194 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



minute and very white scales) ; {3) Lepra viclgaris 

 (this species very rarely heals) ; (4) Lepra simplex ; 

 (5) Lepra siibftisca ; (6) Elepliantiasis. 



The most prominent symptoms of leprosy are : — 

 (i) dusky red or livid tubercles, var)-ing in size, on the 

 ears, face, and extremities ; (2) coarseness and thick- 

 ness of the skin ; (3) diminution of the sensibility of 

 the skin; (4) swellings; (5) ozcena ; (6) hoarseness; 

 (7) loss of voice ; (8) falling off of the hair, excepting on 

 the scalp ; {9) change of the hair to white or yellow ; 

 (10) scales; (11) general decaying of the body by 

 degrees; (12) tubercles; (13) disappearance of the 

 nails and teeth; (14) coarseness and wiriness of the 

 hair; (15) general depression. 



The chief haunts of leprosy are : — (l) Palestine ; 

 (2) Iceland and Scandinavia ; (3) Faroe Isles ; (4) the 

 Indies. 



It is not now a usual practice to compel lepers to 

 dwell without the city, and in some cities they have a 

 special quarter assigned to them. 



It is a curious fact that men are more liable to 

 leprosy than women, — why, we cannot tell ; but 'the 

 fact that men are more usually exposed to cold and 

 damp, two constant attendants of the disease, may 

 l^erhaps account for it in some measure. 



Medica. 



CONCERNING CERTAIN FRUIT TREES. 

 No. I. — The Cherry Tree. 



THE art of gardening has been brought to so 

 great a perfection, by dint of science, keen 

 observation, and careful practice, that the casual 

 visitor to a garden or an orchard, or the fastidious 

 connoisseur at a recherche dessert, who delights only 

 in the choicest specimens of fruit produced in our 

 own country, or, it may be, imported from some far 

 distant region, alike need to be reminded of the 

 earlier days of this "sweet gardening labour," ere 

 they can appreciate, at anything like their full value, 

 the arts of cultivation, by which, at length, our 

 tables are daily supplied with the splendid fruits now 

 so abundantly produced. 



Very far indeed must we go back to find a time 

 when fruits and fruit trees were not. Adam's story 

 involves us, alas ! too closely, for us to forget that in 

 a garden he dwelt ("Of God the garden was ") where 

 grew— 



" Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm ; 

 Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind. 

 Hung amiable." 



Driven thence, as the result of his own ill-fated 

 deed, henceforth man has been compelled to till the 

 ground for food. Since, then, it is our lot to cultivate, 

 not to gather, such as grow " of themselves," we will 

 Jot down a few scraps, which may be of interest, about 

 the commonest of our present fruit-trees, and whence 

 they came to our gardens and orchards. 



Of the very early history and migration of plants 



and trees, many curious facts have come to light 

 by the deciphering of Assyrian inscriptions, which, 

 until of late years, were to us as sealed books. 



One of these, written by Tiglath-pileser I., an 

 Assyrian monarch, who was carried captive to 

 Babylon, B.C. mo, runs thus : "The pine-tree, the 

 likkarina-tree, and the algum (almug) tree, these 

 trees, which none of the former kings, my fathers, 

 had planted, I took from the countries which I sub- 

 dued, and I planted them in the groves of my own 

 country, and I called the plantation by the name 

 of Groves ; whatever was not in my own country, I 

 took and planted in the groves of Assyria." 



Kushami, a Mendaite writer, in the fourth century 

 A.D., tells us that the kings of Assyria were 

 accustomed to bring back from their campaigns 

 in foreign lands any plant or tree which they thought 

 would prove valuable or useful, and that in this way 

 the cherry v/as transplanted from the banks of the 

 Jordan to Nineveh and Babylon. 



The cherry-tree seems to have been very early a 

 favourite in Europe ; its introduction into Italy 

 being attributed to the Emperor Lucullus, who 

 brought it from Pontus at tlie period of his victory 

 over Mithridates, B.C. 64. " This country was so 

 well stocked," says Pliny, " that in less than twenty- 

 six years after, other lands had cherries, even as far as 

 to Britain, beyond the ocean." If this were so, cherry- 

 trees were brought to England as early as B.C. 38, 

 though it is usually thought that they were not intro- 

 duced into Britain until the early part of the reign of 

 the Emperor Nero, about a.d. 55 ; and this date agrees 

 better with the statement of Pliny, where he says, 

 " From the year of the city 6S0, now in- 120 years it 

 has arrived in Britain even." 



De Candolle maintains that it is an error to 

 suppose that the cherry was unknown in Italy till 

 Lucullus. "This rich Roman," as he calls him, 

 brought it ; but the great botanist would credit him 

 with having introduced a better sort than had 

 hitherto been known, probably the bigarreau, which 

 his compatriots would hail as a welcome substitute 

 for the little gcan, which appears to have been the 

 kind previously known. 



Recent research can scarcely be said to have con- 

 firmed the opinion of some persons that the cherry 

 existed in pre-historic times ; for, although cherry- 

 stones have been found (those of the Primus 

 eerasus) in the remains of the Lake dw-ellings of 

 Switzerland, they are said to have been discovered in 

 a tumulus above the deposits of the Stone age. Some 

 are reported to be in existence from the Lake of 

 Neuchatel also, and from the " terramare " of Parma, 

 but their dale seems to be uncertain. 



The cherry-tree has been found wild through many 

 countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa, though Pliny's 

 assertion is, '' The cherry, as we have already stated, 

 in spite of every one, it has been found impossible to 

 rear in Egypt." 



