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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ Deesmber 26, 1872. 



same size as a nutmeg, being, like it, mottled or " ruminated." 

 The equipment of a betel-chewer is a store of nuts, a box of 

 lime-paste, a pair of nippers, and some leaves of the Chavica 

 Betel, a Piperaceous plant. The much-prized quid is composed 

 of some slices of the nut smeared over with lime-paste, and 

 then wrapped-up in the leaves of the Chavica. The effect of 

 this preparation on being chewed is to turn the saliva and 

 the interior of the mouth and jaws red, as well as the outer 

 coatings of the alimentary ducts. The misery to be under- 

 gone by the native aspirant for manly honours far exceeds 

 that which the European youth, who is ambitious of smoking 

 a pipe or a fragrant cigar, experiences. Intense giddiness, 

 ulcerated throat, and loss of taste, result from an attempt at 

 the practice, and should it be persisted in and a man succeed 

 in becoming a confirmed chewer, the loss of his teeth before 

 he has attained middle age is the fitting reward of his in- 

 fatuation. All these effects, however, are said not to be due 

 to the nut itself, but to the leaves in which it is enclosed. 



In defence of this baneful and unclean propensity an excuse 

 that the practisers of it never suffer from fevers and dysen- 

 tery has been put forward, and also that it excites digestion ; 

 but when one considers that perpetual excitement of any organ 

 destroys its delicacy, and chewing to the extent that many 

 do must be constantly maintaining this excitement, the last 

 plea may be very fairly transferred to the list of disadvantages. 

 Those who have heard the arguments of immoderate smokers 

 will be able to estimate the worth of these statements aright. 

 On the whole, after weighing the advantages and disadvantages, 

 it seems probable that the above are merely fictitious or 

 fanciful assertions raked up in support of a disgusting habit, 

 the injuriousness of which its slave is half inclined to admit, 

 but the seductiveness of which is too great to allow him to 

 renounce it after having said so. 



The nut of A. Catechu contains a large quantity of gallic 

 acid and tannin, and on account of this latter property is 

 sometimes used in India for dyeing clothes. Its flowers .are 

 also employed for purposes of decoration on festal occasions in 

 Borneo, as an ingredient of medicines, and as charms. A 

 kind of Catechu, an astringent extract used in cases of internal 

 xelaxation and irritation, is prepared by evaporating a decoc- 

 tion of the nuts. On the western coast of Hindustan the 

 natives use the nut of A. Dieksonii as a substitute for the true 

 Betel nut, which they are unable to obtain. 



Another species of this genus is the Areca oleracea or 

 Cabbage Palm. It is a native of the West Indies, where it 

 grows to a height varying from 100 to 150 feet. It is a very 

 handsome plant, and much esteemed by the natives on account 

 of producing the two delicacies to which we shall afterwards 

 refer ; but it is also valuable for the economical properties. 

 The fibrous parts of the macerated leaves serve to form 

 cordage for all kinds of purposes ; the outer skin on the inside 

 of the main leafstalks is, when dried, a very good substitute 

 for paper ; and the enormous sheaths of the fronds, which 

 completely embrace the stem, are used by the native women 

 as cradles in which to rock their babies. The terminal bud, 

 however, is the great point of interest to the native epicure. 

 "It lies in the centre of the crest of leaves, and consists of snow- 

 white brittle flakes, which are the leaves in a very young and 

 compressed state. It is called " the Cabbage," and as such 

 is boiled and eaten. In flavour it is said not to be unlike 

 the Almond. The removal of this bud causes the destruc- 

 tion of the plant, but the owner is not distressed on that 

 account, as, in a dead condition, besides yielding much useful 

 material in the shape of fibre and laths, its pith supplies a 

 sort of sago, and the hard exterior of the stem forms spout- 

 ing. Besides, in the decaying hollow made by the extraction- 

 of the bud a beetle lays its eggs, which, on being hatched, give 

 birth to a maggot, held by native gourmands to be superior 

 to "the Cabbage" itself. These are called in the dialect of 

 the country groe-groe, are in size about equal to a man's 

 thumb, and very fat. They are a recognised article of barter, 

 and are sold regularly at the market of Parameribo, in Suri- 

 nam. The way of cooking them is as follows : They are strung 

 on a skewer, and hung before a fire, sprinkled with bread 

 crumbs, pepper, salt, and nutmeg in order to absorb the fat, 

 and then served-up with orange and citron sauce. 



Areca Baueri is a native of Norfolk Island. A. sapida is a 

 New Zealand species, inhabiting the northern and centre 

 islands. Its bud is also eaten by the natives as a vegetable. 



resembles the otto. In India a variety is cultivated under the 

 name of the Persian Rose, which his the otto perfume. If in- 

 troduced here it would gratify tnose old-fashioned people who 

 still think that a Rose ought to smell sweet. — G. S. 



The Peksian Rose. — I do not know whether any of your 

 readers have remarked that the scent of none of our Roses 



GAEDENEES' SELE-IMPEOVEMENT. 



Little if at all inferior in value to drawing is a knowledge 

 of mensuration to gardeners. The gardener, if able to draw 

 plans ground or structural, should be able to measure the 

 ground on which they are to be carried out, to measure and 

 find the contents of all superficies and solids usually measured, 

 or those connected with gardening, and have a sufficient 

 knowledge of land-surveying to enable him to give a sketch 

 or plan to scale of any part or the whole of the grounds 

 under his charge. 



The learner I shall presume to have received an average 

 education, and to be well acquainted with arithmetic, includ- 

 ing vulgar and decimal fractions, duodecimals, square and 

 cube roots, which are essential for learning mensuration. If 

 so unfortunate as to possess a small part oi arithmetical know- 

 ledge, but in full possession of a desire to learn, the way is 

 clear and not paved with so much difficulty as many imagine ; 

 or, if, as is not unlikely, the arithmetic previously learned has 

 escaped the memory, it will be necessary in either case to pro- 

 vide a book on arithmetic, of which there are now so many 

 that it would be difficult to say which is the best ; and I would 

 advise the learner to provide himself with the key as well. 

 The mastery of arithmetic, if not previously acquired, will 

 take up some time ; but a sound practical arithmetical know- 

 ledge is required for the satisfactory working of mensuration ; 

 besides, arithmetical knowledge is of great value in itself, and 

 ought to be possessed by every one. 



Mensuration is an art of the greatest general utility, and for 

 acquiring it I know of no better work than Nesbit's ; and if the 

 student has no previous knowledge of figures this treatise 

 affords examples of forming them. It is equally important 

 that the student should know how to form the figures, and 

 know what they are, as it is to be able to measure them. 



Nesbit's " Mensuration" treats in the first part of practical 

 geometry and some geometrical theorems ; the second part 

 gives the mensuration of superficies, or the method of mea- 

 suring everything with length and breadth only. This will 

 enable the gardener to ascertain the area of any plane figure, 

 to tell the number of plants required to plant a given figure, 

 calculate the cost of digging, walk-forming, and the like. 

 Part 3 treats of land-surveying, gives the methods of sur- 

 veying and planning single fields, woods, roads ; also sur- 

 veying a number of fields, &c. ; instructions for parting-off or 

 dividing land, by which a gardener will be able to measure 

 land, and to give a plan to a scale ; also to divide or part-off 

 land for alterations. 



The methods of finding the contents of solids forms the 

 fourth part, and includes timber measurement, which, though 

 appertaining to the forester's art, may be of use to a gardener, 

 for there are situations where the offices of gardener and forester 

 are merged in one. 



Part 5 treats of the method of measuring the work of 

 artificers, as masons, bricklayers, carpenters and joiners, 

 slaters and tilers, plasterers, painters, glaziers, plumbers, and 

 paviors : the value of this must be manifest. Part 6 treats of 

 how to measure haystacks (many gardeners are bailiffs) , drains, 

 canals, marlpits, embankments, ponds, mill-dams, quarries, 

 coal-heaps, clay-heaps. Part 7 treats of conic sections and 

 solids, some part of which may be useful. Part 8 displays the 

 method of gauging, which may also be found useful. Part 9 

 treats of plane trigonometry ; and in Part 10 we have the ap- 

 plication of trigonometry to height and distances, and some 

 instructions on levelling that will be of use in ascertaining the 

 height of trees, whilst the value of levelling is patent to most. 



I have given this brief outline of Nesbit's " Mensuration," 

 not that I think it the only treatise that is suited to give a 

 sound practical knowledge of mensuration, but to enable those 

 desirous to learn what is needful for them, and what a book 

 they invest in will afford them for their money, knowing, as I 

 know, that young gardeners as a rule have but little to spare. 

 I would just hint that those who have not been in the habit of 

 giving their leisure to this and similar means of acquiring 

 knowledge, spending it as many do in those pastimes and 

 amusements that may dazzle and endure for a time but never 

 enlighten, will find by giving them up that they can spare 

 more than they anticipated, and will not only be able to lay- 



