THE FARMER AT HOME. 455 



take root and grow upright. The root is short and thick, whence the 

 leaves rise up in folds, one within another, spreading off to the top. 

 They are of a good thick substance, ten or twelve inches long. The 

 outside leaves are so compact, as to contain the rain water as it falls ; 

 they will contain a pint and a half, and sometimes a quart. The 

 thirsty traveller sticks his knife into the leaves, just above the root ; 

 and this lets out the water which he catches in his hat. 



WINDOW. In the most ancient eras, the windows of habita- 

 tions were very small and narrow; and the same remark is true of 

 the castle and other edifices which were constructed during the mid- 

 dle ages. In the painting on the Greek vase which represents 

 Jupiter about to scale the window of Alcmena, the opening is exceed- 

 ingly small. According to Seneca, those oi the baths of Scipio were 

 so small that they merited not the name, and might rather be denom- 

 inated crevices. As the Romans improved, however, in the elegant 

 arts, this particular was not overlooked ; and both their town and 

 country houses were decorated with numerous and ample windows. 

 It was not customary to have them overlooking the street ; and they 

 were, in the majority of instances, confined to the interior court of the 

 house. The ancient temples had not, generally, windows ; some 

 exceptions, however, exist to this observation. Before the use of glass 

 became common, which was not till towards the end of the twelfth 

 century, the windows in England seem generally to have been com- 

 posed of paper, which, properly prepared with oil, forms no contempt- 

 ible defence against the intrusions of the weather, and is a tolerable 

 medium for the admission of light. In warm climates, as in the 

 West Indies, windows are often quite open, without glass or any 

 translucent medium to admit light while it excludes air. In Russia, 

 salt is used to clean windows from frost, on account of its effects in 

 liquefying this substance. It is rubbed on the glass with a sponge. 

 In England windows are one of the articles subjected to taxation. 



WINE. The fermented juice of the ripe fruit of the Yitis 

 vinifera of Linnaeus. There is a great variety in wines ; but they 

 have been principally confined to four sorts, as sufficient for officinal 

 use, viz. the vinum album hispanicum, or mountain wine ; the vinum 

 canarium, canary or sack wine ; the vinum rhenanum, or rhenish 

 wine ; and the vinum rubrum, or port wine. On a chemical investi- 

 gation, all wines consist chiefly of water, alchohol, a pecular acid, the 

 carbonic acid, tartar, and an astringent, gummi-resinous matter, in 

 which the color of the red wine resides, and which is expressed from 

 the husks of the grape. They differ from each other in the proportion 

 of these ingredients, and particularly in that of alchohol, which they 

 contain. The qualities of wines depend not only upon the difference 

 of the grapes, as containing more or less of saccharine juice, and the 

 acid matter which accompanies it ; but also upon circumstances 

 attending the process of fermentation. 

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