252 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



August 12, 1831. 



COMMUNICATIONS. 



FOB THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Troy, July 25th, 1831. 

 Mr. Editor — Having noticed the queries of 

 D. C. in your paper of the 23d inst., respecting 

 petrifactions, hones,&c. I forward thefollowing as 

 answers. The word petrifaction is now used, as 

 far as I have seen it applied, as it always has 

 been, to indicate a mineral that presents the ap- 

 pearance of an organized body. The word is 

 however sometimes improperly applied to relics 

 that have unergone little or no change — as we 

 hear of petrified bones and shells from tertiary, 

 many of which are not petrifactions. 



Organic relics are the forms or remains of an- 

 imals or vegetables, found in the earth. They 

 are divided by Writers on this subject into petri- 

 factions and preservations, and some add impres- 

 sions. 



Petrifactions comprehend all earthly metalic or 

 saline substances, that have evidently taken the 

 form of an organized body. The process by 

 which the mineral matter takes the place and 

 form of the vegetable or animal, is readily under- 

 stood, when we are acquainted with the generally 

 acknowledged fact that the constituents of the 

 earth have been in a state of solution and that ma- 

 ny of them are now in that state. Suppose the 

 impress of a vegetable to be made in a soft clay 

 that was becoming indurated. The vegetable is 

 so exposed that it is decomposed — i. e. its con- 

 stituent parts assume the gaseous form, and min- 

 gle with the atmosphere — an exact mould of the 

 body remains. A liquid holding mineral matter 

 in solution flows into this cavity — the solvent is 

 evaporatcdand a solidcasting occupies it, exhibit- 

 ing the exact exterior of the organized body which 

 was there before. If it was the trunk and branch- 

 es of a tree, the appearance of knots and bark 

 would be seen on the exterior of the stone. But 

 if this be broken it will exhibit none of the inter- 

 nal organization of a vegetable but all the char- 

 acteristics of a real stone. But we often find pet- 

 rified trees exhibiting all the internal structure of 

 the vegetable, so completely, that if cut trans- 

 versely we readily distinguish the concentric 

 rings which in the living vegetable, indicated its 

 annual growth. 



To account for this, suppose a vegetable or ani- 

 mal substance to be immersed in a liquid contain- 

 ing mineral matter, while the process of decom- 

 position is going on, — then as each particle of or- 

 ganic matter is resolved into air and disap- 

 pears, a stony particle replaces it. "Thus parti- 

 cle after particle the stony substance gradually 

 occupies the spaces left vacant by the progressive 

 decay of the vegetable or animal, and by being 

 moulded in these cavities it copies feature for fea- 

 ture the contexture of the organic body." 



Preservations or remains are those organic rel- 

 ics, that have undergone little or no change. They 

 consist principally of bones which having been 

 deprived of the skin and flesh that covered them, 

 remain buried in the earth, or concealed in deep 

 caverns. Such as will bear the action of the at- 

 mosphere without crumbling, it has been observ- 

 ed, are impregnated with iron cither in the state 

 of a hydrate, carbonate, or sulphurct. These re- 

 tain most of their original constituents except the 

 gellatin the place of which is occupied by the im- 

 pregnation. These are partly preservations and 

 ;n part substitutions. 



Impressions are found betweeen the layers of 

 ertain slaty rocks; they are the relevos or moulds 

 representing some animal skeletons, particularly 

 fishes, leaves, reeds, and ferns. Impressions of 

 ferns have this peculiarity. If on opening a 

 seam, one of the layers presents a depressed print 

 of the back of a frond, the other will not have the 

 impression of the opposite, but the relevo of the 

 same side. Brungnieres explains this by sup- 

 posing the fern to have been laid on the surface 

 of the lower laminae when it was in the state of 

 soft clay. The clay become hard, — the fern is 

 decomposed, another deposit of soft or semifluid 

 kind was made above this, which filled the lriould. 

 To this upper deposit is attached the relevo im- 

 pression which seems to be incorporated with it. 

 The petrifying process is going on in various 

 parts of the world, at the present day, but the 

 substitutions arc principally calcareous, that we are 

 acquainted with. Water passing through the 

 earth becomes charged in some unknown manner 

 with carbonic acid, and when so charged has the 

 property of dissolving the. carbonate of lime. If 

 water so charged passes through or comes in con 

 tact with lime rock, a portion of the rock is dis- 

 j solved, but when exposed to air, or if its tempera' 

 ture be reduced, the water loses its carbonic 

 acid, and then it can no longer hold the lime in 

 solution, but deposites it in the solid state. Of 

 this kind are all those deposites called calcareous 

 tufa, stalactites stalagmites, &c. The high rock 

 at Saratoga is a formation of this kind. If this 

 carbonate of lime be deposited on decaying veget- 

 ables, it will take their forms as they disappear. 

 The trees, moss, &c., at Chittenango are exam- 

 ples. 



Respecting hones : The vulgar error that they 

 are made of petrified wood is very generally enter- 

 tained. Lough Neagh hones are thrown in wood, 

 and come out stones, the Irishmen say ; and the 

 Scotch have water possessing similar properties. 

 This seems to have originated in Ireland, from 

 the circmstance of finding near Lough Neagh pet- 

 rified trees. The idea of the waters possessing a 

 petrifying quality has been ridiculed by some 

 men of science and advocated by others. Noth- 

 ing is known that can substantiate it. The find- 

 ing of petrified trees at Drogheda proves nothing 

 They may have lain there thousands of years. 



One point is certain, that hones are not usually 

 made of petrified wood, but of a mineral called 

 Novaculite, which owes its power of whetting or 

 sharpening instruments to the fine silicious partic- 

 les it contains. Various other mineralsarcused for 

 the same purpose. 



Respecting fish and frogs at Trenton falls in a 

 petrified state, there are none. But the forms of 

 encrinites, tribolites, &c, in abundance. The 

 cylindrical petrifactions in birdseye marble are 

 encrinites. B. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



My knowledge of cherries is not very exten- 

 sive, as then: arc several kinds in great repute 

 which I have not seen. 



Om earliest is tile early May, small, red, and 

 acid. The early Richmond scarcely differs, ex- 

 cept in being later, larger, and growing on a finer 

 tree. Both these kinds should be in evciy fruit 

 garden ; and near them ought to stand the (Kent- 

 ish Vy.ommon redpyc cherry, which again is a still 

 larger and later variety of the same species-. An 



intermediate kind in regard to lime, is wanted to 

 come in between this sort and the early Richmond 

 But of sweet cherries we have such intermedi- 

 ate kinds. The white Tartarian is a great bear- 

 er, and only part of the fruit becomes perfect, but 

 this part is very delicious. The Hack caroon is 

 also a good cherry. 



Our largest is the black Tartarian — fine — but 

 to my taste inferior to the May Duke. I refer to 

 the latter however, only when full ripe, and theii 

 — which rarely happens,- — it is higher flavored 

 than any cherry which I know. This may al- 

 ways be known by the fruit ripening in patches, 

 or by some branches presenting ripe fruit long be- 

 fore others. 



The white-heart is particularly sweet. The 

 carnation, like the Morettn, is late, acid, and 

 scarcely fit for the table without some prepara- 

 tion, except to peculiar tastes. Both these cher- 

 jries however, are very rich and high flavored in 

 ] the form of preserves. 



Who will tell us about the other kinds 1 



D. T. 



Jjp The " P. S." to the communication of" D 

 T.", published in No. 31, page 245, was aceiden 

 tally left out: 



P. S. In No. 28 of the Genesee Farmer, I have- 

 said " it appears in most if not all cases that 

 the wrinkling of the leaf is caused by frost." Al- 

 luding to events that only happen in spring, this 

 expression inadvertently escaped me, and ought 

 to have been limited to the period of late vernal 

 frosts. ' In summer we have too much evidence 

 that " when the envenomed leaf begins to curl" it 

 is infested by insects; and the skilful gardener 

 will be at once on the alert. 



Let me correct a typographical error in the 

 same No. of your Journal. P is never, properly 

 employed in the name of Thomson the poet. Our 

 library once contained a copy of The Seasons 

 printed in the year 1*30, eighteen years before 

 his death; it was spelled Thomson then ; and in 

 every cor red edition since, the same spelling ha? 

 been continued. D. T. 



FOR THE GENESEE FARMER. 



CX. presents his acknowledgments to " A Nov 

 ice," and assures him that he lives in perfect 

 " charily'' both with those who attend horticultu- 

 ral shows and with our printers. His motives 

 are friendly; and he wishes them not to lose the 

 respect due to them by carelessness and inatten 

 tion. 



If the name of a plant is not known by the ex- 

 hibitcr, and no botanist happens to be present, 

 who can tell, let it be mentioned in some genera! 

 terms without giving a name, so indefinite, or so 

 erroneously spelled, as to mean nothing. 



When a plant, like the pheasant eye pink of 

 the Rensselaer Exhibition, bears an extraordinary 

 number of flowers, it would be well to write tho 

 number in words at length to prevent mistakes, as 

 the addition of one little cypher (as perhaps in 

 that case) may excite undue astonishment. 



There were two misprints in my last articlo 

 p. 237, col. 1. 

 For caryophtUus read earyoph«llus. 



lilly and lillies reaii Idy and lilies. 

 And I will now supply two omissions of my 

 own in the same article. 



Albany Horticultural Society. 

 " July 5. — 2 Caledonian lilies." Neithcf Scot. 



