THE FARMER AT HOME. 293 



endowed with sensation, and with spontaneous, as well as voluntary, 

 motion. Vegetables are organized, supported by air and food, endowed 

 with life, and subject to death as well as animals. They have, in 

 some instances spontaneous, though we know not that they have 

 voluntary motion. They are sensible to the action of nourishment, 

 air, and light, and either thrive or languish, according to the whole- 

 some or hurtful application of these stimulants. The spontaneous 

 movements of plants are almost as readily to be observed as their 

 living principle. The general direction of their branches, and espe- 

 cially of the upper surface of their leaves, though repeatedly disturbed, 

 to the light, the unfolding and closing of their flowers at stated times, 

 or according to favorable or unfavorable circumstances, with some still 

 more curious particulars, are actions undoubtedly depending on their 

 vital principle, and are performed with the greater facility in propor- 

 tion as that principle is in its greatest vigor. Plants alone have a 

 power of deriving nourishment, though not indeed exclusively, from 

 inorganic matter, mere earths, salts, or airs, substances certainly inca- 

 pable of serving as food for any animals, the latter only feeding on 

 what is or has been organized matter, either of a vegetable or animal 

 nature. So that it would seem to be the office of vegetable life alone, 

 to transform dead matter into organized living bodies. 



NEEDLE. A name given to various small instruments in the 

 useful arts. The most common acceptation of the word is to denote 

 the common sewing-needle, which is so well known as to require no 

 description : besides this, there is the knitting-needle ; the netting- 

 needle : the glovers-needle, with a triangular point ; the tambour- 

 needle, which is made like a hook, and fixed in a handle ; the hook 

 being thrust through the cloth, the thread is caught under the hook, 

 and the needle is drawn back, taking the thread with it. Needle is 

 a name given to a part of the stocking- frame, lace-machine, and many 

 other machines in the manufactures. The manufacture of sewing- 

 needles, is one of the most remarkable pursuits of the age, both tech- 

 nically and locally. In a technical point of view, it is striking for the 

 number of processes which every individual needle passes through ; 

 while it is not less noteworthy on account of the grouping of the 

 manufacture about one town of England in particular Redditch, in 

 Worcestershire where it has been calculated there are sixty or seventy 

 millions made every week ! In our own country, but few attempts in 

 this important branch of artistic industry have been made. It is said, 

 however, that in the recent ones at Newark, (N. J.,) the results pro- 

 mise a degree of success highly auspicious to the enterprising indi- 

 viduals who made them. 



NECTARINE. The nectarine is only a variety of the peach, 

 with a smooth skin. In its growth, habit, and general appearance, 

 it is impossible to distinguish it from the peach. The fruit, however, 

 is rather smaller, perfectly smooth, without down, and is one of the 



