368 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



in order to prepare the ground for the following crop, which in 

 every case should be a green one, being the only crop that succeeds 

 well on a ground trenched the first year. If manure be scarce, it is 

 better to reserve it until such time as you are preparing the ground 

 for the immediate reception of the crop, at which time it should he 

 placed at the bottom of the drill — as plants require food immediately 

 at their roots, and not in contact with the stem. All ground in- 

 tended for green crops should be prepared in the foregoing manner 

 — that is, either previously trenched or deeply dug. It may be 

 well to remark here, that ground not long since trenched, in its pre- 

 paration for a green crop, may only he deeply dug, which operation 

 is conducted exactly in the same manner as trenching, except that 

 instead of turning up a second spading, we merely shovel the loose 

 earth after the first in the form of a drill over the first spit, and 

 then dig over the bottom of the trench, so as to leave the subsoil 

 loose, for reasons already stated. 



By attending to the suggestions here given, the greater and 

 decidedly the most laborious portion of work will have been executed 

 before the approach of spring, and at a season of the year when there 

 is generally spare time. I think I may conclude this article by 

 laying down the following maxim : that as soon as one crop has 

 been removed, you should immediately set to work and prepare the 

 ground for the reception of that which is to follow, by no means 

 allowing the land to lie idle, producing weeds to reproduce them- 

 selves. 



SKELETON LEAVES. 



fLANTS as well as animals are organized bodies, and, like 

 them, their parts may be dissected and decomposed by 

 art, thereby unveiling to us their peculiarities of struc- 

 ture and habit, and enabling us more correctly to classify 

 and arrange them. 

 Among the various helps towards acquiring a knowledge of the 

 anatomv of plants, one of the principal is the art of reducing to 

 skeletons, leaves, fruit, and roots ; that is, of freeing them of their 

 tender and pulpy substance in such a manner as to allow us to sur- 

 vey alone the internal harder vessels in their entire connection. 

 Tliis has been done by various ways of decomposition, and now we 

 purpose to give the history of the art. The first person who con- 

 ceived the idea of employing decomposition for the purpose of making- 

 leaf skeletons was a professor of anatomy at Naples named Severin, 

 who, in a book which he published in 1G45, gave the figure, with a 

 description, of a leaf of the Finis opuntia reduced to a skeleton. Of 

 the particular process employed to prepare this leaf, the figure of 

 which was very coarse and indistinct, he gives no account, saying 

 only that the soft substance was so dissolved that the vessels or 



