402 Preserving Plants by means of Spring Water. 



unrestrained and undirected by his skill and guidance. His 

 art is to eradicate the evil habits of the one, and to prevent or 

 remedy the bad propensities of the other. The shape, growth, 

 and symmetry of both must be scrupulously attended to ; the 

 wiidness of their natures controlled; and the most efficient 

 means applied, to render them productive. The tender sap- 

 ling must be trained with as much address and attention, to 

 render it profitable for timber, or beneficial for food, as the 

 animal must be educated for the purposes for which he is 

 designed. In either case, neglect would be fatal ; and constant 

 attention can alone render either profitable. 



To enumerate the various other analogies between the 

 vegetable and animal kingdom would swell this letter to 

 a volume. The effects of cold and heat upon both, either in 

 too great or too little a degree ; excessive moisture or dry- 

 ness ; too much or too little exposure to air ; the difference 

 of climates, of food, or of soils ; pestiferous air, fogs, smoke, 

 and vapours ; not omitting the accidents to which each are 

 liable, and the effects from wounds and other injuries ; these, 

 and many others, must strike the most superficial observer 

 as common to both. Nor ought I to omit the diseases which 

 are common to both ; such as tumours, canker, distortions, 

 gout, measles, carbuncles, ulcers, fungi, gangrenes, and exces- 

 sive bleeding : but, as I intend to show, in my next letter, that 

 the diseases in both are occasioned by the same causes, and 

 produce the same effects ; so shall I then demonstrate that, 

 by keeping in view the distinction between the animal and 

 vegetable world, as consisting in the absence of that medullary 

 substance called mind, we may palliate or cure most of the 

 diseases of plants by remedies analogous to those applied to 

 the material or vegetable part of animals. 



A. W. N. 



Art. IV. On preserving tender Plants in Winter by means of the 

 Temperature of Spring Water. By Mr. A. Gorrie, F.H.S. 



Sir, 

 There is a curious coincidence between the annual mean 

 temperature in the open air, and the annual mean tempera- 

 ture of water in a deep spring well at the same place. In a 

 spring well of that description at Annat Gardens, I find the 

 temperature of the water to indicate from 46° to 47° in the 

 winter months, unaffected in the least by atmospheric tem- 

 perature, however low that may be. As spring wells are fre- 

 quently to be met with, and are always desirable appendages 



