ON MANURE. 53 



sition, that both sides of it could be distinctly seen, and 

 on examining them minutely, they appeared to have 

 every part of their surface covered with the smallest 

 fibres imaginable; so small, indeed, were some of 

 them, that they could scarcely be discerned by the 

 naked eye. Their extremities were fixed on the sur- 

 face of the bone, as firmly, and in the same manner as 

 a leach when applied for the surface of sucking blood, 

 and they were evidently extracting, by means of their 

 mouths or pores, an abundant supply of nourishing 

 food. From the different shades of color apparent in 

 many of the larger parent fibres, and other indications 

 of annual growth, it appeared, that they had been en- 

 joying the banquet which this bone aftbrded for at 

 least five years; and as it was but little decayed, it 

 seemed to promise them a continuation of the feast 

 for ten or fifteen years to come. The whole appear- 

 ance of the bone was singular in the extreme, being 

 completely enveloped in a mass of apparently beauti- 

 ful gauze net-work. 



The chief part of the roots which had multiplied 

 so prodigiously amongst these bones, was found to pro- 

 ceed from a single root, which had pushed itself hori- 

 zontally, and in a direct line through the border till it 

 reached the bones, throwing out in its course but few 

 fibres, the soil being of an unfavorable nature to afford 

 them much food. The root proceeded from a Black 

 Hamburg vine, which has for several years past pro- 

 duced some of the finest-bearing shoots 1 ever saw, 

 from which I annually obtain bunches of grapes 

 weighing from one to two pounds, with berries meas- 

 uring from two inches and a half to three inches in 

 circumference. 



A similar examination of another border some years 

 since, produced the like result. About seven years 

 previously to my inspecting it, a few bones had been 

 inserted in the soil, one of which was the thigh bone 

 of an ox. After carefully removing the top spit of 

 the border, into which tlie fibres of the roots had 

 pushed themselves pretty thickly, I discovered this 

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