246 



HARD Wl CKE 'S S CIE NCE -GOSSIP. 



skinne, yea sometimes killing him ; and these Dogs 

 haue a set dyet or allowance of dinner from the 

 Canons and Preachers of the Church, which they 

 duely observe without breach of oi'der, for to day two 

 of them will goe to one Cannons house and two 

 to anothers, and so likewise al the residue in turnes 

 successively visit the severall houses within the cloyster 

 yard, neuer going twice together to one house nor 

 preuenting the refection of their fellowes ; and the 

 story is reported by Antonhis Schnebergerus for cer- 

 tain truth upon hia own knowledge." 



He concludes his own history of dogs with a 

 description and anecdotes of the little Melitsean Dog, 

 of whose intelligence he relates some remarkable 

 instances of instinct, far surpassing anything in 

 "Jesse." One kept by a certain Italian, about 

 1403, called Andrew, is perhaps the most remarkable. 

 The dog, although blind, " would find, even when 

 buried in the earth, Rings, Iewels, bracelets, pieces 

 of gold and silver, lent to his master by the standers 

 by, and when he was commanded, give to every one 

 his own Ring, Iewell, Bracelet, or money, which the 

 blind dog did without stay or doubt. Afterward the 

 standers by gave vnto him divers peeces of coine 

 stamped with the images of sundry princes, and then 

 one called for a piece of English money, and the 

 Dog deliuered him a peece ; another for the Em- 

 perors coine, and the Dog deliuered him a piece 

 thereof : and so consequently every princes coine by 

 name till all was restored, and this story was 

 recorded by Abbas Vrspergensis, whereupon the 

 common people said the dog was a diuell, or else 

 possessed with some pythonicall spirit : and so much 

 for this dog. 



" Now a daies they have found another breede of 

 little dofrs in all nations beside the Melitrean Docs, 

 either made so by art, as enclosing their bodies in the 

 earth when they are whelpes, so as they cannot grow 

 great, by reason of the place or els impayring their 

 growth by some kind of meat or nourishment. 



" The Dogges of Casamania can neuer be tamed, for 

 their men also are wilde, and Hue without al law and 

 ciuility, and thus much of Dogs in special. 



" In the next place I thoght good to insert into this 

 story the treatise of English Dogs, first of all written 

 in Latine by that famous Doctour in Phisicke, Iohn 

 Cay, and once translated by A. F., and directed to 

 that noble Gesner.'' 



This treatise is written in the form of a letter, which 

 he commences thus. "I wrote vnto you (well beloued 

 friend Gesner), not many years past, a manifolde his- 

 tory containing the divers forms of Beast, Birds, and 

 Fishes, the sundry shapes of plants, and the fashions 

 of Hearbes, &c. 



"I wrote moreouer vnto you seuerally a certain 

 abridgement of dogs which in your discourse uppon 

 the formes of Beasts in the second order of wilde and 

 tamable beasts wher you make mention of Scottish 

 Dogs, and in the winding up of your letter written and 



directed to Doctour Turner comprehending a Cata- 

 logue or rehersall of your books not yet extant, you 

 promised to set forth in print, and openly to publish 

 in the face of the world among such your workes as 

 are not yet come abroad to light and sight. But 

 because certain circumstances were wanting in my 

 breuiary of English Dogs (as seemed vnto me), I 

 staied the publication of the same making promise to 

 send another abroad which might be committed to the 

 hands, the eies, the minds, and the iudgements of the 

 Readers." 



[To be continued.) 



A FEW AUTUMN FLOWERS, WITH HINTS 



UPON THEIR CULTURE. 



By Mrs. Battersby. 



A GROUP of autumn flowers — not geraniums, 

 or heliotropes, or calceolarias, though they 

 are very brilliant and lovely for those who can afford 

 greenhouses and forcing-pits, and the amount of 

 care, time, and trouble which will tide these deli- 

 cate favourites safely over a winter's frost and snow — 

 but a bouquet of out-of-door plants which may be 

 left in the garden season after season, gathering 

 strength and beauty, and lighting up our autumnal 

 parterre with their vivid tints. 



One of our chief favourites is the Fuchsia. It is 

 quite wonderful to find what numberless varieties of 

 these beautiful shrubs will survive our winters. As 

 a proof, I must tell you I once struck three cuttings 

 of the then rare double white fuchsia ; upon the 

 approach of frost two were safely housed — the other, 

 much to my annoyance, could not be found. Next 

 summer my housed plants were healthy, but rather 

 stunted both in leaf and flower; while the missing one, 

 which had died down to the ground in winter, threw 

 up long luxuriant shoots, and blossoms which looked 

 like small white roses enclosed in rich crimson 

 sepals. The sole protection which the young plants 

 had enjoyed was a light surface-dressing of turf- 

 mould ; — and cocoa-nut fibre, coal-ashes, or moss 

 would probably have answered quite as well. 

 Fuchsias are very easily managed ; the chief secrets 

 are a rich, light soil, and a sheltered, yet sunny 

 aspect. They enjoy the protection of a wall, and 

 blossom particularly well when planted against one ; 

 and the sole drawback to the out-of-door culture of 

 fuchsias is, that in late seasons their best flowers are 

 generally " caught " some frosty night, and present a 

 melancholy spectacle on the following day. 



Next to my fuchsias I would place a real autumn 

 gem, the tall, white anemone {Japonica), which, rising 

 from a cluster of rather coarse but handsomely-shaped 

 leaves, on a stem of more than three feet in height, 

 bears a number of snowy blossoms singularly alike, 

 both in shape and size, to the white wild-rose of our 

 hedges; but though we miss the fragrance of the way- 



