HENBIT. 



HICKORY. 



fienbit is also one of the common names of 

 the fetid black horehound (Ballota nigrn). 



In Pennsylvania and other Middle States, 

 where the dead nettle is extensively natural- 

 ized, it is a troublesome weed in gardens, 

 where it may often be seen in flower as 

 early as February and March. (Flora Ces~ 

 frico.) 



HENBIT, SMALL. See SPEEDWELL. 



HEPATIC A, or LIVERWORT (Anemone 

 h'-jiti'ini). Miller mentions five sorts : the sin- 

 gle blue (nobilis), ;he double blue (plena), the 

 single white (alba), the single red (viil^u-i*), 

 and the double red (rubra). In England these 

 beautiful and early perennials produce their 

 il<> \\vrs in February and March, before any 

 leaf appears. The double sorts remain longer 

 in flower than the single ones. The single 

 flowers produce seed every year; the seed 

 should be sown in pots or boxes of light earth 

 in August, to receive only the morning sun till 

 October, when the plants must be placed in as 

 sunny a spot as possible through the winter. 

 The seedlings may be transplanted the follow- 

 ing August into the borders, and left there 

 undisturbed. Hepaticas do not bear trans- 

 planting well ; and the roots should only be 

 parted once in three or four years. The hepa- 

 tica loves an eastern aspect, and a loamy soil. 

 They are three years before they flower hand- 

 somely. See LIVKIIWOKT. 



HERBACEOUS (LaU herba). In describing 

 the texture of bodies, denotes their being green 

 arid cellular, as the tissue of membranous 

 leaves. It is also applied to such perennial 

 plants as lose their stems annually, while their 

 ronts remain permanent in the ground. 



HERBAL (Lat. herbarium). A collection of 

 dried plants, such as the old botanists termed 

 a lor "> *i>-'-nit or dry garden. It is also applied 

 to books which contain a methodical arrange- 

 mi'iit of the classes, genera, species, and varie- 

 ties of plants, together with an account of their 

 properties. Dry herbals are formed by glueing 

 to sheets of paper, twigs and other parts of 

 plants pressed flat, and dried in bibulous paper 

 or otherwise. If well prepared, they are as 

 useful to the botanist as living plants; but it 

 is necessary to have some practical skill to be 

 able to employ them advantageously., The 

 best method of making a hortus sirens or herbal, 

 is to place the plant to be dried between paper 

 of a soft and spongy, unglazed texture, under 

 a slight pressure. On the following day the 

 plant should be spread, in as natural a form as 

 possible, between folds of fresh, dry, blotting 

 paper; and a pressure greater than before em- 

 ployed. In a week it will be sufficiently dry 

 for pasting on a half sheet of white paper ; to 

 .which the name of the plant, its habitat, and 

 the natural order, with the date, may be ap- 

 pended. The largest public herbaria are those 

 of the museum at Paris, the imperial collection 

 at Vienna, the royal of Berlin, and that of the 

 British museum, London, formerly Sir Joseph 

 Banks's. Nothing certain is known of the 

 extent of these collections, but they probably 

 contain in some cases as many as 60,000 

 species. The herbarium is not an attractive 

 part of public museums; but a very important 

 one for numerous purposes of science, both 



practical and speculative. (Brande's Diet, of 

 \ Science.) 



HERBIVEROUS ANIMALS, FOOD OF 

 M. Dumas, in a paper recently read before 

 the French Academy, states, that he has as- 

 ' certained the quantity of fat in animals in a 

 i healthy state does not depend on some jecu- 

 ' liar process in the digestion, but upon the 

 quantity of fatty matter contained in the food 

 eaten. He states, that on analysis of hay and 

 Indian corn or maize, he found the former 

 yield 2 per cent, of fatty matter and the latter 

 9 per cent. Herbiverous animals, he says, 

 always make less fat than the amount of fat 

 contained in their food ; but the milch cow 

 furnishes a larger quantity than any other ani- 

 mal, and the quantity of butter that she sup- 

 plies, would, if weighed, be found equivalent 

 to that contained in her food. 



HERD (Sax. h\pt>). A number of beasts 

 congregated together. It is particularly applied 

 to black cattle. Herd or herdsman also an- 

 ciently signified a keeper of cattle, and in the 

 north of England it is still used. 



HERD'S GRASS, or Foul Meadow Grass. 

 This grass is a spontaneous growth, says Buel, 

 of the wet lands of the United States. The 

 white top and red top are different varieties of 

 herd's grass. 



HERRING (Clupea harengus). This well- 

 known fish is found in great abundance from 

 the highest northern latitudes down to the 

 northern coast of France. Large shoals of 

 them frequent the coasts of the British Islands, 

 and give employment to a considerable num- 

 ber of boats and men, forming a principal arti- 

 cle of commerce. A very elaborate treatise on 

 the natural history and the different modes of 

 fishing and curing the herring, by Mr. John 

 Mitchell, was published in the Edin. Quart. 

 Journ. of Jlgr., vol. x. p. 1. 



The scales and other refuse of the herring 

 fishery of the Suffolk coast are used with great 

 success as a manure by the farmers in the 

 neighbourhood of Lowestoff. There is no doubt 

 that this fish is a powerful manure. The cake 

 produced in Sweden by the herring oil-makers 

 is considered by the farmers of that cold coun 

 try to be the most powerful of fertilizers. And 

 I have in another place given the result of an 

 experiment with some spoiled dried herrings 

 on a Kentish hop plantation. (Johnson on Salt, 

 p. 101 ; Trans. High. Soc. vol. v. p. 404.) See 

 FISH, AS A MANURE. 



Most of the varieties of herring found in 

 Europe have been recognised on the Atlantic 

 coast of the United States. The manhaden, 

 caught in such numbers on the shores of Long 

 Island Sound, and there used so extensively 

 and profitably as manure, belongs to the her- 

 ring family (Clupea manhaden). 



HESSIAN FLY. See FLY ix WHEAT. 



HICKORY. A common name throughout the 

 United States, applied to several species of the 

 walnut genus, which, in the variety of trees 

 composing the vast original forests east of the 

 Mississippi, ranks after the oak in the number 

 of its species. The botanical section which 

 includes the hickories, according to Michaux'* 

 arrangement, contains eight species ; namely 

 Pacanenut Hickory, Bitter-nut Hickon Water Bi'. 



