574 [Assembly 



mangold wurzel, &c., &c. ; and the atriplex angustifolia. It is 

 believed beyond a doubt that, formerly, there was a lake at this 

 place, whose waters were as high as the sti'atified bed where 

 these seeds are found, but no history tells us of the time when 

 that lake existed, or of any considerable sinking of the waters 

 of the Tweed. When the Romans arrived in Great Britain, it is 

 certain that part of Scotland was very nearly of the same con- 

 figuration as it now is. These reflections naturally lead us to 

 the conclusion, that the seeds in question belonged to a prodigious 

 antiquity, perhaps to the paleotherian epoch, that they were 

 growing, therefore, before the creation of man. 



The longevity of seeds of vegetables is, as yet, but merely 

 sketched out. Discoveries in this line will be great for practi- 

 cal use and for scien<*.e 



The Apple and Cider of Normandy. — All the apples make 

 cider ; but all do not yield a cider equally good. The first thing 

 to be done then, is to procure seeds of the best kinds to form 

 nurseries. The tree growing on a poor soil is preferred for cider, 

 therefore the nurseries are generally placed along the coast, 

 without fear of their consequent exposure. The soil is shallow 

 in many places. They plough the ground and where the peb- 

 bles are too plenty, they make use of a pick axe ; when the 

 place is once gone ovei*, they then give it slight spadings, and 

 cover it with ferns in summer. It often happens that the ground 

 becomes troubled with dogtooth grass. This they exterminate 

 wholly. The first crop of apple trees is usually at the end of 

 seven or eight years, and they hardly ever get 15 or 20 good 

 apple trees out of a thousand. The second crop of good ones is 

 nearly double that. They go on until there remain none but 

 sound, straight, healthy trees. An immense quantity of young 

 trees are produced in the nurseries of Normandy of an inferior 

 quality. The best apples, however, do not yield the best cider. 

 They keep their cider in large casks, which preserves it better 

 than small ones. 



RosEwoRTs, OR RosACE^. — Liudley, in his vegetable kingdom, 

 calls the blackberry, raspberry, and strawberry, roseworts; of 

 which the genera number thirty-eight, and the species five hun, 



