AND OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 



107 



while the nuhility, the higher orders of the peopUs and foreigners, employ gin, 

 brandy, rum, or other sphits. A glass or two of this liquor is taken each forenoon 

 during the winter months, and it generally makes its appearance at lunch. 



The second application of the fruit of the Rowan Tree as an article of food, is in 

 the form of jelly, jam, or preserve. To make the jelly, put the berries, when ripe 

 and cleanly picked, into a large jar, which is to be placed either in an oven, or in a 

 saucepan of boiling water, until they part with their juice. Strain through a fine 

 sieve, but do not press the berries; weigh the juice, and add to it an equal weight 

 of loaf sugar ; boil them together until they acquire a proper consistence. Rowan 

 jelly thus made has a pleasant, slightly bitter taste, and in appearance resembles that 

 made from red currants. It is eaten in considerable quantity with partridges, the 

 different varieties of wild fowl, &c., which are to be had in any quantity at a trifling 

 price, and constitute a daily dish. The jam is made in the same manner as that of 

 the gooseberry, or any other species of fruit, and forms a good remedy in stomach 

 complaints and sore throats. Lastly, the berries, towards the end of the season, 

 wheu ripe, are collected in great quantities by the boors, for their own consumption, 

 and for that of the nobles on whose estate they live ; and are salted, along with 

 various sorts of wild berries, and preserved amongst their winter store in the ice- 

 cellars. During the winter the berries thus kept form a part of their daily meals, 

 and are reckoned antiscorbutic. Far distant, I am afraid, is the period when the 

 fruit of the Mountain-Ash will be applied to any useful purpose by the peasantry of 

 Great Britain, although thus relished and sought after by the more opulent and bet- 

 ter fed boors of the interior of Russia. 



The Apple Tree, Pyrus Malus, in all its varieties, attains a state of great per- 

 fection, and is found in abundance in the Russian Empire, particularly towards the 

 southern parts, the Crimea and the Ukraine. It presents a healthy and luxuriant 

 appearance, and yields abundant crops. The fruit markets in the great towns, dur- 

 infT the autumnal months, are amply supplied with the finest apples of every descrip- 

 tion ; they are handed in abundance through the streets by the itinerant fruit -dealers, 

 and are sold at a cheap rate. They generally attain a great size, and ripen perfectly, 

 as is indicated by the richness of their colour and odour. During the course of 

 the winter they may be had to purchase in the grocery shops in their preserved 

 state. 



"When the apples are intended to be preserved in their fresh state, those which are 

 in the best condition are carefully picked out and well cleaned by means of a dry 

 cloth. They are then put up in small heaps, or are arranged in regular rows, on the 

 wooden floor of the ice-cellar, with which every Isbac is supplied, for keeping their 

 various sorts of provisions in a fresh state, during the winter and summer months. 

 At regular intervals, any moisture that may have collected upon them is carefully 

 rubbed off; they are frequently turned; those which present the slightest appear- 

 ance of spoiling are removed for immediate use ; and the rest are found to keep in 

 good condition from November until the next crop is ready for use. 



I was informed while in Russia that apples may be preserved fresh for a consider- 

 able period by another method, which, although it has not been my good fortune to 

 see it practised, I shall now describe, being convinced that it is worthy of a fair trial. 

 A quantity of tight well-made casks or barrels, sufficient to contain the fruit to be 

 preserved, must first be procured. The apples, after being picked out and carefully 

 rubbed with a dry cloth, are to be placed m layers, alternating with others of cran- 

 berries, until the casks are completely filled. Cold spring water is then poured in so 

 as to fill up every interval, and, when the process is completed, each cask is secured 

 in a perfect manner by fixing its top on. 



Whether the cranberry possesses any preservative power, whether any other kind 

 of small fruit would answer the same purpose, or whether their use might be omitted, 

 I cannot take upon me to determine. 1 feel inchned, h(;wever, to think that it does 

 not exert any such power, and that the preservative or antiseptic quality evinced de- 

 pends entirely on the water and the consequent exclusion of the air. It is a well 

 knuwn circumstance, that apples which have fallen from the trees in orchards or 

 gardens, and have iiccidentally got buried under the surface of the earth during the 

 autumn months, have been dug up the following spring or summer in a fresh state; 

 and this, of course, arises from their submersion and consequent protection from 

 the air. 



Apples are preserved in great quantity throughout the Russian Empire by another 

 method; they are kept in a dry state. For this purpose, the inferior sorts are ge- 

 nerally made use of. They are cut through the centre from top to bottom, into four, 

 six, or eight divisions, accordmg to their size ; the seeds with the capsule beino' 

 generally removed, as is done in this country in preparing apples for pies. The 

 various pieces collected together are dried in the sun, if the heat of the season is 

 sufficient for the purpose; if not, by means of fires; after which they are strung- 

 upon twine, formed into bunches, and will remain in good condition for any reason- 

 able length of time. When apples dried in this way are moistened by putting thera 

 in wai'm water at any after period, they regain their natural spongy appearance, and 

 are used by the peasants to make pies during the winter months, and to form a par- 

 ticular kind of drink much consumed in Little Russia. 



Preserved in the manner here described, apples brought from the Crimea, Uk- 

 raine, or south of Russia, may be had to purchase all the year in the shops of the 

 great towns. In the island of Mohn, situated at the head of the Ualtic, and belonT- 

 ing to Russia, the crab apple only abounds, and of it the boors make a tolerably well- 

 tasted cyder. 



New Esculent Sea-weed. — At a recent meeting of the Medico-Botanical 

 Society, a paper was read by Dr Sigmond, respecting a new esculent sea-weed, 

 which possesses nutritious properties to a much greater extent than Iceland moss, 

 without any of the bitter principle which renders that plant so disagreeable to many. 

 This fucus, of which specimens have lately been brought from Calcutta, is said to 

 contain 54 parts of starch in 100, and to be employed in large quantities by the 

 Chinese, who form with it an agreeable and refreshing jelly. It is abundant in the 

 neighbourliood ol Ci-ylon, and has been much employed by the medical profession in 

 Calcutta. The jclly Is said to be (juite equal to blanc 'nanc/s. 



THE TOBACCO PLANT. 



The Tobacco Pl^kt, Nicotiana Tabacum, belongs io Pentandria Monoyijnia 

 of the LinoEean system, and to the natural family of Solanea, or Nightshade Tribe, 

 which are generaUy narcotic or poisonous, although the Potato, Solamun tuherosumf 

 whose farinaceous tubers now afford so important an article of food, ranks among 

 thera. The root of the common Tobacco is large, fibrous, and of annual duration; 

 the stem erect, round, hairy towards the upper part, branched, and attains a height 

 of from four to six feet ; the leaves alternate, large, ovate, pointed, veined, and 

 clammy ; the flowers are disposed in terminal panicles ; the calyx is monosepalous, 

 bell-shaped, with five deep-pointed segments ; the corolla monopetalous, somewhat 

 funnel-shaped, with a long cyhndrical tube, and five acute revolutc segments ; the 

 stamens five, with in-curved tapering filaments and oblong anthers; the germen 

 oval, with a long slender style, and a round cleft stigma ; and the capsule oval, two- 

 celled, containing numerous small roundish seeds. 



Tobacco, which is the dried leaf of Nicotiana Tabacum, as well as of several other 

 species of the same genus, was first imported from America into Europe, about the 

 middle of the sixteenth century, by Hernandez de Toledo, who, however, had not 

 the honour of giving it its scientific appellation^ which was derived from a French- 

 man, Jean Nicot, Lord of Villemain, who being ambassador from Francis II. at the 

 court of Lisbon, sent some to his queen, Catherine de Medicis. The custom of 

 smoking is said to have been introduced into England by Sir Walter Raleigh, who 

 found tobacco cultivated in Trinidad on his first visit to it in 1593. It is beheved 

 that the first time the Spaniards saw it smoked was in 1518, at an interview between 

 Grijalva and a cacique of Tabasco, or Tabaco, from which place the plant received 

 its popular name. In spite of the strenuous opposition which was made to its intro- 

 duction by the princes of Europe, it gradually gamed ground, and is now in general 

 use, being extensively cultivated in both hemispheres. The importation of tobacco 

 and snuff into Great Britain, in the course of a recent year, amounted to nearly 

 17,000 hogsheads. It is related of M. Fagon, physician to Louis XIV., that in the 

 midst of a most energetic speech on the pernicious effects of tobacco, he paused, 

 and deliberately taking his snuff-box from his pocket, relreshed himself with a 

 pinch, to enable him to resume the argument ; it may be imagined witii how little 

 effect. Another curious fact is related with reference to its cultivation in Virginia, 

 where it was introduced in 1616, under the government of Sir Thomas Dale. 

 The planters at that time being all bachelors, regarded themselves as merely tem- 

 porary sojourners ; but the London Company for the colonization uf Virginia sent 

 out a number of respectable young women as wives to the settlers. These ladies 

 were actually sold for a hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco each, that quantity 

 being equivalent to the expenses of the voyage. 



Tobacco is extensively cultivated in Cuba, St Domingo, Trinidad, Brazil, Vir- 

 ginia, the Cape of Good Hope, and India. In the United States of America it is 

 raised in the following manner : — The seed is sown in February and March, in beds 

 carefully prepared. In April the young plants are laid out in the fields in rows, at 

 the distance of three feet from each other. Besides being hoed and weeded, they 

 are deprived of the lateral shoots and the tops in order to increase the size of the 

 leaves. When the pinnts have attained their full size, and the leaves begin to assume 

 a brownish hue, ihey are cut close to the ground, and left in heaps exposed to the 

 sun for one day. They are then carried to a shed and hung up in pairs on ropes, 

 where they reraam until dry, when the leaves are separated and made up into small 

 bundles, which are laid in heaps and covered with a cloth, to favor a slight fermen- 

 tation, care being taken by occasional exposure to prevent too great heat. They are 

 finally packed in casks for exportation, and undergo a second fermentation, which 

 gives them a dark colour and soft texture. 



Along with its narcotic properties, tobacco has a lightly stimulant action, more 

 especially with respect to the digestive organs, on which account it has in certain 

 cases been employed as an emetic and purgative. In obstinate con,^tipation and 



