328 Foreign Notices: — Germany. 



they were fit for use some time before those which were sown in August ; I 

 cannot exactly say how long, but they were generally getting over before the 

 latter came in. It is true they came into flower prematurely, and the heads 

 were consequently small ; but they were quite fit for use, and of that size which 

 is prized in many families, and preferred to larger. These are not the results 

 of one year, but of a number of years in which the same effects were invariably 

 produced. {W. Falla, IAsswood House, Northumberland, in Gard. Chron. for 

 1842, p. 54.) 



Sowing Cabbage Seed for Spring Cabbage. — Poynter, who published the 

 Cottage Gardener, in 1833, and who was a market-gardener at North End, 

 Fulham, says: " It has been an old practice among the market-gardeners at 

 Fulham, perhaps for many generations, and it is continued to this time, 

 to sow their cabbage on or as near the 25th of July as possible. It is 

 not superstition, it is not whim, it is the result of experience tradition- 

 ally delivered in this parish from a successive body of careful and observant 

 growers." He further adds, " on cold lands I would sow in the middle of 

 July." I beg to add, that for many years I have sown as near that day as 

 circumstances would admit, and produced as early cabbages as come to the 

 London market. (R. G., Old Brompton, in Gard. Chron. for 1842, p. 54.) 



Training Calves and Horses. — In Ellis's Horse Training, reviewed in the 

 Athenaeum for April 2. 1842, it is shown that breathing into the nostrils of 

 calves, horses, and various wild animals, renders them quite tame. The expe- 

 riment has been tried in England with success ; and Mr. Ellis is of opinion, 

 that this is the secret of the celebrated Irish horse-charmers, who pretend 

 to whisper to the animal and play with his head, and thus, probably, breathe 

 into his nostrils.. The experiments made by Mr. Ellis are founded on the 

 following passage in Mr. Catlin's work, On the Manners and Customs of the 

 North-American Indians : — "1 have often, in concurrence with a well-known 

 custom of the country, held my hand over the eyes of the calf and breathed 

 a few strong breaths into its nostrils ; after which I have, with my hunting 

 companions, rode several miles into our encampment, with the little prisoner 

 busily following the heels of my horse the whole way, as closely and affection- 

 ately as its instinct would attach it to the company of its dam. This is one 

 of the most extraordinary things that I have met with in the habits of this 

 wild country ; and although I had often heard of it, and felt unable exactly to 

 believe it, lam now willing to bear testimony to the fact, from the numerous 

 instances which I have witnessed since I came into the country. During the 

 time that I resided at this post, in the spring of the year, on my way up the 

 river, I assisted (in numerous hunts of the buffalo with the Fur Company's 

 men) in bringing in, in the above manner, several of these little prisoners, 

 which sometimes follow for five or six miles close to our horses' heels, and 

 even into the Fur Company's fort, and into the stable where our horses were 

 led. In this way, before I left for the head-waters of the Missouri, I think we 

 had collected about a dozen. In the same way the wild horses are tamed. 

 When the Indian has got him well secured with the lasso, and a pair of hobbles 

 on his feet, he gradually advances, until he is able to place his hand on the 

 animal's nose and over his eyes, and, at length, to breathe in its nostrils, when 

 it soon becomes docile and conquered ; so that he has little more to do than to 

 remove the hobble from its feet, and lead or ride it into camp." 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 

 GERMANY. 



Que'RCVs pedunculdta fastigidta. — A remarkably fine specimen of this tree 

 exists at Herreshausen, a small village of the Grand Duchy of Hesse Darm- 

 stadt, about twenty-five English miles from Frankfort, and two from Baben- 



