414 



TOS fRaPfCAL AO^ICULTURlSf. 



[Dec. 1, iSS6. 



Tree Roots and Buildings. — At a recent meeting 

 of the Society ot Arts, in the course of a discuB>.ioii 

 on Indian Archwology, Mr. Sewell said he did uot 

 know auytliing which would advance the preservation 

 of ancient monuments in India more than tiie dis- 

 covery of some means of chocking the growth of 

 tree-roots on the temples. All sorts of things had 

 been tried in Southern India, but they had discovered 

 nothing effectual. They burnt the roots with red-hot 

 crowbars, and some people had suggested putting 

 iugar upon them, in order to attract ants and other 

 insects, but he did not think that was very practic- 

 able. If any remedy were discovered and made 

 known, it would be invaluable. — Jndian Oardener. 



Remedy foe EAKACHE.^The Therapeutical Gatette 

 recommends the following as an effectual means of 

 administering chloroform in this complaint, and one 

 which is absolutely devoid of danger. This is to fill 

 the bowl of a common clay pipe with cotton wool 

 upon which pour as much chloroform as it will retain 

 without dripping. This done, insert the end of the stem 

 carefully into the ear, and let some one blow gently the 

 yapour of the chloroform against the tympanum. 

 The person blowing through the pipe must* of course 

 be careful uot to inhale the fumes of the chloroform. 

 This is an exceedingly effectual relief for earache 

 in children when there is uo inflanmiatory disturbances. 

 — Burgoyne ^ Co.'s Price Current. 



Canaby islands Cochineal. — A recent consular 

 report states that the value of cochineal exported 

 from the Canary Islands during the past year was 

 £127,023. It is still the most important staple of ex- 

 portation, and the principal product of the islands. 

 "We hear, however, that an attempt is about to be 

 made to cultivate the tea shrub on these islands. 

 "With regard to cochineal, in spite of the above re- 

 sults, there has been a general falling off, amounting 

 to something like 10 per cent as compared to the 

 produce of the year 1884, particularly on the Grand 

 Canary, where the crop of cochineal is always more 

 thau half the whole yield of the islands. It is as- 

 serted that the trade is evidently declining. Never- 

 theless, the recent rise in price gives some hope that 

 the cultivation of the opumia for the rearing of the 

 cochineal insect will not be entirely abandoned for 

 many years to come. It is not a little surprising that 

 the discovery of the coal-tar dyes should have iujured 

 the cochineal trade; and it would doubtless have 

 ruined it ere this had it uot been found that most 

 of the coal-tar colours are poisons, which cannot be 

 employed with safety in pharmacy or in confectionery. 

 This fact alone ought to cause a revival of the " good 

 old times " as regards cochineal. — Burgoyne ^- Co.'s 

 Price Current. 



Thk Bamboo. — The following is an extract from the 

 " Exhibition " number of the Journal of Indian Art 

 for May 1886, describing the plans of the Indian 

 Courts at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition : — " In 

 the centre of the Economic Court the great Bamboo 

 Bridge, or as it may be called trophy, is a couspiuu- 

 ous object, and the collection of over 3,000 articles 

 made from this most versatile material, can only be 

 briefly iniroduct^d by a quotation from Colonel Yule's 

 Anglo-Indian Glossary, page 41 — ' In fact it might 

 almost be said that among the Indo-Chinese nations 

 the staff of life is a bamhoo. Scaffolding the ladders, 

 landing jetties, fishing apparatus, irrigation wheels and 

 Bcoops, oars, masts and yards, spears and arrows, hats 

 and helmets, bow, bow-string and quiver, oil cans, 

 water stoups and cooking pots, pipe-sticks, conduits, 

 clothes-boxes, pan-boxes, dinner-trays, pickles, pre- 

 serves and melodious musical instruments, torches, 

 footballs, cordage, bellows, mats, paper; these are but 

 a few of the articles that are made from the bamboo. 

 To these may be added from a cursory inspection of 

 a collection in one of the museums at Kew, combs, 

 mugs, sun-blinds, cages, grotesque carvings, brushes, 

 jans, shirts, sails, teapots, pipes and harps." — Indian 

 Gardener. 



The S.^vnitauv Value of Teees. — Dr. Stephen Smith 

 recently read a paper before the Now York Academy 

 ©f Sciences oa the sanitary value of trees in tbe city 



It is a well-known fact that during the intense heat 

 of summer there is more suffering and death from 

 sunstroke and high temperatures in the JNorthern 

 cities thau in the South, a result which must certamly 

 be attributed to the absence of suitable proteclion. 

 From three to five thousand people die every summer 

 in the metropolis from the effects of heat. In the 

 and, treeless streets and avenues the temperature 

 often runs from 130° to 150° Fahr., when under 

 the branches of a thrifty shade tree it vvoukl not 

 exceed 70" or 80". In the absence of sheltering 

 trees, the stone and brick walls act on the principle 

 of the regenerative furnace, and absorb the heat of 

 the sun to yield it up again during the night. If 

 trees were planttd in the streets the pavement and 

 surrounding walls would be much cooler, and at the 

 same time the trees would absorb the deleterious 

 gases thrown off from the lungs and from decomposing 

 rnatter, yielding in return a supply of pure oxygen. 

 The value of a systematic culture of trees in all of 

 our large cities can hardly be estimated. From both 

 a sanitary and artistic stand-point they are a very 

 desirable addition to any city.— /nrfiVu! Gardener. 



Comicalities in Plants.— There is a jack in the 

 pulpit, the flower of the plant known as Indian tur- 

 nip {.irisccma triphylhon). Who could ever look at 

 one of these singular blossoms, says a writer in the 

 Jf-estcrn Review of Science, without that same stir- 

 ring the risible faculties which one experiences in 

 perusing a parody or caricature, or witnessing a pan- 

 tomime ? The very sight of one is provocatire of 

 mirth. How many times in my school days did I 

 challeng the teacher's frown by involuntary giggles 

 of the whimsical look of the imprisoned Jack ! Monk's 

 hoo of the genus Aconitum, has quaint, comical 

 flowers, suggestive of an old lady's head in a night 

 cap. The well known fly-trap, Dionoia mtiscipula, 

 strikes the mind with all the effect of a joke. The 

 leaves of this plant are fringed with stiff bristles, and 

 fold together when certain hairs on their upper sur- 

 face are touched, thus seizing insects that light on 

 them. Seeing the leaf stand temptingly open, a poor 

 fly pops in for shelter or food. No sooner has it touched 

 its feet than some sensitive fibres are affected, and 

 the cilia of the top closes in upon the intruder, im- 

 prisoning him as eft'ectually as if a boy bad taken 

 him and closed him in a box. The pitcher plant, or 

 monkey cap of the east, although not particularly 

 ludicrous, has a whimsical arrangement which borders 

 closely upon the human economy. To the footstalk 

 of each leaf of this plant, near the base, is attached 

 a kind of bag, shaped like a pitcher, of the same 

 consistence and colour as the leaf in the earlier state 

 of its growth, but changing with age to a reddish 

 purple. It is girt around with an oblique baud or 

 hoop, and covered with a lid neatly fitted, and move- 

 able on a kind of hinge or strong fibre, which, pass- 

 ing over the handle, connects the vessel with the leaf. 

 By the shrinking or contracting of this fibre, the lid 

 is drawn open whenever the weather is showery or 

 damp. AVhen sufficient moisture has fallen and the 

 pitcher saturated, the cover falls down so firmly that 

 evaporation cannot ensue. The water is thus gradu- 

 ally absorbed through the handle in the footstalk of 

 the leaf, giving sustenance and vigor to the plants. 

 As boon as the pitchers are exhausted, the lids again 

 open to admit whatever moisture may fall ; and when 

 the plant has produced its' seed, and dry season fairly 

 sets in, it withers, with all the covers of the pitchers 

 standing open. The flower of the bee or/c i'.s is like a 

 piece of honeycomb, and the bees delight in it. Then 

 there is the snapdragon, the corolla of which is cleft, 

 and turned back so as to look like a rabbit's mouth, 

 especially if pinched on the sides, when the animal 

 appears as if nibbling. The flowers of the cock's comb, 

 and the seed pod of the inostynia probosscidia bear 

 curious resemblance to the objects which have suggested 

 their names. Some kinds of the Mendicago have also 

 curious sted-pods, .'^ome being like bee-hives, some like 

 caterpillars and some like hedgehogs — the last being 

 itself an essentially ludicrous ohiQci, —ScieniifiQ 

 American, 



