EXTRACTS FROM A CATECHISM OF COTTAGE GARDENING. 421 
growing near their houses, before the blossoms open. The trunks, when 
young, are full of a mealy pith-like substance, which is beaten in mor¬ 
tars, and cakes made of it, that have very much the taste of common 
white bread. The leaves are used, instead of thatch, for roofing houses, 
and also for writing on with an iron style. Most of the books shown 
in Europe for the Egyptian papyrus are made from the leaves of this 
palm. In Malabar it is called Codda Banna , and is certainly one of 
the most stupendous of the palms.”— Bur. Bot . 
This plant is no less singular in magnitude than in its mode of 
inflorescence. It is an individual plant, of which there are but few 
instances in the vegetable kingdom, except among annuals, and there 
exist but few of them. The Talipot is incapable of division, having 
neither suckers, branches, nor buds, and is increasable only by seed. 
The Cockscomb Amaranthus ( Celosia cristata ) is a familiar instance 
of a similar constitution; it has only one stem, and one terminal crest 
of flowers, which, when the seeds are ripe, the whole dies. In these 
two instances of individual plants, it is observable that, though nature 
has denied them the power of reproducing themselves by offsets or 
branches, to remain after the central flower is gone, vet they are both 
most productive of seminal progeny to perpetuate the species. Many 
compound plants have terminal flowers on each of their divisions, such 
as the common American Agave, and the common House-leek. When 
the flowers fade, and the seed is ripe, the whole division of the plant 
dies: this is also the case with many of the perennial grasses, as well 
as among annuals. 
Extracts from a Catechism of Cottage Gardening, a 
second edition of which has just been 'published. Ridgways, 169, 
Piccadilly. 
This little tract is intended for village schools and cottagers, and 
contains plain and brief directions for cultivating every kind of vege¬ 
table in common use. It is dedicated to the patrons and patronesses 
of village schools in Great Britain and Ireland, and is preceded by a 
few introductory remarks, from which we have made the following 
extracts: — 
te At no former period has the education of the lower classes of 
society been more an object of public concern than at the present. 
National and other schools have been established in every parish, if not 
in every village, in the kingdom. It has always been considered par¬ 
ticularly desirable that, in such establishments, some useful occupation 
should be taught along with the ordinary education of the labouring 
poor. Needle-work, knitting, &c., is the easily-taught business of 
