702 
and adhesive, it may be tempered with a little 
silver sand. In April, after the soil has been 
passed through a sieve, and freed from wire- 
worms, and filled into pots, young plants from 
layers or pipings of last year, should be planted, 
one in each pot. For a time, they require no 
other care than to be properly watered; when 
they begin to “spindle,” each must be allowed 
to send up only one stem, and must be tied up to 
a neat stake; and as soon as they incipiently 
bud, each must be deprived of all its buds except 
three, or, if it be a weak bloomer, it must be de- 
prived of all except two. When the buds be- 
come fully swollen, but before they burst, a liga- 
ture should be tied round each pod, half way 
down, and as soon as the bursting commences, so 
that the ends of the calyx can be separately laid 
hold of, the divisions of the calyx should be torn 
down as far as to the ligature. When the best 
of the bloom is over, the longest shoots of the 
plant, technically called its “grass,” should be 
layered; and in September, the layers may be 
cut off and potted in the loam of rotted turf, 
without any manure. Any of the “grass” which 
is too short for layering may be piped in the 
same manner as pinks. Throughout the winter, 
the plants must be kept dry, well protected from 
rains, frost, and high winds, and abundantly ven- 
tilated during every hour of mild or even moder- 
ate dry weather. Second-rate plants, and even 
the hardier sorts of first-rate ones, may be grown 
in good, well-manured loam, in the open ground ; 
and the layers of them may remain with them 
unprotected, or nearly so, throughout the winter, 
and may be detached and transplanted to situa- 
tions of their own in the open ground in spring. 
Some kinds of excellent plants have so strong 
and healthy a habit of regularly or unburstingly 
expanding their blossoms, that, except for the 
purposes of a special show, they require no tying 
of their pods or splitting down of their calyxes. 
_CARNIVORA. The surface of the earth, 
clothed with verdure, is the inexhaustible source 
whence man and animals derive in common their 
subsistence. Every animated being lives ulti- 
mately upon vegetables, and vegetables are main- 
tained by the debris or remains of everything which 
has lived and vegetated. A perpetual round of ex- 
istence is thus maintained. Without death there 
could be no life, and it is only by annihilating 
other beings that animals are able to support 
themselves, and to continue their species; they 
must either feed on vegetables or upon other 
animals, Yet Nature, like an indulgent mother, 
has fixed limits to this apparently indiscriminate 
destruction. The carnivorous and voracious in- 
dividuals are reduced to a small number, while 
she has largely multiplied both the species and 
individuals which are herbivorous. Man too has 
greatly assisted in exterminating, or confining 
within narrow limits, the predaceous species, and 
in establishing the more peaceful tribes. Among 
the marine genera, although some are herbivor- 
CARNIVORA. 
ous, yet the greater number are nearly equally 
voracious. These devour their own and different 
species without ever appearing to exterminate 
each other, because their fecundity is as great as 
the destruction; and nearly all this mutual con- | 
sumption acts as a new incentive to reproduc- 
tion. 
Man stands foremost among the carnivorous 
tribes. Being the predominant species, he exer- 
cises over the other mammalia the privileges of a 
master. He has chosen those which please his 
taste, and forms them into humble dependents. 
By causing them to multiply more rapidly than 
unassisted Nature would have done, they have 
given rise to numerous flocks; and from the care 
bestowed in their production, he acquires a na- 
tural right of immolating them to satisfy his wants. 
This power, however, extends much farther than 
his necessities would require; for, independent | 
of those species which he has subdued and can dis-_ | 
pose according to his pleasure, he carries on a | 
war of extermination against the wild beasts, the 
birds, and the fishes. 
seeks for new delicacies in the remoter parts of 
the globe. Nature seems scarcely adequate to 
supply this continual demand for variety, and 
man alone may be said to consume more animal 
food than all the other mammalia taken together. 
Next to man, the carnivorous beasts possess the 
most destructive habits, and are at once the ene- 
mies of their fellow-animals, and the rivals of 
man. 
fondness for animal food, they are under the ne- 
cessity of disputing with him the possession of 
their prey ; and in the first ages of human society 
these formed one of the most formidable checks 
to civilization. Even at the present time, in 
civilized Europe, it is by the utmost vigilance 
alone that he can preserve his flocks and poultry 
from the ravages of the wolf, the fox, the ferret, 
and the weasel. All animals, whether of the 
same or of different species, are naturally in a 
state of warfare. It is chiefly in the tribes more 
particularly styled carnivorous, that this war 
proceeds to open hostilities; yet there is a silent 
and a secret opposition of interest, even among 
the most peaceful tribes. As their numbers con- 
tinually increase, food becomes scarce, disease 
thins their numbers, and the remainder fall a 
ready prey to the stronger and fiercer animals. 
Like plants, they destroy each other as effectually 
by the mere occupancy of space as they could 
have done by the fiercest conflicts. The rising 
generation soon repairs the loss occasioned by 
the latter, but nothing can extend the numbers 
of a species beyond the limits marked by Nature 
in the quantity of its food. This universal war 
of species is an established law of Nature, and, 
however startling it may appear at first sight, is 
advantageous on the whole. Violent deaths are 
as necessary to the proper regulation of Nature 
as natural deaths. The latter preserve the per- 
He does not even confine | 
himself to the climate which he inhabits, but | 
Having the same appetites and the same | 
