SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
127 
FRUIT BETTER THAN PHYSIC. 
Everybody, we believe, has given up the absurd notion 
that fruit is unhealthy, but we apprehend that the value of 
fruit as a preservative of health is not yet fully appreci- 
ated by the popular mind. We doubt if the medical pro- 
fession is yet entirely awake to the important bearing of 
diet upon disease. The tendency of the profession in our 
day is certainly more to regimen and less to medicine, 
than it was in former times, but it is a question whether j 
their studies are not now directed too exclusively to the 
cure rather than the prevention of disease. A century or 
two ago, scurvy was one of the great scourges of the hu- 
man race: whole ships’ crews perished by it during a 
single voyage ; but since the potato has been introduced 
into universal use, this great plague of seamen is no long- 
er dreaded. In the time when even the wealthy lived in 
England, during four or five months in the year, almost 
exclusively upon meat, bread and flour puddings, their 
medical writers state that gout and stone in the bladder 
were much more common than now when a vegetable 
diet is more generally employed. Now, if such happy 
results have flowed from the introduction of the potato and 
other vegetables into our winter bill of fare, may we not 
hope fr?>r a still greater improvement in the general health 
by a larger admixture of fruit with the substantial articles 
which compose our winter food'? We venture to say 
there are few persons who have not had experience in 
their own cases of the improvement in health from the use 
offruits. What dyspeptic has not felt new life in hi.s sys- 
tem on the return of the fruit season, nfter a protracted 
winter and back ward spring '? The body, .during the 
long abstinence, has lost certain constituents necessary to 
the healthy performance ofits functions, and this loss the 
fruits of summer and autumn supply. The lesson taught 
by this is a plain one, namely : io preserve our fruits in a 
fresh slate. 
The old-fashioned mode of preserving will not answer; 
the nature and constitution of the fi nits are changed by the 
process, and all their anti-scorbutic virtues destroyed. The 
fruits must be fresh. It is gratifying to remark how gene- 
ral the practice of putting up fresh fruit for winter use has 
become, but we shall not be satisfied until it has become 
universal. The operation, in suitable cans, or in wide- 
mouthed jars, is simple and easy, and, with proper care, 
the preservation of the fruit certain. If the more delicious 
fruits are cut off by frost, tomatoes may always be pro- 
duced in abundance, and there is no season when we are 
not blessed with a bountiful crop of blackberries. There 
is, therefore, no excuse for the absense of fresh fruits from 
our tables at any season of the year. It is just as ea.sy as to 
keep potatoes all the year round, and the saving in doc- 
tors’ fees, to say nothing of the increase of comfort, would 
pay for the trouble ten limes over. Does any one believe 
that we exaggerate the importance of a sub-acid and veget- 
able diet to human health 1 Let him observe the effect of 
succulent food upon our domestic animals in spring. 
Mark how the horse sheds his winter coat and is purged 
of those parasites which breed incurable disease. See how 
the cattle get new life and spirit. It is diet that does it — 
diet suited to the demands of their systems. Man, with 
hands to accomplish whatever his mind suggests, may 
provide himself a store of such articles of food as are 
adapted to every condition, and make himself indepen- 
dent of the revolutions of the season. 
We have spoken of tomatoes and blackberries as always 
available; they are certainly the most valuable of our 
fruits. The old Portuguese physician who introduced the 
tomato into America insisted that those who used it free- 
ly would never die of disease. He died, we believe, at a 
very advanced age, affording in his own person an illus- 
tration of the sanative virtues of this favorite fruit. We 
are persuaded that much is to be done for the preservation 
of human health by an improvement of our dietetic sys- 
tem, and mainly by providing for winter use all those 
fruits and vegetables which we so much wish in summer. 
— Valley Fanner. 
CURIOUS PLANTS. 
Almost everybody has heard of the wonderful walking 
leaves of Australia. For a long time after the discovery 
I of that Island, many people really believed that the leaves 
of a certain tree which flourishes there, could walk upon 
the ground. The story arose in this way : 
Some English sailors landed upon the coast one day, 
and after roaming about until they were tired, they sat 
down under a tree to rest themselves. A puff of wind came 
along and blew off a shower of leaves, which, after turn- 
ing over and over in the air, as leaves generally do, final- 
ly rested upon the ground. As it was mid summer, and 
everything appeared quite green, the circumstance puz- 
zled the sailors considerably. But their surprise was 
much greater, as you may well suppose, when, after a 
snort time, they saw the leaves crawling along the ground 
towards the trunk of the tree. They ran at once for their 
vessels, without stopping to examine into the matter at all, 
and set sail away from the land where everything seemed 
to be bewitched. One of the men said that ‘ he expected 
every moment see the tree set to dance a jig.” Subse- 
quent explorations of .Australia have taught us that these 
walking leaves are insects. They live upon the trees. 
Their bodies are very thin and flat, their wings forming 
leaf like organs. When they are disturbed their legs are 
f ilded away under their bodies, leaving the shape exactly 
like a leaf, with its stem and all complete. They are cf a 
bright green color in the summer, but they gradually 
change in the fall with the leaves to the brown of frost- 
bidden vegetation. When shaken from tlie tree, they lie 
for a few minutes upon the ground, as though they were 
dead, but presently they begin to crawl along towards the 
tree, which they ascend again. They rarely use their 
wings, although they are pretty well supplied in this re- 
spect. 
Another eccentric production of nature, which we find 
mentioned in Milner’s Crimea, is the “Steppe Witch.” 
This curious plant, which grows in the Crimea, is, in 
that country, the theme cf many a tale and ballad of child- 
hood. The plant rises to the height of three feet, and 
ramifies considerably upwards, so as to form a thick, round 
bush, bearing pretty little flowers. VVhen sapless and 
withered in the autumn, the main stalk is broken close to 
the ground by the first high wind that rises, and the 
rounded top is carried rolling, hopping and skipping over 
the plain under the control of the breeze. Other smad 
withered plants become attached to the mass, and it gra- 
dually forms a huge mishapen ball; while several being 
driven together, adhere like enormous burrs, and have 
some witchery in their appearance, as they go dancing 
and bounding before the gale. Hundreds of these objects 
may be seen scouring the steppes at the same time, and 
may easily be mistaken at a distance- for hunters and wild 
herds. Heavy rains put an end to the career of the 
witches; or the Black Sea, into which they are blown, 
summarily arrests their course. 
Good Styptic. — To prick the finger with a needle when 
sewing is a very common accident, and sometimes the 
puncture is deep and the blood difficult to stop. This can 
be cured instantaneously by touching the wound with a 
mere particle of dry chloride of lime, and not washing it 
off for a few minutes. The puncture immediately closes, 
and causes no further inconvenience. We have tried this 
styptic with perfect success. 
