WE

E continue without preface our extracts from this History of Vegetables; a few columns of which administer to the miscellaneous nature of our various sheet.

Mint. Should be cut for drying, just when it is in flower, and on a fine day; for, if cut in damp weather, the leaves will turn black. It should be tied in small bunches, and dried in a shady place out of the wind; but, to retain its natural virtues more effectually, it has been found better to place the mint in a screen, and to dry it quickly before a fire, so that it may be powdered, and immediately put into glass bottles and kept well stopped. Parsley, thyme, sage, and other herbs, retain their full fragrance when thus prepared, and are by this mode secured from dust, and always ready to the hand of the cook.

A conserve made of mint is grateful, and the distilled waters, both simple and spiritous, are much esteemed. The juice of spearmint drunk in vinegar, often stops the hiccup. Lewis observes, what has before been observed by Pliny, that mint prevents the coagulation of milk, and hence is recommended in milk diets. When dry, and digested in rectified spirits of wine, it gives out a tincture which appears by day-light of a fine dark green, but by candle-light of a bright red colour; a small quantity is green by day-light or candle-light; a large quantity seems impervious to day-light, but when held between the eye and the candle, or between the eye and the sun, it appears red. If put into a flat bottle, it appears green sideways; but when viewed edgeways, red.

Mushrooms. So much are mushrooms now in request, that we cannot content ourselves with mushroom beds only, but we have mushroom houses also. The author, on referring to his diary of November fourteenth, finds a memorandum that would have puzzled our forefathers.

"While gathering a mushroom, the ladder slipped and I was precipitated to the ground, but without injury."

The mushrooms in the house alluded to, were growing on beds supported one over the other by broad shelves of elm planks, with a deep ledge to keep up the earth.

As light is not necessary for the growth of this high-flavoured vegetable, almost every country-seat may furnish an out-house for the purpose of obtaining mushrooms at all seasons, and of a safe quality.

The author has observed that the upper shelves in his Majesty's mushroom house at Kensington, were equally or more productive than those below thus by good arrangement a small shed, or even a closet, may be made sufficient for the supply of a moderate family. As mice will destroy the spawn or young mushrooms, either traps must be set, or ingress allowed to their purring enemy.

In the neighborhood of London, experienced mushroom-men go about at the proper season, collecting vast quantities of spawn for the supply of seedsmen, who sell it by the bushel, the price varying according to the favourableness of the weather when it is collected.— Since mushrooms have been so much grown on hot-beds, and more minutely attended to, the plant has been found so perfect, that it can either be raised by seed or propagated by roots, the several filaments at the root producing tubercles in the manner of potatoes, from each of which will arise new roots and a new plant or flower.

The following simple and easy method is recommended for trying the quality of field mushrooms: take an onion, and strip the outer skin, and boil it with them; if it remains white, they are good, but if it become blue or black, there are certainly dangerous ones among them.

The most venomous sort is one that rises out of the earth about six inches high, rounding and hollow like a bladder, red as scarlet, full of holes like fine wrought net work; which is most probably the Clathrus cancellatus. There is one kind of these mushrooms that is

said to kill the very flies that settle on them.

Matthiolus mentions mushrooms that weighed thirty pounds each. Fer. Imperatus tells us, he saw some which weighed above one hundred pounds a-piece. The Journal des Scavans furnishes us with an account of some growing on the frontiers of Hungary, which made a full cart load.

A mushroom of the very first quality was lately gathered in the neighborhood of Brigg, in Lincolnshire, which measured three feet four inches in circumference; girth of the stalk, five inches and a half; it was two inches in thickness, and weighed twenty-nine ounces. Six others were gathered at the same time near the above, averaging about two feet in circumference.

Chambers relates, that some years ago, an extraordinary mushroom grew upon an old piece of timber in a blacksmith's cellar in the Haymarket, and attained the height of twelve inches or more, and when cut down, appeared again at the same time the next year, and so for several succeeding years. In the year 1692, M. Tournefort found such an one growing on an old beam in the abbey at St. Germain's: the smell was like others of the same kind. An infusion from part of it turned an infusion of turnsol into to a bright red; so that it evidently abounded in acids. This seed must have been brought by some accident to these situations, unless the fungi originated in the decaying timber. Lord Bacon says, "It is reported, that the bark of white or red poplar (which may be classed amongst the moistest trees) cut small and cast into furrows well dunged, will cause the ground to put forth mushrooms, at all seasons of the year, fit to be eaten; some add to the mixture leaven bread, resolved in water. It is also reported, that if a hilly field, where the stubble is standing, be set on fire, in the showery season it will put forth great store of mushrooms."

Parsley. The seed should be sown in the spring; it remains six weeks in the earth; it never appears in less than forty days, nor does it often exceed fifty: thus it takes longer to vegetate than any other known seed; but it is ob

served that old seed comes up earlier than new.

Parsley, when rubbed against a glass goblet or tumbler, will break it; the cause of this phenomenon is not known, To preserve parsley for the seasoning of meats, &c. let it be gathered on a dry day, and immediately put into a tinned roasting-screen, and placed close to a large fire; it will then soon become brittle, when it may be rubbed fine, and put into glass bottles for use.

Rosemary. It is still the custom in some parts of this country, as well as in France, to put a branch of rosemary in the hands of the dead when in the coffin; and we are told by Valmont Bomare, in his Histoire Naturelle, "that when the coffins have been opened after several years, the plant has been found to have vegetated so much that the leaves have covered the whole corpse. This account savours more of superstition than of the nature of the plant.

It is still the custom at the hospitals in France to burn rosemary with juniper berries, to correct impure air, and to prevent infection. The custom of using it at funerals may have had reference to this virtue in the plant.

Without entering into the extravagant opinions of the ancients respecting odours, we cannot avoid thinking that the effect which different smells and perfumes have on the mind as well as the health, is not at present sufficiently attended to.

Most people acknowledge to have felt the refreshing odour of tea and coffee before tasting them; and in heated rooms the fragrance of a cut lemon, or a recently sliced cucumber, has been observed to give general refreshment.

The ancients held certain odours in great veneration. Among the Israelites, the principal perfume of the sanctuary was forbidden for all common uses. The smell of the incense and burnt offerings in their sacrifices was thought to dispose the mind to devotion; while others were used to excite love. "I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon."* perfumes were prescribed to procure

Some

THE HE view of the Lake of Como from the town is confined to a small circular basin, surrounded by high hills, and enlivened by villas. On doubling a low headland, a very beautiful reach is seen. The mountains rise on each side boldly from the water's edge, and their summits terminate in peaks of varied form and elevation. Their gradual ascent (in Gibbon's words) is covered by a triple plantation of olives, of vines, and of chesnuttrees, and they are clothed nearly to their summits with verdure. The green mass of the woods is agreeably interrupted in various places by small villages, clustering round the slender tower of the church, or by the solitary convent or chapel, whilst the white villas which crowd the shores are reflected in the transparent waters which flow close under their walls. About three miles from Como we came to the promontory and small village of Torno. It forms a very picturesque object, sloping gradually from the higher hills, and projecting far into the lake, with its houses, church, and cypress-trees. Here some have placed Pliny's two villas-his Tragedy and Comedy. The situation has sufficient beauty, and agrees well enough with Pliny's description to warrant us in placing them here; but there is nothing like conclusive evidence of their having occupied this site. We coasted the Eastern shore of the lake from Torno, admiring, as we advanced, the beauty and

boldness of the scenery, and, about two miles farther, landed at a modern villa called the Pliniana. Here, in the inner court of the house, is the intermitting fountain described by both Plinys. Its source is under a low cavern; it runs with great rapidity, and is as clear as crystal. The attendant informed us, that it still rises and falls thrice a day, but at uncertain hours. It does not, I think, appear from Pliny's account, that he had a villa close to this fountain; and, indeed, the confined situation, hardly allowing room for a house, is very ill adapted to the space of a Roman mansion. The site however, of the Pliniana is very beautiful; it is embosomed in a grove of chesnuts, laurel, and cypress; it clings close to the rocky bill which rises immediately above it; and commands an extensive and magnificent view of the lake.

I shall subjoin Pliny's description of his villas on the lake, as tending to il lustrate the beautiful scenery in which his elegant genius seems so much to have delighted. "On this shore I have many villas, but two, as they please me most, so principally engage me. The one placed on rocks, after the Baian fashion, looks over the lake; the other, also, in the Baian manner, touches its waters: wherefore, that I am accustomed to call Tragedy, because she is supported on buskins; this, Comedy, because her feet are sandaled. Each has its peculiar charms, which, to the

possessor of both, are, from their very diversity, rendered more attractive. This enjoys the lake more closely; that more extensively-this embraces in its prospect one bay only of a soft circling outline; that with its lofty promontory divides two :-from that the extended line of coast, stretching to a great distance, appears like a school of equestrian exercise; from this the gentle curve of the shore forms a spacious

and sheltered portico for pedestrian recreation. That feels not the waves; this breaks them;-from that you can look down upon the fishermen: from this you can partake in the sport yourself, and throw the hook from your chamber, nay, almost from your bed, as from a boat. These united attractions have induced me to make to each those additions in which they are separately deficient."—Pliny, B. ix. Ep. 7.

THE

HE moon was shining bright, and we could distinguish objects so as to form a correct notion of the tree. The obscurity diffused beneath the foliage added to the grandeur and solemnity of the scene. Its leafy colonnades, its verdant arcades, its immense festoons, the spacious area that this giant of the forest covers with its shade, its enormous trunks, all concur to attest its antiquity, and I experienced emotions similar to what are felt in the vast basilicos of the gothic order, while the freshness which emanated from the thick foliage seemed to give me new life.

The ground which this tree covers with its branches, as far as I could judge, is about three or four acres. They ascend to such a height as to be visible in a radius of many miles; at certain distances the tree appears like a hill, forming one extremity of the island. On the east the river washes its foot; to the south and west are sand banks, which are covered at high tides. The northern part of the island is a tongue stretching about three miles. The soil, light and sandy, has some fertility.

When the river overflows, towards the end of the rainy season, the island becomes inundated. This forces the few islanders that inhabit it, with the

apes, their neighbours, to seek refuge in the higher parts of the tree, where they remain perched several days, till the waters retire; such being their ra pidity, that no boat can manœuvre in them.

A singular tradition exists among the Hindoos respecting this tree. They relate that a man of the name of Kebyr, renowned for sanctity, after cleansing his teeth in the Indian manner, with a piece of wood, threw it into the river, where it took root so as to form, in time, this prodigious tree. After his death, the saint had the honours of canonization, and we saw his statue in a temple near one of the most ancient trunks, supposed to be the piece of wood that served him for a tooth pick.

To this temple repair all the neighbouring villagers, and a multitude of strangers arrive to pay their devotions. The duty of celebrating the ceremonies is confined to the mendicants named Biragys, superintended by a chief who resides in that island. With an exception of the students that dwell on the neighbouring continent, the rest are wanderers that come from all parts of India. Our intention was to pass the night under the protection of the saint, but not having our hammocks we were obliged to take to our boat, and pass the night in it, instead of a temple.