NURSERY. 



OAK. 



placing putrid carrion near a highway, or keep- 

 ing hogs, and feeding them with offal near to a 

 stn-*'t ; lor keeping a dangerous bull in a field 

 through which there is a public pathway (if 

 the bull or other dangerous animal is purposely 

 placed there to stop a disputed path, and death 

 ensues, it is a murder) ; for keeping unmuzzled 

 a ferocious dog ; for baiting on the queen's 

 highway a bull, &c. The punishment in any 

 case of nuisance is fine or imprisonment, or 

 both ; and the court may order the defendant 

 to pay the prosecutor his costs. It is no de- 

 fence to prove that the nuisance has existed 

 for a number of years ; but in some cases the 

 facts of the case may be taken into considera- 

 tion by the jury, who are to determine whether 

 the benefit derived by the public exceeds the 

 annoyance. But in indictments for obstruct- 

 ing the highway by placing on it for a length 

 of time carriages while loading and unloading, 

 it is no defence to show that space was always 

 left for two carriages to pass and repass on 

 the other side of the street. The non-repair 

 of a road or a bridge are also well-known 

 nuisances, which are indictable. 



MM on ii'hich un Jlction on the Case it 

 maintainable. Accidents from the negligent 

 use of loaded guns; placing baited traps so 

 near to the premises of another, or the high- 

 way, that dn^s are attracted into them and in- 

 jured. For an injury by a vicious bull; and 

 it is in- defence by the owner of an animal that 

 he has had notice of having done an injury, 

 and has taken every precaution to prevent it 

 doin^ so airain. No action, however, lies for 

 an injury l>v a dog let loose on the owner's 

 closed premises at ni^ht for their protection; 

 or on land on which the injured party has no 

 n^ht to '^o. If a person harbour a dog, or al- 

 lou s it to resort to his premises, he is liable for 

 any damage it may cause. And the owner of 

 a dog that destroys or injures sheep is, of course, 

 liable to their owner. If the owner catch the 

 dog in the act of worrying his fowls or sheep, 

 he is justified in shooting him; but he must 

 not follow the dog some distance, and then 

 shoot him ; nor may he shoot a dog merely 

 trespassing; but he may if the dog is chas*- 

 ing deer in a park. And if any man do any 

 thing on his own soil which is a nuisance to 

 another, as by stopping a rivulet, and so dimi- 

 nishing the water used by him for his cattle, 

 the party injured may enter on the soil of the 

 other and abate the nuisance; and this right 

 of abatement is not confined merely to nui- 

 sances to a house, to a mill, or to land. 



NURSERY. In horticulture, a piece of land 

 set apart and appropriated for rearing and pre- 

 serving young plants and trees of different 

 kinds, with a view to supply both gardens and 

 plantations. The situation ought to be open 

 and airy, and the soil of an average quality, 

 neither too heavy nor too light, so as to be 

 adapted to the majority of plants ; but in a 

 complete nursery there ought also to be shady 

 borders for plants requiring shade, and beds or 

 compartments of peat soil or other peculiar 

 earths, for such plants as are not readily in- 

 creased and grown in ordinary soils. Where 

 tender plants are propagated, or where hardy 



nts are to be raised from seeds or struck , 



! from cuttings, which are not easily germinated 

 or rooted in the open ground and in the ordi 

 nary manner, hotbeds, frames, and handglasses 

 j are also requisite. Every private garden of 

 I any extent requires a nursery to raise and 

 bring forward young plants, as a reserve for 

 i supplying failures by disease or accident in the 

 I general garden ; and in every country where 

 private gardens or plantations of trees are fre- 

 ! quent, public or commercial nurseries are 

 formed by persons who adopt nursery garden- 

 ing as a business. 



NUT, BLADDER. See BLADDER-NUT. 

 NUT, THE EARTH. See EARTH-NUT. 

 NUTRITION. The matter by which an ani- 

 mal or plant is supported, and its growth in- 

 creased. See FOOD and MEAT, GASES, EARTHS, 

 SALTS, WATER, &c. 



NUTS (Lat. MUZ). In botany, seeds covered 

 with hard shells ; but in the general accepta- 

 tion of the word, signifies the fruit of different 

 species of hazel (Coryli). 

 NYMPH. See PUPA. 



O. 



OAK (Ger. eiche ; Dut. eik ; Dan. eeg ; Sw. ek; 

 Lat. Quercus; from the Celtic quer, fine, and cuez, 

 a tree ; others derive it from the Greek word 

 choiros, a pig, because those animals feed on 

 the acorns). 



The oak is indigenous throughout Britain, 

 and in former ages, before the clearing away 

 of the forests had commenced, appears to have 

 covered a very large portion of its surface; for, 

 even in districts where the natural or self-sown 

 oak is now rarely seen, the remains of noble 

 and gigantic trees are frequently met with, 

 sometimes in the alluvial deposits on the mar 

 gins of rivers, or in boggy places covered with 

 a layer of peat-moss, which has been gene- 

 rated around them by the stagnation of the 

 water caused by their fall. 



A fine oak is one of the most stately and 

 picturesque of trees ; it conveys to the mind 

 associations of strength and duration, which are 

 very impressive. The oak stands up against 

 the blast, and does not take, like other trees, 

 a twisted form from the action of the winds. 

 Except the cedar of Lebanon, no tree is so re- 

 markable for the stoutness of its limbs ; they 

 do not exactly spring from the trunk, and thus 

 it is sometimes difficult to know which is stem 

 and which is branch. 



English oak warps and twists much in dry- 

 ing, and in seasoning shrinks about ^d of its 

 width. This wood is more durable than any 

 other timber in water ; and in a dry state it has 

 been known to last nearly 1000 years. The 

 more compact it is, and the smaller the pores 

 are, the longer it will last ; but the open, porous, 

 and foxy-coloured oak, which grows in Lin- 

 colnshire and some other places, is not near so 

 durable. The bark, leaves, and fruit of all the 

 species abound in astringent matter, and in 

 tannic acid. The bark in the spring contains 

 more tannic acid, and is more easily separated, 

 than at any other season : hence oaks are 

 usually barked in May, June, and the beginning 

 of July. When separated, the bark is dried by 

 being set up in ranges, which are called loftes 



851 



