WINDOW GARDENING, AND THE CULTIVATION OF PLANTS IN ROOMS. DECORATIVE floriculture seems destined to an unusual, indeed unprecedented development, in the present season. The magnificent designs for flower-vases and flower-stands in Palissy ware, exceed in richness of design and almost equal in execution the best works of the originator of the art. The colour of the grounds of some of this beautiful "ware" is extremely beautiful, especially a delicate bloom-like pink, and a soft blue-green, both of which form a beautiful relief to rich designs in the very best style of art. The stand and vase in the centre of our illustration are intended to form a noble and magnificent object in the recess of a drawing-room window. The stand is hollow in the style of the well-known garden-seats of the same ware-and the ornaments are richly tinted with gold colour, blue, and green on a white ground. The vase, which can be used either with or without a rich saucer to match, is enriched with the same tints; but the flowers of the festoon, in high relief, are of their natural colours. It might be thought, that, in such a position-that is to say, on a receptacle intended to contain flowers the imitated coloured sculpture would have been out of place; but the high glaze of the "ware," and the cleverlymanaged tones of the tinting, prevent the idea of any rivalry of the imitative with the real flowers from occurring even to the most hypercritical. But one objection occurred to us, which was, that the cost of the stand (six guineas), and that of the vase (three guineas), placed it wholly out of the power of the many to indulge their taste in the acquisition of such a magnificent luxury. We examined a lower stand, the cost of which was only three guineas, but then the effect was reduced in a still greater proportion than the price. It must not be thought that we consider these beautiful works of art-for such they are to be dear. On the contrary, we think them very cheap; but as their price evidently places them above the means of a very large section of our readers, we sought for a mode of producing an analogous effect in a less expensive manner, and suggest the following plan, which only involves the expenditure of shillings instead of guineas: The effect intended to be produced is shown in the pair of stands and vases placed on either side of the Minton-Palissy vase and stand in our illustration. They are merely wooden frames-such as may be made by any ordinary carpenter with glass panels, ornamented by the wellknown process now termed "Potichomanie." The wooden frame is intended to be painted white, with a few lines of gold colour, and to be highly varnished. The glass panels, which need only be common crown glass, about two feet high by ten inches wide, would cost a mere trifle at the present low price of that article; and the ornament is, of course, supposed to be supplied by the ingenious floricultural amateur. In case the reader may not know the process by which glass is now so frequently ornamented, as described, the following brief outline of a process that will answer equally well may be supplied :-Take a piece of good paper, of the size of the glass panel, and make upon it the required design. That shown in our illustration is formed by giving a pleasing shape to the panel by a scroll-work of pale gold colour, beyond which the space is filled up with rich turquoise blue, while the centre of the panel is left white-the ornaments upon which are green foliage turned up with pink. When the outline of the design is perfect, trace it on to another piece of drawing-paper of the same size, in order that it may be quite clean. Then size the paper with isinglass or gum-dragon, and colour the ornaments with colour ground in water, to which a little isinglass size must be added. When the design is quite dry, cut it out very accurately-cutting all the ground away-then dip the ornament so cut out into isinglass size, and while wet, lay on the glass in the position required, to which it will adhere closely. When perfectly dry, paint over the centre of the panel an opaque white ground, and on the other portion a blue ground. The white may be simply white lead, with a little isinglass; the blue pale ultramarine subdued with white, with the addition of a little emerald green to give the turquoise tone. These grounds should be painted on very solid, as they serve also to fix and protect the ornaments in their places. When dry, the glass panels may be fixed inside the frame, just as a simple pane of glass is put into a window. Prepared as described, they will produce the effect of the richest porcelain, especially if the design be good. The square vases, to receive the flower-pots, which surmount these pedestals in our illustration, may be constructed in a precisely similar manner. They may either be lined with zinc, so as to receive themselves the mould in which the flowers are planted, or be merely the receptacles for a large flower-pot, which may be concealed with moss. We have seen a pair of jardinieres constructed in this manner at the cost of a few shillings, which formed really very splendid objects. The flowers with which they are furnished in our illustration are merely polyanthuses, but the effect of that simple spring flower when so treated is very striking. BODY VERSUS MIND. THE first of these which we shall allude to is the too sudden adoption of extreme studious habits. A man who has for some time neglected his studies, finds himself unprepared as the time of examination approaches; at once he changes all his habits, applying himself the greater part of the day and night to work. Naturally enough the system rebels against this abuse. The muscular tissue will not bear such treatment; let him try to walk ten or twelve hours in one day without training, and gradually increasing the amount of exercise, and he will be most painfully reminded that or ganization has its laws which cannot be violated with impunity. The brain tissue cannot be expected to be more enduring, or moretolerant of such liberties than this; let us but treat it as we would any other organ, then we shall find it as ready to act, and its action as little hurtful or painful as those. The mind must be gradually inured to labour, and then, instead of an enfeebled palsied development, we may hope to become able to perform mental athletics to almost any extent without danger, and with ease and profit. It is a most common mistake, in considering the mind as immaterial, to lose sight of this most important fact, that it acts always and exclusively through the medium of a material tissue; which being, on the one hand, subject to an immaterial essence, does not, on the other, thereby lose its relation to the material organism of which it is an important part. Another source of evil is the neglect of the corporeal requirements for a great number of hours consecutively. It is almost certain that the same amount of work which often proves injurious by its continuity, might be achieved with ease, if it were divided by short intervals of rest and refreshment. We appeal to the experience of all students, if during the earlier efforts, nature did not give broad hints of requiring repose and restoratives. The stomach asserts its right to food at proper intervals, but it is put off-"go thy way for this time, when I have a ;" then when the exhausted powers refuse any longer to work without fuel, the meal is but a business to be accomplished as speedily as possible; the food is swallowed unmasticated, and the stomach, loaded perhaps with a mass of indigestible material, convenient season is further impeded in its operations by the immediate resumption of a cramped, constrained, and compressed attitude. Indigestion with its thousand evils is the natural result. Then the head aches, and its hint is evaded by a wet towel, and perhaps an irritating stimulant, as a cup of strong tea or coffee; under the influence of which, temporary power, or a semblance of it, is regained. The weary eye, the aching limb, the general febrile condition-all these are disregarded; day by day the same process is repeated; until the wonder is, not that the brain gives way at length, but that it has held out so long-longer, we venture to say, as an ordinary rule, than any other organ would have done under an equivalent amount of ill-treatment. Yet in all this, the fact of mental labour simply is not more to be blamed, than is commerce for the great number of deaths brought about by the all-absorbing desire of gain, the auri sacra fames which operates in precisely the same secondary manner upon the health and character. The neglect of fresh air, regular exercise, and early rising, enters into the same category of the secondary causes. Yet there are other conditions attendant too often upon a literary life, which are inherent in our nature, and in the existing order of our social arrangements, which exert a most important and gloomy influence upon the reaction of mind upon the body; such as the co-operation of poverty, of wearing anxiety, of the depressing passions and emotions generally; and finally, in an overwhelming majority of cases, the pre-existence of elements of degeneracy and disease in the organism. History bears testimony to the longevity of men whose lives have been essentially intellectual. The following analysis of certain tables, constructed by Mr. Madden, shows the average ages of the various classes of students. He states that each list contains twenty names, in which "no other attention has been given to the selection than that which eminence suggested, without any regard to the ages of those who presented themselves to notice." Aggregate years. Aver. 1417... 70 1412... 70 69 1394 1368 ... 68 The practical deductions of the author are very instructive and forcible, and we give them as follows: 1. Devotion to intellectual pursuits and to studies, even of the most severe and unremitting character, is not incompatible with extreme longevity, terminated by a serene and unclouded sunset. When Fontenelle's brilliant career terminated, and he was asked if he felt pain, he replied, "I only feel a difficulty of existing." 2. Mental application is a powerful remedy in diseases both of body and mind; and its power as a remedy is proportionate to its intensity as a pursuit. 3. The emotions, especially those of a depressing kind, as anxiety, fear, &c., have a remarkable influence in giving a tone to, and intensifying the morbific effects of excessive mental labour. Yet in some cases, as in those of Byron and Cowper, the best and only resource against despair is found in composition. 4. The turmoils of active life do not appear to render intellectual labour more injurious to the system; possibly here also the influence may be counteracting. Milton, the secretary to the Commonwealth, in times when men lived years in months-blind and in domestic discomfort, writing his immortal poems; John Wesley, persecuted and almost an outcast from his former friends-in "labours more abundant "-denying himself natural rest and refreshment, yet acting with mind and body with unparalleled energy; Voltaire, the apostle of infidelity, at war with more than the whole world; Luther, hunted by principalities and powers like a wild beast-these and a cloud of others warred with the existing order of things, and remained masters of themselves and their mental powers to a ripe old age. 5. The injurious effects of mental labour are in a great measure owingTo excessive forcing in early youth. To sudden and misdirected study. To the co-operation of depressing emctions or passions. To the neglect of the ordinary rules of hygiene. or, To the neglect of the hints of the body; To the presence of the seeds of disease, degeneration, and decay in the system. 6. The man of healthy phlegmatic or choleric temperament is less likely to be injured by application than one of the sanguine or melancholic type; yet these latter, with allowance for the original constitution, may be capable of vast efforts. 7. The extended and deep culture of the mind exerts a directly conservative influence upon the body. Fellow-labourer! one word to you before we conclude. Fear not to do manfully the work for which your gifts qualify you; but do it as one who must give an account both of soul and body. Work and work hard, whilst it is day; but the night cometh soon enough-do not hasten it. Use your faculties, use them to the utmost, but do not abuse them-make not, the mortal do the work of the immortal. The body has its claims-it is a good servant; treat it well, and it will do your work; it knows its own business; do not attempt to teach or to force it; attend to its wants and requirements; listen kindly and patiently to its hints, occasionally forestall its necessities by a little indulgence, and your consideration will be repaid with interest. But task it, and pine it, and suffocate it; make it a slave instead of a servant; it may not complain much, but, like the weary camel in the desert, it will lay it down and die. THE BAROMETER AND THE WEATHER. THE Barometer, though well known as regards its general appearance and uses, is not so commonly understood in reference to its principle and construction. It will he the object of this article to explain the principle of its action, and also to point out with such precision as observation and experience justify, the exact phenomena which its changes indicate. The barometer, or rather its principle, was first discovered by Galileo. It is recorded that whilst residing at Florence, he was applied to on the occasion of the Grand Duke having sunk a deep well, and finding that the water would not rise to the top when a pump was set to work, he sent for the philosopher to explain the mystery. Galileo observed that the column of water rose in the pump to about thirtytwo feet, and that all attempts to raise it higher by means of the sucker were useless. He therefore concluded that the sucker was not the cause of the water's rising to a given height, as was the opinion at that time; but that the pressure of the atmosphere on the surface of the water in the well caused that water to rise into the tube of the pump, and so fill the space which had been emptied of air by the action of the sucker. The phenomenon was afterwards discussed between Galileo and his pupil, Torricelli, and the latter first demonstrated the principle, in which consists the whole value of the barometer as a philosophical instrument. He found that the atmospheric pressure on the surface of the water would support a column of water, in an exhausted tube closed at the top, to the height of about 32 feet; but being sensible that such a column would, from its height, be very ill-suited for conducting his experiments, he chose mercury, a fluid fourteen times heavier than water, and consequently better adapted for the experiment. In the year 1643 he accordingly took a glass tube, about 40 inches in height, and a quarter of an inch in the bore. Having sealed one end, he filled the tube with mercury; then placing his finger at the open end in order to secure the mercury, and inverting the tube, he plunged the extremity, thus secured by his finger, into a cistern containing mer eury, and having a certain quantity of water upon its surface. Having passed the open end of the tube through the water, and below the surface of the mercary, he withdrew his finger. Upon this, the mercury in the tube instantly fell to about 30 inches above the surface of the mercury in the cistern. On his raising the open end of the tube until it became level with the bottom of the water, the mercury instantaneously sank entirely out of the tube; while the water with the same rapidity, sprang up to the top and occupied the whole of the cavity. It would, of course, by the laws of specific gravity, have risen to the height of about thirtytwo feet, had the tube been sufficiently long. Torricelli then clearly saw that the columns, both of mercury and of water, distinguished men with the Torricellian tube, would be to extend the limits of this paper beyond the objects proposed. It may be sufficient for us to know that the principle remains precisely the same. By the barometer we are enabled to determine the pressure of the atmosphere, which is known to be about 15 lbs. on a square inch. This fact is proved when the air is exhausted, by means of an air-pump, from any glass receiver or air-tight box. The principle of the Torricellian tube having been thus explained, and its power shown of registering the incumbent weight of the atmosphere, it now remains to describe the barometer as it is made for domestic purposes, and as we find it hanging up in most houses, as a standard of reference for changes which are likely to take place in the weather. The first |