392 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[May 8, 1885. 



and honest merchant, gradually acquire habits of klepto- 

 mania, and another, well known for his henevolence, become 

 spiteful, almost homicidal. We are absolutely the creatures 

 of our secretions. So true is this, that the slightest dis- 

 turbance of the cerebral circulation ■ — say a temporary 

 congestion — will pervert the entire stream of moral 

 sentiments. 



Buchanan — All that is doubtless very correct. I hold, 

 nevertheless, that the soul, the Ego, is invulnerable, despite 

 all temporary aberrations — clouds obscuring the moon's 

 disc, so to speak. 



George Eliot — Say rather, disintegrations within the 

 very substance of the moon itself. Where the very sub- 

 stance of the luminary is decaying, what hope is there for 

 the permanence of your — moonlight ? 



Buchanan — The analogy is imperfect ; but to pursue 

 it, the lunar elements remain indestructible, and after 

 transformations, may cohere again into some splendid 

 identity. 



George Eliot — iloonlight is sunlight reflected on a ma- 

 terial mirror ; thought, consciousness, life itself, are condi- 

 tions dependent on the physical medium and on the bright- 

 ness of the external environment. Cogito, ergo sum should 

 be transposed and altered Sum niaieries, ergo cogito. 



Lewes — And yet, after all, there are psychic phenomena 

 which seem to evade the material definition ! 



George Eliot — Not one. And science has established 

 clearly that, while functional disturbance may be eva- 

 nescent, structural destruction is absolute and irremediable. 

 An organism, once destroyed, is incapable of resurrec- 

 tion. 



Buchanan — Then life is merely mechanism, after all ? 



George Eliot — Undoubtedly. It is very pitiful, but 

 absolutely true. 



Lewes — But what mechanism ! How wonderful, how 

 perfect in its adaptation of means to ends ! Even if we 

 hold thought to be a secretion, does that lessen the beauty 

 of its manifestations 1 



Buchanan — Or the mystery of its origin ? 



Lewes — Humph ! 



George Eliot— The mystery, doubtless, consists only in 

 our ignorance. There was a time, not very long ago, when 

 men knew nothing of that marvellous truth, the circulation 

 of the blood. In time, no doubt, we shall discover the 

 precise process by which we think. 



CLIMBING PLANTS IN TREES. 



THESE give an appearance of robust luxuriance and 

 unrestrained vigour, reminding the .spectator of those 

 tropical and semi-tropical climes where nature, under the 

 influence of perpetual heat and moisture, runs riot, pro- 

 ducing oftentimes vegetable giants. Some of the most 

 astonishing of these are the climbing plants that ascend 

 the tallest trees of the forest in search of light and space 

 where they can develop their foliage and flowers, travelling 

 from tree to tree, and some throwing out roots in the air 

 that reach to the earth, there taking fresh roothold, and 

 extending still further in their stem-growth. Our plants, 

 checked in their growth by frost and cold through half the 

 year, cannot vie with these tropical inhabitants of the 

 jungle and the forest, and our nearest approach to them is 

 to be found in the larger forms of ivy, in Ampelopsis 

 hederacea, in Wistaria sinesis, the vine, clematises, and 

 Periploca Graaca. But the largest and strongest of our 

 climbers, the one that ajiproaches the nearest to these, is 

 Aristolochia sipho. Smaller creepers we have in abundance, 



but our purpose is with the most rampant ones, good for 

 ascending our biggest trees. When once this becomes 

 established, it will grow fast enough. 



It is no use to merely dig a hole at the tree-root and stick 

 the plant in, expecting it will do well ; but a good-sized 

 hole must be got out near the stem. There are no fibrous 

 roots in that part to draw the goodness out of the soil you 

 give, unless the tree is young, and in that case you had 

 better plant no creeper ; or better, a hole may be made 

 some distance off, training the main shoot underground 

 when it has got as thick as the thumb, in the meantime 

 allowing it to grow attached to a stake for support. If 

 merely assisted in its upward climb with a tie here and 

 there, this plant will quickly reach the summit of a tree 

 50 feet high ; it will not then strangle a tree like ivy with 

 its clustering, thick growth, but will creep outward, if the 

 tree is a solitary one, to the extremities of the limbs, letting 

 fall slender shoots and festoons of handsome, broad, hearts 

 shajied foliage, and in warm summers an abundance of its 

 curious pitcher-like brown flowers. Ampelopsis hederacea 

 sorts make a good creeper, the growth being rapid, and its 

 autumn tints most gorgeous. This is not a self-clinging 

 plant, and mtist, therefore, have assistance at first, although 

 later the interlacing stems clasp the stem and branches of 

 a tree, and will merely require that its leading shoots be 

 led upward and outward. 



A. tricuspidata or Veitchii is a very handsome kind, but 

 is less suited to climb a tree than to drape a low fence, the 

 pediuient of a statue, or a vase, or to be allowed to cover a 

 low stump or pillar, and having, contrary to the other kinds 

 of ampelopsis, a clinging habit, it gets on without much 

 assistance. Periploca Grreca is a most hardy, quick-growing, 

 deciduous creeper, growing to great lengths in one season ; 

 the foliage is deep green in colour and lanceolate in form. 

 This is tit for any place where a creeper is desirable ; the 

 flowers are inconspicuous, and purplish in colour. The 

 clematis, vine, ivies, honeysuckle.s, and wistarias are too 

 well known to need description, although it may not be 

 amiss to note that Clematis flammula is one of the very 

 fastest growers, and has deliciously-scented white flowers, 

 which appear in immense bunches on old plants. 



C. vitalba should also be mentioned — indigenous to our 

 country, and found in our southern hedgerows, smothering 

 other plants out of existence. The trumpet honeysuckles, 

 Bignonia radicans, and some such roses as Boursault, Prairie 

 Rambler, Ayrshire, and Jasmine are all good in positions 

 where there is much light, as the beauty of all these few 

 last consists more in their flowers than in the foliage, so 

 that as simple climbers ram])ant and full of leaf those men- 

 tioned at the beginning of this article are the best for the 

 purpose. — Gardeners' C'liron icle. 



AccoKDiXG to a paper read before the Philosophical Society of 

 Glasgow, by Mr. A. Willinmson, the total area of the coal-fields of 

 China proper is about 400, OUO square miles. Both the Shaiisi and 

 Ileen.in coal-tields are greater than that of the aggi'egate of the 

 principal coal-producing countries of Europe, and in other districts 

 of North China the coal-Iields are said to be seven times larger 

 than all those of Great Britain. The coal is of various descriptions, 

 and it is said that iron ores are found in all parts in close proximity 

 to the coal. 



Royal Victoria Hat.l and Coffer Tavern. — There is an excel- 

 lent programme for May at the above hall. Ballad concerts will be 

 given on Thursday evoninga. The Tuesday science lectures will 

 be : — D. Dullenger, on " Wonderful Things we do not Personally 

 Sec," on the 12th ; Professor Perry, on " The Spinning-Tops of 

 Japan and Other Countries," on the 19th. The management have 

 decided to lower the prices of admission in April and May. In 

 June and July, Messrs. Poole will show, in this hall, their grand 

 diorama of "Egypt and the Soudan War," with life-sized 

 pictures. 



