pletely protected against insects, by washing them in an infusion of bitter aloes, which does not in the least injure the plants; and the effects of a single application are stated to be lasting. FLAME FIRES. Samuel Preston, of Stockport, Pa., has successfully destroyed insects in his garden and melon grounds, by flame fires of shavings, at night; the giddy insects rush into the fire from all quarters. He is satisfied that one shilling's worth of labor in an evening will secure a garden from their depredations, if not in time exterminate them. Fuel suitable may consist of the mowings of brush pastures or road-sides. FLAMBEAUX. Dr. Harris recommends, as effectual, to wind round the end of a stick, about a foot and a half long, old rags and swingling tow, dipped in tar or melted brimstone; let this be stuck in the ground and set on fire; it will burn a considerable time, and prove the funeral pyre of myriads. Staves of tar barrels might probably answer as well. Certain trees and plants are peculiarly offensive to insects generaily. Such are the Virginia Cedar, the Pennyroyal, and some others; and these being planted very near, or in contact with, the peach tree, and other plants which are obnoxious to their approach, have proved, in certain cases, effectually repulsive from their pow. erful odor. Several other species of plants there are, besides the Red cedar, which. planted at the roots of the peach, and of other trees, which are liable to the attacks of destructive insects, may also prove equally repulsive from their powerful odor. Such are the tansy, and the Artemasia or Southern wood, both of which are perennial,, and of the easiest culture; the first being raised by division of roots, the last by cuttings. Forests and rivers serve, in a certain degree, to insulate, or to obstruct the march of the canker worms, of the curculiones, &c. Thus it is, also, that in many places which are partially surrounded by the sea, the destructive insects are not known. Lastly, birds, of many kinds, are the natural foes of insects, from the multitudes which they devour as their principal food. Such are the crows or rooks, the blackbird, the robin, &c.; and wherever bounties have been mercilessly offered for their destruction, the insect tribes have multiplied beyond all bounds, and gained the preponderancy, and those countries have, in consequence, and invariably, been visited with a curse. It has been computed that every crow or rook will consume a pound of worms and other insects in each week, during the whole season—a vast number, which, otherwise, would have become the parents of millions. The blackbird and the robin, together with their young, devour also a proportionate number Incredible numbers of the butterflies or moths, the parents of the unnumbered millions of the caterpillars and canker worms, are destroyed also by the martin, and others of their tribe, which seize their prey on the wing. In 1841, a premiun was granted by the Massachusetts Horticul tural Society to Mr. David Haggerston, for his discovery of an effectual remedy for the destruction of the rose-bug, and most other pernicious insects, which sometimes infest shrubs, and plants, and trees of the smaller size. The compound is composed of two pounds of train-oil soap, dissolved in fifteen gallons of water; the composition to be showered upon the trees of plants with a Willis syringe OF FENCES AND HEDGES. Mention has already been made of the Ha! ha! which is a wall constructed in the bottom of a dry ditch, and effectually concealed from the view on the interior side, or the side most exposed to view, by a lowly-graduated embankment to the top of the wall; this embankment being formed of the earth which was taken from the ditch, which is all thrown out on that side, and smoothly spread. In all those situations where division fences of any other kind would but intercept or destroy the unity and beauty of the prospect, such an invisible division wall is admirable. ous. your. A beautiful hedge may be quickly formed of the Larch; and those formed either of the Prim or of the Arbor-vitæ, or Red cedar, are eminently beautiful; and particularly the last named, when, pruned in pyramidal form, they become remarkably compact and imperviThese are the plants which no insect or animal will deAs to the English hawthorn and the Washington thorn, they are both obnoxious to the destructive attacks of the borer, and cannot therefore be recommended. The following plants form beautiful live fences, all being armed with thorns: The ThreeThorned Acacia, when properly trained; it is armed with triple thorns a foot long. The Shepardia is beautiful in the leaf, or when covered with its crimson berries. The Osage orange has a beautiful leaf, and a very strong thorn or spine, and makes the finest hedge in the world. It is a new species of Morus or Mulberry, and so classed by naturalists. It endures the winters well, on hills and elevated situations near Boston, but is sometimes liable to be injured in its tops by the winter, in low grounds and valleys. The Prickly or Thorny ash (Zanthoxylum fraxineum) has a good thorn: both this and the Buckthorn (Ramnus catharticus) are of the most hardy character, will grow well on any soil, and no animal or insect can endure them. The thorns of the latter, as also those of the Shepardia, like those of the Pear tree, grow only at the extremity of the branches. The Buckthorn is deservedly a popular plant near Boston. Lastly, the Cockspur thorn (Crus galli) is of rapid growth, has a beautiful leaf, and a strong thorn or spine, and is very hardy. John Prince, Esq., of Roxbury, who has tried this plant as a hedge for more than twenty years, is persuaded that no borer will ever annoy it, and that it is the best of all thorns. The hedge should be set out in the spring. In the autumn previous, the ground should be dug on the intended line, at least eighteen inches deep, and the yellow subsoil cast out to this depth, and the trench filled with rich soil intermixed with good compost. The young plants, which should have been transplanted in the previous year, are now to be sized, and reset in a single line, at the distance of nine inches asunder, and the ground kept in high culti vation for a few years. The next spring, cut down the deciduous thorns to within four inches of the ground, when two or three branches will start up with renewed vigar, growing several fect during that summer. But evergreen trees must never be thus cut down. In the spring following, if any of the plants have discovered a disposition to outgrow all others, let such, and such only, be again cut down, as before. The hedge should be pruned once a year only; and the only suitable time for pruning deciduous plants is as soon as the buds have swollen in spring; and as for evergreens, as soon as vegetation has fairly commenced. In pruning, use no shears, but only a sharp bill attached to a long handle, striking upwards, and giving to the hedge its desired form, exclusively by the eye; lowering the top a little at each annual pruning, and endeavoring to give to the hedge the form of a very steep roof, which form is ever to be preserved. Thus trained in the form of the quenouille, or distaff, as the hedge increases in height, so also it increases in breadth, all the branches experiencing in an equal degree the benefit of the sun and air, the falling rains and the dews; it retains forever all its branches quite to the ground, standing impervious, like a pyramid on its base. Yet this is not the case where the sides of the hedge are pruned vertically; as, in this last case, the upper limbs, receiving, as they must, the chief and almost exclusive benefit of the sun and air, and falling rains and dews, they become the superior, and the lower limbs inevitably perish. DEEP TILLAGE. Owing to our remarkably transparent atmosphere, the sun, in our latitude, from its exalted elevation during summer, shines with peculiar brightness and intense heat; and droughts, which often and suddenly penetrate far below the limits of all ordinary cultivation, are of frequent occurrence. At such times, the trees and plants cease to grow, or become scorched with withering heat, and a pause in vegetation ensues, the best part of the summer being lost. The obvious and easy preventive remedy is deep tillage; or the earth must be loosened to the depth of at least eighteen or twenty inches, with the subsoil plough, and the operation repeated at intervals of three or four years, until the whole earth to this depth becomes of the same uniform fertility. The subsoil plough is of Scotch invention. It is formed of great strength, and chiefly of iron, without the mouldboard, and with a wing on each side. It is drawn usually by four oxen or horses, and follows in the bottom of a deep furrow, formed with the common plough. The subsoil plough serves admirably to stir and to loosen the subsoil to this extraordinary depth. without removing it from its place, or bringing the sterile earth to the surface. Thus broken or pulverized, the rains and the dews sink down, being readily absorbed, together with a due proportion of the richest juices of the manure, and the roots of trees and of plants now strike root downwards, deep into the soil, below, the influence of all but very extraordinary droughts; where, finding permanent resources of nourishment, their growth continues uninterrupted and perpetual during the whole season. GLOSSARY. 1. Acuminate. Ending obtusely, with a prolonged, sharp point. 2. A burnum. Sap-wood; the white, soft, exterior layers of wood. 3. Auther. That portion of the stamen containing the pollen. 4. Aromatic. Fragrant; spicy. 5. Astringent. Contracting. 6. Acil. The angle on the upper side between the leaf and stem. 7. Axilary. Growing from the axils. 8. Berry. A pulpy trait enclosing seeds having no capsules. 9. Calcareous. Containing line. 10. Calyx. The outer covering of the corolla. 11. Cambyum. The concentrated sap or viscid substance which lies between the bark and wood. 12. Capsule. A hollow seed-vessel, which opens when dry. 13. Catkins. Flowers in tufts, arranged on a slender or flexible thread. 14. Cordate, or Cordiform. Heart-shaped. 15 Coriaceous. Resembling leather or parchment 16. Coralla. The crown, which encloses the stamens. 17. Corymbs. Flowers having a flat summit, which is formed of numerous flower-stalks, which arise on a common stem, from different heights. 18. Crenate. See Serrulate. 19. Deciduous. Not evergreen; trees whose leaves fall in autumn are termed deciduous. 20. Denta e. Toothed; edged with large, sharp points. 21. Denticulate. Minutely don'ate. 22. Drupe. A fleshy truit enclosing a stone. 23 Genus. [The singular of genera.] A family of plants which agree in flower and fruit. 24. Glands. Small heads, or inflated bodies, which appear in dif ferent parts of plants or leaves. 25. Glaucous. Of a sea-green color. 26. Globose. Round or spherical. 27. Herbaceous. Not ligneous, or woody. 23. Imbricate. Overlaying like scales, or the slating of a roof. 23. Lanceolate. Spear-shaped; both ends very acutely pointed. The 30. Leaf t. A part or small leaf of the compound or pinnate leaf. 31. Lber. The inner layer of bark, which lies next the wood. ancients wrote upon and formed their books of this substance; - hence the name. 35. Oborate. Egg-shaped, with the smallest end towards the stalk. 36. Oral acuminate. Round at one end, pointed at the other. 37. Ovate. Egg-shaped. 38. Pulmated. In the form of a hand with the fingers spread. 39. Panicle. A loose, irregular flower, subdivided into branches. 40. Peduncle. The stem, which supports the flower and fruit. 41. Pericarp. See Capsule. 42. Petal. The leaf of which flowers are composed. 43 Petiole. The footstalk, which supports the leaf. 44. Pinnate. Having two rows of leaflets arranged on a common petiole. 45. Pollen. The dust contained in the anthers. 46. Pome. A pulpy fruit containing a pericarp or capsule. 47. Pubescent. Hairy, or downy. 48. Raceme. Long clusters. 49. Reniform. Oblong, oval, or lengthened. 50. Rugose. Wrinkled. 51. Serrate. Notched in a manner resembling the teeth of a saw. 52. Serrulate, or Crenate. Minutely serrate. 53. Sessile. Attached to the stem without footstalks. 54. Species. The last or lowest division. 55. Spine. A thorn growing from the wood. from the bark. Prickles grow freely 56. Stamen The outer circle of the slender filaments which rise around the centre of a blossom or flower. 57. Stigma. The summit of the pistil. 58. Stipule. Leafy appendages at the base of the leaves or petioles. 59. Suture. A groove, or channel. 60. Tendrils. The twining appendages of vines, by which they attach themselves to supporters. 61. Truncated. Having a square termination. 62. Umbel. Flowers having a convex summit, with numerous flower-stalks of equal length diverging from a common centre. 63. Variety. A subdivision of a species, or the lowest division. |