


ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. 

How to cure a Parrot that disfigures itself by 
biting off its Feathers.—Some time since, I sent 
you a communication on this subject (inserted at 
p- 64, Vol. ILI.) ; and just at that period I was 
consulted by a correspondent with reference to a 
cockatoo who had acquired a similar disfiguring 
habit. I told him my ideas on the matter, and 
recommended that the bird should be washed with 
whiskey. More recently, a second communication 
reached me from the same gentleman. In this he 
says—‘“I have followed your advice respecting 
my cockatoo, and have had him washed several 
times in whiskey. You said use whiskey; but I 
can see no reason why any other spirit should not 
do equally well. The result is in accordance 
with your prediction—the feathers are all coming 
on again beautifully.” This is very satisfactory 
so far as it goes, and proves that whiskey (or, 
perhaps, as my correspondent remarks, any other 
spirit) will cure the disease. But I should much 
like to have my supposition that it is caused by 
some insect, such as an acarus, either confirmed 
or set aside. Will any of your correspondents, 
who may have birds suffering in this way, examine 
the skin carefully as suggested, and make known 
the result in your pages ?—Brvrr.ey R. Morris, 
M.D., Driffield, Sept. 10. 

The Rose of Jericho.—There is a very inte- 
resting article, my dear Sir, from the pen of Pro- 
fessor Goppert (in the Allgemeine Gartenzeitung) 
on the Rose of Jericho. I have transcribed it for 
insertion in OUR OWN JOURNAL, where it deserves 
to be registered. ‘In several districts of Ger- 
many, and also in the Silesian provinces, there is 
preserved, under the name of ‘ Rose of Jericho,’ 
a vegetable production which here and there is 
employed by its avaricious possessors for various 
fraudulent and superstitious purposes. This relic 
of vegetation, which in ordinary circumstances is 
found quite dry, and rolled up into a ball about as 
large as the fist, unrolls itself, it is pretended, only 
once in the year—namely, at Christmas. This 
pretended miracle actually occurs. The plant 
unrolls itself; its branches forming curious 
figures, which may be compared to Turks’ caps; 
and it contracts again before the eyes of the spec- 
tator. Although no one at the present day would 
believe in the supernatural causes assigned for 
this phenomenon, yet the true cause may not be 
universally known. It will not, therefore, be out 
of place to make a few remarks upon this. The 
plant was named by Linneus, Anastatica Hiero- 
_ chuntina. It is first mentioned by Peter Belon, 
who travelled in the east from 1546 to 1549; 
though it appears to have been known in Italy 
before this time. Belon maintains that the name 
was given to the plant—which has no resemblance 
to the rose, and is not grown at all near Jericho 
—by the monks, in order that they might have 
something to answer to the ‘roses of Jericho,’ 
spoken of by Jesus the son of Sirach. Leonard 
Rauwolf, of Augsburg, who spent three years inthe 
east, from 1573 to 1576, appears to have brought 
it from Syria to Germany. It was cultivated 
by C. Bauhin in his garden. It has been figured 
by Camerarius and others: but the best repre- 
sentation in modern times is given by Schkuhr, 
KIDD'S OWN 


JOURNAL. 

in his excellent ‘ Hand-book of Botany’ (1760). 
In addition to the above-named habitats, it has 
been since found by Delile in Egypt; namely, at 
Cairo, in Barbary, and also in Palestine. It 
belongs to the fifteenth class in the Linnzan 
arrangement, and to the order Cruciferz, in the 
natural system, and is an annual plant with oval 
leaves. The stem, branched and almost woody 
even from the ground, grows from five to eight 
inches high ; and it throws out from the axils of 
the leaves small white flowers borne upon short 
stalks. These are succeeded later in the season 
by small oval, two-valved pods, on which the style 
remains, and which are also furnished on both 
sides with an ear-shaped appendage, wherein an 
active imagination might trace a resemblance to 
a turban. ‘These pods are two-celled, and contain 
in each cell two small oval seeds. The plant is 
easily cultivated, and grows readily if the seeds 
are sown in a dung-bed in the spring; and the 
plants, after being potted, again placed in a dung- 
bed to accelerate their growth. It blooms in June, 
and the seed ripens in September. During the 
autumn, the leaves fall off entirely ; the woody 
branches approach each other and contract into 
the shape of a ball, so as to form a hollow within, 
and present a convex surface without. The ex- 
ternal convex surface of these branches is quite 
naked; as are also the fruits within. In this 
condition, it was first brought by the pilgrims 
from Syria and Palestine to Kurope. As soon as 
this dried-up plant is brought into contact with 
water, the leaves unroll and expand themselves, 
and part from each other ; so that the form of the 
pods can be clearly seen. Immediately on being 
dried, they contract again. This is an experiment 
which may be performed at all seasons of the 
year, nothing being essential to it but the property 
of vegetable fibre to expand under influence of 
moisture, and contract under that of drought; a 
quality which, as is well known, is made use of 
for the construction of hygrometers, but which, 
there is no doubt, the plant in question possesses 
toa greater extent than most others. On this 
account it received from Linnzeus, as already men- 
tioned, the name Anastatica, from anastasis—re- 
surrection. It is called by the French, without 
any mystical allusion, simply, but very appro- 
priately, La Lose Hygrometrique. As the quan- 
tity of water which the plant needs for its ap- 
parent resurrection is constantly the same, it can 
be exactly ascertained by experiment, how long 
it must be immersed in order to absorb a sufficient 
quantity ; and on the other hand, how long it 
requires for the moisture to evaporate, so that the 
lant may again contract. This quality is now 
skilfully made use of in many places by impostors. 
The plant is soaked at the time at which it is 
pretended it will alone unroll, namely, as before 
remarked, at'Christmas. It is afterwards taken out 
of the water, as it is by no means necessary that 
it should remain immersed up to the moment of 
unrolling, and the gradual unfolding of the 
branches is exhibited.”” By degrees the moisture 
evaporates, and they contract again; an experi- 
ment which at any time of the year may be re- 
peated with equal success.—Hzartsnase, Hants. 
[Some seeds of the Anastatica were imported 
from Portugal in 1852, by the Royal Botanic 
Society. These were sown in the early part of 




