THE 
 
 VEGETABLE WORLD. 
 
 BY CHARLES WILLIAMS. 
 
 Not a tree, 
 
 A plant, a leaf, a blossom, but contains 
 A folio volume. We may read, and read, 
 And read again ; but still find something new, 
 Something to please, and something to instruct, 
 E'en in the noisome weed.' 
 
 Hurdis. 
 
 Htrftfon* 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY JAMES B. DOW, 
 362 WASHINGTON STREET. 
 
 1833. 
 
WOIOGT 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 THERE is no study which has been clothed 
 with so much fictitious tediousness, and none 
 which has been so much neglected, as that of 
 Botany, or an inquiry into the Vegetable World. 
 This has not only been the case with children 
 and youth, but those of more advanced years 
 have neglected to take an interest in one of the 
 most fruitful and grateful sources of instruction, 
 a source which is filled with so much wonder, 
 and so productive of conviction of the benevo- 
 lence of our Creator. 
 
 When this fact is considered, we must esteem 
 those as benefactors, who labor to throw a charm 
 and interest around the subject, in order to an 
 inducement to a more thorough examination and 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 discovery of the hidden glories of the carpet of 
 the earth. Who that considers attentively the 
 rose, the lily, or the simplest blade of grass, but 
 breathes a prayer of gratitude to the God of Na- 
 ture, that all things are so perfect and beautiful ? 
 
 It is with the hope of adding some inducement 
 to a more general inquiry into this subject, that 
 this work is respectfully submitted to parents, 
 guardians, and instructers of youth. It is by an 
 author of well-earned and deserved celebrity in 
 England, and his works have only to be read, 
 to be equally prized in this country. The ease, 
 simplicity, and purity of language with which 
 the facts are delineated, cannot fail to interest 
 all, and make it particularly applicable to the 
 wants of children and youth. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ' OH, mamma ! ' said a fine, bright-eyed little 
 girl, as she laid down a volume, entitled Art in 
 Nature, and Science Anticipated, ' I wonder 
 where the El woods live ! I should like to know 
 what they have been talking about lately. I am 
 sure I should be pleased to see Emma ; I won- 
 der whether she is short or tall what colored 
 hair she has and if she has learned to sing 
 about the snug little nest ! ' And, then, what a 
 nice play-fellow Frederick would be for George ! 
 And he could tell him so many things, for he 
 must be very clever. Oh, how I wish they were 
 here ! ' 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It is hoped, therefore, that this record of the 
 following year's conversations of the Elwood 
 family will, in part, supply the want of personal 
 acquaintance, and be as acceptable to the young 
 as its predecessor. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 THE EARLY PRIMROSES... 9 
 
 THE DISCOVERY 32 
 
 THE WALK 53 
 
 THE PROMISE 75 
 
 THE CONSERVATORY 96 
 
 CHANGES 119 
 
 THE DESSERT , 135 
 
 A SUMMER EVENING 157 
 
 THE AGED TREE 172 
 
 THE ENIGMA 184 
 
 THE THREE REGIONS 199 
 
 ALTITUDES 210 
 
 PERSIAN SAGACITY * 219 
 
 THE LAST ROSES 235 
 
 AN AUTUMNAL MORNING. ....246 
 
THE 
 
 VEGETABLE WORLD. 
 
 THE EARLY PRIMROSES. 
 
 'I AM so glad, papa I am so glad! 1 said 
 Frederick, as he entered the room in which Mr. 
 and Mrs. Elwood were sitting ; to whom his sis- 
 ter Emma had just been playing and singing a 
 delightful air. 
 
 ' And what makes you so buoyant and happy 
 this morning ? ' inquired his mamma. 
 
 ' Why, mamma,' he replied, e spring is coming ; 
 and though I like the long evenings, when Emma 
 and I sit with you and papa, and read and talk 
 of distant countries and famous people, yet I like 
 spring better ; because, besides hearing of them, 
 we can walk and ride so much more ; the gar- 
 dens, the fields, and the woods, begin to be so 
 beautiful.' 
 
 ' All the seasons have their pleasures/ said Mr. 
 Elwood ; c but now you sympathize with the poet 
 who said : 
 
 * Come, smiling hope ! anticipation come 
 
 To fancy's eye disclose the joyous spring; 
 Lead where the snow-drop and the crocus blows ; 
 
 Bring violet perfumes on the breeze's wing ; 
 
10 THE CELLULAR TISSUE. 
 
 Unclasp the primrose ; bid the cowslip fling 
 Its incense back to heaven ; let matins rise, 
 
 Till in imagination's ear shall ring 
 Each love- told hymn that swells the April skies, 
 Ascending up to Him, all-potent and all-wise.' 
 
 But the morning is by no means a cheerful one ; 
 mamma has just been complaining of its chilliness, 
 and the clouds seem gathering for a storm. What 
 excited, my boy, these warm expectations?' 
 
 F. A bunch of early primroses, papa, which 
 I gathered from a richly sheltered bank ; I have 
 asked that they may be put in water, and, when 
 they are ready, I mean to present them, with my 
 love, to dear mamma. 
 
 Mrs. E. Thank you, my love ; I like to be so 
 affectionately remembered ; and now take your 
 usual seat, and tell me in what respects one of 
 these pretty flowers differs from a stone. 
 
 F. A flower has life, mamma ; and a stone has 
 not. 
 
 Mrs. E. Very true, my dear. But, in addition 
 to this, a plant is very wonderfully formed ; it is 
 thus prepared to receive nourishment from the 
 soil from whence it springs, and also to produce 
 others like itself. 
 
 F. What parts, mamma, has a plant ? 
 
 Mrs. E. One is called the cellular tissue. If, 
 for instance, you take a thin transverse slice of 
 the stem of any plant, or a slice cut across its 
 stem, and you then put it into a drop of pure wa- 
 ter, and place it under a microscope, you will see 
 it consists chiefly of cells, more or less regular, 
 resembling those of a honey-comb, or a net-work 
 of cobweb. Their size varies in different plants, 
 and in different parts of the same plant ; and 
 
THE VASCULAR SYSTEM. 1 1 
 
 they are sometimes so minute as to require a mil- 
 lion to cover a square inch of surface. This sin- 
 gular structure, besides containing water, fluid, 
 and air, is the repository or store-house of various 
 secretions; through it also the sap, when produc- 
 ed (as we shall presently see), is diffused side- 
 ways through the plant ; and by it many changes 
 occur in the juices that fill its cells. But papa 
 will now describe the vascular system. 
 
 Mr. E. It consists of another set of small ves- 
 sels. If, for example, a branch be cut transverse- 
 ly early in the spring, the sap will ooze out from 
 numerous points over the whole of the surface, 
 except that part which the pith and the bark occu- 
 py ; and if a twig, on which the leaves are already 
 unfolded, be cut frorn the tree, and placed with 
 its cut end in a watery solution of Brazil wood, 
 the coloring matter will ascend into the leaves 
 and to the top of the twig. In both cases, a close 
 examination with a powerful microscope will show 
 that the sap perspires from the divided portion of 
 the stem, and that the coloring matter rises to the 
 top of the twig through real tubes. These are 
 the sap, or conducting vessels of the plant. But 
 if we examine a transverse section of the vine, or 
 of any other tree, at a later period of the season, 
 we find that the wood is apparently dry, whilst 
 the bark, particularly that part next the wood, is 
 swelled with fluid. This is contained in vessels 
 of a different description from those in which the 
 sap rises ; they are found in the bark only in 
 trees, and may be termed returning vessels, from 
 their carrying the sap downwards, after its prep- 
 aration in the leaf. The passage of the sap is 
 
12 FIBRES. 
 
 thought to take place, like that of the blood in 
 us, from the regular expanding and contracting 
 of the vessels ; but to be certain is almost impos- 
 sible, because of their extreme minuteness ; as, 
 according to numerous observations made with 
 the microscope, their diameter seldom exceeds a 
 290th part of a line, or a 3000th part of an inch. 
 Leuwenhoeck reckoned 20,000 vessels in a mor- 
 sel of oak about one nineteenth of an inch square. 
 
 E. Eapa, I should think the vascular system 
 is something like our veins and arteries. 
 
 Mr. E. There is such a resemblance, my dear. 
 A plant has also tracheae, which are composed of 
 very minute elastic spiral tubes, and convey air 
 both to and from the plant. 
 
 There are also fibres, composed of collections 
 of these vessels and cells, closely united, together. 
 These form the root and stem. If you attempt 
 to cut them transversely, you will meet with dif- 
 ficulty, because you have to force your way across 
 the tubes, and break them ; but if you slit the 
 wood lengthways, the vessels are separated with- 
 out breaking. Delicate as they are, they are 
 carefully and wonderfully preserved from injury, 
 so that they are not crushed by the pressure of 
 the bark, or of the surrounding parts. The lay- 
 ers of wood, which appear in the stem or branch 
 of a tree cut tranversely, consist of different zones 
 of fibres, each the produce of one year's growth, 
 and separated by a coat of cellular tissue, with- 
 out which they could not well be distinguished. 
 There is also the cuticle, which extends over 
 every part of the plant, and covers the bark, which 
 consists of three distinct coats. The liber, or in- 
 
SLEEP OF PLANTS. 13 
 
 ncr bark, is said to be formed of hollow tubes, 
 which convey the sap downwards, to increase the 
 solid diameter of the tree. 
 
 That of the Lagetto is very curious; it re- 
 sembles net- work or lace, and hence it is call- 
 ed the Lace-bark tree. This bark is very beau- 
 tiful, and consists of several layers that may be 
 easily drawn out into a fine white silky web, 
 three or four feet wide, like lace or gauze, and 
 it has often been used for ladies' dresses. A 
 celebrated botanist says that it may be washed 
 without injury. King Charles the Second is 
 said to have had a cravat made of this web pre- 
 sented to him by the Governor of Jamaica, of 
 which island, and of Hispaniola, it is a native. 
 
 E. That is very singular. Do plants ever 
 sleep, papa? 
 
 Mr. E. Oh, yes ! Some, like a few of our 
 birds, more of our insects, and almost all our 
 forest beasts, seem to sleep through the day, and 
 to awake and become active at night ; while the 
 greater number of plants, as well as animals, 
 resign themselves to sleep at sunset, and appear 
 re-invigorated with the dawn. To give you an 
 example : the flowers of one class* are called 
 Papilonaceous, a word taken from Papilio, the 
 Latin for butterfly ; and those of this tribe 
 generally spread out those parts which are call- 
 ed their wings, in fine weather, to admit the rays 
 of the sun ; and fold them up again at the 
 approach of night. The fact was first observed 
 by Linnaeus. Some seeds of one of these plants 
 
 * Diadelphia, order Decandria. 
 1* 
 
14 ACTION OF THE ROOT. 
 
 were given him by a friend, and, having sown 
 them in his green-house, they soon produced 
 two beautiful flowers. The gardener was absent 
 when these were first observed; and in the 
 evening, when Linnaeus took him with a Ian- 
 thorn to see them, they were no where to be 
 found; so that he himself supposed they had 
 been destroyed by insects, or by some accident; 
 but the next morning, to his great surprise, he 
 found his flowers just where they had been the 
 day before. That evening, too, they were not 
 to be seen, but the next morning they looked as 
 fresh as ever. The gardener said, ' These can- 
 not be the same flowers ; they must have blown 
 since/ But Linnaeus was not so easily satisfied ; 
 as soon as it was dark he once more visited the 
 plant, and, after lifting up all its leaves, one by 
 one, he found the two flowers folded up, and so 
 closely concealed under them, that it was im- 
 possible, at first sight, to discover what they 
 were. This led him to observe other flowers of 
 the same tribe, when he found that all of them, 
 more or less, closed at night, and this he called 
 ' the sleep of plants/ 
 
 Mrs. E. We must now attend to the root, 
 which is not only designed to support the plant 
 by fixing it in the soil, but also to be a channel 
 for the conveyance of nourishment. It is 
 therefore furnished with pores, or spongioles, as 
 they are called, from their resemblance to a 
 small sponge, to suck up whatever comes within 
 its reach, as a lump of sugar absorbs the liquid 
 into which it is put. Roots are various in their 
 form, and are hence adapted to a great diversity 
 
REMARKABLE WILLOWS. 15 
 
 of soils and circumstances. The root of the 
 orchis is very singular. It has two lobes some- 
 what like the two parts into which a bean is 
 divided ; one of these perishes annually, and 
 another shoots up on the opposite side of the 
 other; and, as the stem rises every spring from 
 between the two, the plant moves a little on- 
 wards every year. 
 
 E. Why, then, mamma, if it only lived to be 
 old enough, it would travel all round the garden ! 
 But it would take a long time to do that, for I 
 find it is a very slow traveller, just like our friend 
 Mr. Churchill, who says that, when he was 
 young, he could ride sixteen miles an hour, but, 
 now he is old, he manages to ride only a mile in 
 two! 
 
 Mrs. E. Indeed, my dear ! I have heard, 
 too, that a willow-tree was dug up ; the head 
 was then planted in the ground, and the roots 
 stretched out in the air like naked branches. 
 But the roots, in y course of time, became 
 branches, and the branches roots ; or rather, 
 roots sprouted from the branches beneath, and 
 branches shot out from the roots above. Some 
 roots last one year, others two, and others live, 
 like their shrubs and trees, for an indefinite 
 period; but they all consist of a collection of 
 fibres composed of vascular and cellular tissue, 
 but without tracheae, or breathing vessels. 
 
 Mr. E. The plant needs also a stem, 
 through which the sap circulates, and from 
 which the leaves and flowers spring. Some- 
 times this is seen, as in the rose, and at others 
 it is hidden, like the stem of the tulip, which is 
 
16 ACTION OF THE STEM. 
 
 shut up in the bulb. Some of the valleys of the 
 Alps are covered with willow-grass, and it is 
 difficult to guess its origin, but it is, in fact, the 
 extremities of the branches of a large willow- 
 tree. 
 
 E. Oh, papa! how does that happen? 
 
 Mr. E. Suppose a willow to grow at the 
 foot of a mountain, and the earth which is 
 annually carried down by the rains to bury the 
 young plant ; and then, its growth having been 
 thus checked, and the sap, which would other- 
 wise have been expended in foliage, being accu- 
 mulated in the little stem, there will be sufficient 
 nourishment for a double shoot ; and two little 
 branches will appear next spring. These 
 flourish but for a season, and are buried ; but 
 the following spring, four stems are produced ; 
 these, undergoing the same process, yield eight ; 
 and, as the plant thus annually doubles its 
 sprouts, and the soil rises, a verdant plain is 
 gradually formed of the leaves of the willow-tree. 
 The age of these willows has been found by 
 digging down the side of the plain, and observing 
 how often the shoots have been renewed ; the 
 lower they go, the more do the branches in- 
 crease in size, and diminish in number, till, at 
 length, they reach the single and original stem. 
 
 Jr. What is the use of the stem, mamma? 
 
 Mrs. E. It distributes the nourishment taken 
 up by the roots to the several parts of the plant. 
 The seat of vitality seems to be in the point or 
 spot called the neck, which separates the stem 
 from the root. If the root of a young plant be 
 cut off, it will shoot out afresh ; if the stem be 
 
THE BAMBOO. 17 
 
 taken away, it will be renewed ; but, if this part 
 be injured, the plant will certainly perish. 
 
 Mr.E. Some stems are very remarkable. That 
 of the sugar-cane sometimes grows to the height 
 of twenty feet. The stems of the bamboo, a spe- 
 cies of reed found in the East and West Indies, 
 and America, are almost solid when young, but 
 become hollow as they grow older, except at the 
 joints. I will read you a description of some : 
 * Among the trees which attracted our attention/ 
 says Dr. Walsh, in his Travels in Brazil, ' were 
 the different species of bamboo, some of which 
 were of enormous size, and some of singular beau- 
 ty. Of the first kind were many that measured 
 two feet in circumference, sending out large lat- 
 eral branches, and so tall as to resemble forest 
 trees. Others, of equal magnitude, without any 
 branches, shot out a single stem, divided into reg- 
 ular joints, smooth and tapering to a point, till 
 they attained an immense height. Some were 
 not so thick, but ran up till they became so 
 slender that they bent down, gradually tapering 
 to a very fine point, as thin as a horse-hair, and 
 waving across the road like long fishing-rods. I 
 cut one of them which had shot up from the val- 
 ley below, about the middle, where it was not 
 quite so thick as my wrist. After carrying it 
 some time in my hand, where it felt lighter than 
 a cart-whip, I laid it along the road, and meas- 
 ured its length, and found it fifteen yards long, 
 so that the entire plant must have been ninety 
 feet, tapering and polished the whole way with 
 the most exquisite finish/ Another kind was so 
 prolific that it covered the whole surface of the 
 
18 THE GROWTH OF STEMS. 
 
 forest, climbing to the tops of the highest trees, 
 and clothing them with the most exquisite ver- 
 dure. Sometimes it ran from tree to tree, cov- 
 ering the whole sloping surface of a glen with a 
 level uniform curtain of the richest drapery. This 
 vegetable substance is called ' the grass of the 
 thicket.' It yields the cattle a supply of green 
 and wholesome fodder at all seasons. A great 
 part of the soil of India is covered with forests of 
 bamboo. This tree is adapted to various pur- 
 poses, It is used in building, for furniture, and 
 fishing implements, and to support a kind of lit- 
 ter, or bed, called a palanquin, which is carried 
 about on the shoulders of men, and used as a se- 
 dan-chair is here. 
 
 E. But how can hollow reeds be so strong ? 
 
 Mrs. E. Whatever is cylindrical, rny dear, is 
 much stronger than what is solid, when only the 
 same quantity of matter is used. The woody 
 part of the smaller sorts of trees is generally in 
 the cenne, which makes them pliable, while, in 
 the trunk, it stands round the centre at some 
 distance from it, and thus gives strength to the 
 stem, and is favorable to its upright growth. 
 Some stems grow internally, and others external- 
 ly. To the former class belong the sugar-cane, 
 the date, the palm, the cocoa-nut tree, and most 
 others of tropical climates. It might be thought 
 that the new layers of wood, growing in the in- 
 ner part of the stern, would burst the outside ; 
 but this becomes, on the contrary, closer, and 
 more compact, until it will yield no longer, hav- 
 ing attained its full growth. It then begins to 
 shoot upward. In plants that grow externally, 
 
THE GROWTH OF STEMS. 19 
 
 the process is far more complicated ; the wood 
 consists, at first, of the pith a soft substance 
 which occupies the centre of the stem, and is al- 
 most always cylindrical the layer that then sur- 
 rounds it grows freely during a twelvemonth ; 
 but the following year it is enclosed by a new 
 layer ; and, compelled to yield laterally or side- 
 ways, it makes its way upwards where there is 
 no pressure, and thus the stern grows in height 
 at the same time that it increases in thickness. 
 Other layers take the same course, and they at- 
 tain moturity when they become so hard, by con- 
 tinued pressure, as to be no longer able to yield 
 to it. Previous to this, they are called alburnum, 
 or white wood, for wood is always white, not ex- 
 cepting even ebony, until it reaches this state. 
 The alburnum has, in deal, a whiter color, is 
 more spongy, and less durable, than the more 
 perfect or heart-wood, as it is termed. If you 
 count the number of layers at each end of a log, 
 you will see how many years that part of the tree 
 was in growing ; thus, if there are thirty at one 
 end, and twenty at the other, the tree was ten 
 years growing that length. The annual layers 
 of woods are separated by layers of the cellular 
 system. 
 
 Mr. E. The layers of the bark grow internal- 
 ly, like those of the palm-tree ; and, if a silver 
 wire or blade be passed completely through the 
 bark of a tree, the new internal layers, as they 
 are annually formed, will gradually push it out- 
 ward, till, at length, the internal coat becoming 
 external, the wire will fall off. Thus inscrip- 
 tions on the bark of trees are effaced ; but, if 
 
20 AERIAL PLANTS. 
 
 they are made so deep as to penetrate the layers 
 of wood, the new layers of bark will preserve 
 them. Adamson relates, that, in visiting Cape 
 Verd, he was struck by a tree fifty feet in cir- 
 cumference. He recollected having read, in 
 some old voyages, of an inscription on a tree like 
 this, yet he could not discover one ; but cutting 
 into the tree, he found it entire, under three hun- 
 dred layers of wood. Three hundred years had 
 therefore elapsed since the inscription was made ; 
 and he calculated that the tree was probably 
 about five thousand years old. 
 
 F. I suppose, papa, all plants find food in the 
 earth. 
 
 Mr. E. No, my dear. Some are called aerial. 
 Such are the most succulent or juicy plants of 
 hot countries, among which are several of the 
 palms and canes, and the greater number of 
 those that adorn the fields of the Cape of Good 
 Hope, where rain falls only for a few weeks in 
 winter. A shrub from Jamaica* was long propa- 
 gated here, in stoves, by cuttings ; but, though 
 they were freely watered, and grew several feet 
 in length every season, they could never be made 
 to produce any signs of fruit. It happened, how- 
 ever, that some young cuttings were laid aside 
 and forgotten at Kew, and thus, having no wa- 
 ter, and becoming dry as in their healthy state, 
 every extremity produced a flower. Hence it 
 has been thought that such plants derive the 
 whole of their nutriment from the surrounding 
 atmosphere ; and that all the advantage they ob- 
 
 * Solandra grandiflora. 
 
AERIAL PLANTS. 21 
 
 tain from thrusting their roots into the soil or 
 sand is that of having an erect position. 
 
 Mrs. E. The air plants* are indeed no less 
 singular than beautiful ; they attach themselves 
 to the driest and most sapless surface, and flow- 
 er as if issuing from the richest soils. ' A speci- 
 men of one of these, which I thought curious/ 
 says Dr. Walsh, ' I threw into my portmanteau, 
 where it was forgotten ; and, some months after, 
 in unfolding some linen, I was astonished to find 
 a rich scarlet flower in full blow ; it had not only 
 lived, but vegetated and blossomed, though so 
 long secluded from air, light, and humidity/ 
 The barren pine | is not less extraordinary. It 
 also gro>vs on sapless trees, and never on the 
 ground. Its seeds are furnished, on the crown, 
 with a long filmy fibre, like the thread of gossa- 
 mer. As they ripen they are detached, and 
 driven with the wind, having the long thread 
 streaming behind them. When they meet with 
 the obstruction of a withered branch, the thread 
 is caught, and, revolving round, the seed, at 
 length, comes into fixed contact with the surface, 
 where it soon vegetates, and supplies the naked 
 arm with a new foliage. In Brazil it grows like 
 the common plant of a pine-apple, and shoots 
 from its centre a long spike of bright scarlet 
 blossoms. In some species, the leaves are protu- 
 berant below, and form vessels like pitchers, 
 which catch and retain the rain water, furnish- 
 ing cool and refreshing draughts to the heated 
 traveller, in heights where no water is to be 
 
 * Epidendron. t Tillandsia. 
 
22 LEAVES. 
 
 found. / The quantity of this fluid is sometimes 
 very considerable, arid those who have attempted 
 to reach the flower-stem have been often drench- 
 ed by upsetting the plant. 
 
 Mr. E. We should now attend a little to the 
 leaves. These, when they first shoot, are gener- 
 ally enclosed in small scaly buds, evidently de- 
 signed to defend them from the inclemency of 
 the weather ; but some leaves are of so hardy a 
 nature as not to require a covering, especially 
 when growing in a warm climate. Some buds 
 sprout into flowers and fruits, others into fruit 
 and leaves, and some into leaves and branches 
 only. Germs seem to exist in every part of the 
 stern, and wherever the sap accumulates, a bud 
 appears. And here I may mention a remarkable 
 fact. In Sweden, the budding and leaving of the 
 birch-tree is taken as a guide for sowing barley. 
 The idea originated with the illustrious natural- 
 ist, Linnaeus, who urged his countrymen to ob- 
 serve most diligently and carefully at what time 
 each tree unfolds its buds, and expands its leaves. 
 This has been done, and Mr. Harold fiarck has 
 published the order of the leaving of trees in that 
 country. Correct observations on the foliation of 
 trees and shrubs in England have also been made 
 by Mr. Stillingfleet. The first on his list is the 
 honeysuckle, which is dated January 15, and the 
 last, which is the thirty-sixth, is the Carolina 
 poplar, dated April 22. The succession thus 
 pointed out is invaluable, and provides the farmer 
 with a calendar for spring. The discoloring of 
 the leaves, and their falling ofF, will also guide 
 him as to the approach of winter j and thus there 
 
CALENDAR OF NATURE, $ 
 
 is ' a small still voice,' which may be regarded 
 as the voice of God ! Leaves usually last but one 
 season. Evergreens change their leaves annual- 
 ly ; the young leaves appear before the old ones 
 decay, and thus the plant retains its verdure. 
 The talipot-leaf is very remarkable. It is com- 
 pletely circular, terminates in the most beautiful 
 rays, and folds up into plaits, like a fan. It is 
 from three to four feet in diameter ; its length and 
 thickness are proportionate, arid it can cover sev- 
 eral persons from the inclemency of the weather. 
 It is made into umbrellas of all sizes, and equally 
 serves to protect the natives from the intense 
 heat of the sun, and the rains which, at particu- 
 lar seasons, deluge their country. While they 
 are falling, a native may sometimes be seen prop- 
 ping up one end of a talipot-leaf with a stick, and 
 then creeping under it for protection. The leaf 
 of the troolie, of Surinam, is said, however, to 
 attain three feet in width, and thirty in length; 
 the natives cover their houses with it, and it is 
 very durable. 
 
 F. Papa, I should like to hear something 
 about the sap. 
 
 Mr. E. The sap, which rises in the roots, 
 consists simply of water, holding a variety of 
 crude ingredients. All that is necessary is 
 selected and retained to nourish the plant, and 
 part is exhaled, or thrown out, by the leaves. 
 During the spring, there is more than the usual- 
 quantity in order to nourish the young buds, 
 which are then to appear. Thus the sap resem- 
 bles the milk of animals, which is produced for 
 a similar purpose, and which is provided only 
 
24 NURSELING SAP. 
 
 when there are young to feed on it. Heat first 
 expands the buds, and makes room for the sap. 
 To show this, two pieces of vine were placed in 
 two similar vessels of water, and the stem and 
 branches of one of them were then introduced 
 through a hole in the wall into a hot-house ; the 
 buds of this plant were rapidly unfolded, and the 
 water in the vessel as quickly sucked up, whilst 
 the buds of the other made only their usual pro- 
 gress, and the water was but slowly lessened. 
 Having thus mentioned what may be called the 
 nurseling sap, it should be observed that that 
 which rises to feed the mature plant reaches the 
 leaves without undergoing any change ; but as 
 soon as it arrives there it throws off a large por- 
 tion of its water, leaving the nourishment it con- 
 tained in the leaf. And it is remarkable, that, 
 without light, no evaporation will take place, 
 and it will even be inconsiderable, unless the 
 sun's rays fall on the plant. This process has 
 been called by some the transpiration of plants; 
 and it was ascertained by Mr. Hales that a full- 
 blown sun-flower, placed favorably as to light 
 and heat, transpired twenty ounces of water a 
 day, which is seventeen times more than is 
 evaporated by a man, supposing their surfaces 
 equal. Apples, plums, peaches, and other 
 fleshy fruits have few or no pores , they, there- 
 fore, retain the moisture they receive from the 
 sap, which enables them to remain long on the 
 tree, after coming to maturity, without drying 
 up or withering ; whilst peas, and beans, and 
 other dry fruits, wither, in consequence of the 
 number of their pores. Leaves, too, vary in a 
 similar manner, and with the same result 
 
fcFSP I RATION. 2 
 
 E. What, papa, becomes of the sap that 
 remains in the leaf after the moisture it does not 
 want is gone ? 
 
 Mr. E. Enriched by the nourishment which 
 the moisture left behind, it now undergoes a 
 change, as the blood in our frames does from 
 the air which we inhale, but, with this differ- 
 ence, we give out what is called carbon, while, 
 this being the principal ingredient of wood and 
 all that is vegetable, the store of it in plants 
 requires to be increased. A man exhales no 
 less than eleven ounces a day, and plants receive 
 it in large quantities. M. de Saussure trans- 
 planted fourteen periwinkles into vases, seven 
 of which he watered with distilled water, and 
 the other seven with water in its usual state. 
 He afterwards found that the former had not 
 acquired any carbon, whilst the latter obtained 
 a considerable quantity ; the wood being one- 
 sixth heavier than that of the other. Plants, 
 however, absorb oxygen during the night, and, 
 combining with the carbon, it forms carbonic 
 acid ; but, during the day, the oxygen is restor- 
 ed to the atmosphere. How wonderful is this ! 
 
 Mrs. E. The sap, changed by an acquisition 
 of carbon, is called cambium, or returning sap, 
 and passes into another set of vessels, which 
 convey it downwards ; and, as it traverses the 
 several organs, it leaves in each what is necessa- 
 ry for their sustenance. Here, too, is a striking 
 resemblance to what appears in the human 
 frame. From one and the same blood, about 
 twenty different fluids are separated ; as unlike 
 one another in their sensible properties in 
 2* 
 
26 THE HONEY-TLOWER CAOUTCHOUC. 
 
 taste, smell, color, and consistency, as possi- 
 ble thick, thin, bitter, sweet; and if we pass 
 from our own to other species of animals, we 
 find amongst their secretions, not only the most 
 various, but the most opposite qualities the 
 most nutritious aliment and the deadliest poison 
 the sweetest perfumes and the most ietid odors. 
 As the viper pours out a fluid fatal to other 
 animals, and yet offers, in the general substance 
 of his body, a sort of antidote to his venom, so 
 the Indian cassava secretes in its root a juice or 
 oil extremely poisonous, while its leaves are 
 freely eaten ; and even the root, deprived by 
 heat of its juice or oil, gives bread to the natives, 
 and tapioca as an article of commerce. Its 
 starch, too, is like that of the finest wheat-flour, 
 arid, combined with potatoes and sugar, yields 
 the grateful beverages cyder and perry. Nor 
 is this a solitary instance. Some of the secre- 
 tions separated from the cambium are designed 
 to remain in the plant, and others are conveyed 
 out of it as useless or detrimental. Mamma 
 will, I know, assist me in remembering a few of 
 them. 
 
 Mrs. E. The honey-flower,* a Cape plant, 
 produces more honey than any other, and in 
 ^such abundance that a tea-spoonful may be 
 collected every morning from each of its numer- 
 ous flowers ; though its strong and disagreeable 
 smell, when bruised, indicates a poisonous quali- 
 ty. The tree that produces caoutchouc, or In- 
 dian rubber, 'Which was first introduced into Eu- 
 
 * Melianthus. 
 
THE TALLOW-TREE. 27 
 
 rope about the beginning of the last century, is 
 a native of South America and the West Indies. 
 This substance is an elastic resin, obtained by 
 making incisions in the stem. The' juice is 
 collected as it trickles from the wound, and 
 moulds of clay, in the form of little bottles, are 
 dipped into it. A layer of this juice dries on 
 the clay, and several layers are added till the 
 bottle is of sufficient thickness. It is then 
 beaten to break down the clay, which is easily 
 shaken out. The Indians make boots of 
 caoutchouc, which are water-proof, and, when 
 smoked, look like leather. The inhabitants of 
 Quito prepare from it a kind of cloth, which 
 they use as we do oil and sail-cloth ; and, in the 
 West Indies, flambeaux are made of it, that burn 
 without a wick, and are used by fishermen when 
 they go out to fish at night. Within the last 
 few years, papa has had a cloak which it makes 
 water-proof. 
 
 E. Oh, mamma ! I know which it is ; papa 
 calls it his umbrella, because it keeps off the 
 rain ; but can you tell us how they use it ? 
 
 Mrs. E/ The caoutchouc is dissolved in naph- 
 tha, a brownish liquor obtained in making gas from 
 coal, so as to form a varnish, with which thin 
 cloth, or silk, or calico, is covered. As, howev- 
 er, the varnish is sticky, a second thin cloth is 
 put over it, and the whole is passed between roll- 
 ers, which make it quite smooth and of equal 
 thickness throughout. I remember, too, the tal- 
 low-tree * is remarkable for the quantity and pe~ 
 
 * Stillingia sebifera. 
 
8 THE MANCHINEAL SOAP BERRIES. 
 
 culiar quality of the oil obtained from its berries, 
 which so nearly resembles wax or spermaceti, 
 that candles are made of it; but they produce, in 
 burning, a very disagreeable smell. Castor-oil is 
 obtained from the seeds of a tree,* which, when 
 ripe, are dried in the sun, pounded in wooden 
 mortars, and then boiled in water, when the oil 
 rises to the surface, is skimmed off, and put into 
 jars for use. 
 
 Mr. E. The manchineal is found in the West 
 Indies, and always grows on the beach. It bears 
 a small, green apple, like a golden pippin, and 
 of exquisite odor ; but it contains an extremely 
 caustic milk, with which it is said arrows have 
 often been, poisoned. Sailors are not unfrequent- 
 ly deceived by its appearance, and eat it ; and to 
 do so would issue fatally, were not an antidote 
 provided in the juice of the sugar-cane. When 
 it is to be cut down, as the wood makes beauti- 
 ful furniture, it is necessary to have a fire made 
 round it, to cause the juice to runout safely. A 
 friend of mine mentioned, a few days ago, that 
 he had often seen negroes who had gone incau- 
 tiously near it, whose faces were dreamily swollen, 
 and who were laid up in consequence for some 
 days. A bush in the West Indies yields what 
 are called soap-berries; the inner substance, 
 which is of a yellow color, being often used, when 
 ripe, for soap, while the berries, of which it is 
 the covering, may frequently be observed made 
 into necklaces and other ornaments. 
 
 JE. I have often seen them, mamma ; Miss An- 
 
 * Ricinus communis. 
 
CANDLEBERRY-TREE. 29 
 
 drews has a row of them, and bracelets to match : 
 and I did not know what they were ; but when I 
 was at Mr. Selborne, the jeweller's, I saw some 
 on the counter, and I asked him what he called 
 them ; and so I satisfied my curiosity without be- 
 ing so rude as to seen /to notice Miss Andre ws's 
 necklace and bracelets ! 
 
 Mr. E. I am glad you did so, my dear. An 
 American tree produces milk, and hence is call- 
 ed the cow-tree. It grows in rocky and barren 
 districts, little adapted for the pasturage of cattle. 
 It rises on the unfruitful side of a rock, with 
 leaves dry and leathery, which, during many 
 months of the year, are not moistened by a sin- 
 gle shower. The branches appear dead and dry ; 
 but, when the trunk is pierced, a sweet and nour- 
 ishing milk flows from it, which is most abundant 
 at sun-rise ; then the natives hasten from all 
 quarters to the vegetable fountain, and receive 
 the milk in large bowls. 
 
 Mrs. E. In America there is a small tree,, 
 about ten or twelve feet high, with crooked stems 
 branching forth near the ground, and the leaves 
 growing irregularly. Its flowers and dry blue 
 berries make no show ; the tree owes its beauty 
 and value to the leaves ; for these being bruised, 
 as well as the bark of the young shoots, emit a 
 delightful and refreshing fragrance, not exceed- 
 ed by the myrtle or any other aromatic shrub. 
 From the berries of a species of this tree, which 
 grows commonly in Carolina, the inhabitants col- 
 lect a wax, and hence it is called the candle-berry 
 tree. In November and December, when the ber- 
 ries are ripe, a man, with his family, will remove 
 
30 -OPIUM. 
 
 from home to some island, or sand-bank, near the 
 sea, where these berries abound; taking with them 
 kettles to boil the berries in. He builds a hut 
 with palmetto-leaves, as a shelter during their 
 stay of four or five weeks. He cuts down the 
 trees, the children strip off v the berries and throw 
 them into the vessels ; and, on their being boiled, 
 oil rises to the surface, which, when cold, hardens 
 to the consistence of wax. It is afterwards puri- 
 fied in other vessels ; and candles made of it burn 
 a long time, and yield a grateful odor. 
 
 Mr. E. Opium, so much used as a medicine 
 to allay pain and occasion sleep, is the juice ob- 
 tained from the unripe seed-vessels of a species 
 of white poppy. In manv parts of Asia Minor, 
 whole fields are sown with its seeds, as our's are 
 with corn. When the heads are nearly ripe, they 
 are w r ounded on one side with a sharp instrument, 
 and a white liquor flows out, which the heat of 
 the sun hardens upon them; this is the opium : 
 it is collected the next day, when fresh wounds 
 are made on the opposite side of the seed-vessel; 
 but what comes from the first incision is decided- 
 ly the best. "When the opium is collected, it is 
 moistened with a small quantity of water or hon- 
 ey, and worked on a board until it has the con- 
 sistency of pitch, when it is formed into cakes or 
 rolls for sale. The tincture of opium, which is 
 made by dissolving it in spirits of wine, is called 
 laudanum. 
 
 F. How, papa, is camphor produced? 
 
 Mr. JE. Small quantities have been distilled 
 from thyme, sage, and other aromatic plants; but 
 k is obtained chiefly from the stems and roots of 
 
CAMPHOR. 31 
 
 the camphor-tree, a species of laurel which grows 
 in China and in the Indian isles. But I will 
 show you a singular property it possesses. See ! 
 1 take a small piece of camphor, and place it on 
 the surface of a basin of pure water, and now 
 look! 
 
 E. O, how curious ! It moves round, and 
 round, and round, so fast! but now I see it has 
 stopped please tell me how that happens. 
 
 Mr. E. I merely poured a single drop of lav- 
 ender water into the basin, which caused the 
 motion to cease ; but no one has yet been able 
 to explain how it is done, 
 
 Mrs. E. We must reserve other facts of this 
 kind to future times, and now notice those secre- 
 tions which consist chiefly of vapors and gases 
 exhaled from flowers ' r one of which, that of the 
 fraxinella, will burn if a taper be brought to it. 
 Several peculiar juices, too, are prepared by 
 glands situated on the surface of the leaves. 
 These are furnished with hairs : in the nettle the 
 hair gives the wound, and then its poisonous se- 
 cretion is poured into it. If, however, the hairs 
 are wetted by rain, no sting is felt, because they 
 cannot penetrate the skin ; and stinging plants 
 can also be handled with impunity after death, if 
 dried , for though the hair may be able to wound, 
 the juice is no longer fluid, and cannot flow into 
 the puncture. 
 
 Mr. E. How amazing is that power which 
 produced vegetation ! 
 
 * Tho Earth, till then 
 
 Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd, 
 
 Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad 
 
 Ilor universal face with pleasant green , 
 
32 THE NETTLE. 
 
 Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower'd, 
 
 Opening their various colors, and made gay 
 
 Her bosom, smelling sweet : and, these scarce blown, 
 
 Forth flourish'd thick the clustering vine, forth crept 
 
 The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed, 
 
 Embattled in her field, and the humble shrub, 
 
 And bush with frizzled hair implicit. Last, 
 
 Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread 
 
 Their branches, hung with copious fruit, or gemm'd 
 
 Their blossoms: with high woods the hills were crown'd, 
 
 With tufts the valleys, and each fountain side.' 
 
 THE DISCOVERY. 
 
 * AN Indian, named Hualpa, was one day pur- 
 suing some deer, and climbing over some rocks, 
 down which he was at length in imminent dan- 
 ger of falling. To prevent such an accident he 
 caught hold of a bush ; but his weight loosened 
 its roots, and his peril was not diminished. 
 While, however, he was holding the bush, and 
 looking at the roots, to ascertain how far he 
 might depend on them, he was astonished as he 
 cast his eyes on a lump of massy silver. Aware 
 of the~value of his discovery, he took the treas- 
 ure to his hut, lived on its produce some time, 
 and repaired to the same spot whenever he 
 wanted a supply. A neighbor observing Hual- 
 pa's condition improved, questioned him so close- 
 ly that one day he revealed the secret. The 
 two agreed to share the produce, and lived some 
 time in social harmony ; but, happening to 
 quarrel, the confidant betrayed the secret to his 
 master, a Spaniard, residing in the neighbor- 
 
HUALPA FERNS. 33 
 
 hood ; and thus the mine became known, and 
 has proved one of the richest in the world. 
 There, my dear/ continued Mr. Elwood, ' is a 
 story at your request a proof that what is valu- 
 able is sometimes discovered by accident/ 
 
 ' And I can give you another, papa/ said 
 Frederick. * A few days ago, when I was not 
 thinking of flowers, I found a little bunch of 
 primroses, and then you and mamma told us so 
 much about plants, and their vessels, and stems, 
 and roots, and leaves, and secretions, that 
 Emma and I have been thinking and talking 
 about them almost ever since. And we shall be 
 so glad when you can relate to us more of their 
 wonders. Perhaps but I may be wrong per- 
 haps you and mamma could begin now. Ah ! 
 how kindly you smile ! I think yes, I am 
 sure, you will.' 
 
 ' My dear boy/ replied Mr. Elwood, ' I am 
 delighted to find you and your sister so desirous 
 to learn what it is pleasing to impart. Accord- 
 ing to your request, then, we will give you, as 
 opportunity permits, some interesting and in- 
 structive facts in reference to the vegetable 
 world ; having no doubt that these will excite 
 and prepare you to commence a regular and 
 methodical course of study in after years. 
 
 * I will begin this evening with the humble 
 orders of vegetation. Among these are ferns, 
 which have what is called their fruit arranged 
 in spots or lines on the under side of the leaves ; 
 and if you will remind me of it in one of our 
 walks, I will show you that a fern-root, cut 
 transversely, exhibits a miniature picture of an 
 3 
 
34 FERNS. 
 
 oak-tree;^ In times of famine they were used 
 for bread, but now some of the common kinds 
 are employed as firing by the poor, who also mix 
 the ashes with water, and form them into balls, 
 which, when dried in the sun, serve instead of 
 soap. The leaves, if cut when full grown, and 
 properly dried, make a thatch for houses more 
 durable than straw; and of one root a sort of 
 starch is made in the north of Europe. In seve- 
 ral parts of the earth they assume the form and 
 magnitude of trees ; and, at the southern extrem- 
 ity of Van Dieman's Land, a species has been 
 seen, whose trunk was from twelve to sixteen 
 feet high. In describing their visit to the island 
 of Huahine, Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet also 
 describe some of great magnitude, and an inter- 
 esting purpose to which others are applied. 
 ' The sides of the mountain were overrun with 
 forests of tall fern and dwarf shrubs. When 
 we reached the top, which may be calculated at 
 two thousand feet, we had to descend into a 
 glen beyond, where the stream that supplies the 
 fall has its source. The actual fall we ascer- 
 tained to be three hundred and fifty feet. Of 
 course, in its headlong career, the rounded 
 volume, that rolls over the verge like molten 
 crystal, expands into azure sheets, or darts in 
 silver streams on its middle passage, tumbles 
 into foam a little lower, and resolves into spray 
 towards the bottom, so widely scattered that a 
 bath may be taken under the effusion without 
 any inconvenience. The face of the crags 
 down which it rushes, and leaps, and spreads, 
 and sparkles in the sun-beams being quite black, 
 
PRINTING IN HUAH1NE. 35 
 
 gives intensity of brilliance to the many-colored 
 waters, under all their changes of form, from the 
 torrent above to the shower of dew-drops below. 
 Here we gathered specimens of the elegant 
 small ferns, with which the native women im- 
 press figures, in divers colors, upon their cloth 
 literally a method of printing, which is but one 
 remove below the boasted invention of the 
 Chinese by means of engraven blocks, before 
 the art was discovered in Europe. It is true 
 that the delicate patterns of leaves and flowers, 
 taken from living plants, upon their apparel, 
 may be said to teach these ingenious females 
 only so many letters of the alphabet of nature ; 
 yet, though incapable of instructing them in any- 
 thing else, they do always remind them of some 
 of her most exquisite productions; and may 
 often revive in recollection the places where 
 such are to be found, as well as the circumstan- 
 ces under which particular specimens were 
 gathered upon the spot the weather, the com- 
 pany, the pleasures, or the disappointments of the 
 day on which they were sought. But I must 
 not forget that there is one species found in 
 North America called the sensitive fern,* which 
 is said to wither as soon as it is touched by a 
 human hand, while it is not injured by the 
 touch of other bodies. 7 
 
 E. That is very singular, papa; but I have 
 seen several sensitive plants, which shrink when 
 anything approaches them, as if they were afraid. 
 Can you tell us how this happens ? 
 
 * Onoclea sensibilis. 
 
36 SENSIBILITY OF PLANTS. 
 
 Mr. E. Some have thought, my dear, that as 
 plants have a set of vessels resembling our veins 
 and arteries, they may also have what corres- 
 ponds with the nervous system in animals. 
 Among the experiments that have been made to 
 prove this, certain vegetable poisons which are 
 known to destroy life in animals, merely by act- 
 ing on the nervous system, have been administer- 
 ed to plants, and the effect was, that the leaves 
 shrunk or curled themselves up, afterwards be- 
 came flaccid, and then in a few hours died. 
 
 Mrs. E. A plant has therefore, it is probable, 
 some organs with which we are at present unac- 
 quainted ; but I cannot see why it may not have 
 nerves, when in so many respects it has a resem- 
 blance to ourselves. And now, papa, I will tell 
 them a little about mosses, which, like lichens 
 and fungi, whose vessels are all of a cellular 
 form, hive no vascular system whatever. They 
 have roots and leaves something like those of oth- 
 er plants ; but the fruit is very different, for small 
 threads generally grow out of the bosom of the 
 leaves and support little roundish bodies which 
 contain the seeds. . These capsules, as they are 
 called, have generally a veil, like a little extin- 
 guisher ; and when this is removed, the mouth of 
 the capsule itself, which sometimes has a lid be- 
 sides, appears surrounded with one or two rows 
 of fringe, of great delicacy, and of amazing regu- 
 larity in the number of the teeth that compose it. 
 The mosses are generally evergeens, and capa- 
 ble of enduring more cold than most other vege- 
 tables. They clothe^ the rocks which rise out of 
 masses of ice in Spitzbergen, and a botanist 
 
MOSSES -MUNGO PARK. 37 
 
 counted above twenty different kinds in Green- 
 land, without moving from the rock where he 
 was seated. After having become dry and to all 
 appearance withered, and even after they have 
 been gathered and kept in a dry state for many 
 years, yet, if put into water, every part of them 
 will expand and become apparently as fresh and 
 green as when they were growing. The effect 
 produced by the structure or one of the mosses 
 on the mind of Mungo Park, in the horrid wastes 
 of Africa, I shall never forget. Frederick, my 
 love, here is the volume, you may read his ac- 
 count. 
 
 F. (Reads.) f I saw myself in the midst of a 
 vast wilderness, naked and alone, surrounded by 
 savage animals, and by men still more savage. I 
 was five hundred miles from the nearest European 
 settlement ; I considered my fate as certain, and 
 that I had no alternative but to lie down and per- 
 ish. At this moment the extraordinary beauty 
 of a small moss irresistibly caught my eye ; and, 
 though the whole plant was not larger than the 
 top of one of my fingers, I could not contemplate 
 the delicate conformation of its roots, leaves, and 
 capsules, without admiration. Can that Being, 
 thought I, who planted, watered, and brought to 
 perfection, in this obscure part of the world, a 
 thing which appears of so small importance, look 
 with unconcern upon the situation and sufferings 
 of creatures formed after his own image ? Re- 
 flections like these would not allow me to des- 
 pair : I started up, and, disregarding both hun- 
 ger and fatigue, travelled forwards, assured that 
 relief was at hand, and I was not disappointed/ 
 3* 
 
38 VAILLANT USES OP MOSS. 
 
 E. O mamma, that was delightful indeed ! 
 Can you tell us any of the uses of moss ? 
 
 Mrs. E. I can, my dear ; but I may just men- 
 tion that Vaillant beheld, amidst the sultry des- 
 erts of the same country, a magnificnt lily grow- 
 ing on the banks of a river, which filled the air 
 far around with its delicious fragrance, had been 
 respected by all the animals of the district, and 
 seemed defended by its own beauty. The sight 
 awakened in his bosom greater exultation than 
 perhaps a lily ever inspired before o-r since that 
 period, and akin to that which his fellow-traveller 
 has described. In answer to your question, how- 
 ever, I may say, the mosses are of great use 
 They protect the roots of tender plants alike from 
 the extremes of cold and heat; and there are ma- 
 ny kinds, which, by vegetating in the shallow 
 parts of ponds and marshes, convert, in the course 
 of time, what was previously water and bog into 
 useful land and fertile pastures. Birds employ 
 these vegetables in constructing their nests ; thus 
 the goldfinch forms its cradle of fine mosses and 
 lichens, collected from the apple or the pear tree, 
 and then lines it with the down of thistles, 
 
 E. Oh, mamma ! I can tell you such a pretty 
 story, which I read the other day, about a little 
 wren. She made a nest inside a cow-shed, and 
 it was so neat ! and what do you think she did 
 to hide the place ? Oh, the little cunning thing ! 
 She hung a ragged piece of moss on the straw- 
 work, and shut out the opening ; nor would this 
 have been known, had she not popped out one 
 day, so that a gentleman saw her. 
 
 Mrs. E. That was certainly very clever, Em- 
 
USES OF MOSS. 39 
 
 ma ; but now I will tell you what service these 
 apparently insignificant plants render to men. 
 Of the golden maiden-hair,* one of the largest 
 species, the Laplanders make good beds, by cut- 
 ting thick layers of it, so that one serves as a 
 mattress, and the other as a coverlet ; and on 
 such a bed Linnaeus often slept when travelling 
 amonor that people. These beds are elastic, so 
 that they may be rolled up into a parcel and car- 
 ried under a man's arm ; nor do they grow hard 
 by pressure, for when they lose a part of their 
 elasticity by long use, it can soon be restored by 
 dipping them in water. Of another kind, which 
 is particularly soft, like a thick fur or fleece, the 
 Lapland women make great use. They wrap 
 their infants in it, without any other clothing, 
 and place them in leathern cradles, lined with 
 the moss ; and in these soft and warm nests the 
 babes, like little birds, are completely defended 
 from the cold. The Greenlanders use this moss 
 as tinder, and for wicks to their lamps. Another 
 species-ought aho to be particularly mentioned: 
 it is the rein-deer moss, t of a whitish color, 
 which grows in Lapland to the height of at least 
 a foot, covering the ground like snow. This is 
 the most useful vegetable that is found through- 
 out that country ; for it is the principal food of 
 the rein-deer, without which valuable creature 
 the inhabitants could scarcely exist. The rein- 
 deer draws them in sledges over countries buried 
 in snow ; its flesh and milk affords them nourish- 
 ment, its skin clothing, and even its bones and 
 sinews are made into several useful articles. 
 
 * Polytrichum commune. t Lichen rangiferinua. 
 
40 INSTINCT OP THE REIN-DEER. 
 
 Mr. E. De Broke thus illustrates the instinct 
 with which the rein-deer discovers its means of 
 subsistence : ' The flatness of the country in- 
 creased as we proceeded, and at times it was 
 even difficult to tell whether we were moving on 
 land or water, from the uniformity of the white 
 surface around us. In this respect, our deer 
 were far better judges than ourselves ; as, though 
 there might be a depth of some feet of snow 
 above the ice, wherever we stopped for a few 
 minutes upon any lake, in no one instance did 
 they attempt to commence their usual search 
 after their food ; yet, when upon land, their 
 natural quickness of smell enabled them to 
 ascertain, with almost unerring certainty, wheth- 
 er there was any moss growing beneath them or 
 not. By the fineness of this sense of the animal, 
 the Laplanders are chiefly guided in fixing their 
 different winter-quarters; never remaining in 
 those parts which they know with certainty pro- 
 duce but little moss, from the difference of their 
 deer, and the few attempts made by them to 
 remove the snow.' 
 
 F. In that part of the earth I should think 
 they have but few plants. 
 
 Mrs. E. The frozen zone contains few 
 species; but as, in the short career of the Polar 
 summer, vegetation is very rapid, these compre- 
 hend a greater number of individuals than is 
 commonly imagined. The verdure of that sea- 
 son is confined to the hills which are exposed to 
 the south ; and, though of short duration, it is 
 sometimes very brilliant. Beside mosses and 
 lichens, there are ferns, creeping plants, and 
 
LICHENS ORIGIN OF SOILS. 41 
 
 various bushes with berries the resources and 
 luxuries of Siberia and Lapland. No where 
 else are the fruits more abundant, or possessed 
 of a finer flavor. The frozen zone also admits 
 of some trees, particularly the birch and willow ; 
 but they always remain dwarfs, never growing 
 higher than one or two feet. But Lapland pro- 
 duces rye and leguminous plants, and would, it 
 is said, have supported fine forests, had not an 
 unwise economy procured their destruction. 
 
 F. Papa, what are lichens, which mamma 
 mentioned a little while ago ? 
 
 Mr. E. They are a very numerous race, 
 which commonly grow in fleshy or leather -like 
 patches, on the stems of trees, rocks, old build- 
 ings, palings, &c. ; and of which those that 
 grow like rough, yellow, and bluish crusts, 
 upon the oid gooseberry-bushes and apple-trees 
 in the garden, are some of the most common 
 species. They thrive in all kinds of soil, and in 
 every climate. Many of them are useful in com- 
 mencing the operations of nature in the growth 
 of vegetables on the barest rocks, receiving no 
 other support than what the air and rain afford 
 them. As they decay, they are changed into a 
 very fine mould, which nourishes other species ; 
 these, in their turn, become food for mosses, 
 and they likewise rot; and, in course of time, a 
 soil is formed from the refuse of the whole, 
 capable of maintaining plants, and even trees. 
 Several different kinds of lichen afford beautiful 
 dyes ; and one of them, called dyer's lichen,* 
 
 * Lichen rocella. 
 
42 SEA-WEED. 
 
 which communicates to silks and wool various 
 shades of purple and crimson, is particularly val- 
 uable. This plant, which is brought chiefly 
 from the Archipelago and the Canary Islands, is 
 of great importance as an article of commerce; 
 and, when scarce, has been sold for even five 
 thousand dollars a ton ! 
 
 E. Can you tell us something about sea-weed, 
 papa? When we were last at Scarborough, I 
 found such quantities, of different forms, and 
 some very beautiful indeed ! 
 
 Mr. E. Many things respecting these and 
 similar plants, my dear, are exceedingly inter- 
 esting. Their roots serve only to fasten them to 
 the bottom ; many of them float about in the 
 water, without being attached to any solid body, 
 and they imbibe all their nourishment through 
 their surface. In the islands of Jura and Skye, 
 the sea-mack* is often used as winter food for 
 the cattle, which regularly go down to the 
 shores, when the tide is out, to eat it ; and even 
 the deer come from the mountains to feed on it. 
 The inhabitants of Gothland, in Sweden, boil it, 
 mix it with meal, and use it as food for their 
 hogs; in Scandinavia, the poor people thatch 
 their cottages with it ; and it assists the prepara- 
 tion of kelp, a kind of salt, and a principal 
 ingredient in the manufacture of soap. If the 
 leaves of this plant receive a wound while grow- 
 ing, abundance of young shoots are thrown out 
 from the injured part; and even if a hole or rent 
 be made in the middle of a leaf, a, new one will 
 
 * Fucus vesiculosus. 
 
USES OP SEA-WEED. 43 
 
 spring from each side of it. In Scotland, the 
 sea-tangle* and the dulset are used as food ; 
 and of the stems of the former the handles of 
 knives are sometimes made. For this purpose, 
 a thick stem is chosen, and cut into pieces about 
 four inches long ; the hilts of the knives are 
 stuck into these while fresh, and, as the stern 
 dries, it contracts and hardens firmly around 
 them, and, when tipped with metal, can scarce- 
 ly be distinguished from horn. Another kindj 
 is employed in China as glue and gum-arabic 
 are with us ; and with it large sheets of paper 
 are coated, in order to make them transparent, 
 and to prepare them for lanterns and windows, 
 instead of glass. Windows are sometimes made 
 of slips of bamboo, which are crossed, and the 
 spaces between are filled up with thin sheets 
 formed of a glue made by dissolving the plant in 
 warm water, which stiffens as it cools. Another^ 
 is highly esteemed as a luxury in the east. Of 
 this, the swallows' nests I mentioned || as edible 
 are said to be made. Some of the larger kinds 
 of sea-weed are truly wonderful, on account of 
 their magnitude, and rapidity of their growth. 
 One of themU is said to extend often to the length 
 of a thousand or fifteen hundred feet; and it 
 grows in such profusion, that the masses of it re- 
 semble islands. 
 
 Mrs. E. An immense belt of sea is frequently 
 covered over with a vegetable production,** which 
 sometimes appears in long ridges, with furrows 
 
 * Fucus digitatus. t Fucus palmatus. t Fucus 
 tenax. Fucus lichenoides. || See ' Art in Na- 
 ture,' page 247. U Fucus giganteus. ** Fucus natans. 
 
44 SINGULAR MARINE PRODUCTION. 
 
 between, and sometimes in detached portions. 
 To this particular part of the Atlantic, the Span- 
 iards and Portuguese have given the name of 
 ' the weedy sea.' A specimen of this vegetable 
 is described to us as consisting of ;one long, fi- 
 brous stem, from which smaller lateral ones pro- 
 ceed. These were covered with strap-shaped 
 leaves; and at the angle made by the leaves and 
 stem were small pods, not quite so large as peas, 
 on short foot-stalks, and generally two together. 
 They contained no seeds, or other substance, and 
 appeared to be merely air-vessels, to enable the 
 plant to float on the surface. Several of them 
 were encased in a beautiful coraline substance. 
 About it were many of the little dwellers in the 
 sea, and among them were shrimps, and a very 
 pretty species of small crab, with a bright mot- 
 tled tortoise-shell, and vivid green eyes. It is 
 highly probable that this plant has no root, and 
 is produced as it floats. 
 
 The sea of Japan also brings to the shores im- 
 mense floating meadows of marine plants ; so 
 that the anxious mariner often apprehends that 
 his vessel is entangled by a new land, seeming 
 to rise up from the waters, which it conceals from 
 view. 
 
 Mr. E. It is a remarkable fact that the lich- 
 ens, or aerial algae, never grow under water, 
 while the fuci, or aquatic algae, never grow out 
 of water ; and the same may be said of many 
 other plants, some of which are, as it were, the 
 living boundaries of land and sea. Thus the 
 samphire * never grows but on the sea-shore, and 
 
 * Crithmum Maritimum. 
 
THE SHIPWRECKED MARINERS. 45 
 
 yet is never found within reach of the waves, or 
 rather, is never so near as to be wholly covered 
 by the waters. A knowledge of this was on one 
 occasion very consolatory. A vessel was driven 
 on shore near Beachy Head, in 1821, and the 
 whole of the crew were washed overboard. Four 
 escaped from the wreck, but only as they thought 
 to suffer a more lingering death ; for, having in 
 the darkness of the night been cast upon the 
 breakers, they found when they had climbed up 
 the highest of these low rocks, that the waves 
 were rapidly advancing ; and they doubted not 
 that, when the tide attained its height, the whole 
 range would be entirely covered with water. 
 Unable to see anything beyond the spot on which 
 they stood, and followed by the infuriated waves, 
 which at length dashed upon them, the hope of 
 life was quenched, and, in the agony of despair, 
 they were debating whether they should not 
 throw themselves on the mercy of the waters, 
 when one of them, to hold himself more firmly 
 to the rock, grasped a weed, which, even wet as 
 it was, he well knew, as a flash of lightning af- 
 forded a momentary glance, was a sort of sam- 
 phire, and he recollected that it never grows un- 
 der water. That plant instantly became to these 
 miserable men a messenger of mercy ; and they 
 felt assured that the voice of God would say to 
 the waste of waters, * Hitherto shalt thou come, 
 but no further.' And so it was. In the morn- 
 ing they were seen from the cliffs, and conveyed 
 safely to the shore. Thus an acquaintance with 
 this single fact was to them of the greatest im- 
 4 
 
46 FUNGI. 
 
 portance. Who can tell, my dears, how valuable 
 to you may be the information you now receive ? 
 
 F. It is very valuable now, papa : we '11 try 
 and learn something every day, and then how 
 much we shall know by and by ! 
 
 Mr. E. Everything in the natural world, my 
 love, demands attention ; but the more know- 
 ledge you acquire, the less will you seem to know. 
 In the minute, as well as the vast, the footsteps 
 of God may be perceived. We may just advert, 
 at the close of the conversation, to the fungi, 
 which are a very singular tribe. They have, 
 properly, no leaves ; their whole substance being 
 fleshy, generally of quick growth and short du- 
 ration, and of various degrees of firmness, from 
 a watery pulp to a leathery or even woody tex- 
 ture. The only kind we venture to eat is the 
 common mushroom,* which is often cultivated in 
 hot-beds, and grows wild in parks and fields that 
 have been long undisturbed by the plough. In 
 September, a great variety of fungi flourish, of 
 every size, shade, and hue, according to their 
 species and situation, from the slender scarlet or 
 yellow filament on some decaying stump, ' to the 
 bold, broad agaric of a foot in height and diame- 
 ter, standing in the forest as a fitting table for 
 Oberon, the king of the fairies. No production 
 of nature but is endowed with some portiou of 
 that beauty so lavishly diffused through creation ; 
 and these humble and despised vegetables, which 
 the clown kicks away with his foot, will certain- 
 ly appear to an attentive eye not destitute of their 
 
 * Agaricus Campestris. 
 
BEAUTIES OF FUNGI. 47 
 
 share. In roaming the ancient wilds of Sher- 
 wood forest, in the autumn of 1827, says William 
 Howitt, I was particularly struck with their va- 
 rying character ; some broad, tabular, and flaked 
 with brown ; some in the shade of trees of a 
 pearly whiteness, others of a brilliant rose-color ; 
 some whose delicate surfaces were studded with 
 dark embossments ; some fashioned like a Chi- 
 nese parasol ; others gibbous and grotesque ; the 
 massy puff-ball, which before it becomes dry has 
 been known to weigh several pounds ; the pesti- 
 lent-scented and ginger mushrooms, for all the 
 world the exact resemblance of a Simnel-cake. J 
 Cowper says, 
 
 * The common, overgrown with fern, and rough 
 With prick'ly gorse, that, shapeless, and deformed, 
 And dangerous to the touch, has jet its bloom, 
 And decks itself with ornaments of gold, 
 Yields no unpleasing ramble ; thero the turf 
 Smells fresh, and rich, in odorif'rous herbs, 
 And fungous fruits of earth, regales the sense 
 With luxury of unexpected eweets. J 
 
 Mrs. E. Mr. Knapp, too, has written beauti- 
 fully on the same topic, ' No country/ he re- 
 marks, ' Is, I believe, more favorable for the pro- 
 duction of most of the agarics than Monmouth, 
 with its deep dark woods, and alpine downs. 
 Travellers tell us of the splendor of this race in 
 the jungles of Madagascar, but nothing surely 
 can exceed the beauty of some old copse in Mon- 
 mouthshire, deep in the valley, calm, serene, 
 shaded by the pensile, elegant, autumnal-tinted 
 sprays of the birch ; the ground enamelled with 
 every colored agaric, from the deep scarlet to 
 pallid white, the gentle grey, and sober brown, 
 
48 DRY-ROT. 
 
 and all their intermediate shadings.' But these 
 fragile children of the earth are beauties of an 
 hour. 
 
 ' Transient as the morning dew, 
 They glitter and exhale.' 
 
 F. But, mamma, if these plants only spring up 
 and die, of what use can they be ? 
 
 Mrs. jEJ. Vegetation, my dear, is often exuber- 
 ant ; it is poured with unceasing prodigality from 
 the lap of the earth, and returned thither, season 
 by season, without being, in many instances, 
 either provision for brute or human life ; but nev- 
 er let us imagine, in this or any similar case, that 
 no purpose is answered. It appears, indeed, to 
 be an ordinance of nature, that all created things 
 must have an end. This takes place by various 
 means ; slow and scarcely perceptible in some 
 instances, but operative in all. Thus vegetating 
 substances often effect the decomposition of plants 
 and of trees. The dry-rot in wood, as it is call- 
 ed, is a decay occasioned by a peculiar vegeta- 
 ble of the fungus kind, which possesses the pow- 
 er of destroying the wood to which it adheres, 
 and from which it derives its nourishment. It is 
 originated and increased, like other vegetables, 
 by seed. The seeds, which are extremely mi- 
 nute, are spread over the surface of the tree, or 
 lodged in the cavities of its branches. They re- 
 quire, in order to make them vegetate, a suita- 
 ble soil and situation : the former is wood rather 
 damp, and the latter is stagnant air ; aud, wher- 
 ever they have these, they readily spring and lux- 
 uriantly flourish. Thus these and other para- 
 
THE SACCHARINE FERMENTATIONS. 49 
 
 sites carry on the work of dissolution ; and we 
 may fairly conclude that ' the constant renewal 
 and decomposition of plants in all their curious 
 and exquisite forms of blade and stalk, of leaf, 
 flower, and seed from the moss on the crag to 
 the noble bread-fruit tree has been preparing, 
 through ages past, a soil in the desert, of which 
 the produce, through ages to come, shall nourish 
 a numerous and happy population, whose indus- 
 try and wants, as they multiply on the earth, 
 shall lead them alike to -cultivate the deep de- 
 clivities of the mountains, and clear the impervi- 
 ous fastnesses of the forests for food and for room 
 to dwell in.' 
 
 Mr. E. I may now state what you will deem 
 very extraordinary : vegetables pass through cer- 
 tain changes before they arrive at this state of pu- 
 trefaction ; and of these we avail ourselves for 
 important purposes. The decomposition of veg- 
 etables is always attended by a violent internal 
 motion, produced by the disunion of some parti- 
 cles and the combination of others ; and this is 
 called fermentation ; and, as there are several 
 periods at which this process stops, so means may 
 be used to prevent it going forward, and to se- 
 cure to us the new combination. The fermenta- 
 tions, to which water and a certain degree of 
 heat are necessary, derive their names from their 
 principal products. One is called saccharine^ 
 because its produce is sugar, and there is a re- 
 semblance to this process in the ripening of 
 fruits, and in the first stage of vegetation. The 
 seed, when buried in the earth, with a certain 
 degree of moisture and of heat, absorbs water. 
 
50 FERMENTATIONS. 
 
 which causes it to expand, separates its particles, 
 and produces sugar : the substance of the seed 
 is thus softened, sweetened, and changed into a 
 kind of white milky pulp, fit for the nourishment 
 of the little plant. 
 
 F. And what is the next fermentation, papa ? 
 
 Mr. E. It is the vinous, so called because the 
 produce is wine. To this the saccharine fer- 
 mentation is extremely favorable, if not absolute- 
 ly essential ; so that, if sugar be not formed 
 during the life of the plant, the saccharine fer- 
 mentation must be artificially produced before 
 that which is vinous can take place. Thus 
 barley does not yield sugar until it is made into 
 malt ; on this conversion taking place, it is pre- 
 pared to yield what may be called the wine of 
 grain, just as wine is the product of the fermen- 
 tation of grapes or other fruits. The third fer- 
 mentation is the acetous, so denominated because 
 it changes wine into vinegar. A substance 
 which has undergone a fermentation, will pro- 
 duce it in one that can pass through that pro- 
 cess. Thus yeast, which is a product of the fer- 
 mentation of beer, is used to excite and hasten 
 the fermentation of malt, and also that of paste 
 which is to be made into bread. This is usually 
 classed among the acetous fermentations; when 
 bread is good, the process only takes a single 
 step, but when it goes beyond this, the bread is 
 sour. The last is the putrid fermentation, by 
 which organized bodies are reduced to their 
 simplest elements. 
 
 JE. How extraordinary, papa ! But we, you 
 know, hare several things on the mantel-piece, 
 
FOSSIL-WOOD, PEAT, AND TURF. 51 
 
 which look something like pieces of wood, and 
 yet they are heavy as stones what are they? 
 
 Mr. E. They are sometimes called petrified 
 vegetables ; but this is an error. If a vegetable 
 is buried under water, or in wet earth, it will be 
 slowly and gradually dissolved ; and, as each 
 successive particle is destroyed, it will be replac- 
 ed by a particle of siliceous or flinty earth, con- 
 veyed thither by the water; and thus, in the 
 course of time, the vegetable will appear as if it 
 were changed to stone. It is so with animal as 
 well as vegetable substances. Sometimes their 
 entire dissolution is prevented, as when vegeta- 
 bles are buried in the sea or the earth, where 
 the process cannot advance for want of air. 
 They are then subject to a peculiar change, and 
 become bitumens ; as jet, which is hard and often 
 used for ornaments ; and coal, to which the 
 animal and mineral kingdoms seem also to con- 
 tribute. What changes take place ! The cele- 
 brated Regent diamond which was set in the 
 handle of the late Emperor Napoleon's sword of 
 state, is now valued at $1,200,000, although it 
 weighs but an ounce and an eighth, and was 
 originally purchased for much less by Thomas 
 Pitt, grandfather of the great Earl of Chatham, 
 while governor of Madras. Yet this precious 
 gem is no more than a piece of charcoal. 
 
 Fossil- wood, peat, and turf, are composed of 
 woods and roots of shrubs which are partly dis- 
 solved by moisture under ground, and yet in 
 some degree preserve their appearance. Heathy 
 countries supply the latter abundantly; and 
 thus fuel is provided for the poor^ 
 
52 THE SOUL. 
 
 Mrs. E. I will conclude the conversation with 
 one suggestion; there are some respects in 
 which there is a resemblance between our struc- 
 ture and that of vegetables like us, too, they 
 live and die ; but between us there is still an 
 immense space. Well may it be said : 
 
 ' Am I but what I seem, mere flesh and blood, 
 A branching channel with a mazy flood ? 
 The purple stream that through my vessels glides, 
 Dull and unconscious flows, like common tides; 
 The pipes, through which the circling juices stray, 
 Are not that thinking I, no more than they .- 
 This frame, compacted with transcendent skill, 
 Of moving joints, obedient to my will ; 
 Nursed from the fruitful glebe, like yonder tree, 
 Waxes and wastes I call it not wine, but me. 
 New matter still the mouldering mass sustains ; 
 The mansion changed, the tenant still remains j 
 And from the fleeting stream repaired by food, 
 Distinct as is the swimmer from the flood,' 
 
 Yes, ' there is a spirit in man, and the inspi- 
 ration of the Almighty giveth him understand- 
 ing/ This gift constitutes him the only being, 
 through the whole range of the visible creation, 
 who is able to contemplate the character and 
 works of the Almighty and Supreme Artificer, 
 The human soul is also immortal, and capable 
 of eternal progression ; and it should be with 
 you and me, my dears, our great end, in this 
 brief and chequered life, to prepare for that which 
 is glorious and eternal, 
 
HEATHS GRASS. 53 
 
 THE WALK. 
 
 THEY had just gone through the green lane 
 passed by the pretty ivy- covered lodge and 
 crossed the stile conducting to the meadows 
 when Mr. Elwood quoted the remark to his chil- 
 dren, that there would be more attentive observ- 
 ers of nature if the spider spun threads of gold, 
 or if the lobster contained pearls. ' And yet/ 
 he added, ' there is not a spot on the surface of 
 the earth from whence valuable knowledge may 
 not be derived knowledge with which gold and 
 pearls are not to be compared. 
 
 1 What a noble fence is that, though far infe- 
 rior to the one of which Evelyn so enthusiasti- 
 cally said, " Is there under heaven a more glo- 
 rious and refreshing object of the kind than an 
 impregnable hedge, of about four hundred feet 
 in length, nine feet high, and five in diameter, 
 which I can show in my now ruined gardens at 
 Say's Court, at any time of the year glittering 
 with its armed and varnished leaves, the taller 
 standards, at orderly distances, blushing with 
 their natural coral !" 
 
 1 Heaths, too, may be often observed in abun- 
 dance : some present us with little wax-like 
 flowers, others with pendent pearls : some are 
 garnished with coralline beads, whilst others 
 seem to mimic the golden trumpet, or tempting 
 berries, or porcelain of bell or bottle shape : 
 some remind us of Lilliputian trees, bedecked 
 with Turkish turban in minature : some have 
 their slender spray hung with globes like alabas- 
 
54 GRASSES. 
 
 ter, or flowers of the cowslip form : nor are 
 their colors less varied than their shape; whilst 
 the foliage is equally beautiful in its apparent 
 imitation of all the mountainous trees, from the 
 Scottish fir to Lebanon's boasted cedar, through 
 all the tribe of pine, spruce, larch, tamarisk, 
 juniper, arbor vitse, mournful cypress, and funer- 
 al yew. 
 
 ' Arid how delightful are these meadows and 
 pastures ! Every single panicle bears many a 
 distinct flower, each part of which is as perfect 
 as the lovely rose, the splendid tulip, or the 
 majestic lily. Food, clothing, conveyance from 
 place to place, and a thousand other advantages, 
 all depend on the produce of the fields. 
 
 ' The grass of mountains is also remarkable. 
 Frequently covered with mists, it remains green 
 throughout the summer, resembling our lawns, 
 and yielding delicious pasture for cattle when 
 the meadows in the valleys and plains are burnt 
 up. The matted roots of the grasses of the 
 mountains of Switzerland and the Alps are 
 extremely useful in preventing the surface of the 
 soil from being washed down by rains ; for the 
 meshes of the net-work which they form confine 
 the earth and retain it, as it were, in a basket, 
 on the surface of the declivity. Were the sides 
 of mountains to be tilled, it would endanger 
 them : massive as they are, they are upheld by 
 some of the smallest of the vegetable race. 
 Remove the surface on which those grasses take 
 root, and another is in peril, and thus one after 
 another being washed down, the mighty moun- 
 tain will disappear.' 
 
PROVIDENCE. 55 
 
 E. Well, papa, I never heard that before. 
 How wonderful! Little worms form islands; 
 and the grass, the tender grass, sustains moun- 
 tains ! 
 
 Mr. E. It may surprise you, too, my dears, when 
 I say, that the various kinds of corn belong to 
 the family of the grasses. But mark their whole 
 appearance ; you know grasses or corn at first 
 sight, by their blades, from all other plants that 
 grow near them. They are distinguished by a 
 simple straight, unbranched stalk, hollow and 
 jointed, commonly called a straw, with long, 
 narrow, tapering leaves, placed at each knob or 
 joint of it, and sheathing or enclosing it, as if by 
 way of support ; their ears or heads consist of 
 husks, each generally composed of two valves, 
 which form the calyx or cup, and within this 
 what may be termed the blossom, which is also 
 a husk of two valves, dry and shining. These 
 minute flowers are also furnished with a honey- 
 cup. Each seed is enclosed either by the blos- 
 som or calyx. As they become ripe the husks 
 open, and, if not timely gathered, the seeds fall 
 to the ground, which is one of the many means 
 used for the increase of vegetables. And how 
 dreary would this earth be were it destitute of its 
 verdant covering so soft to the feet, and so 
 refreshing to the eye ! Still it is the prey of 
 almost every animal that roams over it beasts, 
 birds, and insects banquet here with delight; 
 but such is the wisdom and beneficence of Provi- 
 dence, that the more the leaves are cropped the 
 faster do the roots increase ; and, what is still 
 more wonderful, the animals that browse on 
 
56 DEFENCE OF A PEA. 
 
 grasses, though left at full liberty in the pasture, 
 leave the straws which support the flower and the 
 seed untouched ; and those species which flour- 
 ish on the tops of mountains, where the summer 
 heats are not sufficient to bring their seeds to 
 perfection, are generally increased by the root, 
 or winter-buds, and do not depend on the seed 
 for increase. A multitude of similar instances 
 might be mentioned. 
 
 F. I remember, papa, you told me once of the 
 care which is taken of a pea. I should like you 
 to describe it again, and then Emma will hear it 
 too. 
 
 Mr. E. The corolla is formed of four petals : 
 the first is broad and large, covering the others 
 as a defence and shelter from the injuries of the 
 weather : it is called the standard or banner, and 
 it is inserted deeply on each side, that it may not 
 easily be driven out of its place by the wind. 
 The side-petals, or wings, protect the sides of the 
 flower ; and, when these are taken off, you see 
 the keel, which is so called because it is some- 
 thing like the bottom of a boat, which encloses 
 and preserves the centre of the flower from harm, 
 and is most curiously and delicately constructed. 
 If, too, you compare the pod of a pea and that of 
 a stock, you will see that the foot-stalk, which 
 supports the flower, is slender, and easily moved 
 about by the wind ; but, in wet and stormy wea- 
 ther, the pea turns its back to the storm, whilst 
 the banner enfolds the wings, by closing about 
 them, and partly covers them. The same office 
 is performed by the keel, containing the essential 
 parts of the fructification : thus is this flower cu- 
 
THE CEKEALIA. 57 
 
 riously protected from the rain and wind; and, 
 when fair weather returns, it changes its posi- 
 tion, as if sensible of the alteration, expands its 
 wings, and erects its standard as before. The 
 means employed, for the preservation of plants 
 are wonderful indeed ; but there is especial 
 security for those which nourish men and ani- 
 mals. 
 
 E. I am glad, papa, Frederic thought of the 
 pea, and you are very kind to describe it again ; 
 but you were going to mention, I think, some- 
 thing else. 
 
 Mr. E. The corn, or grain-bearing plants are 
 styled the cerealia, from Ceres, the goddess of 
 corn. That one, however, on which any people 
 chiefly depend for their food is called corn by 
 them ; as wheat is in England, oats in the north- 
 ern lowlands of Scotland, rye in the sandy dis- 
 tricts on the southern shores of the Baltic sea, 
 and maize throughout the United States of 
 America. They are all annuals, both in their 
 stems and roots, the whole plant dying after the 
 seed has been completely formed and ripened, 
 and sometimes even before the latter process 
 has fully taken place. All send up a hollow 
 straw, or culm, which is divided into lengths by 
 nodes or joints; 'at these joints the leaves have 
 their insertion, one at each joint on the alternate 
 sides of the stem ; and each leaf embraces the 
 stem for some length in the manner of a sheath. 
 These stems, moreover, always contain a portion 
 of silex, or earth of flint ; and hence their ashes 
 are useful in polishing articles formed of wood, 
 horn, ivory, and some of the softer metals; 
 5 
 
58 A GRAIN OF WHEAT. 
 
 while its presence, and the difficulty of separating 
 it from what is purely vegetable, has prevented 
 the use of straw in the manufacture of paper. 
 The last leaf of the season becomes a sheath to 
 the newly-formed flower, embracing it for a time 
 so firmly that the sheath cannot be opened with- 
 out difficulty. With the growth of the flower it 
 bursts open its sheath, rises above it, and the 
 leaf then turns backward. The head, or ear, 
 consists of an uncertain number of flowers, fol- 
 lowed by seeds. These are sometimes placed on 
 a single rib or rachis, as in wheat and barley, 
 and they then form a spike. In what is called 
 Egyptian wheat this spike is compound, there 
 being more than one rachis : if this consists 
 of branches that are naked at their points of 
 junction, and have spikelets at their extremities, 
 they form what is called a panicle : this is the 
 case, for example, with oats. A full-grown and 
 perfect grain of wheat is in form a compressed 
 oval, and is enclosed first in certain chaffy sides, 
 which are easily separated, and then in a mem- 
 braneous tunic or covering, which invests the 
 seed much more closely. On one side of the 
 grain a groove may be observed ; and at the 
 base, on the opposite side, there is a small pro- 
 tuberant oval space, which shows the germ or 
 embryo of the future plant, and which is at this 
 time covered by the tunics. The vessels where- 
 by the grain was attached to the plant, and 
 through which it drew nourishment until its ma- 
 turity, had their point of attachment at the low- 
 est end of this protuberance. When the seed is 
 perfectly ripe, these vessels separate, the point 
 
PRODUCE OF AN EAR. 59 
 
 of separation speedily heals, the grain may then 
 be easily threshed out from the chaff in which it 
 had lain buried, and sometimes it sheds itself 
 spontaneously. 
 
 E. Oh, dear, dear, papa ! what a little won- 
 der is a grain of wheat ! Now I shall look 
 out for the groove and the little protuberance ; 
 and then you know one grain produces an ear, 
 and that will yield a great many. 
 
 Mr. E. It will, my dear ; the corculum, ' lit- 
 tle heart/ or germ, contains a principle, which, 
 if rightly managed, can produce, not only a plant 
 of wheat, but plant after plant, until, in the 
 course of a few harvests, its progeny would be- 
 come capable of feeding a nation. Thus, not- 
 withstanding the ravages of war, the vital princi- 
 ple of vegetation, destined for the chief support 
 of the human race, has not been lost, but it has 
 remained to man, like fire, which he alone has 
 subjected to" his use, to be called forth at his bid- 
 ding, and to contribute to his support, comfort, 
 and prosperity. One circumstance connected 
 with the increase of the cereal grains is very sin- 
 gular. An insect * deposits its eggs in the very 
 core of thejprimary shoot of the wheat, so that it 
 is completely destroyed by the larvae or grubs ; 
 and did not the plant possess within itself the 
 means of repairing the injury, the care and toil 
 of the husbandman would be lost. But happen- 
 ing, as it does, in the spring, shoots immediately 
 grow forth from the knots, the plant becomes 
 more firmly rooted, and produces, probably a 
 
 * Musca pumilionis. 
 
60 PRODUCE OF AN EAR. 
 
 dozen stems and ears, where, but for the tempo- 
 rary mischief, it might have yielded only one. 
 The inherent power of multiplication possessed 
 by vegetables is indeed most extraordinary. In 
 1660, Sir Kenelm Digby asserted ' that there 
 was in the possession of the Fathers of the Chris- 
 tian doctrine at Paris, a plant of barley which 
 they kept at that time as a curiosity, and which 
 consisted of two hundred and forty-nine stalks 
 springing from one root or grain, and in which 
 they counted above eighteen thousand grains, or 
 seeds of barley. On the 2d of June, 1766, Mr. 
 Miller, of Cambridge sowed some grains of the 
 common red wheat, and, on the 8th of August, a 
 single plant was taken up, and divided into eigh- 
 teen parts, and each part planted separately. A 
 second division produced sixty-seven plants, and 
 a third amounted to five hundred. They were 
 then divided no farther : and some of them pro- 
 duced upwards of one hundred ears from a sin- 
 gle root, many of which measured seven inches 
 in length, and contained between sixty and sev- 
 enty grains. The whole number of ears which, 
 by this process, were produced from one grain of 
 wheat, was twenty-one thousand one hundred 
 and nine ; which yielded three pecks and three 
 quarters of clear corn; the weight of which was 
 forty-seven pounds, seven ounces ; and the whole 
 number of grains was about five hundred and 
 seventy-six thousand, eight hundred and forty ! 
 In this case, there was only one general division 
 of the plants made in the spring; had a second 
 taken place, Mr. Miller thinks the number of 
 plants would have amounted to two thousand ! 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF WHEAT. 61 
 
 And now should you like to hear some facts as 
 to the history of wheat? 
 
 E. Exceedingly, papa, exceedingly ! 
 
 Mr. E. In the early books of Scripture, we 
 often read of corn, and of Ruth gleaning with the 
 maidens of Boaz, ' unto the end of barley-har- 
 vest, and of wheat-harvest/ Pliny says, that in 
 the champaigne country about Byzacium in Af- 
 rica, wheat had been known to yield a hundred 
 and fifty fold. He mentions that a procurator- 
 general of that province, under Augustus Caesar, 
 sent the emperor from thence a plant of wheat 
 which had nearly four hundred straws springing 
 from one grain, and meeting in one and the same 
 root. Sicily is said to be the first country in Eu- 
 rope where grain was cultivated. Ceres was not 
 only worshipped in that island, but is often rep- 
 resented on the ancient Sicilian coins ; and gar- 
 lands of ears were offered to her before they be- 
 gan to reap. At what period wheat was first cul- 
 tivated in England is only matter of conjecture, 
 CsBsar found corn growing on the coast, but of 
 what kind we are not informed. Other seeds 
 are dispersed through the earth by winds and 
 currents, in the hairy coats of quadrupeds, and 
 in the maws of birds. But the corn-plants are 
 said, in common with many other important veg- 
 etable productions, to follow the course of man 
 alone. Even hostile armies have been instru- 
 ments of their diffusion. Cortez, the inhuman 
 conqueror of Mexico, wrote from thence to the 
 King of Spain, ( l beseech your Majesty to give 
 orders that no vessel sail for this country without 
 a certain quantity of plants and grain.' The 
 5* 
 
62 WHEAT IN MEXICO NEW ZEALAND. 
 
 foundation of the wheat-harvests of that country 
 is said to have been three or four grains, which 
 a slave of the conqueror discovered accidentally 
 in 1530, mixed with a quantity of rice. These 
 he carefully preserved, and used so advantageous- 
 ly as to entitle him to public gratitude ; but even 
 his name is unknown ; while the Spanish lady, 
 Maria d'Escobar, who first imported the same 
 blessing into Peru, has her name, and her dis- 
 tribution of the produce of successive harvests as 
 seed among the farmers, celebrated in history. 
 A chief, named Duaterra, was the first person 
 who actually reared a crop of wheat in New Zea- 
 land. On leaving Port Jackson the second time, 
 to return home, he took with him a quantity of 
 it, and much surprised his acquaintances by in- 
 forming them that this was the very substance of 
 which the Europeans made biscuit, such as they 
 had seen and eaten on board their ships. He 
 gave a portion of it to several persons, all of whom 
 put it into the ground, and it grew well ; but, 
 before it was well ripe, many of them were im- 
 patient for the produce ; and, as they expected 
 to find the grain at the roots of the stems, similar 
 to their potatoes, they examined them, and, find- 
 ing no wheat under the ground, all, except one, 
 pulled it up, and burned it. The chiefs ridiculed 
 Duaterra about the wheat ; and all he urged 
 would not convince them that wheat would make 
 bread. His own crops, and that of his uncle, 
 who had allowed the grain to remain, came, in 
 time, to perfection, and were reaped and threshed ; 
 and, though the natives were much astonished to 
 find that the grain was produced at the top and not 
 
WHEAT GENERALLY DIFFUSED. 63 
 
 at the bottom of the stem, yet still they could not 
 be persuaded that bread could be made of it. A 
 friend afterwards sent Duaterra a steel mill to 
 grind his wheat, which he received with no little 
 joy. He soon set to work before his countrymen, 
 ground some wheat, and they danced and shout- 
 ed with delight when they saw the meal. He 
 afterwards made a cake, and baked it in a frying- 
 pan, and gave it to the people to eat, which fully 
 satisfied them of the truth of his assertions. The 
 chiefs now begged more seed, which they sowed ; 
 and such of it as was attended to grew up as 
 strong a crop as could be desired. 
 
 F. Will wheat grow any where, papa ? 
 
 Mr. E. Ancient and modern writers affirm 
 that it will grow with cultivation in almost every 
 part of the world. It is found to flourish, not only 
 in our temperate clime, but also in the extremes 
 of heat and cold. In Lapland, it is cultivated as 
 far as sixty-eight or seventy degrees north lati- 
 tude ; and Humboldt found, in the vicinity of La 
 Vittoria, at the moderate elevation of two hun- 
 dred and seventy-three toises above the level of 
 the ocean, some fields of wheat, mingled with 
 plantations of coffee, plantains, and sugar-canes. 
 Thus, as it is the plant most necessary to man- 
 kind, so it is the most general ; and it ought not 
 to be overlooked, that its presence in any region 
 of the earth attests that man is there in an ad- 
 vanced state of civilization. In the sepulchres of 
 the Egyptian kings, which were opened by the 
 scientific men who accompanied the French 
 army into Egypt, the common wheat was found 
 in vessels so perfectly closed that the grains re- 
 
64 STARCH. 
 
 tained their form and color; and thus, buried, 
 as it had been, for several thousand years, it 
 shows as clearly the civilization of that country 
 as its temples now in ruins : because the corn- 
 plants, such as they appear under cultivation, do 
 not grow wild in any part of the earth. Emma, 
 do you recollect anything besides bread made 
 from wheat? 
 
 E. I think not, papa : but, let me see t 
 oh, I remember now reading something about 
 starch. 
 
 Mr. E. To that I referred, my dear. We are 
 indebted, for its invention, to the island of Chios. 
 Starch-flour was called Amylum by the Greeks, 
 because it was made without going into a mill, 
 or being ground on stones. The next in esteem 
 with the ancients was that of Candia and Egypt ; 
 where it was procured by simply putting the 
 wheat in a wooden vessel, and covering it with 
 fresh water, which was changed five times a 
 day : it was then made into a kind of paste, and 
 afterwards laid to dry, either on linen cloths, or 
 in wicker baskets ; and finally, it was put on 
 tiles, and placed in the sun to harden. Besides 
 starch, however, wheat contains gluten, which 
 is of a grey color, is very viscid, or sticky, and 
 makes it the most nourishing of all grain ; and 
 mucilage, which is a gummy substance. 
 
 E. Now, papa, as we have called to see Mrs. 
 and Miss Robinson, and you have rested your- 
 self, and Frederick has admired the new micro- 
 scope, and I have been delighted with it too, 
 and have borrowed this pretty drawing which I 
 
TRADITION OF THE INDIANS. 65 
 
 wish to copy how delightful it will be if you 
 can tell us more about the corn-plants as we re- 
 turn home ! 
 
 Mr. E. Well, then, my curious little girl, we 
 must think of barley, which the Egyptians sup- 
 pose was the first used for the sustenance of man. 
 They affirm that the mode of cultivating it was 
 imparted to their ancestors by the goddess Isis, 
 who, having discovered the plant growing wild 
 in the woods, taught men how to rear it, so as 
 at once to increase the quantity, and improve 
 the quality of its produce. A chief of the Sus- 
 quehannah Indians related to Dr. Franklin a 
 similar tale ( In the beginning,' said he, ' our 
 fathers had only the flesh of animals to subsist 
 on ; and, if their hunting was unsuccessful, they 
 were starving. Two of our young hunters hav- 
 ing killed a deer, made a fire in the woods to 
 broil some part of it. When they were about to 
 satisfy their hunger, they beheld a beautiful 
 young woman descend from the clouds, and seat 
 herself on that hill which you see yonder among 
 the blue mountains. They said to each other, 
 ' It is a spirit, that perhaps has smelt our broiling 
 venison, and wishes to eat of it : let us offer 
 some to her.' They presented her with the 
 tongue ; she was pleased with the taste of it, 
 and said, ' Your kindness shall be rewarded. 
 Come to this place after thirteen moons, and 
 you shall find something that shall be of great 
 benefit in nourishing you and your children to 
 the latest generation/ They did so; and, to 
 their great surprise, found plants, they had 
 never seen before, but which, from that ancient 
 
66 RAPID GROWTH OF BARLEY. 
 
 time, have been constantly cultivated among us 
 to our great advantage. Where her right hand 
 had touched the ground, they found maize; 
 where her left hand had touched it, they found 
 kidney-beans; and, where she had seated her- 
 self, they found tobacco.' Thus the uninstruct- 
 ed are fond of the marvellous and supernatural, 
 and fictions supply the place of facts. 
 
 F. Where, papa, was barley first grown ? 
 
 Mr. E. That I cannot tell you, my dear. In 
 some respects, it has the advantage of wheat. 
 It may be propagated over a wider range of cli- 
 mate, bearing heat and drought better, and com- 
 ing so quickly to maturity, that the short north- 
 ern summers, which do not allow of the ripen- 
 ing of wheat, are yet long enough for the per- 
 fection of barley. It is the latest sown, and 
 the earliest reaped, of all the summer grains. 
 In warm countries, such as Spain, the farmers 
 can gather two harvests of barley within the 
 year. Linnreus relates, in his tour in Lulean 
 Lapland, that the whole process of its production 
 occupied not longer than six weeks. When the 
 bark of the grain is removed, it is called Scotch 
 or pearl barley. The ancients used to make it, 
 in its raw state, food for horses, as the Spaniards 
 do to the present day. And I remember a 
 curious fact, which shows the effect of habit. A 
 man of property was taken by pirates, carried, 
 with the other passengers, and the crew of a 
 vessel, to Algiers, where he was condemned to 
 work as a slave. Every morning he received, 
 on going out to work, in common with the cap- 
 tives, some barley, of which he took a few grains 
 
EFFECT OF HABIT INTOXICATING LIQUORS. 67 
 
 now and then, as he had opportunity. After 
 several years of bondage he obtained his freedom, 
 but he could not thenceforward take a regular 
 meal ; he could only eat occasionally, and then 
 but little at a time, as he did in the days of his 
 captivity. 
 
 F. For what else, papa, is barley used ? 
 
 Mr. E. It is a curious fact, in the history of 
 man, that almost all nations, from the earliest 
 antiquity, have had some method of producing 
 intoxication ; and barley was employed for this 
 purpose in times far distant. It is said to have 
 been the natural substitute for wine in the coun- 
 tries which could not produce the grape, and to 
 have been originally made in Egypt, where the 
 art of brewing this fermented barley-liquor was 
 confidently attributed to Osiris, the Bacchus of 
 the people. From Egypt, this liquor passed to the 
 west, through Galatia, and various countries that 
 were too cold for vines ; and, even where they 
 could be cultivated, the process of making in- 
 toxicating liquor from corn was much more 
 rapid than the cultivation of them. Every 
 migrating race, passing into a colder climate, 
 would, therefore, naturally cherish this inven- 
 tion ; thus the knowledge of this liquor spread 
 over all the countries of Europe under various 
 appellations, all of which literally denoted, at 
 first, ' the strong water/ In England, it is men- 
 tioned as early as the laws of Ina, king of 
 Wessex. It was the favorite liquor of the Anglo- 
 Saxons and Danes, as it had been of their ances- 
 tors, the Germans. Amongst the liquors pro- 
 vided for a royal banquet, in the reign of Edward 
 
68 ALE IMMENSE VAT. 
 
 the Confessor, ale is particularly mentioned. 
 The monasteries, from early periods, had always 
 breweries, and good cellars, inclosed in their pre- 
 cincts ; and that called ' conventual ale ' was 
 always the strongest and the best. But it was 
 not till 1524 that hops were first brought to 
 England ; and about the reign of James I. they 
 became generally used. It is about three hun- 
 dred years since ale was first made in England 
 as it is made now ; and in 1830, there were 
 46,727 acres occupied in the cultivation of hops 
 in Great Britain. The extent to which porter- 
 brewing is carried, in London, may be conceiv- 
 ed from the account we have of a vat, in the 
 brewery of Messrs. Meux &> Co., whose circum- 
 ference was nearly a hundred feet, its height 
 was about twenty-two feet, and it contained 
 three, thousand five hundred and fifty-six barrels, 
 or one hundred and twenty-eight thousand and 
 sixteen gallons ! The great brewers have given 
 entertainments in their immense vats to distin- 
 guished persons, who have been greatly amused 
 by the circumstance. 
 
 E. Oh, papa, how funny they must look ! 
 The people seem very little from a high place, 
 such as the gallery of St. Paul's ; but then, you 
 know, these are not so far down. What a quan- 
 tity must be made by all the brewers ! 
 
 Mr. E. It is indeed immense. I have men- 
 tioned to you the saccharine fermentation of 
 seeds; and this is artificially produced, to make 
 malt. For this purpose, a quantity of barley is 
 soaked in water for two or three days; the 
 water being afterwards drained off, the grain 
 
MANUFACTURE OP MALT OATS. 69 
 
 heats spontaneously, swells, bursts, sweetens, 
 shows a disposition to germinate, and actually 
 sprouts to the length "of an inch ; when it is put 
 into a kiln, by which the process is stopped, 
 and the grain is well dried at a gentle heat. In 
 this state it is malt, the principal ingredient of 
 beer. About thirty million bushels of barley are 
 annually converted into malt in Great Britain ; 
 and more than eight million barrels of beer of 
 which four-fifths are strong beer are brewed 
 yearly ! But I think there will be time, before 
 we reach home, to notice some facts respecting 
 oats, which grows on soils and in situations 
 where neither barley nor wheat can be raised, 
 and which is the hardiest of all the cereal grains 
 cultivated in Great Britain. 
 
 E. And, papa, oats are not like the other 
 plants. 
 
 Mr. E. They are not. my dear. The ear of 
 oats is not a spike with a single rachis, but a 
 panicle, resembling in some degree the stem and 
 branches of a pine. While young and light, 
 these branches arrange themselves round the 
 centre of the stem ; but as they advance towards 
 maturity, and acquire weight, they generally 
 bend over on one side. And why do you think 
 this is? That thus the air and light may visit, 
 and the rain may wash each individual grain ; 
 so that any lodgement of the larvae or grubs of 
 insects, or the seeds of parasitical or destructive 
 plants, is thereby prevented. Still further, the 
 grains being pendent, and having the open 
 extremities of their chaff towards the earth, are 
 effectually defended from the lodgement of rain 
 6 
 
70 CONSUMPTION OF WHEAT. 
 
 within, an advantage which neither wheat nor 
 barley possesses, and hence are liable to diseases 
 from which oats are exempted. Their nutritive 
 quality, however, is smaller, in a given weight, 
 than that of any other cereal grains ; but they 
 are well adapted as food for horses and poultry. 
 Oatmeal, prepared in various ways, is used very 
 generally in Scotland; and cakes made of it are 
 thought by many to be very agreeable. For- 
 merly it was more commonly used. In the 
 household book of Sir Edward Coke, in 1595, 
 there are constant entries of oatmeal for the use 
 of the house, besides ' otmell to make the poore 
 folkes porage.' And, about fifty years ago, so 
 small was the quantity of wheat used in the 
 county of Cumberland, that it was only a rich 
 family that used a peck of wheat in the course 
 of a year, and that was at Christmas. The 
 usual treat for a stranger was a thick oat-cake 
 and butter. At the time of the Revolution, 
 14,000,000 bushels of wheat are said to have 
 been grown in England; but it is stated that 
 the annual consumption of wheat in the United 
 Kingdom now, is estimated at 13,000,000 quar- 
 ters, and that of other grain at 36,000,000 
 quarters ; making together 48,000.000, of which 
 not one twentieth part has during any year been 
 imported, and in general a far less proportionate 
 quantity. The daily consumption of wheat in 
 the United Kingdom may be taken at 35,000, 
 and of all other grain at 108,000 quarters a 
 day. Each person consumes about seven 
 bushels annually. 
 
 E. Now, papa, you look as if you were going 
 
ROTATION OF CROPS. 71 
 
 to stop ; but we have not reached the long green 
 lane yet. Frederick seems too as if he should 
 like to hear a little more ; and, as for me, I'm 
 never, never tired. 
 
 Mr. E. It is remarkable that the vital princi- 
 ples of some vegetables will lie dormant for years, 
 and even ages. Seeds have been made to grow 
 in this country after being buried at Herculaneum 
 for more than seventeen centuries ; but which, 
 having been so long deprived of air had been 
 kept from vegetating. Without this element, 
 they, like ourselves, cannot exist. It is also 
 worthy of observation, that the agriculturist pays 
 attention to the improvement of the soil, lest his 
 crops should be lessened. The Celts improved 
 their land, when it was stiff and clayey, by burn- 
 ing the natural produce of the soil before they 
 ploughed it ; and our ' fallowing, ' by which the 
 land is allowed a year's rest occasionally, and 
 during that time is repeatedly turned over by the 
 plough, exposes every part to the atmosphere, 
 whence it absorbs oxygen ; and, the weeds being 
 buried in the process, the land is greatly enriched. 
 Two sorts of grain, moreover, cannot be raised 
 in succession without the latter degenerating : 
 while some plants succeeding a crop of grain are 
 improved by it. 
 
 'F. How does that happen, papa ? 
 
 Mr. E. M. de Candolle supposes it to be as 
 follows : A plant being under the necessity of 
 absorbing whatever comes to its roots, sucks up 
 some particles not adapted to its nourishment ; 
 and, in consequence, after having manufac- 
 tured the sap in its leaves, and sent it downwards 
 
72 ROTATION OF CROPS. 
 
 through all its organs, each of which receives the 
 nourishment it requires, and made, in fact, as 
 much of it as possible, it has a residue of what 
 is not adapted to its support : these particles are 
 therefore given out unaltered by the roots, and 
 thus deteriorate the soil for a following crop of 
 the same species of plant, but improve it for one 
 of another family. What a benevolent provision 
 is this ! We have had several others resembling 
 it in the present conversation. 
 
 In the Vale of Glastonbury, it is said, there is 
 land where wheat has grown for many years to- 
 gether without any manure; and in the neigh- 
 borhood of the Carron iron-works, in Scotland, 
 wheat has been raised above thirty years, with- 
 out injury either to the crops or the soil ; but, in 
 these instances, the soil must not only abound 
 with vegetable nourishment, but be particularly 
 adapted to growing wheat ; consequently, the 
 roots would have little or nothing to reject, and 
 "successive crops of the same grain might be rais- 
 ed so long as the land was not exhausted. M. 
 de Candolle's opinion seems just, but it requires 
 the support of facts. It is true, nature does not 
 raise plants of different families in succession, 
 but she does what is equal in effect. She raises 
 such a prodigious variety of trees and shrubs in 
 her spontaneous forests, atid in her meadows suh 
 a multiplicity of herbs and grasses, that the dif- 
 ferent plants mutually supply each other with 
 what they give forth ; and then the whole plant, 
 whether grass, shrub, or tree, returns to the soil; 
 to repay the nourishment it had previously re- 
 ceived. 
 
CORN-MILLS. 73 
 
 E. I see, papa, we may learn something eve- 
 ry where, if we please. Shall we go over the 
 little bridge, and pass by the mill ? 
 
 Mr. E. Yes ; that way is preferable. In the 
 East, grain was commonly reduced to meal by a 
 mill ; not like that on the right, which is work- 
 ed by water, but which went by hand. It con- 
 sisted of the lower mill-stone, the upper side of 
 which was concave, and the upper mill-stone, the 
 lower side of which was convex. The hole for 
 receiving the flower was in the centre of the up- 
 per mill-stone ; and, when corn was ground, the 
 lower one was fixed, and the upper was made to 
 move round it, by means of a handle, with con- 
 siderable velocity. Dr. Clarke says, ' In the isl- 
 and of Cyprus, I observed upon the ground the 
 sort of stones used for grinding corn, called querns 
 in Scotland, common also in Lapland, and in all 
 parts of Palestine. These are the primeval mills 
 of the world, and they are still found in all corn 
 countries where rude and ancient customs have 
 not been liable to those changes introduced by 
 refinement. The employment of grinding with 
 these mills is confined solely to females ; and the 
 practice illustrates the prophetic declaration of 
 the Saviour concerning the day of Jerusalem's 
 destruction : * Two women shall be grinding at 
 the mill : one shall be taken and the other left.' 
 
 F. We should know then, papa, how they man- 
 age in the East, if we would understand the Bible. 
 
 Mr. E. We should, my dear. Without an 
 
 acquaintance with Oriental manners and customs, 
 
 much will be obscure which would otherwise be 
 
 plain. I hope, however, you will be increasing- 
 
 6* 
 
74 EFFECTS OF FOOD. 
 
 ly interested with the study on which we have 
 entered. How various are the changes of mat- 
 ter ! Out of the rude materials of the seeds, and 
 roots, and leaves of plants, spring many forms of 
 strength and beauty ; and by them and animal 
 food the human frame itself is built up. Yes ! 
 by these the little babe is sustained, so that it 
 may pass through the days of childhood and youth 
 and at length become the man in all the energy 
 of his power, or the woman in all her tenderness 
 and grace ; and by these the eye is preserved in 
 all its brightness, and the lip to pour forth its 
 eloquence, and the ear to receive instruction, and 
 the hand to display its cunning, and the brain 
 that instrument of mind, of soul by which man 
 is prepared to advance his own interest and that 
 of others and to engage in the service of Him 
 who is the ' Great Source of Being.' 
 
 E. Astonishing, astonishing ! But I see some 
 one coming whom we all love. There is Ed- 
 ward on the little grey pony ! Look, how happy he 
 seems ! and then how great he appears ! And 
 here is dear, dear mamma. Oh, I have such 
 wonderful things to tell you about wheat, and 
 barley, and oats ! 
 
 Mrs. E. I am glad you have been so much 
 interested, my love, and Frederick looks as 
 pleased as yourself; so when you have related 
 what you can recollect, perhaps I may tell you 
 of some other things, almost or quite as amazing. 
 Frederick, dear, open the gate ; your walk has 
 been very long, though papa, I know, has made 
 it very delightful. 
 
FLAX. 75 
 
 THE PROMISE. 
 
 < I HAVE not forgotten the promise you gave 
 us, dear mamma/ said Emma ; ' what wonderful 
 things did you mean ? I hope the time will soon 
 come when you will be able to tell us.' 
 
 ' One of those to which I referred/ said Mrs. 
 Elwood, ( is a slender plant, that seldom exceeds 
 two feet and a half in height, and which is 
 scarcely superior in appearance to the common 
 grass ; yet this it is which yields many of our 
 garments ; to it our sex, Emma, is indebted for 
 much that is ornamental ; it is the medium of 
 many of the pleasures and advantages of friend- 
 ship; and, without it, this island might have re- 
 mained unknown and unpeopled.' 
 
 t A plant, did you say, dear mamma ? ' asked 
 Emma. 
 
 6 I did, my love/ replied her mother ; ' and 
 that plant is flax ; from whose fibres we procure 
 the comfort of linen, and the beauty of lace; 
 these also yield paper for our letters and books, 
 and of them sails were first made for our vessels, 
 with which the ocean is traversed, commerce ex- 
 tended to the ends of the earth, and our isle en- 
 riched with the most useful roots, luxurious fruits, 
 and ornamental plants. 3 
 
 At this statement, Emma acknowledged that 
 her curiosity was still more excited ; and, after 
 having obtained permission to ask her father to 
 join them, if sufficiently disengaged, and secur- 
 ed his acquiescence, she inquired where flax was 
 first used. 
 
76 EARLY USE OP LINEN. 
 
 Mrs. E. Some have supposed that linen-cloth 
 was made previous to the deluge, because we 
 read that Noah slept in a tent ; but Egypt, which 
 is called the land of Ham, soon became the gar- 
 den of the East, and the seat of arts. Isis, the 
 wife of his son Misrairn, is said to have taught 
 the art of agriculture, and employed herself dili- 
 gently in cultivating the earth, for which she was 
 deified, and the worship of Isis became universal 
 in Egypt. Her priests were clothed in linen gar- 
 ments. The eastern kings and princes were al- 
 so attired in linen ; flax, therefore, formed a con- 
 siderable branch of the trade of Egypt ; and the 
 method of making fine linen was carried to such 
 perfection that the threads which were drawn 
 out of it were almost imperceptible to the keen- 
 est eye. Pliny states, that some of the thread 
 made from flax was finer, and more even, if pos- 
 sible, than the web of a spider, and yet so strong 
 that it would give a sound nearly as loud as a 
 lute-string. He says, too, that he had seen an 
 Egyptian net made of so minute a thread that not- 
 withstanding every cord in the mesh was made 
 of a hundred and fifty threads twisted, yet it could 
 be drawn through the ring of a finger ; but that 
 the most extraordinary net- work was that shown 
 in the temple of Minerva, in the isle of Rhodes, 
 every thread of which was twisted three hundred 
 and sixty-five times double, according to the days 
 in a year. This curious piece of workmanship 
 had formerly belonged to Amasis, who, from a 
 common soldier, became King of Egypt, about 
 five centuries before the Christian era. The 
 Greeks made a linen of so fine a fabric, from 
 
LIVING FLAX. 77 
 
 the flax which they cultivated at Belvedere, that 
 it sold by weight at the price of gold. But what 
 should you think, Frederick, of cloth that could 
 not be consumed in the fire ? 
 
 F. Oh, mamma, that would be strange ! I 
 should have thought it would burn very quickly ; 
 and Emma whispers, ' So should I, I'm sure ! ' 
 
 Mrs. E. Pliny describes it as ' living flax/ 
 and says he saw, at a great feast, all the table- 
 cloths, napkins, and towels thrown into the fire, 
 which received a cleanness and lustre from the 
 flames which no water could have given. This 
 cloth was used at royal funerals to wrap round the 
 corpse as a shroud or sheet, in order to preserve 
 the ashes of the body from mixing with those of 
 the funeral pile, on which it was consumed. He 
 adds, that the flax of which it was made grew in 
 the deserts of India, where the country is parched 
 and burnt with the sun that it is difficult to be 
 found, and hard to be woven, from the shortness 
 of the fibres. 
 
 E. Has any one had it since that time, mam- 
 ma? 
 
 Mrs. E. The art of making this cloth is near- 
 ly lost, although John Baptist Porta, the inven- 
 ter of an optical instrument called the camera 
 obscura, says that in his time, some three or four 
 hundred years ago, the spinning of asbestos, * 
 for this is the substance presumed to be intend- 
 ed by Pliny, was a thing known to every body at 
 Venice ; and, it is said, still to be used by the 
 princes of Tartary, in burning their dead. A 
 
 * A beautiful mineral of a fibrous appearance. 
 
78 ASBESTOS. 
 
 handkerchief, made of this substance, was long- 
 since presented to the Royal Society of London, 
 The asbestos is still found in the isle of Anglesey, 
 in Aberdeenshire, in some parts of France, and 
 in several other places. Papa, I dare say, will 
 now kindly tell you of some purposes, not yet 
 mentioned, to which flaxen linen was applied. 
 
 Mr. E. I will assist you very cheerfully, my 
 dear, in this pleasing task. It was used at a ve- 
 ry early period for the stupendous temples of the 
 heathen, and for the courts of their palaces, 
 which were open buildings, surrounded with mas- 
 sive columns ; and, as the art of weaving became 
 known, these gorgeous edifices were occasional- 
 ly hung with rich curtains of linen cloth, to shade 
 or protect the guests from the sun or weather. 
 At the conclusion of the grand festival given by 
 Ahasuerus, as described in the book of Esther, 
 he feasted all the people that were in Shushan,, 
 in the court of the garden of the king's palace, 
 where were white, green, and blue hangings, fast- 
 ened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver 
 rings, and pillars of marble. Julius Caesar caus- 
 ed the Forum, at Rome, to be covered with fine 
 curtains, as also the whole of the principal street, 
 called Sacra, from his own dwelling to the cliff 
 of the capitol. And Nero ordered the amphithe- 
 atre to be adorned with curtains of a sky-blue, 
 spangled with stars. Spain was celebrated for 
 her manufacture of linen as early as the birth of 
 Christ ; and, subsequently, it was made in France 
 Holland, and Germany. The people of the last- 
 mentioned country carried on the spinning and 
 weaving of linen in vaults and caves under 
 
DOMESTIC WEAVING. 79 
 
 ground. The fine muslins of India were also 
 made by persons thus entombed, who were nev- 
 er allowed to see the light. Even children were 
 imprisoned from their infancy in these dark 
 abodes, in order to produce a finer thread than 
 it was thought could be drawn by the eye which 
 was blessed with the light of day. 
 
 E. Oh, dear papa, I hope they are not so cruel 
 now ! 
 
 Mr. E. They are not, my dear ; the art of 
 weaving then practised is happily lost ; and none 
 can wish its revival. The first person who wore 
 a linen shirt was the Emperor Alexander Se- 
 verus, who was murdered A. D. 235 ; but the 
 general use of such a garment did uot take place 
 till long after that period. The making of linen 
 cloth was probably introduced by the Romans, who 
 certainly cultivated flax in this country. Before 
 Britain had attained its present eminence, each 
 town or village had its weaver : the daughters of 
 farmers were early instructed in this art : their 
 female domestics filled up all their vacant hours 
 at the distaff or wheel ; and every good mother 
 was expected to supply her family with linen of 
 her own spinning. A friend of mine, in a recent 
 visit to Scotland, saw a singular specimen of in- 
 genuity a man's shirt wrought in a loom, about 
 a hundred years ago, by a weaver in Dunferm- 
 line, named Inglis : it has no seam ; arid every 
 thing was completed without aid from the needle, 
 excepting a button for the neck. 
 
 E. Oh, mamma, I should like to see that ! 
 He must have been very clever ! Do you re- 
 member any other use which has been made of 
 flax? 
 
80 NEW ZEALAND FLAX. 
 
 Mrs. E. The flax of New Zealand has, of late, 
 attracted great attention, both in this country 
 and in other parts of Europe. From it the na- 
 tives fabricate not only their fishing-lines and 
 nets, and such other cordage as they require, but 
 also the cloaks or mats which form their cloth- 
 ing. It is of a silky fineness, and superior to 
 anything we possess. It springs up from the 
 earth in bunches or tufts, with sedge-like leaves, 
 and bearing, on a long stalk, pale yellow flow- 
 ers, which give place to long roundish pods, fill- 
 ed with very thin, shining, black seeds. In 
 France, some of this species has been cultivated 
 in the open air with great success. It grew to 
 the height of more than seven feet, the stalks be- 
 ing above three inches in circumference at the 
 base, and tapering towards the top. On one 
 stalk, there were a hundred and nine flowers, of 
 a greenish yellow color, and some very strong 
 ropes were made from the leaves, whence flax 
 was obtained by a simple process. 
 
 F. And do you know how they prepare the 
 flax in New Zealand 1 
 
 Mrs. E. After having cut it down, and brought 
 it home green in bundles, the natives scrape it 
 with a large muscle-shell, and take the heart out 
 of it, splitting it with the nails of their thumbs, 
 which, for that purpose, they keep very long. 
 But it would seem that they have latterly made 
 instruments for dressing the flax, not very unlike 
 those of our own wool-combers. The outside 
 they throw away, and the rest they spread out for 
 several days in the sun to dry, which makes it 
 as white as snow. They spin it in a double 
 
CAMBRIC. 81 
 
 thread, with the hand on the thigh, and then 
 work it into mats, also by the hand ; three women 
 may work at a mat at one time. Mr. Nicholas 
 saw the wife of a chief, on one occasion, employ- 
 ed in weaving. The mat on which she was en- 
 gaged was of open texture ; and she performed 
 her work with wooden pegs stuck in the ground 
 at equal distances from each other, to which, 
 having tied the threads that formed the woof, 
 she took six threads with the two composing the 
 warp, knotting them carefully together. It was 
 astonishing, he says, with what dexterity ami 
 quickness she handled the threads, and how well 
 executed was her performance. He was assured 
 that another mat which he saw, woven with elab- 
 orate ingenuity and elegance, could not have 
 been manfactured in less time than between two 
 and three years. 
 
 At Cambray, a city of France, the beautiful 
 linen called cambric was first manufactured ; 
 and, for many years, England spent in its pur- 
 chase not less than $ 1 ,000,000 per annum. From 
 this vegetable, too, the lace of Brussels, Valen- 
 ciennes, Lisle, Mechlin, Normandy, &/c., has 
 been obtained. The seeds supply birds with 
 food, and yield an oil which is useful as a medi- 
 cine, and is also employed by artists. The 
 cakes, made of the husks after the oil is squeez- 
 ed out, are used to fatten cattle ; the dust is an 
 excellent manure; and, indeed, the purposes to 
 which flax is applied are too various tot enumer- 
 ate. 
 
 E. Thank you, dear mamma ; I should never 
 have thought of hearing so much, and so much 
 
82 HEMP CORDAGE OF A MAN-OF-WAR. 
 
 that is curious too, about the little plant called 
 flax ; but you know that is only one wonderful 
 thing, and, therefore, I am in great hopes that 
 others are to come. 
 
 Mrs. E. Another I will mention is hemp. 
 The Phoenicians, so famous for their achieve- 
 ments in navigation, are thought to have first 
 discovered its use in forming cables and tackle 
 for their ships. Isaiah spoke of them when he 
 mentioned * the merchant city, the mart of na- 
 tions, whose merchants are princes, and whose 
 traffickers are the honorable of the earth.' 
 Pliny states that the hemp which was found in 
 some parts of Italy, and near Rosea, in the 
 Sabines' country, grew as high as shrubs, and 
 even in the woods, without the labor of sowing. 
 The Romans gathered the seed before the stalks ; 
 when ripe in the autumn it was rubbed out and 
 dried in the sun, the wind, or in smoke ; and 
 the stalks were not plucked out of the earth 
 till after the vintage. It was then the work of 
 the husbandman to peel and cleanse it, and sep- 
 arate carefully the best from the worst. To 
 Britons this plant is of great importance > as it 
 forms the sails and tackle of our vessels, from 
 the huge cable of the Asia, which you saw after 
 it came from Navarino, to the net of the fisher- 
 man, which you have noticed when on the 
 northern or the southern coast. 
 
 F. What a quantity of hemp, papa, must be 
 required for a man-of-war I 
 
 Mr. E. The sails and cordage of a first-rate 
 require 180,000 pounds of rough hemp for their 
 construction ; five acres of land are required to 
 
PROCESS OF ROPE-MAKING. 83 
 
 produce a ton of hemp ; thus, such a vessel con- 
 sumes a year's produce of 424 acres of land. 
 
 F. I am quite astonished ! Can you tell me, 
 papa, how a rope is made ? 
 
 Mr. E. It is a singular process; the first 
 business is hatchelling the hemp, or combing 
 out the short fibres, and placing the long ones 
 parallel to each other. Then the hemp is spun 
 into yarns ; and here, it must be remembered, 
 as well as throughout the making of the cable, 
 the various fibres of the hemp should bear an 
 equal strain, which it is difficult to secure, 
 because the twisting deranges the parallel posi- 
 tion of the fibres. Each fibre, as it is twisted, 
 ties the others together, so as to form a contin- 
 ued line, and it bears, at the same time, a cer- 
 tain portion of the strain ; and so does each 
 alternately. Next, the yarns are to be made. 
 Warping them is stretching them to a certain 
 length ; and for the same reason that so much 
 attention is paid to arranging the fibres for the 
 yarns, great care must be taken in managing 
 the yarns for the strands, which are then to be 
 formed. The hardening, by twisting, is also an 
 essential part of the process, for, without this, 
 the rope would be little better than parallel 
 fibres of hemp; and each yarn, and each strand, 
 as it is twisted or hardened, is so arranged that, 
 when drawn into the cable, all the parts may, as 
 nearly as possible, resist the strain in an equal 
 degree. When we conversed some time ago on 
 ' Mechanics,'* I said that the tendons of the hu- 
 
 *See < Art in Nature,' p. 10. 
 
84 TENDONS OF THE BODY. 
 
 man body were better made than the best 
 cables ; and now I can show you this more fully. 
 A tendon consists of a strong cord, apparently 
 fibrous, but which may be separated into lesser 
 cords; and these can be shown to consist of 
 cellular membrane, which gives firmness to all 
 the textures of the human frame. In addition 
 to this, the cords of which the larger tendon 
 consists do not lie parallel to each other, nor are 
 they simply twisted like the strands of a rope ; 
 on the contrary, they are most admirably plaited 
 or interwoven together, in a way which could 
 not be imitated in cordage by the turning of a 
 wheel. In a rope the strands cannot resist the 
 strain equally, but the tendon can. Patent 
 cables have been produced more nearly resem- 
 bling the animal structure than others ; but the 
 tendon has still its superiority, because its artifi- 
 cer is God ! 
 
 F. Papa, I remember many cases you have 
 mentioned, in which there is a resemblance to 
 this. What else is hemp used for ? and which 
 is the best ? 
 
 Mr. E. That which grows in England is 
 stronger than what is produced in any other 
 country. Suffolk is the principal county where 
 hemp is grown and manufactured. The cloth 
 made from it is more durable and warmer than 
 the flaxen linen, and it becomes also whiter by 
 age and use. The sheeting imported from 
 Russia has one advantage, for, being drawn 
 from the distaff, the fibres are longer, and le^s 
 crossed, than those in the thread made by ma- 
 chinery. Hemp is said to draw away insects 
 Ithat feed on other vegetables. In many parts of 
 
HISTORY OF COTTON. 85 
 
 the Continent a belt of hemp is sown round the 
 gardens, or any particular spot which is wished 
 to be preserved from flies or caterpillars. The 
 common height of the plant is from five to six 
 feet. In Catalonia it has been seen seven feet 
 high. In Alsace it is often more than twelve 
 feet high, and upwards of three inches in cir- 
 cumference. Now, mamma, suppose we try and 
 give some account of cotton. 
 
 Mrs. E. I was thinking of doing so, and, if 
 you please, I will begin. Solomon obtained a 
 branch of this plant from Tyre. Alexander 
 sowed its seed in the city to which he gave his 
 name, and Constantine transplanted it into Con- 
 stantinople. Edward the First planted it on the 
 banks of the Thames about the year 1296 ; but 
 perhaps papa can go much farther back if so, 
 I will pause a few moments. 
 
 Mr. E. Pliny states, that in the higher parts 
 of Egypt, towards Arabia, there grows a shrub 
 or bush which produces cotton. He says, the 
 plant is small, and bears a fruit resembling the 
 bearded nut, or filberd, out of the inner shell or 
 husk of which the downy cotton breaks forth, 
 which is easily spun ; and is superior, for white- 
 ness and softness, to any flax in the world. Of 
 this cotton the Egyptian priests delighted to 
 have their robes made. He says, also, that, in 
 an island in the Persian Gulf, there were cotton- 
 trees that produced fruit as large as quinces,, 
 which opened when ripe, and were full of down, 
 from which was made fine and costly cloth, like 
 linen. Virgil, too, seems to refer to the same 
 plants, wheH he speaks of 
 7* 
 
THE COTTON-TREE, 
 
 * Ethiopian forests bearing wool, 
 
 Or leaves from \v hence the Seres fleeces pull.' 
 
 The silk-cotton* is now to be met with in every 
 village in Sumatra. In appearance, this is one 
 of the most beautiful raw materials which the 
 hand of nature has presented. Its fineness, 
 gloss, and delicate softness, renders it to the 
 sight and touch much superior to the produce of 
 the silk-worm ; but, such is its brittleness and 
 shortness, that it is considered unfit for the reel 
 and loom, and is only used for stuffing matresses 
 and pillows. The tree is a remarkable one. 
 Some travellers have called it the umbrella-tree. 
 Mr. Marsden compares it to the piece of furni* 
 ture we call a dumb-waiter, consisting of a gra- 
 dation of circular shelves on one axis. 
 
 Mrs. E. There are several species of the cot- 
 ton-tree. The common Levant cotton, which is 
 cultivated in several islands of the Archipelago, 
 becomes, in six months, as large as a European 
 quince. It bears rich sulphur-colored flowers, 
 which are very large and beautiful. After they 
 fall, a head of seed appears, which, when it 
 comes to maturity, bursts open, scatters its con- 
 tents, and discovers the white cotton. In China, 
 the variety is particularly cultivated that prcn 
 duces the cloth called Nankeen. The down 
 covering the seed is called cotton-wool, which is 
 white in the common plant, but in this it has the 
 tinge it preserves when spun and woven into 
 cloth. In India, your favorite insects, Emma, 
 find singular habitations. On one cotton-tree, 
 
 *Bombax cliba. 
 
VALUE OF COTTON. 87 
 
 say some recent travellers, a gentleman counted 
 a hundred and eighty distinct hives, belonging 
 to as many swarms. It might, indeed, be called 
 * a realm of bees/ comprehending so many ' tow- 
 ered cities/ filled with the ' busy hum ' of their 
 industrious population. The natives take these 
 nests in the night-time, by making a fire under 
 the tree : they ascend the stem wrapped in a 
 thick woollen cloth, and when they have reached 
 the boughs, they cut off the combs, leaving them 
 to fall upon the ground. The Barbadoes cotton- 
 tree has a stem from six to fifteen feet high, is 
 propagated by seed, set in rows, about five feet 
 asunder, and produces two crops annually. 
 Each plant is reckoned to yield about a pound 
 weight. When the pods are nearly expanded, 
 the wool is picked, and laid in small quantities 
 on a machine made with two or three rollers ; 
 whence it falls into a sack placed underneath, 
 and leaves the seeds behind. The cotton is 
 then carefully picked, cleaned, and stowed in 
 bags, where it is well trodden down, that it may 
 be close and compact ; the marketable weight of 
 each being three hundred pounds. An acre 
 produces, on an average, nearly that quantity. 
 But papa can tell you a great deal about its 
 manufacture. When I have listened once more, 
 I shall be better acquainted with it than I am. 
 
 Mr. E. As cotton is easily grown and collect- 
 ed, the patient industry and simple habits of the 
 people by whom it was cultivated enabled them 
 to send to Europe their manufactured stuffs, of 
 a fine and durable quality, even from the time of 
 the ancient Greeks. Before the discovery, how- 
 
MANUFACTURE OF COTTON. 
 
 ever, of the passage to India by the Cape of 
 Good Hope, cotton goods were very costly in 
 Europe. M. Sayvvell observes that, though cot- 
 ton stuffs were cheaper than silk, which was 
 formerly sold for its weight in gold, they still 
 could only be purchased by the most wealthy, 
 and that, could a Grecian lady awake from her 
 sleep of two thousand years, her astonishment 
 would be unbounded to see a simple country girl 
 clothed with a gown of printed cotton, a muslin 
 kerchief, and a colored shawl. 
 
 JS. Why, papa, everybody may see that now- 
 a-days ; it was only yesterday that Ruth, when 
 she went out with Edward, had all of them on 
 new ; and Jane has got another new 
 
 Mr. E. That will do, my dear; fine things, as 
 well as new ones, are far too common. In the 
 seventeenth century, France began to manufac- 
 ture into stuffs the raw cotton imported from In- 
 dia, as Italy had done a hundred years before. 
 A cruel act of tyranny drove the best French 
 workmen, who were Protestants, into England, 
 and we thus learned the manufacture. The 
 same act of despotism caused the settlement of 
 silk manufacturers in Spitalfields. We did not 
 make any considerable progress in the art, nor 
 did we use cotton exclusively in making up the 
 goods. The warp, or longitudinal threads of the 
 cloth, were of flax ; the weft only was of cotton ; 
 for we could not twist it hard enough, by hand, 
 to serve both purposes. This weft was spun en- 
 tirely by hand, with a distaff and spindle as it is 
 still done by the natives of India. Notwithstand- 
 ing these disadvantages, our manufacture con- 
 
COTTON-SPINNING. 89 
 
 tinued to increase, so that, about 1760, though 
 there were fifty thousand spindles at work in 
 Lancashire alone, the weavers found the great- 
 est difficulty in procuring a sufficient supply of 
 thread. Neither weaving nor spinning were then 
 carried on in large factories. They were domes- 
 tic occupations : the women of a family worked 
 at the distaff or hand-wheel ; and there were 
 two operations necessary in this department. 
 Roving, or coarse spinning, reduced the carded 
 cotton to the thickness of a quill, and the spinner 
 afterwards drew out and twisted the roving into 
 weft fine enough for the weaver : English cotton 
 goods were, therefore, very dear, and had but 
 little variety. The cloth made of flax and cot- 
 ton was called fustian ; and we still received the 
 calicos and printed cottons from India. But an 
 amazing change was about to take place. Rich- 
 ard Arkwright, of Preston, invented, in 1769, the 
 principal part of the machinery for spinning cot- 
 ton, and thus gave bread to about two millions of 
 people instead of fifty thousand; and, assisted by 
 subsequent inventions, raised the importation of 
 cotton-wool from India from less than two mil- 
 lions of pounds per annum, to two hundred mil- 
 lions; set in motion six millions of spindles, in- 
 stead of fifty thousand ; and increased the annual 
 produce of the manufacture from two hundred 
 thousand to thirty-six million pounds sterling ! 
 
 F. Amazing, papa ! amazing ! But how did 
 he do this? 
 
 Mr. E. He asked himself whether it was not 
 possible, instead of a wheel which spins a single 
 thread of cotton at a time, yielding about two 
 ounces of thread in twenty-four hours, to spin 
 
90 RICHARD ARKWRIGHT. 
 
 the same material on a great number of wheels, 
 from which many hundred threads might issue 
 at the same moment. This, at length, he ac- 
 complished. But how could a machine do the 
 work of fingers ? I will tell you. Suppose the 
 cotton- wool to be carded ; that is, so combed and 
 prepared as to be formed into a long untwisted 
 line about the thickness of a man's finger ; and 
 this, when introduced into the machine I am 
 about to describe, is called a roving, the old name 
 in hand-spinning. Now, to make this roving in- 
 to a thread, the fibres, which are mostly curled 
 up, and lie in all directions, must be stretched out 
 and laid lengthways, side by side, pressed togeth- 
 er so as to give them a more compact form, and 
 twisted so as to unite them all firmly together. 
 To do this, Arkwright employed two pair of 
 small rollers, one being placed at a little distance 
 before the other ; the lower roller, too, in each 
 pair, was furrowed lengthways, and the upper 
 one was covered with leather ; so that, as they 
 revolved in contact with each other, they might 
 take fast hold of the cotton which passes between 
 them : when, then, a roving is put between the 
 first pair of rollers, the effect was merely to press 
 it into a more compact form ; but, as soon as it 
 has passed through this, it is received between 
 the second pair, and, as these revolve with great- 
 er celerity than the first, they draw the roving for- 
 wards with greater rapidity than it is given out by 
 the former. In consequence of this, the roving is 
 lengthened in passing from one pair to the other ; 
 and the fibres of which it is composed are drawn 
 out and laid lengthways, side by side ; the increase 
 
COTTON-SPINNING MACHINERY. 91 
 
 of length being exactly proportioned to the in- 
 creased velocity of the second pair of rollers. 
 
 F. Does only one roving pass at a time, papa? 
 
 Mr. E. No, my dear, two or more are gener- 
 ally united ; and thus, suppose two are introduc- 
 ed, and that the second pair of rollers move twice 
 as fast as the first, the new roving formed of the 
 two will be exactly twice the length of the origin- 
 al ones. But its parts will be very differently 
 arranged, and its fibres will be drawn out longi- 
 tudinally, and will be much better fitted for form- 
 ing a thread. This operation of doubling and 
 drawing is repeated as often as necessary, and 
 the requisite degree of twist is given by a ma- 
 chine similar to the spindle and fly of the com- 
 mon flax-wheel. The fineness with which the 
 cotton thread can be drawn out, by this machine- 
 ry, may be gathered from the fact that Mr. John 
 Pollard, of "Manchester, spun, in 1792, no fewer 
 than two hundred and seventy-eight hanks of 
 yarn, forming a thread upwards of one hundred 
 and thirty-two miles in length, from a single 
 pound of raw cotton. Of the rapidity with which 
 some portions of the machinery work you may 
 judge when I tell you, that the very finest thread, 
 which is used in making lace, is passed through 
 the strong flame of a lamp, which burns off the 
 fibres, without burning the thread itself. So 
 quickly indeed does it go that no motion can be 
 perceived. 
 
 E. It is a most extraordinary story, papa : who 
 would have thought of machines working like 
 fingers ? If I were to think, aye, till I was as, 
 old as Sally Tomkins at the lodge and she is, 
 
92 MACHINES MAKE MACHINES. 
 
 more than ninety I couldn't have told how it 
 might be done. 
 
 Mr. E. That is very likely, my dear ; yet the 
 proper employment of your little mind will be of 
 great service to you and to others. But perhaps 
 you will be still more surprised when I say that 
 machines have been invented that make ma- 
 chines that make the cotton thread ; for there 
 is a part of the machinery used in cotton-spinning 
 called a reed. It consists of a number of pieces 
 of wire, set side by side in a frame, resembling, 
 in some degree, a comb with two backs. These 
 reeds are various as to length and fineness ; but 
 they all consist of cross pieces of wire, fastened 
 at regular intervals between longitudinal pieces 
 of split cane, into which they are tied with wax- 
 ed thread. But a machine does now the work of 
 reed-making. The materials enter the machine 
 in the shape of two or three yards of cane, and 
 many yards of wire and thread ; and the machine 
 cuts the wire, places each small piece with un- 
 failing regularity between the canes, twists the 
 thread round the cane, with a knot that cannot 
 slip, every time a piece of wire is put in, and does 
 several yards of this work in a very short space of 
 time. Another machine is even more wonderful. 
 The cotton-wool is combed by circular cards of 
 every degree of fineness ; and the card-making 
 machine, receiving only a supply of leather arid 
 wire, does its own work without the aid of hands. 
 It punches the leather, cuts the wire, passes it 
 through the leather, clenches it behind, and gives 
 it the proper form of the tooth in front ; produc- 
 ing a complete card of several feet in circumfer- 
 ence with amazing rapidity. 
 
PRINTING IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. 93 
 
 E. And, papa,yow have seen all this! When 
 you visit Mr. Grenville at Manchester again, do 
 take mamma, and Frederick, and me ! Birds 
 and insects are very ingenious ; but now I see 
 even wood and iron are made quite clever, and 
 do the work of hands and heads ! 
 
 Mr. E. I have seen all this, my love ; and by 
 such means it is that so much cotton cloth is 
 made in England, that three hundred and sixty 
 million yards were exported, and three hundred 
 and ninety million were retained for home con- 
 sumption, on an average of years from 1824 to 
 1828. We cannot proceed now with the process 
 of printing, but I may give you an account of the 
 mode in a distant spot : ' At one place,' say 
 Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet, ' in the house of 
 a chief, where we were hospitably entertained, 
 we had an opportunity of witnessing the method 
 of printing flowers and other ornamental figures 
 on the native cloth. Four women were industri- 
 ously employed in this work. The design is 
 neatly engraved upon the sides of thin pieces of 
 bamboo, into the lines of which the colors are in- 
 troduced by dipping them into calabashes (cocoa- 
 nut shells) containing the dye in a liquid state, and 
 the superfluous matter is thrown off from the 
 smooth surface by striking the bamboo sharply 
 on the edge of these vessels. The pattern is 
 then carefully transferred to the cloth by pres- 
 sure of the hand ; after which the fibre of cocoa- 
 husk dipped in the coloring matter, any imper- 
 fections are supplied, and the whole is delicately 
 finished off. This work is executed with con- 
 siderable expedition as well as accuracy ; and if 
 8 
 
94 PROGRESS OF THE ARTS. 
 
 not borrowed from the suggestions of European 
 visiters (which is hardly probable), it may be 
 said that printing, as well as engraving, are 
 orginal inventions of the Sandwich Islanders, 
 both being used in this ingenious process.' 
 
 Mrs. E. The mode adopted in this country is 
 too complicated for explanation now ; but inge- 
 nuity and industry are in all directions perform- 
 ing wonders. ' In England,' says Dr. Arnott, ' a 
 man of small fortune may cast his regards around 
 him, and say with truth and exultation, ' I am 
 lodged in a house that affords me conveniences 
 and comforts which even a king could not com- 
 mand some centuries ago. There are ships 
 crossing the seas in every direction, to bring what 
 is useful to me from all parts of the earth. In 
 China, men are gathering the tea-leaf for me ; 
 in America, they are planting cotton for me ; in 
 the West India Islands, they are preparing my 
 sugar and my coffee ; in Italy, they are feeding 
 silk-worms for me ; in Saxony, they are shearing 
 the sheep to make me clothing; at home, power- 
 ful steam-engines are spinning and weaving for 
 me, and making cutlery for me, and pumping the 
 mines, that minerals useful to me may be pro- 
 cured. My patrimony was small, yet I have 
 post-coaches running day and night, on all the 
 roads, to carry my correspondence ; I have roads, 
 and canals, and bridges, to bear the coal for my 
 winter fire : nay, I have protecting fleets and 
 armies around my happy country, to secure my 
 enjoyments and repose. Then I have editors 
 and printers, who daily send me an account of 
 what is going on throughout the world, among 
 
PROGRESS OF THE ARTS. 95 
 
 all these people who serve me. And in a corner 
 of my house I have BOOKS ! the miracle of all 
 my possessions, more wonderful than the wish- 
 ing-cup of the Arabian tales ; for they transport 
 me instantly, not only to all places, but to all 
 times. By my books, I can conjure up before 
 me, to vivid existence, all the great and good men 
 of antiquity ; and, for my individual satisfaction, 
 I can make them act over again the most renown- 
 ed of their exploits : the orators declaim for 
 me ; the historians recite ; the poets sing : in a 
 word, from the equator to the pole, and from the 
 beginning of time until now, by my books I can 
 be where I please. This picture is not over- 
 charged, and might be much extended ; such be- 
 ing the miracle of God's goodness and providence, 
 that each individual of the civilized millions that 
 cover the earth may have' and it might have 
 been said, by such simple yet wonderful means 
 as we have been describing, < nearly the same 
 enjoyments as if he were the single lord of all.' 
 F. Thank you, dear papa and mamma, a 
 hundred a thousand times. 
 
96 FLOWERS. 
 
 THE CONSERVATORY. 
 
 f 
 
 * I SHOULD imagine, from the expression of your 
 countenance, Emma,' said Mrs. Elwood, ' that 
 you have just been thinking of something very 
 pleasing/ 
 
 ' You are quite right, mamma/ was the reply ; 
 ' and I will tell you what it was. I am sure you re- 
 member the charming day we had when we vis- 
 ited the Colosseum. What a fine panorama, too, 
 we saw ! And, then, how pleased we were when 
 we sat in front of the Swiss cottage ; though, you 
 know, I did not like the eagle's chain : but I shall 
 never forget when you opened one of the doors 
 of the conservatory, and we had before us that 
 beautiful range of flowers, with the fountain at 
 the end, sending up its bright streams, which 
 curled and curled, and fell again and again. Oh, 
 I do n't know when I was so much delighted !' 
 
 ' I was not surprised at your pleasure, love,' 
 said Mrs. Elwood ; ' the mind that could not en- 
 joy such a scene must be insensible indeed ; but 
 you have just anticipated our intention, which was 
 to resume our account of the structure of plants, 
 and to tell you something about flowers. Papa, 
 I see, is quite ready, and I should like him to be- 
 gin.' 
 
 Mr. E. Flowers are among the most exquisite 
 objects of the vegetable world. How various 
 their forms ! how beautiful their tints ! how 
 delightful their perfumes ! No two are exactly 
 alike even though they are of the same species, 
 and grow on the same stalk. And, then, they 
 
THE LILY. 97 
 
 do not all come at once ; they appear in a well- 
 ordered succession ; and thus, short-lived as they 
 are, we have them almost all the year round. 
 First comes the early snow-drop, like ' a little 
 billet flung from the delicate hand of Spring, to 
 command the departure of winter ; ' the crocus 
 appears next, but, in its timidity, keeps close to 
 the earth ; then rises the violet, arrayed in beau- 
 ty, with the polyanthus and auricula as her court- 
 ly attendants; afterwards, rain-bow-headed tulips 
 spring forth richly, and anemonies follow in 
 their train; while the ranunculus, lily, carnation, 
 and the queen-like rose, with others too numer- 
 ous to be told, close the gay and lovely proces- 
 sion. 
 
 Flowers have been regarded, from early times, as 
 expressive of certain feelings : the yellow-green, 
 which appears at the falling of the leaf, was 
 worn in chivalry as the emblem of despair ; brown 
 is considered an indication of sorrow ; red, of 
 anger ; and green, of tranquillity. The violet is 
 an acknowledged emblem of retiring merit ; the 
 rose, of beauty ; the aloe, of constancy ; the palm, 
 of victory ; the laurel, of honor ; and the lily of 
 the valley modestly peeping forth from her ver- 
 dant mantle, and shedding her sweetest fragrance 
 in retirement of humility. 
 
 Mrs. E. ' A few miles from Adowa,' says Mr. 
 Salt, in his Voyage to Abyssinia, ' we discover- 
 ed a new and beautiful specimen of amaryllis, 
 which bore from ten to twelve spikes of bloom on 
 each stem, as large as those of the belladonna, 
 springing from one common receptacle. The 
 general color of the corolla was white, and eve- 
 
y ROSE OF PERSIA. 
 
 ry petal was marked with a single streak of bright 
 purple down the middle. The flower was sweet- 
 scented, and its smell, though much more pow- 
 erful, resembled that of the lily of the valley. 
 The superb plant excited the admiration of the 
 whole party ; and it brought immediately to my 
 recollection the beautiful comparison used on a 
 particular occasion by our Saviour : 'I say unto 
 you, that Solomon in all his glory was not array- 
 ed like one of these.' ' In the Song of Solomon 
 we read of ' lilies dropping down sweet-smelling 
 myrrh/ which some have supposed to refer to the 
 Persian lily, which is red, and always bent down- 
 wards, and disposed like a crown at the extremi- 
 ty of the stem, which has a tuft of leaves at the 
 top. At the bottom of each leaf a moisture ap- 
 pears, forming, as it were, a white pearl, and 
 gradually distilling very clear and pure drops of 
 water, which may perhaps, in this case, be call- 
 ed myrrh. 
 
 Mr. E. And we must not forget the rose of 
 Persia, which Sir R. K. Porter has so well de- 
 scribed. ' On first entering the bower of fairy 
 land, I was struck by the appearance of two rose- 
 trees, full fourteen feet high, laden with thou- 
 sands of flowers, in every degree of expansion, 
 and of a bloom and delicacy of scent that imbued 
 the whole atmosphere with the most exquisite 
 perfume ; indeed, I believe that in no country of 
 the world does the rose grow in such perfection 
 as in Persia in no country is it so cultivated 
 and prized by the natives. Their gardens and 
 courts are crowded with its plants, their rooms 
 are ornamented with vases filled with its gather- 
 
ROSE OF SHARON. VftJ 
 
 <ed branches, and every bath strewed with the 
 full-blown flowers, plucked from the ever-replen- 
 ished stems. Even the humblest individual, who 
 pays a piece of copper money for a few whiffs of 
 a kalioun, or pipe, feels a double enjoyment 
 when he finds it stuck with a bud from his dear 
 native tree ; but in this delicious garden of Ne- 
 gauvistan the eye and the smell were not the on- 
 ly senses regaled by the presence of the rose ; the 
 -ear was enchanted by the wild and beautiful 
 notes of the multitude of nightingales, whose 
 warblings seem to increase in melody and soft- 
 ness with the unfolding of their favorite flowers ; 
 verifying the song of their poet, who says, 
 ' When the charms of the bower are passed away, 
 the fond tale of the nightingale no longer ani- 
 mates the scene ! ' ' It was right to consecrate 
 a flower so lovely as the rose to the service of re- 
 ligion. Solomon, accordingly, chose it to repre- 
 sent the Redeemer, when he said, ' I am the 
 rose of Sharon ; ' and Isaiah gives us some faint 
 conception of the change to be produced on the 
 moral world when he says, that ' the wilderness 
 shall rejoice, and shall blossom as the rose.' 
 Mamma will now describe some parts of a flower. 
 Mrs. E. The calyx, or flower-cup, forms a 
 covering, to shelter and defend the bud before it 
 expands. Look, it consists of several parts, 
 vhich resemble small leaves, both in form and 
 color, and probably act in the same manner. 
 How, this part varies, so that in the hemlock it 
 is a fence, in the hazel a catkin, in the daffodil 
 a sheath, in the oat and the grasses a husk, in 
 mosses a veil, in mushrooms a curtain, and in 
 
100 BANQUETTING-IIALL OF INSECTS. 
 
 the polyanthus a cup. Above the calyx rises the 
 corolla, the colored part of the flower. It con- 
 sists of several petals, distinct or separate, or else 
 forming a corolla of one single piece, in which 
 case the flower is called monopetalous. When 
 the petals first expand, they still serve to protect 
 the parts in the centre, and also reflect the sun's 
 rays on them, thus rearing them as in a hot- 
 house. When they are full grown this heat is 
 no longer necessary ; and, as light and air are 
 now beneficial, the petals expand, leaving these 
 delicate organs to enjoy their full power. 
 
 Mr. E. The corolla is the festive hall of mul- 
 titudes of insects. I remember a naturalist says, 
 ' The principal flower in a bouquet was a car- 
 nation, the fragrance of which led me to enjoy 
 it frequently and near, while the ear was con- 
 stantly assailed by an extremely soft but agreea- 
 ble murmuring sound. I instantly distended the 
 lower part of the flower, and, placing it in a full 
 light, could discover, by a glass, troops of little 
 insects frisking and capering with wild jollity 
 among the narrow pedestals that supported its 
 leaves, and the little threads that occupied its 
 centre. What a fragrant world for their habita- 
 tion ! What a perfect security from all annoy- 
 ance in the deep husk that surrounded their 
 scene of action ! 
 
 1 The microscope, on this occasion, had given 
 what nature seemed to have denied to the objects 
 contemplated. The base of the flower extended 
 itself to a vast plain ; the slender stems of th> 
 leaves became trunks of so many statelyc edars; 
 the threads in the middle seemed columns c 
 
THE NECTARY. 101 
 
 massy structure, supporting at the top their sev- 
 eral ornaments ; and the narrow spaces between 
 were enlarged into walks, parterres, and terra- 
 ces. 
 
 * On the polished bottom of these, brighter 
 than Parian marble, walked alone, in pairs, or in 
 large companies, the winged inhabitants, stained 
 with living purple, and with a glossy gold that 
 would have made all the labors of the loom con- 
 temptible in the comparison. There were the 
 perfumed groves, the more than myrtle shades of 
 the poet's fancy ; here the happy creatures spent 
 their days in sportive gaiety ; or, in the triumph of 
 their little hearts, skipped after one another from 
 stem to stem among the trees, or winged their 
 flight to the close shadow of some broader leaf, 
 to revel undisturbed in the heights of felicity. 1 
 * Mrs. E. That is, indeed, a lively description, 
 my dear, of the tenants of a flower. At the 
 base of the petals, however, I wish you to ob- 
 serve, the nectary is generally situated, so called 
 from its secreting a sweet fluid to which has been 
 given the name of nectar ; and which may often 
 be sucked from the tube of the honeysuckle. 
 Many insects have a long and plaint proboscis, 
 or trunk, for the purpose of obtaining this grate- 
 ful food, among which that of the Unicorn Moth* 
 is very remarkable. It carries it rolled up in 
 concentric circles, and occasionally extends it to, 
 above three inches in length. This trunk con- 
 sists of joints and muscles, and its movements 
 seem to be more various than those of the ele- 
 
 * Sphinx con volvuli. 
 
102 VEGETATION. 
 
 phant's proboscis; and, near its termination, it is 
 split into two capillary, or hair-like, tubes : thus 
 it robs the flowers of the honey, though it flies 
 only in the evening, when they have closed 
 their petals, and are, consequently, more difficult 
 of access. In the centre of the flower the seed 
 is lodged. It is enveloped in a small leaf, which, 
 instead of expanding to the sun and air, like its 
 neighboring petals, folds itself more closely round 
 the little treasure : the edges of the two opposite 
 halves of the leaf being thus brought into con- 
 tact, they unite and grow together, and the leaf 
 assumes the form of a pod or vessel, the shape of 
 which varies according to the manner in which 
 the leaf was folded when it first budded. 
 
 Mr. E. We :nay form an idea of other seeds 
 by the structure of a pea, a bean, or the kernel 
 of a melon the formation being nearly the same 
 in all. Remove the covering which enfolds a 
 seed, and you will generally perceive two pieces, 
 called lobes, which are separated with ease, and 
 are nothing more than the composition of a kind 
 of meal for the nourishment of the young plant. 
 At the top of the lobes is the bud, which is com- 
 posed of a stock and a pedicle, and the latter will 
 afterwards be the root. The stem, or body of 
 the plant, is sunk a little into the inward sub- 
 stance of the seed, and the pedicle, or small root, 
 first appears, when the seed begins to germinate. 
 The pedicle is connected with the lobes by two 
 branching tubes, whose ramifications are dispers- 
 ed through the lobes, from which they derive the 
 necessary support for the young plant. The 
 stock, or body of the plant, is enclosed by two 
 
DESCENT OF THE ROOT. 103 
 
 leaves, which are designed for its preservation 
 till it appears above the ground. These two 
 leaves are the first parts of the plant which dis- 
 engage themselves from the seed, and are the 
 forerunners of the trunk, the exceeding delicacy 
 of whose texture they protect till more matured, 
 and then fall off. After the tender root has been 
 nourished for some time by the lobes, it shoots 
 in various directions into the earth, and derives 
 from it the support it ceases to collect from the 
 lobes. All seeds, whether small or large, con- 
 tain the parts now mentioned, in some way or 
 other, wrapped up carefully in one or more cov- 
 erings, to protect the whole of the curious 
 apparatus enclosed. The seed being of the high- 
 est importance, it is more defended than other 
 parts, as in the esculent, or eatable fruits, by soft, 
 pulpy substances ; as in the leguminous vegeta- 
 bles, such as beans and peas, by thick mem- 
 branes ; or, as in the nut, by a bony or hard 
 outer skin, called the shell. When the seed falls 
 into the earth, and has accumulated sufficient 
 moisture, it swells and bursts, the root shoots 
 downwards, and the stem rises upwards. If any 
 parts are destroyed the plant is injured, but 
 nature will restore them by fresh shoots : the 
 neck, or part which unites the stem and the root, 
 being the only part the destruction of which 
 proves fatal. 
 
 F. Why, papa, does the stem always rise, and 
 the root descend ? 
 
 Mr. E. The roots grow only at the extremi- 
 ties, and these, being at first so soft as to be 
 almost liquid, naturally follow the direction of 
 
104 CUSCUTA EUROP.EA. 
 
 gravity, and descend, unless they meet with a 
 stone or clod of earth which they cannot pene- 
 trate, when they grow laterally, or side-ways, to- 
 avoid the obstacle. A curious experiment was 
 once made, to see if it was gravity which makes 
 the roots of a plant descend. Mr. Knight sowed 
 seeds in moss disposed in cavities, arranged on 
 the circumference of a water-wheel. The cavi- 
 ties were open on both sides, so that the root and 
 the stem might germinate at either. The wheel 
 was then made to revolve one hundred and sixty 
 times in a minute. The roots always struck in 
 the direction diverging from the centre, like the 
 spokes of a wheel, whence he concluded that in 
 this process the centrifugal force, or the tenden- 
 cy to fly off from the centre, had replaced that of 
 gravity. 
 
 Mrs. E. There is, however, a singular plant,* 
 the seed of which opens, and puts forth a little 
 spiral body, that is, winding like a cork-screw, 
 which does not seek the earth to take root, but 
 climbs from right to left up other plants, from 
 which, by means of vessels, it draws its nourish- 
 ment. The little spiral body, proceeding from 
 the seed, is to be compared with the fibres which 
 the seeds send out in ordinary cases ; and the 
 comparison ought to regard both the form of the 
 threads, and the direction they take. They are 
 straight, this is spiral ; they shoot downwards > 
 this points upwards. In the rule, and in the 
 exception, the design is equally perceived. 
 
 * Cuscuta Europaea. 
 
DISPERSION OP SEEDS. 105 
 
 Mr. E. Plants not only possess a proper 
 organization for the production of seed, but also 
 means for its dispersion abroad. Some seeds 
 have a tuft of light soft down, such as those of 
 the thistle, dandelion, &,c., which are often blown 
 by the wind to a considerable distance. Others 
 have wings, which have been known to carry 
 them fifty miles from the spot that gave them 
 birth. The seeds of the various species of vio- 
 lets are contained in a capsule, a dry hollow 
 seed-vessel with a single cell, but consisting of 
 three pieces or valves. To the inner part of each 
 of these a seed is attached, and it remains so for 
 some time after the valves, in the process of 
 ripening, have separated and stood open. The 
 sun's heat causes the sides of each valve to 
 shrink, and then the edges press firmly on the 
 seed, which is not only extremely smooth, pol- 
 ished, and shining, but regularly egg-shaped. 
 Thus, when the collapsing or shrinking edge of 
 the valve slides gradually and forcibly down over 
 the sloping part of the seed, it is thrown with a 
 jerk to a considerable distance. It is remarka- 
 ble, too, that the capsule hangs drooping before 
 the seed is ripe, with the calyx spread over it 
 like an umbrella, to defend it from the rain and 
 dews, which would retard the ripening ; but, no 
 sooner is this completed, than the capsule be- 
 comes almost upright, with the calyx for a sup- 
 port ; and thus the mechanism for scattering the 
 seeds is more effective, as the capsule thus rises 
 higher sometimes more than an inch. ( Some 
 ripe capsules of a fine variety of heart's ease/ 
 says Mr. Rennie, * which I placed in a shallow 
 9 
 
106 THE CYCLAYMEN THE TREFOIL. 
 
 paste-board box, in a drawer, were found to have 
 projected their seeds to the distance of two j feet. 
 From the elevation of a capsule, therefore, at the 
 top of a tall plant, these seeds might be projected 
 twice or thrice that distance.' 
 
 E. All this is very surprising ; I wonder 
 whether there is anything else as curious respect- 
 ing seed ? 
 
 Mrs. E. Yes, my love, two or three facts now 
 occur to me. When the seeds of the cyclamen 
 are ripe, the stalk of the flower gradually twists 
 itself spirally downwards, till it touches the 
 ground, and, forcibly penetrating the earth-, 
 lodges its seeds; which, being found not to grow 
 in any other situation, are thought to receive 
 nourishment from the parent root. The subter- 
 ranean trefoil,* too, also buries its seed; the 
 globular head of the seed penetrating the earth. 
 This, however, may be only intended to conceal 
 the seed of the plant from the ravages of birds, 
 for there is another trefoil,t a globular, wooly- 
 headed one, which has a curious way of conceal- 
 ing its seeds ; the lower florets only have corols, 
 and are fertile ; the upper ones wither into a kind 
 of wool, and, forming a head, completely hide 
 the fertile calyxes. Before we pass on, I may just 
 remark, that the increase from a seed is truly 
 amazing. That of a globe-turn-ip is exceedingly 
 minute not larger, perhaps, than the twentieth 
 part of an inch in diameter, and yet, in the 
 course of a few short months, this seed will be 
 formed, by the soil and the atmosphere, into a 
 solid bulb, containing, in some cases, twenty- 
 seven millions of times the bulk of the seed, and 
 
 *Trifolium Subtorraneum. t Trifolium Globosum. 
 
INCREASE FROM SEED. 107 
 
 this in addition to a considerable bunch of leaves. 
 The number of seeds produced by some vegeta- 
 bles is also very astonishing : more than thirty 
 thousand have been found in a single head of 
 poppy. In the great cat's tail * the seeds are 
 blown off by the wind, and, no doubt, many are 
 lost ; but each :spike generally bears above forty 
 thousand seeds ; so that upon three spikes, which 
 each plant commonly produces, there are annu- 
 ally more than a hundred and twenty thousand 
 seeds. The Tobacco t has been known to pro- 
 duce, on one plant, three hundred and sixty 
 thousand seeds ; arid the yearly produce of a 
 single stalk of spleen wort (a kind of fern) has 
 been estimated at a million ! 
 
 E. Most wonderful, mamma ! most wonder- 
 ful ! But what are the other parts of a flower ? * 
 
 Mrs. E. From the seed-vessel rises a little 
 thread-like stalk, called a style, which supports a 
 small spongy substance, denominated the stigma, 
 and these three parts form a whole, which bears 
 the name of carpel. A single carpel forms the 
 pistil of some flowers ; but pistils are generally 
 composed of several carpels, which, in most 
 flowers, are neatly fitted and joined together. 
 Immediately surrounding the pistil are the sta- 
 mens, each of which consists of a slender fila- 
 ment, or thread, supporting a little bag called an 
 anther, which is filled with pollen, a species of 
 dust or powder. The anthers, when ripe, burst, 
 and, being more elevated than the stigma, shed 
 their pollen upon it, without which the seed 
 
 * Typho major. \ Nieotiaua Zabacum. 
 
108 THB POLLEN. 
 
 would not vegetate ; and thus it is perfected. 
 The pollen is sometimes conveyed by winged 
 insects, which, in penetrating, by means of their 
 long and pliant trunks, the recesses of the corolla, 
 in order to obtain the nectar, cover their downy 
 wings with the pollen ; they then bear it to the 
 next flower, on which they alight ; and, in work- 
 ing their way to the nectary, it is rubbed off, and 
 falls on the stigma. Thus they compensate the 
 flower for stealing its honey. In Persia, very 
 few of the date and palm trees under culture 
 have stamens, those having pistils being prefer- 
 red as alone yielding fruit. In the season of 
 flowering, the peasants gather branches of the 
 wild palm-trees whose blossoms contain stamens, 
 and spread them over those which are cultivated, 
 in order that the pollen may come in contact 
 with the pistils, and render the seeds fruitful. In 
 Italy there are two remarkable palm-trees ; the 
 one, situated at Otranto, has no stamens ; the 
 other, at Brindisium, which is almost forty miles 
 distant, has no pistils ; consequently, neither of 
 these trees bore seed ; but when, after the growth 
 of many years, they rose above the trees of the 
 neighboring forests, and all the buildings which 
 intervened, the pollen of the palm-tree at Brin- 
 disium was wafted by the wind to the pistils of 
 that at Otranto, and, to the astonishment of every 
 one, the latter bore fruit. 
 
 Mr. E. The only part of the flower which 
 now requires to be adverted to is the stalk, which 
 is called a peduncle, or pedunculus. It gener- 
 ally expands a little at the top, and forms a com- 
 mon base by which the several parts of the 
 
THE DAISY. 109 
 
 flower are connected together. The peduncle is 
 not always crowned by a flower ; it often branches 
 out into a number of smaller flower-stalks, called 
 pedicles, each of which supports a flower. The 
 common daisy deserves particular attention; for, 
 if the parts that are within the cup are pulled 
 off, and examined with a glass, it will be found 
 that the yellow spots are the tops of little flow- 
 ers; and, if one of these is opened, it will be 
 seen that each little blossom is shaped like a 
 funnel, with five divisions in its border, and that 
 the whole is most exquisitely constructed. 
 
 Mrs. E. I should like you, Emma, to associate 
 with that simple flower the charming lines writ- 
 ten by Montgomery on a daisy in full bloom on 
 Christmas day. I have just thought of some of 
 them, and I will show you an air to which they 
 may be sung delightjjplly. 
 
 THE DAISY. 
 
 ' There is a flower, a little flower, 
 
 With silver crest and golden eye, 
 That welcomes every changing hour, 
 
 And weathers every sky. 
 
 The prouder beauties of the field 
 
 In gay but quick succession shine, 
 Race after race their honors yield 
 
 They flourish and decline. 
 
 But this small flower, to nature dear, 
 While moons and stars their courses run, 
 Wreathes the whole circle of the year, 
 Companion of the sun. 
 
 The lambkin crops its crimson gem, 
 The wild-bee murmurs on Ha breast, 
 
 The blue-fly bends its pensile stem, 
 Light o'er the sky-lark's nest. 
 
 'Tis Flora's page : in every place, 
 
 In every season, fresh and fair, 
 It opens with perennial grace, 
 
 And blossoms every where. 
 
 9* 
 
110 ODORS. 
 
 On waste and woodland, rock and plain, 
 
 Its humble buds unheeded rise : 
 The rose has but a summer reign, 
 
 The daisy never dies.' 
 
 E. That is very sweet indeed, mamma : you 
 will tell me the air, and that I know will be de- 
 lightful too ; and I will play and sing it as well as 
 as well as ever I can. But what makes the 
 odor of flowers ? 
 
 Mrs. E. The basis of all the vegetable per- 
 fumes is formed by the volatile or essential oils, 
 which are contained, more or less, in every part 
 of the plant, except the seed. They are very 
 plentiful in the leaves of geraniums, of mint and 
 thyme, and all the sweet-smelling herbs ; in san- 
 dal and cedar-wood ; and in the rind of fruits, as 
 in oranges and lemons ; from which they may be 
 extracted by the slightest pressure. They vary 
 greatly as to consistence, sofRe being as thick as 
 butter, whilst others are as fluid as water. To 
 prepare them for .perfumes or essences, they are 
 first properly purified, and then mixed with a 
 large proportion of water, as is often done with 
 peppermint ; or distilled with spirit of wine, as is 
 the case with lavender-water. 
 
 E. I have seen you, mamma, take spots of 
 grease out of cloth or silk by some of these 
 things : pray how is that done ? 
 
 Mrs. E. Volatile oils, and the spirit in which 
 they are distilled, will dissolve wax, tallow, sper- 
 maceti, and resins ; if, then, any of these sub- 
 stances make the spot, they will combine with it, 
 and remove it. 
 
FLOATING GARDENS. Ill 
 
 F. I love a garden dearly, papa. I am sur- 
 prised that every body does not. How strange I 
 thought it when Mr. Kerrison said the other day 
 that he did not walk in his once a month ! 
 
 Mr. E. You will find the tastes of people very 
 different, Frederick. Some have no pleasure in 
 the process of vegetation, and, were their grounds 
 left to themselves, all would be wildness and dis- 
 order. Others, on the contrary, owe much of 
 their enjoyment to flowers and fruits, and to pos- 
 sess it surmount many obstacles. In China, even 
 the steepest mountains are brought into cultiva- 
 tion ; they are cut into terraces, resembling, at a 
 distance, immense pyramids, divided by numer- 
 ous steps or stories; and, what is really worthy 
 our admiration, the water, which runs at the foot 
 of the mountain, is raised from terrace to ter- 
 race to the very tfp, by means of a portable 
 chain-pump, which may be carried about and 
 worked by two men. Reservoirs are also dug 
 on the tops of the mountains, from which the 
 rain-water is let down to irrigate the sides. In 
 such places as are steep, or too barren, pines and 
 larches are planted. But what would you think 
 of floating gardens 1 
 
 F. Why, papa, that would be strange ! 
 
 Mr. E. The Chinampas, or floating gardens of 
 Mexico, are justly considered objects of the 
 greatest curiosity. Their invention is said to 
 have arisen out of the extraordinary situation in 
 which the Aztecs were placed on the conquest 
 of their country by the Tepanecan nation, when 
 they were confined, in great numbers, to the 
 small islands on the lake, and were driven to 
 
112 FLOATING GARDENS. 
 
 exercise great ingenuity, in order to provide 
 themselves with a sufficient quantity of food. 
 Humboldt conjectures that the first idea of them 
 may have been suggested by nature herself; for, 
 on the marshy banks of the lakes of Xochimilco 
 and Chalcho, the agitated waters, in the time of 
 the great floods, carry away pieces of earth, cov- 
 ered with herbs, and bound together with roots. 
 The first Chinampas were mostly fragments of 
 ground artificially joined together and cultvated. 
 Following up this suggestion, it would not be 
 difficult, by means of wicker-work, formed with 
 marine plants, and a substratum, or ground-work 
 of bushes, combined with tenacious earth or clay, 
 to construct similar gardens, of adequate dimen- 
 sions. Upon these was placed fine black mould, 
 sufficiently deep for the sustenance of the plants 
 which it was desired to raise. The form usually 
 given to these Chinampas was quadrangular, and 
 their size varied from one hundred and fifty to 
 three hundred feet in length, with a breadth of 
 from twenty to seventy feet. At first, the use of 
 them was confined to the growth of maize and 
 other objects of absolute necessity ; but, in the 
 progress of time, and when the Mexicans had 
 shaken off the yoke which rendered them ne- 
 cessary, the owners applied themselves to the 
 production of vegetable luxuries, and grew fruits, 
 and flowers, and odoriferous plants, which were 
 used for the embellishment of their temples, and 
 the gratification of their nobles. At sun-rise, 
 daily, according to the Abbe Clavigero, innumer- 
 able boats were seen to arrive at the city of 
 Mexico, loaded with various kinds of flowers and 
 
FLOATING GARDENS. 113 
 
 herbs, the produce of these floating islands. The 
 garden is sometimes seen to contain the cottage 
 of the Indian, who is employed to guard a con- 
 tiguous group, and on each one there is common- 
 ly erected a small hut, under which the cultivator 
 can shelter himself from storms, or from the 
 intense heat of the sun. If it is wished to put 
 the garden in a different place, this is easily 
 effected by means of long poles, or by rowers 
 placed in a boat to which the garden is fastened. 
 In the driest seasons, the Chinampas are always 
 productive, and it is not difficult to renew the 
 powers of the soil by means of mud taken from 
 the bottom of the lake, which is highly fertilizing. 
 One of the most agreeable recreations afforded 
 to the citizens of Mexico is that of proceeding, 
 in the evening, in small boats, among these 
 gardens, the vegetation upon which is always in 
 a state of luxuriance. 
 
 Floating gardens are maintained also on some 
 of the rivers and canals of China, where an 
 excessive population produces the same effect as 
 that just mentioned as having resulted from 
 oppression, and the inhabitants are obliged to 
 have recourse to every expedient for increasing 
 the means of subsistence. 
 
 Mrs. E. Some plants are very extraordinary. 
 One is a native of Java, and of the East Indies 
 beyond the Ganges,* and is denominated aerial 
 from its singular properties. In the latter re- 
 gion, it is no uncommon thing for the inhabitants 
 to pluck it up, on account of the elegance of its 
 leaves, the beauty of its flower, and the exquisite 
 
 * Epidendrum flos aeris. 
 
114 SINGULAR PLANTS. 
 
 odor it diffuses, and to suspend it by a silken 
 cord from the ceilings of their rooms ; where, 
 from year to year, it continues to put forth new 
 leaves, new blossoms, and new fragrance, excited 
 alone to fresh life and action by the stimulus of 
 the surrounding atmosphere. In the botanical 
 garden, at Mexico, there is a tree of considera- 
 ble size, called ' the tree of the little hands/ 
 bearing a beautiful red flower, the centre of 
 which is in the form of a hand, with the fingers 
 a little bent inwards. Over these, humming- 
 birds, in all their beautiful, splendid hues, may 
 be seen frequently hovering. But only three 
 trees of the kind exist in all Mexico. The 
 mountains of Toluca produce a very singular 
 species of cactus, which looks exactly like an 
 old man's head, as it is covered with long grey 
 hair, which completely conceals the thdrns. The 
 American aloe, which was first brought into 
 Europe in 1561, and is now planted for hedges 
 in Spain, Sicily, and Calabria, has been thought 
 to blossom only once in a hundred years ; but the 
 time of its flowering depends on the quickness of 
 its growth ; so that, in hot countries, where it 
 grows fast, it will blossom in a few years ; but, in 
 colder climates, it is much longer before the stem 
 shoots up. When vigorous, it grows to the height 
 of more than twenty feet. The tallest aloe of 
 which there is any account, was in the garden 
 of the King of Prussia, and grew to the height 
 of forty feet. In another, which flowered in 
 Cheshire, in 1737, the stem appeared in June, 
 and grew five inches a day for some weeks ; the 
 flower-branches were perfected in twelve weeks, 
 
SINGULAR PLANTS. 115 
 
 and then ceased to grow for a month, while the 
 buds were forming. This plant produced a 
 thousand and fifty flowers ; but one that blossom- 
 ed in Leyden, in 1760, produced more than four 
 thousand. Dr. Walsh saw, in Brazil, an aloe of 
 extraordinary size. The flower-stem was two 
 and a half feet in circumference at the base, and 
 shot up to the height of thirty feet ; from this 
 projected innumerable horizontal foot-stalks, from 
 whence hung myriads of campanulate blossoms, 
 so that the form of this grand flower was that of 
 a pine tree, for which it might have been mista- 
 ken. ' I saw in some places/ he says, ' when I 
 set out, this stem beginning to protrude itself 
 from the midst of the leaves, and on my return 
 it had attained the magnitude of a pine-tree of 
 twenty years' growth/ 
 
 Mr. E. The embeaporba* stands with a naked . 
 stem, surmounted by bare branches, from the 
 extremities of which immense palmated leaves 
 depend. In some species, these are covered, on 
 the under side, with a hoary down, which, in the 
 heat of the day, they turn up to the sun, so that 
 whole patches of the surface seem covered with 
 rich white blossoms. With this is strikingly 
 contrasted the coral-tree, t Spikes of rich scar- 
 let blossoms stand erect on the branches, as large 
 as those of a horse-chestnut, and give to the sur- 
 face a glow of the brightest red. A curious 
 peculiarity marks its leaves ; the mimosas and 
 acacias, which grow near it, expand their foliage 
 to the utmost in the sun, and close them up when 
 
 i 
 
 * Cecropia pellata and palmata. 
 
 t Erythrina Corolladendrum. 
 
116 THE GREAT FLOWER. 
 
 he is obscured by the clouds ; but the erythrina 
 seems actuated by an opposite instinct. It closes 
 up its large trefoil leaves in the heat of the sun, 
 as if protecting its buds from his burning rays. 
 
 Mrs. E. The most remarkable flower, how- 
 ever, that has yet been discovered, is one found 
 in the island of Sumatra, in the year 1818, by 
 Dr. Arnold, who thus described it in a letter to 
 a friend : ' Here, I rejoice to tell you, I happen- 
 ed to meet with what I consider as the greatest 
 prodigy of the vegetable world. I had ventured 
 some way from the party, when one of the Malay 
 servants came running to me with wonder in his 
 eyes, and said, ' Come with me sir, come I a 
 flower ! very large, beautiful, wonderful ! ' I im- 
 mediately went with the man about a hundred 
 yards in the jungle, (or wild bushy underwood) 
 and he pointed to a flower growing close to the 
 ground, under the bushes, which was truly aston- 
 ishing. My first impulse was to cut it up, and 
 carry it to the hut. I therefore seized the Ma- 
 lay's parang, (a sort of instrument like a wood- 
 man's chopping-hook), and, finding that it sprang 
 from a small root which ran horizontally (about 
 as large as two fingers, or a little more), I soon 
 detached it, and removed it to our hut. To tell 
 you the truth, had I been alone, and had there 
 been no witnesses, I should, I think, have been 
 fearful of mentioning the size of this flower, so 
 much does it exceed every flower I have ever 
 seen or heard of; but I had Sir Stamford and 
 Lady Raffles with me. The whole flower was 
 of a very thick substance, the petals and nectary 
 being in but few places less than a quarter of an 
 
CHOICE OF BIRDS. 
 
 117 
 
 inch thick, and, in some places, three-quarters of 
 an inch ; the substance of it was' very succulent. 
 Now for the dimensions, which are the most 
 astonishing part ; it measures a full yard across ; 
 the petals, which were roundish, and five in 
 number, being twelve inches in length, and it 
 being about a foot from the insertion of the one 
 petal to the opposite one ; Sir Stamford, Lady 
 Raffles, and myself, taking immediate measures 
 to be accurate in this respect, by pinning four 
 large sheets of paper together, and cutting them 
 to the precise size of the flower. The nectary, 
 in the opinion of us all, would hold twelve pints, 
 and the weight of this prodigy we calculated to 
 be fifteen pounds. A gui'de from the interior of 
 the country said that such flowers were rare, but 
 that he had seen several ; and that the natives 
 called them Krubut, or the ' great flower/ You 
 may judge how well they deserve this name, from 
 the dimensions of the buds, which are about the 
 size, and have very muchjhe appearance, of or- 
 dinary cabbages.' 
 
 JE. Why, papa, it would not be right to call it 
 any thing else. It is quite a giant a Goliah ! 
 and other plants must look insignificant by its 
 side. And yet the little daisy, after all, is as 
 nicely formed as that can be. 
 
 Mr. E. That is true, my dear : every thing 
 that has come from the hand of God is perfect in 
 its kind : and how many proofs may we find of 
 his benevolence ! ' Each bird,' says St. Pierre, 
 'chooses the plant best adapted to its habits and 
 constitution. Thus, the goldfinch frequents the 
 thistle, because he finds a rampart in its prickly 
 10 
 
118 WARMTH OF SPRING. 
 
 leaves, food in its seeds, and materials for his 
 nest in its down. The bird-fly of Florida, for 
 similar reasons, prefers the vignonia. This is a 
 creeping plant, which finds its way to the tops of 
 the highest trees, and frequently covers the whole 
 trunk. He builds his nest in one of its leaves, 
 which he rolls into the form of a coronet ; he 
 finds his food in its red flowers, which resemble 
 those of the fox-glove : he plunges his little body 
 into them, which appears in the heart of the 
 flower like an emerald set in coral : and he gets 
 in sometimes so far, that he suffers himself to be 
 surprised there and caught/ 
 
 E. Oh, mamma, there is one more question I 
 should like to ask ! why should plants and trees 
 be so beautiful in spring, while, in winter, all 
 seems so inactive and cheerless ? 
 
 Mrs. E. It is one of the effects of heat of 
 which you have heard. * It is supposed that the 
 warmth of spring dilates the vessels of plants, 
 and produces a kind of vacuum, into which the 
 sap, which had previously remained inactive in 
 the trunk, rises ; this is followed by the ascent 
 of the sap contained in the roots ; and room is 
 thus made for fresh sap, which the roots, in their 
 turn, derive from the soil. Thus the plant blos- 
 soms and bears fruit, and ends its summer 
 career ; but, when cold weather comes, the ves- 
 sels contract the leaves wither the office of 
 transpiration stops and the roots cease to absorb 
 from the soil. If the plant be an annual, its 
 life then terminates ; if not, it remains torpid, or 
 a small quantity of resinous juice slowly rises 
 
 * See 'Art in Nature Chemistry.' 
 
CHANGES. 119 
 
 from the stem into the branches, and enlarges 
 their buds ; and even in evergreens vegetation 
 proceeds imperfectly. But, for the present, adieu, 
 my dear children ! 
 
 CHANGES. 
 
 * I WAS thinking,' said Mrs. El wood, as she 
 turned from the open window, through which she 
 had been intently looking, ' how agreeable and 
 delightful is the verdant mantle of Nature. Had 
 it been of a more brilliant hue, it would have 
 overpowered our sight ; and, instead of feeling 
 gratified and refreshed, the effect upon us would 
 have been dazzling and painful. If the cover- 
 ing of the earth were dark and sombre, what is 
 now so cheering would produce dejection and 
 despondency: but we are favored with that 
 peculiar tint, which is the best of all that can 
 possibly be imagined ; we enjoy 
 
 " United light and shade ! where the sight dwells 
 With growing strength and ever new delight ! " 
 
 I was just remarking, too, that the first hues of 
 spring are gone with the snow-drops, violets, and 
 primroses, which were their beauteous and short- 
 lived companions. Even now we may say, as the 
 poet did of autumn, 
 
 "It is the season when the green delight 
 
 Of leafy luxury begins to fade, 
 
 And leaves arc changing hourly on the sight;" 
 
120 CHANGES OF FOLIAGE. 
 
 For the light tints of young foliage are being 
 displaced by those of a duller green, and in 
 succession the hedges and trees participate the 
 change. But a still more remarkable process is 
 in operation, resembling, in some respects, that 
 which transpires in animal existence, where the 
 form is totally altered ; the metamorphosis being" 
 not less wonderful than that experienced by a 
 chrysalis when it becomes a gorgeous butterfly. 
 
 E. Why, mamma, I never thought that there 
 was anything of the kind among plants, and I 
 cannot now imagine to what you refer. 
 
 Mrs. E. Look, love. Here is a pea, and you 
 may observe that the pod consists of a leaf doub- 
 led over the seeds, with its edges united. When 
 very young, it is almost flat ; but as it grows it 
 becomes rounded on each side, and loses the 
 form and appearance of a leaf. This alteration 
 is necessary, to make room for the peas, which, 
 as they increase in size, of course require more 
 space. 
 
 E. I see, mamma ; but is it not strange that 
 a leaf should be changed into a pea-pod ? 
 
 Mrs. E. It is, my love ; but it is stranger still 
 that it should be changed into an apple or a 
 nectarine. 
 
 E. Oh, mamma ! that must be a joke of yours. 
 And yet I think you mean what you say, for you 
 look quite serious, and you don't even smile. 
 
 Mrs. E. No, my dear little girl, I am stating 
 what is actually true. Examine a leaf, and you 
 will observe that the upper surface is smooth, 
 and the under one of a rougher texture, and 
 generally it is downy or hairy. Between these 
 
TRANSFORMATION OF A LEAF. 1*21 
 
 surfaces lies a softer body, and in the pea the 
 leaf is doubled upon its upper surface, so that 
 the under one is made external. A leaf may be 
 folded in more ways than one ; but yet, whatever 
 be the form of the fruit, it always results from 
 the way in which the leaf was folded when it 
 first budded. Sometimes, for instance, it forms 
 a peach, and the hairy covering of its under 
 surface becomes the soft and downy skin of that 
 delicious fruit ; the cellular texture of the pabu- 
 lum, or soft substance between the two surfaces, 
 absorbing a great quantity of sap, and swelling 
 out as it grows, forms the fleshy substance ; and 
 the upper surface of the leaf, deprived of moist- 
 ure by the thirstiness of this soft substance, is 
 changed at length into a hollow stone, which 
 defends securely the kernel or seed. The fruit, 
 moreover, shows that it was formed of two valves, 
 like a pea, for it may be divided ; and, when 
 diseased, it separates of itself. 
 
 JFI That is exceedingly curious. Will you, 
 mamma or papa, tell us more of this fruit which 
 is so beautiful and delightful ? 
 
 Mr. E. I will cheerfully do so. The Romans 
 are said to have imported the peach from Persia ; 
 but whether it is a native of that country cannot 
 be fully determined. In warmer parts of Asia it 
 is very generally cultivated, and in many it 
 requires no aid. America has it also, and in 
 Europe it has long been highly prized. In the 
 neighborhood of Paris this fruit is of excellent 
 quality. The principal gardens for the supply of 
 that city are at Montreal ; and one tree sometimes 
 covers sixty feet of wall from one extremity to 
 the other. 10* 
 
122 ORIGIN OP THE PEACH. 
 
 P. Papa, how are peach-trees raised ? 
 
 Mr. E. Those last referred to are always 
 raised from the stone ; and the facility of doing 
 this has tended to the general diffusion of this 
 fruit. ' From China to Peru/ man has raised it, 
 and others like it, very soon after he has begun 
 to enjoy the advantages of civilization. Securi- 
 ty, however, is necessary to their culture. West- 
 ern Syria is more fertile, because it is less 
 disturbed, than any other part of that country, 
 and to this ' the hills of Lebanon owe those fine 
 terraces, in long succession, which preserve the 
 fertile earth ; those well-planted vineyards ; those 
 fields of wheat, raised by the industrious hand 
 of the husbandman ; those plantations of cotton, 
 of olives, and of mulberries, which present them- 
 selves every where in the midst of the rocky 
 steeps, and give a pleasing example of the effects 
 of human activity/ A great service was rendered 
 to a tribe in the interior of South Africa, when 
 Burchell, the traveller, gave their chief a bag of 
 fresh peach-stones, and told him that they would 
 produce trees which would continue every year 
 to yield, without further trouble, abundance of 
 large fruit of a more agreeable flavor than any 
 which grew in their country. Columella says, 
 however, that the Persians sent the peach to 
 Egypt to poison the Inhabitants ; and a species 
 of apricot is called by the people of Barbary, 
 'Matza Franca,' or the killer of Christians. But 
 culture is to fruits as it should be to children, 
 making what, are bad good, and the good better. 
 
 E. Ah, papa! I know what you mean. And 
 I was just thinking, how I like apricots and 
 nectarines. 
 
VALUABLE PRESENT THE APRICOT. 123 
 
 Mr. E. They are both fine fruit, my dear. 
 The nectarine, indeed, when of a good kind and 
 properly cultivated, is superior to the peach ; but 
 of its history little is known. In Asia the former 
 is very widely diffused, and it grows on the 
 slopes of the barren mountains westward of 
 China. The Persians call the apricot of Iran 
 * the seed of the sun. 5 In Japan, the apricot 
 attains the size of a large tree ; and it flourishes 
 in such abundance upon the Oases as to be dried 
 and carried to Egypt as an article of commerce. 
 It is thought by some to be a native of Africa. 
 The plum is still more widely diffused. It came 
 originally from Asia and many parts of Europe, 
 and it even grows wild in the hedges in some 
 parts of Britain, though possibly it has found its 
 way there from some of the cultivated sorts, and 
 has degenerated. So early as the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, various kinds appear to have been intro- 
 duced to us from France and Italy. The Orleans 
 probably came to us when we possessed the part 
 of France from which it takes its name ; the 
 green-gage is called after the family by whom it 
 was first cultivated here ; and the damson, or 
 damascene, is, as its name imports, from Damas- 
 cus. The origin of the Washington, which is 
 said not to be surpassed, is curious. The parent 
 tree was purchased in the market of New York, 
 towards the end of the last century. For several 
 years it remained barren, till, during a violent 
 thunder-storm, the whole trunk was struck to the 
 earth and destroyed. A number of vigorous 
 shoots were afterwards thrown out, all of which 
 were allowed to remain, and finally produced 
 fruit. 
 
124 THE PLUM THE CHERRY. 
 
 E. The storm was kinder to the plum-tree than 
 another was some time ago. Do n't you remem- 
 ber, mamma, the tree we saw on Sherwood 
 Forest, which had been struck by lightning? 
 Oh ! there was not on it a leaf or a twig, and it 
 looked quite solitary and wretched, like old Wat- 
 kins, the mole-catcher, who now-a-days is the 
 picture of misery. 
 
 Mrs. E. I recollect it perfectly, love. But we 
 must not forget the cherry, which it Jis supposed 
 we have had in England ever since the days of 
 Henry VIII. Before the middle of the sixteenth 
 century, cherries were hawked about in London 
 just as they are still ; and the commencement of 
 the season was announced by some one carrying 
 a bough or twig laden with the fruit. At some 
 of the ruined Abbeys and baronial castles, cherry 
 trees are found, but chiefly black ones, which 
 have reached the height of sixty or eighty feet, 
 and continue to produce great quantities of fruit. 
 But here is that elegant little volume, ' The 
 Amulet.' ' I will read you an extract from Dr. 
 Walsh's Visit to Nicaea. He was at this time in 
 the neighborhood of a Turkish town, called 
 Serbandgee. ' We found ourselves in an eleva- 
 ted valley, embosomed in higher hills, with a 
 magnificent lake below us. The hills were 
 clothed with trees of an infinite variety of fol- 
 iage%covered with fruit chestnut, walnut, plum, 
 cherry, fig, apple, quinces, pears, and medlars 
 in such incredible profusion, as to be sufficient 
 to supply the whole population of England ; yet 
 here there was no one to gather them. You may 
 think it an exaggeration *o say that these fruit 
 
THE OLIVE. 125 
 
 trees formed large forest-wood ; but the luxuri- 
 ance of vegetation in this country is such, that 
 dwarf plants with us grow here to the size of 
 giants. About mid-day, we stopped at a derven, 
 or pass in the forest, where there is generally a 
 small Turkish guard ; attached to this was, as 
 usual, a coffee-house, where we lighted our 
 chiboques, and had some coffee. The coffee- 
 house was under the shade of a large tree, cov- 
 ered with yellow fruit, the nature of which, as I 
 had not seen anything like it before, I was curi- 
 ous to ascertain. Against the stem, I found a 
 hanging ladder, which I climbed up; and after 
 ascending forty steps, each one foot perpendicu- 
 lar, I found I had not got so high as the middle 
 of the tree. The tree was a cherry-tree, pro- 
 ducing an immense profusion of fruit, of a 
 beautiful transparent amber color, and of the 
 richest flavor. I brought down my hat full, and 
 they sent us a basket full, for which we paid the 
 value of about a penny to the man, for the 
 trouble of gathering. I took away with me some 
 of the stones, to try to propagate the kind at 
 Constantinople, where it is unknown, as well on 
 account of the delicious flavor of the fruit, as 
 the beauty and magnificence of the tree, which 
 could not be less than one hundred feet high.' 
 
 jP. Papa, is not the olive something like the 
 cherry ? 
 
 Mr. E. It is. On the origin of it, the Greeks 
 had a fable, which was not only pleasing but in- 
 structive. They said that Neptune, having a 
 dispute with Minerva as to the name of the city 
 of Athens, it was decided that whichever gave 
 
126 THE OLIVE. 
 
 the best present to mankind should have the priv- 
 ilege of conferring one. Neptune struck the 
 shore, out of which sprang a horse ; but Minerva 
 produced an olive-tree ; and therefore it was giv- 
 en to her, because peace, of which the olive is 
 the symbol, is infinitely better than war, of which 
 the horse was considered a type. The olive- 
 branch of Noah you cannot forget. Some have 
 supposed that the tops of the olive-trees might 
 alone be visible from the place where the ark was 
 then floating, though it is only a tree of moder- 
 ate height ; but if the dove saw a great number 
 of other trees appear above the water, it was nat- 
 ural for it to repair to the olive-tree in preference 
 to others, because there it had been accustomed 
 to find shelter and food. With peculiar proprie- 
 ty the olive-leaf, or branch, was chosen by God 
 as a sign to the patriarch of the abatement of the 
 deluge, and from this, perhaps, it became the 
 emblem of peace to various and distant nations. 
 Captain Cook found that green branches carried 
 in the hand, or stuck in the ground, were thus 
 regarded by all the islanders, even in the South 
 Sea. True piety has, also, been beautifully ex- 
 hibited under this figure : 
 
 c Oh ! who could bear life's stormy doom, 
 
 Did not thy wing of love 
 Come brightly wafting, through the gloom, 
 
 Our peace-branch from above I 
 
 Then sorrow, touched by thee, grows bright, 
 
 With more than rapture's ray, 
 As darkness shows us worlds of light 
 
 We never saw by day.' 
 
 Mrs. E. I remember some travellers state that 
 olive-trees are not always green, and that though 
 
WANT OF VERDURE. 127 
 
 the fields, and indeed the whole face of Tuscany, 
 are almost covered with them, they were greatly 
 disappointed by the duskiness of their hue. Per- 
 haps papa can suggest how it is that, notwith- 
 standing this, we read so often in the Scriptures 
 of the green olive-tree. 
 
 Mr. E. The word, my dear, so translated 
 may be considered not only as descriptive of col- 
 or, but of strength and prosperity. Thus Neb- 
 uchadnezzar says, ' I was at rest in my house, 
 and green in my palace ;' but here the word is 
 very properly rendered flourishing, and this inti- 
 mates that his empire was like a plant when it 
 is green. Other instances of the same kind 
 might easily be given. The leaves of the olive 
 bear some resemblance to those of the willow, 
 only they are more soft and delicate. The flow- 
 ers are as delicate as the leaves, and come forth 
 in June. At first they are of a pale yellow ; but 
 when each flower, the corolla of which is not di- 
 vided, widens upwards and separates into four 
 parts, the insides of them are white, and only the 
 centre of the flower yellow. The fruit is first 
 green, then pale, and, when it is quite ripe, black. 
 Maillet says that the olive-tree thrives greatly 
 in Egypt, and very commonly produces fruit 
 as large as walnuts. Hasselquist states that he 
 ate olives at Joppa which were said to have grown 
 on the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem, and that 
 they were the best he had tasted in the Levant. 
 He saw olive-trees in Galilee also, but none fur- 
 ther than the mountain on which our Lord's ser- 
 mon is supposed to have been delivered. They 
 are found, however, in various parts of the earth. 
 
128 OLIVE -OIL. 
 
 E. Papa, how is olive-oil obtained'? 
 
 Mr. E. The proper time for gathering olives 
 is just before they are ripe ; for, if delayed too 
 long, the next crop is prevented, and the tree is 
 productive only every alternate year. At Aix, 
 in France, where the olive-harvest takes place 
 early in November, it is annual ; in Spain and 
 Italy, where it is delayed till December or Jan- 
 uary, it takes place every second year. The 
 quality of the oil also depends on gathering the 
 fruit in the first stage of its maturity. Some- 
 times, as in the scriptures, we read of the trees 
 being beaten, and at others of their being shak- 
 en : the former denotes the common practice of 
 gathering by the owners of the olive-yards, the 
 latter the method of the poor and the stranger, who 
 might thus gjean those that were left. But the 
 best plan, it appears, is to pluck the fruit with the 
 hand, and to complete the whole harvest, if pos- 
 sible, in a day. That the mucilage may be con- 
 cocted, and the water allowed to evaporate, it is 
 spread out, for two or three days, in beds three 
 inches deep. The fruit is reduced to a pulp, put 
 into sacks of coarse linen, or feather-grass, and 
 subjected to pressure. The oil first expressed is 
 the purest. In 1827, its importation into Great 
 Britain amounted to about four thousand five 
 hundred tuns. The Tuscans, however, were the 
 first that exported it, and thus it obtained the 
 name of Florence oil. The province of Suse, in 
 Morocco, produces great abundance of what is 
 said to equal in quality the best of this kind ; and 
 of the origin of a large plantation of olive-trees 
 in the neighborhood of Messa, Mr. Jackson 
 
OLIVE-PLANTATION. 129 
 
 gives the Following singular account. ' I learnt 
 from the viceroy's aid-de-camp, who attended 
 me, that one of the kings of the dynasty ofSad- 
 dia, being on his journey to Soudan, encamped 
 here with his army ; that the pegs with which 
 the cavalry picketed their horses were cut from 
 the olive-trees in the neighborhood ; and that 
 these pegs being left in the ground, on account 
 of some sudden cause of the departure of the ar- 
 my, the olive-trees in question sprung up from 
 them. I confess, while I acknowledged the in- 
 genuity of the idea (for the disposition of the trees 
 exactly resembled the arrangement of cavalry in 
 an encampment), 1 treated it as fabulous : some- 
 time afterwards, however, the following circum- 
 stance occurred, which induced me to think 
 the story was not only plausible, but very credi- 
 ble. Having occasion to send for some plants 
 for a garden which I had at Agadeer, or Santa 
 Cruz, the foulah (gardener) brought, amongst 
 other things, a few bits of wood, without any 
 roots or leaf, about eighteen inches long and 
 three in circumference, which he, with a large 
 stone, knocked into the ground. Seeing the fel- 
 low thus employed, I asked him what he meant 
 by trifling in that way. ' I am not trifling,' said 
 he, ' but planting your promegranate-trees.' 1 
 began to take them out of the ground ; but some 
 persons who were near, assuring me that it was 
 the mode in which they were always planted, and 
 that they would (with the blessing of God) take 
 root and shoot forth leaves the next year, I was at 
 length prevailed on to leave a few in the ground, 
 merely for experiment ; and they certainly did 
 11 
 
130 TEE ALMOND. 
 
 take root, and were in a fair way of becoming 
 good trees when I left Santa Cruz.' 
 
 Mrs. E. It is worthy of remark, that all stone- 
 fruits are formed in the same manner ; and that 
 the rough-coated almond belongs to the same 
 class in nature, and originates in the same way, 
 as the soft and delicate peach. 
 
 E. I should never have thought that, mamma. 
 A nice, sleek, pretty-looking cat like ours, must 
 be of quite a different kind to the hedge-hog that 
 little Tom Hudson found the other day in the 
 shrubbery. 
 
 Mrs. E. Very true, my dear ; but the fact is 
 as I have stated it. The soft intermediate part 
 of the leaf is changed into coarse thready fibres, 
 which form the external covering of the nut : the 
 upper surface of the leaf, which in other cases 
 forms a thin delicate skin becomes a hard woody 
 nut ; and the other surface the smooth skin with 
 which it is covered. Some, indeed, think that the 
 difference between the peach and the almond is 
 very inconsiderable ; and a curious fact is mention- 
 ed by the president of the Horticultural Society. 
 The fruit of a sweet almond tree, which had been 
 obtained from an almond-kernel, that had, when 
 in flower, peach pollen applied, was sown, and pro- 
 duced a tree : this tree bore eight peaches, some 
 of which were perfect, and the others burst at the 
 centre when ripe, like almonds. The peaches 
 were of a fine form and color ; the flesh white, 
 soft, melting, and of good flavor. This, if it 
 does not show that an almond can always, be 
 changed into a peach, proves that it can be done 
 by the pollen. The almond is, probably, a na- 
 tiye of the western parts of Asia. It is mention- 
 
THE ALMOND THE COCOA-NUT TREE. 131 
 
 ed as among the best fruits of the land of Ca- 
 naan. It is now abundantly cultivated for its 
 fruit in Italy, Spain, and the south of France ; 
 but in England chiefly for the beauty of its early 
 flowers, which, appearing on the bare branches, 
 led one of our poets to say, 
 
 4 The hope, in dreams, of a happier hour, 
 
 That nlights on misery's brow, 
 Springs out of the silvery almond-flower 
 
 That blooms on a leafless bough.' 
 
 Now, Emma, though you have seemed quite as- 
 tonished at the change of the almonds into peach- 
 es, you will not be surprised to hear that cocoa- 
 nuts are included in the same class. 
 
 E. No, indeed, mammal But as long as you 
 and papa tell us and oh, it is so kind of you ! 
 what is extraordinary, I shall never give up won- 
 dering. And I should like dearly to hear about 
 the cocoa-nuts. 
 
 Mr. E. The cocoa-nut tree* grows to the 
 height of seventy or eighty feet. The stem ta- 
 pers from the bottom gradually to the top, with- 
 out branch or off-set ; but at the summit it shoots 
 forth from twenty to thirty vast leaves, some of 
 which are six or seven yards in length. These 
 hang in a graceful tuft all round the crown of 
 the trunk. When young and small, the leaves 
 are entire ; but as they lengthen they divide into 
 narrow slips, each of which has a wiry rib run- 
 ning up the middle, and diverging from the spinal 
 stalk of the leaf as it may be called. Though 
 strong at the point of contact with the tree, the 
 weight of this enormous foliage would soon break 
 
 * Gocos nucifera. 
 
132 THE COCOA-NUT TREE. 
 
 it off; but, where it branches out, a cloth-like sub- 
 stance, called Aa, whose fibres run at right an- 
 gles with each other, is formed, and invests the 
 tree with its strong and needful intertexture, 
 running also about twenty- four inches up the leaf, 
 and affording it complete support. From among 
 the junctures of these leaves with the head of the 
 stalk spring branches of tendrils, on which grows 
 the fruit, a nut enveloped with a husk about 
 two and a half inches thick, green on the out- 
 side, and composed of close tough fibres, which 
 run lengthways from end to end, presenting an 
 oval shape, rather angular at the sides. 
 
 F. The shell, too, papa, I remember, is hard 
 and black, the kernel lining the shell is white, 
 and it contains some milky water. 
 
 Mr. E. It does ; and the ease with which the 
 fruit is obtained is remarkable. Some travellers 
 say : Being thirsty, we requested some cocoa-nut 
 water, whereupon two or three of the natives ran 
 to the nearest trees, which they climbed with sur- 
 prising facility, by clasping the stems with their 
 arms and pressing their naked feet against the 
 bark ; and thus these tall and branchless stems 
 were apparently ascended with almost as much 
 ease as they walked on level ground. Presently 
 several fine nuts were brought to us, the husks 
 of which the men tore off with their teeth ; then, 
 having punctured one end of the shell, we were 
 each presented with a draught of this most deli- 
 cious beverage for appeasing thirst in a tropical 
 climate.' 
 
 Some trees will produce, at the same time, a 
 hundred, each containing from half a pint to a 
 
THE COCOA-NUT TREE. 133 
 
 winp-quart r,f the liquor ; and these noble fruits 
 closely encircle the top of a stem, like a beaded 
 belt, or coronet, beneath the pendent crest of 
 plume-like leaves. 
 
 F. Papa, how does the lower part of the tree 
 look? 
 
 Mr.E. The trunk is a bundle of fibres, closely 
 connected by a cementing matter. Within two 
 or three feet of the ground, these fibres spread 
 forth into thousands of small roots, which insin- 
 uate themselves through the earth, and spread 
 horizontally twelve or fourteen feet from the bole, 
 in all directions. This cordage must be amaz- 
 ingly strong, for it supports the whole tree, with 
 its bulk of stem, foliage, and fruit. The bark 
 seems to be of little use in this species, as it gen- 
 -erally rots off towards the ground at an early 
 stage. Cocoa-nut stalks have been seen decay- 
 ed through the heart, and others of which large 
 portions of the outside had been cut away to a 
 considerable depth, which yet continued to thrive 
 and bear leaves and nuts. The timber, if these 
 live faggots of well-packed fibres can be called 
 timber, is of some value, being used for rafters 
 in sheds, and cut into short lengths for fences ; 
 spears were formerly made of it. The leaves are 
 turned to better account, being platted into mats, 
 shaped into baskets, and occasionally manufac- 
 tured into bonnets. The fibres of the husks are 
 twisted into ropes and lines of various sizes, 
 which are exceedingly strong. The shell of the 
 nut is converted into drinking-cups, lamps, 
 and other small vessels. The kernel, when 
 scraped out of the shell, is either eaten raw, or, 
 11* 
 
134 THE COCOA-NUT TREE. 
 
 being squeezed through the fibres of the husk, 
 yields the milk, which is sometimes mixed with 
 arrow-root, and a kind of pudding is compound- 
 ed of both. The kernel also produces a valua- 
 ble oil : to obtain this, it is first scraped into thin 
 flakes, being ingeniously scooped out of the shell 
 by means of a semicircular piece of flat iron, 
 sharpened, and fixed upon the angular point of a 
 sloping stool, on which the person sits, and turns 
 the nut, open at one end, over this edge till the 
 contents are cleared out. The sliced kernels 
 are then put into a trough, or old canoe,, where, 
 in a few days, the oil drains from them, is care- 
 fully collected, put into bamboos, and corked up 
 for use. This oil is called by the South Sea is- 
 landers won, and has entirely superseded the 
 candle-nut for lighting. After the better portion 
 has thus been drained off, the residue is extract- 
 ed by means of a press. 
 
 E. How are these trees planted, papa 1 
 Mr. E. When the nuts are intended to pro- 
 duce others, they are hung, being quite ripe, on a 
 tree. In about six months, a green leaf shoots 
 out of one of the three holes at the smaller end. 
 The nut is then put into the ground, to the depth 
 of the shell, with the sprout upwards, when, from 
 the other two holes, a pair of roots strike down- 
 ward, and the plant is nourished by the decay of 
 the nut till it can draw its entire sustenance from 
 the soil ; and such is its freedom of growth that 
 there is scarcely a spot, however otherwise barren 
 and unpropitious to vegetation, from which this 
 stately plant will not spring up, with its diadem 
 of beauty, and girdle of fertility. In about six 
 years it begins to bear ; the fruit is nearly twelve 
 
THE DESSERT. 135 
 
 months in coming to perfection. From the juice 
 of the cocoa-nut the finest arrack of the East In- 
 dies is made. 
 
 Mrs. E. Now, Emma, I imagine your are quite 
 satisfied that the metamorphoses of the vegeta- 
 ble world are not less amazing than those of the 
 
 JE. duite, mamma. I knew a leaf was a ve- 
 ry wonderful little thing ; but I never should 
 have thought of its being changed into a peach, 
 an olive^ or a cocoa-nut 1 
 
 THE DESSERT. 
 
 fe What a fine collection of early, yet full-ripe 
 fruit, we have to-day f said Mr. El wood to his 
 children : ' I see you, as well as Mamma and 
 .myself, enjoy it exceedingly. Frederick is, I 
 .think, fairly entitled to some, as a reward for the 
 attention he is pay ing to his studies; Emma, too, 
 may join him, for her progress is very satisfacto- 
 ry:; and, as for my little rosy cheeked Edward, 
 he tries to do as he is told, and promises well. 
 
 '* "As Nature adapts her supplies to the course 
 of the seasons/' says St. Pierre, " cherries, plums, 
 apricots., peaches, afford us, in the burning heats 
 of summer, a supply of soft and refreshing fruits ; 
 while figs and mulberries give us a stock of 
 what may be called saccharine and pectoral. 
 These products are, in truth, transient, like the 
 season which ripens them ; but when, like the 
 
136 SEEDS, HOW PERFECTED. 
 
 sun, they forsake us, they are succeeded by 
 others of almost equal attraction. Pears and 
 apples are given to us in the latter part of the 
 summer ; and, when autumn veils the sun with 
 his mists, the chestnut and the verdant oak afford 
 us their mealy and substantial fruit ; the olive, 
 the almond, the walnut, produce their savory 
 oils ; while the vine affords, in the fermented 
 juice of its grape, the most powerful of cordials. 
 Lastly, the ash, the lime-tree, the willow, the 
 elm, the beech, the oak, and a number of others, 
 all of which have sheltered us against the sum- 
 mer heat by their delightful foliage, now supply 
 us, in their branches and solid trunks, with roofs, 
 with materials for the labor of the carpenter, and 
 with fuel against the inclemency of winter. 
 
 ' Fruit may, indeed, suggest to us much in- 
 struction. This cherry, for instance, contains 
 what is amazing. The eatable part first serves 
 the purposes of perfecting the seed or kernel, by 
 means of vessels passing through the stone ; and 
 which in that part of a peach are very evident. 
 When the kernel is perfected, the stone becomes 
 hard, and the functions of these vessels cease ; 
 but the substance surrounding the stone is not 
 thrown away as useless, for it now receives and 
 retains to itself the whole of the sun's influence, 
 and thereby becomes a grateful food for man. It 
 ought to be remarked, moreover, that the inter- 
 vention of the stone prevents the second use from 
 interfering with the first. 
 
 ' Variety, too, meets us at every step, as we 
 contemplate the works of God. The seed, which 
 is thus perfected in the cherry, reaches maturity 
 
SEEDS, HOW PERFECTED THE MELON. 137* 
 
 in other fruits by different means. In nuts, it is 
 encased in a strong shell, and the shell itself is 
 enclosed in a pulp or husk, by which the seed 
 within is, or has been, fed ; in grapes, oranges, 
 and many kinds of berries, it is plunged and 
 overwhelmed in a glutinous syrup, contained 
 within a skin or bladder ; in apples and pears it 
 is imbedded in the heart of a firm, fleshy sub- 
 stance ; and in strawberries it is pricked into the 
 surface of a soft pulp.' 
 
 Mrs. E. Another instance appears in the gen- 
 eral formation of fruits. How diversified is this ! 
 Sometimes the fruit is formed from a single 
 flower; at others several carpels are joined 
 together to form fruits, having different cavities 
 or cells for seed. Indeed, the number of the 
 latter implies the number of the fomer thus 
 united, though there are some exceptions to this 
 rule. The carpels consist of folded leaves : if 
 these reach to the centre of the fruit, the cells 
 will be complete ; if they reach but half way, 
 the centre wHl be hollow and empty ; and if they 
 be still less folded, they will spread out in grow- 
 ing, and the fruit, though composed of several 
 carpels, will only have one cell. Of this kind 
 the melon is an example. 
 
 E. I like melons, mamma, exceedingly. 
 
 Mrs. E. A melon, love, is the richest and most 
 highly-flavored of all t'he fleshy fruits. It was 
 freely used in early times, and has been long 
 raised in our own country. Here and in France 
 it is grown as a luxury, but in some parts of the 
 East it is the chief necessary of life. Niebuhr, 
 the celebrated traveller, says, 'Of pumpkins and 
 
138 MELONS. 
 
 melons, several sorts grow naturally in the woods, 
 and serve for feeding camels ; but the proper 
 melons are planted in the fields, where a great 
 variety of them is to be found, and in such 
 abundance that the Arabians of all ranks use 
 them, for some part of the year, as their princi- 
 pal article of food. They afford, also, a very 
 agreeable liquor. When the fruit is nearly 
 ripe, a hole is pierced into the pulp, then stop- 
 ped with wax, and the melon is left upon the 
 stalk. Within a fews days after, the pulp is, in 
 consequence of this process, converted into a 
 delicious liquor.' To this Mr. Southey alludes 
 when he says : 
 
 4 Whither is gone the boy ? 
 He had pierced the melon's pulp, 
 And closed with wax the wound ; 
 And he had duly gone at morn, 
 And watched its ripening rind ; 
 And now all joyfully he brings 
 The treasure now matured.' 
 
 Of melons there is a great variety, and the 
 number is constantly increasing. In Persia 
 twenty sorts are known ; the finest grow in 
 Khorasan. The fruit there is so large that two 
 or three melons are a full load for a man. In 
 some fruits the carpels are not only united, but 
 soldered with the calyx[; so that, when the blos- 
 som falls, the fruit is composed of them both, 
 forming a single body. Of this kind are some 
 with which you are well acquainted. 
 
 E. Oh, mamma ! I know a great many : straw- 
 berries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, oran- 
 ges, pines, and 
 
 Mrs. E. I do not mean any of them, but apples 
 
THE APPLE-TREE. 139 
 
 are of this description ; and whenever you see 
 an eye made by the remnants of the sepals, or 
 leaves of the calyx, at the top of fruit, you may 
 be sure it is thus formed ; as are all whose seeds 
 are pips. 
 
 Mr. E. Many of the better sort of English 
 apples were probably at first introduced from the 
 continent. The greater part of the names they 
 bare are French, either pure or corrupted. The 
 varieties at present known are considerably more 
 than a thousand ; and of late years they have 
 been remarkably increased, by applying the 
 pollen of one sort to the blossom of another. 
 Frederick, do you remember a remarkable fact 
 as to the falling of an apple ? 
 
 F. Yes, papa; it is mentioned in the Life 
 of Sir Isaac Newton ; but I should like to hear 
 it once more, and I think my sister has not 
 read it. 
 
 Mr. E. In. the twenty-third year of his age, 
 he was sitting one day in his garden, thinking, 
 perhaps, of motion and space, when an apple fell 
 from a tree by his side. Now, that bodies have 
 a tendency to fall towards the centre of the 
 earth was. already well known, as affecting all in 
 the immediate neighborhood of our planet, and 
 the philosopher, Galileo, had found out the rate 
 according to which their speed is increased as 
 they continue to descend ; but no one dreamed 
 of the gravitation, as it is called, of the heavens. 
 The fall of the apple, however, now suggested 
 the idea dimly to Newton's mind. For thus he 
 reasoned: The same power which has drawn this 
 apple to the earth, when detached from its 
 
140 PRINCIPLES OF GRAVITATION. 
 
 branch, would have drawn it from a position a 
 thousand times as high ; wherever we go, we 
 find this gravitation * even on the summits of the 
 highest mountains its power is not diminished ; 
 why may it not then reach to the moon, retain 
 that planet in its orbit, and keep it revolving as it 
 does round our earth ? And. if the moon be 
 retained in her orbit by a gravitation towards the 
 earth, may not the earth and other planets which 
 revolve round the sun, be retained in their orbits 
 by a similar tendency towards that luminary ? 
 Proceeding with such considerations, he was at 
 length the illustrious discoverer of the secret 
 mechanism of the heavens. 
 
 E. How I should like to have seen the apple, 
 if it had been in the British Museum ! And then, 
 papa, the apple that William Tell shot from the 
 head of his son, when it was thought he could 
 not do it, and would shoot his child instead, 
 might be placed just by, like some. of the fruits 
 which are there in bottles. 
 
 Mr. E. I am glad, my dear, you remember 
 that interesting fact. Pliny mentions ' apple-trees 
 that will honor the first grafters forever ;. ' but he 
 little thought of the fame which would be enjoy- 
 ed by the observer of an apple falling from a 
 tree. We shall often observe important discov- 
 eries by accident ; but that of Newton's was 
 dependent on calculations long continued, by 
 which his first thoughts were varied and estab- 
 lished. Before, however, we pass from this fruit, 
 it should be observed that cyder is produced from 
 it, and that the counties where it is made lie 
 somewhat in the form of a horse-shoe, round the 
 
CYDER -APPLES OF SODOM. 141 
 
 Bristol Channel : the best are, Worcester and 
 Hereford on the north, and Somerset and Devon 
 on the south. They are superior in appearance 
 to those in which alone grain is cultivated. In 
 the spring, extensive districts are covered with a 
 profusion of flowers ; and in autumn the fruit is 
 beautiful. Some orchards occupy a space of 
 forty or fifty acres ; and the trees being at con- 
 siderable distances, the land is also kept in 
 tillage. The quantity of apples required to make 
 a hogshead of cyder is from twenty-four to thirty 
 bushels ; and, in a good year, an acre of orchard 
 will produce from twenty to twenty-five hogs- 
 heads. 
 
 F. Mamma, I have read somewhere of an 
 apple which is very beautiful and tempting out- 
 side, but which is full of dust. 
 
 Mrs. E. You mean, my dear, the apple of 
 Sodom. It is, in fact, a purple egg-plant,* of 
 which the fruit is large and handsome. A spe- 
 cies of flyf often attacks and punctures the rind ; 
 on which the whole fruit gangrenes, and is 
 changed into a substance like ashes, while the 
 outside is fair and attractive. 
 
 Mr. E. Perry, a liquor somewhat similar to 
 cyder, is produced from pears ; most of the fine 
 sorts of which were obtained from the continent. 
 Many of the names given them have been cor- 
 rupted very strangely ; and one of the finest 
 French pears bears one which, in English, is 
 called the Good CJiristian Turk, a description 
 which is about as congruous as a Good Christian 
 Jew. The Chinese, who cultivate fruit far more 
 
 "Solanum Sodomeurn. t Cynips. 
 12 
 
142 PERRY THE ORANGE. 
 
 perfectly than the European gardeners, are said 
 to have pears white in the inside, melting, fra- 
 grant, and of the enormous weight of ten pounds 
 each. The fruit catalogue of the Horticultural 
 Society mentions above six hundred varieties of 
 the pear, and states that the newly-discovered 
 Flemish kinds are of much more importance 
 than the greater part of those which have been 
 cultivated in Great Britain, and, when brought 
 into use, will give quite a new feature to the 
 dessert. 
 
 F. Are oranges, mamma, formed in the same 
 way as apples and pears? 
 
 Mrs. E. No, my dear. The orange is a pulpy, 
 not a fleshy fruit like those already mentioned ; 
 and pulp is a peculiar juicy substance situated 
 inside the carpels. Those of the orange consists 
 of the quarters into which the fruit may be 
 divided when the rind is peeled off, and the seeds 
 are imbedded in the pulp contained within them. 
 
 E. Oranges are very delightful. Whence, 
 mamma, did we have them first ? 
 
 Mrs. E. It is said they were imported into 
 England by Sir Walter Raleigh, arid that their 
 seeds produced the orange-trees which were at 
 Beddington, in Surrey, and attained the height 
 of eighteen feet, while the stems were about nine 
 inches in diameter, but which were destroyed 
 some years ago, either by frost or from being 
 placed in an inclosure. Orange and lemon 
 trees have been cultivated in the open air in 
 England ; and, for a hundred years, they have 
 been seen in a few gardens in the south of Dev- 
 onshire, trained as peach-trees against the walls, 
 and sheltered only with mats of straw during the 
 
THK ORANGE. 143 
 
 Winter. The fruit of these is stated to be as 
 large and fine as any from Portugal. Oranges 
 are peculiarly adapted for transmission from one 
 place to another. Foreign figs, dates, and grapes, 
 must be dried ; the tamarind is a liquid preserve ; 
 the guava must be made into a jelly ; the mango 
 has to be pulled before it is ripe, and to be pick- 
 led; and even the cocoa-nut becomes hard and 
 indigestible. But the orange may be had fresh 
 in every region of the world, and almost at every 
 season of the year. Its aromatic oil and its rind 
 preserve it from the effects both of heat and 
 cold, while the acridity of the former keeps it 
 from the attacks of insects. Most of the oranges 
 and lemons intended for exportation are gathered 
 while green ; for if they were to become matur- 
 ed they would spoil. It is remarkable, too, that 
 the trees from which the fruit is gathered when 
 green, bear plentifully every year, while those on 
 which it is suffered to ripen, yield abundant crops 
 only on alternate years. It is calculated that 
 272,000,000 are annually imported, allowing 
 about a dozen annually to every individual of 
 the population. 
 
 F. Mamma, the orange-trees I have seen are 
 small ; are they always so? 
 
 Mrs. E. Oh, no, my dear. In Spain there are 
 some old orange-trees forming large timber ; in a 
 convent at Rome, there is one, said to be six 
 hundred years old, which is thirty-one feet high ; 
 and, at Nice, there was a tree, in 1789, generally 
 bearing five or six thousand oranges, which ex- 
 ceed fifty feet in height and required two men to 
 embrace it. The size greatly depends on the 
 
144 THE ORANGE. 
 
 age of the plant. The glory of the country 
 eastward of the Rhone, too, is the orange, 
 which, when full grown, is about twenty-five feet 
 high. It is indeed a graceful tree. Its trunk 
 and older branches are of a delicate ash color ; 
 its twigs of so soft a green that they almost 
 appear transparent ; its leaves are moderately 
 large, beautifully shaped, of a fine healthy green, 
 and shining on the upper sides, while the under 
 ones are slightly downy ; its little bunches of 
 graceful flowers cast around a delightful fragrance 
 in the sweet oranges they are of a delicate 
 white, and the more acid varieties are lightly 
 marked with pink. The tree is, at the same time, 
 and in all the stages of its bearing : here appear 
 the pretty flowers there the fruit is just set 
 close by, it is suspended in all the beauty of its 
 maturity. No wonder that the imagination was 
 excited by so lovely an object,, and that fiction 
 changed the oranges of the East into the golden 
 apples of the Garden of the Hesperides. 
 
 E. I quite long to see them, mamma ; and I 
 am sure your eyes were quite bright when describ- 
 ing them. 
 
 Mr. E. Mamma seemed, indeed, Emma^ quite 
 as much pleased by the thought of them as you 
 ever were by their taste; and I am sure, my dear 
 little girl, when you were so ill they seemed as 
 grateful as water to the traveller in the wilderness. 
 Of the orange genus there are four distinct spe- 
 cies ; and of the lemon many varieties. There 
 are large plantations of orange-trees at Silhet, in 
 India, at which place the fruit often costs no 
 more than one rupee per thousand. 
 
THE RASPBERRY THE STRAWBERRY. 145 
 
 E. I was just wondering, papa, how raspber- 
 ries are formed. 
 
 Mr. E. The raspberry consists, my dear, of a 
 considerable number of small fleshy carpels, all 
 of which result from a single flower. The red 
 and white varieties of this fruit are natives of 
 Britain. Its flavor is very fleeting : to have it in 
 perfection raspberries should be eaten, as I have 
 often seen you eat them, Emma, from the bush. 
 
 E. But, papa, I like strawberries a great deal 
 better. 
 
 Mr. E. They are certainly superior, Emma ; 
 and for this delicious fruit, of which there are 
 many kinds, we are indebted to Louisiana and 
 Virginia. By the way, the arctic berry, which 
 grows from a bramble, in the wildest and most 
 exposed parts of Lapland, sometimes offered to 
 Linnaeus the only food which he found in his 
 perilous journey in those dreary regions ; and of 
 it he thus speaks : 1 1 should be ungrateful to- 
 wards this beneficent plant, which often, when I 
 was almost prostrate with hunger and fatigue, 
 restored me with the vinous nectar of its berries, 
 did I not bestow on it a full description.' Dr. 
 Clarke, too, appears to have been greatly indebt- 
 ed to a berry which is widely diffused, called the 
 cloud-berry. A single berry grows on the top of 
 a stem, and its appearance and effect he thus 
 describes : 'Mr. Grape's children came into the 
 room, bringing with them two or three gallons of 
 the fruit of the cloud-berry, or rubus chamcemo- 
 rus. This plant grows so abundantly near the 
 river that it is easy to gather bushels of the fruit. 
 As the large berry ripens, which is as big as the 
 12* 
 
146 THE CLOUD-BERRY, 
 
 top of a man's thumb, its color/'at first scarlet, 
 becomes yellow. When eaten, with sugar and 
 cream, it is cooling and delicious, and tastes like 
 the large American hautboy-strawberries. Little 
 did the author dream of the blessed effects he 
 was to experience by tasting of the offering 
 brought by these little children, who, proud of 
 having their gifts accepted, would gladly run and 
 gather daily a fresh supply, which was as often 
 blended with cream and sugar by the hands of 
 their mother : until, at last, he perceived that his 
 fever rapidly abated; his spirits and his appetite 
 returned ; and, when sinking under a disorder so 
 obstinate that it seemed to be incurable, the 
 blessings of health were restored to him, where 
 he had reason to believe he should have found 
 his grave. The symptoms of amendment were 
 almost instantaneous after eating these berries. 
 
 F. Are all the berries formed like the rasp- 
 berry you just described, papa ? 
 
 Mr. E. No, my dear ; even the strawberry is 
 not properly so called, because it does not belong 
 to the class of berries. It consists of a fleshy 
 substance, formed by the expansion of the sum- 
 mit of the pedunculus, or stalk, in which the 
 several parts of the flower are inserted. The 
 small grains' on its surface are so many little 
 carpels, each of which contains a seed ; and 
 these, though dry, resemble the small fleshy 
 spherical bodies which form the raspberry. The 
 white conical substance which remains in the 
 calyx of the raspberry, after the fruit is pulled 
 off, resembles the fleshy substance of the straw- 
 berry ; for they both result in the same way. 
 
THE VINE. 147 
 
 E. How strange that is! And are gooseberries 
 and currants formed differently? 
 
 Mr. E. They are formed alike, but different 
 from the raspberry. The fruits in which the 
 eeds are promiscuously situated are classed by 
 themselves; arid among these grapes appear. 
 The vine, however, deserves particular notice. 
 It grew plentifully in Palestine, and was particu- 
 larly fine in some of its districts; one of "which 
 has been thus celebrated : 
 
 * In yonder vale, where Eshcol flows along, 
 Behold, a mountain rising to the skies ! 
 Above it towers the sun sublimely high ; 
 While his bright beams its lofty top makes bare. 
 To its steep side the vine-, luxuriant, cleaves ; 
 Tender in shoot, yet large in leaf, and high. 
 Its purple fruit, delicious to the taste, 
 Producing wine to cheer the heart of man, 
 To heal the sick, and to support the weak 
 To comfort all .' 
 
 The bunch of grapes which was brought by the 
 spies to the camp of Israel astonished the people, 
 and we are assured by travellers that, in the -val- 
 ley of Eshcol, there were bunches of -grapes of 
 ten and twelve pounds weight. One of them 
 <even states, that he was informed by a person 
 \vho lived many years in Palestine, that there 
 were bunches of grapes in the valley of Hebron 
 so large that two men could scarcely carry one. 
 The prediction of the lot of Judah, in the par- 
 tition of the promised land, included abundance 
 of vines, so hardy that a colt might be bound to 
 them 4 and, in some parts of Persia, it *vas for- 
 merly the custom to turn the cattle into the 
 vineyards after the vintage, .to browse on the 
 vines, some of which are so large that a man can 
 hardly compass the trunks in his arms. The 
 
148 THE VINE. 
 
 same custom, too, appears to have prevailed gen- 
 erally in Lesser Asia. Galilee would now be a 
 paradise were it inhabited by an industrious peo- 
 ple, under an enlightened government. Vine 
 stalks are to be seen here a foot and a half in 
 diameter, forming, by their twining branches, 
 vast arches, and extensive ceilings of verdure. 
 'A cluster of grapes, two or three feet in length, 
 will give/ says Schutze, ( an abundant supper to 
 a whole family.' 
 
 E. I should think, papa, a vineyard is very 
 beautiful. 
 
 Mr. E. Not always, my dear ; the hop-planta- 
 tions of England are far more picturesque. In 
 France, the vines are trained on poles, seldom 
 more than three or four feet high; in Spain, 
 poles are not used, but cuttings are planted, 
 which, not being permitted to grow very tall, 
 gradually form thick and stout stalks ; in Swit- 
 zerland and the German provinces, the vineyards 
 are as uninteresting as those of France ; but, in 
 Italy, the vine surrounds the stone cottage with 
 its girdle, flings its pliant and luxuriant branches 
 over the rustic veranda, or twines its long gar- 
 land from tree to tree ; in Greece, the shoots of 
 the vine are either trained upon trees, or sup- 
 ported, so as to display all their luxuriance ; in 
 Persia, they cause their vines to run up a wall, 
 and curl over on the top ; and, in some parts of 
 the East, the stairs leading to the upper apart- 
 ments of the harem are commonly covered with 
 vines ; a lattice-work of wood is often raised 
 against the dead walls, for a vine or other shrubs 
 to crawl upon ; and not unfrequently appears 
 
VINEYARDS. 149 
 
 * the fruitful bough by a well ;' for a vine may be 
 seen covering the trelliswork surrounding it, and 
 inviting the owner and his family to gather be- 
 neath its shade. 
 
 E. How delightful it would be, papa, for us 
 all to be there ? The grapes would be so rich, 
 and the shade so agreeable ! But I should not 
 like it without you, mamma, Frederick, and Ed- 
 ward. No, our sweet little arbor, with the 
 clematis just peeping in, would then be a thou- 
 sand times better. 
 
 Mrs. E. I am glad you think so, dear. But 
 you may yet see some remarkable vines. There 
 is one, for instance, at Hampton Court, which 
 covers a surface of 1694 square feet, and has 
 seldom fewer than 2000 clusters on it every sea- 
 son. One year it had a still greater number ; 
 ach weighing, on an average, a pound. Anoth- 
 er, at Valentines, in Essex, extends over a still 
 greater surface, and has a larger trunk ; but it is 
 not generally so productive, though sometimes it 
 is not inferior. These are called Black Ham- 
 burgh vines. Much, however, depends on the 
 cultivation of trees. 'The people of Nauplia/ 
 Dr. Clarke says, ' were early renowned for the 
 culture of the vine; they observed that those 
 trees on which asses browsed were more abun- 
 dant in their produce ; this suggested the art of 
 pruning ; and, in consequence of their success, 
 they formerly worshipped an ass's head as an 
 idol.' 
 
 F. Why, that was another accident turned to 
 good account, like Newton's apole 
 
150 RAISINS. 
 
 Mrs. E. It was so ; but such cases are very 
 numerous. We must not forget, however, that 
 raisins are dried grapes, and that currants are 
 those of a smaller kind. The mode of drying 
 grapes is thus described in Laborde's account of 
 Spain: 'In the kingdom of Valencia they 
 make a kind of ley with the ashes of rosemary 
 and vine branches, to which they add a quart of 
 slaked lime. This ley is heated, and a vessel 
 full of holes, containing the grapes, is put into 
 it. When the branches are in the state desired 
 they are generally carried to naked rocks, where 
 they are spread on beds of the field artemisia, 
 and are turned every two or three days till they 
 are dry. In the kingdom of Grenada, particu- 
 larly towards Malaga, they are simply dried in 
 the sun, without any other preparation. The 
 former have a more pleasing rind, but a less 
 mellow substance ; the skins of the latter are 
 not so sugary, but their substance has a much 
 greater relish ; therefore, the raisins of Malaga 
 are preferred by foreigners, and are sold at a 
 higher price : to this their quality may likewise 
 contribute ; they are naturally larger and more 
 delicate than those of the kingdom of Valencia.' 
 What question was that, Emma, I saw you were 
 about to ask ? 
 
 E. Mamma, you have not said a word yet 
 about the fig-tree. Will you be so kind or, if 
 you are tired, perhaps papa will tell us something 
 about it ? 
 
 Mr. E. The fig-tree, my love, is one of great 
 interest, and, from your study of the Scriptures, 
 it is naturally associated in your mind with the 
 
THE FIG-TREE. 151 
 
 vine. In the fructification of the fig there is 
 something very singular. It has no visible flow- 
 ers ; for the fruit arises immediately from the 
 joints of the tree, in the form of little buds, with 
 a perforation or aperture at the end, but not 
 showing anything like petals. As the fig enlarg- 
 es, the flower comes to maturity in its conceal- 
 ment; and, in eastern countries, the fruit is 
 improved by a singular operation. It is perform- 
 ed by suspending with threads, above the cultiva- 
 ted figs, branches of the wild fig, which are full 
 of insects called cynips. When one of these has 
 become winged it quits its house, and penetrates 
 the cultivated figs for the purpose of laying its 
 eggs ; and thus it ensures the fructification by 
 dispersing the pollen, and afterwards hastens the 
 ripening by puncturing the pulp, and causing a 
 dispersion or circulation of the nutritious juices. 
 In France, straws dipped in olive oil are inserted 
 to produce the same effect. Another fact is very 
 remarkable. The fig-tree yields fruit through a 
 considerable portion of the year. The first ripe 
 figs are called boccore, and reach maturity about 
 the latter end of June ; though, as in other trees, 
 a few ripe ones are produced before the full 
 season. These few are probably of an inferior 
 value, according to the language of the prophet 
 Hosea : ' I found Israel like grapes in the wilder- 
 ness ; I found your fathers as the first ripe fruit 
 in the fig-tree at her first time. 1 When the 
 boccore approaches perfection, the karmouse, or 
 summer-fig, begins to be found. This is the 
 crop that is dried. And, when the karmouse 
 ripens, in Syria and Barbary, there appears a 
 
152 THE BANIAN-TREE. 
 
 third crop, which often hangs and matures upon 
 the tree after the leaves are shed. 
 
 Mrs. E. How extraordinary, too, is the banian- 
 tree ! * One described by Mr. Forbes had lost a 
 considerable part by the high floods of a neigh- 
 boring river, but what still remained was near 
 two thousand feet in circumference, measured 
 round the principal stem ; the overhanging 
 branches, not yet struck down, covered a much 
 larger space ; and under it grew a number of 
 custard-apples, and other wild plants. The large 
 trunks of this single tree amounted to three 
 hundred and fifty ; the smaller stems, forming 
 into strong supporters, exceeded three thousand ; 
 and every one of them was easting out smaller 
 branches, and hanging roots, in time to form 
 trunks, and become the parent of a future proge- 
 ny. According to the Hindoo superstition, the 
 origin of the tree is ascribed to a saint, who, 
 ages since, invoked a blessing from Brahma on 
 a small sprig of banian-tree, which he stuck into- 
 the ground on this spot, and prayed that it might 
 overshadow multitudes. It is, probably, some 
 thousand years old, and the Hindoos regard it 
 with great veneration. On sacred festivals they 
 repair beneath its shade to worship their respec- 
 tive deities, and perform their ablutions in the 
 surrounding stream. This magnificent pavilion 
 was filled with a variety of feathered songsters, 
 peacocks, and other birds ; and crowded with 
 whole families of monkeys, whose antics were 
 very diverting ; showing their parental affection 
 
 \Ficus Indica* 
 
AGGREGATE FRUITS. . 153 
 
 by teaching the young ones to procure their food, 
 and exert themselves with agility in jumping from 
 bough to bough, and then taking more extensive 
 leaps, from tree to tree, encouraging them by 
 caresses when timorous, and menacing them 
 when refractory. 
 
 Mr. E. Sometimes fruit is formed by a collec- 
 tion of several fruits produced by different blos- 
 soms. The cone of a pine or fir-tree is an 
 example ; the flowers are separated from each 
 other by what are called bractasa, which remain 
 after flowering ; they grow tough and hard, and 
 enclose each of the fruits, as it were, in a case, 
 and thus this little pyramid is composed of an 
 aggregation of fruits, produced by as many dif- 
 ferent flowers, having each a single seed. An- 
 other instance is afforded by the pine-apple. This 
 is not a single fruit, but is the result of the sol- 
 dering together of a number of small fruits, 
 collected on an axis, which is the stalk. These 
 small fruits, being soft and fleshy, unite together ; 
 but traces of the different fruits are seen on the 
 surface, each forming a small protuberance ; the 
 axis of the fruit terminates in a crown of leaves, 
 which surmounts the whole. It is remarkable, 
 too, that cultivation diminishes the quantity of 
 seed : in the pine-apple it makes them fail com- 
 pletely, so that 4Jie plant can only be propagated 
 by the crown, or by suckers. In the centre of 
 the pine-apple, the vacant cells may be perceived 
 in which the seeds have perished, and in which 
 they are lodged in the wild pine-apj Je. 
 
 Mrs. E. The mulberry should also be men- 
 tioned : it is, in fact, an aggregation of several 
 13 
 
154 THE MULHERRY. 
 
 different fruits, proceeding from as many^differ- 
 ent flowers, though it wears the same appearance 
 as the raspberry, which is the result of different 
 carpels belonging to the same flower. 
 
 Mr. E. A species of mulberry is cultivated in 
 Japan for the manufacture of paper, and hence it 
 is called the paper-mulberry.* For this purpose 
 it is raised in beds, as osiers are cultivated with 
 us for the use of the basket-maker and the 
 cooper. When the leaves have fallen off, that 
 is, about the month of- December, the shoots are 
 cut down, divided into lengths of about three 
 feet, bound into bundles, placed upright and 
 close together in a copper, and boiled till the 
 bark is completely loosened from the wood. 
 Should they be dry before being subjected to 
 boiling, they are prepared for that operation by 
 maceration in water for twenty-four hours. After 
 the rods are cold, the bark is divided lengthwise 
 by a knife, stripped off, and dried for use. 
 When about to be used, it is put into water till it 
 is so much soaked that the external and colored 
 part of the bark can be separated. That being 
 done, the bark is sorted, the strongest being set 
 apart for the best and whitest paper, and the 
 weaker for that of inferior quality ; while of the 
 refuse n. very coarse brown paper is made. The 
 sorted bark is then boiled till it becomes tender, 
 that is, till it. easily separates with the fingers, 
 and then it is washed for a longer or shorter 
 time, according to the quality of paper wanted. 
 If strong writing-paper, the washing must be 
 
 * Broussonetia papyrifera. 
 
THE PAPER-MULBERRY. 155 
 
 moderate ; but, if the color is to be very delicate, 
 and the texture soft and silky, the washing must 
 be more prolonged. When properly washed, it 
 is taken to a table, and there reduced to a pulp, 
 by beating with wooden mallets. When suffi- 
 ciently reduced, it is brought to the requisite 
 consistency with water; rice-starch, and the 
 mucilaginous infusion of manihot-root,* are add- 
 ed by way of size ; and then the sheets of paper 
 are formed, one by one, upon a table, collected 
 into heaps, and pressed by a weight. 
 
 Mrs. E. I now recollect another circumstance. 
 The bark of the paper-mulberry furnishes fibres 
 for ropes, and it can even be formed into a kind 
 of cloth. M. la Rouverie affirms that he pro- 
 cured a beautiful vegetable silk from the young 
 branches of this tree; cutting the bark while it 
 was in sap, and then beating it with mallets, and 
 steeping it in water, he obtained a thread from 
 the fibres, almost equal to silk ill quality, and this 
 was woven into a cloth, whose texture appeared 
 as if formed of that material. The women of 
 Louisiana obtain a similar production from the 
 offshoo'ts of the mulberry ; these are gathered 
 when about four or five feet high." The bark is 
 stripped and dried in the sun ; it is then beaten 
 to get rid of the outer part, which falls off, leav- 
 ing the inner bark entire. This is again beaten 
 to make it still finer, after which it is bleached 
 in dew. It is then spun, and various fabrics are 
 m;<de of it, such as nets and fringes ; and some- 
 times it is woven into cloth. The finest cloth 
 
 * Hibiscus manihot, 
 
156 CHOICE: FRUITS OF 
 
 among the inhabitants of some of the South Sea 
 islands is made of the bark of this tree. 
 
 F. Where, papa, may we find the finest fruit? 
 Is it not much better in other countries than it is 
 here ? 
 
 Mr. E. In some respects, my dear, foreigners 
 have the advantage ; in others, it is decidedly 
 ours. It is true the market place of Thoulouse 
 is remarkably splendid. Millions of peaches and 
 nectarines may be seen there, as a recent traveller 
 remarks, of a size that would strike an English 
 gardener with astonishment, some of which 
 measure ten inches in circumference ; and there 
 are millions of every fruit and every vegetable 
 found within the temperate zone. But I agree 
 with him in thinking that,, notwithstanding the 
 size and beauty of the fruit found in the more 
 southern countries, it does not equal,, in flavor 
 and mellowness, the same fruit produced in a 
 choice garden in England. The finest melon 
 reared in England, by artificial heat, is indeed 
 an indifferent fruit compared with the melon of 
 Grenada or Valencia ; and the choicest hot-house 
 grape, though ^ much excelling the grapes of 
 France, is yet far inferior to the muscatel of 
 Malaga or Alicant. But I speak of fruits ripen- 
 ed both in England and on the continent by the 
 sun^ and I assert that these are found in greater 
 perfection in England than in any other country. 
 And with him I may add, ' the enormous peaches 
 of Languedoc are neither so mellow nor so high 
 flavored as the best English peach ; for, before 
 the inside becomes thoroughly ripe, the outer 
 parts lose their freshness and flavor. I have no 
 
TEA. 
 
 157 
 
 where tasted pears equal to the jargonel, such as 
 I have eaten hi England : the ribstone pippin 
 is not equalled in any continental market ; and, 
 as for strawberries, I'll back my own little gar- 
 den against the world.' 
 
 Mrs, E. I quite agree with you, my dear ; and 
 wish our children to imbibe your ardent love of 
 our ' father-land.' We will not deny to other 
 countries their claim to admiration ; they have 
 their advantages^- but England England, 'with 
 all its faults/ shall be our home. 
 
 A SUMMER EVENING. 
 
 * How delightful it is now, mamma ! ' said 
 Emma, as one fine summer evening the tea 
 equipage was removing : ' it has been quite a 
 sultry day, but now it is so cool and pleasant; 
 and, after si&h a ramble as we have had, what 
 can be so agreeable as coffee and tea ? ' 
 
 1 You will be surprised, perhaps, my dear, 
 when I tell you/ replied Mrs. Elvvood, ' that to a 
 Turk both our tea and coffee would be quite 
 unpalatable.' 
 
 1 What a strange creature he must be, then, 
 marnma ! ' said Emma. 
 
 ' Might he not say the same thing of you ? ' 
 rejoined Mrs. Elwood. ' Habit produces on him 
 and you its peculiar effect. You like tea sweet- 
 ened with sugar, and softened with milk, but 
 13* 
 
158 IMPORTATION OP TEA. 
 
 he never takes anything of this kind, but coffee, 
 without milk or sugar, which is as black, thick, 
 and bitter, as soot ; and, when a traveller gave 
 some tea in your way to a Turk, he describes 
 his distress at the mawkish mixture as quite 
 ridiculous. He stated, however, that the ladies 
 of the harem requested to taste the tea also, but, 
 when a specimen was sent, they soon burst into 
 loud fits of laughing at the extraordinary stuff, 
 and it was said they liked it as little as the other 
 sex.' 
 
 E. Well, mamma, they shall have their way, 
 and I, if you please, will have mine ; but where 
 did we first obtain tea I 
 
 Mrs. E. It is a native of China or Japan, and, 
 probably, of both. It was used among the na- 
 tives of the former from time immemorial, and 
 has been the constant theme of their poets, from 
 the age of Confucius. But the leaf was first 
 imported into Europe by the Dutch East India 
 Company, in the early part of the seventeenth 
 century, though it was not till the year 1666 that 
 a small quantity was brought over from Holland 
 to this country by Lords Arlington and Ossory. 
 Now the quantity we consume is immense. 
 
 F. Can you tell us, mamma, how it grows 1 
 Mrs. E. It is produced from seeds, which are 
 
 laid in rows four or five feet asunder ; but, so 
 uncertain is their vegetation, that it is necessary 
 to sow seven or eight seed in every hole. The 
 ground between each row is always kept free 
 from weeds, and the plants are not allowed to 
 grow higher than to allow of the leaves being 
 conveniently gathered. The first crop of leaves 
 
GROWTH OF TEA. 159 
 
 is not collected until the third year after sowing; 
 and when the trees are six or seven years old, 
 the produce becomes so inferior that they are re- 
 moved to make room for others. But papa will 
 be so kind as to assist my description. 
 
 E. Oh, papa, what color are the flowers? 
 
 Mr. E. They are white, and somewhat resem- 
 ble the wild rose, which grows so plentifully in 
 our hedges ; the flowers are succeeded by soft 
 green berries or pods, each containing from one 
 to three white seeds. The leaves are gathered 
 from one to four times during the year, according 
 to the age of the tree, but most commonly there 
 are three gatherings, which take place about 
 April, June, and September. In the first, the 
 leaves are small, tender, and unfolded, but of 
 the most delicate color, and aromatic flavor, and 
 with the least portion of either fibre or bitter- 
 ness. The persons employed do not pull the 
 leaves by handfuls, but pick them one by one, 
 and are careful not to break them ; and, though 
 the process seems tedious, they gather from four 
 to ten or fifteen pounds a day. In the second, 
 the leaves are of a dull green color, while those 
 in the third are of inferior value. 
 
 Mrs. E. I have heard that the most celebrated 
 tea in Japan is that which grows near Udsi, a 
 small village close to the sea. Here is a delightful 
 mountain, whose climate is peculiarly favorable 
 to the plant ; it is therefore enclosed, and watch- 
 ed most attentively. Its produce is gathered with 
 the greatest care, and is escorted by the superin- 
 tendent of the mountain, and a strong guard, to 
 the emperor's court, and reserved for the use of 
 
160 PREPARATION OF TEA. 
 
 the imperial family. As, too, the tea-shrub often 
 grows on the rugged banks of steep mountains of 
 dangerous access, the Chinese make use of a 
 singular stratagem. They irritate the monkeys, 
 which generally frequent such spots, and these 
 creatures tear off the branches, and throw them 
 down in revenge. The branches are then immedi- 
 ately collected, and the leaves stripped off. 
 
 E. Cunning as the monkeys are, mamma, thoy 
 do not know that the Chinese are more so. I 
 wonder though that they have not found out the 
 tricks. But I should like to know what is done 
 with the leaves after they are gathered. 
 
 Mr. E. They are put into wide shallow bas- 
 kets, and placed in the air, wind, or sunshine, for 
 some hours. They are then put on a flat cast-iron 
 pan, over a stove heated with charcoal. About 
 halfor three quarters of a pound of leaves are thus 
 heated at once, stirred about quickly with a kind 
 of brush, and then hastily swept off the pan into 
 baskets. The next process is that of rolling, 
 which is done by men carefully rubbing them be- 
 tween their hands; after which the leaves are 
 again put, in larger quantities, on the pan, and ex- 
 posed to heat, but only enough to dry them effect- 
 ually, without danger of scorching. When this is 
 done, the tea is placed on a table and carefully pick- 
 ed, and every unsightly or imperfectly dried taaf 
 is removed, in order that the sample may look as 
 well as possible. For some finer sorts the heated 
 plates are not used, but the leaves, one by one, 
 are carefully rolled into balls, with the hands. 
 It is, however, an error to suppose, as some do, 
 that the color of green tea is given to it by sheets 
 
COFFEE. 161 
 
 of copper on which it is dried, since this metal is 
 never used in its preparation. 
 
 E. Does not coffee grow like tea, papa? 
 
 Mr. E. Oh, no, my love ; it is the seed con- 
 tained in a berry produced by a moderate-sized 
 tree,* which grows erect with a single stem, to 
 the height of from eight to twelve feet, and has 
 long undivided slender branches bending down- 
 wards ; these are furnished with evergreen oppo- 
 site leaves, not unlike those of the bay-tree. The 
 blossoms are white, setting on short foot-stalks, 
 and resembling the flowers of the jasmine. The 
 fruit which succeeds is a red berry, like a cher- 
 ry, having a pale, insipid, and somewhat glutinous 
 pulp, and enclosing two hard oval seeds, each 
 about the size of a common pea. One side of the 
 seed is convex, while the other is flat, having in 
 it a little straight furrow ; and, when growing, the 
 flat sides are towards each other. These seeds 
 are covered with a membrane. 
 
 Mrs. E. The appearance of a coffee-planta- 
 tion, during the seasons of flowering, which does 
 not last longer than a day or two, is very interest- 
 ing. In one night the blossoms expand so pro- 
 fusely as to appear like trees in England when a 
 snow-storm has come at the close of autumn, and 
 loaded them while full of foliage. The seeds are 
 known to be ripe by the dark red color of the 
 berries, and, if not then gathered, they will drop 
 from the trees. 'When the Arabian cultivator/ 
 says Mr. Edwards, ' sees that his coffee is ripe, 
 he spreads large cloths under his trees, which he 
 s, from time to time, to make the ripe cher- 
 * CofFea Arabica. 
 
162 GATHERING OF COFFEE. 
 
 ries fall. He never pulls one grain of coffee with 
 the hand, whatever appearance it may have of ma- 
 turity. He considers none as ripe but such as 
 fall on lightly shaking the tree/ The berries are 
 afterwards spread upon mats, and exposed to the 
 sun's rays until perfectly dry, when the husk is 
 broken with large heavy rollers, made either of 
 stone or of wood. The coffee, thus freed from its 
 husk, is again dried thoroughly in the sun, that it 
 may not be liable to heat when packed for trans- 
 portation. 
 
 F. Where does coffee grow best, papa 7 
 Mr. E. In Arabia and other parts of the East. 
 That called Mocha is considered the best. It is, 
 however, cultivated in the West Indies. There 
 the gathering is different to the mode just de- 
 scribed. Negroes are set to gather such of the 
 berries as are sufficiently ripe ; and each one is 
 provided with a canvas bag, having an iron ring, 
 or hoop, at its mouth, to keep it always open ; and 
 the bag is slung round the neck, so as to leave 
 both hands at liberty. As often as it is filled, the 
 contents are transferred to a large basket placed 
 to receive them. When the trees are in full bear- 
 ing, an industrious man will pick three bushels in 
 a day, and each bushel will yield ten pounds 
 weight of coffee. The husks are separated from 
 the seeds by mills. Coffee has also to be roasted 
 for use. 
 
 Mrs. E. The time in which coffee was first 
 used in the western parts of Europe is uncertain. 
 The traveller, Pietro della Valle, writing from 
 Constantinople in 1615 to a Roman, informed him 
 that he should teach Europe in what manner the 
 
FIRST USE OF COFFEE. lt)b 
 
 Turks took what he called ' Cahue ; ' but Purchas 
 was also ' a pilgrim ' at the time Valle wrote, and 
 he thus describes what he called ' Cqffa :' ' they 
 drink it as hot as they can eudure it; it is as 
 black as soot, and tastes not much unlike it ; 
 good, they say, for digestion and mirth/ The 
 celebrated Thevenot, in 1658, gave coffee after 
 dinner ; but it appears to have been not at all in- 
 viting, and to have been considered as the whim of 
 a traveller. Ten years afterwards, a Turkish am- 
 bassador at Paris made it very fashionable. So 
 early, however, as 1652, it was known to us ; for 
 an English merchant engaged a Greek servant, 
 who, knowing how to prepare it, opened a house 
 to sell it publicly ; and I happen to have, among 
 my papers, the following copy of his hand-bill : 
 * The vertue of the coffee-drink, first publiquely 
 made and sold in England, by Pasque Rosee, in 
 St. Michael's Alley, Cornhilt, at the sign of his 
 own head. ' 
 
 E. He had a better head than many, mam- 
 ma ; though his was nothing, after all, to yours 
 and papa's ; yet it was a little conceited to make 
 a sign of it. How strange it would have been if 
 Simpkins, at the New Inn, had done so, instead 
 of putting up that splendid painting of the Swan 
 and Two Necks. But you said, some time ago, 
 that I liked sugar in my coffee and tea ; and I 
 should be glad to hear something about that. 
 
 Mr. E. Sugar, my dear, is the produce of a reed 
 or cane,* which terminates in leaves or blades, 
 whose edges are like' that of a fine saw. The body 
 of the cane is strong, brittle, and, when ripe, of a 
 
 * Arundo saccharifem. 
 
164 THE SUGAR-CANE. 
 
 fine straw color inclined to yellow: it contains 
 a soft, pithy substance, which yields a copious sup- 
 ply of juice, of a sweetness, it has been said, the 
 least cloying and most agreeable in nature. The 
 distance between each joint of the cane varies ac- 
 cording to the nature of the soil : in general it is 
 from one to three inches in length, and from half 
 an inch to an inch in diameter. The length of a 
 whole cane depends on circumstances : in strong 
 lands, richly manured, it sometimes measures 
 twelve feet from the stole or root to the upper joint: 
 the general height, however, without the flag part, 
 is from three feet and a half to seven feet ; and, 
 in very rich lands, it has been known to put 
 forth upwards of one hundred suckers, or shoots. 
 The canes are ordinarily ripe in from ten to fif- 
 teen months, and, when cut, are taken to the mill. 
 
 E. What is done with them then, papa? 
 
 Mr. E. The juice of them is expressed by 
 passing them between two iron cylinders, or 
 rollers : then it is boiled with lime-water, which 
 causes a thick scum to rise ; the liquor is after- 
 wards let off below, and is reduced, by evapora- 
 tion, to a small quantity, when it is suffered to 
 chrystalize by standing in a vessel having many 
 holes at the bottom, imperfectly stopped, so that 
 the syrup may drain off. The product thus ob- 
 tained is what we call raw, or moist sugar; and, 
 to change it into loaf-sugar, it is dissolved in 
 water, and purified either by bullock's blood or 
 the white of eggs, when the clear liquor is again 
 evaporated, and, poured into moulds, becomes 
 what was required. Still it wants to be whitened ; 
 the mould is therefore inverted, and its open base 
 
COMPENSATION. 165 
 
 being covered with clay, through which water is 
 fnade to pass, this, slowly trickling through the 
 sugar, carries off what discolored it. 
 
 E. And how, papa, do they make sugar- 
 candy ? 
 
 Mr. E. It is only the regular crystals obtained 
 by slow evaporation ; and barley-sugar is sugar 
 melted by heat, and afterwards formed with mod- 
 els of the shape it bears. 
 
 Mrs. E. I never think of the sugar-cane 
 without pitying the enslaved Africans who are 
 -compelled to cultivate it. This appears to ex- 
 pose them to the most toilsome drudgery and 
 .severe treatment. The earth was cursed for the 
 sin of man ; but, had it been equally affected, 
 the natives of the Torrid Zone would have felt 
 it more than the rest of their species. Unwearied 
 labor and the sweat of the brow had thus been 
 pre-eminently theirs. But we have adverted 
 before * to that provision of the Creator by which 
 disadvantages are compensated ; and here we 
 may observe a most interesting instance. The 
 .same glowing atmosphere that renders long-con- 
 tinued labor so arduous, lessens greatly the need 
 of it, by giving to the soil with little culture much 
 iriore fertility than laborious tillage will impart in 
 temperate climes. Many nutritious fruits, grate- 
 ful to the taste, and well adapted to the support 
 of man, either grow spontaneously, or, when 
 once planted, require scarce any further toil, but 
 yield a constant and copious supply of food. To 
 doom him, then, to incessant labor in such circum- 
 stances, is an act of oppression, in defiance of 
 
 * ' Art in Nature,' p. 237. 
 
166 THE PLANTAIN. 
 
 the purposes and provisions of the great Lord of 
 all. 
 
 E. I shall never forget, mamma, those lines of 
 Cowper's you taught me, in which he says 
 
 ' Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs 
 Receive our air, that moment they are free ;' 
 
 and where he wishes that they may be so every 
 where. But I- fear we tire you, or else, perhaps, 
 you could describe some of those trees which 
 yield fruit without labor. 
 
 Mr. E. There is the plantain,* which rises 
 with a stalk, about five or six inches in diameter 
 at the surface of the ground, but tapering up- 
 wards to the height of fifteen or twenty feet. 
 The leaves, which are in a cluster at the top, are 
 very large, being about six feet long and two feet 
 broad ; the middle rib is strong, but the rest of 
 the leaf is tender, and apt to be torn by the 
 wind. The leaves grow with great rapidity after 
 the stalk has reached its proper height. They 
 come out from its centre, and are rolled up at 
 their first appearance ; but when they are advan- 
 ced above the stalk, they expand and turn back- 
 wards. It is said that their growth may almost 
 be discerned with the naked eye ; and if a fine 
 line is drawn across, level with the top of the 
 leaf, the leaf will be nearly an inch above it in 
 the course of an hour. The spike of the flowers 
 rises from the centre of the leaves to the height 
 of about four feet. At first, the flowers are 
 enclosed in a sheath of a fine purple color ; but, 
 as they come to maturity, that drops off. The 
 
 * Musa paradisiaca. 
 
THtl 11ANANA, 167 
 
 fruit is about an inch in diameter, eight or nine 
 inches long, and bent a little on <w side ; it is 
 at first green ; as it ripens it turns yellow, and is 
 filled with a pulp of a luscious sweet flavor. The 
 spikes of fruit sometimes weigh upwards of forty 
 pounds'. 
 
 Mrs. E. There is also the banana,* which is 
 widely diffused through tropical climes. Its fruit 
 is of the shape of a cucumber, about four or five 
 inches long, and of a highly grateful flavor. Its 
 leaves are two yards longj and a foot broad in the 
 middle ; they join to the top of the body of the 
 trees, and frequently contain in their cavities 
 a great quantity of water, which runs out, on a 
 small incision being made in the tree at the junc- 
 tion of the leaves. Its growth is very rapid. 
 Eight or nine months after the sucker is planted, 
 the banana begins to form its clusters of fruit, 
 and these may be collected in the tenth and 
 eleventh months. The whole labor of cultivation 
 whjch is required for a plantation of banana is to 
 cut the stalks laden with ripe fruit, and to give 
 the plants a little nourishment, once or twice a 
 year, by digging round the roots. A spot of 
 scarcely more than a thousand square feet will 
 contain from thirty to forty banana plants. A 
 cluster produced on a single plant often contains 
 from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and 
 eighty fruits, and weighs from seventy to eighty 
 pounds; but, reckoning the cluster at forty 
 pounds, such a plantation would produce more 
 than four thousand pounds of nutritious sub- 
 stance. The ripe fruit is preserved, like the fig, 
 by being dried in the sun, and is an agreeable 
 sapieiitum, 
 
168 THE BilEAD-FRUlT TREE. 
 
 and healthy aliment. Meal is extracted from the 
 fruit, by cutting it in slices, drying it in the sun, 
 and then pounding it 
 
 F. What kind of taste has the fruit, nr.'mma? 
 
 Mrs. E. Some of the varieties are said to 
 possess an excellent flavor, surpassing the finest 
 pear ; and others are compared to a choice 
 reinette apple, when kept through the winter. 
 The banana has frequently produced its bunches 
 of yellow fruits in hot-houses in this kingdom; 
 and it appears probable that there will be as 
 little difficulty in ripening the fruit as that of 
 any tropical tree whatever. 
 
 E. I wish, mamma, we had some ripe now ; 
 how pleasant they would be ! But here people 
 can work without being so tired as they are 
 where the plantains and bananas grow, and 
 where but, papa, I do n't recollect any more. 
 
 Mr. E. There is the cocoa-nut tree, of which 
 you have heard, and also the bread-fruit tree. 
 When the seeds fail, which is the case in the 
 Friendly Isles, the fruit grows to a prodigious 
 size ; when the seeds are perfected, it is in a 
 great measure at the expense of the fleshy part, 
 whose place they occupy, and the fruit is conse- 
 quently inferior, both in size and flavor. This 
 tree grows to the size of an ash in America, and 
 is not unlike that tree in form and the color of its 
 bark. The branches affect an upright position. 
 The leaves are much like those of the fig, but 
 more deeply indented, besides growing to a far 
 greater size, some being a foot and a half long. 
 Its appearance is very stately and luxuriant. 
 The fruit is egg-shaped^ and sometimes measures 
 
THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE. 169 
 
 twenty-two inches in its shortest, and twenty-five 
 in its longest, circumferences. The rind is 
 smooth, green, and marked with hexagonal 
 specks. Under this skin lies the pulp, which is 
 eaten ; and within that a fibrous core, containing 
 the seeds. The tree is propagated by scions 
 springing from the root of the old stock. These 
 are either suffered to remain and grow up in a 
 clump, or are transplanted singly. They require 
 to be carefully attended to : the ground must be 
 kept clear from weeds for some time, and also 
 well fenced from the hogs, who devour the plants 
 greedily whenever they can light upon such 
 dainties. Bread-fruit trees are cultivated almost 
 entirely on the low grounds, rarely thriving on 
 the mountain sides, or very near the sea. They 
 retain perennial verdure, and bear four crops of 
 fruit in the year. 
 
 F. Have they many uses, like some other 
 trees ? 
 
 Mr. E. The manifold bounty of Providence is 
 remarkably manifested in giving this valuable 
 product of a soil not copious in, variety of plants, 
 to the people of the islands of the Pacific. It 
 supplies them with food, raiment, and timber; 
 each in its kind abundant and excellent. Their 
 canoes are hollowed out of its trunk, or framed 
 from its planks ; the beams, rafters, and flooring 
 of their houses, are hewn out of its substance ; 
 and it also furnishes a good pitch, in the gum 
 which exudes from holes bored into its stem. Of 
 the bark a very useful description of cloth is pre- 
 pared, and with this, indeed, they would want 
 no other. The fruit is a delicate and wholesome 
 14* 
 
170 THE BREAD-FKUIT TREE. 
 
 substitute for bread ; being very nutritious, ancf 
 of a sweet and pleasant flavor. Various modes 
 of dressing this food are in use among the na- 
 tives. The skin being pared away, the pulp is^ 
 most generally split and roasted, or rather bak-- 
 ed, in earthen ovens, upon and under hot stones 
 and it is often thus cooked with part of a hog, a 
 fowl, or a fish. When taken out, it is soft an 
 mealy, much resembling, in color and taste, line 
 sponge biscuit. The natives frequently beat or 
 squeeze it in their hands, and dip the pieces in 
 salt water, when they eat it. This fruit, in fact,, 
 is the principal support of tbe people, who sel- 
 dom make a meal without a large proportion of 
 it. They call it miory. 
 
 E. And does the tree always yield fruit ? 
 
 Mr. E. No ; there are moie than three months 
 out of the twelve when the fruit is either not to 
 be obtained, or very scarce. To compensate 
 this inconvenience, the inhabitants preserve 
 great quantities of that which is quite ripe in pits, 
 about four feet deep, and of the same width. 
 These pits are carefully lined with grass, and 
 then with the leaves of the tii plant, which give 
 an agreeable flavor to the preserved fruit. The 
 latter, being cleared of the green coating, and 
 split, is thrown together on a heap, and covered 
 with leaves for from twenty-four to forty-eight 
 hours, as the state of the weather may be. The 
 pile is then opened, and the cores of all the split 
 pieces being extracted, these are again laid to-' 
 gether ; after which the whole undergoes a pro- 
 cess of fermentation, and becomes soft. It is 
 then stowed in the pit, covered with grass, and 
 
CONVERSATION. 171 
 
 the grass pressed down with stones. The bread- 
 fruit, thus cured, is taken out of these store-pits, 
 from time to time, as it may be wanted, in the 
 state of a sour paste, when it is dressed according 
 to every man's taste. Though the natives, from 
 habit, are fond of it this way, the food is difficult 
 of digestion, and by no means wholesome. 
 
 Mrs. E. You have passed a pleasant evening, 
 I am sure, rny dears ; and I think you have also 
 learned much. We, too, have an advantage be- 
 sides that of our pleasure in gratifying and in- 
 structing you. By and by, you will be more than 
 listeners, and must contribute to others as well 
 as receive from them ; for so Mrs. Hannah More 
 has said : 
 
 ' Our intellectual ore must shine, 
 
 Not slumber, idly, in the mine. 
 
 Let education's moral mint 
 
 The noblest images imprint ; 
 
 Let taste her curious touchstone hold, 
 
 To try if standard be the gold ; 
 
 But, 't is thy commerce, conversation, 
 
 Must give it use by circulation ; 
 
 That noble commerce of mankind, 
 
 Whose precious merchandize is mind ." 
 
 But here we must pause. How gloriously the sun 
 is setting ! and hark ! the blackbird and thrush 
 are pouring forth their evening song. 
 
172 THE AGED TREE. 
 
 THE AGED TREE. 
 
 ' I STOOD for some time, this morning/ said 
 Mr. Elwood, ' to gaze once more at that noble 
 forest-tree in the lane, which has so long contin- 
 ued beautiful and unmutilated. It stands on the 
 side of the waste, shading and sheltering the 
 neighboring cottage, having escaped the hedger's 
 bill, and the woodman's axe, and defied the fury 
 of a hundred storms. It is not so gigantic as- 
 some are, but it deserves regard from the vegeta- 
 ble powers which have existed and still continue 
 in its trunk. At some very distant period, the 
 bole appears to have lost, either by accident or 
 design, its leading shoot; and, in consequence, 
 has thrown out several branches at each side ; 
 three still remain, which have now grown into 
 trees, existing in full vigor, and presenting a 
 beautiful appearance. It is, indeed, a fine speci- 
 men of an oak, with all the twistings, furrows, 
 and irregularities, which this tree, when it grows 
 freely, generally exhibits, stretching its arms 
 to the sun with a graceful dignity. Its age I 
 cannot tell. In young trees, the rings of the 
 wood often enable us to judge, but, in old ones, 
 these marks are not a sufficient guide. Still, it 
 must have been long very long since it was 
 a sapling, and first put forth its light green foli- 
 age/ 
 
 ' It is indeed, a fine object V said Mrs. Elwood ; 
 ' Emma and Frederick, you should observe it.' 
 
 * I have done so, again and again, dear mam- 
 
VENERABLE OAK. 173 
 
 roa,' said Emma, ' for my brother showed it me 
 I don't know how long since/ 
 
 ' I am glad Frederick was so observant,' re- 
 joined Mrs. Elwood, * and so anxious, too, that 
 you should partake the pleasure he enjoyed. 
 Such qualities should always be discovered.' 
 
 * And they will never go unrewarded/ added 
 Mr. Elwood; 'kindness always recompenses the 
 heart which cherishes it, and the approval and 
 attention of others will not always be withheld. 
 This morning, for instance, I propose that we 
 should give you an account of the oak, as a re- 
 ward for this act. What say you, dears? ' 
 
 ' We shall think it a very kind one/ said Em- 
 ma, while Frederick looked delighted. 
 
 * In the Scriptures,' said Mr. Elwood, ' we read 
 much of the oak ; but there are several words 
 which have been thus rendered by our transla- 
 tors although, in other passages, they have ren- 
 dered them the plain-tree, teel-tree, &,c. Some- 
 times, it is thought, too, they have confounded it 
 with the terebinth. This is an evergreen, of 
 moderate size, but having the top and branches 
 large in proportion to the body : the leaves re- 
 semble those of the olive, but are of a green col- 
 or, intermixed with red and purple : the twigs 
 that bear them always terminate in a single leaf: 
 the flowers, which are purple, are like those of 
 the vine, and grow in bunches : the fruit, of the 
 size of juniper-berries, hangs in clusters, and is 
 remarkably juicy. The tree abounds near Jeru- 
 salem, and in Cyprus. Josephus says, moreover, 
 that, six furlongs from Hebron, a very large ter- 
 ebinth was shown, which the inhabitants of the 
 
174 THE TERFBINTH- THE DRUIDS. 
 
 country believed to be as old as -the world ; and 
 Eusebius assures us that, in his time, this tere- 
 binth, under which il is said Abraham entertain- 
 ed the angels, was still to be seen, and was held 
 in great veneration. The benediction of Jacob 
 on Naphtali, is rendered by some, ' Naphtali 
 is a spreading terebinth, producing beautiful 
 branches.' 
 
 Mrs. E. In the history of Greece, we meet in 
 very early times with the famous oracle of Jupi- 
 ter, that is, a place where it was said his voice 
 was heard, at the oaks of Dodona. And, in 
 Gaul and Britain, we find the highest regard paid 
 to this tree and its misletoe, under the direction 
 of the Druids the oak-prophets, or priests. 
 They thought the misletoe was sent from heaven 
 as a sign that God had chosen the tree on which 
 it grew ; and, though rarely found, it was treated., 
 as soon as discovered, with great ceremony., 
 They styled it, indeed, the curer of all ills, and,, 
 having prepared under the tree feasts and sacri- 
 fices, brought to it two white bulls, whose horns 
 were then, for the first time, tied. After this, the 
 priest, attired in a white robe, ascended the tree, 
 and, with a golden pruning-hook, cut off the misle- 
 toe, which was received in a white sheet. Vic- 
 tims were then sacrificed, with many prayers for 
 the blessing of God on his own gift. And, says 
 Parkhurst, ' Is it possible for a Christian to read 
 this account without thinking of Him who was 
 the desire of all nations, of the man whose name 
 was the BRANCH, who had indeed no father on 
 earth, but came down from heaven ; was given 
 to heal all our ills ; and, after being cut off 
 
WILLIAM RUFUS. 175 
 
 through the divine counsel, was wrapped in fine 
 linen, and laid in the sepulchre, for our sakes ? ' 
 Mr. E. Venerated as the oak was, for the su- 
 perstitious rites just mentioned, the value of this 
 tree was unknown to our re*note forefathers. At 
 an early period, in the history of Britain, it was 
 prized chiefly for its acorns. When the Saxons 
 held sway, the fattening of hogs upon them in 
 the forests was so important, that, at the close of 
 the seventh century, King Ina enacted laws for 
 its regulation. The failure of the acorn-crop is 
 even mentioned as one of the principal causes of 
 famine. One of the most vexatious acts of Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror, in turning the whole of the 
 forests into hunting-grounds, was that of restrict- 
 ing the people from fattening their hogs ; and this 
 grievance King John was called upon to redress 
 at Runnymede, where his assembled subjects 
 compelled him to sign Magna Charta. 
 
 E. Why, papa, was it such a grievance? 
 
 Mr. E. Because swine's flesh was the princi- 
 pal food of most nations in the earlier stages of 
 civilization. Up to a recent period, large droves 
 of hogs were fattened on the acorns of the New 
 Forest, in Hampshire, under the guidance of 
 swine-herds, who called them together every 
 night by the sound of a horn. 
 
 F. Papa, that was, I think, the place were 
 William Rufus was killed, as he was hunting, by 
 an arrow which Sir Walter Tyrrell shot at a 
 stag, but which, glancing from a tree, killed the 
 king. 
 
 Mr. E. It was, my dear. It is not well for us 
 to have all we wish. The tract of land which 
 
176 GROWTH OP OAK. 
 
 William desolated for liis personal amusement, 
 was fatal to several of his family. In that forest,, 
 his son Richard, and a nephew of the same name^ 
 were killed, while engaged in the chase ; and his 
 son, as you have menfcioned, lost his life on the 
 same spot, and when employed in the same di- 
 version. A fine oak is one of the most pictur-* 
 esque of trees. It has the appearance both of 
 strength and duration. It rears its head against 
 the blast, and, while others are twisted from the 
 action of the wind, it retains its form uninjured. 
 Its twisted branches, too, add greatly to its beau- 
 ty, and, remarkable enough, to its utility. When 
 it stands alone, it is a spreading rather than ele- 
 vated tree; in that situation, the timber is also 
 said to be more compact and firm, and the 
 crooked arms are better adapted for ship-build- 
 ing, than when the trees are close together. In 
 thickly-planted groups, the oak will rise to the 
 height of eighty or a hundred feet before it be- 
 gins to decay ; and, in some of the choicer trees, 
 forty, fifty, or even sixty feet may be found with- 
 out a single lateral branch, and at the same time, 
 of considerable size. These are as well adapted 
 for beams and planking as others are for crook- 
 ed timbers, and therefore, to secure a proper sup- 
 ply for maritime and domestic purposes, it is de- 
 sirable to have them in both situations. 
 
 Mrs. E. Some oaks have grown to an im- 
 mense size. Among the ancient trees of France, 
 none, perhaps, is more remarkable than that in 
 the burial-ground of Allonville. It measures, 
 above the roots, upwards of thirty-five feet round, 
 and, at the height of a man, twenty-six feet. A 
 
4 
 OAK OF ALLONVILLE. 177 
 
 little higher up, it extends to a greater size, and, 
 at eight feet from the ground, enormous branch- 
 es spring from the sides, and spread outwards, so 
 that they cover a vast space with their shade. 
 The height of the tree does not answer to its 
 girth : the trunk, from the roots to the summit, 
 forms a complete cone ; and the inside of this is 
 hollow throughout the whole of its height. Sev- 
 eral openings, the largest of which is below, af- 
 ford access to this cavity. All the central parts 
 having been long destroyed, it is only by the out- 
 er layers of the alburnum, and by the bark, that 
 this venerable tree is supported ; yet it is still full 
 of vigor, adorned with abundance of leaves, and 
 laden with acorns. The lower part of the hol- 
 low trunk has been transformed into a chapel, of 
 six or seven feet in diameter, carefully wainscot- 
 ed and paved, and guarded by an open iron gate. 
 Above and close to the chapel is a small cham- 
 ber, containing a bed ; and, leading to it, there 
 is a stair-case, which twists round the body of 
 the tree. At certain seasons of the year, service 
 is performed in this chapel. The summit has 
 been broken off many years, but there is a sur- 
 face, at the top of the trunk, of the diameter of a 
 very large tree, and from it rises a pointed roof, 
 covered with slates, in the form of a steeple, 
 which is surmounted with an iron cross, that rais- 
 es itself, it is said, in the middle of the leaves, 
 like an antique hermitage above the surrounding 
 wood. The cracks which occur in various parts 
 of the tree are, like the fracture whence the stee- 
 ple springs, closely covered with slate, which, by 
 replacing the bark, doubtless contributes to its 
 15 
 
178 OAKS OF ENGLAND, 
 
 preservation. Over the entrance to the chapel, 
 an inscription appears, which states that it was 
 erected by the Abb6 du Detroit, curate of Allon- 
 ville, in the year 1696 ; and over the door of the 
 upper room is another, dedicating it ' To our La- 
 dy of Peace.' 
 
 F. I should like to visit the chapel-oak ex- 
 ceedingly ; but are no trees of this kind famous 
 in England ? 
 
 Mrs. E. There are several, rny dear. The 
 celebrated Fairlop oak, in Hainault Forest, Es- 
 sex, is said to have measured, at three feet from 
 the ground, about thirty-six feet in circumfer- 
 ence, and the extremities of the branches gave a 
 circle of three hundred feet. At Oakley, in Bed- 
 fordshire, the seat of the Marquis of Tavistock, 
 there is an oak, now in perfect health, which 
 contains about five hundred and twenty-seven 
 cubic feet of timber, and the branches overspread 
 a space of five thousand eight hundred and fifty 
 superficial feet of ground. There are also many 
 others, in the parks of Welbeck and Woburn, of 
 great size. 
 
 E. Is the oak in which Charles the Second 
 concealed himself after the batttle of Worcester 
 still to be seen ? 
 
 Mr. E: No, my dear } and though several 
 trees were raised from its acorns, the race seems 
 now to be lost. The oak-apple, which is still 
 worn by some of our rustics on the twenty-ninth 
 of May, in commemoration of that event, is wor- 
 thy our attention. It is usually as large as a wal- 
 nut, or small apple, which is not quite round. 
 The skin is smooth, and tinged with red and yel- 
 
THE CYN1PS. 179 
 
 low, like a ripe apple ; and, at the base, there is, 
 in the earlier part of the summer, a calyx, or cup, 
 of five or six small, brown, scaly leaves ; but these 
 fall off as the season advances. If you cut an 
 oak-apple transversely, you will perceive a num- 
 ber of oval grains, each containing a grub, and 
 imbedded in a fruit-looking fleshy substance, 
 having fibres running through it. As these fi- 
 bres, however, run in the direction of the stem, 
 they are best seen when the gall is cut vertically, 
 and this also shows what is very extraordina- 
 ry- that each fibre terminates in one of the 
 small grains, like a vessel for carrying nourish- 
 ment. 
 
 F. What insect, papa, produces these galls ? 
 
 Mr. E. It is a cynips, whose mechanism is 
 very remarkable. It is provided with a needle 
 in a sheath, so peculiarly constructed that the 
 needle can be extended to double the length of 
 the animal itself; thus it forms a nest for its off- 
 spring, while the young, in the same manner, 
 pierce their way out of the vegetable shell which 
 has been their protection. But the dwelling is 
 not always made in the same way. One kind of 
 apple or gall, inhabited only by one grub, is h -rd 
 and woody on the outside, resembling a little 
 wooden ball, of a yellowish color, but internally 
 it is of a soft, spongy texture. The latter sub- 
 stance, however, encloses a small hard gall, 
 which is the chamber of the insect. Galls of 
 this kind are often found in clusters of from two 
 to seven, near the extremity of a branch, but al- 
 ways separate. 
 
 Mrs, E. An excrescence grows on the catkins 
 
J80 NUT-GALLS. 
 
 of the oak, having the appearance of a straggling 
 bunch of currants, or bird-cherries. The galls re- 
 semble currants which have fallen from the tree 
 before they are ripe, and seem not to differ from 
 tho^e formed on the leaves of the oak and other 
 trees, which are usually of a green color tinged 
 with red. The oak from which the nut-galls of 
 commerce are procured* is very common in Asia 
 Minor ; but Europeans were long with very little 
 information on the subject, although the.galls were 
 so extensively used. It is a shrub seldom exceed- 
 ing six feet in height, and was introduced by M. 
 OJivier to France, where it is cultivated as a gar- 
 den shrub, and grows well in the open air. The 
 best galls, which are used for ink and for dyeing, 
 come from Aleppo, and of these a hundred and 
 seventy-four tons were imported into the United 
 Kingdom in 1>27. 
 
 E. I think, mamma, we are very much indebted 
 to these little creatures ; though I did not know 
 before that we owed them anything. Perhaps 
 papa could not wear black, if it were not not for 
 them. Are there many insects of this kind ? 
 
 Mrs. E. In Spain, in some parts of France, 
 and along the Mediterranean coasts of Africa, 
 there is found a small species of oak, t which nour- 
 ishes large quantities of a small insect, \ which, be- 
 ing gathered, forms an article of commerce call- 
 ed Kermes. The inhabitants of the province of 
 Murcia gather them, as their only mode of sub- 
 sistence. Latreille has united this insect to the 
 
 * Quercus infectoria. f Quercus coccifera. 
 
 t Coccus ilicis. 
 
THE MISLETOE. 181 
 
 
 
 cochineal family, which it resembles, not only in 
 form, but in producing a scarlet dye. Till the 
 discovery of the cochineal insect, the Kermes was 
 the only substance used in dyeing scarlet, after 
 the disuse of the shell-fish that produced the Ty- 
 rian purple, now called scarlet, of the Romans. 
 In England, and other places, the cochineal is 
 now generally used for this color. 
 
 F. What is the misletoe, papa, that the Druids 
 were so fond of, and which the villagers like to 
 have hanging up in their cottages at Christmas, 
 when they deck them so gaily with the holly, and 
 its scarlet berries ? 
 
 Mr. E. It is a parasitical plant ; that is, one of 
 those which are produced on the trunks, branch- 
 es, or any other parts of vegetables, and which, in 
 some instances, will not grow in the ground. The 
 misletoe called viscum album, for example, is an 
 evergreen shrub, and grows in great perfection on 
 apple-trees. No one has ever yet succeeded in 
 making it take root in the earth ; but, if the ber- 
 ries, when fully ripe, are rubbed on the smooth 
 bark of almost any tree, they will adhere closely, 
 and produce plants the following winter. But, 
 Frederick, how do you think we obtain cork ? 
 
 F. I am sure I do not know, papa ; but I will 
 try to remember, if you inform us. 
 
 Mr. E. From a species of oak,* which is not 
 so large as the common one. It is a broad-leaved 
 evergreen, well known even to the Greeks and 
 Romans : the latter, indeed, used it not only as 
 we do, for stopping bottles, but for floats to their 
 nets and fishing-tackle, and for buoys to their an- 
 
 * Quercus suber. 
 15* 
 
182 CORK. 
 
 chors. We read, too, that Camillas had, on one 
 occasion, a life-preserver of cork under his dress. 
 The cork is the bark which the tree pushes out- 
 ward , as is common to all trees, but here the out- 
 er bark is of larger quantity, and more speedily 
 renewed. When removed, there is below it an 
 inner bark ; and from this the cork is re-produced 
 in the course of a few years, while the tree is said 
 to grow more vigorously, and to live longer, than 
 if the cork were not removed. The first time the 
 cork is taken off is when the tree is about fifteen 
 years old; but the crop is thin, hard, full of fissures, 
 and, consequently, of little value ; and the second, 
 which is removed about ten years after, is also of 
 inferior quality. The operation is afterwards re- 
 peated about once in 8 or 10 years ; the produce 
 being greater in quantity, and superior in quality, 
 every time. 
 
 F. In what way do they take it off, papa ? 
 
 Mr. E. They cleave the bark lengthways, at 
 certain intervals, down to the crown of the root 
 with an axe, having a handle which terminates in 
 a wedge; and a circular incision is then made 
 from each end of the previous cuts. The bark 
 is then beaten, to detach it from that beneath, and 
 it is lifted up by the wedge, taking care not to in- 
 jure the inner bark. The bark is afterwards di- 
 vided unto convenient lengths, and then is flatten- 
 ed, and slightly burned, to contract the pores- 
 From about the twenty-third year, the tree con- 
 tinues, for about a century and a half, to yield 
 good cork every tenth year. The best sort comes 
 from Portugal and Spain. The Spaniards cover 
 the walls of their houses with it, like wainscoting, 
 
DARNAWAY CASTLE. 183 
 
 which not only makes them warm, but very dry ; 
 and the peasantry lay broad planks of it at their 
 bed-sides, as we do carpels: they also burn it, to 
 make what painters call Spanish black. The 
 Egyptians formerly made coffins of cork, lined 
 with resin, which preserved the bodies for a long 
 time. 
 
 E. Do they build houses with oak, mamma? 
 
 Mrs. E. It has been frequently used for such 
 purposes, love. In Scotland, the roofs are gen- 
 erally of oak, which, before the trees were cut 
 down, almost to extermination, in the lowland 
 countries, was very generally in use. The parlia- 
 ment-house, in Edinburgh, has a fine roof, which 
 is principally of oak ; and I remember how much 
 gratified I was at the sight of the application of 
 this timber, when I visited the Baronial hall 
 of Darnaway Castle. It was erected by Ran- 
 dolph, Earl of Moray the friend of Bruce 
 when he was Regent, for the reception of the nu- 
 merous vassals, who attended his court. After all 
 the changes it must have undergone, it is still a 
 noble monument of ancient magnificence, and 
 hospitality, and is certainly the most perfect spe- 
 cimen of a Baronial hall in Scotland. The roof 
 is supported by couples and rafters of massy oak, 
 having an exceedingly fine appearance. The 
 length of the hall is eighty-nine feet, its breadth 
 thirty-five feet, and its height originally about 
 thirty feet. Here stands the earl's hospitable 
 board of thick oaken plank, resting on six pillars, 
 and curiously bordered and indented ; and near 
 it is his oaken chair, on which are coarsely carv- 
 ed his arms, and the emblems of his office. In 
 
184 THE EIsIGMA, 
 
 this splendid building, when he came with his nu- 
 merous retinue, for the purpose of hunting, the 
 ample table was spread, and wine and wassail 
 prevailed; and, at night, in the simplicity of that 
 age, the floor was strewed with rushes, and there 
 the earl and his comp inions reposed together. 
 The oak employed in our men of war has led to 
 their being called 'the wooden walls of old Eng- 
 land ; ' and in memory of the defence they have 
 afforded, the freedom of cities has been presented 
 to distinguished individuals in highly-ornamented 
 boxes of heart of oak. 
 
 E. And is that all, mamma, that you and pa- 
 pa are inclined to tell us 1 I see ,you are just 
 beginning to move. 
 
 Mrs. E. It is, my dear ; and I hope you will 
 spend the remainder of the day as pleasantly as 
 you have passed a part of the morning. 
 
 THE ENIGMA 
 
 ' I HAVE found a puzzle for you, my dears/ 
 said Mr. Elwood to his children, as he entered 
 the room where they were seated with thier mam- 
 ma. 
 
 ' Where, where, papa V was the immediate in- 
 quiry. 
 
 ' It is here/ said their father, as he laid his 
 right hand on the table. 
 
 1 Then it cannot be alive, 3 said Emma. 
 
 ' You are mistaken, love/ replied her father, 
 
THE SOLUTION. 185 
 
 * for it actually has life ; and though this one may 
 never do any good, yet to some of its ancestors 
 we owe far more than I can pretend to describe. 
 In addition to a hundred things which tend to 
 domestic comfort, it has done much for the fine 
 arts, assisting the production of the sweetest 
 sounds; and presenting to the eye scenes arid 
 persons with whom imagination only was pre 
 viously acquainted.' 
 
 Frederick and Emma thought for some time, 
 but confessed they knew not what it could be j 
 when Mr. Elwood showed them a little cone he 
 had picked up in the shrubbery the fruit of 
 the fir-tree. 
 
 * O papa ! ' said Emma, ' is it only that? It 
 has life, however; but then how do you make 
 out the hearing and seeing ? 5 
 
 'Quite easily, love/ replied her father; 'fir- 
 wood, so soft and sonorous, seems to have been 
 preferred by the ancients, as well as the moderns, 
 to every other kind, for the construction of music- 
 al instruments ; and of it those parts of the harp, 
 lute, guitar, harpsichord, and violin, on which 
 their tone chiefly depends, are still made. And 
 then, as it is said to be more durable even than 
 oak, and does not warp or shrink, it was used by 
 painters more than any other, before the use of 
 canvas became general. Several of Raphael's 
 pictures are painted on boards of this wood. 1 
 
 ' Ah, papa, I see now ! ' said Emma. { I nev- 
 er thought you would be fast ; but will you sit 
 down and tell us all about it, as you did about 
 the oak 'I ' 
 
 ' I have not the slightest objection,' said Mr. 
 Elwood, as he took his seat in his easy chair, and 
 
186 FIK CONE -THE SCOTCH FIR. 
 
 thus proceeded : ' The cone, you perceive, i& 
 a tough, woody seed-vessel, which consists of the 
 general receptacle, with a; number of hard scales- 
 attached to it. When the fruit is matured, these 
 scales lie o?i each other, like the tiles of a house ~ r 
 covering the seeds or nuts so completely, as to- 
 appear like one undivided body. In this state 
 the cone hangs on the tree during the winter^ 
 and protects what is enclosed; but as soon as the 
 warm weather comes, the scales begia to shrink 
 and separate, leaving openings for the ripe seeds 
 to escape. Sometimes a number of cones hap- 
 pen to burst at the same moment, and then the 
 noise can be heard at a considerable distance.' 
 
 E. Why, papa, any one just under the trees 
 would be startled, and not know whence the 
 sound came, and he would look iike like I 
 should think, Alfred Melville did, when you told 
 him to touch the bell at St. Paul's, as it was a- 
 bout to strike the quarters, and went off bomb - 
 bomb bomb ? 
 
 Mr. E. Very likely, my dear, though he 
 laughed heartily directly after. In the Scrip* 
 tures we often read of the fir-tree ; thus the 
 Psalmist says, c As for the stork, the fir-trees 
 are her house;' and a state of prosperity is indi- 
 cated by the declaration of Ephraim, ' I am like 
 a green fir-tree. 1 The onty native one is the 
 Scotch fir,* which grows plentifully throughout 
 the Highlands. When planted in a grove, the 
 trunk becomes tall and naked ; but it puts forth 
 numerous branches in open, sunny ptaces. It is 
 said to live sometimes to the age of four hundred 
 * Pinus gylvestris. 
 
THE LARCH. 187 
 
 years. The wood, which is called red deal, is 
 very smooth and light. The bark will tan leath- 
 er ; and, in yea r s of scarcity, it is dried, ground 
 into powder, and made into bread, by the people 
 in the North of Europe, where it is also found. 
 The Highlanders dig up the roots and divide 
 them into small splinters, to bum instead of can- 
 dles ; for they contain a gre-at quantity of resin, 
 and easily take fire. 
 
 Mrs. E. The larch* is a native of the Alps 
 and Appennines, where it sometimes attains the 
 height of nearly two hundred feet. It, however, 
 thrives well in Britain ; and as i* g:ows more rap- 
 idly, and also in more varied soils, than the com- 
 mon pine, it is perhaps better adapted for gener- 
 al cultivation. In the south, it attains an im- 
 mense height; some single beams of larch, em- 
 ployed in palaces and public buildings of Ven- 
 ice, being said to be one hundred and twenty 
 feet long. I have seen in the plantations of the 
 Duke of Athol, and other proprietors in Perth- 
 shire, some larches at least a hundred feet high. 
 The alternation of hill and dale in that country 
 exhibiting scenes of uncultivated magnificence 
 contrasted with others adorned by skilful culti- 
 vation with the general opening of the glens, 
 and exposure of the surface to the south afford 
 the larch a situation something like its native 
 spot; for though some fast-growing trees have 
 been planted at the same time, the larch overtops 
 them all : and in summer, arrayed in its foliage, 
 which is of a bright clover-green, it looks like an 
 obelisk of beryl. The larch sheds its leaves, and 
 
 * Pinus Jarix. 
 
188 BRIDGES OP FIRS. 
 
 is probably saved by that means from those keen 
 blasts of the early spring that prove destructive 
 to pines. Thus stripped, it is an ornamental 
 tree, for the trunk is generally straight, tapering 
 gradually to a point; 'the branches, which are 
 rather small in proportion to the tree, taper up in 
 the form of a perfect cone ; and the whole is of a 
 lively brown, streaked with a golden color. 
 
 Mr. E. Larch, like other things, has its ad- 
 vantages and disadvantages. Its quality seems 
 not to depend so much on the maturity of the 
 tree, and the slowness of its growth, as that of 
 the pine ; as a fishing-boat built of larch only for- 
 ty years old, has been found to last three times 
 as long as one of the best Norway pine. It is 
 not, however, so buoyant, or so elastic, and it is 
 more apt to warp ; but it is more tough and com- 
 pact, and it approaches nearly to being proof 
 against water and fire ; so that, before a larch 
 beam was ever completely charred on the sur- 
 face, one of pine, or of dry oak, would be in a 
 blaze. Still it is heavier to transport, and hard- 
 er to work ; and thus the introduction of this most 
 safe ami durable timber is prevented. The Nor- 
 way pine* yields the white deal, the wood em- 
 ployed for so many useful purposes ; and it is 
 from the sap of this species that pitch, tar, com- 
 mon resin, and turpentine, are procured. 
 
 Mrs. E. Before we proceed, I will read you 
 an interesting fact from the Travels of Dr. 
 Clarke : * Before our arrival at Skale,' he 
 says, ' the noise of roaring waters again announc- 
 ed the vicinity of a cataract. We were in the 
 
 * Pin as abies. 
 
THE CEDAR. 189 
 
 midst of a gloomy forest ; but all at once the dark 
 scenery of the surrounding woods opened upon 
 such a view of the Ljusna, as no pen can de- 
 scribe : it burst upon us in all its terrific grandeur ; 
 the whole tide, collected from all its tributary 
 lakes and rivers, throughout its course from the 
 Norwegian Alps, in one vast torrent, clamorous- 
 ly foaming and rushing to the Bothnian Gulf. 
 A bridge, constructed of whole trunks of fir- 
 trees, divested only of their bark, stretched across 
 this furious torrent, to the distance of one hun- 
 dred yards ; presenting one of the most pictur- 
 esque objects imaginable. Above this bridge the 
 river is a quarter of a mile broad ; and, growing 
 wider as it recedes from the eye of a person here 
 placed, it is distinctly divided by promontories," 
 projecting from its sides until they almost meet, 
 and covered with tall trees ; thereby forming 
 straits which connect it with other seeming lakes, 
 equally beautiful, beyond them, and which ap- 
 pear more remotely terminated by a ridge of 
 mountains, closing the prospect. But, in this 
 amazing spectacle, all is freshness and anima- 
 tion ; the utmost liveliness, and light, and ele- 
 gance, exhibited by the distant sheets of water, 
 combined with all the energy and tremendous 
 force of a cataract, making the bridge upon 
 which the spectator stands shake under his feet, 
 as if it were rocked by an earthquake.' 
 
 F. How grand how beautiful, mamma ! 
 Can you think of some other trees ? 
 
 Mrs. E. The cedar* is a large and majestic 
 tree, rising to the height of thirty or forty yards, 
 
 * Pinus ceclrus. 
 16 
 
190 THE CEDAR. 
 
 and some are from thirty-five to forty feet in girth, 
 It is a beautiful evergreen, possessing leaves 
 something like those of the rosemary, and distils 
 a kind of gum, to which various qualities are at- 
 tributed. The leaves of the tree are said to 
 spread upwards into beautiful little tufts ; the 
 whole upper surface of the branch, which droops 
 in a graceful curve, has the appearance of velvet, 
 while the fruit hangs downward : it grows like 
 cones of the pine-tree, but it is longer, harder, 
 fuller, and not easily separated from the stalk. 
 The wood is very valuable ; it possesses a strong 
 aromatic smell, and is reputed to be incorruptible. 
 Of this, some of the most celebrated erections of 
 antiquity were constructed. Thus we read that 
 ' Solomon raised a levy of thirty thousand men 
 out of all Israel ; and he sent them to Lebanon, 
 ten thousand a month, by courses ; and he had 
 threescore and ten thousand that bore burthens, 
 and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains. 
 And he covered the temple with beams and 
 boards of cedar. And he built chambers against 
 it, which rested on the house, with timber of ce- 
 dar. And the cedar of the house within was 
 carved with knops and flowers : all was cedar; 
 there was not a stone to be seen.' But the for- 
 est of cedars, once so famed on the mountain of 
 Lebanon, has now disappeared ; only a few trees 
 remain the memorials of former glory and of 
 the mutability of all things earthly. 
 
 F. Will you tell us, papa, if you please, what 
 is meant when the cedar is spoken of in the Scrip- 
 tures ? 
 
 Mr. E. Sometimes, my dear, it illustrates the 
 
THE CEDAR THE CYPRESS. 191 
 
 power of God ; thus it is said, " The voice of the 
 Lord is powerful : the voice of the Lord is full of 
 majesty; the voice of the Lord breaketh the ce- 
 dars; yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Le- 
 banon. He makes them also to skip like a calf; 
 Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.'* 
 How sublime is this ! At the voice of God, the 
 mighty tree which braves the tempest is broken ; 
 he speaks and the mountain on which it grows 
 trembles, then leaps like the young of the herd 
 when buoyant with joy, and skips and bounds 
 like the swiftest of creatures ! Isaiah in de- 
 nouncing divine judgments on the mighty of the 
 earth in their pride and arrogance, exclaims, 
 4 The day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon all 
 the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted 
 up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan.'t And the 
 prosperity of the pious is exhibited by an allusion 
 to this tree, 'The righteous shall grow as the 
 cedar in Lebanon.' 
 
 E. Oh, dear papa, I wish we knew all these 
 things as well as you ! How much more pleased 
 should we be with the Bible and how much 
 more should we know about it ! 
 
 Mr. E. You would, my dear ; but, if you will 
 ask me when any difficulties arise, I shall be glad 
 to assist in removing them. Many specimens of 
 the cedar of Lebanon are mentioned as having 
 reached a great sizo in this country. In 1779, 
 for instance, a remarkable one was blown down 
 at Hendon Place, in Middlesex. It was seventy 
 feet high ; the branches covered a space one hun- 
 dred feet in diameter ; the trunk was sixteen 
 * Psalm xxix. 4, t Isaiah ii. 13. 
 
192 CYPRESS OF LOUISIANA^ 
 
 feet in circumference at seven feet from the 
 ground, and twenty-one feet at the insertion of 
 the great branches, twelve feet above the surface. 
 The average circumference of the ten principal 
 limbs, or branches, was twelve feet. Some as- 
 sert that it was planted by the hand of Queen 
 Elizabeth. The precise spot where it arose 
 is said to be marked by a handsome cedar 
 now growing. In the Hindoo principality of the 
 Kumaoon,. the cedars are of an enormous size, 
 Some of them have measured twenty-seven feet 
 in circumference at four feet from the ground,, 
 and one hundred and eighty feet in height. 
 
 Mrs. E. A species of the cypress is called the 
 white cedar,* and grows to a considerable size. 
 The cypress is supposed to be more durable than 
 cedar itself The doors of St. Peter's Church, 
 at Rome, formed of this material, showed no 
 signs of decay, when, after the lapse of eleven 
 hundred years, they were taken down to be re- 
 placed by gates of brass. To preserve the re?~ 
 mains of their heroes, the Athenians buried them 
 in coffins of cypress ; and the chests or coffins of 
 the Egyptian mummies are usually of the same 
 wood. Some have contended that of this the 
 ark of Noah was made. A singular species, call- 
 ed the cypress of Louisiana, grows with its roots 
 in water, and is principally found on the banks 
 of the Mississippi^ whose shores are shaded by its 
 magnificent foliage. The circumference of the 
 trunk is nearly thirty feet; and to enable it to re- 
 sist the floating masses of ice, which, at the 
 breaking up of the. winter season, descend m 
 
 * Gupressus thyoides* 
 
MANUFACTURE OF TAR. 193 
 
 great quanties from the northern lakes, several 
 large protuberances act as buttresses, evidently 
 designed to protect the base ; while, upwards, at 
 the height of six feet, the trunk is sensibly dimin- 
 ished. The heads are round and smooth, hav- 
 ing neither leaves nor branches; and, therefore, 
 cannot be considered as shoots. They are, in 
 fact, ice-breakers. 
 
 F. That reminds, me, mamma, of several 
 things you have mentioned. How delightful it is 
 to think that God cares for the cedar ! 
 
 Mr. E. It is, my love ; and I will mention to 
 you presently another remarkable instance of his 
 providence. We must, however, first refer to 
 the products of the trees we have mentioned. 
 The common pine yields turpentine, which is ob- 
 tained by cutting into the living tree: tar is also 
 procured from it, and ' the process,' says Dr. 
 Clarke, 'is very simple; and, as we have often 
 witnessed it, we shall now describe it, from a tar- 
 work which we halted to inspect upon the spot. 
 The situation most favorable for this process is 
 in a forest near to a marsh or bog ; because the 
 roots of the fir, from which tar is principally 
 extracted, are always the most productive in such 
 places. A conical cavity is then made in the 
 ground (generally in the side of a bank, or slop- 
 ing hill), and the roots of the fir, together with 
 logs or billets of the same, being neatly trussed 
 into a stack of the same conical shape, are let in- 
 to this cavity. The whole is then covered with 
 turf, to prevent the volatile parts from being dis- 
 sipated, which, by means of a heavy mallet, and 
 a wooden stamper, worked separately by two, 
 16* 
 
194 
 
 RESIN - TANNIN. 
 
 men, is beaten down, and rendered as firm as 
 possible above the wood. The stack of billets is 
 then kindled, and a slow combustion of the fir 
 takes place, without flame, as in making char- 
 coal. During this combustion, the tar exudes ; 
 and a cast-iron pan being at the bottom of the 
 funnel, with a spout which projects through the 
 side of the bank, barrels are placed beneath this 
 spout, to collect the fluid as it conies away. As 
 fast as the barrels are filled, they are bunged, and 
 ready for immediate exportation. From this de- 
 scription, it will be evident that the mode of ob- 
 taining tar is by a kind of distillation ; the tur- 
 pentine, melted by fire, mixes with the sap and 
 juices of the fir, while the wood itself, becoming 
 charred, is converted into charcoal. The most 
 curious part of the story is, that this simple meth- 
 od of extracting tar is precisely that which is de- 
 scribed by Theophrastus and Dioscorides ; and 
 there is not the smallest difference between a tar 
 work in the forests of Westro-Bothnia, and those 
 of ancient Greece. The Greeks made stacks of 
 pine ; and, having covered them with turf, they 
 were suffered to- burn in the same smothered 
 manner ; while the tar, melting, fell to the bot- 
 tom of the stack, and ran out by a small channel 
 cut for that purpose. 5 
 
 Mrs. E. Turpentine is often distilled that es- 
 sential oil may be produced, and what is left is a 
 brownish mass, which is the resin of commerce. 
 The bark of the larch-tree contains also a con- 
 siderable portion of the bitter called tannin, 
 which, mixed with the gluey part of the skins of 
 animals, changes that into a substance not solu- 
 
FLOATING OP TIMBER. 195 
 
 ble in water ; and thus it is useful in tanning 
 the process of changing raw hides into leather. 
 But papa has just handed me a volume which re- 
 lates what is very singular. The northern slopes 
 of the Alps, and some of the mountains of Ger- 
 many, abound in pines; and the Rhine, and the 
 Danube, are well adapted for conveying the tim- 
 ber to the lower districts, where it is valuable. 
 The mode of doing this is very curious, and is 
 thus described by the author of an interesting 
 volume : ' A little below Andernach, the little 
 village of Namedy appears on the left bank, un- 
 der a wooded mountain. The Rhine here forms 
 a little bay, where the pilots are accustomed to 
 unite together the small rafts of timber floated 
 down the tributary rivers into the Rhine, and to 
 construct enormous floats, which are navigated 
 to Dortrecht (Dort.), and sold. These machines 
 have the appearance of a floating village, com- 
 posed of twelve or fifteen little wooden huts, on 
 a large platform of oak and deal timber. They 
 are frequently eight or nine hundred feet long, 
 and sixty or seventy in breadth. The rowers 
 and workmen sometimes amount to seven or 
 eight hundred, superintended by pilots, and a 
 proprietor, whose habitation is superior in size 
 and elegance to the rest. The raft is composed 
 of several layers of trees placed one on the other, 
 and tied together : a large raft draws not less 
 than six or seven feet of water. Several smaller 
 ones are attached to it, by way of protection ; be- 
 sides a string of boats, loaded with anchors and 
 cables, and used for the purpose of sounding the 
 river, and going on shore. The domestic econ- 
 
196 FLOATING OF TIMBER. 
 
 omy of an East Indiaman is hardly more com- 
 plete. Poultry, pigs, and other animals, are to 
 be found on board, and several butchers are at- 
 tached to the suit. A well-supplied boiler is at 
 work night and day in the kitchen ; the dinner- 
 hour is announced by a basket stuck on a pole, 
 at which signal the pilot gives the word of com- 
 mand, and the workmen run from all quarters to 
 receive their messes. The consumption of pro- 
 visions in the voyages to Holland is almost incred- 
 ible, sometimes amounting to forty or fifty thou- 
 sand pounds of bread, eighteen or twenty thou- 
 sand pounds of fresh, besides a quantity of salted 
 meat, and butter, vegetables, &c., in proportion. 
 The expenses are so great that a capital of 3 or 
 400,000 florins (about $150,000) is considered 
 necessary to undertake a raft. Their naviga- 
 tion is a matter of considerable skill, owing to 
 the abrupt windings, the rocks, and shallows of 
 the river; and, some years ago, the secret was 
 thought to be monopolized by a boatman of Ru- 
 desheim, and his son.' 
 
 Mr. E. I remember another instance. The 
 following passage from Planche's ' Descent of 
 the Danube/ gives a description of the method 
 of floating timber on a branch of that river ; and 
 the practice appears to be common in Germany : 
 ' At the mouth of the Erlaf, is a rechen, or grate, 
 where the wood collects that is floated down this 
 stream from the forests in the neighborhood of 
 Maria-Zell, in the Steyermark, near which it . 
 takes its rise. It is customary in Geimanyto 
 place one of these gratings at the mouth of any 
 tributary stream, or in the bed of any river where 
 
GREENLAND. 197 
 
 a line of demarcation is drawn naturally or ar- 
 tificially between two kingdoms, two provinces, 
 or even two parishes ; so that the branches and 
 trunks of trees blown down by high winds, and 
 swept away by inundations into the current, should 
 not be carried beyond the frontiers, or bounda- 
 ries, of the state or property to which they be- 
 long, and which derives from them no inconsid- 
 erable portion of its revenue. 
 
 * The timber, also, regularly felled by the wood- 
 cutters, is thrown thus carelessly on the mountain 
 streams of Germany, and floats down to the re- 
 chen, or grate, where it is afterwards collected 
 by its owners, who are thus saved the trouble and 
 expense of land-carriage ; and the drifting prop- 
 erty is protected from plunder by the severity of 
 the laws relating to it.' 
 
 F. When will you tell us, papa, what you men- 
 tioned about Providence ? 
 
 Mr. E. Now, my dear. Greenland is the most 
 northern tract of land lying between Europe and 
 America. All its hills, except where the rocks 
 are smooth and perpendicular, are covered with 
 eternal ice and snow, which have also, in the 
 course of time, filled all the elevated plains, and 
 many valleys. To give you an idea of the cold 
 there, I will read you an extract from the jour- 
 nal of Egede, the missionary. The date is Jan- 
 uary 7, 1738. ' The ice and hoar-frost reach 
 through the chimney to the stove's mouth, with- 
 out being thawed by the fire in the day time. 
 Over the chimney is an arch of frost, with little 
 holes, through which the smoke discharges itself. 
 The doors and walls are as if they were plastered 
 
198 GREENLAND. 
 
 over with frost, and, which is hardly credible, 
 beds are often frozen to the bedstead. The lin- 
 en is frozen in the drawers. The upper eider- 
 down bed, and the pillows are quite stiff with 
 frost, an inch thick, from the breath. The flesh 
 barrels must be hewn in pieces to get out the 
 meat ; when it is thawed in snow-water, and set 
 over the fire, the outside is boiled sufficiently, be- 
 fore the inside can be pierced with a knife.' 
 
 E. Oh, dear papa, I hope they have good large 
 fires in that cold country ! 
 
 Mr. E. No large timber grows in Greenland. 
 
 E. Poor creatures ! what can they do for fires 
 and houses? 
 
 Mr. E. That is a question which I expected, 
 Emma ; and I am glad I can answer it to your 
 satisfaction. Though God has denied this frigid 
 rocky region the growth of trees, he has bid the 
 streams of the ocean to convey to its shores a 
 great quantity of wood, part without ice, but most 
 part with it, and to lodge itself betwen the islands. 
 Thus there is wood to burn, and also timber to 
 roof the houses of the Greenlanders, to erect their 
 tents, to build their boats, and to shaft their ar- 
 rows, by which they must procure their mainte- 
 nance, clothing and train-oil, for warmth, light, 
 and cooking. Among this wood, are great trees 
 of various sorts, torn up by the roots. It is gen- 
 erally supposed that they come from Asiatic Tar- 
 tary or Siberia, where the wild mountain torrents, 
 swollen by the rains and floods, carry away whole 
 pieces of land with the large trees upon them, 
 which are plunged into the great rivers, and then 
 carried out to sea. From thence they are driven 
 
GOODNESS OF GOD. MOUNT .ETNA. 199 
 
 with the floating ice, by the easterly current, that 
 comes by Spitsbergen, and conducted between 
 Jcelarid and Greenland to the east side, round 
 Statenhook, into Davis's Straits. How does this 
 illustrate the psalmist's saying: ' Stormy wind, 
 fulfilling his word.' 
 
 F. I am glad you thought of that story, papa; 
 it is so interesting so wonderful ! 
 
 Mr. E. It is, my dear. Thus God, who cares 
 for the tree of which you heard, cares for the 
 Greenlanders. 
 
 THE THREE REGIONS. 
 
 ' OUR ride to-day/ said Mrs. Elwood, ' has 
 presented us with a variety of objects ; and I was 
 particularly struck by the contrast between the 
 spots that were fertile and those that were almost 
 unproductive. What a change, too, may we ob- 
 serve in the air ! The morning so bright and 
 promising, has been succeeded by a dull and chil- 
 ly evening.' 
 
 ' Your remark, my dear/ said Mr. Elwood, 
 ' has wafted my thought*, in a moment, to a far 
 distant spot ; and I have been musing on the pe- 
 culiar circumstances of ^Etna, the far-famed burn- 
 ing mountain of Sicily. It is divided into three 
 districts, or regions, each having its characteris- 
 tic differences. They have distinct climates, cor- 
 responding with the gradations of ascent, and di- 
 vided naturally into the torrid, the temperate, and 
 
200 MOUNT jETNA. 
 
 the frigid. The mountain, however, has been 
 usually divided according to other differences ; 
 and thus we have described to us the fertile re- 
 gion, the woody region, and the barren region.' 
 
 ' How I should like to see them ! ' said Emma ; 
 ' would not you, Frederick dear ? ' 
 
 1 1 think I should, Emma,' said Frederick : 
 * but papa is sometimes so kind as to let us hear 
 about curious things which we are not likely to 
 see ; and perhaps he will now.' 
 
 Mr. E. The fertile region extends, my dears, 
 fifteen miles from the city of Catania, whence 
 the traveller usually begins his journey, and from 
 which part the ascent commences. The surface 
 of this region is reckoned at upwards of two hun- 
 dred and twenty square leagues. It abounds in 
 pasture-grounds,orchards, and fruit-trees, of great 
 and rich variety ; and there the vine especially 
 flourishes. The next advance is to the woody 
 region, which begins about three miles above the 
 latter place, and extends upwards of eight or ten 
 miles. The vegetation of this part is said to de- 
 crease as you advance, the trees gradually dimin- 
 ishing in size, till they become comparatively 
 dwarfish and insignificant. This region is esti- 
 mated at from seventy to eighty miles in circum- 
 ference, with a surface of about forty or fifty 
 square leagues, forming a girdle round the moun- 
 tain of vivid green, composed of oaks, beeches, 
 and other trees, in a soil of vegetable earth. The 
 climate is here most agreeably mild, the air is 
 cool and reviving, and every breeze is filled with 
 delicious odors. It reminds us of the scene in the 
 
SNOW GROTTO THE DESERT REGION. 201 
 
 Antediluvian world, which Montgomery has so 
 beautifully described : 
 
 1 So pure ! so fresh ! tho woods, the sky, the air ! 
 It seemed a place where angels might repair, 
 And tune their harps, amidst these tranquil shades, 
 To morning songs, and moonlight serenades.' 
 
 J5. It must, indeed, be beautiful, papa; is any 
 thing else interesting ? 
 
 Mr. E. Yes : there is a curious snow grotto. 
 The snow which is drifted from the higher parts 
 of the mountain, is stopped, by a wall erected 
 for the purpose, a little above the grotto, whence 
 it is thrown down by two openings, and is pro- 
 tected from the heat of summer by a thick crust 
 of lava, which forms a natural ceiling to the cave. 
 Snow is exported from this receptacle in large 
 bags, into which it is put, after being wrapped in 
 leaves ; and, thus preserved, it has the appear- 
 ance of transparent crystal. The knights of 
 Malta hire this, and other grottos of a similar de- 
 scription, for the use of their island ; hence snow 
 becomes an important article of trade, the nature 
 of the climate always occasioning a large demand. 
 As the desert region is%pproached, vegetation 
 becomes thin and small. Wintry blasts now 
 sweep along a wild and desert path. Here and 
 there, indeed, clumps of trees and tufts of herb- 
 age are to be seen ; but even these become more 
 and more scarce, till they entirely disappear ; and 
 the traveller must encounter a space, from eight 
 to ten miles in extent, overspread with a flat ex- 
 panse of snow and ice, and abounding in danger- 
 ous torrents of melted snow. Beyond this, the 
 great crater rises ; and at the highest summit of 
 17 
 
202 REMARKABLE CHESTNUT-TREE. 
 
 the mountain, there is, according to Brydone, an 
 ample recompense for toil and danger, in the most 
 wonderful and sublime sight in nature. 
 
 Mrs. E. Is there not, in the woody region, a 
 remarkable chestnut-tree ? 
 
 Mr. E. There is, my dear. The eastern side 
 of that part abounds particularly in chestnut-trees 
 of the largest dimensions, which become a very 
 profitable article of trade, by furnishing hoops for 
 casks ; on which account, the inhabitants attend 
 very carefully to their cultivation. One tree has 
 long been celebrated above the rest, for its extra- 
 ordinary size, and is called the chestnut-tree of a 
 hundred horse, from its supposed capacity of con- 
 taining that number ; but particularly from the 
 fabulous tradition that the Q,ueen of Spain once 
 found shelter, with a hundred attendants, under 
 this tree. Carrera says that there is wood enough 
 in it to build a large palace. At the surface of 
 the earth, it measures a hundred and ninety-six 
 feet ; and its height and size would have been 
 like its dimensions, but for the practice of lop- 
 ping off its branches for fuel. Some travellers 
 have dug about it, to fee if it were a cluster of 
 several trees, or only one ; and they have found 
 that, although divided, at or near the surface, in- 
 to five branches, they are all united in one root. 
 From the main stems, a multitude of branches 
 spring, each of prodigious size, and having the 
 peculiarity of no bark on the inside. A hut is 
 built in the hollow of the trunk, to accommodate 
 those who are engaged in collecting and preserv- 
 ing the fruit The use of ovens for drying 
 the nuts, is thought to account for the want of 
 
CHESTNUT OF TOTWORTH. 203 
 
 bark on the inner side of the branches. Other 
 vegetable wonders are found in the neighborhood ; 
 and particularly one, with an undivided trunk, 
 measuring fifty-seven feet, at the height of fifteen 
 feet ftom the surface of the ground. 
 
 Mrs. E. It is, indeed, a most extraordinary 
 spot. But the chestnut thrives well in most parts 
 of Britain. Several large trees have been de- 
 scribed to us. Fitz-Stephen, who lived in the 
 reign of Henry II, speaks of an extensive forest 
 of chestnuts, which sheltered the north side of 
 London. A tree of this kind, at Totworth, in 
 Gloucestershire, is said to have stood there in 
 the year 1150; and in the same county there was 
 another, in the hollow of which there was a 
 ' pretty wainscoted room, enlightened with win- 
 dows and furnished with seats/ The former 
 has been called, for ages, 'the great chestnut of 
 Totworth ; ' it measures fifty-two feet round, and 
 still continues to bear fruit. 
 
 F. What a fine horse-chestnut-tree that is, pa- 
 pa, near the park gate ! Its bunches of large 
 white flowers are very beautiful. How many there 
 were this year ! I was quite sorry when they 
 were gone. Is not this a different tree ? 
 
 Mr. E. It is, my dear. The horse-chestnut is 
 a native of the northern parts of Asia ; and was 
 brought to Europe about the year 1500. It af- 
 fords a fine shade while the leaves are on; but 
 as they begin to fall off in July, it soon loses its 
 beauty. Its timber is but of little value. The 
 deer in the park eat its nuts with avidity. The 
 Turks, it is said, grind them, and mix them with 
 the food of their horses. The bark has been 
 
204 THE WALNUT-TREE. 
 
 employed, with some success in dyeing yellow ; 
 and the prickly husks are used in tanning. 
 
 E. I am very fond of walnuts, papa : I hope 
 we shall soon have a good many. 
 
 Mr. E. The fruit of the walnut-tree* is very 
 agreeable : when green, the nuts make a pleas- 
 ant and wholesome pickle ; the oil is used for del- 
 icate colors in painting, for smoothing and polish- 
 ing wood- work, and sometimes for burning in 
 lamps. A dye is also obtained from the leaves, 
 and recent husks in their green state. The form 
 which the branches wear is generally beautiful. 
 In May, the warm hue of its foliage makes a 
 pleasing contrast with that of other trees ; but its 
 leaves open late, and fall early. 
 
 F. From whence did we obtain the walnut- 
 tree? 
 
 Mrs. E. It is a native of the warmer parts of 
 Europe, perhaps of Asia. It grows in various 
 parts of the earth ; in England it thrives well ; 
 and wherever it flourishes it is valuable, It ad- 
 vances rapidly, till it attains a considerable size, 
 and is valuable as timber. Its principal use, how- 
 ever, is for the stocks of fire-arms. The demand 
 for these during the late war, thinned England 
 of its walnut-trees. At that time, the wood was 
 in so much request that a fine tree has often been 
 sold for several hundred pounds. Oh, what an 
 evil is war ! Its path is that of misery and death ; 
 yet many works in the hands of the young, were 
 written under the power of a ferocious depravi- 
 ty. They teach the boy to hate or to despise ev- 
 ery nation but his own; they pourtray war as 
 
 * Juglans rogia. 
 
EVIL OP WAR THE MAHOGANY-TREE. 205 
 
 the theatre of glory ; they tell him to rejoice in 
 the woes poured out on the people of other lands ; 
 and they often fill him with ambition to wear the 
 blood-stained laurels of victory, by a work of de- 
 struction surpassing that which many have ac- 
 complished I am thankful, Frederick, that your 
 reading is directed, not only by affection, but by 
 sound judgment : I trust that you will, therefore, 
 see things as they are, and that you will imbibe 
 and adorn the spirit of the gospel of peace. 
 
 F. I hope so too, mamma. I remember you once 
 showed me the portrait of Howard, and wished 
 that I should be like him. That would indeed 
 be delightful ! 
 
 Mr. E. It would, my dear. 
 
 1 How beauteous are the feet of those who bear 
 Mercy to man, glad tidings to despair ! 
 Far from the mountain's top they lovelier seem 
 Than moonlight dews, or morning's rosy beam j 
 Sweeter the voice than spell or hymning sphere 
 And listening angels hush their harps to hear ! ' 
 
 From this digression, which I thank mamma 
 for making, we may now return to remark, that 
 the walnut was once in England ' the cabinet-ma- 
 ker's tree,' and that to his purposes it was well 
 adapted. In many parts of the continent, where 
 the expense of carriage is great, it is still exten- 
 sively used in the manufacture of furniture ; but 
 with us it has been generally superseded by a 
 wood with which you are all familiar. 
 
 E. Oh, that is mahogany, papa! 
 
 Mr. E. It is. The seeds of the common one,* 
 which are very light, are often blown into the 
 
 * Swietenia mahagoni. 
 
 17* 
 
206 FIRST USE OF MAHOGANY. 
 
 chinks of rocks, where they take root, and at 
 length produce trees of considerable size ; and 
 the wood of those that spring in this manner, 
 from exposed situations, is harder than what grows 
 in other places. The mahogany tree is singular- 
 ly majestic. In the rich valleys among the mounr 
 tains of Cuba, and in those that open on the Bay 
 of Honduras, it expands into a trunk so gigantic 
 divides into such massy arms, and throws the 
 shade of its shining green leaves, spotted with 
 tufts of pearly flowers, so far around, that it is 
 difficult to imagine a production of the vegetable 
 world combining so fully the qualities of elegance 
 and strength, as to appear at once both beautiful 
 and sublime. It is probably two hundred years 
 arriving at maturity. A single log of this wood, 
 imported at Liverpool, weighed nearly seven tons; 
 and, a short time ago, Messrs. Broadwood, who 
 made your piano-forte Emma, gave the large sum 
 of three thousand pounds for three logs of mahog- 
 any, which were the produce of one tree. 
 
 Mrs. E. The employment of this wood arose 
 from accident. About the beginning of the last 
 century it was first brought to England, when a 
 few planks were sent to Dr. Gibbons, of London, 
 by his brother, a West Indian captain. As the 
 doctor was building a house, he gave the planks 
 to the workmen, who rejected them, as being too 
 hard ; some was also given to a cabinet-maker 
 to make a candle-box, and he urged the same ob- 
 jection. But when it was finished, it was far 
 brighter than the other furniture, and became an 
 object of great curiosity. Dr. Gibbons had there- 
 fore, a bureau made of it. and the Duchess of 
 
VENEERS. 207 
 
 Buckingham another ; the despised mahogany 
 was thus'taken into favor, and its use is now gen- 
 eral. 
 
 E. Papa, very thin mahogany is used ; for, 
 when a piece was broken off the table the other 
 day, I saw it was not much thicker than stout pa- 
 per. 
 
 Mr. E. Once the solid wood was preferred, 
 but now this, as well as others, is cut into thin 
 pieces, called veneers ; and thus the purpose is 
 answered at far less cost. At first, the veneers 
 were cut by hand ; but latterly this has been done 
 by machinery. I have seen one of these mills 
 driven by steam, and consisting of a number of 
 circular saws, the largest of which is eighteen 
 feet in diameter. The teeth of the saws are rath- 
 er wide, that they may not be clogged with the 
 dust ; and they revolve at a great rate. The log 
 of timber is fastened in a frame, and placed flat 
 in the direction in which it is to be cut. The 
 frame is then carried steadily forward on its bed ; 
 and the saw cuts, for coarse work, about one foot 
 of length in four seconds. When the wood is 
 harder, or of more value , the motion is slower, 
 but the quantity that may be produced is almost 
 incredible. Cabinet makers, who wish to make 
 goods very cheap, often have fifteen or sixteen 
 veneers out of an inch of wood ; but others think 
 eight or nine thicknesses enough. A log fifteen 
 feet long, and three feet each in other ways, would 
 spread out, according to the former mode, to the 
 extent of about an acre and three quarters ; and 
 when cut according to the latter, it would cover 
 nearly an acre. 
 
208 LAW OF NATURE. 
 
 E. O papa, what a number of chairs, and ta- 
 bles, and pianos, that quantity would cover ! And 
 then what a deal of money it must save, when 
 they make so little go a great way ! 
 
 Mrs. E. Our houses are greatly indebted to- 
 this wood for their present appearance. Much 
 of the furniture of former times was mean and 
 ill-fashioned. But the huge oak tables and Wind- 
 sor chairs made of elm, are now displaced by 
 others of better form, and more graceful materi- 
 als; and hence many advantages arise. The 
 East India mahogany* is a very large tree. It 
 rises to a great height, with a straight trunk which, 
 towards the upper part, throws out many branch- 
 es. The wood is of a dull red color, and not so 
 beautiful as common mahogany, but much hard- 
 er, heavier, and more durable. The natives of 
 India consider it the most lasting timber that their 
 country produces, and employ it in their temples, 
 and wherever they want strength and durability. 
 
 F. I wonder, papa, how high a tree could grow. 
 Mr. E. There is a law of nature, my dear, by 
 
 which the growth of trees is limited. That a lar- 
 ger body may have proportionate strength to a 
 smaller, it must be made still thicker and more 
 clumsy than it is made longer; and, beyond a 
 certain point, no proportions whatever will keep 
 it together, in opposition merely to the force of 
 its own weight. We have, therefore, no trees 
 reaching three hundred feet in height, even when 
 perfectly perpendicular, and sheltered in forests 
 which have been undisturbed from the beginning 
 
 * Febrifuga. 
 
LAW OF NATURE. 209 
 
 of time ; and oblique or horizontal branches are 
 kept within very narrow limits by the great 
 strength required to support them. 
 
 Mrs. E. To explain this law more fully, think 
 how massive are the limbs of the ox, the elephant, 
 the rhinoceros, compared with the slender forms 
 of the greyhound, the stag, and the antelope. 
 And unless the bones were made of stronger ma- 
 terial than now, a creature much larger than the 
 elephant would fall to pieces from inward weak- 
 ness. The whale is the largest of animals, but 
 it feels not its mighty weight, because it is con- 
 jtantly supported by the ocean. The giants of 
 tie heathen mythology could not have existed on 
 arth, for the same reason ; although in the moon 
 vhere weight or gravity is less, because of her 
 smaller size, such beings might live. Granite, 
 vliich is the strongest of rock, yields to the same 
 'av ; and if any rock or cliff m6re remarkable 
 ;han now remains on earth could be produced a- 
 un, the monstrosity would soon be corrected. 
 Bat, on the lunar orb, mountains of granite might 
 b? many times higher than on earth ; and the 
 oDservations of astronomers proves that they ac- 
 tially are so. It is also worthy of remark, that 
 a gradation of form is perceptible from granite 
 mountains down to those of chalk, gravel, and 
 sand ; and the geologist can generally tell the 
 substance of which a hill is composed by the pe- 
 culiarities of its shape. While, then, others over- 
 look such facts, let us regard and trace them 
 
 -to the will 
 
 And arbitration wise of the Supreme. 
 
 Did not his eye rule all things 
 
 - or could chance 
 
 Find place in his dominion, or dispose 
 One lawless particle to thwart his plan ; 
 
210 ALTITUDES. 
 
 Then God might bo surprised, and unforeseen 
 Conlingonce might alarm him, and disturb 
 The smooth and equal course of his affairs,' 
 
 But, it is time that we should engage in devo- 
 tional exercises, for which this thought may tend 
 to prepare us. 
 
 ALTITUDES. 
 
 ' IN a recent conversation, my dears/ said Mr. 
 El wood, f a curious fact was stated as to the height 
 of mountains, and another occurred to me afteh 
 wards, which I will now mention. A little ob- 
 servation and experience will enable a travelle* 
 to conjecture the*probable elevation of those he 
 has ascended, or the height above the sea of tiie 
 valleys which he traverses. For instance, Ue 
 loftiest summits, and the most pointed tops of rock 
 and ice, are not too elevated for the bouquetii, 
 The chamois does not ascend so high, but he 
 never enters the plains; he is only to be seen on 
 very lofty ridges in the vicinity of the snow-Jim. 
 The marmot and white hare frequent the slopes 
 of mountains which are beneath the favorite 
 haunts of this fleet and buoyant creature. The 
 fox does not like to rise higher than where he 
 can find brakes and thickets for concealment. 
 The vulture and the eagle share the domains of 
 the chamois, the ptarmigan those of the mormot; 
 and, while the grouse and the heathcock aspire 
 no higher than the pine-forests, the pheasant is 
 
VARIOUS PRODUCTIONS. 211 
 
 found in great abundance in almost all the 
 <woody heights which rise immediately above the 
 valleys. 
 
 ' The traveller has another guide in the vegeta- 
 ble products of the scene of his journeys. No 
 oaks are seen at a greater height than about 
 5,300 feet. The chestnut seldom ascends above 
 2,400 : the vine not more than 1,700. The or 
 ange and olive will only grow at the foot of the 
 Alps, and principally near the coast. The birch, 
 and the pitch-pine will flourish at an elevation of 
 4,500 feet ; but the beech stops at about 4,000. 
 Of fruit-trees, the cherry may be cultivated as 
 high as any at 3,000 feet. The alder ranges 
 to 6,000 ; the rhododendron as high. The dwarf 
 willow can bear the greatest altitude. Barley 
 and oats will sometimes grow at upwards of 5,000 
 feet. Some of the finest pasturages are found at 
 7,000 ; and there are many herbaceous plants and 
 grasses which can bear the elevation of 7,600 
 feet.' 
 
 E. That is very curious, papa ; but do you 
 know you have just mentioned several trees which 
 you and mamma have not yet described? Is 
 there anything curious about the beech ? * 
 
 Mr. E. It is a valuable tree, my love, which, 
 when sheltered, grows to a great height. The 
 poet Virgil chose it for a shade ; for no tree forms 
 so complete a roof. Its head, however, is not 
 beautiful, and its branches have neither the ele- 
 gance of the ash, nor the firmness of the oak. 
 The hue of the bark is an agreeable olive ; and 
 its trunk, often studded with bold knots, is gen- 
 
 *Fagua sylvatica. 
 
212 THE BEECH THE BIRCH. 
 
 erally picturesque. Its tints, in autumn, are ve- 
 ry beautiful. The close texture of the wood 
 adapts it to many purposes. The small timber 
 makes excellent charcoal : the mast, or fruit, is 
 eaten by hogs ; and the poor in Silesia extract 
 from it an oil, which 'they use instead of butter. 
 The nut is sometimes burnt to make an infusion 
 something like coffee. The finest beech on rec- 
 ord appears to be that in Woburn park, situat- 
 ed on a rising ground south of the abbey, in a 
 fine grove of that species. The height of this 
 tree, at present, is one hundred feet. It has a 
 clear and nearly equally cylindrical stem,fifty feet 
 high ; and the top, which is, in every respect, of 
 the most graceful proportions, is of the same ele- 
 vation. The solid contents are four hundred 
 feet. 
 
 Mrs. E. The birch,* which papa also men- 
 tioned, is a graceful tree, diffusing an agreeable 
 fragrance. When it arrives at a considerable 
 size, the branches ' weep 5 or hang down ; and as 
 they are sometimes thirty or forty feet long, and 
 not thicker than a common packthread, they are 
 very beautiful, especially when their points dip 
 in a clear mountain-stream. In some parts of 
 the highlands of Scotland, the birch is a timber 
 for all uses. The stronger stems are the rafters 
 of the cabin ; and wattles of the boughs are 
 the walls and the floor. Sometimes, howev- 
 er, the turf, with the heather on it, is piled up 
 for walls, and on these a few poles for rafters are 
 placed, which have a covering of turf and green 
 broom fastened together by straw bands or poles. 
 
 *Betula alba. 
 
USES OF THE BIRCH. 213 
 
 Chests and boxes are often made of a rude bask- 
 et-work of birch. Of it, too, the highlander 
 forms his spade, his plough, and, if he is so 
 rich, his cart and harness ; and, when other ma- 
 terials are used, withes of twisted birch still 
 serve for cordage, which is, in fact, more dura- 
 ble than ropes of hemp, and the only preparation 
 for which is to bark the twig, and twist it while 
 green. In Kamschatka, the birches, which 
 abound, are employed for making sledges ; the 
 green bark is cut in small pieces, and eaten with 
 caviare, and the sap furnishes an agreeable drink. 
 Strong and light canoes were, in early times, 
 made of the bark ; and it is still used for the 
 same purpose in the northern parts of America. 
 The canoe-birch, used by the Indians and French 
 Canadians, is sometimes seventy feet high, and 
 the weight of a canoe that will hold four persons 
 does not exceed fifty pounds. 
 
 E, That is very handy, mamma; for one of 
 them can take it up and carry it wherever he 
 likes. Sometimes, too I should think a great 
 deal of time may be saved ; because he can thus 
 take a cut across, instead of going all the way 
 round. 
 
 Mr. E. It may be, Emma; but the uses of 
 birch are various, not forgetting the large rod of 
 it which the old schoolmasters found, I presume, 
 very effective, as a teacher of Latin, Grammar, 
 Geography, and other queer things of the same 
 kind. I am glad that Frederick wants no such 
 assistance, for my own sake as well as his. The 
 alder* is not such a handsome tree as the birch, 
 
 * Alnus glutinosa. 
 
 18 
 
214 THE ALDER THE WILLOW. 
 
 neither is the timber applicable to so many useful 
 purposes. It is a native of almost every part of 
 Europe. Its bark, however, contains a good deal 
 of tannin ; the young shoots dye a yellow or cin- 
 namon color, the wood a brown, and the catkins 
 of the flower a green. The timber of one kind 
 is red, and often so finely streaked that it is call- 
 ed in the north, Scotch mahogany, and of it fur- 
 niture is made. 
 
 E. Arid then, papa, you said something about 
 the willow.* 
 
 Mr. E. The weeping willowf is a native of the 
 Levant, but it thrives well in England, if the sit- 
 uation be not too cold, and near the water. It 
 rises to a considerable height, and no tree can 
 be more graceful on the brink of a lake or stream. 
 It is said that Pope, the poet, planted the first in 
 England. Having received a present of figs from 
 Turkey, he observed a twig of the basket in which 
 they were packed, putting forth a shoot ; this he 
 planted in his garden, and it soon became a fine 
 tree, from which all the weeping willows in Eng- 
 land have sprung. This parent tree was, how- 
 ever, cut down a few years ago. 
 
 F. Is it useful as well as ornamental ? 
 Mrs. E. It is : 
 
 ' The willow that droops by the side of a river, 
 
 And drinks all its life from the stream that flows by, 
 
 In return, spends that life in the cause of the giver, 
 And shadows the stream from the heat of the sky.' 
 
 The ancient Britons sometimes made their cora- 
 cles or boats, of basket-work of willow, arid then 
 covered them with skins : they were remarkably 
 light and buoyant. The osier,J when allowed, 
 
 *Salix. tSalix Babylonica. tSalix Viminali*. 
 
THE POPLAR. ^It> 
 
 becomes a small tree ; but. it~is generally cut down 
 for basket-work. For this it was employed at a 
 very early period. The willow is also exten- 
 sively used in the manufacture of charcoal, for 
 which the^wood is built up in a pyramidal form, 
 and the pile covered with clay or earth, leaving 
 a few air-holes, which are closed as soon as the 
 mass is well lighted. In India, charcoal is man- 
 ufactured by a particular caste or grade of the 
 natives. And now, I think, I have described all 
 that I omitted in former conversations, and men- 
 tioned just now. 
 
 E. Oh ! but, papa, I will think of some more ! 
 Let me see ! now I have it there's the pop- 
 lar ! 
 
 Mr. E. True : 
 
 c The poplar, that with silver lines his leaf.' 
 
 Of this tree there are several kinds. The wood 
 of the white poplar * is soft, but of it some things 
 are made. On the continent, one species is 
 manufactured into thin slices, called spartcrie, 
 which is made up into ladies 3 bonnets. The 
 seeds of the former, also, ,are surrounded with a 
 sort of cotton, of which an attempt has been made 
 to produce paper, and even cloth. With the as- 
 pen, or trembling poplar, you are familiar : it is 
 singular, because of the agitation of its leaves 
 from the slightest breeze. 
 
 E. Now, mamma, I have thought of one for 
 you the ash.t 
 
 Mrs. E. The ' nothing ill;' as Spenser calls it, 
 is one of the most valuable trees. It is denomi- 
 nated ' the husbandman's tree/ because it is un- 
 equalled for agricultural implements. Gilpin 
 *Populus canescens. tFrainus excelsior. 
 
216 THE ASH THE ELM. 
 
 styles the oak the Hercules of the forest ; and 
 the ash the Venus. The one displays strength, 
 the other elegance. The foliage of the ash is 
 very beautiful ; but it drops its leaves early, and, 
 instead of adding its tint to the many trees of au- 
 tumn, its boughs are desolate. This tree, like 
 the beech, and the sycamore, shows the effects 
 of water on vegetation in a remarkable manner, 
 by producing, in stiff, dry soils, only a few stunt- 
 ed roots ; whereas, in a deep, rich, free soil, in- 
 numerable fibres are developed, and the minutest 
 expand with facility. In the same way, the bot- 
 tom of the stems of particular plants change in 
 certain situations to a bulbous structure, of which 
 the Timothy and fox-tail grasses are examples ; 
 and the crow-foot, whose white blossoms may be 
 seen sprinkled over the waters of every pond, or 
 slow-running stream, during the summer months, 
 has three leaves which are under water, divided 
 into thread-like leaflets, while those which float 
 on the surface are broad, rounded, and entire. 
 The mountain-ash* is a hardy but slow-growing 
 tree; its white flowers and bright red berries 
 make it ornamental in the shrubbery ; but the 
 wood is soft, and not durable. 
 
 Mr. E. And I have thought of another tree : 
 
 ' There, fast-rooted in his bank, 
 
 Stands, never overlooked, our favorite elm, 
 That screens the herdsman's solitary hut. 1 
 
 E. And don't you remember, papa, that fine 
 avenue at Windsor, called ' the Long Walk ? ' I 
 think you said, when we were there, that those 
 trees were elms. 
 
 * Pyrus aucuparia. 
 
COLORING OF LEAVES. 217 
 
 Mr. E. They are, my dear ; though most of 
 them have passed their prime. The elm rises to 
 a greater height than the generality of English 
 forest-trees : its foliage hangs at once full and 
 loosely ; so that it receives great masses of light, 
 and produces * the chequered shade' which im- 
 parts so much beauty to woodland scenes. It is 
 the first tree which puts on its light and cheerful 
 green ; and sometimes very early in the season 
 the branches are dark with innumerable small 
 purple flowers, often as full as the subsequent 
 leafy foliage. As, too, it has just occurred to 
 me, I may mention a singular fact as to the au- 
 tumnal coloring of leaves. M. Prinsep had ob- 
 served that, in the leaves which naturally cover 
 each other in part, the uncovered portion is al- 
 ways the more quickly and more deeply colored, 
 and he felt anxious to determine if the change of 
 color took place in darkness. On sheltering from 
 the action of light, either the whole branches, or 
 parts of leaves, he always found that all change 
 of color was prevented. If the entire leaf was 
 placed in the dark, it fell off green ; if only a part, 
 the rest changed color, and the covered portion 
 retained its original hue. If he placed in the 
 dark, leaves, or portion of leaves, which were yel- 
 low, before reddening, the leaf fell off yellow, or 
 the covered part retained that color, while the 
 rest became red ; thus showing that the action 
 of light was necessary in all the stages of color- 
 ing. 
 
 Mrs. E. A quotation from Conway's Travels 
 will be an appropriate close to the present con- 
 versation: 'I must attempt a description of the hol- 
 18* 
 
218 THE HOLLOW OF LUZ. 
 
 low of Luz, for there is nothing in any other coun- 
 try to which I can liken it. Figure to yourself 
 a cradle, or hollow, about two miles long, and a- 
 bout one mile broad, the sides of this cradle be- 
 ing the slopes of mountains, which rise from six 
 to seven thousand feet above the level. This lit- 
 tle hollow, which cannot be called a plain, be- 
 cause it contains within it some little eminences, 
 is an enamel of the freshest and most beautiful 
 hues in nature: the most living green is mingled 
 with the rich golden of the ripe harvest, and the 
 pale straw of the later grains. Oak, ash, fir, and 
 other trees, various in their tints as in their names, 
 are scattered single, or in clumps, over the little 
 fields : the two Gaves, one from Gavarnie, and 
 the other from Bareges, unite their streams, and 
 flow in graceful curves through this little Eden. 
 But these features of beauty and fertility are not 
 confined to the hollow. Here the charm of a 
 southern climate robs the mountain sides of their 
 heath and fern, and clothes them with cultivation. 
 Two miles up the mountain-sides, round and 
 round the cradle, the yellow harvest chequers the 
 landscape. At elevations which, in more northern 
 countries, would be abandoned to the heath and 
 the fir, waves the golden grain ; and both the 
 hollow and the slopes of the mountains, as far up 
 as cultivation extends, are scattered with houses, 
 and cottages, and villages. All this is beauty 
 and of the highest, order. 1 now come to the 
 picturesque. Upon one side of this valley, on an 
 eminence entirely separate from the mountain, 
 stands the town of Luz its buildings, and its 
 church rising out of the wood ; -and upon an- 
 
PERSIAN SAGACITY. 219 
 
 other separate eminence, still higher, are seen 
 the extensive ruins of the castle of Saint Marie. 
 At the southern side of the castle, the defile of 
 the Gavarine opens a gorge presenting every 
 feature of the picturesque : the sides are precipi- 
 tous rocks, hanging thick with wood: a romantic 
 bridge spans the stream; and, about four hundred 
 feet above the river, embosomed in oak, and 
 standing upon precipices, is seen the irregular 
 range of buildings which constitute the baths of 
 St. Sauveur. But the features of sublimity are 
 still to be added : these are the lofty summits of the 
 highest of the Pyrenees; jagged rocks and .^fa&w 
 peaks, which, from various spots, and particular- 
 ly from the ruins of St. Marie, are seen rising 
 behind the nearer mountains, and forming a wi- 
 der and still more sublime amphitheatre/ 
 
 PERSIAN SAGACITY. 
 
 'WHAT do you think, papa, mamma told me 
 this morning ? ' said Emma. 
 
 * Something worthy your remembrance, no 
 doubt, my dear little girl,' replied her father; 
 ' but it is not easy to guess what. ' 
 
 ' Then I will tell you, papa, ' was the rejoind- 
 er ; 'it was that, when a Persian philosopher was 
 once asked how he had acquired so much know- 
 ledge, he replied ' By not being prevented by 
 shame from asking questions when I was igno- 
 rant." ' 
 
220 THE SYCAMORE, 
 
 1 His conduct was wise, ' said Mr. Elvvood, 
 and deserves imitation ; but you and Frederick, 
 smile very knowingly. What else have you to 
 tell me ? ' 
 
 ' That we should like to do as he did, papa, ' 
 replied Frederick, ' that we may be wise too. 
 You said, some time ago, if we found anything 
 we did not understand in the Bible, and would 
 come and ask you, you would tell us; and so we 
 came to inquire about several things; and here 
 comes dear dear mamma, who will not, I know, 
 let you be too tired. ' 
 
 ' I am sure, my dears, it will afford us pleasure 
 to meet your wishes, ' said Mr. Elwood ; ' it is de- 
 lightful to give you general information ; but es- 
 pecially to instruct you in that f word ' which God 
 ' has magnified above all his name. ' But, what 
 is your first question ? ' 
 
 F. What kind of a tree is the sycamore ? 
 
 Mr. E. The name it bears is formed of two 
 words ; one means a fig-tree, and the other a mul- 
 berry-tree, because it resembles the latter in its 
 leaves, and the former in its fruit. The sycamore 
 is of the height of a beech, and bears its fruit in 
 a manner quite different from other trees : it has 
 them on the trunk itself, which shoots out little 
 sprigs in the form of grape-stalks, at the end of 
 which grow the fruit, close to one another, almost 
 like a cluster of grapes. The tree is always 
 green, and bears fruit several times in the year, 
 without observing any certain seasons. The 
 fruit has the figure and smell of real figs, but is 
 inferior to them in the taste, having a disagreeable 
 sweetness. Its color is a yellow, inclining to an 
 
THE POMEGRANATE. 221 
 
 ochre, shadowed by a flesh-color. In the inside 
 it resembles the common figs, except that it has 
 a blackish coloring, with yellow spots. The tree 
 is pretty common in Egypt ; the people, for the 
 greater part, live on its fruit, arid think themselves 
 well regaled when they have a piece of bread, a 
 couple of sycamore-figs, and a pitcher of water. 
 In Palestine, too, it is often seen. Its timber has 
 been used in the construction of buildings, and 
 has proved very durable. Dr. Shaw states, when 
 describing the catacombs and mummies of Egypt, 
 that he found both the mummy-chests, and the 
 little square boxes, containing various figures, 
 which are placed at the feet of each mummy, to 
 be made of sycamore-wood, and thus preserved, 
 uncorrupled and entire, for at least three thou- 
 sand years. 
 
 E. Dear ! how long it lasts ! Amos called him- 
 self, papa, * a gatherer of sycamore-fruit ;' was 
 there anything singular in this"? 
 
 Mr. E. There was, my dear. It is stated, 
 by several ancient writers, that the fruit of the 
 sycamore must be cut, or scratched, either with 
 the nail or with iron, before it "will ripen; and, 
 if our translators had said that Amos was a syca- 
 more-tree dresser, it would have been more de- 
 scriptive of his occupation before he became a 
 prophet. 
 
 E. I should think so, papa. Now, mamma, 
 will you tell us something about pomegranates?* 
 
 Mrs. E. It was, formerly, one of the most 
 delicate fruits of the East. The tree sometimes 
 
 * Punica Granatum. 
 
222 TH72 POMEGRANATE. 
 
 rises to the height of twenty feet, is covered with 
 a brownish bark, and is divided into many small 
 branches, which are armed with spines ; the leaves 
 are oblong, or lance-shaped, pointed, veined, of 
 a deep green color, and placed upon short foot- 
 stalks. Its flowers are large, of a rich scarlet 
 color, and stand at the end of the young branches, 
 and sometimes appear in clusters ; but the times 
 of their blowing are so irregular, that the succes- 
 sion is often continued for months. The fruit is 
 about the size of an orange ; the tind is thick and 
 tough, externally reddish, internally yellowish, 
 filled with a red, juicy pulp, contained in trans- 
 parent, cellular membrane, and included in nine 
 cells, within which numerous oblong, angular 
 seeds are also lodged. The high estimation in 
 which the pomegranate was held by the Israel- 
 ites, is evident from its being one of the three 
 kinds of fruit brought by the spies from Eshcol 
 to Moses and the congregation in the wilderness ; 
 and from their mentioning it as one of the great- 
 est luxuries they enjoyed in Egypt, and the want 
 of which they felt so severely in the sandy desert. 
 One principal recommendation of the promised 
 land was its yielding promegranates. 
 
 F. Has the fruit been produced in England, 
 mamma? 
 
 Mrs. E. Here it seldom arrives at maturity ; 
 but the tree is highly prized as an ornament, the 
 flowers being of a bright scarlet color, and, es- 
 pecially the double ones, very handsome. The 
 odor is as fragrant as their color is bright. This 
 tree, too, is long-lived. At Paris and Versailles, 
 some specimens have existed more than two cen- 
 turies. But papa is ready for another inquiry. 
 
THE LIGN ALOE CHINESE ALOE. 223 
 
 E. What, papa, was the lign-aloe ? 
 
 Mr. E. It is a tree eight or ten feet in height, 
 with a tolerable stout stem. At the top grows a 
 large tuft of jagged' and thick leaves, broad at 
 the bottom, but growing narrower towards the 
 point, and about four feet in length. The blos- 
 soms are red, intermingled with yellow, and dou- 
 ble, like cloves ; from which comes a red and 
 white fruit, of the size of a pea, oblong and trian- 
 gular, with three apartments filled with seed. 
 The tree has a very beautiful appearance, and a 
 forest of them is said to resemble a numerous 
 encampment. Under the bark there are three 
 sorts of wood : the first black, solid, and weighty ; 
 the second tawny, of a light spongy texture, and 
 filled with a fragrant and agreeable resin ; the 
 third, which is the heart, of a fine, strong aro- 
 matic smell, used for perfume, and esteemed, in 
 the East, as more precious than gold. 
 
 F. Are other aloes remarkable ? 
 
 Mr. E. In China the aloe has the height and 
 figure of an olive tree. It contains within the 
 bark three sorts of wood : the first, black, com- 
 pact, and heavy, is called eagle-wood it is 
 scarce ; the second, called calambooc, is light, 
 like rotten-wood ; the third, near the centre, is 
 called calamba-wood, and sells, in India, for its 
 weight in gold. Its smell is exquisite : it is an 
 excellent cordial in cases of fainting, or of palsy. 
 
 E. What can you tell us about manna, mam- 
 ma? 
 
 Mrs. E. I will read you, in answer to this 
 question, a quotation from Burckhardt. He says 
 it is obtained from the tamarisk, or tarfa : 'In 
 
224 MANNA, 
 
 the month of June it drops from the thorns of the 
 tree on the fallen twigs, leaves, and thorns, which 
 always cover the ground beneath that tree in 
 the natural state ; the manna is collected before 
 sun-rise, when it is coagulated^ but it dissolves as 
 soon as the sun shines upon it. The Arabs clear 
 away the dust and leaves which adhere to it, 
 boil it, strain it through a coarse piece of cloth, 
 and put it into leather skins : in this way they 
 preserve it till the following year, and use it as 
 they do honey, to pour over their unleavened 
 bread, or to dip their bread into. I could not 
 learn that it was ever made into cakes, or loaves. 
 The manna is found only in years in which co- 
 pious rains have fallen : sometimes it is not pro- 
 duced at all, as will probably happen this year/ 
 But this statement does not satisfy me that the 
 manna the traveller has described was that of the 
 Israelites. 
 
 F. What do you think it was, then, mamma? 
 
 Mrs. E. Its substance is, 1 think, unknown; 
 but I have no doubt that, so far from its being a 
 natural production, it was miraculously sent to 
 relieve the wants of the Israelites. I will men- 
 tion some remarkable points of difference, which 
 have been suggested by a most judicious Jewish 
 interpreter. The natural manna was never 
 found in the desert where this fell : where the 
 common manna does fall it is only in the spring- 
 time, in March and April, whereas this fell 
 throughout all the mouths of the year: the ordi- 
 nary marina does not become corrupt, as this did, 
 if kept till the morning : it cannot be ground or 
 beaten in a mortar, so as to make cakes, as this 
 
THE PALM-TREE. 225 
 
 was: the common manna is medical, and cannot 
 be used for food, like this : this fell in a double 
 proportion on the sixth day, and not on the Sab- 
 bath, as it would have done had it fallen natur- 
 ally : it followed the Israelites in all their jour- 
 neys, wherever they pitched their tents ; and it 
 ceased at the very time of the year when the oth- 
 er falls. It is evident that they never saw it be- 
 fore ; and, by a pot of it being laid up in the ark, it 
 is as likely that nothing of the kind appeared again. 
 
 F. Thank you, dear mamma : we will try and 
 remember what you have said ; and perhaps papa 
 will now be so kind as to describe to us the palm- 
 tree. 
 
 Mr. E. The trunk is remarkably straight and 
 lofty, and is crowned at the top by a large tuft 
 of leaves, about four feet long, which are con- 
 stantly renewed, and always retain their rich ver- 
 dure. The stalks are generally full of rugged 
 knots, which are vestiges of decayed leaves ; for 
 the trunk of the tree is not solid, but its centre is 
 filled with pitch, round which is a tough bark, 
 full of strong fibres when young, which, as the 
 tree grows old, hardens, and becomes ligneous, 
 or woody. To this bark the leaves are closely 
 joined, which, in the centre, rise erect, but, after 
 they are advanced above the sheath that sur- 
 rounds them, .they expand very wide on every 
 side of the stem, and, as the older leaves decay, 
 the stalk advances in height. The leaves, when 
 the tree has grown to a size for bearing fruit, are 
 six or eight feet long, and very wide when ex- 
 panded. The fruit called the date grows below 
 the leaves in clusters. 
 19 
 
226 THE PALM-TREE. 
 
 E. Is it long before it bears fruit ? 
 
 Mr. E. The palm-tree arrives at its greatest 
 vigor about thirty years after* transplantation ; 
 and continues so for seventy years, bearing an- 
 nually fifteen or twenty clusters of dates, each of 
 them weighing fifteen or twenty pounds. Its 
 produce, however, depends much on circum- 
 stances. It requires no other culture and at- 
 tendance than to be well watered once in four or 
 five days, and to have a few of the lower boughs 
 lopped off, whenever they begin to droop or with- 
 er. Those whose stumps, or pollices, being thus 
 gradually left on the trunk, seem like so many 
 rounds of a ladder, to climb up the tree, are 
 quickly supplied with others, which gradually 
 hang down from the top or crown, contributing, 
 not only to the regular and uniform growth of the 
 tree, but, likewise, to its perpetual and delightful 
 verdure. Rearing its stem, and expanding its 
 broad and beautiful shade where there is nothing 
 else to shelter man from the burning rays of the 
 sun, the palm-tree is hailed by the wanderer in 
 the desert with more pleasure than any other 
 tree ; for, in addition to its shade and its fruit, 
 wherever a little clump of palms contrasts their 
 bright green with the red wilderness around, he 
 may almost be sure that he shall find a fountain 
 ready to afford him its cooling and refreshing wa- 
 ter. When Moses and the Israelites arrived at 
 Elim, they found twelve wells of water, by the 
 side of seventy palm-trees ; and Sir Robert Wil- 
 son says, that when the English army landed in 
 Egypt, in 1801, to expel the French from that 
 country, Sir Sidney Smith assured the troops that, 
 
THE PALM-TREE. 227 
 
 wherever date-trees grew, water must be near; 
 and so they found it, on digging usually within 
 such a distance that the roots of the tree could 
 obtain moisture from the fluid. Water is indeed 
 a precious element, but never so valuable as in 
 such circumstances. 'To be thirsty in a desert/ 
 says Belzoni, ' without water, exposed to the burn- 
 ing sun without shelter, and with no hopes of 
 finding either, is the most terrible situation that 
 a man can be placed in, and one of the greatest 
 sufferings that a human being can sustain.' 
 
 E. I am not surprised then, mamnja, that peo- 
 ple love the palm-tree. 
 
 Mrs. E. There are many reasons for their do- 
 ing so. The harvest of dates is expected with as 
 much anxiety, and attended with as general re- 
 joicing, as the vintage of the South of Europe. 
 The crop sometimes fails, or is destroyed by lo- 
 custs, and then a universal gloom prevails. 
 When no ripe dates can be procured, the princi- 
 pal substance of the people is the date-paste, 
 which is prepared by pressing the fruit, when ful- 
 ly matured, in large baskets. ' What is the price 
 of dates at Mecca, or Medina?' is always the 
 first question asked by a Bedouin, who meets a 
 passenger on the road. There is hardly any part 
 of the tree which is not serviceable to man, ei- 
 ther as a necessary or a luxury. When the fruit 
 is completely ripened, it will yield, by strong pres- 
 sure, a delicious syrup, which is used for preserv- 
 ing dates, and other fruits, or the fruit may be 
 made into jellies and tarts. Palm-wine is also 
 made from the date. 
 
 E. Can anything more be done with it, papa ? 
 
228 THE PALM-TREE. 
 
 Mr. E. Gibbon says, that the diligent natives 
 celebrated, either in prose or verse, the three hun- 
 dred and sixty uses to which the trunk, the 
 branches, the leaves, the juice, and the fruit 
 were skilfully applied. And Dr. Clarke remarks, 
 that the extensive importance of the date-tree is, 
 one of the most curious subjects to which a trav- 
 eller can direct his attention. A considerable 
 part of the inhabitants of Egypt, of Arabia, and 
 of Persia, subsist almost entirely on its fruit. 
 They boast also of its medical virtues. Their 
 camels feed on the date-stone. From the leaves 
 they make couches, baskets, bags, mats, and 
 brushes ; from the branches cages for their poul- 
 try, and fences for their gardens ; from the fibres 
 of the boughs, thread, ropes, and rigging ; from 
 the sap is prepared a spirituous liquor ; and the 
 body of the tree furnishes fuel, and also yields a 
 nutritious substance. 
 
 Mrs. E. From another and smaller species,* 
 which is a native of the East Indies, the supply 
 of this farinaceous matter is better and more 
 abundant. It is a very low tree, or rather a great 
 leafy bush ; for the trunk is never above a foot and 
 a half, or two feet in height, and the leaves com- 
 pletely conceal it. These are of a much deeper 
 green, and much narrower than those of the date. 
 The berries are about the size of kidney beans, 
 and of a shining black ; they have not much pulp, 
 but what they have is sweet and mealy. In times 
 of scarcity, the natives of Hindostan have re- 
 course to the wood of this palm for food. When 
 the stem is stripped of the leaves, and of the 
 
 * Phoenix farinifera. 
 
THE PALM-TREE. 229 
 
 brown fibrous matter with which their roots are 
 covered, it is about eighteen inches long, and six 
 in diameter where thickest. The outside con- 
 sists of woody fibres, of a white color, and very 
 much matted together, and within these the fari- 
 naceous matter is contained. To obtain that, 
 the trunk is split into pieces ; these are dried, 
 beat in mortars, and then the mass is shifted to 
 separate the fibres. After this the farina is ready 
 for being boiled into congee, or gruel, which 
 has saved the lives of many whom famine has 
 threatened with destruction. 
 
 E. Now, I suppose we have heard every thing 
 about the palm. What an extraordinary tree 
 it is ! 
 
 Mr. E. Oh, no ! much more remains to be 
 told. The true sago-palm of Asia yields a great- 
 er quantity of nourishing matter than any other 
 plant, except the banana. The single trunk of 
 a tree of this species, in its fifteenth year, some- 
 times furnishes six hundred pounds of sago. It 
 has even been calculated that a single acre of 
 land will support four hundred and thirty-five 
 sago-palms, which will annually produce 120,500 
 pounds of sago. 
 
 E. What a quantity ! How many sick people 
 would that relieve, though they ate as much as I 
 did when I was ill ! But I must listen, and not 
 talk ; for I see you have more to tell us, and 
 mamma is just bringing a book to the table. 
 
 Mr.E. The northern bank of the Oronoco, the 
 great river of South America, is covered with 
 palms, which produce sago. The whole country 
 19* 
 
230 THE SAGO-PALM THE CABBAGE-PALM. 
 
 in which they abound is subject to inundations ; 
 and the fan-like branches of these trees look like 
 a forest which rises out of the bosom of the wa- 
 ters. The navigator, who passes along, is sur- 
 prised to see the tops of these trees lighted with 
 fires. They are kindled by the Guanacas, a peo- 
 ple who have remained for ages in these marshy 
 districts, secured from the floods by living 
 among the palms. In the branches they suspend 
 mats, which they fill with clay, and on this damp 
 hearth kindle the fires which are necessary to 
 their comfort. The palm offers to this rude race, 
 as well as to other tribes who inhabit the Gulf of 
 Darien, and the watery lands between the Gua- 
 rapitha, and the mouths of the Amazon, a safe 
 habitation amidst their ' perils of waters/ It af- 
 fords i them, also, in its fruit, its farinaceous 
 bark, its sap, abounding with sugar, and its fi- 
 brous stalks, pleasant food to eat, wine to drink 
 and thread to make cordage and hammocks. 
 ' It is curious to behold/ says Humboldt, ' in the 
 lowest stage of human civilization, the existence 
 of a whole race depending upon a single species 
 of palm, in a similar degree with those insects 
 which subsist but on one species of flower.' 
 
 Mrs. E. I must read you an extract from Dr. 
 Walsh's Brazil, which will present you with an- 
 other singular fact : ' Among the trees which gave 
 the woods, to a European, a peculiar character, 
 none was more striking than the singularity of the 
 palm-trees. These were seen shooting above the 
 rest to an immense height, with their long and 
 slender stems crowned with feathery foliage, like 
 ostriches' plumes, waving in the air ; and of all 
 
THE CABBAGE-PALM. 231 
 
 these the assai is the most elegant and beautiful. 
 It is the taper palm which yields the cabbage. 
 It rises from a slender stem, not more than six 
 inches in diameter at the base ; and it shoots 
 sometimes up to the height of a hundred feet or 
 more. The stem is marked by annual rings, five 
 or six inches asunder ; and near the summit is a 
 long succulent, or juicy cylinder, from which the 
 leaves issue. This green foot-stalk contains the 
 embryo of the plant. It consists of the rudi- 
 ments of the future leaves, beautifully plaited 
 and convoluted at the centre ; and their devel- 
 opment from hence forms the elegant tuft that 
 crowns the summit. This portion is exceedingly 
 tender, yielding a pleasant and wholesome vege- 
 table, like cabbage, boiled and eaten with meat. 
 From all parts of the woods, this elegant tree was 
 seen shooting above its companions, waving in 
 every breeze its long flexible stem, and its tuft of 
 light silken leaves. It seemed, indeed, to be- 
 long more to the sky than to the earth : in some 
 places, it crowned the summits of the highest 
 ridges, and was the only one whose foliage was 
 seen projected on the blue sky, like Berenice's 
 hair floating in the starry firmament ; for the stem 
 that supported it was so slender that it could not 
 be discerned in the distance. It was with great 
 regret I first attacked this beautiful tree, and ut- 
 terly destroyed it for the small portion of its es- 
 culent part. When we saw it growing on the 
 side of a hill, near the road, we seized its taper 
 stem, and bent it down, till it snapped off near 
 the root, and lay prostrate across the way. Here 
 we cut off its graceful head, and left its body to 
 
232 THE TICU-PALM. 
 
 decay. In any other country this might be deem- 
 ed a wanton and unjustifiable act of destruction ; 
 but, in this, it was only removing that which 
 encumbered the soil with its profusion.' 
 
 F. Ah, that is remarkable ! I fear now, papa, 
 you and mamma must be quite tired. 
 
 Mr.E. Not too much so to mention a few 
 things more. The Brazilians are beginning to 
 use the ticu-palm* as a substitute for hemp and 
 flax. The leaf is long and exceedingly fibrous, 
 covered with small spines. When bent in the 
 middle, the ribs of the leaf, which are very brit- 
 tle, crack and separate ; the ends are then drawn 
 down at each side, and leaves a series of strong 
 fibres of the best quality behind them, which are 
 very applicable to the purposes of manufacture. 
 The tree is fifteen or twenty feet high ; and the 
 stem as thick as the wrist, divided into joints, and 
 circle of spines round each. It yields, also, an 
 acid fruit, which grows in clusters on the sum- 
 mit of the stem. It consists of a stone covered 
 over with a pulp, and enclosed in a purple skin, so 
 that it is very like a bunch of purple grapes. 
 The fruit is cooling and agreeable : the stone ex- 
 actly resembles a cocoa-nut in miniature, and has 
 a kernel within. 
 
 Mrs. E. In the city of Delhi, there is said to 
 be an extraordinary work of art, culled ' the pea- 
 cock-throne.' It is an oval form, placed under a 
 palm-tree which overshadows it with its foliage ; a 
 peacock, perched on one of the large palmated 
 leaves, stretches its wings to cover the person who 
 
 * Bartris acanthocarpos. 
 
SYMBOLS. 233 
 
 is seated on the throne. The palm-tree and pea- 
 cock are of gold ; so thin and delicate are the fea- 
 thers and leaves that they seem to wave and trem- 
 ble with the slightest breath of wind. The tail 
 and wings of the peacock glitter with superb em- 
 eralds. The fruit of the palm is partly executed 
 in Golconda diamonds, and it is an exact imita- 
 tion of nature. 
 
 The root of the palm-tree produces a great 
 number of stickers, which, spreading upwards, 
 form a kind of forest. Under a little wood of this 
 kind, it has been thought, the prophetess Debo- 
 rah dwelt, between Ramah and Bethel ; and Dr. 
 Shaw supposes that, when it is said, ' the righ- 
 teous shall flourish like the palm-tree/ the proph- 
 et alludes rather to this multiplication of it than 
 to its towering height. It is probable that Ta- 
 mar, or Tadmar, built in the desert by Solomon, 
 and afterwards called Palmyra by the Greeks, 
 obtained its name from the number of palm-trees 
 which grew about it. The finest appear, how- 
 ever, to have grown in the vicinity of Jordan and 
 Engeddi ; and they still flourish in the plain of Jer- 
 icho, which was anciently termed, by way of dis- 
 tinction, 'the city of palm-trees. 7 In 1818, but 
 few of them were left. The palm-tree was the 
 common symbol of Palestine : many coins of Ves- 
 pasian and other emperors being extant, in which 
 Judea is personified by a disconsolate woman sit- 
 ting under a palm-tree. It is frequently employ- 
 ed in the Scriptures as an image ; but ' chiefly is 
 the comparison applicable/ says Bishop Home, 
 ' to the Just One, the King of Righteousness, and 
 Tree of Life; eminent and upright; ever ver- 
 
234 SYMBOLS. 
 
 dant and fragrant ; under the greatest pressure 
 and weight of sufferings, still ascending towards 
 heaven ; affording both fruit and protection ; in- 
 corruptible and immortal/ 
 
 E. I have just thought, mamma, that those 
 who stand around the throne have palms in their 
 hands. 
 
 Mrs. E. They have, my dear, as the symbols 
 of victory : but they enjoy the glory which is yet 
 to be revealed. We have often gazed on the 
 beauties of this lower world ; and, as we do so, 
 we may well say with the poet, : 
 
 e Oh, good beyond compare ! 
 
 If thus thy meaner works are fair, 
 
 If thus thy bounties gild the span 
 
 Of ruined earth and sinful man : 
 
 How glorious must that mansion be 
 
 Where thy redeemed shall dwell with thee"!' 
 
 E. Oh, dear Frederick ! what a number of de- 
 lightful things we have heard since I told papa 
 about the philosopher ! Let us do as he did, 
 always. 
 
 Mr. E. I shall be glad to find you do, my 
 dears ; and then you will owe much to an imita* 
 tion of Persian sagacity. 
 
THE LAST ROSES. 235 
 
 THE LAST ROSES. 
 
 c I AM so sorry, mamma/ said Emma; ( these 
 seem the last roses we shall have this summer ; 
 the others and there was such a number ! are 
 all gone : and these will soon fade. I wish they 
 were all about to bloom. ; 
 
 * We must wait for that pleasure/ replied Mrs. 
 Elwood ; " and, in the mean time, regard the me- 
 mento they give of our own frailty. In this world 
 we must look for disappointments and sorrows 
 they are a part of the common lot : but life has 
 its pleasures and its joys too. How beautifully 
 has some writer said, to one who declared it had 
 no reality but woe, 
 
 ' Oh ! say not so although to man 
 
 No longer it is given, 
 To breathe the gales of Paradise, 
 
 And hear the strains of heaven ; 
 Though sin has shed her withering blight 
 On all that once was fair and bright ; 
 And each his pligrim path must tread, 
 Where thorns and briers are thickly spread ; 
 Yet many a floweret, in its bloom, 
 Flings o'er this path its rich perfume ; 
 And many a spot of brightest green, 
 To gem the wilderness is seen.' 
 
 ' I should like to learn those verses, mamma/ 
 said Emma, c they are so pretty ! But, do you 
 know, as I looked at the roses we have just pass- 
 ed, I thought of Jonah when his gourd withered, 
 what sort of a plant or tree was that, mamma ? ' 
 
 Mrs. E. That is a question to which many dif- 
 ferent answers have been given. Michaelis thought 
 it was the ' kiki' of the Egyptians. In Greece, 
 we are told, this plant springs spontaneously, with- 
 
236 JONAH'S GOURD. 
 
 out any cultivation ; but the Egyptians sow it on 
 the banks of the river, and of the canals ; and 
 there it produces fruit in abundance. This plant 
 runs, with a strong herbaceous stalk, to the height 
 of ten or twelve feet, and has very large leaves. 
 Rabbi Kirnchi states that the people of the east 
 plant them before their shops, for the sake of the 
 shade, and to refresh themselves under them. 
 Niebuhr says, ' I saw, for the first time, at Bas- 
 ra, the plant mentioned by Michaelis. It has the 
 form of a tree. The trunk appeared to me rath- 
 er to resemble leaves than wood. Each branch 
 has but one large leaf, with six or seven foldings 
 in it. It had risen in five months' time, about 
 eight feet, and bore, at once, flowers and fruit, 
 ripe and unripe. The flowers and leaves of an- 
 other tree of the same species, which I gathered, 
 withered in a few minutes, as do all plants of rap- 
 id growth.' It is not improbable that Jonah's 
 gourd was of this kind. But, as the history 
 expressly says the Lord prepared this plant, we 
 may conceive of it as an extraordinary one of its 
 species remarkably rapid in its growth, remark- 
 ably hard in its stem, remarkably vigorous in its 
 branches, and remarkable for the extensive spread 
 of its leaves, and the deep gloom of their shadow ; 
 and, after a certain duration, remarkable for a 
 sudden withering, and a total uselessness to the 
 impatient prophet. Now I think we will return 
 to the house. Our walk has been pleasant : 
 and there papa and Frederick are coming, and 
 will soon join us. 
 
 E. Papa, will you allow me to ask you one or 
 two questions, while you take your coffee ? 
 
CAROB-TREE CINNAMOX-GARDEN. 237 
 
 Mr.. E. Twenty, if you please, my little Per- 
 sian. 
 
 E. What were the husks the prodigal son wish- 
 ed to eat ? 
 
 Mr. E. Both the Greek and Latin terms sig- 
 nify the fruit of the carob-tree, which is very com- 
 mon in the Levant, and in the southern parts of 
 Europe, It still continues to be used for feeding 
 swine. It is also called St. John's bread, from 
 the idea that the Baptist used it in the wilder- 
 ness. It is said to be mealy, to have a sweetish 
 taste, and to be eaten by the poorer people. In 
 Arabia, the trees which bear this fruit are called 
 kharunts : they are of a large size, and the 
 branches spread very wide. The leaves have a 
 resemblance to those of the pear-tree, only they 
 are broader, and not so much pointed : they are 
 evergreen, and afford an agreeable shade in the 
 heat of the sun. The fruit consists of pods, 
 which are rather longer than a finger, an inch 
 broad, and as crooked as a sickle : they have a 
 very sweet and pleasant taste. 
 
 E. Thank you, papa; that is all quite new to 
 me. Now will you tell us something about cin- 
 namon I 
 
 Mr. E. It is not improbable that Solomon im- 
 ported it from India. In the island of Ceylon, 
 however, it especially flourishes. I will read you 
 an account of it from Bishop Heber's Journal. 
 * In the afternoon we drove through the far-famed 
 cinnamon-gardens, which cover upwards of 17,000 
 acres of land on the coast, the largest of which 
 are near Colombo. The plant thrives best in a 
 poor sandy soil, in a damp atmosphere : it grows 
 20 
 
238 PREPARATION OF CINNAMON. 
 
 wild in the woods to the size of a large apple-tree ; 
 but when cultivated, is never allowed to grow 
 wiore than ten or twelve feet in height, each plant 
 standing separate. The leaf is something like 
 that of the laurel in shape, but of a lighter color : 
 when it first shoots out it is red, and changes grad- 
 ually to green. It is now out of blossom ; but I 
 am told that the flower is white, and appears, 
 when in full bloom, to cover the garden. After 
 hearing so much of the spicy gales from this isl- 
 and, I was much disappointed at not being able 
 to discover any scent, at least from the plants, in 
 passing through the gardens : there is a very fra- 
 grant-smelling flower growing under them, which 
 at first led us into the belief that we smelt the 
 cinnamon, but we were soon undeceived. On 
 pulling off a leaf or a twig, one perceives the spi- 
 cy odor very strongly ; but 1 was surprised to hear 
 that the flower has little or none. As cinnamon 
 forms the only considerable export in Ceylon, it 
 is of course preserved with great care : by the 
 old Dutch law, the penalty for cutting a branch, 
 was no less than the loss of a hand ; at present, a 
 fine expiates the same offence, The neighbor- 
 hood of Colombo is particularly favorable to its 
 growth, being well sheltered, with a high equa- 
 ble temperature ; and as showers fall very fre- 
 quently, though a whole day's heavy rain is un- 
 common, the ground is never parched/ 
 
 F. How, papa, is the cinnamon prepared ? 
 
 Mr. E. Bishop Heber has anticipated your 
 question. He says, ' The manager of the cinna- 
 mon-gardens good-naturedly sent some of the cin- 
 namon-peelers to our bungalows, that we might 
 
MYRRH. 239 
 
 see the way in which the spice is prepared. They 
 brought with them branches of about three feet* 
 in length, of which they scraped off the rough 
 bark with knives, and then, with a peculiar sha- 
 ped instrument, stripped off the inner rind in 
 long slips ; these are tied up in bundles, and put 
 to dry in the sun, and the wood is sold for fuel. 
 In the regular preparation, however, the outer 
 bark is not scraped off; but the process of fer- 
 mentation which the strips undergo, when tied 
 up in large quantities, removes the coarse parts/ 
 In South America, cinnamon is used for its medi- 
 cinal properties ; 92,000 pounds are said to be 
 consumed annually by the slaves in the mines of 
 that country. Each receives daily a certain quan- 
 tity, cut into pieces an inch long, which he eats 
 as a preservative against the noxious effluvia of 
 the mines. 
 
 F. What is myrrh, papa? 
 
 Mr. E. It is a white gum, issuing from the 
 trunks and larger branches of a thorny tree, re- 
 sembling the acacia, growing in Arabia, Egypt, 
 and Abyssinia. Its taste is extremely bitter ; but 
 its smell, though strong, is agreeable ; and it en- 
 tered into the composition of the most costly oint- 
 ments among the ancients. We read, in the book 
 of Exodus, of 'pure myrrh ; ' by which is meant 
 the finest and most excellent kind, called also 
 stacte, which issues from the bark without incis- 
 ion. It is said by Mark, that they gave Christ 
 to drink, ' wine mingled with myrrh, but he re- 
 ceived it not; ' because it appears that this drink 
 produced mental agitation. Through motives of 
 humanity, such draughts were usually adminis- 
 
240 SHITTIM-WOOD. 
 
 tered to those who were about to endure a pain- 
 ful death ; but Jesus rejected such a mitigation 
 of his sufferings, and therefore, after tasting it, 
 refused the cup. 
 
 E. Can you describe to us what shittim-wood 
 was, mamma ? 
 
 Mrs. E. St. Jerome says that it grows in the 
 deserts of Arabia, and is like white thorn as to 
 its color and leaves ; but the tree is so large as 
 to furnish very long planks. The wood is hard, 
 tough, and extremely beautiful. It is thought he 
 means the black acacia, because that is the most 
 common tree in the part of the earth to which 
 he refers. It is of the size of a large mulberry 
 tree. The spreading branches and larger limbs 
 are armed with thorns, which grow three togeth- 
 er. The bark is rough, and the leaves are oblong, 
 standing opposite each other. The flowers, though 
 somewhat white, are generally of a bright yellow ; 
 and the fruit, which resembles a bean, is contain- 
 ed in pods, like those of the lupin. Another tree 
 is mentioned in Scripture, to which no allusion 
 has yet been made. In our ungenial climate, the 
 myrtle is a lowly shrub ; but, in more favorable 
 countries, it sometimes grows to a small tree. It 
 has a hard, woody root, that sends forth a great 
 number of small flexible branches, furnished with 
 leaves like those of box, but much smaller and 
 more pointed ; they are soft to the touch, shining, 
 smooth, of a beautiful green, and have a sweet 
 smell. The flowers grow among the leaves, and 
 consist of five white petals, disposed in the form 
 of a rose : they have an agreeable perfume, and 
 ornamental appearance. They are succeeded by 
 
THE MYRTLE. 241 
 
 an oval, oblong berry, adorned with a sort of 
 crown, divided into three cells, which contain the 
 seed. Thus we read, ' I will plant in the wil- 
 derness, the cedar and the shittah-tree, and the 
 myrtle and the oil-tree ; ' that is, ' I will adorn the 
 dreary and barren wilderness with trees famed for 
 their stature, and the grandeur of their appear- 
 ance, the beauty of their form, and the fragrance 
 of their odor.' Savary describes a scene at the 
 end of the forest of Platanea, and says, ' Myr- 
 tles, intermixed with laurel-roses, grow in the 
 valleys to the height of ten feet. Their snow- 
 white flowers, bordered within with a purple edg- 
 ing, appear to peculiar advantage under the ver- 
 dant foliage. Each myrtle is loaded with them ; 
 and they emit perfumes more exquisite than the 
 rose itself/ 
 
 Mr. E. As your questions, my dear children, 
 seem to be exhausted, I will allude to the conse- 
 cration of groves to various idols. This custom 
 appears to have arisen from the idea that shade 
 and solitude were adapted to inspire the worship- 
 pers with a solemn and superstitious dread of those 
 divinities which they were taught to believe were 
 present in such spots. ' If you find/ says Sene- 
 ca, ' a grove thick set with ancient oaks, that 
 have shot up to a vast height, the tallness of the 
 wood, the retirement of the place, and the pleas- 
 antness of the shade, immediately make you think 
 it to be the residence of some god.' To this Ho- 
 sea refers, when he says, ' They sacrifice upon 
 the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon 
 the hills, under oaks, and poplars, and elms, be- 
 cause the shadow is good/ Isaiah's declaration, 
 20* 
 
242 THE WORSHIP OF TREES. 
 
 c They that sanctify themselves, and purify them- 
 selves, in the gardens, behind one tree in the 
 midst/ may also be easily explained. For not only 
 sacred groves in general, but the centres of such 
 groves in particular, were made use of for tem- 
 ples, by the first and most ancient heathens. In- 
 deed, some one tree in the centre of each grove 
 was usually had in special veneration. As groves 
 were thus the scenes of idolatrous rites, the Jew- 
 ish people receive the command, ' Thou shalt not 
 plant thee a grove of any trees, near unto the al- 
 tar of the Lord thy God ; ' but from their prone- 
 ness to imitate the customs of surrounding na- 
 tions, they became guilty of sacrificing in high 
 places, and in consecrated groves ; and a king 
 carried his impiety so far as to plant one of them 
 at Jerusalem. In opposition to the feeling thus 
 displayed, the Israelites were enjoined to cut 
 down such groves as had been polluted by the 
 idolatrous Canaanites ; and the promptness with 
 which Josiah destroyed those on the Mount of 
 Olives, which had been consecrated to Astaroth, 
 Chemosh, and Milcorn, shows the freedom of his 
 mind from debasing superstition, and the strength 
 of his faith in the living God. 
 
 E. Oh, papa, how sad it is that they are so su- 
 perstitious ! 
 
 Mrs. E. And still worse that so many resem- 
 ble them. When, for instance, a new idol was 
 to be manufactured in the Sandwich Islands, a 
 royal and priestly procession went forth, with great 
 ceremony to the destined tree ; where the king 
 himself, with a stone axe, laid the first stroke to 
 the root ; and, after it had been felled, a man or 
 
MAKING OF AN IDOL. 243 
 
 a hog was butchered, and buried on the spot 
 where it had grown. The principal god of the 
 late Tamehameha was a huge, unsightly block 
 (for there were no ' cunning workmen ' to work 
 ' graven images,') yet, so soon as this scaramouch, 
 fantastically dressed with feathers and flowers, 
 was heaved upon a man's shoulders to be carried 
 to or from any particular marae, all the people on 
 the way were obliged to uncover their persons, 
 and prostrate themselves on the ground. Karai- 
 pahua, however, was the most formidable of their 
 deities, and the fittest symbol of that most malig- 
 nant being, ' the god of this world/ whom they 
 all represented. This idol was more elaborate- 
 ly shapen and curiously adorned than most of his 
 kindred. It was carved out of a tree which grew 
 in the island of Morokai, the wood of which was 
 said to be so dreadfully deleterious, that a little 
 of it, scraped into a mess of food, would turn it 
 into deadly poison. Even the chips of the raw 
 material of this divinity, during the felling of the 
 tree, were so venomous that they killed several 
 persons who happened to be hit by them as they 
 flew off at the blows of the axe, so that the work- 
 men were obliged to cover themselves, from head 
 to foot, till they had brought this upas to the 
 ground. Perhaps, however, the baneful qualities 
 attributed to this sacred wood were as fabulous as 
 all the other horrors ascribed to the image which 
 they sculptured out of it. 
 
 Mr. E. Referring to the island of Huahine,. 
 Messrs. Tyerman and Bennet say, ' We landed 
 to examine a famous marae, and also a far more 
 famous tree, which may be regarded as the most 
 
-244 THE MARAE. 
 
 extraordinary native production of these islands ;; 
 indeed we gazed upon it with overwhelming as- 
 tonishment. This tree is called aoa by the na- 
 tives. The trunk is composed of a multitude of 
 stems grown together, and exhibiting a most fan- 
 tastical appearance from the numerous grooves,, 
 which run vertically up the bole, and are of such 
 depth that a transverse section would rudely re- 
 semble the axle and spoke of a wheel without a 
 rim. The girth near the foot, is seventy feeU 
 From the height of eight feet, and onward to for- 
 ty, immense branches proceed, in nearly horizon- 
 tal lines, on every hand ; from which perpendic- 
 ular shoots tend downward, till they reach the 
 ground, take root, and become columns of the 
 * pillared shade.' More than forty of these we 
 counted, standing like a family of earth-born gi- 
 ants about their enormous parent. A circle, drawn 
 all round these auxiliary stems, measured one 
 hundred and thirty-two feet in circumference ; 
 while a circle, embracing the utmost verge of 
 their lateral ramifications was not less than four 
 hundred and twenty feet. The upper stories (if 
 we may so call them) of this multiform tree, pre- 
 sented yet more singular combinations of inter- 
 secting and intertwisting boughs, like Gothic 
 arches, oriels, and colonnades, propped, as by 
 magic, in mid-air. These were occasionally mas- 
 sy or light, and everywhere richly embellished 
 with foliage, through which the flickering sun- 
 shine gleamed in long rays, that lost themselves 
 in the immensity of the interior labyrinth, or danc- 
 ed in bright spots upon the ground, biack with 
 the shadows of hundreds of branches, rising, tier 
 
THE MA'RAE. 245 
 
 above tier, and spreading, range beyond range, 
 aloft and around. The height of this tree (itself 
 a forest) cannot be less than eighty feet/ 
 
 E. Oh, what a giant ! Was any thing idola- 
 trous done there, papa? 
 
 Mr. E. Yes, there was. Not far from its site 
 there is a Christian chapel, and a pagan marae 
 hard by, where the sovereigns of Huahine were 
 buried, and where, indeed, they lay in more 
 than oriental state, each one resting in his bed, 
 at the foot of the Sacred Mountain, beneath the 
 umbrage of the magnificent aoa, and near the 
 beach forever washed by waters that roll round 
 the world, and spread themselves here after visit* 
 ing every other shore between the poles. The 
 great marae itself was dedicated to Tani, the fa- 
 ther of the gods here ; but the whole ground ad- 
 jacent was marked with the vestiges of smaller 
 maraes private places for worship, and family 
 interment while this was the capital of the isl- 
 and, and the head-quarters of royalty and idola- 
 try. 
 
 On the limbs of the tree already described, 
 there is reason to believe that thousands of hu- 
 man sacrifices have been hung. One low 
 bough, of great length and bulk, was pointed 
 out as having the principal gibbet for such vic- 
 tims, century after century. The tree itself was 
 sacred to Tani ; but he has been expelled hence ; 
 and for ages to come, under the shadow of this 
 prodigy of vegetation, it is to be hoped that ' in- 
 cense and a pure offering ' the incense of 
 prayer, and the pure offering of bodies, presented 
 as ( living sacrifices J will continue to be made 
 
246 HAPPY CHANGE. 
 
 here to the true God, by more of his spiritual wor- 
 shippers than Satan had of his deluded votaries 
 in all the times gone by. 
 
 F. I hope so, too. But, Emma, papa and 
 mamma are going : won't you thank them for so 
 many interesting things? 
 
 E. Oh, yes, Frederick! we will both thank 
 them again and again ! 
 
 AN AUTUMNAL MORNING. 
 
 ' How gorgeous are our woods at this season I ' 
 said Mr. Elwood ; c their majesty and sublimity 
 strike and charm the eye, and vividly impress 
 the mind. But they awaken a lively interest in 
 my bosom when spring comes, and they appear 
 in the delicacy of their pride ; in summer, when 
 they are shadowy and aromatic ; in winter, when, 
 robbed of their foliage, they reveal the under- 
 work and tracery of their branches ; no less than 
 in autumn, when arrayed, like the sun as he is 
 about to sink below the horizon, in their last 
 splendor/ 
 
 ' Your feelings are natural, my dear/ said Mrs. 
 Elwood; ' for, in addition to the native beauty 
 of trees and woods, much that is interesting is 
 associated with them. Xerxes, in the midst of 
 his most ambitious enterprize, stopped his im- 
 mense army to contemplate the beauty of a tree. 
 Cicero was accustomed to refresh and invigorate 
 
THE MERRY GREENWOOD. 247 
 
 3iis spirits in a grove of palm-trees ; and in simi- 
 lar circumstances, Thucydides is said to have 
 composed his noble histories. In the merry 
 greenwood ' the mind of the English poet first 
 awoke to a sense of beauty : the soft bright sward, 
 enamelled with wild flowers the up-sparkling 
 well-spring, making music in its joyous course 
 the rich melody of our native wild birds the 
 lordly stag bounding along like a vision the 
 sun-light glancing from hill to valley, gilding the 
 dark masses of foliage with momentary splendor 
 the giant oak, stretching his hundred arms in 
 century-hallowed majesty, the proud type of our 
 land these we're the sources from whence our 
 early poets drank inspiration ; but lastly, and 
 above all, here was made the first stand for liber- 
 ty.' 
 
 Mr. E. Forests must have been the abodes of 
 European tribes, when they lived upon acorns. 
 Even now, the palm-forests afford shelter to the 
 nations of Africa. Hunting was the natural oc- 
 cupations of these people ; but, at the dawn of 
 civilization, the tribes of hunters, having more 
 vigorous minds and bodies from their dangers 
 and toils, must have more rapidly improved, and 
 must have built houses and towns at a much ear- 
 lier period. The forests would furnish them with 
 the materials and the model of their architecture. 
 Trunks of trees, supporting a verdant roof, sug- 
 gested the first idea of Grecian and Indian col- 
 onnades ; whilst Chinese architecture consists 
 only of tents imitated in wood and stone ; and, in 
 the Gothic, are recognized the images of gloomy 
 caverns, and steep rocks. 
 
248 FORESTS. 
 
 It is probable, too, that, in very early times, a 
 great part of Britain was covered with forests ; 
 but, as the arts of life advanced, the people per- 
 mitted the wolves and bears to occupy them, as- 
 sociated together in towns, and cultivated the 
 open country. Only about eleven, however, are 
 said to have preserved their rights. ' It is im- 
 possible, ' says Mr. Nicholas, ' to imagine, in the 
 wildest and. most picturesque walks of nature, a 
 sight more sublime and majestic, or which can 
 more forcibly challenge the admiration of the 
 traveller, than a New Zealand forest. And Mr. 
 Ellis, in describing the forest he visited, remarks, 
 ' The earth was completely covered with thick- 
 spreading, and forked roots, brambles, and creep- 
 ing plants, overgrown with moss, and interwoven 
 so as to form a kind of uneven matting, which 
 rendered travelling exceedingly difficult. The 
 underwood was in many parts thick, and the 
 trunks of the lofty trees rose like clusters of pil- 
 lars, supporting the canopy of interwoven boughs 
 and verdant foliage, through which the sun's rays 
 seldom penetrated. There were no trodden paths, 
 and the wild and dreary solitude of the place was 
 only broken by the voice of some lonely bird 
 which chirped among the branches^of the bushes, 
 or, startled by our intrusion on its retirement, 
 darted across our path. A sensation of solemnity 
 and awe involuntarily arose in the rnind, while 
 contemplating a scene of such peculiar character, 
 so unlike the ordinary haunts of men, and so 
 adapted, from the silent grandeur of his works, 
 to elevate the soul with the sublimest conceptions 
 of the Almighty. I was remarkably struck with 
 
FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES 249 
 
 the gigantic size of many of the trees, some of 
 which appeared to rise nearly one hundred feet, 
 without a branch, while two men, with extended 
 arms, could not clasp their trunks. ' 
 
 Mrs. E. In the forests of the United States, 
 the trees most universally diffused are the wil- 
 low-leafed oak, which grows in the marshes ; the 
 chestnut oak, which, in the southern states, rises 
 to a prodigious size, and is as much esteemed for 
 its nuts as its wood ; and the white, red, and 
 black oak. The walnut, the chestnut, and the 
 elm of Europe, also, abound almost as much as 
 the oak. The tulip-tree, and the sassafras 
 more sensible to cold than these others, are stunt- 
 ed shrubs at the confines of Canada assume 
 the character of trees in the middle states ; but 
 upon the hot banks of the Alatamaha, they reach 
 their full size, and display all their beauty and 
 grandeur. The amber-tree, which yields an 
 odorous gum, with many others, are found grow- 
 ing in every place where the soil suits them. It is 
 in Virginia, and in the southern and south-west- 
 ern states, that the American Flora displays its 
 wonders, and the savannas wear their perpetual 
 verdure. It is there that the magnificence of the 
 primitive forests, and the exuberant vegetation of 
 the marshes, captivate the senses by the charms of 
 form, color, and perfume. If we pass along the 
 shores of Carolina; Georgia, and Florida, groves 
 in uninterrupted succession seem to float upon the 
 waters By the side of the pine is seen the pale- 
 tuvier, the only shrub which thrives in salt-wa- 
 ter the magnificent lobelia cardinalis, and the 
 odoriferous pancratium of Carolina, with its snow- 
 21 
 
250 FORESTS OP THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 white flowers. The land to which the tide reach- 
 es are distinguished from the lands which remain 
 dry,]by the moving and compressed stalks of the 
 arundo gigantea, by the light foliage of other 
 plants and trees, and by the white cedar, which, 
 perhaps, of all the vegetable productions of Amer- 
 ica, presents the most singular aspect. Its trunk, 
 where it issues from the ground, is composed of 
 four or five enormous parts, which, uniting at the 
 height of seven or eight feet, form a sort of open 
 vault, from the summit of which rises a single 
 straight stem of eighteen or twenty feet in height, 
 withoutta branch, but terminating in a flat cano- 
 py, shaped like a parasol, garnished with leaves, 
 curiously figured, and of the most delicate green. 
 The crane and the eagle fix their nests on this 
 aerial platform ; and the paroquets, while leaping 
 about, are attracted to it by the oily seeds enclos- 
 ed in the cones suspended from the branches. 
 In the natural labyrinths which occur in these 
 marshy forests, the traveller sometimes discovers 
 small lakes and open lawns, which would present 
 most seductive retreats, if the unhealthy exhala- 
 tions of autumn permitted him to inhabit them. 
 Here he walks under a vaulted roof of smilax and 
 wild vines, among creeping lianas, which invest 
 his feet with their flowers : but the soil trembles 
 under him, clouds of annoying insects hover 
 around, monstrous bats overshadow him with 
 their hideous wings, the rattle-snake musters his 
 scaly terrors, while the wolf, the carcajou, and 
 the tiger-cat fill the air with their savage and 
 discordant cries. 
 
FORESTS OF AMERICA. 251 
 
 E. Oh, dear, mamma ! it is beautiful, and 
 yet terrible. I could not be pleased, I am*sure, 
 delightful as the trees and flowers are, where 
 there is so much that would frighten me. Are 
 there any other remarkable forests in that coun- 
 try? 
 
 Mrs. E. Those parts of the region west of the 
 Alleghanies, which are elevated three or four 
 hundred feet, and lie along deeply depressed beds 
 of rivers, are clothed in some of the richest for- 
 ests of the world. The Ohio flows under the 
 shade of the plane and the tulip-tree, like a canal 
 dug in a nobleman's park ; while the leaves, 
 extending from tree to tree, form graceful arches 
 of flowers and foliage over branches of the river. 
 Passing to the south, the wild orange-tree mixes 
 with the odoriferous and the common laurel. 
 The straight silvery column of the papaw-fig, 
 which rises to the height of twenty feet, and is 
 crowned with a canopy of large, indented leaves, 
 forms one of the most striking ornaments of this 
 enchanting scene. Above all these, towers the 
 majestic magnolia, which shoots up to the height 
 of more than one hundred feet. Its trunk, per- 
 fectly straight, is surmounted with a thick and 
 expanded head, the pale green foliage of which 
 affects a conical figure. From the centre of the 
 flowery crown, which terminates its branches, a 
 flower of the purest white rises, having the form 
 of a rose, and to which succeeds a crimson cone. 
 This, in opening, exhibits rounded seeds of the 
 finest coral red, suspended by delicate threads 
 six inches long. Thus, by its flowers, its fruits, 
 and its gigantic size, the magnolia surpasses all 
 its rivals of the forest. The forest scenery of 
 
252 THE MAGNOLIA. 
 
 America is well adapted to excite poetic and 
 devotional feeling. They are admirably blended 
 in a fragment I will read you from the pen of a 
 native of that country. 
 
 * Father ! thy hand 
 
 Hath reared these venerable columns ! Thou 
 Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou "didst look down 
 Upon the naked earth, and forthwith rose 
 All these fair ranks of trees. They in thy sun 
 Budded ; and shook their green leaves in thy breeze ; 
 And shot towards heaven. The century-living crow, 
 Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died 
 Among their branches, till at last they stood, 
 As now they stand, massive, and tall, and dark, 
 Fit shrine for humble worshipper to hold 
 Communion with his Maker. 1 
 
 F. How grand ! how grand ! 
 Mrs. E. The poet describes, however, another 
 scene which has its charms. 
 
 c Come when the rains 
 
 Have glazed the snow, and clothed the trees with ice, 
 While the slant sun of February pours 
 Into the bowers a flood of light. Approach ! 
 The incrusted surface shall upbear thy steps ; 
 And the broad arching portals of the grove 
 Welcome thy entering. Look ! the massy trunks 
 Are cased in the pure crystal ; each light spray, 
 Nodding and tinkling in the breath of heaven, 
 Is studded with its trembling water-drops, 
 That stream with rainbow radiance as they move. 
 But round the parent stem the long low boughs 
 Bend in a glittering ring, and arbors hide 
 The grassy floor.' 
 
 And then, having compared it to a spacious cav- 
 ern, ' where the gems grow,' and to ' the vast 
 hall of a fairy palace/ he adds: 
 
 All, all is light 
 
 Light without shade. But all shall pass away 
 With the next sun. From numberless vast trunks, 
 Loosened, the crashing ice shall make a sound 
 Like the far roar of rivers, and the eve 
 Shall close o'er the brown woods, as it was wont.' 
 
FORESTS OF BRAZIL. 253 
 
 Mr. E. In Brazil, vegetation is exuberant. 
 But Dr. Walsh shall tell his own tale. ' I now for 
 the first time entered the primeval woods of 
 America, which remain precisely in the state they 
 were left by the receding waters of the flood. 
 I had heard much of the grandeur and sublimity 
 of an American forest ; but the reality exceeded 
 my conception. The road, or rather path, wind- 
 ed along the edge of deep valleys and ravines, 
 from the bottom of which trees shot up to a most 
 extraordinary height ; and some of them could 
 not be less than 400 feet. 
 
 ' There is a continued contest for light and 
 air in the vegetable world ; and, when numbers 
 of trees are together, they all shoot up with emu- 
 lation to overtop their neighbors ; and, when they 
 have attained that eminence, many of them begin 
 then, and not till then, to send out lateral branch- 
 es. In this region, where the vital powers of 
 plants are so strong, the contest is carried on 
 with wonderful vigor, and the sap ascends to an 
 incredible distance from the root. In some 
 places, where, either by design or accident, the 
 wood had been burnt down, an insulated tree, 
 perhaps, escaped, and stood by itself, in solitary 
 magnificence at the bottom of a glen : it was then 
 that its gigantic proportions, and the curious 
 structure that accident had given to the process 
 of vegetation, were conspicuous. 
 
 ' I had the curiosity to leave the path, and ride 
 up to one of these solitary giants, to contemplate 
 it more closely. The stem had run up without 
 putting out a single lateral shoot, till it had 
 ascended above its fellows ; and then it pushed 
 21* 
 
254 FORESTS OF BRAZIL. 
 
 them out horizontally, forming a canopy of 
 branches over their heads ; arid, when they were 
 burnt away, the canopy still remained, but at 
 such a height that I could but indistinctly see 
 that part of the stem from which the branches 
 issued ; and they looked like a little forest sus- 
 pended in the air.' 
 
 E. How curious ! Did Dr. Walsh see any 
 others ? 
 
 Mrs. E. ' Sometimes a tall tree had lost its 
 branches, from fire or some other cause, and the 
 immense stem was covered with climbing plants, 
 which had shot up from the ground, till they had 
 surmounted its summit, and terminated in a point 
 at top ; and the whole slender cone of vegetation 
 resembled a very tall cypress the long pole, 
 that supported so many plants, being itself dead 
 and sapless. 
 
 ' Some of these creepers had grown up with a 
 young tree, increasing in size along with it, till 
 the two stems were of an equal thickness the 
 tendrils of the former twining round the neck of 
 its supporter, by a band as dense as the cap of 
 the cross-trees of a man of war ; and then shoot- 
 ing above it, like the top-mast from the main- 
 mast. 
 
 ' When we arrived at the summit of the ridge, 
 we remarked another circumstance in the prolific 
 soil of this country. At the place where vegeta- 
 tion ends, in other regions, it was here in its 
 greatest luxuriance. This vast ridge, I found, 
 was not a chain of rock, but enormous mounds 
 of clay, having a stratum of vegetable soil a 
 thousand feet in depth. It is only necessary, 
 
FORESTS OP BRAZIL. 255 
 
 therefore, to burn down the woods which encum- 
 ber the ground, and the sloping surface is every 
 where convertible into the richest gardens. We 
 found the very summit treated in this manner. 
 The Marquez de S. Joaco Marcos, who ownn 
 large estates on these mountains, has every where 
 begun to cultivate their sides. We crossed an 
 extensive patch, of many hundred acres, on the 
 highest point, just opened in this way ; and we 
 emerged, from a primeval forest, into a rich plan- 
 tation on the very top of the mountain. Much of 
 the burnt timber was yet encumbering the 
 ground ; but, between the truuks which lay pros- 
 trate, rich plantations of mandioca, milho, and 
 cana, were shooting up their vivid green stems. 
 One of these newly planted tracts had a singular 
 appearance. It was a deep circular cavity, like 
 the crater of a volcano : last year it was a mass 
 of enormous timber, shooting up from the bottom, 
 till the tops of the trees were nearly on a level 
 with the road. It was now a huge cup of rich 
 sugar-cane. The constant humidity of this ele- 
 vated region gives a security to the vegetation of 
 crops, which they have not always below, where 
 they sometimes fail, and did so this year, for want 
 of rain.' 
 
 F. And is not there something more in the 
 volume that will please us ? 
 
 Mrs. E. Oh, yes, there is much. Here is 
 another extract : ' I accompanied Mr. Watson 
 to see the manner of clearing woods for planta- 
 tions of milho, or other produce. The woods of 
 these mountains are still in their primitive state, 
 gigantic and dense, and the only mode hitherto 
 tried is fire. We passed through a wild glen, 
 
256 CLEARING OP WOO0. 
 
 which opened into a beautiful vale, with gentle 
 slopes up the sides of the hills that surrounded 
 it ; we suddenly came out, and, on emerging from 
 a dark avenue of trees, we saw the whole extent 
 of the vale, glowing red, like a vast furnace, of 
 two or three miles in circumference. The indis- 
 tinct crackling and roaring of the fire was con- 
 stantly interrupted by loud explosions, and dis- 
 charges of smoke, which I thought proceeded 
 from blasting rocks or trees with gunpowder, but 
 it arose from a different cause. The woods 
 abounded with bamboos of an immense size, 
 called tacwara. As the fire seized these enor- 
 mous tubes, the heated air within expanded, arid 
 every joint in succession burst open, with a noise 
 as loud as the discharge of a musket. The prog- 
 ress of the flame is followed by negroes, with 
 hoes in their hands, who strike the ashes, when 
 sufficiently cool, into the soil, and immediately 
 drop the grain ; and, so rapid is vegetation, when 
 quickened by this process, that young blades of 
 green corn are seen shooting up among the black 
 and smoking stumps in one place, while the fire 
 is raging in another.' 
 
 And now, my dears, we have passed from the 
 lowest to the highest grade of vegetation. At a 
 future time, mamma and I will be happy to direct 
 you in other and more profound researches. 
 
 E. I am sorry I am quite sorry, mamma, 
 that we have gone through the vegetable world sa 
 soon ; I wish we had to begin again. 
 
 F. I will tell you, Emma, how we can man- 
 age. We shall often find a plant which we don r t 
 
CLEARING OF WOOD. 257 
 
 know, or something about which we want to hear 
 more ; and then we know to whom we can go 
 don't we, love ? 
 
 E. Oh, yes ! And perhaps papa will think of 
 something else for us while we learn a little now 
 and then. 
 
 Mrs. E. Papa has already done so, dear. Shall 
 I tell you what it is ? I see your anxiety. He 
 means to give you some account of the treasures 
 of the earth. 
 
 E. Oh, I'm delighted I'm delighted ! Only 
 think, Frederick THE TREASURES OF THE 
 
 EARTH ! THE TREASURES OF THE EARTH ! 
 
259 
 
 WORKS IN PRESS. 
 
 I. 
 
 NATURE IN ART, AND SCIENCE AN- 
 TICIPATED. BY CHARLES WILLIAMS. 
 
 II. 
 THE TREASURES OF THE EARTH. 
 
 BY CHARLES WILLIAMS. 
 
 O 3 These two works are by the author of the ' Veg- 
 etable World ' and are not inferior in style and interest. 
 
 III. 
 
 PARENT'S CABINET OF AMUSEMENT 
 AND INSTRUCTION. VOLS. I. & II. 
 
 O 3 This is a work which has had unprecedented suc- 
 cess in England, and is recommended by the English 
 Reviewers as being superior to any work now published 
 for children. 
 
 From the London Literary Oazette. 
 
 1 Our habitual readers are aware how cautious we are in commend- 
 ing books intended for the use of children. In no branch of publication 
 are greater mistakes made ; and in none are the consequences so detri- 
 mental, instead of benificial, unless a sound judgment directs the good 
 
260 
 
 intent. We are glad to say that the present is an excellent design for 
 the juvenile family circle, and executed with a right feeling. The 
 characteristic tales are interesting, and the morals unexceptionable ; 
 and in other pieces, where instruction is more aimed at, the method is 
 attractive/ 
 
 O* It is the intention of the publishers to give to the 
 public a series of useful agreeable and cheap Books suita- 
 ble for children ; and to that end a gentleman of high re- 
 ligious and literary reputation, now in Europe, is engag- 
 ed in the selection of works of undoubted character and 
 celebrity.