248 



THE GARDENERS MONTHLY 



[August, 



cells. All the interior mass of wood 'wT i\ tree is 

 simply dead vegetable matter. There is no 

 reason that we know why crude liquids taken 

 into dead vegetable matter should not freeze, 

 and, when it freezes, it will expand. Many per- 

 sons have seen ice in small spaces found in the 

 interior of trees cut in the winter season. This 

 dead matter allows of some expansion, and the 

 little moisture it contains may freeze without 

 any perceptible effect on the whole body of the 

 tree. But if the interior happens to be spongy, 

 as is very likely to be the case with old Lime 

 trees, and a great deal of water happened to be 

 stored therein, we know of no reason why it 

 should not freeze, and the trunk burst just as 

 readily as it would in a bottle. 



But all this is a very different question to that 

 of the freezing of the sap in living cells, and for the 

 cells to still continue thereafter to possess vital 

 functions. 



man will be increasingly studied as time wears 

 away, and then the little spot where he worked 

 so many hours will have a continued interest. 



The country church-yai'd in which he desired 

 to be buried, so that " the charms of wild nature 

 might allure the birds to sing above bis grave," 

 is no longer a " country church," but closely 

 pressed on all sides by brick and mortar, and is 

 just in front of the steamship wharf, where pas- 

 sengers bid good by to America when on the 

 start for Europe. He was a Scotchman, born at 

 Paisley, July 6th, 1776, and landed at Newcastle, 

 Delaware, on Jul)^ 14th, 1794. From here he 

 walked through dense woods to Philadelphia, 

 and shot his first American bird, a red headed 

 woodpecker, on the road. He first worked as a 

 copper plate printer, but afterwards as a weaver 

 at an old mill on the Pennypack Creek, near 

 what is now known as Holmesburg, though a 

 part of the great city of Philadelphia. He was a 



Wilson's school house near gray's ferry. 



Wilson, the Ornithologist. — The little stone 

 building used in connection with a wheelwright's 

 shop, in which the celebrated Wilson taught 

 school, on the west bank of the Schuylkill near 

 Gray's Ferry bridge, Philadelphia, on a recent 

 ride by, we see has been torn down. 



Through the kindness of Dr. Elliott Coues, of 

 Washington, we have been favored with a draw- 

 ing of this classical spot, and have made the fol 

 lowing cut therefrom. The history of this great 



man of fine poetical temperament, though his 

 poems do not take rank with the works of genius. 

 He was the companion in ornithological work 

 with the celebrated Wm. Bartram. Like many 

 wonderful workers, he seldom had perfect health. 

 He died of dysentery, on the 23d of August, 1813. 

 Yucca Moths. — Mr. C. V. Riley has discovered 

 a new yucca moth which bores the stem of the 

 Yucca, instead of the fruit, as in the case of the 

 Pronuba yuccasella. It very much resembles 



