770 



HORN P O P P Y H O U S E. 



Reaumur, of the bark of the ash-tree gnawed to 

 pieces. With this material, moistened by a viscous 

 fluid which they emit, they construct a kind of fragile 

 pasteboard thicker than that made by the wasp, but 

 at the same time not near so pliant, easily breaking 

 between the fingers, of a buff colour, and not at all 

 shining. If the nest of the hornet should not fill the 

 cavity in which it is commenced, they protect it by a 

 common covering of a single piece, not being com- 

 posed of a series of distinct layers placed one above 

 another. To compensate, however, for this, the 

 covering is of a much stronger consistence, being 

 about four times as thick as the layer of the wasp 

 nest. Reaumur has figured a nest thus protected, 

 which he found in a cavity in a wall, and which, as 

 well as one described by St. Fargeau, in his work just 

 published upon the Hymenoptera (Suites a Button, 

 liv. 14), was attached by a footstalk, and defended at 

 its base by one of these coverings, which considerably 

 resembles in form the paper cone in which grocers 

 lap their moist sugar. Beneath this covering the 

 footstalk is dilated and supports the first layer of cells. 

 The subsequent layers are affixed by means of upright 

 pillars, of which the central one is the strongest. The 

 nest is of a somewhat globular form, and the cells are 

 much fewer in number than in the wasp's nest. This 

 insect devours other flies, especially bees, the honey 

 of which it also steals ; it also devours almost any 

 other kind of fresh animal substances which it can 

 obtain, ripe fruit, &c. From the size of the insect its 

 sting is very powerful, and is much to be dreaded. 



HORN POPPY is the Glaiicmm jlavum of Decan- 

 dolle. A European herb belonging to Papaveracece. 

 Some of the species are annuals, others biennial ; 

 and are occasionally seen in flower-gardens on account 

 of the curious structure of their flowers. 



HORSE (Equus}. A genus of pachydermatous 

 mammalia, but distingu'uhed from all the rest of the 

 order by having only one toe on the foot fully de- 

 veloped, enlarged, and enclosed in a solid hoof. 

 Hence several naturalists have made a separate 

 order of the horse, under the name of Solipecles, 

 or entire footed ; under which name the genus is made 

 a separate section by Cuvier in his " Animal King- 

 dom." Though there is only one toe fuljy developed 

 in the horse, there are rudiments of two others 

 under the skin, but they make no appearance 

 externally. 



The general characters are : six incisive teeth in 

 each jaw, which when the animal is young have their 

 crowns marked with a single furrow of considerable 

 depth. There are six grinders on each side of both 

 jaws, which have their crowns square, and crossed 

 with laminae of enamel. In the upper teeth there 

 is a small disc of enamel on the inner edge. The 

 males have one small canine tooth, and sometimes 

 two, on each side of the upper jaw, but none in the 

 under ; and these canines are always wanting in the 

 females. Between the canines and the first grinder 

 there is a large open space. The jaws have much 

 less of a grinding motion than those of oxen and 

 other ruminant animals. The stomach is single, and 

 the intestines very long, and furnished with a coecum 

 of vast size. The feeding apparatus of these animals 

 is but ill adapted for dividing their food, it is carried 

 into the stomach with comparatively little preparation; 

 and the alimentary apparatus resembles a distilling 

 one more than any thing else, the nutriment of the 

 animal being in many instances only a tincture drawn 



from the food, which passes through, in many in- 

 stances, without much apparent change ; and the 

 droppings of horses are not so offensive to the smell 

 as those of any other anirmil. There is another 

 circumstance which shows the imperfect action of the 

 stomachs of these animals upon their food ; and that 

 is the great heat which can be produced by the fer- 

 mentation which the dung of horses undergoes when 

 it is collected in heaps. This renders it a very im- 

 portant article in the cultivation of many plants 

 which require greater heat than that of the season 

 to force them into growth ; and by means of this 

 substance, the people of England and similar countries 

 are enabled to rear melons, and other rich fruits of 

 the sunny lands, in as great perfection as they arc 

 raised in their native countries. Nor is the advantage 

 derived from manure furnished by horses confined to 

 the forcing of those exotic plants which minister to 

 luxury ; for in every country in which horses are 

 abundant, it tells equally upon all cultivated fields ; 

 and wh'ile the horse is the grand power employed in 

 agriculture, it also furnishes the grand stimulant to 

 every thing that the field produces. There is no 

 country where horses are so numerous, in proportion 

 to the breadth of the land, as they are in England ; 

 and owing to this very circumstance, there is no 

 country where various soils yield so abundant a crop 

 of the food of man, or of that of domestic animals. 

 As an instance of this, we may mention the com- 

 paratively small breadth of land which suffices to 

 supply the City of London, and its attached boroughs 

 and surrounding villages, with culinary vegetables. 

 As the thing is actually done, and done in so quiet 

 and systematic a manner as that nobody thinks any 

 thing about it, we are apt to pass the matter unheeded ; 

 but if the problem were put in a country where (here 

 was no such place as London, "to find green vege- 

 tables for a million and a quarter of human beings, 

 (something like the inhabitants of the half of 

 Scotland), concentrated within a circle of five miles 

 radius," the problem would be reckoned absolutely 

 impossible ; for even those parts of the country which 

 are most thinly populated, and where, consequently, 

 each individual enjoys the produce of the greatest 

 breadth of land, the people are no where better 

 served with vegetables than they are in this same 

 London ; if, indeed, they are served as well. Th ; s 

 does not apply to the quantity only, for it is equally 

 true of the quality and of the freshness ; while the 

 inhabitants are exempted from all trouble in the 

 growing of these things. Now, it is in a great 

 measure owing to the vast number of horses which 

 are employed in the metropolis that this abundant and 

 excellent supply is obtained ; because the quantity of 

 horse-manure, incorporated with the soil of the market 

 gardens, keeps it in a continual state of excitement, 

 and produces all the year round, and more especially 

 in the winter season, a much higher temperature than 

 the earth would naturally have in our climate ; so 

 that, with a few simple contrivances of art, vegetation 

 is kept up during the winter ; and by a skilful adap- 

 tation of plants to seasons, the market gardens are 

 kept in continual crop. Now without dressings, of 

 not only a rich, but of a warm and stimulating nature, 

 it would be quite impossible to do this ; and thus, 

 were it not for the horses, the art of those cultivators 

 would be, in a great measure, exerted in vain. Nor 

 is it in the metropolis alone, that this advantage is 

 felt, for it applies to every district of the country; 



