takes measures to perpetuate her work where the hand of man has carried destruction; for, after the old trees have been felled and carried off the ground, young seedlings come up as thick as in the nurseryman's seed-bed.

Its wood is very durable, and resists the action of water excellently. The persons employed at different times in the endeavour to rescue the cargo of the Royal George, which foundered off Spithead, in the year 1782, discovered that the fir-planks had suffered little, if any, injury, while the other timbers of the vessel had been much acted upon by the water and different species of worms.

In Holland this tree has been used for the purpose of preparing the foundations of houses in their swampy soil; 13,659 great masts of this timber were driven into the ground for the purpose of forming the foundation of the Stadthouse at Amsterdam. But it is not only for its timber that we are indebted to this tree; those useful articles, tar, pitch, and turpentine, are all yielded by its sap.

In medicine, our forefathers considered the various productions of this tree of wonderful service, and the distilled water of the cones was reckoned an excellent cosmetic. One old writer, Thomas Bartolinus, disclaims the use of hops in beer as "pernicious and malignant, and apt to usher in infections, nay, plagues, &c.;" he recommends in their stead, "shavings of deal-boards to give a grateful odour to the drink."

THE WILLOW.

THE family of the Willow contains many species and varieties; those best known are the Withy, or Crack Willow (Salix fragilis), the celebrated Weeping Willow (Salix Babylonica), the common

Osier (Salix viminalis), and the White Willow (Salix alba). To form some idea of the extent of the genus Salix, we may observe that more than thirty years ago a botanist enumerated no less than one hundred and sixteen species.

The wood of all this tribe being extremely quick of growth, is generally light, soft, and white, but useful for many purposes, particularly for all kinds of basket-work. The species most commonly planted are the Osier and the Withy, which are grown as pollards, in lands covered by the tide at highwater, or in marshy soils near the water, which are frequently inundated after heavy rains. If intended as an ornament in landscape, and to be allowed to stand until it has attained a considerable size, the White Willow is planted. The wood of this tree, as well as that of several other species, is employed, when cut into narrow shavings, for the purpose of manufacturing willow-bonnets.

But the only tree of this genus which really deserves the name of ornamental is the Weeping Willow, whose beautiful pendent branches form so great an ornament to the banks of ponds and other artificial pieces of water. This elegant tree is a native of the Levant, and is said to have been first introduced into England by the poet Pope, who, having received a present of figs from Turkey, observed that one twig of the basket which contained them was putting out a bud; he planted it in his garden at Twickenham, where it soon grew to a fine tree, and from this tree all the Weeping Willows of England are said to have proceeded. This species of Willow has always been a favourite with the poet and the painter, from its elegant form, and the numerous associations of ideas to which it gives rise. It is noticed in Holy Writ, in the beautiful

lamentation of the daughters of Israel, during the Babylonian captivity: "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion; we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst of them."

The Weeping Willow has been constantly employed as an emblem of grief; it is placed over tombs, and, from its gracefully-drooping foliage, might almost be supposed to be weeping over the monument it decorates. It is generally planted, in landscape scenery, at the water's edge, near some romantic footpath-bridge, which it half conceals, or some glassy pool over which it hangs its streaming foliage,

and dips

Its pendent boughs, stooping as if to drink." The Weeping Willow having been so recently introduced into England, we are unable to record any remarkable specimens; but the White Willow is found in some parts of the country of a considerable size.

A Willow at Alderston, near Haddington, in Scotland, at three feet from the ground, measures thirteen feet in girth.

The Abbot's Willow, at Bury St. Edmund's, is seventy-five feet high, and eighteen feet six inches in girth; it covers an area 204 feet in diameter, and contains 440 feet of solid timber.

We have already said the wood of the Willow is much used in basket-making, but in ancient times this useful wood was applied to many other purposes. The shields of soldiers were formed of basket-work sometimes covered with hides. The coracles of the ancient British were made of wicker-work covered with leather, and Herodotus mentions boats of the same kind on the Tigris and Euphrates, and others of a similar construction are still employed in the East Indies; but in

this case thin slips of bamboo are used instead of osiers.

The flat moist lands of Holland are excellently adapted for the purpose of growing the Willow, and the Dutch Willows are consequently in high repute.

The manufactory of baskets is | carried on by these people to a great extent, and vast quantities are exported. Basket-making affords employment also to many of those unfortunate beings who are depriv ed of the sense of sight.

THE COTTON-TREE.

THE Cotton-tree is an herbaceous plant, a native of the East Indies, growing to about three feet high. The whole plant is downy, and, while young, sweet-scented. The blossom is of a pale yellow, with five red spots at the bottom; and its seeds, which are ripened in September, are immersed in fine white cotton. The Cotton which is pro-. duced in China, and of which the cloth called Nankeen is made, is said to be tinged with red in its vegetable state, which is supposed to be the cause of its washing of a better colour than any cloth that we can manufacture to imitate it. Few plants are more useful than this: it furnishes clothing to the four quarters of the world; and the seeds are an article of food to the inhabitants, where it is cultivated.

There are six species of this genus, of which the Barbadoes cotton is the most cultivated in the West Indies, and forms a considerable branch of their exports. It is set in rows, about five feet apart, grows from four to six feet high, and produces two crops annually; the first in eight months from sowing the seed, and the second four months afterwards. Each plant, at the two gatherings, is reckoned to produce about one pound weight of

cotton; and an acre of land to produce 270 pounds weight on an

average.

The certainty of gathering a good crop, however, is very precarious; since it may be almost literally said of this plant, that in the morning it is green and flourishing, and in the same evening withered and de- | cayed. For when the worms begin to prey upon a whole plantation, though they are, at first, scarcely perceptible to the naked eye; yet in three days they will grow to such a size, and prove so destructive, that the most verdant field, thickly and beautifully clothed with leaves and flowers, is reduced to as naked and desolate a condition as trees are, in the month of December, in England.

When these worms, which, in their caterpillar state, effect all this mischief, have attained to their full growth, they spin and inwrap themselves, as in a bag, or web, like silk-worms, in the few remaining leaves, or any other covering; and, after remaining a few days in this, their chrysalis state, they turn into dark-coloured moths, and fly away. -DUPPA'S Botany.

The Cotton-plant is also found growing naturally in all the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and America, whence it has been transplanted, and has become an important object of cultivation, in the southern parts of the United States, and to some extent also in Europe.

Cotton is distinguished in commerce by its colour, and the length, strength, and fineness of its fibre. White is usually considered as characteristic of secondary quality; yellow, or a yellowish tinge, when not the effect of accidental wetting or inclement seasons, is considered as indicating greater fine

ness.

There are many varieties of raw cotton in the market; their names

being principally derived from the places whence they are brought. They are usually classed under the denominations of long and shortstapled. The best of the first is the Sea Island Cotton, or that brought from the shores of Georgia; but its qualities differ so much, that the price of the finest specimens is often four times as great as that of the inferior. The superior samples of Brazil Cotton are reckoned among the long-stapled. The Upland or bowed Georgia Cotton forms the largest and best portion of the short-stapled class. All the Cottons of India are short-stapled. The inferiority of Bengal and Surat Cotton is sometimes ascribed to the defective mode in which it is prepared; but it is doubted whether it can be grown in India of a better kind. The raw Cotton of the Indian islands has hitherto been almost entirely consumed on the spot. A small quantity of very superior Cotton has been imported from New South Wales.

The manufacture of Cotton has been carried on in Hindostan from the remotest antiquity. Herodotus mentions, that, in India, there are wild trees, that produce a sort of wool, superior to that of sheep, and that the natives dress themselves in cloth made of it. The manufacture obtained no footing worth mentioning in Europe, till last century.M'CULLOCH's Commercial Dictionary.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBU

TION OF PLANTS. ONE of the great uses to which the vegetable wealth of the earth is applied is the support of man, whom it provides with food and clothing; and the adaptation of tribes of indigenous vegetables to every climate, has, we cannot but believe, a reference to the intention that the human race should be diffused over

the whole globe. But this end is not answered by indigenous vegetables alone; and in the variety of vegetables capable of being cultivated with advantage in various countries, we conceive that we find evidence of an additional adaptation of the scheme of organic life to the system of the elements.

The cultivated vegetables which form the necessaries or luxuries of human life, are each confined within limits, narrow, when compared with the whole surface of the earth, yet almost every part of the earth's surface is capable of being abundantly covered with one kind or other of these. When one class fails, another appears in its place. Thus corn, wine, and oil have each its boundaries; wheat extends through the old continent, from England to Thibet, but it stops soon in going northwards, and is not found to succeed in the west of Scotland; nor does it thrive better in the torrid zone than in the polar regions. Within the tropics wheat, barley, and oats, are not cultivated, except in situations considerably above the level of the sea; the inhabitants of those countries have ether species of grain, or other food. The cultivation of the vine succeeds only in countries where the annual temperature is between 50 and 63 degrees. In both hemispheres, the profitable culture of this plant ceases within 30 degrees of the equator, unless in elevated situations, or in islands, as Teneriffe. The limits of the cultivation of maize and of olives in France, are parallel to those which bound the vine and corn in succession to the north. In the north of Italy, west of Milan, we first meet with the cultivation of rice, which extends over all the southern part of Asia, wherever the land can be at pleasure covered with water. In great part of Africa, millet is one of the principal kinds of grain.

Cotton is cultivated to latitude 40 in the new world, but extends to Astrachan, in latitude 46o, in the old. The sugar-cane, the plantain, the mulberry, the betelnut, the indigo-tree, the tea-tree, repay the labours of the cultivator in India and China; and several of these plants have been transferred, with success, to America and the West Indies. In equinoctial America, a great number of inhabitants find abundant nourishment on a narrow space cultivated with plantain, cassava, yams, and maize. The cultivation of the bread-fruit tree begins in the Manillas, and extends through the Pacific; the sago-palm is grown in the Moluccas, the Cabbage-tree in the Pelew Islands.

In this manner the various tribes of men are provided with vegetable food. Some, however, live on their cattle, and thus make the produce of the earth only mediatley subservient to their wants. Thus the Tartar tribes depend on their flocks and herds for food: the taste for the flesh of the horse seems to belong to the Mongols, Finns, and other descendants of the ancient Scythians: the locust-eaters are found now, as formerly, in Africa.

Many of these differences depend upon custom, soil, and other causes, but many are connected with climate; and the variety of the resources which man thus possesses arises from the variety of constitution belonging to cultivable vegetables, through which one is fitted to one range of climate, and another to another. We conceive that this variety and succession of fitness for cultivation shews undoubted marks of a most foreseeing and benevolent design in the Creator of man and of the world.-WHEWELL'S Bridgewater Treatise.

THE REPOSE, OR SLEEP OF PLANTS.

THE alternate state of activity and rest, which appears to be necessary to maintain the body in health, and the mind in vigour, is not confined merely to sentient beings, but pervades the whole economy of nature, whether animate or inanimate. The term sleep (a state of rest), as applied to the vegetable kingdom, is used to express a peculiar state of many plants during the night, evinced by a change in the position, generally a drooping or folding together of their leaves or leaflets. The instances of this state of rest are constantly before our eyes. The Lupin drops listlessly the slender fingers of its leaves at dusk, as if to repose from its daily labour. The Four-o'Clock (Convolvulus minor) closes its blue eyelid betimes in the evening, and opens it again as soon as the sun is well above the horizon.

The famous Linnæus, speaking of this condition of plants, traces the analogous properties possessed by the subjects which compose the animal kingdom, when under the influence of sleep or inactivity. The monkey rests on its side, the camel with its head between the fore legs, and many birds cover their heads with the wing; so, he remarks, the leaves of plants assume different positions during the night. The object, in general, appears to be the protection of some more delicate part of their structure from the effects of the night-air. Some bend downwards over their blossom; the tamarind closes its leaves over the fruit, the acacia does the same, while the intention in other plants is the guarding the under-side of their leaves from injury. It is not to be supposed, that anything approaching to the exhaustion of muscular power is the cause of these phenomena; the effect is most probably to be attri

buted to cold air and the absence of light, retarding the circulation of the sap. To these different positions of the leaves Linnæus has ap plied a variety of names, which would be uninteresting to the general reader.

The most singular instance of this state of plants, and that which first attracted the notice of the great Swedish naturalist, occurred in a species of water-lily, Lotus ornithopodiodes, The plant, being rare, was much prized by its owner, and two blossoms appearing on it, the gardener was particularly cautioned to take care that no accident occurred, until more notice could be taken of it. Business prevented its being thought of until the evening, but when it was produced, no blossom was visible. The next day the flowers were again seen, but in the evening were not to be found; the third day the same thing again occurred, but after a very minute search each blossom was found hidden under three leaves, as if covered with a penthouse, protected from the air, an I quite concealed from the most prying eye. "From this," says Linnæus, we may see that the structure of leaves is not fortuitous, but destined by an omniscient Creator to answer some particular end."

ENDURANCE OF THE VEGE

TATIVE POWER.

As I happened to be at Naples when first Herculaneum was discovered, I should have told you,' that some leather bags of beans, answering exactly to our kidney ones, were found in several corners of their window-seats. According to Horace, the Romans were very fond of that kind of supper. Some English gentlemen were curious enough to sow them on their return; and notwithstanding their having been, to appearance, dead for so many