hARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



77 



the error that some distinguished palaeontologists 

 have fallen into, of founding new genera upon 

 single teeth, without knowing whether collectors 

 in other districts have discovered any similar to 

 them. In all coal districts there are many col- 

 lectors of fossil remains, who, in their searchings, 

 often find teeth, bones, &c., the descriptions of 

 •which are not published in books or periodicals, 

 and it may be that they are allowed to be forgotten 

 from want of knowledge as to their worth. I am 

 sure that if some well-qualified palaeontologist 

 were to spend a few mouths in visiting all the pit 

 districts where fossils are known to exist, and in 

 examining the specimens in the possession of the 

 local palaeontologists, and of some of the more in- 

 telligent pitmen who are to be found in many of 

 the colliery .villages (many of these pitmen have 

 excellent collections — for instance, Messrs, Simm 

 and Taylor, of Cramlington, and Mr. Salt, of 



Fig. 63. Vertical Section of New Tooth, x 20. 



Newsham), he would find much that would clear 

 the way for a better knowledge of the fishes, 

 reptiles, &c., already known, and much that would 

 be entirely new to science. It is the scattered way 

 in which these researches are undertaken, and the 

 want of a systematic work illustrating and de" 

 scribing all the latest discoveries, that render the 

 study of the fossils of the carboniferous strata so 

 difiicult and unsatisfactory. Agassiz's " Poissons 

 fossiles" is certainly a splendid work, but it con- 

 tains much tiiat is now known to be incorrect, and 

 nothing of the discoveries of the last twenty-eight 

 years. Owen's "Odontography" is excellent as 

 far as it goes, but it is also much in arrear of our 

 present knowledge. The late Professor Agassiz 

 evidently saw the necessity for a work in which the 

 latest discoveries should be described and classified, 

 for in a letter which he wrote to Sir P. de M. Grey 

 Egerton just before his death, he lamented the 

 want of time to pursue investigations into the fossil 

 teeth of Selachians. If he had been spared to 

 make these researches, it was his intention to have 

 published the result as a continuation of his 

 " Poissons fossiles." Such a work, comprising 

 only Selachian teeth, would leave a large field to 

 be inquired into ; viz., the teeth of ganoids, laby- 



rinthodonts, reptiles, and^ mammals. But as the 

 Professor has been removed before he could prepare 

 this work, tiie whole field of Odontography is open 

 to other inquirers. 



W. J. Bakkas, M.R.C.S.E., &c. i 



THE HISTOUY OF OUR COMMON CULTI- 

 VATED VEGETABLES. 



By H. G. Glasspoole. 



No. I. The Potato. 



IN the following pages I purpose to give an his- 

 torical account of those vegetables which are ia 

 common use among us, and may be classed as some 

 of the necessaries of life. 



When the Romans invaded England, we are told 

 by their historians, they found the natives support- 

 ing themselves on the rudest fare, — uncultivated 

 roots and wild fruits. This must be rather an ex- 

 aggerated account, as no doubt the brave inhabi- 

 tants who opposed Caesar and his legions fed upon 

 the flesh of animals taken in the chase, and which 

 at that period abounded in this country. The 

 Romans we know, from the works of Pliny, Colu- 

 mella, and others, were famous for agricultural and 

 horticultural pursuits. The market-gardens around 

 ancient Rome were cultivated by the chief men of 

 the city, who were also the proprietors, and they 

 themselves tilled the ground with their own hands. 

 To this nation we undoubtedly owe much of our 

 present civilization, for, amidst all their conquests, 

 they never forgot to carry forward the useful arts of 

 life ; and the remains of their beautiful and extensive 

 villas, which every now and then are discovered, 

 under our soil, show us plainly that they did not 

 neglect to introduce, even to this their distant pos- 

 session, some of the comforts and gratifications o£ 

 their luxurious city. When the Romans left our 

 shores, the country was given over to the ravages 

 of the Saxons and Danes, who kept up almost a 

 constant warfare with the inhabitants, so that agri- 

 culture and the other sciences of a civilized race 

 gradually disappeared. 



There are many excellent roots and nourishing 

 herbs indigenous to Britain, but as the art of culti- 

 vating these was unknown, they could not have had 

 that nutritious character they now possess. Many 

 of the fruit-trees and plants introduced by the 

 Romans were never altogether lost, but became 

 degenerated for a time, until restored in after-years 

 by the monks, those constant guardians of horti- 

 culture. 



We have no works on plants in English before 

 the sixteenth century. In 1552 all books on geo- 

 graphy and science in this country were ordered to 

 be destroyed, being, as it was supposed, infested with 



