310 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
January 17, 1891. 
Irish name, muileag, means a little frog, hence, frog- 
berry, also referring to the habitat of the plant. 
Cranberry is simply a corruption of Craneberry, referring 
to the slender stems and bent foot-stalks of the fruit 
and their resemblance to the wading bird known as 
the crane. 
The stems are long, slender, trailing, and give off 
short upright shoots, while the main shoots may also 
rise at the tips. The leaves are small, neat, evergreen, 
oblong-ovate and cordate at the base, while the under¬ 
surface is paler or glaucous. The red fruits are borne 
thinly in the axils of the leaves. The plant was at one 
time more extensively cultivated in this country than 
it is at the present day ; and although then grown for 
its fruit, it is now chiefl} 7 grown for ornament.— F. 
-- 
GAELIC, ONIONS, LEEKS, AND 
THE OLFACTORY NERVES. 
Under the above heading may he classed a number of 
other pungent herbs belonging to the genus Allium, 
including Chives, Ramsons or wild Garlic, Shallots, 
and others, most of which have been cultivated from 
time immemorial by various nations. A great diversity 
of opinion has always prevailed and does so at the 
present day amongst different nations, and even 
amongst individuals, concerning the eating of the 
above herbs. As a general rule they are mostly 
despised on account ot their strong and penetrating 
odour ; but there are not wanting evidences amongst 
the writers of antiquity, who ascribed the bad qualities 
of certain races of people to their habit of eating 
Onions and Garlic in quantity, morning and evening. 
On the contrary, a modern writer, in commenting upon 
the smooth skin and beautiful complexion of certain 
Italian races, ascribed these qualities to the habit of 
consuming large quantities of Garlic. Only the other 
day the keeper of an eating-house in London was 
summoned for creating a nuisance by the odour pro¬ 
ceeding from the cooking of Onions. The magistrate 
dismissed the case by stating that the odour, although 
disagreeable to the olfactory nerves, was not produc¬ 
tive of disease germs, whereby the health of the 
community would he endangered. 
At the present day the inhabitants of Europe along 
the Mediterranean and in Russia may be described 
as Garlic lovers, while those of more northern countries 
bordering on the Baltic may be considered as Garlic 
haters. Moreover, oriental nations generally have 
cultivated and eaten Leeks, Onions and Garlic from a 
vast antiquity. The Israelites in the wilderness, 
amongst other things, longed for Onions, Leeks, and 
Garlic, which they enjoyed while in Egypt. The 
Philistines at the south-west corner of Palestine were 
eaters of Onions, or as we should say, Shallots a cor¬ 
ruption of Eschalot. That again was derived from 
Ascalon, one of the cities of the Philistines from 
whence the Shallot came. 
One of the old names for Onion was the Greek 
Jcromyon, and a Corinthian township of that name 
seems to have derived that appellation from the 
quantities of Onions grown there. The name lives to 
the present day in our word Ramson, which exists in , 
various forms from Switzerland to Scandinavia, includ¬ 
ing ramsel, vamser, rams, the Anglo-Saxon kra/msa, 
and the Irish creamli. The latter is a modern repre¬ 
sentative of the Celtic. The feast of Garlic (Feisd 
chreamb) was the occasion of many a social gathering 
amongst the ancient Celts. In Greece and Italy, after 
the time of Homer, Onions constituted a favourite food 
of the people. As civilisation increased so the manners 
and customs of the inhabitants changed, and the 
olfactory nerves became more delicate, particularly 
amongst the upper classes ; the eating of Onions was 
then considered a sign of vulgarity and poverty, and 
from liking changed to loathiug. Since then, however, 
newer varieties have been raised of milder taste and 
with less penetrating odour. Xenophon in one of his 
works says, “Worthy sirs, Niceratus likes to come 
home smelling of Onions, so that his wife may feel 
sure that no one has been kissing him.” 
A more favourable view of all members of the Garlic 
kind was taken by those who believed in the magical 
powers of the same for warding off dangers and 
neutralising the effects of poison. A healing power was 
also attributed to Onions, and this, no doubt, comes 
nearer the truth, for besides being wholesome food, 
they are often used in a boiled state at the present day 
by those suffering from cold and similar ailments. 
Pliny spoke of the peasantry in his day using Garlic in 
the composition of medicines ; but it is doubtful 
whether in small quantities it would be powerful enough 
to have any effect. Amongst the Teutonic races, the 
1 
Leek was held in the same veneration for its powers o 
warding off evil as amongst the Greeks and inhabitants 
of Asia Minor. It was put in the bowl of mead to 
protect the drinker from injury should it happen to be 
poisoned. 
The antiquity of the Onion in Europe is proved by 
its Gaelic name cep or ceapa, a head, from whence comes 
Allium Cepa. The Leek is derived from the Gaelic and 
Irish leicis ; the Anglo-Saxon is lea, a form of lick or 
lock, as in Garlic. The latter comes from the Gselic garg, 
pungent, and luibh or luigh, a plant. Shallot and 
Ramson have been already explained. Chive comes 
from the French cive or civette, and that again from the 
Latin cepa. Onion comes from the Latin unio, from 
unus, one.— F. 
-- 
THE COLD OF DECEMBER, 1890. 
The following is the record for Shirenewton Hall, 
near Chepstow : — 
Maximum 
Minimum 
Minimum 
December. 
in shade, 4 ft. 
4 ft. 
on grass. 
6 
38 0 
26'0 
25-0 
7 
37 0 
30-0 
29-0 
8 
36 0 
30-0 
30-0 
9 
36 0 
23-0 
22-0 
10 
33-5 
29'0* 
30-0 
11 
33-0 
29-1"' 
30-2 
12 
32-3 
24-0 
230 
13 
29-0 
24-9* 
25-0 
14 
30'0 
19 2 
190 
15 
34-0 
19-5 
16-9 
16 
36 1 
240 
19 2 
17 
29-7 
26-0 
26-0 
18 
28 7 
26-0 
24-0 
19 
32'1 
26-5* 
28-0 
20 
32-0 
18-0 
16'9 
21 
31-2 
23-8 
23 -6 
22 
32 2 
20-9 
19-8 
23 
30'2 
24-0* 
24-1 
24 
32-9 
295 
23-0 
25 
32-6 
23’0* 
24-5 
26 
31-3 
25-4* 
28-2 
27 
36 0 
31-0 
29 0 
28 
33-5 
29-0 
27-0 
29 
32-0 
28-0 
27'0 
30 
30 2 
20-9 
20-7 
31 
24*2 
17-9 
17-7 
Mean 
32 5 
24-9 
The mean 
maximum was 
6'5, and 
the mean mini- 
mum 5‘9 higher than at Enville. 
* On these days the temperature was higher on the 
grass than at 4 ft. It was even colder at 10 and 20 ft. 
E. J. Lowe, F.E.S. 
THE STRUCTURE OF LEAVES. 
In a recent lecture given at Ipswich, Dr. J. E. Taylor 
took as a special subject, the leaves of flowering 
plants. Dr. Taylor showed the structure of a leaf ; 
how, all over the world, if leaves were in a healthy 
state, they were green, and how that greenness was 
due to the presence of a substance in the cells 
of the leaf called chlorophyll. He explained how 
this leaf structure daily removed, from the lower strata 
of the atmosphere, all that the breath of animals had 
thrown into it, and was in fact a gigantic clearing 
house ; but reminded his hearers that this all impor¬ 
tant work, on which the vitality of our planet depended 
could not he carried on except under the stimulus of 
sunlight. For after all, what was called growth in a 
plant—and on that growth depended the existence of 
the animal kingdom — was but the power of that 
plant to avail itself of and convert to its own use the 
energy of the sun. That energy would be given out 
again in the shape of locomotive activity, in nervous 
energy, nervous work and thought, when that same 
vegetable matter was cooked as our food, or even when 
it had entered into the structure of animals and we 
partook of their flesh, which had been built up through 
having partaken of such food. Every leaf was bound 
to be placed so that it could get its maximum of sun¬ 
light. This was the secret of the difference in the 
shapes of the leaves and plants on trees and shrubs, and 
in a great measure amongst herbaceous plants also. 
The vegetable kingdom, as we now saw it, was the 
result of past ages of vegetable contentions—the race 
had been to the swift, the battle to the strong. The 
audience was amused to hear that there were many 
vegetable cripples in existence, some of which had lost 
an arm, an eye, or a leg, figuratively speaking, in this 
long-continued battle. We were told that there were 
traces still existing of ancient families that were once 
aristocratic in the vegetable kingdom, but were now in 
an enfeebled, pauperised, and sometimes even in a 
parasitical condition, which was worse still. 
Dr. Taylor contrasted the difference between the 
Duckweeds which float on the surface of a pond—the 
whole plant not sometimes more than the fortieth of 
an inch in diameter, and yet a genuine flowering plant 
—with the giant Gippsland gum trees in Australia, 
some of whose stems would over-top St. Paul’s 
Cathedral by 100 ft., and whose woody tissue, if cut 
into 1 in. planks, would cover a field of nine acres. 
Enlarging on this apparent inequality, Dr. Taylor 
asked if those present had ever thought why we should 
have plants called annuals that lived only a few months 
of the year. These were the bright flowers, as a rule, 
of our garden plants, for they seemed to live not for 
themselves, but only to produce the most brilliant of 
flowers, so as to attract insects to them and cross- 
fertilize them. What was the reason the Daisy had no 
leaves except those which formed the well-known 
rosette-shape, and from the centre of which sprang the 
little flow 7 er head, in reality an “ant’s nest ” of highly 
developed and organised flowers ? The Thistle was the 
most successful in its adoption of this plan, and, taking 
the centre of the flower stem as a point and striking a 
radius all round, it would be found that in this ingeni¬ 
ous manner such plants had taken possession of a 
certain area of ground, within the sacred limits of 
which no other plant could invade. 
The general and mathematical arrangement of leaves 
on plants was then described, it being observed that 
the space between leaf and leaf was called inter-nodial, 
the point from which the leaves sprang being termed a 
node or knot. These spaces existed for the purpose 
of preventing the interference of one leaf with another, 
and this arrangement was called phyllotaxis, a Greek 
word meaning leaf arrangement. It would always be 
found that in proportion to the largeness of the leaves 
would be the distance separating one leaf from another 
in these inter-nodial spaces, and, conversely, the 
smaller the leaf the less would be the intervening 
space, as in the case of the Yew and the Pine trees. 
The lecturer pointed out that in thinking of the leaves 
of trees and shrubs one had to consider the angle at 
which the sunlight struck them. At the Equator, for 
instance, the light was nearly vertical, and the leaves 
of plants like the Banana might be gigantic in size. 
Tropical trees were unusually large on account of the 
brilliant sun. Going farther north, however, where the 
sunlight struck the leaves at a different angle, we should 
find Pine forests abounding, and these were the most 
ancient trees of the earth’s terrestrial flowering plants. 
The peculiarities of the leaves of the Australian 
gum-trees were next spoken of. These leaves turned 
their edges towards the sun because the country being 
so dry, a flat exposure of them would rob them of their 
moisture. The young gum trees had large leaves 
spread out horizontally in the ordinary way of trees, 
but as they grew older the later-formed leaves turned 
themselves vertically, plainly indicating that this was 
an acquired habit or instinct gained in the life-history 
of that particular group of trees. Dr. Taylor also 
referred to the flattened leaf-stalks of the Australian 
Acacias, as well as to the Gorse and Butcher’s Broom, 
which was the only rvooden-stem specimen of the 
family of which Palms were tropical examples in 
England. Some interesting facts concerning the 
Asparagus plant were related ; how its green branches 
were covered with breathing mouths which did duty 
instead of leaves, the scales on the Asparagus stem 
being aborted leaves. 
- — - 
TREES IN LONDON. 
From a sanitary point of view, it is generally held that 
trees are useful, though some maintain that, near 
houses, they are often harmful from their shutting out 
sunlight. Whatever may be the relative value of 
different views put forward, observations made within 
the last few years seem to establish the fact that within 
a five mile circle from Charing Cross, the amount of 
foliage is decreasing. Many of the main roads leading 
out of London have been planted with trees ; and 
largely, through the influence of the Metropolitan 
Public Gardens Association, many open spaces have been 
beautified by foliage. But while the number of trees 
placed on public ground is increasing, both the number, 
and, through very close lopping, the size of trees on 
private ground is decreasing. And the gains are far 
outbalanced by the losses. 
The losses may be grouped under two heads. 
1. The cutting down of trees completely. This is 
mostly due to clearances for building ; and within the 
five mile circle the destruction of trees in pasture lands 
is small compared with the breaking up of gardens. In 
many parts houses standing in from one to two acres of 
ground are demolished for rows, or closely packed semi¬ 
detached villas, and the gardens are destroyed to make 
