THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Afrjl.22. 
00 
One feature of a most salient character appears to me 
to present itself in the van of this argument. It is this : 
Will the Vine succeed well in such a material as a good 
! mellow or free loam, otherwise called “ maiden soil,” 
j from the circumstance of its having escaped tillage for 
some time, and thereby being rich in organic materials, 
i but not in exciting manures? 
I believe that a jury of really good British gardeners 
would affirm such to be the case. On the heels of this, 
however, arises yet another question of importance to 
all those who do not possess broad acres. Will the 
Vino succeed in common garden-soils? Wo all know 
that Vines do succeed very well in various parts of the 
kingdom, out-of-doors, at least, in very ordinary soil, such 
as gardeners long accustomed to the term loam would 
despise. 
Again, I have known an instance or two of Vines 
thriving tolerably well in the debris of an old wall; in 
fact, growing out of the very bricks; and a similar 
liberty they take, we are told, in wine making countries, 
fastening on the debris of rocks and other disintegra¬ 
tions. 1 have also known the Black Hamburgh thrive 
to admiration entirely in old tan, in what had been a 
Pine-house, the pit still retaining the original plunging 
; material of tan, which had, of course, become almost 
black mould. 
It must be admitted, that with all these facts before 
1 us, the most experienced in gardening affairs cannot 
but feel a slight degree of wonderment, and naturally 
j approaches the subject with measured steps. However, 
a little reflection, and a desire to place the subject in as 
I simple a light as possible, and not to be misled by col¬ 
lateral considerations of a trivial character, will soon 
show that it is not alone in this soil or that, neither on 
the amount of mannrial matters alone, that the question 
hinges. Whatever the compost or soil be, there can be 
i no question that its mode of receiving moisture and of 
; parting with it, more determine the fate of the Vines 
than the previous considerations. 
Tho free admission of the air has ever been deemed a 
thing of the highest import; but I must confess that, 
for one, I have been exceedingly astounded at the re¬ 
ported success of our concrete men; and, had it not 
been for the well-earned reputation of some, I should 
have had doubts of an insuperable character. This 
part of the question I have as I found it: for my part, 
I cannot give up my original ideas that the atmosphere 
j ought by no means to be excluded. I much fear, that 
j in such cases the Vines, like some retired little gentle- 
! men, are living on their former gotten wealth ; perhaps 
on the very capital itself. 
To sura up the evidence, then, the case may possibly 
stand thus:—Have you got what is called a good 
| medium loam, rather sandy, and containing much 
organic matters? Rest assured, then, that you need not 
invest much capital in the purchase of gross manures; 
certainly not in tho dead carcasses of animals. Have 
you nothing but a good garden soil, which smells strong 
of the spade, and which possesses no amount of co- 
herance? Let me advise you, in the absence of more 
powerful materials, to adcl what may supply the de- 
! liciency, by trying to represent the organic matters the 
j aforesaid loam possesses, such as old linings of hotbeds, 
j half-decayed leaves, old thatch, or something that has 
once been a land vegetable, and possessed of strong 
j fibre. Other materials might be named, but I fear to 
j tamper with the question, as 1 merely write for the 
j inexperienced. 
i I do not wish hero to affect to repudiate the idea of a 
compost when thrown together by experienced persons, 
j whose practice is dictated by something more than 
mere rule. 1 believe it possible to add something of 
much service, but not with the single idea of enriching 
the compost, but rather for the sounder purpose of 
securing a long-enduring texture in the soil. Lime 
rubbish, especially mortar and plaster from old build¬ 
ings, charred and burnt materials, these can seldom be 
wrongly introduced, unless in thoughtless excess. But 
their presence in a compost, or their amount, should 
ever be ruled by the texture of the chief body of the 
soil; they are opener, opposed to cohesion, and to intro¬ 
duce them liberally to a light and stringy soil would be 
to expose the compost to every extreme vicissitude of 
drought; and I must really beg of our readers to en¬ 
deavour to be prepared for every contingency, if possible. 
I need scarcely point hero to the necessity for the i 
most perfect drainage beneath. All the world now are 
unanimous as to that; but one thing more I would j 
name, and that is, the immense benefit of surface-dress¬ 
ings of rich manurial and organic matters. This is the 
best way of forcing the powers of the Vine, when 
requisite. Here it interferes not with tho mechanical 
texture of the soil, and if Vines were planted on a well- 
drained bottom, on sound turfy loam of only six inches ' 
over the drainage material, there is no doubt that they 
might be annually decoyed upwards several inches every 
year by this process; downwards they would scarcely re 
quire to go. R. Errington. 
The Ordeal Bean of Old Calabar, Western 
Africa. —Dr. Christison has communicated to the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh the following paper :—“ In various 
parts of Western Africa it appears to bo the practice to 
subject to the ordeal by poison persons who come under ! 
suspicion of having committed heinous crimes. On the j 
banks of the Gambia river the poison used for the pur- i 
pose is the bark of the leguminous tree, the Filloea ! 
suaveolens of AIM. Guillemin and Perottet. In the 
neighbourhood of Sierra Leone it is the JSrythrophleum i 
guineense, which some botanists havo considered iden- j 
tical with the former species. On the Congo river, Cap- ! 
tain Tuckey found that either this species, or an allied I 
species of the same genus, was in constant use for the 
same purpose. These barks, when their active consti¬ 
tuents are swallowed in the form of infusion, sometimes 
cause vomiting; and then the accused recovers, and in 
that caso is pronounced innocent. More generally the 
poison is retained; and then the evidence of guilt is at 
the same time condemnation and punishment; for death 
speedily ensues. In the district of Old Calabar, the 
poison used for the trial by ordeal is a bean, called 
Esere, which seems to possess extraordinary energy and 
very peculiar properties. It has been lately made known 
to the missionaries sent by the United Presbyterian 
Church in Scotland to the native tribes of Calabar; and 
to the Rev. Mr. Waddell, one of these gentlemen, the 
author was chiefly indebted for the materials for his j 
experiments, as well as for information as to its effects i 
on man. According to what tho missionaries often saw, I 
this poison is one of great energy, as it sometimes 
proves fatal in half an hour, and a single bean has I 
proved sufficient to occasion death. None recover who 
do not vomit it. The greater number perish. On one ! 
occasion forty individuals were subjected to trial, when ! 
a chief died in suspicious circumstances, and only 
two recovered. The author found the bean to pre- 1 
sent generally the characters of tiDolichos. It lias been 
grown at his request both by Professor Syme and at tho 
Edinburgh Botanic Garden by Air. APNab; and it 
proves to be a perennial leguminous creeper, resembling 
a Dolicbos, but it had not then flowered. The seed 
weighs about forty or fifty grains. It is neither bitter, 
nor aromatic, nor hot, and differs little in taste from a 
haricot bean. Alcohol removes its active constituent, 
in the form of an extractiform matter, amounting to 2 - 7 
per cent, of the seed. The author could not obtain an 
alkaloid from it by any of the simpler processes for de- 
