43 



THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



seen, the feathered suitor accompanies hor go where she may. If on the harvest rig, 

 there is the Gander by her side ; and during the last season, when the farmer con. 

 ceived it necessary to prolong the labours of his people till after midnight, the Gander 

 accompanied all the motions of the team with which his lady-love was engaged, and 

 watched every sheaf that was placed on it by her hands." 



Snakes. — Professor Lugi Metoxa, of Rome, has published an account of some 

 singular experiments made by him upon Snakes. Among others, he endeavoured to 

 ascertain the truth of the assertions of the ancients, respecting the predilection of 

 snakes for music and dancing. In July 1822, about noon, he put into a large box a 

 number of different kinds of snakes, all quite lively, with the exception of some 

 vipers, which were enclosed in a separate box. As soon as they heard the harmonious 

 tones of an organ, all the non-venomous serpents became agitated in an extraordinary 

 manner; they attached themselves to the sides of the bos, and made every effort to 

 escape. The Elaphis and the Coluber JEscnlapii turned towards the instrument. 

 The vipers exhibited no symptoms of sensibility. This experiment has been frequent- 

 ly repeated, and with the same results. 



Eels. — M. Girardin, Professor of Chemistry at Rouen, while in the act of super- 

 intending the digging of a well, the water rushed into it from the neighbouring 

 springs, and contained in it two specimens of small Eels, which have been identified 

 by the celebrated naturalist Dumeril. These must have had a subterranean exist- 

 ence in the springs. At Tours, Eels of various kinds were also brought up by the 

 water of a well in a similar maimer. 



Horse with Toes on his Feet. — In Le Globe, No. 58, we have an account of 

 several papers read in the Academy of Sciences on the 15th August 1827. M. 

 Geoffrey St Hilaire read a ISIemoir on a Horse which had on his fore-feet three toes, 

 connected by a membrane. This monster is preserved at Lyons, in the private col- 

 lection of M. Bredin, Director of the Veterinary School of that city. It has been 

 recorded that Juhus Csesar had a favorite horse with toes upon his feet. 



BOTANY AND HORTICULTURE. 



GENERAL REVIEW OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM NO. II. 



Plants of the Dicotyledonous class within the tropics are frequently conspicuous 

 for the height and circumference of their stems, the richness and variety of their 

 foliage, as well as the bright and finely contrasted colours of their blossom. By the 

 irregularity of their forms, they set off to advantage the arborescent Monocotyledones 

 of the Palm tribe, which have in general the simple sober forms of our columns, of 

 which they were the models. It is towards the Equator that the gigantic climbers, 

 which grow to the length of several hundred yards, are found; as well as those mag- 

 iiificent herbs of the Scitcmineaj and Mused, as tall as the trees of our orchards'; with 

 flowers and foliage not less pre-eminent in their dimensions. For instance, the Cory- 

 pha unihraculiferay an East Indian palm, with leaves in the form of an umbrella, and 

 more than six yards across; and ihe Aristolochiay that grows on the river of La 

 Madalena, the flowers of which, according to M. de Humboldt, serve the children for 

 hats. The far greater part of the aromatic plants belong also to the equatorial regions. 



By the side of this rich and varied vegetation, that of Europe appears poor and 

 tame. Here the species of trees are few, and all have a port and foliage in which 

 much sameness prevails. Their flowers make so little show, that the generality of 

 people, who think nothing a flower except a coloured corolla, being ignorant of the use 

 and importance of the other parts, believe that most trees have none at alk 



The inferiority in the vegetation of our regions will appear in a still stronger light, 

 if we compare the species of the same genera or tribes which grow both in Europe and 

 under the line. In South America, plants of the Fern tribe, with a fohage and fruc- 

 tification not very unlike our common Brake and Polypody, grow like Palms, and have 

 a stalk in the form of a column. 



The cold and temperate climates of our quarter of the world abound in dwarf her- 

 baceous turfy GraminecB ; hot countries have also many plants of this tribe, but they 

 are on a much larger scale. This difference begins to be perceived even when we 

 reach Italy, where the Millet attains the height of four or five yards. The Bamboos, 

 Panic-grasses, and the Sugar-cane of Asia, Africa, and America, reach the height of 

 eight or nine yards. 



It is said that in parts of the East Indies there are antiquated Bamboos, which axe 

 real trees, with a haulm of such girth, that a piece divided lengthwise makes two 

 entire canoes. 



The herbaceous Monocotyledones of the tropics, such as the Liliacem, are greatly 

 superior to ours in the beauty of their flowers. The Heaths of the Northern parts of 

 Europe are low bushes, with feeble stems and small bloom ; those of the coasts of the 

 Mediterranean have also a small bloom, but their stems are taller and more robust ; 

 those of the Cape fascinate by the form, splendor of colour, and size of the corolla. 

 The Geraniums of Europe do not approach those of Africa in point of stature or 

 beauty of flower. 



All the plants of the Mallow tribe with us are herbaceous ; those of hot climates 

 either shrubs or trees. A trib'J of so little account in these pai'ts, holds a place among 

 the vegetables of the most note in the equinoctial regions. There it counts among its 

 species the Baobab and the Ceiba, the colossi of the vegetable creation ; besides the 

 *' hand-tree" of Mexico, so called from the form and disposition of the stamens of 

 the flower, which represent very tolerably a hand or paw with five fingers. 



The Leguminosm or Pulse tribe furnish Europe with many herbaceous species, 

 several shrubs, and one middle sized tree; all of which, however, have leaves 

 composed of but few leaflets. The same tribe in the hot climates of Asia, Africa, 

 and America, teems with lofty trees, graced with leaves of the most delicate texture, 

 divided and subdivided into numberless leaflets, and playing in the wind like plumes. 



The Aroidece in Europe never exceed the height of a yard; those of Mexico, the 

 Brazils, and Peru, sometimes tower into the air like the Banana, of which they assume 

 the appearance ; at other times lengthening themselves into supple climbers, they mount 

 to the tops of the highest trees. 



Differences as strongly marked are exemplified in the Orchidea. In Europe the 

 species are low; their flowers, although equally interesting to the Botanist by the sin- 

 gularity of their structure, as in other regions, are too insignificant to attract the at- 

 tention of any who do not make plants an object of their study. In the Torrid Zone, 

 the case is quite different in regard to this tribe, the greater portion of which consists 

 of species that excite our wonder by the size and brilliancy of their blossom ; and many, 

 as the Vanilla, suspend their long branches covered with a foliage of shining green, 

 and terminated by magnificent garlands of flowers from the summits of trees. 



The Apoc7/ne<Sy Boragineccy ConvOlvulacecE, and many other tribes, are equally 

 examples of contrasts of a like nature. The European Naturalist, whom the ardent 

 thirst of science leads under the Equator, views with ecstacy those fertile regions, which 

 exhibit at every step forms familiar to him, decked in the rich attire bestowed from 

 the hand of a more bountiful and powerful Nature. 



There are beauties in a land yet wild and savage, which disappear at the approach 

 of civilization. In Europe the soil abounds chiefly in plants which are of use to Man. 

 Domestic vegetables, by the aid and protection of the cultivator, have so trenched upon 

 the domain of the wilderness, that space is scarcely left for the existence of those for 

 which Man has no caU. The primeval forests of the Gauls and Germans have disap- 

 peared ; our forests are mere formal plantations of large extent. They are intersected in 

 all directions by roads and paths ; are explored without difficulty ; and the wild animals 

 no longer find safe refuge in them. Generations of trees are renewed in quick suc- 

 cession, on a soil which the industry of the proprietor keeps in constant requisition, and 

 it is mere chance when a single stick is left to end its career by old age. Far in the 

 North there are several forests which still preserve some traces of the primeval vege- 

 tation of Europe. In these the Oaks, spared by the axe, acquire an enormous size; 

 while others, worn out by age, fall of themselves, arc decomposed, and help unceas- 

 ingly to augment the surface of the soil covered with high mosses and thick lichens, 

 that preserve a prolific moisture. 



None, however, approach in magnificence to the forests which shade the equinoctial 

 regions of Africa and America. One is never satiated with admiring there the end- 

 less multitude of vegetables brought into near contact with each other, and mingled 

 promiscuously together ; eo different among themselves, and often so extraordinary in 

 structure and produce; those enormous trees still exhibiting no symptoms of decay, 

 though their age goes back to a period at but little distance from the last revolution 

 of our globe ; those towering Palms, contrasting by their simple forms with all that 

 surrounds them ; those extensive climbers ; those Rattans, which, knitting together their 

 long and flexible branches by numberless knots and turns, encircle as one group the 

 whole vegetation of these extensive regions. To clear a path through these, neither 

 fire nor axe is sufficient; the one extinguishes for want of circulation in the air, the 

 other is broken or blunted by the hardness of the wood it meets. The soil cannot 

 afibrd place to the numberless germs which it develops. Each tree disputes with 

 others, which press from all sides, the soil it wants for its existence ; the strong stifle 

 the weak ; while rising generations obliterate even the slightest trace of destruction 

 and death ; vegetation never flags ; and the earth, so far from becoming exhausted, 

 acquires new fertiUty from day to day. Hosts of animals of every kind, Insects, Birds, 

 Quadrupeds, Reptiles, beings as diversified and strange as the vegetation of the place 

 itself, retire under the vast canopy of these aiacient thickets as into a citadel, proof 

 against the attack of Man. 



Manna of the Desert. — M. Bore, formerly principal gardener and conductor 

 of farming operations to the Pacha of Egypt, has discovered that the Tamarix Man- 

 nifera used in medicine gi'ows abundantly about a day's journey from Mount Sinai. 

 He was assured by the Arabs, that after this Manna was purified, it was equal to 

 honey. The Arabs perform this operation by putting it in hot water, and afterwards 

 skimming it. M. Bore gathered some drops himself, which were as large as ordi- 

 nary sized peas, as they fell from the branches. It was agreeable to the taste, but 

 there was very little gummy or saccharine matter about it. It has been supposed 

 that it was this kind of Manna upon which the Jews subsisted, as mentioned in Scrip- 

 ture, and which some authors have thought was produced from the Alhagi Mauro- 

 Tiim — a small plant found, according to their account, only in the . confines of the 

 desert, where the atmosphere is very humid, which is necessary to the growth of this 

 plant. 



Mandrake. — In the vicinity of Uschakan are found two remarkable roots. With 

 one, called toron, is made a red colour, which is used in Russia, and the Russian name 

 of which is morena ; the other, Icschtak or manrakor (mandrake), beais an exact 

 resemblance to the human figure, and is used by us medicinally. It grows pretty 

 large. A Dog is usually employed to draw it out of the ground; for which purpose 

 the earth is first dug from about it, and a Dog being fastened to it by a string, is 

 made to pull till the whole of the root is extracted. The reason of this is a super- 

 stitious behef prevalent among the Russian boors, that if a man were to pull up this 

 root, he would infallibly die, either on the spot or in a very short time, and that, when. 

 it is drawn out, the moan of a human voice is always heard. 



GENERAL SCIENCE. 



Scoresey's Experiments on Magnetism.. — This gentleman has shown that bars 

 of steel could be rendered highly magnetic by hammering them in a vertical position, 

 with the lower end resting upon a poker or rod of iron. This process, however, he 

 greatly improved by hammering the steel bars between two bars of iron. The steel 

 bars used by him were the eighth part of an inch in diameter. 



When only one bar of iron was used, a steel wire, six inches long, lifted a nail 

 weighing 186 grains; but when two bars of iron were used, the wire Ufted 326 

 grains. When the new process was employed with an iron bar eight feet long, a 

 steel wire, six inches long, lifted 669 grains, or four times its own weight. 



J'lr Scoresby's theory of this process is, that percussion on magnetizable substances 

 in mutual contact inclines them to an equality of condition, in the same manner as 

 all bodies of different temperatures tend to assume the same temperature when in con- 



