THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



181 



boiling water one litre. Infuse two hours, 

 and strain. So also are prepared tisanes 

 of juniper berries, bitter orange peel, and 

 linseed. 



Prune tisane. — French plums sixty 

 grammes ; cut the fruit in two, and boil 

 them an hour in a sufficient quantity of 

 water to make a litre of tisane; strain 

 through a sieve. Thus, likewise for tisanes 

 of dates, figs, and jujubes. 



Rice tisane. — Boil fifteen grammes of 

 rice, till it is cracked and broken, in a 

 sufficient quantity of water to make a litre 

 of tisane ; straiu through a coarse sieve. 

 The same mode serves for pearl-barley and 

 oatmeal. 



Veal broth. — Fillet of veal 125 gram- 

 mes, river-water one litre. Cook over gen- 

 tle heat, in a close-covered vessel for two 

 hours ; strain the broth when cold. The 

 same for broths of calf's lights, chicken, 

 fresh-water crawfish, tortoises, and frogs, 

 to which list many would add snails, and 

 even snakes. 



Note that several of the above-named 

 simples, as borage and marsh-mallow, often 

 produce, when administered as tisme, a 

 loading of the stomach, or a nausea, which 

 the doctor may be tempted to attribute to 

 causes unconnected with plants of so little 

 activity. This inconvenient and injurious 

 effect is owing to the stiff bristles found on 

 borage, and to the cottony-down on the 

 calyces of the mallow. These substances, 

 if allowed to pass into the tisane by the 

 employment of a coarse strainer, irritate 

 the stomach mechanically. All tisanes 

 from downy plants should, therefore, be 

 strained through several folds of fine cloth, 

 or, better, through filtering-paper. 



Let me add to the above, that it is bet- 



ter to make tisane in small quantities, as 

 wanted, just as you would do to have 

 a delicate-flavoured cup of tea. If the 

 flowers or herbs remain too long in their 

 infusion, you extract from them more than 

 you want — bitter and rough principles be- 

 longing to the herbs, which are better left 

 behind. Quick-drawn tisane, like whiskey 

 from au illicit still, is good, because it is 

 made in a hurry. Only the most volatde 

 and aromatic particles enter into combina- 

 tion with the liquid so prepared. 



And now, ailing reader, that you are 

 able to doctor yourself, I beg of you to 

 make a reasonable use of your knowledge, 

 and not to fall into any pernicious excess. 

 The French are actually fond of tisanes, 

 and drink enormous quantities for the 

 mere love of the thing. I have heard of 

 hyprocritical people visiting their sick 

 friends, not through any real sympathy, 

 but from the selfish motive of sipping 

 their tisane. In the north of France 

 the passion is restrained within moderate 

 limits ; but in the south there are hypo- 

 chondriacal monomaniacs who keep the 

 tisane-pot stewing Sundays and working- 

 days, from morn till midnight. They 

 change the materials of their tisane several 

 times a day, injure their stomachs, dis- 

 order their digestion, upsetting every intes- 

 tinal function, till they make themselves 

 really and seriously ill, at which they 

 drink more and more tisane, running the 

 round of what is called " a vicious circle." 

 For such doleful sufferers the most fortu- 

 nate event would be to have their tisane- 

 pot blown up by a schoolboy's squib, and 

 to find their bitter draught replaced by a 

 tender mutton chop and a bottle of old 

 claret. E. S. D. 



THIS SEASON'S ROSES. 



We are now reaping the results of the 

 very remarkable season which has just 

 now passed over us ; and it must have be- 

 come obvious to the most cursory obser- 

 vation, that while many of the vegetable 

 tribes have suffered much deterioration 

 from the excessive wet and cold of the 

 month of June, others have luxuriated, 

 and are bursting into the richest and most 

 exuberant display of foliage and flowers. 

 May we not, from the mighty and very 

 unusual operations which have been going 

 on in the world of nature, learn some 

 lessons from ILs method of proceeding, 

 " who is wonderful in counsel, and ex- 



cellent in working," which we may apply 

 for the production of like results, when 

 natural causes do not operate to the same 

 extent, or in the same manner as in the 

 course of the present season ? 



One of the most obvious and satisfac- 

 tory results in the floral world is the un- 

 usually rich development of the rose. 

 Everybody who has cultivated the rose 

 for any length of time knows that it de- 

 lights in an abundant supply of moisture ; 

 but in supplying this artificially we hare 

 not, perhaps, began soon enough ; we have 

 left it until the blossom has begun to make 

 its appearance, whereas the experience of 



