MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL, 
From the Boston Journal. 
THE TREE PUZZLE 
the most important part of 
—hence it is 
the seed. 
Fig. 3 shows the direction of the two parts 
of the embryo. Thefcscending part is call- 
( Fig. 3.) ed plumule, or stem, 
P furnished with buds and 
leaves, and ultimately 
Avith flowers and seeds. 
The descending part is 
called radicle or root of 
the plant. This grows 
downard while the stem 
grows upward. 
[The accompanying figure 
represents an embryo with its 
plumule and radicle developed 
from the cotyledon; a, radicle; 
b, plumule; c, cotyledon.] 
Germination [germino, to bud,) is a term 
used by botanists to denote that function 
by which the little plant contained in the 
seed is first called into life. 
The conditions requisite to germination, 
says Prof. Gray, are exposure to moisture 
and to a certain amount of heat, varying 
from 50 to 80 degrees of temperature, for 
plants of temperate climates, Avith free com¬ 
munication of air. 
Light, so essential to the plant, is deemed 
unfavorable to germination. The degree of 
heat required to excite the latent vitality of 
the embryo is nearly uniform in the same 
species, but widely different in different 
plants. The common duckweed {stellaria 
media) germinates at a temperature not far 
above freezing point, while the seeds of 
many tropical plants require a heat of from 
90 to 110 degrees to cause them to germi¬ 
nate. Seeds are in the most favorable con¬ 
dition for germination in spring and sum¬ 
mer, when loosely covered with soil, exclu¬ 
ding hght while it freely admits air, moist¬ 
ened by showers and warmed by the rays 
The water which is slowly ab- 
AVIiat is Uie sociable tree, and tlie dancing tree. 
And the tree that is nearest the sea, 
The most yielding tree, the busiest tree. 
And the tree where ships may be? 
The languishing tree— the least selfish tree; 
'J’he tree which lioars a curse — 
The chronologist’s tree, the fisherman’s tree. 
And the tree like an Irish nurse? 
AVhat is the tell-tale tree, and the traitor tree. 
And the tree which is warmest clad; 
The layman’s tree, the house-wife's tree. 
And the tree that makes one sad? 
AVhat’s the tree that with death will benight you. 
The tree that your wants will supply; 
AA'^hat's the tree that to travel invites you. 
And the tree that forbids you to die? 
AVhat tree do the hunters resound to the skies; 
AVhat brightens your house and your mansion sustains; 
AVhat tree urged’ the Germans in vengeance to rise, 
And fight for the victims in tyranny slaifl? 
The tree tliat will fight, and the tree that obeys you; 
The tree that never stands still; 
The tree that got up, and tlie tree tliat is lazy, 
And the tree neither up nor down hill? 
The tree to be kissed, and the dandiest tree. 
And what guides the ships to go forth; 
The tree of the people, the unhealthiest tree. 
And the free whose wood faces the Nortli? 
The emulous tree, the industrious tree. 
The tree which warms mutton when cold; 
The reddish brown tree, the reddish blue tree. 
And what each must become when he’s old? 
The tree in a bottle, the tree in a fog. 
The tree that gives the joints pain; 
The terrible tree when schoolmasters flog, 
AVhat of motlier and child bears the name? 
The treacherous tree, the contemptible tree, 
And that to which wives are inclined; 
The tree which causes each townsman to flee. 
And what round fair ancles they bind? 
The tree that’s entire, the tree that is split. 
The tree half given to doctors when ill; 
The tree that we offer to friends when we meet. 
And the tree we may use as a quill? 
The tree that’s immortal, the tree that is not. 
The tree that must pass thro’ the fire; 
The tree that in Latin can ne’er be forgot. 
And in English we all must admire? 
The Egyptian-plague tree, the tree that is dear, 
And what round itself doth entwine; 
The tree that in billiards must always be near. 
And Uie tree that by cockneys is made into wine? 
(nTThe answer to each question gives a pun upon the 
name of some tree, which tree may tie, in a case of emer¬ 
gency, a shrub or a vine. 
A REMARKABLE STORY. 
Dr. Horneck, in his great Law of Con¬ 
sideration, tells ns the following remarkable 
story, in proof of that scripture declaration, 
“ He that watereth shall be watered again.” 
“ In Nisbis, a city of Mesopotamia, there 
lived a religious woman, who had a man 
that was a heathen for a husband. They 
were poor, yet by hard labor had got fifty 
pounds together; whereupon the husband 
thought it best to put it out to interest, that 
they might not live upon the main stock.— 
His wife, being a christain, readily told him, 
that none paid greater interest for money 
lent him, than the God of the Christains. 
I The man, pleased Avith the news, asked 
where this God was to be met with ? The 
BY L. WETHERELL 
GEOLOGICAL PRESUMPTIONS 
NUMBER VIII. 
The recession of Lake Ontario is a sub- j 
ject of great speculation, and has caused ' 
much agitation among obserA’ers of the pre¬ 
sent appearances, as to proofs of the fact, 
and the period at which it happened. Of 
this event there can be no doubt, coupled 
with strong presumption, that the whole 
western waters once disembogued through 
the Little Falls of the Mohawk, wearing 
immense pot-holes, seA'enty feet above the 
present river; a height, Avhich, if it did not 
run, and Avas dammed at that point, would 
have sent its waters into Lake Ontario. At 
that period, the alluvial flats of the Hudson 
was its bottom, and the high lands its banks 
or shores. Some great convulsions, simul¬ 
taneously, or nearly coeval with each other, 
burst the high lands at the Thousand Isl¬ 
ands, and on the Hudson, at Newburgh. 
The Ridge Road is a sandy elevation of 
several feet, from ten to twelve rods wide* 
and reaches from Sodus Bay to Lewiston, a 
distance of 100 miles; composed of yellow 
sand and water-worn pebbles, mostly of 
sandstone and sedimentary origin. These 
natural banks or ridges, are not uncommon 
in the neighborhood of other lakes, but not 
as distinct and continuous as this. There 
are multiplied instances of rolled and water 
worn logs, stumps and roots, found in dig¬ 
ging wells, tliroughout its whole length, at 
from ten to fifteen feet from the surface. 
It is generally supposed to have been the 
original shore of the lake, but several facts 
go to show that it Avas the bar formed by 
the reaction of the water from the real 
shore, known as the Big Ridge, which is a 
continuation of the great ridge at Lockport 
and LeAviston. The action of ice driving on 
the power of bringing it out. A man of 
more than ordinary intellectual vigor, may, 
for the Avant of expression, be a cypher in 
society. And not only does a man influ¬ 
ence others, but he greatly aids his own in¬ 
tellect by giving distinct and forcible utter¬ 
ance to his own thoughts. We imderstand 
ourselves better, our conceptions grow clear¬ 
er in the effect to make them clear to an¬ 
other. And this is not aU; our social as 
well as our intellectual rank depends much 
on our poAvef of speech. 
“ The principal distinction between gen¬ 
tlemen and vulgarmen lies in this, that the 
latter are awkward in manners, and are es¬ 
pecially Avanting in propriety, clearness, 
grace and force of utterance. A man who 
cannot open his lips without breaking a rule 
of syntax, or showing in his vulgar dialect, 
brogue, and uncouth tones, his want of cul¬ 
tivation—or without darkening his meaning 
by a confused, unskillful mode of commu¬ 
nication, cannot take the place to which his 
native good sense entitles him. In order to 
hold converse with cultivated minds with 
any pleasure to ourselves, we must speak 
their language. On this account we are 
glad that grammar and correct pronuncia¬ 
tion are taught in the Common Schools.— 
These are not trifles; neither are they su¬ 
perfluous to any class of people. They give 
a man access to social advantages, on which 
his improvement very much depends. The 
power of utterance should be included by 
all in their plans of mental culture.” 
While man is only occasionally, as it were, 
called upon to exercise his skill in mathe¬ 
matics, chemistry and philosophy, not a day, 
nor scarcely an hour of conscious existence 
passes without being required to exercis^ 
the faculty of speech. Much of our real 
enjoyment in earth’s pilgrimage springs di¬ 
rectly from the exercise of this faculty.— 
Without it, what is man ?—little better than 
the savage who wanders in the wilderness. 
With it, he has the capacity which, for good 
or evil, is almost incalculable. Get wisdom 
and understanding, and whatever else you 
may fail to acquire, neglect not to cultivate 
the Faculty of Speech. 
deputies that would receive the sum. They 
took the money, and to the church they 
went, Avhere they saw some poor widows 
sitting. The woman said, these are the 
deputies of the God of the Christians, who 
will receive your money and pay you inter¬ 
est The man was not much pleased with 
his security, yet over-persuaded by his wife, 
let the poor Avidows have it, who, not know¬ 
ing the man’s intent, thankfully received it. 
A quarter of a year after, the man find¬ 
ing himself pinched for want of necessaries, 
bade his wife go and demand a quarter’s 
interest; to which she replied that if he 
would go to those poor widows and demand 
the use, she did not doubt that he might 
have it 
Accordingly he went to the poor women, 
with Avhom he expostulated; but what he 
had given them was consumed, and they 
were so far from paying him any interest, 
that they were ready to beg more money 
from him; with that he went out of the 
church sad and sorrowful; but in going, he 
spied one of the pieces of gold which he 
had given to the poor; which, it seems, had 
of the sun. 
sorbed softens all the parts of the seed; the 
embryo swells and bursts its envelopes; the 
radicle is protruded, and, taking a downward 
direction, fixes itself in the soil; while the 
other extremity elongates in the opposite 
direction, bringing cotyledons, (except Avhen 
these remain under ground, as the Pea, the 
Horse Chestnut, Wheat, Indian Corn, &c.,) 
and the plumule or growing apex of the 
young stem, to the surface, where the pri¬ 
mordial or first leaves expand. As soon as 
the root and leaves are developed, each in 
its appropriate medium, the process of ger¬ 
mination is finished; and the plant deriving 
through them its nourishment, continues to 
grow from the point of union—that is, where 
the plumule and radicle meet. 
{Fig. 4.) 
accidentally dropped on the floor, at the 
time it was distributed. He took it up, 
went home, and complained to his wife of 
the cheat those poor widows had put upon 
him. She bade him trust that God whom 
he had lent the money to, and to take the 
piece he had found, and buy necessaries for 
the family. He went to the market-place, 
and among other things, bought some fish, 
which Avere to be dressed for dinner. 
His wife, on opening one of the fishes, 
found within it, a precious stone, which be¬ 
trayed its worth by its unusual glittering. 
The man carried it to a jeweler, who pre¬ 
sently gave him three hundred pounds for 
it; at which the man was so transported, 
I that he began praising the God of the Chris¬ 
tians, and became one himself, being aston¬ 
ished at the Providence that had so miracu¬ 
lously disposed of causes for his signal profit 
and emolument.” 
STOCK IN HEAVEN. 
A FEW years ago, a poor emigrant fell 
from a steamboat on the Ohio river, and 
was drowned, leaving his wife and one or 
two small children, who were on board, in 
destitute and distressing circumstances. On 
coming into port, the case was spoken of among 
a number of “river men” on the wharfi 
when one of them with characteristic blunt¬ 
ness observed, “Come, boys, let us take a 
little stock in Heaven, ” at the same time 
taking from his pocket a couple of dollars as 
his part of a contribution for the benefit of 
the poor widow. His example was follow¬ 
ed by others and a handsome present was 
the result of this rough impromptu exclama¬ 
tion. May we not hope that like the alms 
of Cornelius, this act came up as a “ memo¬ 
rial before God?” 
It is a glorious truth, whether our gener¬ 
ous friend of the steamboat understood it 
properly or not, that we are privileged to 
take stock in Heaven. The poor widow who 
threw in her two mites, became a large 
stockholder, and certificate is recorded both 
there and here. —“Come, then, let us take 
a little stock, ” 
BOTANY. - SEED - GERMINATION. 
On the third day of the history of the 
Creation, Ave read—“And God said. Let 
the earth bring forth grass, and the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding 
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself 
upon the earth: and it Avas so;” and so has 
the earth continued ever since to bring forth 
herbs, shrubs and trees whose species and 
varieties are almost numberless. 
Some philosophers have raised the ques¬ 
tion as to which Avas first, the tree or the 
seed, as if the Power that made the seed 
could not just as easily have made the trees 
and plants, AA’ith the power to propagate 
themselves by seeds. This is one of the 
many frivolous questions upon Avhich phi¬ 
losophers spend their time, Avhile the “ un¬ 
lettered ” mechanic is not unfrequently ad¬ 
vancing real science by his useful discoveries. 
The seed, consisting of a nucleus, kernel 
or nut, is the matured state of the fertilized 
ovule, a pulpy body borne by the placenta, 
situated at the base of the pistil. It is usu¬ 
ally inclosed within an envelope called its 
integument This varies greatly as every 
one knows, who observes at all. 
“ The stalk of the seed, as in the ovule 
from which it originates, is called Funiculus, 
[that Avhich attaches the seed to the pla¬ 
centa.] The scar left on the face of the 
seed by its separation from the funiculus 
at maturity is termed the Hilum.” 
The nucleus of the seed consists of albur 
men and the embryo. The albumen serves 
to nourish the embryo when it begins to 
develope itself into a plant 
The embryo or little plant constitutes, 
when developed, the future plant or tree 
laminated, not unlike the scorched leaves of 
a book, and number about 200 to the inch 
in thickness. Its distinct and constant lam¬ 
ination, cannot be referred to any other 
cause than the yearly fall of the leaves of 
trees and the decay of plants, caused by the 
frosts of autumn, creating a periodical de¬ 
posit No other cause, can be conceiA’ed, that 
would allow the layers to be so distinct and 
regular, or cause, in fact, any layers at all—^ 
Assuming that age causes decay and con¬ 
solidation, and that one-half that number, 
would be the average measurement^ of the 
three feet of its depth, would give 3,600 
years since the recession of the lake and the 
commencement of vegtation; a period nearly 
agreeing with the wearing of the channel of 
the river, and to Avhich there is no philoso¬ 
phical or historical objection. 
Great changes have taken place in rela¬ 
tion to the distribution of the waters, since 
the final deposition of the diluvium. The 
great western lakes may have emptied 
into the Mississippi, or into the Hudson, and 
the Hudson into the St Lawrence, through 
Lake Champlain. The Niagara, or a part 
of it, once passed the Lewiston ridge, at 
Lockport, and the Genesee, tlirough Iron- 
dequoit Bay, to the lake, &c. &c. 
The recession of the waters of Lake 
Ontario was not a catastrophe of a very re¬ 
mote period. It must have taken place long 
posterior to the drift period, and since the 
growth of forests, as is evident from the 
sunken Avood foimd in the ridge, in making 
excavations. r. t. 
[Fig. 4. This cut represents a young dicotyle¬ 
donous plant, with its radicle, a, developed; its co¬ 
tyledons, c, c, appear in the form of large succulent 
leaves; the plumule is just appearing as a minute 
point between the cotyledons.] 
PRECOCITY NO MARK OF GENIUS. 
“What is the use of thee, thou gnarled 
sapling ?” said a young larch tree to a young 
oak. “ I grow three feet in a year, thou 
scarce as many inches; I am straight and 
taper as a reed, thou straggling as a loosen¬ 
ed withe.” 
“ And thy duration,” answered the oak, 
“ is some third part of a man’s life, and I 
am appointed to flourish for a thousand 
years. Thou art felled and sawed into pa¬ 
ling, when thou rottest, and art burned af¬ 
ter a single summer; of me are fashioned 
battle ships, and I carry mariners and he¬ 
roes into unknown seas.” 
The richer nature the harder and slower 
its developement Tavo boys Avere once in 
a class in the Edinburg grammar school— 
John very trim, precise, and dux; Walter 
even slovenly, confused and a dolt. In due 
time John became Bailey John of Hunter 
Square; and Walter became Sir Walter 
Scott of the University. The quickest and 
completest of all vegetables is the cabbage. 
—where Ave look for loveliness, nor do we 
look in vain. The woman who can soothe 
the aching heart, smooth the wrinkled brow, 
alleviate the anguish of the mind, and pour 
the balm of consolation into the wounded 
breast, possesses, in an eminent degree, true 
loveliness of character. She is the real com¬ 
panion of man, and does the work of an an¬ 
gel. It is such a character that blesses with 
warmth and sunshine, and maketh earth to 
resemble the paradise of God. 
Goon Advice— Gov Barbour, of Virgin- 
a, in an addi'ess before an agricultural society, 
says: 
Let every man have the fortitude to look 
his affairs in the face, to keep an account 
of his debts and items of expenditure, no 
matter how long or black the list If he 
don’t look into it his neighbors will; and 
more, let him show it to his wife, if he has 
one. If a prudent woman, it will be of ser¬ 
vice ; if imprudent it will do no harm. But 
there are very few of the latter, and I cheer¬ 
fully bear evidence to the care and economy 
of Avomen. When in a situation to observe, 
I can safely say that I never knew a Avoman 
left to the care of an embarrassed estate, 
that did not extricate it if it was possible. 
No cloud can overshadow a true Chris¬ 
tian, but his faith Avill discern a rainbow 
in it. 
He who resolves to amend has God on 
his side. 
Why is it 60 much harder for us to sub¬ 
mit to the future, than to the past ? 
Man regards as an eternity—first the 
present hour—then the youth—then his 
life—then his century—then the duration 
of the earth—then that of heaven—and fi¬ 
nally—time. 
