OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 323 



The parent insect is of the genus of cynips. Some poplars in 

 the garden are quite loaded with these excrescences. * 



CHESTNUT TIMBER. John Carpenter brings home some 

 old chestnut trees, which are very long ; in several places, the 

 woodpeckers had begun to bore them. The timber and bark 

 of these trees are so very like oak, as might easily deceive an 

 indifferent observer ; but the wood is very shakey, and, towards 

 the heart, cup-shakey, (that is to say, apt to separate in round 

 pieces like cups,) so that the inward parts are of no use. They 

 are bought for the purpose of cooperage, but must make but 

 ordinary barrels, buckets, &c. Chestnut sells for half the 

 price of oak ; but has sometimes been sent into the king's dock, 

 and passed off instead of oak. 



LIME BLOSSOMS. Dr Chandler tells, that, in the south of 

 France, an infusion of the blossoms of the lime tree, (tilia^) is 

 in much esteem as a remedy for coughs, hoarsenesses, fevers, 

 &c. ; and that, at Nismes, he saw an avenue of limes that was 

 quite ravaged and torn in pieces by people greedily gathering 

 the bloom, which they dried and kept for these purposes. 



Upon the strength of this information, we made some tea 

 of lime blossoms, and found it a very soft, well flavoured, 

 pleasant, saccharine julep, in taste much resembling the juice 

 of liquorice. 



BLACKTHORN. This tree usually blossoms while cold 

 north-east winds blow ; so that the harsh rugged weather 

 obtaining at this season is called, by the country people, black- 

 thorn winter. 



IVY BERRIES. Ivy berries afford a noble and providential 

 supply for birds in winter and spring ; for the first severe frost 

 freezes and spoils all the haws, sometimes by the middle of 

 November. Ivy berries do not seem to freeze. 



HOPS. The culture of Virgil's vines corresponded very 

 exactly with the modem management of hops. I might 

 instance in the perpetual diggings and hoeings, in the tying to 

 the stakes and poles, in pruning the superfluous shoots, &c. ; 

 but lately, I have observed a new circumstance, which was, a 

 neighbouring farmer's harrowing between the rows of hops 



* Mr David Don, a botanist of distinguished talents, has discovered, 

 that, on detaching the spiral vessels from vigorous young shoots of herba- 

 ceous plants, they frequently become violently agitated ; the motion con- 

 tinues for some seconds, and may be somewhat similar to that of the 

 heart of animals under similar circumstances. These vessels abound m 

 the stems of the urtica nivca, of centaur ea, atro -purpurea, and of the 

 malvaccs. ED. 



