1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



633 



in criass cases in which very little chanjje of air 

 has taken place, there is no instance of plants, 

 even of the lowest kiml, such as ferns and mosses, 

 livinjT (or any length of time without light. VVitli- 

 out light, there can be no green in leaves, no co- 

 lor in flowers, and neither color nor flavor in fruits. 



Plants agree with animals in having a sexual 

 system ; but they differ from animals in having for 

 the most part both sexes in the same individual. 

 In the improvement of plants, as in the improve- 

 ment of animals, the sexual s^-stem is a powerful 

 agent ; and what is called cross-breeding is em- 

 ployed with as great advantage in the vegetable 

 as in the animal kingdom. It is remarkable, that 

 the general laws and results by which the process 

 of cross-breeding in both kingdoms is regulated 

 are the same : the two parents must be two va- 

 rieties of the same species, and their qualities may 

 be different, but must not be opposite : the pre- 

 ponderating influence, in point of character, is 

 also with the male, and in point of bulk and hardi- 

 ness with the female, as it is in animals. Many 

 of the finest varieties of fruits, culinary vegetables, 

 cereal grains, and grasses, have been produced by 

 cross-breeding. When cross-breeding is efllected 

 between what are considered different species, the 

 offspring is a mule, or hybrid ; is incapable of 

 maturing seeds ; and generally, in the course of 

 a few years, degenerates, or reverts to its original 

 parentage. The purple laburnum, which was 

 raised from a seed of the common laburnum, fer- 

 tilized by Cytisus purpuruus, is an example of a 

 true hybrid. The flowers partake of the colof. of 

 that of both parents ; and the plant, for two or 

 three years, produced only flowers of this kind, 

 which were never succeeded by seeds : but in the 

 sixth year, in some plants, and seventh and 

 eighth in others, branches of Cytisus purpureus 

 were produced on some parts of the tree, and 

 branches of the common yellow laburnum on 

 others, the latter bearing seed. (See Gard. 

 Mag., vol. xii. p. 225 ; and j^rb. Brit. p. 590.) 

 It thus appears that a true mule, or hybrid, can 

 with difficulty be propagated, even by portions of 

 the plant, or by what is called extension ; sincp it 

 never can be certain whether the portion takeif'^ff 

 for propagation will produce the mule or one' of 

 the parents. As it is uncertain what are. '"^id 

 what are not, very distinct species, many d' 'JJ'.ie 

 plants originated.by cross-breeding, andcon-^i"- 7ed 

 mules, may not be so ; and may, consequ (ly, 

 prove permanent and improved varieties, "^^me 

 mules, also, such as that between the sweet-wil- 

 liam and the common pink, are much less liable 

 to degenerate than others. As some of the most 

 beautiful and useful plants in cultivation are cross- 

 bred varieties, or mules, the subject well deserves 

 the attention of the amateur, who will find it a 

 source of useful amusement and recreation. 



Plants agree with animals in the offspring, 

 when it is raised from seed, bearing a general re- 

 semblance to the parent ; but as, in every family, 

 the children of the same parent differ individually 

 in feature, temper, disposition, &c., so, among 

 seedling plants from the same seed-pod, no two 

 plants will be found exactly alike ; and some will 

 occasionally diflfer considerably from all the rest. 

 Nevertheless, it is an undoubted fact, that all 

 seedling plants not only possess the character of 

 the species from which they have sprung, but 

 even, in by far the greater number of casesj^some 



of the peculiarities of the individual. The seeda 

 of any kind of cultivated apple, for example, will 

 produce plants, the fruit of all of which will more 

 or loss resemble that of the parent ; though per- 

 haps some one or two among a hundred may be 

 considerably diflorent. Hence, by selecting (i-om 

 beds of seedling plants those which are in any 

 way remarkably different from the rest, new va- 

 rieties are procured : and, till within the last half 

 century (when artificial cross-breeding began to 

 be practised by gardeners), this was the only 

 way in which an improved variety of any species 

 of plant was procured. 



Plants, like animals, are subject to various dis- 

 eases, as well as to be preyed on by insects, most 

 of which live on plants till they have completed 

 their larva state. Plants are also injured by be- 

 ing crowded by other plants, either of the same or 

 of different species. When these spring up na- 

 turally around the cultivated plants, they are called 

 weeds, and the cultivated plant is cleaned from 

 them by weeding ; as it is in the case of being 

 crowded by its own species, or by other cultivated 

 plants, by thinning. Plants are also injured by 

 epiphytes, which grow on their outer bark, such 

 as mosses and lichens ; and by parasites, which 

 root into their living stems and branches, such as 

 the dodder, mistletoe, &c. 



The life of plants, like that of animals, is li- 

 mited, but varies in regard to duration. Some 

 plants vegetate, flower, ripen seed, and die, in the 

 course of a i'ew months, and these are called an- 

 nuals ; while others, such as the oak and some 

 other trees, are known to live upwards of a thou- 

 sand years. In both plants and animals, decay 

 commences the moment the life is extinct ; and in 

 both they are ultimately resolved, first, into a 

 pulpy or other homogeneous mass, for manures, 

 and ultimately into certain gases, salts, and earths. 

 After death, the decay both of animals and plants 

 may be retarded by the same means ; viz. drying, 

 exclusion from the air, or saturating with saline 

 or antiseptic substances. 



Hampstead, July, 1828. 



THE MILK-SICKNESS OR PUKING-COMPLAINT. 



[The subject of the following article requires the 

 aid of the botanist, as well as of the physician, for 

 its investigation and remedy. Even if the parti- 

 cular plant which causes this fatal and wide-spread 

 disease has been really discovered, the knowledge 

 of it will not be extended so far in ten years, by 

 means of such description as is given below, as it 

 would in a month, by being recognized by a bo- 

 tanist, if old, or named and described by one, if it 

 is a new, and, as yet, undescribed species or vari- 

 ety. 



There has lately been passing through many 

 (if not most) of the newspapers of the United 

 States, as if a statement of recent facts, an account 

 of the ravages of the " milk-sickness" in a parti- 

 cular neighborhood on the Wabash. It should 

 have been given (if at all,) as an old account. 

 Precisely the same article was republished more 



