_Analogous Growth of Trees and Animals._
Trees placed in an exposed situation have their resources;--the object
being to protect the sap-vessels, which transmit nutriment, and which
lie betwixt the wood and the bark, the tree never fails to throw out,
and especially on the side most exposed to the blast, a thick coating of
bark, designed to protect, and which effectually does protect, the
sap-vessels and the process of circulation to which they are adapted,
from the injury which necessarily must otherwise ensue. Now, if an
animal is in danger of suffocation from want of vital air, instead of
starving by being exposed to its unqualified rigour, instinct or reason
directs the sufferer to approach those apertures through which any
supply of that necessary of human life can be attained, and induces man,
at the same time, to free himself from any coverings which may be
rendered oppressive by the state in which he finds himself. Now it may
be easily proved, that a similar instinct to that which induced the
unfortunate sufferers in the black-hole of Calcutta to struggle with the
last efforts to approach the solitary aperture which admitted air to
their dungeon, and to throw from them their garments, in order to
encourage the exertions which nature made to relieve herself by
perspiration, is proper, also, to the noblest of the vegetable tribe.
Look at a wood or plantation which has not been duly thinned:--the trees
which exist will be seen drawn up to poles, with narrow and scanty tops,
endeavouring to make their way towards such openings to the sky as might
permit the access of light and air. If entirely precluded by the boughs
which have closed over them, the weaker plants will be found strangely
distorted by attempts to get out at a side of the plantation; and
finally, if overpowered in these attempts by the obstacles opposed to
them, they inevitably perish. As men throw aside their garments,
influenced by a close situation, trees placed in similar circumstances,
exhibit a bark thin and beautifully green and succulent, entirely
divested of that thick, coarse, protecting substance which covers the
sap-vessels in an exposed position.
There is a singular and beautiful process of action and re-action which
takes place betwixt the progress of the roots and of the branches. The
latter must, by their vigour and numbers, stretch out under ground
before the branches can develope themselves in the air; and, on the
other hand, it is necessary that the branches so develope themselves, to
give employment to the roots in collecting food. There is a system of
close commerce between them; if either fail in discharging their part,
the other must suffer in proportion. The increase of the branches,
therefore, in exposed trees is and must be in proportion with that of
the roots, and _vice versâ_; and as the exposed tree spreads its
branches on every side to balance itself against the wind, as it
shortens its stem or trunk, to afford the mechanical force of the
tempest a shorter lever to act upon, so numerous and strong roots spread
themselves under ground, by way of anchorage, to an extent and in a
manner unknown to sheltered trees.--_Quarterly Review_.
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_Preservation of Eggs._
Relative to the preservation of eggs by immersion in lime-water, M.
Peschier has given most satisfactory evidence of the efficacy of the
process. Eggs which he had preserved for six years in this way, being
boiled and tried, were found perfectly fresh and good; and a
confectioner of Geneva has used a whole cask of eggs preserved by the
same means. In the small way eggs may be thus preserved in bottles or
other vessels. They are to be introduced when quite fresh, the bottle
then filled with lime-water, a little powdered lime sprinkled in at
last, and then the bottle closed. To prepare the lime-water, twenty or
thirty pints of water are to be mixed up with five or six pounds of
slaked quick-lime put into a covered vessel allowed to clear by
standing, and the lime-water immediately used.
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