THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Apiiil 1. 
'18 
indeed, impossible,” as lie says, very truly, “ to have seen 
the large apparatus of teeth, and strength of jaws in the 
Ichthyosauri, and in the remains of other gigantic carni- 
| vorous animals, without concluding that animals furnished 
with such powerful instruments of destruction must have 
used them freely in restraining the excessive population of 
the ancient seas.” This inference was fully confirmed by 
the discovery within their skeletons of the half-digested 
; remains of fishes and reptiles which they had devoured, ami 
by the further discovery of coprolites, that is, of foecal 
remains in a state of petrifaction, dispersed through the 
; same strata in which these skeletons are buried. The state 
of preservation of these very curious petrified bodies is 
often so perfect as to indicate not only the food of the 
animals from which they were derived, but also the di- 
: mensions, form, and structure of their stomach and intes- 
| tinal canal. 
In the Suffolk Craig formation, in the blue clay around Cam- 
j bridge, and on the shore at Lyme liegis, these coprolites 
! arc so abundant, that they lie like Potatoes scattered in the 
ground. In the Lias of the Estuary of the Severn, as in 
the Craig, they are similarly disposed in strata of many 
miles in extent, and mixed so abundantly with teeth, and 
rolled fragments of the bones of reptiles and fishes, as to 
show that this region, having been the bottom of an ancient 
sea, was for a long period the receptacle of the bones and 
fuecal remains of its inhabitants. 
Still more recently, attempts have been made, and not un¬ 
successfully, to import the mineral called the Phosphorite, 
or Apatite, which is nearly pure phosphate of lime, and 
several cargoes of this stone were imported from Norway 
last year. Great beds of this mineral also exist in Spanish 
Estremadura, anil in other portions of the globe, but in 
places unfortunately too distant from water carriage to be 
available. 
By the manufacture of super-phosphate of lime, these 
mineral substances are first reduced by machinery to a fine 
powder, and they are then treated with sulphuric acid, 
Fig. 6. 
■- V .'•'Y' J 
;\ a 1 
which takes a portion of the lime from the phosphate of 
lime, and leaves the phosphoric acid in excess. 
Of the extent to which the super-phosphate of lime is 
employed as a manure for Turnips, no farmer need be in¬ 
formed. We might instance the extent to which guano is 
used as a manure, as another case of the extensive use of 
phosphate of lime by the cultivator, but it might be fairly 
urged, that guano is chiefly valuable, used in the ordinary 
very limited proportions, for the ammoniacal and other salts 
with which it abounds.—C. W. J. 
THE 
AND COUNTRY 
i'-J.wTV 
sM=rt=a*l3 
// ! u H 
Fig. 7- 
LI £2 
17 J A O 
< ■ - ’ 
ii i c n 
ROAD 
SUBURBAN VILLA, 
HOUSE. 
(Continued from pcuje 417, Vol. XT'.) 
No. 3. 
THE APPROACH, &c. 
The manner in which the entrance from the main 
road is effected, is, in very many instances, not only far 
from agreeable in appearance, but is also highly objection¬ 
able on the score of convenience. The gate, especially 
where the high road is narrow, should be placed at a con¬ 
siderable distance back from it, so as to allow ample 
room for vehicles to turn in when arriving from either 
direction. The great inconvenience arising from the gate 
being placed close to the side of the main road is nowhere 
so apparent as upon the side of a tolerably steep hill. In 
going up the hill (I am alluding to the high road) the 
entrance is effected tolerably easy; but in coming down 
the hill it is quite another affair. The usual mode of ob¬ 
viating this difficulty is by placing two gates, one at the best 
point for entrance in coming up the hill, the other in going 
down. This, in a small property, is always productive of 
great inconvenience, and it will generally be found that one 
gate, properly placed, will entirely obviate the necessity for 
two. A multiplicity of roads in a confined space not only 
intrude upon the privacy of the grounds, but they occupy 
space which can often be devoted to better purposes. Eig. 
0 and 7 are plans of two kinds of en¬ 
trances, the former common, and very 
objectionable; the latter, one that is 
worthy of adoption. It is both hand¬ 
some and convenient. 
As a general rule, two lodges and gates 
at short distances from each other, on 
the same line of road, are not only not 
requisite, but, from affecting an undue 
importance, are in bad' taste. In very 
extensive grounds, bounded by public 
roads on two or three sides, a handsome 
lodge may, of course, with great propriety 
be erected at convenient points for en¬ 
trance on either side of the estate. But 
where a small property is bounded by a 
public road only on one side, and that, 
perhaps, for no groat distance, two en¬ 
trance gates and lodges ought not be 
erected; or, if so, one should be prominent 
and handsome, making the principal line 
of approach, the other subordinate in 
every way; in fact, the back road. 
The mode of approach to very many 
suburban residences is likewise open to 
grave objection. These houses are gene¬ 
rally placed at a short distance from the 
main road, having their principal point 
parallel to it, the space between the house 
and the road being chiefly occupied by a 
wide coach-road, for which there are two 
gates. Such an arrangement is, in the 
main, to bo condemned in toto. Instances 
may, of course, occur where two gates 
would be more convenient than one; but 
I here dwell upon general principles only, 
and upon such ground they are, as I con¬ 
ceive, totally inadmissable. By their in¬ 
troduction the greater portion of the space 
in front of the house is taken up or in¬ 
truded upon; and when, as is often the 
/ Xl • 
- s 
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