250 DELAYED GROWTH OF PARSLEY. 



The abundance of particular insects in some sea- 

 sons, and their comparative scarcity, or total absence, 

 in others, excites, naturally, the supposition, that 

 some necessary condition for their developement has 

 been wanting. What this may be, it would be use- 

 less, in the present state of our knowledge, to con- 

 jecture ; but it may not be out of place to remark, 

 that a somewhat analogous fact is observable in the 

 vegetable world. There are years, when particular 

 plants assume an appearance of unwonted luxuriance ; 

 and other years, when the same plants, under circum- 

 stances apparently as favourable, are either stunted 

 in their growth, or fail altogether to appear. One 

 instance of this took place in a piece of ground 

 visible from the windows of my own dwelling-house. 

 On the site where the new wing of the Royal Aca- 

 demical Institution now stands, my friend, the Rev. 

 Henry Montgomery, LL.D., was in the habit of 

 raising a few culinary vegetables. In the spring 

 of 1830, he sowed, at the usual period, a consider- 

 able quantity of parsley seed : it yielded no return. 

 The ground was raked over again, and fresh seed 

 sown, but with no better success. Between March 

 and August, the operation was repeated four times, 

 the ground being twice dug over, but not a leaf 

 appeared. The next year the same piece of ground 

 was planted with peas and cabbages, but no parsley 



