33 
dicle) I planted on the 10th of August in a pot filled with garden mould. 
They were buried in the earth as far as the origin of these folded leaves.” 
“ I watered them frequently, and had the precaution of keeping them 
sheltered from the sun.” 
“ The radicle, in every instance, nourished solely by the earth* pushed 
forth side roots, but it required twelve days before the tender leaves lifted 
up their heads, and expanded.” 
“ As soon as these plants appeared sufficiently rooted, I exposed them to 
the sun and air, and still continued watering them: but they maintained so 
dwarfish an appearance, that the most experienced botanist would have been 
at a loss to have discovered what they were, or at any rate would have taken 
them for a new species of bean, remarkable for its diminutive size.” 
“ These plants in miniature, only two inches high, with the largest leaves 
but five lines in length, and one in breadth, flowered on the 1 Qth of October, 
but these were proportionably small, and few, and came to nothing: whereas 
the others of the same age, and in the same earth, were a foot and a half in 
height, and their longest leaflet (foliolud) was seven inches and a half, and 
five in length.” 
These seminal leaves, which may be called appendages to the lobes, or 
“ effoliated lobes,” serve then the same office, and prepare a similar fluid/' 
* It is the sweetness of this fluid in the seminal leaves of the turnip that invites the field slug 
(Limax agrestis), which produces to the farmer oftentimes an evil incalculable. Whole ages had 
passed away in deploring this evil, without finding a remedy: the honour was reserved for Mr. Vagg, 
a farmer at Chilcompton, who first discovered a simple remedy for so great a calamity. He observed 
that these depredators left their dens in the still hour of night, and that in the morning were only 
found the horrid traces of their devastations. To destroy such a host one by one would be impossi¬ 
ble. As plants have the wonderful property of rearing their heads afresh, Avhen trodden down, he 
struck upon the useful idea of a roller, weighty enough to crush these robbers, but which at 
the same time might leave the young plants uninjured; and he rolled by night; and his success 
corresponded with his expectations, and obtained for him that reward, which this discovery entitled 
him to, which was three thousand pounds, collected by a general subscription among the farmers and 
gentlemen of the kingdom, to be paid when the secret was divulged. 
The fly, called on this very account the turnip-fly (Chrysomela oleracea, quae habitat in Europie 
plantarum cotyledonibus, praesertim tetradynamarum, quas misere destruit. Lin.), is another enemy 
to the Seminal-leaves, which not unfrequently sweeps off in a few days whole tracks, whose 
destruction has much exercised the ingenuity of man. 
1. Some farmers, suspecting that it was engendered in dung, have sowed their seeds in unmucked 
soil; and as soon as the plants have put forth the rough leaf, which is uninviting to the fly (this they 
style being up, and drest), have then transplanted them into the well cultivated field. 
2. Others again, entertaining the same suspicions, have laid on the manure in the autumn preced¬ 
ing sowing, by which means this noxious quality is said to have been prevented; and this method 
posseses another advantage, namely, that all the seeds contained in the dung are mostly killed by 
the severity of winter. 
K 
