1853.] 



ON THE FRUITING AND FLOWERING OF PLANTS. 



201 



51 stud of horees 300 in number, each of wliich was valued at 

 illOO. Returning to Europe we find in Trans3'lvauia a superb 

 breed of tke bay stock, averaging 15,^ hands, with slender bodies, 

 fine lieads, and high withers, with long silky manes and tails, and 

 in Greece a chestnut variety of the same stock, but with a much 

 coarser head, though of great vigour and endurance, and excel- 

 lent temper. 



We have already noticed the Spanish horse of this stock, im- 

 poi-ted at an early period from the coasts of Asia Minoi-, and 

 highly increased in all its good qualities by the infusion of pure 

 Arab blood at the period of the Saracenic conquest. Spain has 

 now no good horses to boast of; the brutal order of one of 

 Bonapaite's Marshals to disable and put out the right eye of 

 every ser\iceable horse in Andalusia, and the subsequent and 

 long-continued civil wars have utteriy extirpated the once 

 celebrated Spanish blood-horse. It must be observed, howevei-, 

 that in those countries in South America, once Spanisli colonies, 

 the Andalusian blood is found in all its purity, while in speed, 

 safety of foot and endurance, the horse of the American Pampas 

 far surpasses its European progenitors. In Jamaica there are 

 beautiful horses of English oi-igin, with an Arabian cross, gene- 

 rally brighter and smaller than the English thorough-bred, but 

 elegant in form, fleet of foot, and gentle in temper. From the 

 Tarpan Bay stock, originally imported from England, are derived 

 the hoi-ses of the United States, where, towards the frontier, 

 there is a mixture with the Canadian horse, originally brought 

 from Normandy, and also of Tarpan descent. "The English is 

 the last on our list of horses derived from the Bay stock; °and of 

 it, it may be simply said, that at this day, whatever be the sjiecies, 

 race horse, hunter, charger, coach horee or dray horse, it has not 

 its superior in the worid, such has been the care bestowed on the 

 breeding and after treatment of this noble animal. From the 

 monarch to the humblest peasant, there is hardly a man in Eng- 

 land that does not take more or less interest in tlie horse, and 

 statutes passed at different times by the earlier English Kings, 

 and in later periods the encouragement to the ])roduction of the 

 thorough-bred horse by the munificent king-s plates given at the 

 different races, have contributed to render the English thorough- 

 bred horse the finest in the worid, far surpassing in speed the 

 original Arabian horse, from which the pedigree of every 

 well-known racer can be distinctly traced. The prevailing colore 

 of the bast English hoi-ses — bay, brown and chesnut— sufficient- 

 ly mark the Tarpan origin ; the most celebrated i-ace hoi-ses have 

 been bays, with the exception of Tmmpeter, a black, and some of 

 his descendants, no horse of any other color has ever done any 

 thing on the turf. A very few words will suffice to dispose of 

 the remaining primitive stocks. The white or grey race, origi- 

 nally indigenous on the great table land of Pameie, on the 

 Steppes to the north of the Euxine, and in Armenia and Cdicia, 

 spread gradually over all Asia. This breed was originally of 

 higher stature than the bay, with greater breadth and moi-e solid 

 limbs, and at all times mixed better with the Bay stock than any 

 other race, and added to its bone and statui-e. this stock at all 

 times attracted attention from its color, and was regai-ded as a 

 fit distinction for kings and divinities; the Sun Gods of the old 

 mythologies, ApoUo, Odin and Kinsha, had all either possession 

 of or access to the original locality of the white primeval stock, 

 and in the migrations of the tribes, it was carried over the 

 whole civilized worid. For ages this breed has existed iu the 

 Spanish Pyrenees, the primajval companions of that race now 

 known as the Basques, the descendants of the Ouralian Finns; 

 we find the race pgaiu in the Lower Alps, mi. I in the iiei'-hbor- 

 hood of Aries in France, and in the Brli;-i.n. Foivst ,.f Aidenncs, 

 where the worship of the Christian Sain^ Hubert, the patron of 

 huntsmen, supplanted the worship of Arduenna, a type of the 

 Goddess Ertha; and again we hear of it iu the Holy Isle of 

 Ruga, where our Northmen fathers sacrificed v,hite horses to 



their deified hero-progenitor, Odin. The distribution of this 

 race was evidently connected with the rehgion of the Teutonic 

 races, and accords with what is known of the western migration 

 of their different tribes. The Plantagenet Ejngs of England 

 paid great attention to this breed, importing grey horses from the 

 Pyrenees and Gascon]'-, and from a judicious intermixture of 

 these with the Bay stock, has resulted the superb grey breed now 

 so common in England. 



The sootj', crisp-haired or black stock, originally indigenous in 

 Europe, has, like the Bay and Grey races, now spread over the 

 whole world. The gigantic black horses which we see in Eng- 

 land, particularly in London, were originally derived from Flan- 

 ders, and it is generally believed that the first were brought over 

 by the Flemish knights who accompanied William the Con- 

 queror. The great Brewer's dray horse is chiefly bred in Lin- 

 colnshire and Staffordshire, and of this stock also is the celebrated 

 Clydesdale breed, stallions ot which race have been sold for from 

 5 to 400 guineas. A judicious cross with the bay race has pro- 

 duced the superb chargers of the Queen of England's household 

 troops, against \vhose weight and speed it is acknowledged that 

 no equal number of horses iu the world could stand for a 

 moment. This race prevails through every part of Germany. 



Of the Dun and Tangum, or Skewbald race, I shall say but 

 little more than this, that neither of them have produced any 

 marked effect on the Equine race by intermixture ; the Skewbald 

 is a worthless animal, generally speaking, devoid of all good 

 quahties, except that of a gentle temper ; the Dun is a hardy 

 animal of great endurance, but possesses little spirit or speed. 

 Both varieties are met with in every part of the world, and the 

 Dun particularly in the South of Russia, where it forms the 

 Cossack cavalry. 



In conclusion, I will state that the Tarpan or Bay stock is to 

 the Equine family what the Caucasian family is among the 

 human race ; wherever it is found it either obliterates the other 

 races or assumes over them an indisputable pre-eminence ; from 

 it are derived the best and most beautiful horses in the wide 

 world. 



[At a late meeting of the Canadian Institute, a distinguished and 

 highly respected member directed attention to a passage in the essay 

 " On the Horse and its Rider," which appeared to call in question the 

 Divine origin of a certain portion of Holy "Writ. It was then distinctly 

 stated by several gentlemen directly interested in the editorial man- 

 agement of this Journal, that the introduction of the objectionable pas- 

 sage was quite accidental and much to be regretted. Iu a report of 

 the proceedings of the Institute, published a few days afterwards in a 

 Toronto paper, notice was taken of the explanations elicited at that 

 meeting. We iind, however, that one or t\\o of our co-temporaries 

 have again called attention to the subject, apparently in ignorance of 

 auy explanation having been offered. \Va do not desire to shelter 

 ourselres under the "fie/ leaf covering," that we are not responsible for 

 the sentiments of our correspondents, we wish rather to state explicitly 

 that no one ran r»grct the appearance of such sentiments as those al- 

 luded to, in any form or publication whatever, more than ourselves, 

 and that their introduction iuto our pages was the result of misappre- 

 hension of instructions received by the person to whom the correction 

 of the proofs was intrusted.]^-(ED. Caxadian Jourxal.) 



Oh the Fruiting and Flowering of Plaiit,-. 



The following scanty notes of a few of the phenomena to 

 which the article, on page 182, in the March number of the 

 Journal refers, may serve to assist persons commencing this very 

 intei-esting class of observation. They were made in or near the 

 College Grounds, Toronto. Any person addicted to out of door 

 pursuits, can follow iq) the subject with little trouble: it would 

 be difficult to name one of which the interest grows more upon 

 the observer ; or which, when full data have been collected, will 

 throw more valuable light upon many points of climate and 

 meteorology. It should be remarked that diffea-ences of soil and 



