JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE, AND ART. 
521 
flowering year are always more charged with active prnicples than those 
which have often supported a stem and flowers : so that the rootsoltheCst 
second, and third year, are better than older roots. This l6 es P eL '' a f i , 1 
case with aromatic and narcotic roots, as gentian, bel adonna, sarsaparilla 
liquorice, fennel, &c. &c. The volatile, bitter, aromatic, nauseous, and, in 
general, all active peculiar principles, are more abundant in the coitical 
fayers of the roots than in the woody part.” 
For these reasons, M. Kittel says, that fresh roots should never 
be allowed to be bought or sold, for medicinal use, except in tlie 
autumn and winter. . . , 
We have little to do with myrrh in veterinary practice, except 
under the form of tincture of myrrh and aloes; and the tincture 
of aloes, well prepared, is as good : otherwise, the method o t is- 
tinguishing the true from the factitious myrrh (p. 209) would 
a °The e paper’ (p. 211) “ On the Duration of the Germinative 
Power of the Seeds of Plants” well deserves notice. It is con¬ 
fined principally to monoecious plants (having the male and female 
flowers separate, but both growing on the same individual plant). 
When the seeds of the preceding year were used, the foliage of t 
plant was luxuriant, but the flowers were principally males, and 
little fruit was produced. When the seeds had been dried by the 
heat of the sun, or in a stove, and especially when they had been 
kent four or five years, the plant bore numerous flowers of both 
kinds, and the produce’of fruit was abundant: but if the seed was 
too old, female flowers almost alone appeared, but they weie e- 
cundated by the male flowers of another bed, and yielded fruit. 
A path hitherto untrodden, and abounding with inteiest an 
utility, is here opened to the physiologist and the agnculturist; 
and to us veterinarians, as connected and identified with the agn 
cultural property of the kingdom. The circumstances which in¬ 
fluence vegetation generally, or determine to that luxuriance, 
which in some cases is wished, in others wasted in the leaves, oi 
which direct the juices of the plant to the multiplication and per¬ 
fection of the fruit; these have been too much neglected, or scat¬ 
tered facts and experiments have been almost lost to the public. 
What scope is there here for the philosophical and practical agn- 
culturist! He would, indeed, deserve well of Ins country, who 
would devote himself to these enquiries. The principles which have 
been partially unfolded in this paper, respecting one class of plants, 
doubtless apply, in a greater or less degree, and with various modi¬ 
fications, to the whole vegetable world. 
