148 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



[Mar. 9, 



into them, I shall not recommend them for anything but 

 for the domestic cat. The best places to dig pitfalls for 

 foxes are near his M earth," and on a path that goes from 

 one plantation or cover to another. 



The Polecat, Stoat, and Weasel. — These vermin can 

 be taken in wears, boxtraps, and counterfeit or false bur- 

 rows. Wears should be near rivulets, large heaps of 

 stone?, old walls, or rubbish of any kind. Where two 

 walls or fences join is an excellent place for a boxtrap. 

 In the absence of a boxtrap, four boards, wide enough to 

 ]et common traps spring, may be nailed together, and 

 made to pass through a wall or fence, and common traps 

 set at each end of it with a bait in the middle. Traps 

 placed at the entrances of their holes, or against holes in 

 atone fences through which they pass, will take them. 

 False burrows should be made at the bottom of hedges, 

 &c. By hanging baits against walls, banks, fences, and 

 gateposts, and placing traps under them, they may be 

 taken. Almost all vermin that destroy game often pass 

 through gates. 



The House or Domestic Cat will put her foot on an 

 uncovered trap to reach a bait on a gatepost. Puss is 

 easily taken in wears ; but by using " a charm" she is 

 much more easily captured. This charm is the root of 

 the shop Valerian (Valeriana officinalis). One writer on 

 British plants says that M cats, and especially rats, are 

 fond of the roots of this plant." Another says that 

 m cats are powerfully affected by the odour of them." 

 This root is powerfully attractive ; insomuch, that if six- 

 penny-worth were put into the foot of a stocking, and 

 hung over the mouth of a pitfall for a few nights, a 

 great number of cats might be taken. About as much of 

 this materiul as can be held between the finger and thumb, 

 put into a box-trap, will entice a cat to go into it ; and 

 if it is placed at the bottom of a 32-sized flower-pot laid 

 on its side, poor puss will put her head through the noose 

 of a snare in order to reach it. 



The Carrion Crow and Magpie. — These birds can be 

 entrapped in wears. The most likely places to make them 

 are near pools, spongy places, running water, on 

 sides of rocky hills, and in open fields. In spring, and 

 the beginning of summer, eg^s ought to be used as baits, 

 and carrion during the rest of the year. A very 

 good way to take them is to fix a dead cat, rabbit, or 

 an egg in the cleft of a stick, and put it in a pool or pond, 

 or standing water, within 4 inches of the edge, where a trap 

 should be placed, and well covered. If the edge of the 

 pool does not answer well, a narrow turf-bridge 15 inches 

 long should be made, on the extremity of which a bit of 

 flesh or an egg ought to be laid, to entice the bird to walk 

 over the trap. A dead sheep or lamb is excellent bait for 

 carrion crow3. This should be placed in an open field, 

 and traps may be set within G inches of its belly and eyes. 

 If it is likely that there will be more than one crow at the 

 bait, it is advisable to place traps on the little hillocks that 

 are near it; for when one crow is trapped the others hover 

 above it for a little, and then alight on these hillocks. By 

 these means may be taken all animals that are destructive 

 to game. — A. Peltigrew, Wrotham Park Gardens* 



V 



FAMILIAR B.OTANY. 

 Morphology, No. VI. 



(Continued from page 133.) 



" Lift up tht eye of faith and thou wilt see 

 The clear blue sky of the untroubled heavens." 



Having now cleared away the historical matter which 

 seemed necessary in order to introduce Morphology to 

 your readers, I shall henceforth discontinue all reference 

 to the opinions of individuals, and confine myself to an 

 explanation of what appear, at this day, to be the facts of 

 the case ; and for the better doing so I shall begin with 

 the beginning. 



Of all the prodigies with which science brings us ac- 

 quainted, nothing can be compared for interest to the 



transformations of elementary matter. They are so 

 surprising, so difficult to observe, and so entirely unlike 

 what the untaught sense is conscious of, that they are among 

 the last things whose truth reason and evidence succeed 

 in impressing upon the human mind. The Pitt Diamond 

 is valued at the sum of 100,000/. This mass of precious 

 adamant is composed of the most valueless material ; of 

 nothing better than human breath, solidified by the ope- 

 ration of unknown forces. There is no resemblance what- 

 ever between the two substances ; fancy cannot paint any 

 two things more entirely dissimilar than human breath 

 and diamond. Nevertheless, they are the same, and 

 beneath the mere action of heat the gem loses its solid- 

 ity, and is expanded into human breath again. What is, 

 if possible, still more surprising, it was plants which 

 stole from animals the matter of this gem, which, 

 beyond all doubt, is a condensation of charcoal. It, the 

 most brilliant, and most solid substance in creation, is a 

 transformation of one of the most opaque, porous and 

 uninviting materials that we know of. Charcoal itself is 

 but a piece of wood deprived of its water. Here is one 

 great Morphological fact. If you ask why this thing is so, 

 and inquire where the force resides that impressed such 

 properties on matter, the only answer is an appeal to the 

 Most High. 



Go into the laboratory of the chemist. He will show 

 you a bottle of air or gas labelled O, and called oxygen ; 

 another labelled H, and called hydrogen ; a third marked 

 C0 2 , and called carbonic acid. These are neither to be 

 seen, smelled, nor felt. They wholly escape our ordinary 

 senses. You would never believe that the bottles contained 

 anything. But you find that a match burns brightly in 

 O, sets II on fire, and is extinguished by C0 2 . It is, 

 therefore, evident that the bottles do contain something, 

 although the ordinary powers of perception may fail to de- 



f tect it. Out of matter like that contained in these bottles 

 are plants composed. Yes, the solid, opaque, touchable, 

 visible, fabric of a plant is a transformation of the trans- 

 parent, untouchable, invisible materials in those bottles. 

 H and O go together and form HO, which is water, the 

 most important and common of all forms of fluid matter ; 

 by their union they become visible and touchable ; their 

 otiginal qualities are changed: the new compound will 

 neither catch fire like H, nor assist a match to burn like 

 O, but is the sworn enemy of fire in every form. If you 

 doubt this fact the Chemist will separate water for you 

 into its original elements, and II will burn, while O will 

 assist to burn, just as before. 



In like manner CO a is, by the chemical processes of 

 separation, found to consist of the O already brought on 

 the s^age, and C, which signifies charcoal (carbon), so that 

 although soot and all such matters are both opaque and 

 soft, yet they consist in reality of the transparent O and 

 the adamantine matter of the diamond, What can be more 

 strange than this metamorphosis ? 



But others quite as singular have to follow. The green, 

 the red, the white, the blue of vegetation, the iron trunk 

 of the Oak, the tender mucilage of the Starjel'y, the gum, 

 starch, and sugar that nourish us, the many vegetable pro- 

 ducts that heal our diseases, or cut us off by their poisonous 

 qualities ; the soft, the hard, the dry, the moist, fabrics 

 that constitute the solid masses of the vegetable kingdom, 

 are little more than compounds of the H, O, and C already 

 mentioned. For example, 9 parts of H and O, and 12 

 parts of C go together and form sugar; then if two parts 

 of H and O are added we have gum ; a much smaller 

 change produces starch ; and the dry unchanging woody 

 texture of a tree only differs from the sugar that is so soft 

 and nutritious, in having a little less of H and O in its 

 composition. 



Metamorphoses like these — and there are hundreds of 

 them — give rise to the whole of the infinitely varied pro- 

 ducts of the Vegetable Kingdom. When the Frenchman 

 is sipping his eau sucree, he is indulging in a feast of 

 charcoal and water ; when the laundress views with ad- 

 miration the magical effects of starch upon her mistress's 

 ruffs and laces, she only does homage to the effects of 

 charcoal and water ; the sailor, whose pride is the wooden 

 walls of Old England, is still but a worshipper of charcoal 

 and water; the prince who exchanges his forests for 

 diamonds is a barterer of charcoal for charcoal, and, 

 finally, the whole Vegetable Kingdom is little more than 

 a metamorphosis of charcoal and water in countless 

 masquerading forms. 



Such are the elementary changes that science recog- 

 nises in the matter out of which the tissue of plants is 

 constructed. We shall next see that the many forms 

 of tissue are again metamorphoses of but one simplest 

 type. — R. E. 



Home Correspondence. 



Diseases of Plants. — In treating of the •* Diseases of 

 Plants," you say, at p. 90 (Feb. 7), "The medical man 

 divides diseases into functional and organic, and under 

 the former head places all those diseases in which he 

 cannot detect an alteration in the structure of the diseased 

 organ ; but this arises from his want of the power of ob- 

 serving the minute changes of structure on which the 

 diseased function depends. There is no such thing as 

 function independent of structure, and there is no evidence 

 to prove that a function can be deranged whilst the struc- 

 ture is quite perfect." Such a proposition as this should 

 not be allowed to go without some qualification ; and it 

 would be well that such an authoritative dictum should 

 not be made to prejudice your readers against one of the 

 most useful maxims, and best rules of guidance, in the 

 practice of their medical advisers. It is true that this 

 useful division of diseases into two great classes is in part 

 conventional, and standing in the stead of a more exact 

 knowledge of the proximate cause, or to speak more 

 popularly, the exact and essential nature of the change in 

 the condition of an organ, which we call disorder or dis- 

 ease. But it is quite as gratuitous, in the present state 

 of our knowledge, to assume, that the action (for that is 

 function) of an organ may not vary, without change of 

 structure ; or that the simultaneous action or function of 

 parts (for that constitutes health or disease, as the 

 case may be) may not lose their consentaneousness 

 without such change. Neither proposition, perhaps, is 

 capable of direct and positive proof, and your columns 

 are not the place for a lengthened discussion of 

 the subject ; but I will endeavour to show, by a little 

 analogy, that the doctors have some reason on their 

 side. The animal body is composed of many or- 

 gans, the consistent and harmonious working of which 

 constitutes healthy existence— life ; in its best sense- 

 Mi*. If this harmony is disturbed, if any, or all of these 

 organs are unduly worked, or if any one, or some, or all 

 are idle, the healthy current of existence is disturbed, and 

 disease is the consequence. Now, the actions or functions 

 of the several organs depend on certain moving powers, 

 derivable mediately or immediately from the nerves and 

 blood-vessels ; and it may happen, and often does happen, 

 that these moving powers are unduly and irregularly sup- 

 plied, and thence comes derangement of the animal ma- 

 chine, loss of healthy action, and disease ; just as an in- 

 animate engine, or a part of it, may be overdone, or un- 

 derdone, by its moving power, be it steam, or wind, or 

 water, or any other, and a stoppage, or a derangement, 

 of its ordinary or proper function induced. In such a 

 case it is evident the stoppage, or disordered action does 

 not depend on any organic change, or structural fault ! 

 the moving power, and the object to be set in motion, are 

 unequally balanced, and the machine works badlv, or is 



stopped. Take another analogy (for such similitudes 



4 



will perhaps 

 are not apt 

 siological, or 

 chines), and 

 animal body 

 instrument. 



be better understood by your readers who 

 to be very well acquainted with the ph Y . 

 pathological workings of their animal ma- 

 compare the healthy condition of the 

 to a well-tuned and well-played musical 

 With the due and appropriate application of 

 the moving power, all is harmony and ease ; put the same 

 instrument into the hands of an unskilful artist, let the 

 moving power be unduly distributed, let its various parts 

 be unduly and unartfully animated, and all is discord and 

 disease. To bring the matter more home : — we will sup. 

 pose a healthy person just about to sit down with a good 

 appetite to his dinner; he is told that his banker, in whose 

 hands he has a large deposit, has stopped payment, and 

 he sends his meat away untouched. Or suppose the 

 happy father of a family, easy in his circumstances, and 

 in the enjoyment of excellent health, having just taken a 

 hearty meal, is told that his eldest son at college is lying 

 at the point of death, and the first immediate effect is, at 

 the least, a fit of indigestion. In both these cases there is 

 functional derangement without change of structure; re- 

 verse the picture to either of these persons, their func- 

 tional powers and appetites return ; or, in other words, tha 

 motive power within them operates in its proper channel 

 and their disease is at an end. Still more to the point :— 

 there are innumerable cases on record where the functions 

 of particular organs have been disturbed for years by what 

 was called sympathy (now more correctly the reflex action 

 of nerves), and have been immediately restored by the 

 removal of the remote excitant cause. In such cases 

 there could not be any structural derangement. Not- 

 withstanding all I have said, I still concede to you, 

 that there is no function independent of organism. I 

 only maintain, that there may be disorder without lesion 

 of parts, or change of structure ; and that till we know 

 more of the proximate changes of the vital actions (vital 

 Chemistry, I might have said) we have reason to abide by 

 a distinction as philosophical as it is convenient — so con- 

 venient, that I bet my best Melon, of the forthcoming 

 summer, to il L. E.'s " best bunch of Grapes (the good 

 English method of settling a dispute), that he will by- 

 and-by, when he trea's of the diseases of plants, pro- 

 duced by too much or too little nutriment, too much or 

 too little warmth, and so forth, use the distinctions, and 

 perhaps the phrases now in discussion. In the fore- 

 going illustrations of my position, I have not overlooked 

 the objection which will probably occur to the able writer 

 of your " article," that a change may take place and does 

 take place in the vascular system, and the distribution 

 of blood in the disturbed organs ; and this he will say is 

 tantamount to structural change. I have provided against 

 this by admitting the agency of that fluid as a motive 

 power. More may be said to meet this objection ; but 

 your readers will probably think there is enough for the 

 present. — M. D. [We must still maintain that our 

 position is correct. u M. D.," in his own instances, shows 

 clearly that there must be derangement of structure to 

 produce functional disorder. The convenience of the 

 term functional disease in medicine we admit, but we 

 deny its correctness. We shall endeavour in all cases 

 to point out the structural change on whiclj the decayed 

 functions of plants depend. — L. E.J 



Ward's Cases. — The following is a drawing of a 



61 Ward's case" of my own designing and making. It has 



been filled with 



a great variety 



of plants for 



some time past, 



they all 



to enjoy 



position. 



a is the 



or case 



contains 



tht; soil in which 



the plants are 

 placed; the cen- 

 tral pillar, b, 

 has a creeper 

 twining round 

 it. The house 



itself is orna- 

 mental, and par- 

 ticularly suit- 

 able as a w Drawing-rocm Greenhouse." It seems to 

 require very little care except occasionally picking off 

 decayed leaves. The shape is exceedingly light and sim- 

 ple, and it can be made even more so by the omission of 

 the arches and " tracery" marked c. — J, L. Snow, Stan- 

 ton Gardens. 



The Fastolff Raspberry.— I obtained in 1842 some 

 canes of the large sort of Raspberry mentioned by " Fair 

 Play " as growing at Filby, and at the same time some cf 

 the Fastolff from Messrs. Youell and Co.; the latter 

 proved far superior both in size and flavour of fruit, the 

 canes growing to the height of nine feet and literally 

 covered with fruit.— Justice, Liverpool. [We have this 

 correspondent's name.] f 



Cucumbers. — For two years past I have entirely dis- 

 carded the old method of growing Cucumbers on dung 

 hot-beds, or of allowing them to grow on the surface ot 

 the soil at any time. I find that by training them to 

 trellises I have not half the trouble with them that is re- 

 quired by the old plan, and that the plants continue 

 much longer in bearing when so treated. I have had 

 plants in this way continue in a bearing state and i 

 perfect health for upwards of twelve months, and it is very 

 seldom we are without Cucumbers here all the year rou " d : 

 We have at this place a range of pits I about a hundred 



feet in length and nine feet wide inside," heated with two 



and 



seem 



their 



a a 



frame 



which 



