416 Notice of Dalvey, 



milk in the basin was nearly as far up as the mark made when the first 

 weighing was done ; and, when he saw that it required to rise to the mark 

 before it came to the balance, his wonder was at its height, and he hoped that 

 Colin would forgive him for doubting the truth of the statements he had 

 made, 



Walter Glenesk said that he had received much information from that part 

 of the discourse wheih treated of the specific gravity of bodies ; for in some 

 systematic arrangements of simple minerals it formed one of their essential 

 characters : for instance, in combustible minerals the specific gravity seldom 

 exceeds 2, water being equal to 1 ; and in metallic minerals it is commonly 

 above 3 and upwards ; while in earthy minerals the specific gravity is generally 

 less than 3. " And although I knew these things," said Walter, " I was not 

 aware that the specific gravity of bodies was so easily ascertained ; nor did I 

 know that a hydrostatic balance was so easily made." 



" I think you stated," said Sandy Macalpine, " that the rise and circulation 

 of the sap in vegetables are performed by means of their fine capillary tubes. 

 I believe that vegetable physiologists differ in their opinions respecting the 

 channel through which the sap flows ; some saying that it is through the tubes 

 of the woody fibre, others that it is by the intercellular passages, and the cause 

 of the upward flow of sap in vegetables is to be found in evaporation and 

 endosmose." — " Endosmose ! what in a' the warld is endosmose?" said 

 Bauldy, " that causes the sap to rise in vegetables." — " It is," replied Sandy, 

 " the transmission of gaseous bodies, or vapours, or liquids, through mem- 

 branes or porous substances, from without inwards. Many operations of 

 nature which philosophers could not satisfactorily account for are explained 

 by this law ; for instance, the mechanical mixture of the various gases of the 

 atmosphere. The gases are of different densities, and yet they are said to be 

 blended together in certain proportions without entering into chemical com- 

 bination. It has been found that dense fluids will combine with those that 

 are more thin ; and it is asserted that when evaporation takes place in the 

 leaves of vegetables the fluids in the leaves become thick, and, the thick sap 

 of the leaves combining with the thinner sap of the branches, circulation is set 

 going. Well may we say, with the royal poet of Israel, ' the works of the 

 Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein ;' and those 

 who delight in studying the works of an Infinite mind will find 



' Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous,' 

 And those who have dived into the secrets of nature, and studied hard in 

 the boundless domain of creation, have still much to learn respecting the 

 humble plant by the wayside, or the little-thought-of flower that blooms and 

 dies upon the mouldering towers of our ancestors. Yet there are minds that 

 can read lessons of instruction in ' flowers passing away;' and, while living in 

 the fleeting sepulchre of this world, can enjoy much of its transient gleams of 

 sunshine, and can also be partakers of that enduring felicity that is seated in 

 Heaven." 



West Plean, April 8. 1843. 



Art, VII. Notice of Dalvey, the Seat of Norman MacLeod, Esq. 

 By A. Bkanden, Gardener there. 



Agreeably to your request, I send you some account of these gardens, and 

 of the state of gardening, and of other gardens of note, in this quarter. 



The State of Gardening in this Quarter. — Gardening here is in a more 

 forward state than you Southerns might imagine, taking into account this our 

 northern locality and distance from the metropohs, the grand centre from 

 which most new and good things in the floral way emanate. 



The gardeners here (as in most other places where I have been) I consider, 



