covered Iodine in the bones of the head of the crab and of the large lobster, but he could not find it in the common lobster. 17. Method of restoring the White Colours in certain Paintings.-M. Merimée having observed, in a design by Raphael, that the lights had lost their brightness, applied to M. Thenard for his advice. This distinguished chemist ascribed the effect to the circumstance, that the white lead dissolved in water had become sulphuretted by the lapse of time, and had been changed from white to black; and having sent to M. Merimée some slightly oxygenated water, it was applied to the black parts, and the white colour was instantly restored. The water contained only five or six times its volume of oxygen. There is reason to think, that this method will not succeed equally well with oil paintings. Journ. de Physique, Mai 1820, p. 398. III. NATURAL HISTORY, BOTANY. 18. Fig-Trees.-In Scotland the fig-tree requires to be planted in a sheltered situation, and to be trained to a wall having á southern aspect. Without these precautions, the fruit would not ripen in ordinary seasons. But the necessary consequence of training to a wall is the production of strong and succulent shoots, the wood of which has not time to acquire firmness or maturity. Our Scottish fig-trees must therefore be covered during winter with screens composed of bass-matting, or of branches of spruce-fir, (which last have been found to be excellently adapted to the purpose.) In some of the finer districts of England, however, fig-trees succeed perfectly well as standards. In standard trees the growth of the wood is not so exuberant, and the wood which is produced acquires sufficient firmness to withstand the usual winter. Mr Henry Phillips, in his Pomarium Britannicum, lately published, gives us an account of a fig-orchard in the county of Sussex; and as a figgery may probably be a novelty to not a few of our readers, and as the account of it constitutes one of the best passages in Mr Phillips's book, we shall extract it. "There is an orchard of fig-trees at Tarring, near Worthing, where the fruit grows on standard trees, and ripens as well as in any part of Spain. These trees are so regularly productive, as to form the principal means of support of a large family. Although the orchard does not exceed three quarters of an acre, there are upwards of 100 trees that are about the size of large apple-trees, the branches extending about twenty feet each way from the trunk. Mr Loud, the proprietor of this little figgery, mentions, that he gathers about a hundred dozen per day during the season, and that he averages the trees to produce him about twenty dozen each. The fruit, which is partly of the white and partly of the purple variety, ripens in August, September, and October; a time of the year when the neighbouring watering-places are frequented by fr shionable company, that insures a ready sale for this agreeable fruit at good prices.-The second crop has occasionally ripened; the fruit, although smaller, is exceedingly sweet.-Two of the trees are now about seventy-five years old, having been planted in the year 1745, by John Long, who raised them from some old ones in an adjoining garden, near the ruins of the palace of Thomas-à-Becket in that town, who, tradition says, brought these trees from Italy and planted them himself. The soil of the garden is a deep black loam on chalk. The trees are but seldom and sparingly pruned. When they grow too luxuriantly, it has been found better to destroy a part of their roots, and to fill up the space with stones or broken bricks, than to prune the branches too much."-The effect of the juice or exudation of the papaw-tree of the West Indies in intenerating poultry or butchers-meat, is well known. From Mr Phillips we learn that the fig-tree possesses the same quality. "It is a curious fact," he says, "that fresh-killed venison, or any other animal food, being hung up in a fig-tree, when in leaf, for a single night, will become as tender and as ready for dressing, as if kept for many days or weeks in the common manner. A gentleman who lately made the experiment assured me, that a recent haunch of venison was hung up in a fig-tree at 10 o'clock at night, and was removed before sunrise in the morning, when it was found in a perfect state for cooking; and he adds, that in a few hours it would have been in a state of putrefaction,” p. 169. 19. Remains of Trees in the Orkney Islands.-It has long been known, that some remains of roots and trunks of trees could be traced, at ebb tide, in a bay at Otterswick in Sanday, and in a similar bay at Deerness, in the south-east quarter of Pomona or Mainland. In a former Number (vol. iii. p. 100.), we were enabled to describe a similar occurrence at Skeill, on the north-west of Pomona, and to add that the trees evidently belonged to the pine tribe. There can be no doubt, therefore, that in former ages the Islands of the Deucaledonian Sea were clothed with wood; and that the trees consisted chiefly of some species of fir, the hazel and the birch. 20. Discovery of the Linnea Borealis in Northumberland.— The Linnæa borealis was found wild, growing luxuriantly in long runners, and covering a space of between twenty and thirty square yards, in an old fir plantation, near Catcherside, about three miles north of Wallington, Northumberland, in the beginning of September last. 21. Sternberg's Flora of a Former World.-The first fasciculus of Graf Sternberg's Flora of a Former World has been published at Leipzic. It contains thirteen figures of different unknown trees, of which many belong to the family of palms. All the genera enumerated in this valuable work, are met with in the coal-fields of Scotland and England, and we have observed one of them in a piece of sandstone brought from Melville Island by the discovery ships. The Calamythis pseudo-bambusia, figured in Table xiii. Fig. 3. is so completely alike in the jointed arrangement of its stem, &c., to the palmæ figured in 2. 5. and 6. in the Travels of Prince Newied in Brazil, that although the species cannot be determined, there is a perfect resemblance in the generic characters. The work is to be continued in fasciculi, if the present be well received. We have no doubt that naturalists every where will encourage a publication which promises so well, and which treats of objects so interesting to the geologist and the botanist. 22. Plants and Animals living in the Water of the HotSprings of Gastein.-A species of Ulva, named thermalis, grows and flourishs in the water of these springs, in a temperature of about 117° Fahrenheit; and it is said some ferns and several mosses grow in the fissures of the rocks out of which the hot water springs. We are further informed, that a land shell, the Limneus pereger of Drapernaud, thrives in the water of these springs, and at the same temperature as the Ulva therma lis. It is also remarked of these, as of many other hot springs, that if faded flowers be partially immersed in them they speedily revive, and that flowers in bud soon expand in this highly heated water. 23. Remarkable Internal Combustion of the Trunks of ScotsFir Trees.-Dr William Howison, who visited the north of Russia in 1818, having observed many large trees of the Pinus sylvestris or Sccts-fir standing erect in the forest, in a withered, or frequently in a dead state, was led to examine into the reason. He was not a little surprised to find, that in many cases, although the bark was entire, the interior part or wood of the tree was in a great measure charred. On inquiry he found, that this was occasioned by the travelling boors, in the sultry dry weather of summer, seeking the shade of large trees, and making fires for dressing their victuals over above the roots of the trees. Many of these roots lie near the surface, and as they abound very much with resinous matter, they readily catch fire. The fire seems to be propagated slowly, as in match-paper; a gradual and stifled combustion creeps onward, encouraged by the drought, and constantly fed by the empyreumatic oil of turpentine (or tar) which is produced by the heat, until the interior of the trunk itself be destroyed. ZOOLOGY. 24. Notice of a peculiar Habit of the Starling, (Sturnus vulgaris)." Among the singular and instinctive habits of the feathered creation, the fact of flocks of starlings alighting upon the ground in circles, is not one of the least curious, and though perhaps little known or noticed, is not uncommon. I have at different times watched large flocks of these birds, and have often noticed them alight in a circular form: Once I remember to have seen the birds composing a numerous flock, divide themselves into two companies, and each form a distinct circle. I have endeavoured, but unsuccessfully, to approach sufficiently near them, to notice whether or not they were couched on the ground, or standing; indeed, their extreme timidity renders any, but general observations, almost impracticable. They will sometimes, if undisturbed, remain a considerable time on the same place, where the circularity in which their excrements are laid upon the grass, affords a demonstrative proof of their singular habit. The circles they form, though not of exact symmetry, are sufficiently so to excite notice; their diameters vary much, this probably depends upon the number of birds in a flock. The birds make the same twittering whistle when upon the ground, as when perched in trees or on reeds. When I have noticed them, they have generally alighted in pastures; some few times I have seen them in stubble-fields, but never upon fallow or new ploughed land. For what purpose Providence has endowed these creatures with so peculiar a habit, I am at a loss to imagine. I have sometimes thought, that the circles of a deep green colour, which we occasionally see in pastures, and which are known by the name of " Fairy Rings," might owe, their origin to the fertilizing quality of the decomposed fæces of these birds *. This, however, is only conjecture. I mention it merely, that others interested in such pursuits, may make observations on the subject, which, when opportunity again offers, I intend doing."-Letter from Mr Johnson, Hill Top, Wetherby, October 1820. 25. Notice of a prolific cross-breed between the common Cat and the Pine-Martin, (Mustela Martes).—We find by the Bibliotheque Universelle, that there has been lately presented to the Imperial Society of Natural History of Moscow, an animal which appears to be a cross-breed, formed by the meeting of the common cat and the pine-martin, and the fur of which promises to be a valuable article of commerce. The specimen presented to the Society was sent from the Government of Penza, where the pine-martin is very abundant. The following history is given of the cross-breed.-A domestic cat disappeared from a house in Penza, and returned in some days in a state of impregnation. At the usual period the cat littered four young ones, two of which very much resembled the martin. Their claws were not retractile, as in the cat, and the snout was elongated like that of the martin. The two others, of the same litter, more nearly resembled the cat, as they had retractile claws and a round head. All of them had the black feet, tail, and • I am aware that philosophers attribute" Fairy Rings" to the agency of atmospheric electricity, &c.; but this seems to be no more than hypothesis. 1 |