280 Domestic Notices. — Scotland. 



effectually protects the flowers and young fruit from frost and other atmo- 

 spheric injury, without excluding the rays of the sun. Now this, for aught 

 I know, may be an old plan (see Vol. III. p. 492.), but it appears to me 

 as a rational one, and the frond of any of the common ferns is peculiarly 

 well adapted to the purpose. — G. S. March .^1. 1828. 



Cotylbdon umbilicus, as Sjmiach. — It struck me one day, lately, when 

 walking along the lanes here, the banks of which are covered with Cotyle- 

 don umbilicus, that the leaves, in spring, might prove a good vegetable for 

 the table. I accordingly had some boiled, and assure you that it is excel- 

 lent. In London, I am sure, it would be considered as a luxury so early in 

 the season as February and March. It requires about 20 minutes to boil. 

 This vegetable has this great recommendation, the total absence of all 

 stringiness. I can, in short, recommend it in the strongest manner; and, in 

 the south-west of England, it can be procured wild in any quantity. In 

 consequence of its great succulency, a good quantity of the leaves are re- 

 quired to make a dish ; but here a child may gather a sufficient quantity in 

 a few minutes. — Id. 



To destroy Croius. — Those who wish to get rid of crows, and who have 

 spirit to enforce their' wishes, may do it with less trouble during the hatch- 

 ing month than in any other period of the year. After the female begins 

 to sit, if they are frighted away only a daj^ and night or two from the 

 rookeries, the eggs, to which they will again betake themselves, will not 

 produce ; and thus the young brood will be checked, and the dam weakened 

 by sitting on her rotten eggs an indefinite time. {Carse of Gowrie Report.) 



Wild Mint. — A farmer in the Hebrides some time ago discovered that a 

 few stalks of wild mint, scattered up and down among his stacks, com- 

 pletely preserved them from the ravages of mice. He also tried the 

 experiment with his cheeses and other articles kept in store, and found it 

 equally successful. {Yorkshire Gazette, May 17.) 



Saltpetre is said, in some of the country newspapers, to be an excellent 

 stimulating manure, when sown at the rate of 1 cvvt. per acre, as a top 

 dressing. 



The Gout in Wheat. — The stalk is swollen to three times its natural size ; 

 and on opening it, a small maggot, about one eighth of an inch long, and the 

 diameter of a stocking-needle, appears, either alive or dead. This disease is 

 confined to the most luxuriant crops. {Oxford Herald, April 19.) 



SCOTLAND. 



TJie Plantain Tree. — In the year 1789, a very fine plant of the Musa 

 paradisiaca fruited in great perfection in the pine stove of Tynningham, 

 the seat of the Earl of Haddington, in East Lothian. The plant had been 

 kept in a box till it became so cumbrous, that the gardener (the late Mr. 

 Thomas Thomson) resolved to plant it into the natural soil which formed 

 the bottom of the bark pit. It was placed, accordingly, in one of the 

 back corners, and a two-sided wooden trunk defended the stem from the 

 bark of the bed. Here the plant prospered exceedingly ; the roots penet 

 trating under and along the sides, between the bark and brickwork, the 

 whole length of the pit, filling the end of the stove with its magnificent 

 foliage. Fears were entertained that either the plant must be sacrificed 

 or the roof raised to allow it sufficient space ; but just as some of the top- 

 most leaves began to be confined and pressed by the roof, the apex of the 

 fructification appeared, and turning downward, hung gracefully among and 

 below the stalks of the leaves. It flowered in the course of the summer, 

 forming an elongated spike, the flowers standing in fascicles of eight toge- 

 ther, those nearest the stem expanding first. The first four fascicles set 

 their fruit, and yielded in the autumn four " hands " of well ripened 

 fruit ; the first, perhaps, that were ever seen in a dessert in that part of the 



