do a variety of jobs in bell-ropes and things of that kind, would run very rusty were any plan of laying out a sixpence upon the churchyard proposed. I am a churchwarden, and, after doing all I can for the decent support and maintenance of the fabric of the church, fight desperate battles with the churchmen in resisting their unwarrantable claims to fees at visitations. I believe these fees are illegal, and cannot be enforced; but I am threatened with all sorts of spiritual punishments, excommunication, and what not, to all of which I am perfectly indifferent. But were the moneys now demanded as visitation fees laid out in improving churchyards, there would be sufficient to keep them in very high order. We want a reform in these matters more than in any other. There are popular prejudices with regard to interments which have to be overcome, and which are generally more durable than any other impressions, as they are founded on religious superstition; just as Sir G. Wilkinson tells us that the incision in mummies was always performed with a flint, long after the introduction of iron as an instrument, because the system originated before the use of metals. The Cornelian family at Rome kept up the custom of interring the dead entire, long after the practice of cremation. Sylla was the first of his race who ordered his body to be burned. In the same way our peasants, although immensely attached to their churchyards, are averse to alterations, such as planting trees. We had some limes planted in our churchyard many years ago, which, for a time, gave great offence. The grand assemblage of trees in a necropolis of the extent you contemplate would produce a noble effect. Allan Cunningham wished, naturally enough, to repose where daisies grew; and another poet (Moore) describes the wish of the friends of the departed, to

"make her a grave where the sunbeams rest, When they promise a glorious morrow."

To a lover of the vegetable world, a desire to repose amid a forest of various trees is the most consonant to his pursuits and feelings. Hitherto we have been contented in England with the yew, as the southern nations were with the cypress, which alone Horace permits to follow us to the grave:

But enough for the present.-H. A. M. May 3. 1843.

66

FRANCIS'S trans.

Preservation of Fruits. After what I sent you in my last letter [see p. 186.], I know not what there is of novelty in the method of preserving fruits by M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps so much lauded in the French journals, and announced in the Mémorial Encyclopédique for 1838, p. 420., in these terms:The Royal Society of Horticulture formerly proposed a prize for the preserv ation of fruits; the question has been completely resolved by M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps, who has decided that it is necessary to have recourse to artificial cold to retard the maturation of fruits and to render it stationary, and to whom a gold medal has been awarded in consequence at the general meeting of the 3d of June, 1838. His simple and inexpensive method, which consists in keeping the fruit well enclosed and protected from moisture, and at an equal temperature a little above that of melting ice, might have been made a very advantageous speculation for the inventor; but this learned agriculturist preferred giving gratuitously to the public a process which will no doubt become the basis of a new species of industry. M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps had boxes made of zinc 1 ft. high and 6 in. broad, with a detached lid of the same metal with a projecting rim. He wrapped each of his pears in a piece of thin (?) paper (papier Joseph), and over that another cover of common brown paper; the pears being thus enveloped, he placed them in layers in his boxes till they

were full. Each box contained, in general, from eighteen to twenty pears, disposed in four or five layers, one above another, and the pears only separated from each other by the thickness of the sheet of paper. The boxes being filled, M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps replaced the lid, sealed it hermetically by pasting thick paper on the rim, placed several of these little zinc boxes in a wooden case, and deposited the whole in an ice-house immediately on the ice." The wells and cisterns of Marcus Columella have the same effect as the icehouse of M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps; and the closing hermetically, and the impermeability to moisture, are found as well in the vases of Columella as in the zinc boxes of M. Loiseleur: it only remains to be seen if the fruit preserved according to the process of Loiseleur turns speedily sour, like the grapes preserved according to the method of Columella.

All this, and many other things which for brevity's sake I omit, might be communicated to M. W. C. Bosse, who announces : "I intend to make more experiments on preserving plums, particularly by putting them in closely stopped bottles, and immersing them in water." There is no doubt but this attempt will be successful, because an equal temperature and exclusion of air seem to be the principal agents in preserving fruit, and where can both be obtained with greater certainty than in water? (See Gardener's Magazine, for 1839, p. 604.) Giuseppe Manetti. Monza, April 27. 1843.

Cato's Method of preserving Grapes.-" The ancients for the most part preserved in vases the sircitulan, venuculan, larger aminian, and Gallic grapes, and those which had the largest berries, hard and loose. Now, in general, the grapes of Numidia are more especially preserved for this use. They are gathered when they are tolerably ripe, in a calm sky, when the sun has dispelled the dew, at the fourth or third hour, in the wane of the moon and after it has set. The stalks are immediately sealed, and they are then put upon a lattice in such a way that one bunch does not touch or rub against another. Having done this, they are brought in doors and the decayed berries are cut off with the scissors; and being somewhat refreshed in the shade, three or four bunches are put in an earthen vessel, and, the lid being put on, they are thoroughly sealed down, so that no moisture may penetrate. After this a mass of grape dregs which have been well pressed are thrown on the top of them, and after having scattered about the stalks a little, and separated the husks, you form a bed of them in the cask, in which these vases are to be distributed with the mouth downwards, and so much space left between them as that the dregs may be heaped up and trodden in. This first bed being made with the dregs well trodden in, in the same manner another is formed with the vases. Afterwards, other strata are formed with the vases in a similar manner in the casks, and in the intervals the dregs are well pressed in. After which the dregs are heaped up to the brim of the cask, which is immediately covered, and the lid fastened down with ashes prepared like cement. We must warn those who buy the vases not to purchase those that are porous or ill burnt, because, in either case, they would admit the damp, which would spoil the grapes. It is also necessary in taking out the vases to remove an entire layer of them, for, when the accumulated husks are once moved, the grapes soon become sour and spoil."— Idem.

Garden Walks. In order that garden walks should not be dusty or muddy, and be easier to free from grass, or rather produce as little as possible of it, it was proposed in your Magazine to use asphalt, a sort of gum (catrame), and pyroligneous acid. (See Vol. for 1839, p. 188, 189. 618. and 619.) Let us see if there is not something analogous in Marcus Porcius Cato. In chap. 92. and 130., we read: "In making a walk, let the earth be finely dug and well saturated with lees of oil, then pulverise it, and level with a roller or mallet. Sprinkle a second time with lees, and leave it to dry. Such a walk will suffer no injury from ants, grass will not grow on it, nor will it be sloppy after showers." Now, what great difference is there, either in the chemical composition or in the effect, between the dregs (morchia) of the ancient Sabine, and the gum (catrame) and asphalt of the moderns?- Idem.

Nutritive Properties of Elm Leaves. In the Number for March of the same year, 1839, p. 125., a notice is given by M. Poiteau of the nutritive properties of the leaves of the elm, as forage for horned cattle. This is also an idea contemporary with Cato the censor. In proof of it, let us look at chap. 30. De Re Rustica: "Feed the cows on elm, poplar, oak, and fig leaves, as long as they last." And also in this neighbourhood, perhaps from tradition, but more certainly from experience, the leaves of the elm are so esteemed for fattening horned cattle, that the trees are stripped of their leaves twice a year; and, in fact, there is here no forage nor hay which fattens cattle more quickly than the foliage of the elm. We may presume that these nutritive properties depend on the mucilage contained in the parenchymal tissue, and thence we may conclude that the Ulmus fúlva, from what has been said in the Gardener's Magazine for April 1840, p. 231., is the most abundant in mucilage, and will furnish, in its twigs and leaves, the most nutritive fodder for cattle.

If in these and many other things modern discoveries coincide with more ancient practices, there are also other subjects in which the ancient practice is entirely discordant to the modern doctrine. Thus, for example, Cato sowed the seeds of cupressus in soil well manured with sheep or goat dung. In opposition to this, Prof. Lindley, in his excellent Theory of Horticulture, p. 354., observes, "coniferous plants can scarcely bear any manure.”—Giuseppe Manetti. Monza, April 27. 1843.

Yellow Glass suggested for Plant-houses. A hundred other comparisons could be made, but let the shades of the ancient Romans repose for the present, and let us turn our attention to an argument of the day. From the excellent observations of the celebrated T. A. Knight, the necessity is evident of letting the plants repose or grow torpid, to induce them to produce flowers and fruit in season. Prof. Lindley says that " very low temperature, under the influence of much light, by retarding and diminishing the expenditure of sap of the growth of plants comparatively with its creation, produces nearly similar effects, and causes an early appearance of fruit." This being granted, and the observations of Mr. Horner of Hull and Mr. Hunt, mentioned in Gard. Mag., 1841, p. 629. and 630., being borne in mind, will it not be useful, in furnishing the elaborated matter destined for resting plants, to have the glass of a yellow colour? - Idem.

ART. V. Queries and Answers.

LARCH Plantations at Linley.—I propose visiting the extensive larch plantations of the late Mr. More, of Linley in Shropshire, who, I have been informed, first introduced this tree into our country. This gentleman, upon a fortune of about 1000l. per annum, clothed a naked country with noble woods, erected a spacious mansion-house, employed a considerable number of labourers in various improvements, travelled over most countries in Europe, collected a valuable library, employed artists in making drawings in natural history, introduced new species of forest trees and exotics, was an independent member of the senate in several parliaments, and left his fortune unencumbered. You will credit me that he was not a man of unnecessary show and parade. (E. Harries, Esq., of Hanwood, in Young's Annals of Agriculture, vol. xiii. p. 100.)

Can any

of our readers oblige us with an account of the present state of the larch plantations at Linley, and of the exotic trees introduced there by Mr. More?. Cond.

-

DIED, on the 4th of April, at Sedbury Park, Yorkshire, William Sawrey Gilpin, Esq., Landscape-Gardener, late of Painesfield, East Sheen, aged 81. (Times, April 7. 1843.)

THE

GARDENER'S MAGAZINE,

JULY, 1843.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

ART. I. Comparative Physiology. By R. LYMBURN.

(Continued from p. 215.)

IN Chap. II. On Vital Stimuli, Dr. Carpenter says: "It has been shown in the last chapter, that the actions of living beings depend on an organised structure possessing vital properties, and certain agents necessary to call the operation of these properties into existence. In the higher classes especially, of living beings, the influence of the stimuli supplied by alimentary materials, heat, light, electricity, &c., is directed towards the preparation of a nutrient fluid, which contains the elements of all the solid tissues of the body, and which not only supplies the materials of growth, but stimulates the organs to the performance of their actions. Light, heat, &c., serve as external stimuli, and their immediate action is upon the simplest of the organic processes. The nutrient fluid is the chief internal stimulus to the nutritive actions of the system, assisted by the continued influence of external agents. The motion of the blood through the lungs is as dependent upon the influence of the air in the cells, as sneezing is upon a stimulant applied to the nostrils; and, if the circulation be suspended, the nerves and muscles lose their power, from the want of the stimulant action of the blood. Both the external and internal stimuli must thus be regarded as vital, as they not only give rise to vital actions, but these actions conduce to the maintenance of life. The action of the internal stimuli will be best considered under the functions of absorption, nutrition, respiration, &c. The dependence of life on the external stimuli, heat, light, electricity, &c., is greater in proportion to the perfection of the structure, and the variety of its organs, and vice versa. Beings of a simple organisation are capable of enduring a deprivation of these stimuli, which would be fatal to those higher in the scale; as the more developed the parts of the system are, the more closely are the parts connected with one another.

"The simpler the condition of any organism, the more susceptible is it of being modified in form and structure by external causes. In the more simple embryonic state also, changes are more easily effected: the germ is hybridised by being furnished with different nutrient matter from another female parent than usual; the bee is changed from a working neuter to a queen by peculiarities in the cell and food; and, among the lowest groups of plants, there seems reason to believe that the same germ may assume very different forms, according to the circumstances under which it is developed."

Some have denied the existence of any such thing as stimuli at all, especially as applied to the alimentary materials. It is, they say, the production of the aliment in a proper form, and under the requisite circumstances, that produces activity in the vital functions. When the circulating fluid contains the proper elements, in the requisite condition for absorption, nutrition, &c., these functions will become active, which would cease to be the case, if the necessary changes were not produced by reaction, &c. The presence of nitrogen in the form of ammonia, and alkaline substances, in the young shoots and leaves of plants, producing the well-known dark-green colour so characteristic of vigour, has been thought to produce a stimulating action on the organs, increasing their activity. It has been sometimes known to take place without vigour of growth following; and it may be doubtful whether it denotes the proper state of the food for growth merely, or produces a stimulating action. From the excitability prevalent, however, through all organised tissues, their capability of being stimulated to action has been generally inferred. Müller defines stimulus as a reaction following a disturbing cause, something similar to elasticity, in which a power of attraction causes the disturbed particles to communicate the attempt to displace a portion to the whole, and bring into activity a power of restitution, accompanied by elasticity. The power of reaction or restitution, he says, in organised beings, is, however, more uniform than the elasticity, &c., of inorganic, and arises from that fundamental property resident in them, of counterbalancing disturbances in their composition by a force which, in the healthy state of the body, is much stronger than the disturbing cause. Dutrochet calls excitability a state of susceptibility of excitation. The power of resisting excitation has by others been termed a vital property, antagonist of that of the chemical or exciting, which tends to destroy; and the capability of stimulus would, from the above definition, appear to be a capability of displaying vital actions, or a susceptibility thereto. The quiescent state of the vital principle he terms "a capability of living;" the simplest organised beings retaining this state longest, and seeming least