergo to be converted into a material so hard and solid as flint ! I suppose it is deposited by the sap as it ascends. AUNT. No ; the rising sap is always first propelled to the leaves in the state in which it is drawn from the earth by roots. In the leaves it is elaborated, or prepared by the action of the air and light, and returned thence to afford nourishment to the various parts of the plant, to swell the bud, to feed the flower and fruit. MARY. Then how is it if the sap be thus returned from the 176 * HORSETAIL. leaves in a state of preparation, that the taste and smell of the leaves, and other parts of the same plant, often differs so much. Agreeable and wholesome as the fruit of the peach is, you told me the other day that the leaves are of a poisonous nature, and, I am sure, they are very bitter and unpleasant in taste; yet it seems the sap is the same both in the leaves and fruit. AUNT. Originally it is so, but becomes very different from the subsequent alteration it has undergone in the fruit. In some plants it would appear that the sap re- quires little change after its passage from the leaves, the same flavour and scent pervading every part, as in the common garden nasturtium and syringa. But in many there is a remarkable dissimilarity, occasioned, as I have told you, by the sap being differently modified in each organ. The bitter deleterious secretion abounds not only in the leaves and bark of the peach-tree, but even in the flower, the origin of its delicious fruit. MARY. It is very wonderful that such different properties HORSETAIL. 177 should approach so near, and yet be kept so completely distinct. AUNT. I met with some remarks in a work I was reading yesterday, which are so apposite to our present subject, that I will repeat them to you. " What a natural kind of prodigy is it," says the author, "that chilling and burning vegetables should arise out of the same spot, that the fever and frenzy should start up from the same bed, where the palsy and the lethargy lie dormant in their seeds ! Is it not exceeding strange that healthful and poisonous juices should rise up in their proper plants out of the common glebe, and thrive within an inch of each other? What wondrous and inimitable skill must be attributed to the Supreme Power, that First Cause, who can so .infinitely diversify the effects where the servile second cause is so unifonn !" Here surprise is expressed at noxious and wholesome plants growing even in near neighbourhood ; but our wonder and admiration are indeed greatly heightened, when we find principles so opposite conspicuously de- veloped in the same plant. N, 178 HORSETAIL. MARY. How very useful the leaves of trees are, for you have before told me how beneficially they act on the atmo- sphere, by absorbing carbonic, and emitting oxygen gas; and now I find they are the medium through which all the nourishment of plants is conveyed. AUNT. Before so much progress had been made in phy- siological botany, it was imagined that leaves were merely a clothing to plants, and the important functions which advancement in this science have discovered, were quite overlooked. It is now known that they are the lungs of the plant, the laboratory for the preparation of its food, and the medium by which it imbibes moisture, or rids itself of that which is superfluous, and would therefore prove injurious. MARY. Then it is through the leaves that the insensible per- spiration of plants (which I heard spoken of the other day, and thought so extraordinary) takes place. HORSETAIL. 179 AUNT. Extraordinaiy as it might appear to you, it has been proved by experiments, that this evaporation certainly takes place, and in some instances to a considerable degree. It becomes sensible in the gramineous family, and in some others, and may be seen in the form of a drop of water at the point of the leaves; but the observer must be an early riser ; he must be up, even before the sun ; for as soon as its rays are felt, these minute drops disap- pear they are dissipated in vapour. In some plants the evaporation is much more abundant than in others, and in all, it depends very much on the state of the atmo- sphere. When the air is most dry, of course it is in a state to receive most moisture, and consequently the evaporation increases on a warm dry day. It is to pre- vent the air depriving our plants of moisture, that we take a tin case with us to preserve our specimens on botanizing expeditions. MARY. Yet I remember your once telling me, when I had almost killed a plant by carrying it in my hand exposed to the sun, that if I then put it into my case it would be refreshed. N 2 180 HORSETAIL. AUNT. Very true ; but you have forgotten that I desired you to moisten your case previously. Now, a moment's reflection will show that the principle is the same in both instances. It was by giving out moisture that your specimen had become exhausted, and by imbibing it, that it revived. MARY. You said that some plants perspire more copiously than others. Which are they ? AUNT. I should say that aquatic plants part with their moisture more abundantly and rapidly than any others ; for the leaves become shrivelled and dry almost as soon as gathered. You remember the other day, when we were going in quest of the pretty water milfoil, (Myri- ophyllum spicatum) I advised you to take a book out with you, to lay it down immediately, aware that its delicate feathery leaves would wither before you could get it home. These ^plants (aquatics) imbibe water by HORSETAIL. 181 the under side of their leaves, and give it out by the upper. MARY. I have often remarked a great deal of water standing in ruts under trees when the rest of the road has been quite dry. Is this in consequence of the perspiration of the leaves ? 182 HORSETAIL. AUNT. It may, in some measure, be attributed to this cause, but principally to the power of condensation which some trees possess. They deprive the dew which rests on them of the portion of caloric (heat) which main- tains it in the form of vapour, and it is ttyen condensed into water, and what is not absorbed by the leaves, runs off, and waters the earth. Sir J. Herschel mentions a striking illustration of this, which he observed during his residence at the Cape. The south-east winds pre- valent there bring up the vapours of the sea, which frequently remain in low clouds, without producing rain. But Sir J. found, that, as he walked under some tall fir-trees in the neighbourhood, while these clouds were overhead, he was exposed to a heavy shower, which ceased on emerging from their shade. On inquiring into the cause of this, he found that the vapour was condensed on the tops of the trees, and consequently surprised the unwary traveller by a natural shower-bath. MARY. Oh! I have often, after a hazy morning, seen the HORSETAIL. 183 moisture dropping like a shower of rain from the trees. AUNT. Trees, by this means, contribute much to the increase of ponds and streams ; and it has been remarked, in some parts of America, where, to make room for the habitations and cultivation of man, forests have been cut down, that bodies of water in their neighbourhood are much diminished, and in some instances almost dried up. MARY. One question I meant to ask you about the equi- setum, which I had almost forgotten. Are any of the species ever eaten by animals ? I should imagine not. AUNT. You are mistaken. Though one would naturally fancy it unpalatable from its harshness, and injurious from its flinty nature, to horses it is both acceptable and beneficial. 184 HEATHS, &c, MARY. WILL you tell me the botanical name of this new heath which has just come into flower in the green-house ? AUNT. It is not, as you suppose, a heath, but the " Epacris grandiftora" MARY. It certainly bears a very strong resem- blance to many of the foreign heaths I have seen. AUNT. That I admit ; but, if you examine its parts, you will find they do not agree HEATHS. 185 with those of the genus Erica, (heath,) which has eight stamens, while the epacris has only five. I think you were not present the other evening when I was reading a good deal about heaths, and the remarks on their total absence in America. MARY. Do you mean then that America does not produce any heaths ? AUNT. Not a single species has hitherto been discovered there. Africa is the region where the genus displays its greatest beauty and variety. It abounds especially at the Cape, whence the elegant ornaments of our conserva- tories are procured. To the Cape also we owe that lovely Protean tribe, the geraniums ; for, though there are European species of both these genera, they cannot vie with their African congeners. The geographical distribution of plants is a very interesting subject. Some tribes are found taking a wide range, others con- fined within comparatively narrow limits. When we cast our eyes over the globe, and observe how each por- 186 HEATHS. tion of it is gifted, we are at once struck with admiration and gratitude. Let us, for instance, direct our attention to the vegetable productions of each, and amid the magni- ficence of colour and form that such a view presents, let us confine ourselves to the consideration of one useful class, provided for the support of man, and we shall per- ceive, in the manner in which this is accomplished, a unity of design, through a diversity of means, which causes us gratefully to acknowledge the wisdom and goodness of God. It seems requisite that a certain proportion of human food should be of an insipid, farinaceous nature. In Europe, this is supplied by the various kinds of cerealia, (or grasses bearing seeds convertible into food.) In the south of Europe two plants begin to appear, which in Asia and America take the place of our corn, rice and maize. MARY. I well remember how much was said of the usefulness of maize in Ward's Travels in Mexico. He gives an anecdote of a general, who, deserted by his followers, and pursued by a body of a thousand men, was forced to seek concealment in the woods, where one faithful THE RICE-PLANT. Page 186. DATK-PALM. Page 187 HEATHS. 187 adherent devised an expedient for intimating that he had not been false. He hung a tortilla (a peculiar kind of cake made from maize) on a tree ; this at- tracted the attention of his beloved commander, and informed him that his necessities dining his concealment should be provided for. I could not forbear relating this incident, which the mention of maize brought to my recollection ; but pray, my dear aunt, continue, and let me hear what provision is made for Africa. AUNT. There we have the date-palm, whose fruit forms a principal [article of food. It is so prolific, that twelve thousand flowers have been counted in one sheath. It is said, that a skilful housewife will provide her husband with a dinner of dates for a month, dressed in a differ- ent manner every day. Though so abundant to the south of the Mediterranean, (in Africa and Arabia,) this fruit doth not ripen north of that sea. In addition to these plants, there are numerous others which yield similar food, as our useful potatoe, the arrow-root, and yam of the West, and the sago-palm of the East India Islands ; the banana, or bread-fruit, and many more. 188 HEATHS. There is a provident supply afforded of necessary nou- rishment in almost all countries; while for luxuries, many are dependent on other, and distant regions. The extended commerce of England has given such opportunities of importing foreign productions, that each year makes additions to our flower and fruit-gar- dens. Amid the rich profusion which is now within the reach of the peasant, we can scarcely persuade our- selves that a land abounding with the choicest gifts of Flora and Pomona, can claim nothing better than blackberries, sloes, and crabs as native fruits. MARY. I always fancied that cherries were indigenous in England. AUNT. Their being so common and abundant might very naturally lead you to suppose so ; but they are not even a European production, tracing their origin to more sunny climes, though they now flourish so well in our far western isle. The cherry-tree was brought into Italy from Pontus, by the Roman general Lucullus, HEATHS. 189 after the war with Mithridates ; and Pliny says, it passed into Britain twenty-six years after : I leave you to affix the date. "Thus," as it is remarked in an amusing work, " a victory obtained by a Roman consul over a king of Pontus, with which it would seem that Britain could not have the remotest interest, was the real occa- sion of our countrymen possessing cherry-orchards. Yet to our shame must it be told, that these cherries from the king of Pontus' city of Cerasuntis are not the chenies we are now eating ; for the whole race of cherry-trees was lost in the Saxon period, and was only restored by the gardener of Henry VIII., who brought them from Flanders, and planted orchards in the neighbourhood of Sittingbourne." I will now turn to a pacific mode of interchange. A delightful author thus beautifully expresses himself, on considering the facilities of intercourse which man has been able to create by hydrostatic knowledge, which has taught him to cut canals. " If the Red Sea and Mediterranean were joined, as has been proposed, the operation would, in effect, bring India nearer to Europe, and would more and more strengthen the bonds of mutual amity and brotherhood among the nations of the earth. Then, in- 190 HEATHS. deed, might it be said with truth, that the world is a vast garden, given to man for his abode, of which each spot has its peculiar sweets and treasures ; but, because the cultivation of each may exchange a share of his produce for shares in return, the same general result follows as if every field or farm contained within itself the climates, and soils, and capabilities of the whole." While I have the book in my hand, I will read you ano- ther passage, which may tend to render us more thank- ful for one of those blessings which we are too apt to overlook, because so constantly enjoyed. Those who have had all the luxuries of the East at command tell us, they would willingly have exchanged all for a glass of cold water. " Kings," says Dr. Arnott, " have received almost divine honours for constructing aqueducts to lead the pure streams from the mountains into the peopled towns. In the present day, it is he who has travelled on the sandy plains of Asia or Africa, where a well is more prized than mines of gold; or who has spent months on ship-board, where the fresh water is often doled out with more caution than the most pre- cious product of the still ; or who, in reading history, has vividly sympathised with the victims of siege, or ship- HEATHS. 191 wreck, spreading out their garments to catch the rain from heaven, and then, with mad eagerness, sucking the delicious moisture, it is he who can appreciate fully the blessing of that abundant supply, which most of us now so thoughtlessly enjoy. The author will long re- member the intense momentary regret with which, on once approaching a beautiful land, after months spent at sea, he saw a stream of fresh water gliding over a rock into the salt waves, it appeared to him as if a most precious essence, by some accident, were pouring out to waste." When speaking of the intro- duction of plants into various countries, I was going to tell you a fiction regarding the apple, which I can do still, if you would like another turn round the garden. MARY. Indeed I should ! I so much enjoy our morning conversations, that I am always glad to have them lengthened, though I am sometimes fearful of express- ing such a wish, lest you should be tired. AUNT. I thank you for your consideration; it always affords 192 HEATHS. me pleasure to find you sacrifice self- gratification, from regard to the feelings or convenience of others. This morning I am quite equal to walking and talking, and will therefore proceed, premising that my story refers to the first appearance of the apple-tree in Normandy. " It is said that Thetis, jealous of Venus having earned off the prize of beauty, determined to avenge herself. Venus descended one day on the coast of Normandy, to search for pearls wherewith to decorate herself, and, while thus engaged, laid her apple on a rock. A triton stole it, and conveyed it to Thetis, who immediately scattered its seeds in the neighbouring country, to per- petuate the remembrance of her vengeance and her triumph." The more credible account of the intro- duction of the apple into this province is, that it was brought from Spain, and its being still called biscait in some parts of the province, seems to corroborate this. Tradition says, that the Normans were deprived of the vine, which they formerly possessed, and condemned to drink cider, as a punishment for the ravages which they were in the habit of committing on the rest of France ! During warm weather, the traveller is far from looking upon this as a very severe infliction, when he is revived by HEATHS. 193 a cool glass of this refreshing beverage. It is a substi- tute for the beer of England, and caraffes of it are always placed on the dinner-table. MARY. Then, I suppose, you travelled among orchards. When you were making the tour in Normandy, of which I have heard you speak, they must have given quite a home air to the landscape. AUNT. Yes, we thought Normandy resembled England more than any part of France we visited. The mention of cider recalls a little trait of vanity, which I think will amuse you. A discussion arose in a company where Lemierre was, as to the effect of different beverages on poetical genius. Beer and cider were said to be in- jurious to the intellectual powers. He remarked, " Corneille buvait du cidre, Racine buvait du vin, moi je bois de Feaii, et vous voyez /" 194 MOTHER-OF-PEARL. MARY. As I was using the pretty work-box you were so good as to give me yesterday, I was ashamed to find I had forgotten of what fish the mother-of-pearl with which it is inlaid is the shell. AUNT. Of a species of muscle found in tropical seas. MARY. One would never have expected to see the shell of a fish applied to such a purpose ! AUNT. The consideration of the great distance from which many of the commonest articles we use are brought, and MOTHER-OF-PEARL. 1 95 the various sources from which they are obtained, is often very curious. On our work-tables are boxes formed from the tooth of a quadruped, others orna- mented with the shell of a fish; one of our working materials is procured from the soft coating of a seed, (spun to a thread of hundreds of yards in length,) ano- ther from the cocoon of an insect, and a third is drawn from the bowels of the earth. And these various pro- ductions are so changed by the art of the manufacturer who adapts them to our use, that an uninformed person would never divine to which of the three kingdoms of nature each in its original state belonged. We may, in the same manner, go through everything with which our houses and our wardrobes are furnished. Who that did not know the fact, would suspect that the most deli- cate porcelain is made of clay, or that the hide of a calf, as we see it before it has been submitted to the operations of the tanner, could be converted into the smooth elegant covering of our books ? We are some- times clothed, at the same moment, in the skins of beasts, the stalks of plants, the down of one bird, the feathers of another: vegetables, minerals, and insects have been employed to colour the various parts of our dress. 1 96 MOTHER-OF-PEARL. MARY. S'o that, however disguised, we may, by inquiry, trace everything we use or wear to some production of nature. AUNT. Certainly. Man has not the power of creating new substances, he can only (by different operations and combinations) alter the materials with which he is sup- plied, and by ingenuity and industry appropriate them to the artificial wants which a civilized state of society induces. MARY. But I was going to ask you something more about mother-of-pearl. Why do its beautiful colours seem to change from place to place, without being fixed to a particular spot ? AUNT. The various tints you see, do not in fact exist in the mother-of-pearl; they are produced by the irregular surface from which the rays of light are reflected. MOTHER-OF-PEARL. 1 97 MARY. Do you mean that the surface is naturally irregular, or that it is rendered so by art to produce this effect. AUNT. It is the natural and peculiar conformation of this curious body, which art cannot change, for it is found that if mother-of-pearl is ground and polished to the utmost, it never loses that waved, wrinkled appearance, which produces the colours. There is another remarkable fact connected with it. The same prismatic colours are perceptible in any ob- ject impressed by it. This is a simple experiment, which I can show you, when we go in, by heating some sealing-wax, and imprinting it with a piece of mother- of-pearl. MARY. That is extraordinary ! How is this communication of colour accounted for ? AUNT. It is not colour that is communicated, but form ; for, 1 98 MOTHER-OF-PEARL. as I told you before, the colours result from the struc- ture, and our seeing the same in objects stamped with it proves this. The surface from which they are re- turned is similar, though the substance is different. Our discussion on mother-of-pearl must close our morn- ing conversations, for I return home to-morrow ; and as I shall set off early, I shall not have time for a walk before 1 go. MARY. Are you going to leave us so soon ? How sorry I am ! How much I shall miss our early walks ! AUNT. But I trust you will not discontinue them, though I shall not be your companion ; and I hope I shall have increased the pleasure and improvement of your future rambles, by my endeavours to direct your attention to the works of God, which are so impressed with the image of their Maker ; and that, as you admire all these beautiful objects, you will consider for what wise and good ends every thing was made, from the largest to the smallest creature. Observe their habits and economy MOTHER-OF-PEARL. 1 99 yourself; for this is a study from which (as I have often told you,) much may be learnt, an insect may show you the excellence of a virtue. It always appears to me that even inanimate nature speaks to our hearts. We cannot, on such a lovely morning as this, stray amongst the profusion of beauty which greets us on every bank, without emotions of gratitude towards the All-wise Cre- ator, who, though in his infinite wisdom he has judged fit to make this world a place of trial, has yet bestowed so many sources of enjoyment to solace us during our abode here, and to prepare us for that world which is to succeed it, by raising our minds to the mighty Author of all we so much admire. THE END. Rickeibf, Printer, Sherboum Lane. Interesting 2i*orfeg for oung PUBLISHED BY HARVEY AND DARTON, GRACECHURCH-STREET. HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. HISTORICAL PRINTS, REPRESENTING SOME OF THE MOST MEMORABLE EVENTS IW ENGLISH ft I S T O R Y, IN WHICH THE COSTUMES OF THE TIMES ARE CAREFULLY PRESERVED. WITH DESCRIPTIONS BY EMILY TAYLOR, AUTHOR OF "TALES OF THE SAXONS," &C. Fourth Edition, revised and enlarged. Foolscap 8vo. Price 6s. A NEW EDITION. ENGLISH STORIES OF THE OLDEN TIME. 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BY PRISCILLA GURN^Y. 32mo. cloth, gilt edges. Price 2s. Gd Works Published by Harvey and Darton. 17 A MEMOIR OK EDWARD FOSTER BRADY, LATE SUPERINTENDENT OF CROYDON SCHOOL. CONSISTING CHIEFLY OF EXTRACTS FROM HIS LETTERS AND JOURNAL. Foolscap 8vo. cloth lettered. Price 2s. 6d. THE ORGANS OF THE SENSES, FAMILIARLY EXPLAINED. WITH COLOURED PLATES. BY CHARLES AMY BELL. Roan lettered. Price 6's. ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE FEMALE FIGURE ; WITH A NEW MODE OF TREATMENT OF LATERAL CURVATURE OF THE SPINE. BY G. B. CHILDS. With Illustrative Plates. Cloth lettered. Price 5s. A CLASSICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, LAWS, &C., OF THE CELEBRATED NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES. BY DR. NUTTALL. 8vo. cloth, Price 16s. B 18 Works Published by Harvey and Darton. FACTS AND FEELINGS, ILLUSTRATIVE OF INTERIOR RELIGION J ACCOMPANIED BY MEMORIALS OF MADAME GUYON, FENELON, AND OTHER SPIRITUAL PERSONS, WITH EXTRACTS FROM THEIR WORKS. BY MARY ANN KELTY. Foolscap 8vo. cloth lettered. Price 4s. EARLY DAYS IN THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. BY MARY ANN KELTY. 12mo. cloth. Price 7s. 6d. ' I would recommend you,' says Charles Lamb, whose relish for all that was individual and unworldly was strong to the last hour of his life, ' above all church narratives, to read Sewel's History of the Quakers ; here is nothing to stagger you, nothing to make you mistrust ; no sus- picion of alloy, no drop or dreg of the worldly or ambitious spirit.' Mary Ann K city's book s abridged from Sewel, and may, we think, be perused with interest, as a record of the early struggles of a body of conscientious men, apart from the peculiar doctrines it is intended to enforce and illustrate." Athenaeum. A GENERAL ATLAS, FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS. WITH A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO GEOGRAPHY. BY JOHN ADAMS. Twenty-aeven Maps, coloured. Price 10s. 6d. 8vo. cloth lettered. Another by ISAAC PA YNK. Price 5s. coloured. ECONOMICAL COOKERY FOR YOUNG HOUSEKEEPERS. A new Edition. 12mo. Cloth lettered. Price 2s. "This is another of those useful volumes, the success of which affords the very best pledge of its intrinsic value. Good and palatable dishes being commonly regarded as forming some of the chief material elements of human happiness, the art of providing them without extravagance ought to be encouraged by all who feel an interest in the subject." Atlas. Works Published ly Harvey and Darton. 19 CHILDREN'S BOOKS. jurpence The People of Europe. The Nations of Asia. The African Race. The Tribes of America and Poly- nesia. Country Scenes. Simple Stories, a very easy Read- ing Book. Simple Rhymes on Birds and Beasts. Emma and the Little Silk-Makers. coloured Easy Chat for very little People. London Scenes. Nursery Lessons. Sports of Childhood. The Cries of London. The Nursery Present, or Alpha- bet of Pictures. The Rhyming Alphabet. The Workshop, or Useful Trades. The Busy Bees. Book of Nouns, 64 plates. Easy Steps to Learning, 2 parts. 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Mamma and Mary, by M. A. Kelty. Martin and James. Precept and Example, plates. Poems for Children. By a Lady. Prejudice Reproved, plates. Present for a Little Boy, ditto. Present for a Little Girl, ditto. Select Rhymes for the Nursery, ditto. The Little Enquirers. The Decoy, or an Agreeable Me- thod of Teaching Children the elementary parts of English Grammar. The Rational Exhibition. Illustrations, anfc ueatlg ISounli auto 2iettcrcD, j&jnUtng; ant) j&isptucc Agnes Merton; or, how to lay out Half a Sovereign. By Mrs. Loudon. Alice Grant: the Two Cousins; and Fair Day. Don't give up the Ship ; or, the Good Son. Elementary Instruction for Junior Students. Fanny and her Mother. A Story. Infant Stories, intended to show that to be Good is to be Happy. Limed Twigs to Catch young Birds. By the Authors of " Original Poems," " Nursery Rhymes," &c. Little Lucy, the Invalid ; or, Nur- sery Dialogues. Little Frank and other Tales. In Words of one Syllable. Lucy Unwin; or Prejudice Re- proved, and other Tales. Original Poems for Infant Minds. A new and revised Edition, in 2 vols. Presence of Mind and Pride. Two Tales. By Phoebe Blythe. Au- thor of " Alice Grant," &c. Rhymes for the Nursery. By the Authors of " Original Poems." Simple Hymns for Young Chil- dren. By the Author of the " Parting Gift," &c. The Orphan's Choice. A Tale. By Eliza Wright. Author of " Self -Dependence," &c. The Truant Scholars; Kate Ri- vers; and the Blind Girl and her Teacher. Village School Girls. A Tale. By Eliza Wright. Walter O'Niel ; or, the Pleasure of doing Good. RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT TO +> 202 Main Library LOAN PERIOD 1 HOME USE 2 3 4 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405. DUE AS STAMPED BELOW MAY 2 3 1989 fcj| o \l)TO U!i?C APR 2 3 19* U.C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES CQQbD72bDM ill!!! maiwvMH} ) u mi illiiil Hi ^^!^^A 1 M Jaaiiflg^B3BBr