TILi FARMER AT HOME. 47 



of their predecessors. This is the course that nature has provided for 

 their propagation; and some contend that bots never injure a horse, 

 but are beneficial. Others think that very rarely they injure him. 



BOTANY. This is the branch of natural history which treats of 

 vegetables, of the different plants, arid of the distinguishing marks by 

 which each individual species may be known from every other. Or, 

 botany is the science of the structure, functions, properties, habits, and 

 management of plants, and of the technical characters by which they 

 are distinguished. The study of this science is not a trifling employ- 

 ment, undeserving the time and attention bestowed upon it. Our 

 food, our medicine, our luxuries are improved by it. By the inquiries 

 of the curious new acquisitions are made in remote countries, and our 

 resources of various kinds are augmented. We find that gardening, 

 the most elegant, and agriculture, the most useful of all arts, are im- 

 proved only in those countries in which botany is made subservient to 

 their advancement. And as knowledge of this science is more gene- 

 rally diffused throughout our country, we may expect to see it more 

 frequently enriched with fields, and adorned with gardens, which, 

 while they bestow honor on their possessors, shall prove a pleasant 

 recreation to the old, and a useful study to the young. 



BOTTLE. A name given to certain small vessels, differing in 

 size and form, and composed of different materials. We find them 

 square, circular, and cylindrical ; some with short, arid others with 

 long necks. We have bottles of wood, stone, glass, and leather ; all 

 of them used either for ripening or preserving liquors. Common bot- 

 tles are made of a coarse, green-colored glass. When a finer sort is 

 employed, and the exterior of the vessel has been wrapped about with 

 straw or wicket, it gets the name of flask. By this covering, it is 

 rendered less brittle, and is much used by travellers. Glass bottles 

 were unknown to the ancients, at least the knowledge of them has 

 not been traced to a period earlier than the fifteenth century. 



The. country people of Persia never go a journey without carrying 

 by their side a small leathern bottle, in which to keep their water. 

 The Spaniards still use them under the name of Borrachas. They 

 are convenient, likewise, as the best means of preserving other sub- 

 stances, such as butter, cheese, and honey. The manner of preparing 

 them is thus described by Chardiri : " When the animal is killed, they 

 cut off its feet and its head, and draw it in this manner out of the skin, 

 without opening its body. They afterwards sew up the places where 

 the legs were cut off, and the tail, and when it is filled they tie it 

 about the neck." It is certain that bottles of skin were universally 

 employed as wine vessels among the ancient Jews. And we may 

 here notice the Abyssinian Girba, though it does not properly rank 

 under the term bottle. It is made of an ox's skin, squared and stitched 

 together so closely as to be water tight, and will contain about sixty 

 gallons. 



