THE GARDENERS CHRONICLE. 
cation. The present work is a report by Mr. Cooper of 
Professor Owen’s Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, 
delivered at the College of Surgeons in London 3 and to 
all who know the importance of his labours in the vast 
field of comparative anatomy, this work will be hailed 
with delight. The present work treats only of the ana- 
tomy of those animals which are called invertebrate, and 
division of the animal kingdom belong the animalcules, 
sponges, polypes, star-fishes, snails, worms, insects, spiders, 
and crabs. 
These lectures, although delivered to medical men, con- 
tain a vast amount of matter interesting to all who would 
wish to ‘know something of the wonderful laws which 
govern the structure and functions of animated beings. 
‘We can also recommend them as being admirable exam- 
ples of the application of the principles of inductive science 
to the study of organised matter. In the introductory 
lecture are many just remarks on the classification of 
animals which apply with equal force to that of plants. 
The following remarks in answer to the question “ What 
is the use of animalcules ? ”’ are, we think, new and worthy 
attention. 
if ‘Consider their incredible numbers, their universal 
distribution, their insatiable voracity ; and that it is the 
particles of decaying vegetable and animal bodies which 
they are appointed to devour and assimilate, 
“ Surel 
ever active invisible scavengers for the salubrity of our 
Nor is this all: they perform a still more 
important office, in preventing the gradual diminution of 
the present amount of organised matter upon the earth, 
For when this matter is dissolved or suspended in water, 
in that state of comminution and decay which immediately 
precedes its final d position into the el ntary gases, 
and its consequent return from the organic to the inor- 
, 
ti 
d 
they 
as the 
which in 
‘There is no elementary and self-subsistent! organic 
mattcr, as Buffon taught ; the inorganic elements into 
which the particles of organic matter pass by their final 
decom) osition are organically recomposed, and fitted for 
the sustenance of animals, through the operations of the 
vegetable kingdom. 9 animal can subsist on inorganic 
matter. The vegetable kingdom thus stands, as it were, 
\ between animal matter and its ultimate destruction ; but 
a in this great office plants must derive most important 
assistance from the Polygastric Infusoria, Theseinvisible 
animalcules may be compared, in the great organic world, 
to the minute capillaries in the microcosm of the animal 
body, receiving organic matter in its state of minutest 
subdivision, and when in full career to escape from the 
organic system, and turning it bac by a new route 
towards the central and highest point of that system.”? 
The lectures on insects are full of interesting matter, 
especially that part of them which treats of the structure 
those pests in our gardens and fields, the plant-lice, 
By the following figures our readers will at once see the 
practical importance of destroying these insects as soon 
HH as they make their appearance. 
“The Aphis lanigera produces each year ten viviparous 
broods, and one which is oviparous, and each generation 
averages 100 individuals. 
ist generation 1 aphis produces 
2d 100 
red. 
3d 10,000 ten thousand, 
4th 1,000,000 me millio: 
5th 100,000,000 hundred millions, 
6th 10,000,000,000 ten billions. 
7th 1,600,000,000,000 one trillion, 
8th 100,000,000,000,000 hundred trillions, 
3th 10,000,000,000,001 trillions, 
10th '0,000,000,000,000,000 one quintillion. 
1 
“ If the oviparous generation be added to this you will 
have a thirty times 
In the remarks on the order Diptera, the importance of 
the larvee of the flesh-fly as a consumer of putrid animal 
ry matter is alluded to. “ Insignificant, indeed,”’ says Prof, 
wen, ‘ do these larvee seem to be in the scale of Nature, 
j yet Linnzeus used no exaggeration when he averred that 
i) three flesh-flies would devour the carcase of a horse as 
quickly as would a lion. The assimilative power is so 
great in the meat-maggot that it will increase its own 
weight two hundred times in twenty-four hours.” 
"he remarks on the structures and habits of bees and 
wasps, the silk-worm, and the various kinds of spiders, 
are interesting, and many of them new. 
We cannot conclude this brief notice without referring 
to the last lecture, containing a discussion on the law 
unity of organisation, as well as other general expres- 
ture and functions of both the vegetable and animal king- 
dom is so rapidly increasing. work is copiously illus- 
trated with neat wood-cuts from the diagrams used at the 
lectures, and the whole has undergone the revision of 
Professor Owen himself. 
Strachan’s Agricultural Tables. Simpkin, Marshall, 
and Co, London. 
We have received a neatly-got-up little volume, by Mr. 
wil 
and by the time the suckers were Yeady to take off they were 
also a few other practical tables; 
and directions for using the tables.’’ 
7 of their p gs, bu' 
cially to those who adopt the sensible plan of paying by 
the piece for work done, 
will prove a valuable ass 
——— 
THE NATURALIST’S CORNER. 
(Continued from page 864.) 
69. Ravages of Wild Boars in Vineyards.—The Rev. 
J. Hartley, in his “ Researches in Greece and the Levant,” 
has given a very interesting illustration of the passage in 
the Psalms respecting the ravages of the wild boar in vine- 
yards. Hesays, “The propriety of the image in the 12th 
verse of the Ixxxth Psalm must be familiar to all who have 
visited Grape countries 3 but the force and beauty of the 
figure derived from a practice connected with the natural 
history of the wild boar has probably beén seldom ob- 
served. My friend, the Rev. Mr. Leeves, was proceeding 
in the dusk of the evening from Constantinople to The- 
rapia ; assing a vineyard, he observed an animal of 
large size rushing forth from among the Vines. The 
reek syrogee, who was riding first, exclaimed, * Wild 
boar, wild boar!’ and really it proved a wild boar, who 
Was retreating from the vineyards to the woods. ‘ What 
has the wild boar to do with the vineyards ?” exclaimed 
Mr. Leeves. ‘Oh!’ said the syrogee, ‘’tis the custom 
of the wild boars to frequent the vineyards, and to devour 
the Grapes.’ And it is astonishing what havoc a wild 
boar is capable of effecting in a single night. What with 
eating, and what with trampling underfoot, he will destroy 
an immense quantity of Grapes. With what fatal pro- 
priety does this affecting image retain its force, up to the 
present moment ! Stillis the Vine of Israel broken down, 
ravaged, cut down, burnt with fire.” 
ware of any improvem 
the construction of gutters, with the exception of one arrange- 
ment, adopted at the garden of the Horticultural Society, men- 
co) 
tioned in a late Number, piece of 
holes, to which union-screws are se. 
the end of the water-gutters next the boiler, 
» when dry heat was 
necessary ; heat will pass through these slate covers faster than 
through tiles, and they are as impervious to moisture as cast- 
iron pipes ; but for Pineries, 
ture, or where a flue acts in the same house, tile covers are better, 
as there is some moi 
late in the autumn there is always more or less annoyance expe- 
rienced from them during the first winter, owing to this damp- 
st “§ 7 crop of 
forced Roses last winter with recently-built gutters, but this 
Z hi 
I,—KITCHEN- GARDEN AND ORCHARD; 
In-door Department, 
above 4 lbs., he packed 
together that he vlways had a 
pace. I am indebted to one of best Pine. g1 ers near 
ondon for & mMemorandnm on this Subject; he grows his 
Plants with bottom-heat from leaves, and ays, 1 ‘suaded 
there are more Pines injured 
too little of it. 
as Tecan 
Plying their after-wants with stimulating liquic r 
Between 50 and 60 young plants started unfortunately ; I turned 
4 to 3]bs., 
way for young bi 
healthy suckers, which is ‘half the battle ” in Pine-growing. 
atmosphere; the heat from the dung 
had no reason to 
from 
3 
3 
& 
g 
5 
2. 
° 
5 
hermometer fall below 35° at this time than Hee 
A few degrees on either side 
Let the 
produce prize fruit 
f air, an 
a rather moist atmosphere, and all flower-buds or fruit should be 
rubbed off until the end of this month. i 
h state, It must be cut onl 
exhibition, which will take place on the 8th of next February. 
see i i 
by the circular of this Society that Mr. Mills, ry 
and some other first-rate growers, are to have a ‘sweepstakes 
on that day, besides the regular competition, and I suppose any 
grower may join them, but I know little about this kind of com- 
When a border is finished in the best manner, say the 
ottom so hard that no roots can 
by the drainage or 
afterwards they will push horizontally along the 
bottom to the extremity of the border, and in time these first 
roots become the great reservoirs for the sap, sending out second- 
ary roots all over the border to collect nourishment. Now how 
much better would it be, if, instead of lying along the bottom of 
the border, these large roots were within 6 or 8 inches of the top, 
remain some time in the nurseries, and when transplanted in the 
garden their roots are spread near the surface, and if they get 
too luxuriant afterwards they are root-pruned or taken U 
left, from which upright shoots were trained for bearers. 
To be continued.) 
II.—FLOWER-GARDEN AND SHRUBBERY. 
n-door Department. : 
Srovre.—It is now full acknowledged on all hands that a high 
temperature in winter is injurious to stove 
Jess injurious to have the atmosphere too moist with a low tem- 
nished grow a now repeating 
the experiment with Passion. flowers, Beaumontia, Allamanda, 
Echites, &c, 
REENH OUSE.—The best way I know for getting up a stock of 
pot climbers for exhibition in the shortest time is to plant young 
lor a year or two, encourage them 
and then take them up for potting, 
ConsERvatory,.—I am indebted to Mr. Waterer for the follow- 
ing memorandum respecting the “best earliest and secon 
early Azaleas for forcing for the Conservatory, not including 
new ¢Xpensive ones:—Earliest : coccinea, glauca, colorata, 
pontica mutabilis, and Taylor’s red. For Succession ; pontica 
alba, 8 a, monslrosa variabilis, uurantia nord, 
aurantiaca Cuprea, columbina, incana, and plumosa. No plants 
ores better than American plants or are less injured by the 
or Mg 
ion 
shall make known what the stock for grafting the Luculia on 
is in good time, 
FLOWER-GARpEN.—I gee by Mr. Peter McKenzie’s account 
y evergreen winter 
n 
taken out round the extremities of their roots, 
rich, Where this is not convenient some stimulating 
liquid manure will do some g00d.—D. Beaton, Shrubland Park 
Gardens, Ipswich, 
State of the Weather riear London for the week ending Dec, 14, 1843, a8 
cbserved at the Horticultural Garden, Chicw 
ee Max. ) (Min, | Max. 
Prida: 8) 30.22 | 30.153 58 
Saturday 80.288 | 30, 44 
Sunday, 10 289 49 
Monday = 11 0.326 60 
Duesday 12) 20,454 oe 
Wednesday 18 | 29,497 48 
Thursday 14! 30.499 30.389 51 
Average er 
Dec. 
Fine; clear, qith few thin, white clouds; exceedingly fine throughout 
Foggy throughout the day; densely clouded ; rain at night. 
10, Foggy ; fine; hazy clouds, 
