| January 8. THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 221 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
1 
M W 
D D 
JANUARY 8—14, 1852. 
1 Weather near Lo 
Barometer. Thermo. 
NDON 
Wind. 
n 1851. 
Rain in In. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bef. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
8 Th 
Lucian. 
29.516 — 29.491 
49-27 
s.w. 
08 
7 a. 8 
7 a. 4 
5 a 41 
17 
6 
47 
8 
9 F 
Lambs begin to fall. 
30.038 —29-/81 
45—23 
s.w. 
07 
6 
8 
6 59 
18 
7 
12 
9 
10 S 
Black Hellebore flowers. 
30.054-29-944 
50—39 
s.w. 
21 
6 
10 
8 22 
19 
7 
37 
10 
11 Sun 
1 Sun. after Epiphany. Hil.T. beg. 
30.108 — 30.034 
49—45 
s.w. 
02 
5 
11 
9 43 
20 
8 
1 
11 
12 M 
Plough Monday. 
29.959—29.937 
51—47 
s.w. 
01 
5 
12 
11 2 
21 
8 
25 
12 
13 Tu 
Hilary. Cambridge Term begins. 
29.826 — 29.717 
49—44 
s.w. 
— 
4 
14 
morn. 
22 
8 
43 
13 
14 W 
Oxford Term begins. 
29.552 — 29.263 
48—40 
S.E. 
— 
3 
15 
0 21 
9 
10 
14 
To no class of men, independent of the practitioners of their own art, 
are gardeners more indebted, than to those of the medical profession, 
and the reason for the obligation is obvious. In all ages down to the 
seventeenth century, physical remedies were chiefly derived from plants ; 
a knowledge of these, therefore, was essential to the dispenser and pre- 
scriber of them ; plants became their especial study, they collected them 
from every quarter of the globe, cultivated them to ascertain their pro¬ 
perties, and wrote concerning them, to impart their acquired knowledge. 
It is remarkable, but not surprising, therefore, that all our earliest 
botanical works are from the pens of men of medicine. Turner, Lyte, 
and Gerard, were, each, like Parkinson, whose Herbal happens to be 
lying open before us, “ a worthy apothecary and herbalist.” Indeed, 
herbalist and apothecary were then synonymes, and Shalcspere was right 
in describing his apothecary as “culling of simples,” and in mentioning 
no other medicaments but “ musty seeds,” and “old cakes of roses,” 
for mineral drugs were then rarely administered. The poet might have 
alluded with equal truth to the apothecary culling when the sought-for 
herb’s star was in the ascendant, for it was believed by those simplers 
that each was under the influence of a Planet, and even as late as 1 / 90 , 
Mr. Meyrick, a surgeon and a friend of Withering, “ at first proposed, in 
order to gratify such as are fond' of exhibiting medicine astrologically, to 
prefix (in his New Family Herbal) the character of the Planet which is 
supposed to govern each herb.” For the sake of an illustration, if we 
consult the old herbalists as to the properties of Hyssop, we shall find 
that Culpepper says “The herb is Jupiter’s, and the sign Cancer. It 
strengthens all the parts of the body under Cancer and Jupiter,” and 
Ur. Bulleyn, without any allusion to these astrological whimsies, though 
he lived a century before Culpepper, says, in his Book of Simples — 
“ Hyssop is hot in the third degree ; it hath virtue to make humours thin 
and warm. Sodden with figs, rue, and honey, in clean water, and drank, 
it greatly helpeth the sickness in the lungs and old coughs. Sodden with 
Grains of Paradise, called Cardamomum, it mightily purgeth and 
bringeth good colour. Figs, salt, nitre, and hyssop, stamped together, 
and applied to the spleen, help it much, and taketh away the water that 
runneth between the skin and the flesh. Sodden with oxymel it 
cleanseth phlegm. This herb was used in the Old Testament in the old 
time of the bloody sacrifice, and the holy prophet, in his 51st Psalm, 
sayeth unto Almighty God—‘ Sprinkle me, O Cord, with Hyssop, &c.’ 
God grant us all to have such blessed plants of that Hyssop in our 
garden, which have virtue to heal all sicknesses of the Soul defiled with 
sin.” Contemporary with this last-quoted author, and his equal in rising 
superior to the astrological darkness of his period, was Rembebt 
Uodoens, who, although a foreign botauist, deserves mention, if it was 
only on account of his works being the foundation, upon which our own 
botanist and gardener, Gerard, founded his “ Herbal,” as Lyte had 
done his before ; but besides this he was an encourager of horticulture 
himself. This physician and botanist was born near Mechlin, in Flanders, 
in 1517. He studied at Louvaine : became conspicuous for his learning 
whilst young; travelled into Italy ; and on his return was appointed 
physician to the Emperor Maximilian the II.—as he was afterwards to 
j Rodolph the II. The importunity of his friends procured his dismission 
from the Emperor’s service. He then practised at Antwerp ; and was 
afterwards appointed Professor of Physic at Leyden, where he died in j 
i 1585—6. He wrote on subjects connected with Astronomy, Geography, 
and Physic, but is chiefly noted for his productions on Botany. He first 
published in 1552, his Frugum Historia, and Herbarium Belgicum. 
But his chief work appeared in 1583, in which he included all his other 
botanical writings under the title of Stirpium Historia; Pemptades. 
Each Pemptade is divided into five books. The first Pemptade contains 
numerous dissimilar plants in alphabetical order; the second, Florist’s 
Flowers and the umbelliferous Plants; the third, Medicinal Roots— 
Purgative Plants—Climbing and Poisonous Plants—with most of the 
cryptogamia he was aware of; the fourth, Grain—Pulses—Grasses— 
j Water and marsh plants ; the fifth, edible Plants—Gourds—esculent 
■ Roots—oleraceous and spinous Plants ; and the sixth, Shrubs and Trees. 
—The appendix is compiled chiefly from Uioscorides, Cato, and Pliny, 
relating to the progress of Botany and Agriculture, among the Romans : 
as well as being in commendation of Garuens, with rules lor laying them 
out, and advantageously managing them. 
Turner, Lyte, and Gerard, might well found their Herbals upon that 
of this early continental plant-collector, for among their own countrymen 
at that period ignorance profound in most of the sciences prevailed. So 
dense and dangerous was this ignorance among the takers of medica¬ 
ments, as well as among their dispensers, that it was found necessary, in 
1512, to enact that no one should practice as a healer of diseases unless 
licensed by the Bishop of the Uiocese, after examination before himself, 
aided by four others skilled in leech-craft, and the reason for thus 
enacting, as set forth in the preamble of the Statute, is that “physic 
and surgery is daily within this realm exercised by a great multitude of 
ignorant persons—in which they partly use sorcery and witchcraft, and 
partly apply such remedies as be very noxious, to the high displeasure of 
God, great infamy to the faculty, and the grievous hurt, damage, and 
destruction of the king’s liege people.” We might quote, if our space 
permitted, much more in illustration of the same defect of knowledge ; 
yet we must add one more extract from our old Statute book, and that 
shall be from an act passed in 1541, whereby the barbers and surgeons of 
London were united into one corporation, “ to the intent that by their 
union and oft assembly together, the good and due order, exercise, and 
j knowledge in the said science or faculty of surgery should be more per¬ 
fect and speedy 1 ” But, moreover, the Statute goes on to enact that 
barbers shall no longer practice any part of surgery, “drawing of teeth 
only excepted ; ” and that, henceforth, surgeons “ shall in no wise occupy 
nor exercise the feat or craft of barbery or shaving ” ! ! 
Meteorology of the Week. — At Chiswick, from observations 
during the last twenty-four years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 40.2° and 30./° respectively. The greatest j 
heat, 5(i°, occurred on the 14th in 1849, and the lowest cold, 4°, on the 
14th, in 1838. During the period, 94 days were fine, and on "4 rain fell. 
Haying shewn in our fifth volume all the details of 
building a greenhouse for five pounds, we cannot go 
further in that direction to lessen expense to our readers, 
and when one of our correspondents shewed us how he 
proposed to warm his vinery by the mere animal heat 
given off by his cows, we thought that a great step was 
taken towards close economy in fuel. It is true we had 
some doubts as to the practicability of using cow-heat, 
for we had the fear of dust, &c., before our eyes. How¬ 
ever, about two months since, November 2,2nd, we re¬ 
ceived from that correspondent the following letter :— 
“ The cows are again housed for the winter in the cow¬ 
house vinery, and very pretty they look with a row of Chry¬ 
santhemums on the wall in front of them just coming into 
blossom. A scarlet Geranium, too, planted in the open 
ground, and trained on the same wall, looks very well and 
luxuriant. Fahrenheit’s thermometer registered ten degrees 
of frost last night outside ; in the cow-house vinery it regis¬ 
tered thirty-seven degrees as the lowest point. We have 
laid planks across the tie-beams, and loaded them with pots 
of Calceolarias, Geraniums , Strawberries, Ac. Ac. The vines 
have grown extremely well, and next year I intend to force 
them to break about a fortnight before they would do so 
naturally, and let them bear a few bunches, as their bearing 
will be the test of success. At present I am sanguine as to 
the result, so much so that I have just finished another 
double cow-house, glazed also in two ridges, of it) feet span 
each, and 150 feet long, with the intention of adding to it 
annually. The dust, as you foretold, is troublesome, but 
then we made it worse by having the cows eurricombed and 
brushed. The last cow-house is most admired, and I have 
had several applicants for permission to sketch it for pub¬ 
lication. If you wish for a plan you shall have one.” 
We have accepted this offer, and our readers shall 
benefit by it so soon as the drawings are received. 
Cows, however, are not available to everybody as 
sources of heat, and as we are continually applied to for 
information as to cheap modes of heating, we were glad 
to be informed that Mr. Pannell, 5(1, Fetter-lane, 
Holborn, had exhibited, in the Crystal Pavilion, a very 
cheap and very effective heating-apparatus. We were 
told, moreover, that he had erected one at Park Hall, 
Barlbfough, near Chesterfield, and from Mr. Henry 
Barnes, the highly intelligent gardener there, we 
received the following particulars :— 
“ I feel a pleasure in stating that we have lately erected 
a forcing-house, which is heated by Pannell’s appa- 
No. CLXXI., Vol. VII 
