FOREIGN AND MISCELLANKOUS NOTICES. 



centive to a rapid reaction of the vital pow- 

 ers should be applied only in the most limit- 

 ed degree, increasing stimuli with the re- 

 quirements of the plants, retarding rather 

 tlian accelerating vital action. As regards 

 the action of light on plants, a wide field is 

 open to the ingenious experimentalist. Let 

 a given number of plants be frozen; admit 

 to some light in its ordinary condition, from 

 others exclude the chemical ray; fi-ommore, 

 both the chemical and heating raj' ; toothers 

 admit only the luminous, or vary its appli- 

 cation in the many ways which will occur 

 to the chemist. The result must be of im- 

 poitance alike to the gardener and the pure 

 man of science. G. L. — Gard. Chnm. 



The Scarlet Geranium at Sea. — In 

 the year 1825 I sailed for America in a ship 

 con\e_ying emigrants to Canada, all of them 

 humble people from a rural district, to whom 

 the inside of a ship or the waves of the sea 

 wei'e as strange objects as a sight of the man 

 in the moon would have been, or a slice of 

 the green cheese, of which, according to nur- 

 sery traditions, it is composed. Fine hear- 

 t}', sturdy country people they were, as rich 

 in children as thej^ were poor in pocket. 

 jMost of them had connexions in the land 

 the}' were going to; but bej'ond a belief that 

 there were no taxes in America, and conse- 

 quently there could be no want, their ideas 

 on the subject were vague enough. It was 

 an amusing sight to an unreflecting young 

 fellow, as I then was, to see their bits of fur- 

 niture brought on board, the old carved 

 chests containing their wardrobes, their va- 

 rious cooking utensils, and the little things 

 with which they could not part, because 

 " the}' had had them so long." Amongst 

 these were various biids, a cat or two, and 

 a dog; one little girl had a field-mouse in a 

 cage; and a nice matronly woman had a 

 Scarlet Geranium. Now my mother had 

 been fond of Geraniums, and she had often 

 permitted me when a child to water them as 

 they stood near a spot where she was en- 

 gaged with her household duties ; so that it 

 was like an old acquaintance, this said Ge- 

 ranium, in its green-painted tub. Its owner 

 had been repeatedly told " it would die" on 

 the voyage. " Never mind, then; let it die, 

 so long as it dies with me," was her reply, 

 as she fastened it up in a corner of the rude 

 deck on Avhich these poor emigrants were to 

 live for seven long weeks. And so, with a 

 strong breeze and a llowing sheet, we left the 

 harbor together. The fair wind with which 

 led soon shifted into an adverse qnar- 

 nd off the coast of Scotland, (for we 



were going north about,) it became a dead 

 noser, with all the usual amount of miseries. 



To a set of poor country folk, what can ex- 

 ceed the miseries of the temporary lower 

 deck of a collier^ converted into an emigrant 

 ship, hatches battened down, to keep out the 

 washing seas or heavy rain, foul air, sea- 

 sickness? Miseiies indeed! The word as 

 understood when applied to felons in goal, or 

 paupers in a woikhouse ashore, conveys no 

 conception of the wretchedness in question. 

 It was .soon found of no use to contend with 

 the violence of the elements; so, when 

 things were at the worst, the captain order- 

 ed the helm to be put up, and we made a fair 

 wind of it by running to the south. As soon 

 as the ship was fairly before the wind, the 

 hatches were unbattened, light and air were 

 admitted, attempt was made to get things 

 snug. As a sailor boy, part of this pleasing 

 duty fell to my lot; and well do I remem- 

 ber the thoughts of my comfortable home 

 which were awakened when, amidst the des- 

 perate confusion of that lower deck, the old 

 Geranium caught my eye. It had flowers 

 on when it came on board; they had soon 

 fallen otf; day by day it sickened and lan- 

 guished; the color went little by little out 

 of its leaves ; and then they drooped off al- 

 together, and were succeededby smaller and 

 feebler ones, till at last all appearance of life 

 had entirely vanished. Still it was kept. It 

 had flourished for years in the cottage win- 

 dow of its owners, which looked out upon 

 pleasant green fields. That cottage and those 

 fields, now tenanted and tilled by others, 

 still lived in their recollection, and were as- 

 sociated no doubt, with the plant in ques- 

 tion. And so it went with us; cro.ssed the 

 wild dark ocean, accompanied us up the St. 

 Lawrence, and there we parted, for it went 

 ashore with its owners. Yet I saw it once 

 again; for being on shore upon some duty, 

 I went upon Goudie's wharf, where I found 

 a family group sitting upon their effects pre- 

 paratory to embarkation up the river in a 

 steamboat. They Avere part of our emigrant 

 passengers. And standing by the side of 

 their bedding and boxes was my old acquain- 

 tance, the Scarlet Geranium — dead, dead — 

 looking as hopeless and miserable as the un- 

 happy exiles themselves. But if, as I have 

 little doubt, they have long ere this made 

 for themselves a happy and independent 

 home in the western solitudes, it may be 

 hoped that with the Scarlet Geranium they 

 did not lose the last link which bound their 

 affections to their father land. — The. Flor- 

 rist, Frwitcst, and Garden Miscellany for 

 Jan. 1851. 



