THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, March 3, 1857. 
379 
especially the case in large cities and towns. Were it not that 
our atmosphere is continually changing, the air in cities would 
soon become unwholesome from the breathing of animals, 
the combustion of fuel, and the putrefaction of organic mat¬ 
ter. In winter we get supplied with oxygen wafted to us 
from the luxuriant vegetation of the tropics. In summer 
our towns have a purer atmosphere because of the breezes 
that pass over green woods and corn-fields. Even then, 
however, a fine day in the crowded city, and a fine day in the 
shady wood or by the purling brook, are found to be different 
things. In the one case we soon lose the elasticity and 
buoyancy which seems to grow upon us even when we are 
somewhat physically fatigued in the other. As most ques¬ 
tions have two sides it is but right to add that the streets of 
the large city are the preferable places for those who prefer 
to roam abroad at night rather than the day. The absence 
of vegetation exposes the loiterer to little chance of breath¬ 
ing an extra quantity of carbonic acid as it falls. I have 
been assured again and again, by those who have tried both, 
that walking London streets during late hours never did 
them any harm, though similar exercise in a woodland district 
in summer was always attended with unpleasantness and 
debility. But we have no wish to minister to any encourage¬ 
ment of midnight prowling or exercise out of doors. We 
would wish that our sisters and brethren living pent up in 
cities should realise some of the cheerfulness we derive in a 
summer day in the open country, and I believe that they can 
do much individually and unitedly to secure it. Individually 
they can have healthy plants in their windows, and feel the 
exhilarating effects of looking over them as the sunbeams 
play among their foliage. Collectively they can unite their 
voices and their efforts, so that in all new communities 
of citizens and old towns of large extent, as opportunities 
offer, large zones, and squares, and parks should be sacredly 
set aside, not merely for the recreation of the people, but as 
grand vegetation manufactories, in which oxygenated air 
shall be elaborated for securing the health and promoting 
the cheerfulness of the inhabitants. R. Fish. 
(To be continued .) 
Chemical Society. —Jan 19.—Dr. W. A. Miller, President, 
in the chair.—A paper was read, by Mr. Lawes and Dr. 
Gilbert, “ On the Composition of Wheat, Flour, and Bread.” 
The authors described the results of an extended course of 
experiments, in which the wheat was traced throughout 
from the field to the bakery. The crops under examination 
were grown each successive year from 1845 to 1854 inclusive. 
In 1846, which year yielded altogether the most fully 
matured crops, the proportion of nitrogen was lowest, and 
in 1853 when the crops were altogether poorest, the 
proportion of nitrogen was highest. The characters of a 
highly-matured crop are low proportion of water, low 
proportion of ash, and low proportion of nitrogen. In 
reference to the effect of manuring, it appeared that in 
crops manured with both nitrogenised and mineral matters, 
there was the best produce and the greatest reduction in 
the proportion of nitrogen. The character of the ash of 
wheat, though subject to considerable variations in poor 
crops, was found in well-matured produce to have great fixity 
of composition. The character of the ash, moreover, was 
very independent of the nature of the manure, but it was 
observed that the proportion of lime increased with the 
maturation of the crop. In reference to the products of high 
the mill, the bran was found to yield 10 times as much ash, 
and 1§ times as much nitrogen as did the household flour. 
The authors estimated the amount of water in bread at 
from 36 to 38 per cent., and considered that 1001b. of flour 
yielded on the average 1381b. of bread. Their experiments 
showed that the loss of dry matter in fermentation is 
extremely small, certainly less than 1 per cent. They 
considered that the average amount of nitrogen in bread 
was 1*3 per cent. It is well known that millers and bakers 
consider the excellence of flour to be in proportion to the 
amount of starch. Contrary to the opinion of Liebig, and 
of most chemical physiologists, the authors maintained that 
tlyi bakers’ standard is the correct one; or at any rate that 
the least nitrogenised bread contains an ample sufficiency 
of nitrogen, and that the great demand for food is 
for its respiratory or carboniferous constituents. From a 
large number of analyses of flour, in which the gluten was 
separated mechanically, it appeared that, both in Europe 
and America, in proceeding from the north to the south, 
the proportion of gluten gradually increased, and, con¬ 
sequently, according to the authors’ criterion of high 
maturation, the most matured crops were grown in the 
coldest latitudes.—Dr. Marcet was indisposed to admit the 
authors’ conclusions in reference to the low value of 
the nitrogenised constituents, and referred to some ex¬ 
periments showing, that the more highly nitrogenised is the 
character of the food, the less is the quantity of food 
required.— Athenaeum. 
BOTANY OF NORFOLK ISLAND. 
By T. W. Shepherd. 
That which makes the Norfolk Island flora so interesting 
to the botanist is its singularly distinct character. No other 
island, perhaps, in the world, of equally limited dimensions, 
can boast of anything like the number of species of plants 
which belong exclusively and normally to its flora. It is 
true that other small islands may possess some small plants 
peculiar to themselves, but in all other cases that I am 
aware of, the majority of the plants may be found either on 
some main land, or on other islands, situated in similar 
latitudes. Such, for instance, is the case with the great 
assemblage of islands lying along the torrid zone between 
Torres’ Straits, New Guinea, and the west coast of America. 
Amongst these it is found that islands as far apart as 
1,000 miles resemble one another in their leading botanical 
features. It is also true that many of the islands which I 
have alluded to still remain unexplored as regards their 
botanical productions, and when that has been done some 
of them may present the same distinctiveness of character 
that I now claim for the field on which I am discoursing. I 
do not, however, anticipate that any such will be found, that 
is, of so limited an extent. The whole island contains little 
more than eighteen square miles of surface, or what in this 
colony would be considered as a rather moderate-sized 
estate; and yet this small spot contains more species pe¬ 
culiar to itself than perhaps any other island of twenty times 
its extent. 
Although so contiguous to New South Wales and New 
Zealand, and having Lord Howe’s Island about midway 
between the former and itself as a connecting link, yet, if 
we exclude Phormium tenax (the New Zealand Flax) and 
several species of Ferns, very few indeed of the plants 
essentially belonging to either of these places are to be met 
with at Norfolk Island. As I have said before, it is this 
distinctiveness of the flora we are speaking of that makes it 
so interesting to the botanist, who, if it were possible to 
carry him unconsciously from the heart of London, and 
place him in the midst of a Norfolk Island scrub, in the 
course of a single night, he would, upon awaking and sur¬ 
veying the vegetation around, immediately recognise the 
place to which he had been so rapidly transported. 
In speaking of the trees and other plants of Norfolk 
Island I shall, on the present occasion, only notice some of 
the most prominent, and will commence with the Pine, as 
being at once the most striking, the most generally known 
of any of its compatriots, and, as well as the tallest, the 
most important to the inhabitants in an economical point of 
view. 
Lieutenant Philip Gidley King (afterwards Governor of 
this colony), who, under instructions from Governor Phillip, 
formed the first settlement at Norfolk Island, described it as 
“ one entire wood; or rather, as a garden overrun with the 
noblest Pines, in straightness, size, and magnitude far 
superior to any he had ever seen.” And certainly, so far as 
regards the elegance and symmetry of this Pine, his descrip¬ 
tion will hold good, for in these respects it is completely 
unsurpassed. But in magnitude it is far behind many of 
the same natural order found in other parts of the world, 
although, indeed, these may have been unknown to Lieut. 
King. 
The Norfolk Island Pine, now known to botanists as 
Eutassa excelsa, and also under each of tbe following generic 
names, Araucaria, Dombeyu, and Altingia, has been for some 
