THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, June 19, 18(50. 
184 
iug, and tho artistic power they demand, a fair field seems open 
to all whose observation and study may have fitted them for its 
occupation.—A n Aechitect. 
[We so far agree with our correspondent, that we think many 
architects might arrange, as to forms, an Italian garden, composed, 
as it is, of terraces and geometric figures. We go a step further, 
and say that many architects might decide where a group of trees 
would be effective in landscape gardening, which is totally dif¬ 
ferent from the Italian style. But architects usually would not 
know what trees to plant; nor even what flowers to put into an 
Italian garden. Botany is not necessarily among the knowledge 
of a landscape gardener; he does not require to know their 
classification or their physiology; but it is required of him to 
know the forms of trees and shrubs, the colours of their foliage, 
and the soils they prefer.— Eds. C. G.] 
OUR WEEDS. 
GEOUNDSEL. 
On my sending some notes on Taraxacum, you were pleased to 
intimate a desire that communications of this nature would be 
more frequent: therefore, presuming on the sincerity of your 
wishes, and as a stimulus to others, I select the commonest but 
not the least useful of our weeds—Erigerum. In ancient Greek 
Upiyepav, from t)p the spring, and ye pur an old man, the blossom 
being of a greyish-white, like the hair of an old man ; in Latin 
Senecio vulgaris, because it quickly becomes old and turns to 
white down. The Germans call it Creutzwartz. Class and order, 
Syngenesia Polygamia superflua. Theophrastes mentions it with 
favour, naming it as possessing mixed faculties—“it also cooleth 
and withal digesteth.” Discorides gives a fuller account of its 
virtues, and details them at some length. He says, “ Leaves 
boiled in wine and drank healeth pain and ache of ye stomach 
that proceedelh of choler. Leaves and flour stamped with hogs 
grease ceacetli burning heat of ye lower belly and hemmorhoids. 
By adding salt it helpeth Struma or Kings evil; stamped in milk 
and drunk, helpeth red gums and frets in children, and that with 
powder of frankinsense healeth wounds in sinews. The like 
operation hath the downe of the floures mixed in vinegar ; boy led 
in ale with honey and vinegar it provoketh vomit, especially if 
you add thereto a few roots of Assarabacca.” 
It shall not be my care to endorse all the virtues of this weed, 
described so minutely by Discorides, nor indeed all the abuse 
heaped on it by more modern authors; nor shall I venture to 
espouse the cause of a weed so friendless and apparently so 
noxious, sedulously determined to plant itself in every nook, 
crevice, and cranny, to the detriment of everybody and the good 
of none. Not so: the omnipotent Dispenser of endless and 
inscrutable good has sent even this not-to-be-exterminated weed 
for wise and good purposes ; and, not the least, its alterative 
and aperient virtues—especially adapted for the sick among the 
feathered tribe, which resort to its leaves and flowers at a time 
when Nature dictates its use. There are cases when the lords of 
the creation have been compelled to give God thanks for sending 
to them such an apparently useless weed in their need, at a time 
of dire extremity. I will briefly state a case. 
A. B., residing about three miles from my former residence, in 
the interior of the county of Devon, had been ill for some twenty- 
four hours with violent colic and obstinate constipation of the 
bowels. Remedies had been exhibited without the slightest avail, 
some of these for many consecutive hours. Active inflammation 
and its consequence, rapid disorganisation, were hourly appre¬ 
hended ; and in this fearful state I left him late at night, pro¬ 
mising again to see him (DA’.) on the morrow. The morrow 
came and found me at the patient’s door; and, to my joy and 
surprise, the poor fellow was comparatively convalescent.' The 
wife’s statement to me was just as I write:—“Lor, sir! these 
doctors be very gv.de for some sorts of evils, but they be’ant worth 
a brass mrden for my man’s grief and such like. A cup of 
Groundsel tea, which mother made Robert take just after you 
left, set things agoing, as I’ve a know’d it to afore. ’Tie a fine 
thing I ’sure ’e, sir.” 
Doubtless there might have been found higher-class medicines 
more congenial to the taste of the pharmaeopeist, certainly not 
more suitable to the complaint of the poor man. It is not for 
me to argue on the merits or demerits of Groundsel tea as a 
remedial agent. Nothing certainly has been made in vain ; and 
even tho gardener’s pest, the common Groundsel, is not an 
exception.—M r . H., Exeter. 
WHAT TO LOOK EOR OH THE SEASHORE. 
(Continued from 'page 152.) 
CHAP. III.—CORALLINES. 
We now proceed to notice a peculiar species of Polype, which 
is allied to the Actinia?, although differing from them in several 
respects. These are the coral-forming Zoophytes. It may not be 
uninteresting, before examining Corallines peculiar to our own 
coasts, to give a hasty sketch of the more important species, 
which produce tho coral of commerce, and which are abundant 
in the Mediterranean, the Red and China Seas, and in the 
Persian Gulf. 
The Corals found in these waters bear a close resemblance to 
the branch of a tree, always grow to the under surface of rocks, 
and project in a perpendicular direction downwards. They consist 
of united stony cells, the habitations of certain marine animals 
whose fleshy parts surround a branching, hard, and stony centre. 
They are of different colours, varying from black or bright red to 
dull white ; and their value is increased or diminished according 
to size, colour, and hardness. 
Red Coral is obtained by the fishermen in the Mediterranean 
from large beds, or reefs, along the coasts and near the islands. 
The apparatus employed is a large wooden cross weighted in the 
centre with lead, or stone, so as to sink it to the bottom. The 
projecting extremities of this cross are furnished with strong nets 
and loosely twisted hemp. This cross, by means of a rope, is 
dragged along the under surface of the rocks, and thus breaks off 
the Coral branches, which get entangled in the network, when it 
is drawn to the surface. The Coral, however, has a very different 
appearance on being newly obtained from its watery bed to that 
which it exhibits when exposed for sale. It is originally covered 
with an external fleshy coating, which has numerous Polypes 
extended through it. This external layer is removed and the 
branch carefully cleaned. 
The Corals of the tropical seas, however, may be regarded as 
the most wonderful of their species, and have well won the title 
of “ master builders.” The structures reared by these creatures, 
minute as the architects are, far exceed any of the labours of man. 
The proudest edifices erected by human labour shrink into in¬ 
significance when compared with the achievements of these 
marine workers—as witness the Coral reefs of Australia, which 
extend in an almost unbroken chain for nearly a thousand miles. 
Ceaselessly from the earliest ages of the world, have these Coral 
tribes gone on withdrawing lime from the waters of the sea and 
fixing it in their tissues, until not only have they formed mountains 
and islands, but entire continents. 
In the British seas, however, but few specimens remain, al¬ 
though they must have been multitudinous at one period, for in the 
limestones of many districts are still found enormous beds of fossil 
Corals. Let us, however, proceed to examine such specimens of 
Corallines as are, to some extent, common to our coasts. They 
are usually known under the name of Madrepores, which is a 
hybrid compound of the French word “madre” (spotted), and 
the Latin word “ poms ” (a pore). These Madrepores, as before 
stated, resemble the Sea Anemones in their general organisation. 
They commonly consist of light, stony, porous matter, studded 
with shallow pits, in which are seen thin perpendicular plates 
radiating towards a centre. Sometimes instead of pits and 
radiated plates, the latter occur in rows of an involved and 
sinuated pattern. During life there arises from between these 
plates a gelatinous tissue, bearing a mouth with protrusile and 
crenated lips, and surrounded by sensitive tentacles, all of which, 
when the creature is alarmed, contract and disappear within the 
stony recesses, leaving nothing visible but the white and seeminglv 
naked plates. Nuked, however, they are not, being covered with 
a film which is drawn so tightly over them as to be reduced to a 
tenuity utterly invisible. In the large arborescent Corals, each 
pit must bo considered as the habitation of a single animal, the 
whole mass forming a combination of many hundred individuals. 
One of the smallest species of the British Madrepores is 
known as Cargophgllea Smithii, and illustrates the description 
just given. It is not a quarter of an inch high, and is less than 
the third of an inch in diameter. It consists of a stony cylinder, 
or inverted cone, the upper part of which, hollowed into a cup- 
shape, is formed by the edges of thin plates radiating towards the 
centre, as in the other instance, when in the water a pellucid 
gelatinous flesh emerges from between the plates, rising to the 
height of an inch above their level. Exquisitely coloured ten¬ 
tacles fringe the sides of the cup-shaped cavity, across which is 
