52 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 25. 
tliis process to bo allowed to take place, tbe health 
and safety of tbe whole hive would be endangered: 
to prevent, therefore, this occurrence, the body of the 
mouse is, as it were, embalmed in a case of propolis, 
and the object rots away without emitting any offen¬ 
sive odour.” I have myself occasionally found a snail 
fastened to the floor-board in a similar manner. But 
a greater enemy to bees during tho winter months 
than even the mouse will be found in that little ma¬ 
rauder, the blue titmouse (Paras major of Liumeus), 
which may be said to stand foremost as their enemy. 
Mr. Purchase says, “ she will eat ten or twelve bees 
at a time, and, by-and-by, be ready for more. When 
she comes to the hivo and finds none, she knocks with 
her bill at the door, and, as soon as the bees come out 
to inquire tbe cause, she catcheth first one and then 
another, until her belly lie lull.” This I have observed 
in an apiary of about twenty hives, in a village nigh 
to me, for the two last winters; the entrances of tbe 
hives by the end of the winter having the appearance 
of being gnawn by rats, which has all been done by 
these birds Shoot and trap them in the winter, and 
destroy their nests in breeding time. 
THE PHYSIC GARDEN. 
By a Physician. 
No. 1 . Introduction. 
In boyhood, when hope was young, and not a cloud 
appeared to shadow and to dark my future; even 
then my delight was in the leafy woods, the green 
and laughing fields and tbe narrow devious lanes 
around my home. I loved, fancy led, to wander in 
the lonely valley, with its green bills and silvery 
stream, and to seek for flowers and curious herbs. 
Gathered with eager curiosity, they were then a 
wonder and a mystery to me, and it was a labour to 
unravel with the aid of my first kind teacher, my 
now dear friend, their botanical characters, and to 
assign to each its own appropriate place in my juve¬ 
nile herbarium. That herbarium remains to me still, 
and tells me of my youthful dreams, of the aspirations 
of mv prime; alas ! it also tells of time mi spent, 
talents misapplied, warnings neglected, and blessings 
despised. 11 speaks too in many a tone, which still 
lingers soft and sweet in my ear. Dear Anna! the 
gowan you pulled and gave me blooming fresh on tbe 
banks of Spey is now, even now before me. Withered 
and decayed 1 love it still; but where, alas, is that 
gay, that happy laughing throng, amidst whose glee 
and merimont that flower was in silence given! I 
am grey and sinking into years, a fretful, peevish 
man; you have other and far off duties to perform, 
and of tbe many, there are few who have not passed 
into their dark and silent graves. 
But why look back? ’Tis only tbe unhappy do 
so, for there is no happiness without hope. Well, 
well, as life advanced destiny summoned me to 
sterner duties; and after the usual episode of an 
University life, I arrived at the “ Summos Honores 
Medicinal,” (highest honours of medicine,) and be¬ 
came a member of that learned profession which mi¬ 
nisters more than any but one to human happiness, 
by relieving tbe physical sufferings incident to hu¬ 
manity. Years have silently advanced upon me; 
and now, after a happy dispensation of events, I have 
retired from the cares and anxieties of tho profession; 
and, as “the child is father of the man,” the tastes 
and pleasures of my youth revive within me, and a 
garden is my chief delight. I occupy myself, how¬ 
ever, truly in culling simples, and in cultivating those 
familiar herbs which are known to relieve pain and 
sickness when judiciously administered, and which 
may well be held as sacred, in tbe “brief,but simple 
annals of the poor.” It has been suggested by a 
German philosopher that there probably exists in the 
yet unknown virtues of some plants a specific remedy 
for the cure of every disease; and the progress of 
science seems to justify the belief. The most effica¬ 
cious remedies are often those which are the most 
simple. I, therefore, cultivate the plants and herbs 
which thrive in every well-managed cottage ground; 
and 1 aim at culling simples, and obtaining remedies 
that shall assuage the throbbing of the fever-stricken 
brow ; allay the anguish which attends upon the sense 
of intolerable pain; and which shall restore health 
to tho afflicted and the sorely tried. 
My garden is of no great extent; some dozen no¬ 
tices will probably describe its contents, and their 
applications in disease and sickness; but yet it is 
abundantly useful to my neighbours. Nay, the A'il- 
lage doctor himself sometimes borrows from my beds, 
and, though somewhat jealous about what he calls 
my unprofessional conduct, we are, upon the whole, 
mighty good friends , for, to tell the truth, he some¬ 
what ioans upon me. It is wonderful how much may 
be produced from a small plot of ground well ma¬ 
naged ; but here I must premise that to cull simples, 
and to prepare and administer their products with 
success, require both skill and experience. It is a 
task well suited to a physician like myself, who can 
afford to sit down under the tree of his old age, and 
devote himself to such a speciality. 
OUR VILLAGE WALKS. 
(No. 3.) 
Autumn is advancing rapidly. The equinoctial 
gales are blowing down the apples and pears, and 
the heavy rains that accompany them are softening 
tbe earth, and soaking the fading leaves, so that 
every day the foliage looks richer and more brilliant, 
though falling more thickly on the ground. Autumn 
is a season of many tongues; to whichever side we 
turn wo see something that addresses us powerfully. 
Harvest—the ri<*i, merciful, harvest is over, and the 
gleaning season too is passed; but tbe fields are 
again in activity, and the slow tramp of the patient 
horses is enlivened by tbe ploughman’s whistle as he 
labours in the rough furrow to guide the plough. 
What a deeply interesting sight is a stubble-field with 
the plough turning up the dark moist soil, preparing 
it for the good seed, hereafter to bring forth “ some 
an hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty.” What an 
affecting picture of the work of God in the heart of 
man—more hard to plough up than the hardest clay, 
and needing more the sharp teeth of the harrow than 
any weed-choked soil our labourers ever till! We 
rebel against repeated ebastenings, we feel God’s 
dealings with us, at times, to be harder than we can 
bear; but when we watch closely the operations of 
the husbandman, and mark how much the land 
requires to be harrowed and cleaned, to return “ seed 
to the sower, and bread to the eater,” wc shall cease 
to wonder at the things we suffer, and adore the 
patient persevering Hand that breaks up and culti¬ 
vates the stony ground of which our hearts are 
formed. Had not our Lord wisely as well as gra¬ 
ciously taught His followers by the simple things of 
nature and tho daily occurrences of life, we should 
lose perpetual instruction and profit; for though 
some of His exquisite allusions are to customs pecu¬ 
liar to the East, yet abundance belong to all countries 
and all people, and beautifully convey to the under¬ 
standing of the poorest man the l’ich meaning con¬ 
tained in every word our Lord and Master spoke. 
