AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural Warehouse.) 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 8, 1838. 



[NO. 5. 



ENGLAND FARMER AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ARLEi's Cyclopedia of Botany. Boston: 

 ks, Jordan & Co. 



his is a liandsome book of 400 pages, and il- 

 ated by about 300 engravings. In several re- 

 ts it possesses advantages over any other work 

 lave seen on Botany. It is calculated at once 

 rvo the purpose of the scientific student, and 

 uninitiated enquirer. The general principles 

 e science are laid down in an extensive intro- 

 ion, which will be found interesting to every 

 5r. But the most original portion of the work, 

 Dictionary of plants, containing, as we think, 

 scientific and familiar descriptions of several 

 sands of trees, shrubs and plants. These are 

 rally brief, but many of Uism, relating to tlie 

 table productions of our own country, are mi- 

 and interesting. The descriptions are fre- 

 tly spiced with queer extracts from old botani- 

 ivriters, and frequent references to manners, 

 )ms and opinions, which relate to the vegeta- 

 diigdorj. It is, on the wliole, a work wnich 

 Iculated to throw down the barriers of hard 

 s, and knotty technicalities, which have hith- 

 environed the science of botany. If placed in 

 nily or a school, it wUl entice persons to read 

 id thus lead them on to a knowledge of the sub- 

 It ought to be in the library of evei-y fam- 

 md of aU our schools and academies. Botany 

 study which easily sticks its roots into the 

 10- mind, and when once established, will not 

 e to grow. It is of all the sciences the most 

 .nating, and in its tendency, is more than any 

 r, fitted to impart pure moral influences. Noth- 

 can better train tlie heart than the sweet com- 

 onship of flowers. The roaming over field and 

 3t, hill and valley, in search of nature's most 

 itiful productions, is alike healthful to the body 

 the soul. We are therefore interested to see 

 lany young botanists in this country as possible, 

 therefore commend this volume to all friends 

 jcial improvement We give an extract showing 

 of the descriptions referred to above. 



LEX. Holly. 4-3. Calyx inferior, one-leav- 

 four-tootlied, permanent ; corolla wheel-shaped, 

 'our elliptical segments or petals, much larger 

 I the calyx ; filaments awl-shaped, shorter than 

 corolla ; anthers small, two-lobed ; germen 

 idish ; styles none ; stigmas four, obtuse, per- 

 cent ; berry globular, four celled, each cell one- 

 led ; seeds oblong, pointed. 



I. opa'ca, Ainericun Holly : leaves ovate, acute, 

 spiny, smootli, tough, shining, of a rich green above, 

 lighter beneath ; fascicles of flowers lax, peduncles 

 compound ; calyxes acute, smooth ; fruit ovate ; 

 flowers numerous, scattered, small, greenish, white ; 

 June. A small tree, but one of the most interest- 

 ing in tiic American forests. In favorable situa- 

 tions it grows to the height of forty feet, with a 

 diameter of twelve or fifteen inches. The foliage 

 is singular, and rarely equalled in the richness of 

 its color. It is an evergreen, and on that account 

 doubly interesting, as we have few that are not of 



the cone-bearing species. Its flowers, which are 

 scattered about the base of the older branches, are 

 sr.ccoeded by ro-.l berries, ivlucl. roinaiu until late 

 in tlie autumn. 



This tree is not very abundant, but it is pretty 

 generally disseminated, being found in all parts of 

 the United States, excepting, perhaps, the nortliern 

 parts of Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. The 

 wood is fine-grained, heavy and compact ; the al- 

 burnum very white, from which it is sometimes 

 called White Holly. It is used for the keys of piano 

 fortes, and a variety of other purposes. 



I. CANABEjy'sis, Canadian Holly ; leaves oblong, 

 acuminate, entire, or subserrated at the end ; pe- 

 duncles long, s'ender, axillary, one-flowered ; flow- 

 ers small, light green ; corolla four-cleft, the seg- 

 ments acute, spreading ; stamens long as the co- 

 rollo ; berries scarlet. Flowers in May ; height 

 six feet ; grows in swamps. 



I. cassi'ne, Brnwn-leaved Dahoon : leaves al- 

 ternate, distant, evergreen, lanceolate, attenuated 

 both ways, serrated at the end. Flowers white ; 

 August ; height twelve feet. This and another 

 I. vomito'ria. South Sea Tea, have bitter leaves, of 

 which the Indians make a tea for an emetic. At a 

 certain time of the year they visit the coast where 

 these shrubs abound, and lighting their fires on 

 the ground, boil a large quantity of the leaves, and 

 drink about a pint each of the decoction, which in 

 a short time induces a free and easy vomit. After 

 pursuing this course, drinking and vomiting, for 

 two or three days, they find themselves about right, 

 and every one taking a large bundle of the branches, 

 they return to tlieir homes. 



Italian Sprins: Wheat. — The crops of the Italian 

 spring wheat now harvesting, are represented as 

 very fine. — Baltimore Chronicle. 



THEORY OF THE ACTION OF LIME ON 

 SOILS, MANURE, &c. 



The action of lime is threefold ; each distinct. 

 J. It is a JVevtralizer : 2. A Decomposer: 3. A 

 Converter. 1. I have already alluded to some acid 

 soils : free phosphoric acid, geic, acetic, and malic 

 acids, also occasionally exist in a free state in soils. 

 Here lime acts as a neutralizer. 2. Soils may 

 contain abundant geates ; particularly geate of 

 alumina, the least of all demanded by plants. Long 

 formed and sun-baked, they are scarcely acted on 

 by rain or dew, and are almost useless. Here 

 lime, by decomposing these metallic and earthy 

 geates, forms a combination, which, in its nascent 

 state, is readily dissolved. If the carbonate of lime 

 acts better than the hydrate, it is because, follow- 

 ing a well-known law, double decomposition is 

 easier than single. If any acid geine exists in the 

 soil, or any free acids, carbonic acid is then liber- 

 ated ; it acts on the geate of lime, supergeates re- 

 sult, and these are easily soluble. 



3. The great use of lipie is as a converter ; turn- 

 ing solid and insoluble, nay, I go further, solid veg- 

 etable fibre, into soluble vegetable food. Here is 

 the great puzzle, the point where our philosophy 

 seems to leave us ; giving us our choice, to refer 

 this action to one of the numerous cases of myste- 

 rious 'catalytic' change, with which we are becom- 

 ing every uay more and more fiiniiliai-, or to explain 

 the process by referring the whole to saponification. 

 I use this word as conveying to you at once what 

 I mean ; — but I do not mean to say that the pro- 

 duct of lime and vegetable matter is soap; but I 

 cannot make myself more intelligible to a farmer 

 than by saying, tliis lime makes compounds of veg- 

 etable matter, just as it makes soapy compounds of 

 oil and fat. The action of lime on geine I take to 

 be of the same nature, as its action on oils and fat. 

 It is well established that animal and vegetable 

 oils and fats are converted into acids by the action 

 of alkalies, earths, oxides, and even by vegetable 

 fibre itself. The general law is, that whenever a 

 substance, capable of uniting with the acid of fat 

 or oil, is placed in contact with fat or oil, it deter- 

 mines the production of acid. Now we have seen 

 that alkali produces a similar change on geine ; it 

 develops acid properties. I go further, if alkali 

 has converted vegetable oil and geine into acids, I 

 see no reason why a similar action may not be pro- 

 duced by all those substances which act thus on 

 oil. Hence lime, earths, and metallic oxides, con- 

 vert geine into acid : as fast as this takes place, so 

 fast it becomes soluble. Then too the long action 

 of air on insoluble geine, rendering it soluble, is i', 

 not analogous to the action of air on oils ? Both 

 evolve in this case, vast volumes of carbonic acid, 

 tlie oil becomes gelatinous and soluble in alkali ; 

 does not a similar change occur in geine ? It is 

 possible that during the action of lime on geine, a 

 soluble substance may be produced, bearing the 

 same relation to this process tliat glycerme does to 

 saponification. These views you will see need to 

 be followed out experimentally. If found tenable, 

 the most signal benefit will result. We place ma- 



