21 8 General Notices. 



together with earthy matter, evidently derived from the gravel walk under the 

 veranda. The quantity was about 1^-gr. to a square yard of glass, an incon- 

 siderable quantity ; but it should be remembered, that it bears a small propor- 

 tion to that which the rain must have contained ; the salt on the glass being 

 only that which was left from the spray. It would be difficult to ascertain the 

 exact quantity, every gale from the south-west not bringing salt with it ; we 

 are distant, in a direct line, about 30 miles from the New Passage, a wide part 

 of the Bristol Channel, and probably the nearest part from which, in tem- 

 pestuous weather, the salt water becomes commingled with the air. To bring 

 salt so far inland, in any appreciable quantity, two circumstances must 

 combine ; the union of salt water and clouds at the Channel, and a gale. In 

 the present instance the principal quantity of salt deposited was on the 2 1st, 

 only a trifling quantity afterwards, although the gale continued strong for 

 several days after. This was confirmed by the evaporation of rain water, 

 which fell during the gale subsequent to the 21st, which left salt crystals but 

 in very small quantity. — Thomas C. Brown. Further Barton, near Cirencester^ 

 Jan. 25. 18i0. 



Excrevientitious Exudations of the Roots of Plants. — On the subject of 

 excrements of plants, I have often wondered that the plants pointed out as 

 illustrations were not so apt as others which have occurred to my observa- 

 tion. On lifting up a bed of two-years seedling Scotch fir, or two-years seed- 

 ling spruce, the ground around the roots is filled with the excrement : in the 

 Scotch fir it assumes a white colour, similar to mushroom spawn ; in some 

 places fibrous, in others in the form of a web. In the spruce fir it assumes 

 a yellow colour, fully more fibrous than in the Scotch fir ; and I have found 

 in practice, that, in sowing seed-beds, or transplanting trees into lines, 

 larch sown or planted after spruce have nearly doubled the size of those 

 planted after larch at the same time, and from the same lot of seeds or seed- 

 lings. Whether this is to be attributed to the excrement acting as manure, 

 or keeping the ground open, or perhaps to both, the effect is very decided. 

 On trial, the same thing is observed in all changes of plants, but in none have 

 I perceived the contrast more than in the above. 



It has been held by some that the excrement acts as a poison, and by 

 others that growing plants frequently on the same piece of ground exhausts 

 that piece of the peculiar nourishment requisite for the individual plant ; and, 

 in corroboration of one or other, or both of these theories, I have observed 

 that larch does not grow quite as vigorously after larch, as planted after 

 other plants that have less excrement than the two I allude to ; but the 

 difference is incomparably more after these, especially the spruce, though the 

 Scotch fir is decidedly next : and, seeing the effect in giving decided vigour 

 to young larches in the nursery after Scotch fir, I have been astonished at its 

 being said to cause disease in the larch when planted after Scotch fir in the 

 forest. — R. Lt/mbum. Kilmamocli. 



Rural Enjoyment. — Mrs. Montague, who used to assert that all the arts 

 and sciences were contained in the first grain of corn, when she held a farm at 

 Sandleford had it tilled principally by women. They weeded her corn, hoed 

 her turnips, and planted her potatoes. Madame Helvetius was a woman, in 

 some respects, not inferior to Madame Roland. Having been the idol of her 

 husband, whom, in return, she loved with the warmest affection, she became, 

 at his death, the delight of a numerous circle of friends and acquaintances. 

 Retired at Auteuil, she indulged the native benevolence of her disposition in 

 administering to the wants of animals, and in cultivating plants. One day, 

 walking with Napoleon, then First Consul of France, she observed to him, in 

 answer to a question he had proposed to her, " Ah, Monsieur le Grand Consul ! 

 you are little conscious how much happiness a person may enjoy upon three 

 acres of ground I" (Bucke's Beauties, Src-, of Nature.^ 



Aiding the Germination of Seeds by Quicklime. (G. M. 1838, p. 71.) — Some 

 other trials, made by ourselves and other nurserymen in the neighbourhood, 

 have shown the efficacy of the process of preparing with lime, as compared 



