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_The Tea Plant_.
The tea leaf is plucked from the plant by the manufacturers at _three_
periods during the spring, which crops they call, in their technical
phrase, the head, or first spring; the second spring; and the third
spring. The quality of the tea varies according to the time of the
plucking. The young and tender leaves of course make finer tea than tough
and old ones.--_Asiatic Register_.
_Portsmouth Literary and Philosophical Society_.
We have been much interested with the report of this Society for 1827-8,
and we are happy to record the prosperity of the establishment. Some
of the lectures, especially those on Geology, or Mineralogy, are very
attractive; and in the curator's report, we notice that the Museum,
previously rich in fossil organic remains, has been enriched by numerous
donations in this department, during the past session. The entire number
of specimens in the Museum is upwards of 9,000.
We have not been at Portsmouth for these three years, and till we saw
this report, were not aware that the State Chambers, lately on the
Platform Battery, had been pulled down towards the close of last year.
The building was of some interest. It was of stone, with walls of
considerable thickness, and square vaults below, descending to a level
with the parade, and used at different periods as dungeons. The part on
which the vane stood, was erected in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and
the other part was built in the time of Charles II., whose name, with the
date, was on a marble slab above the doorway. Of late years the building
had been modernized and used as a signal-house and subscription
reading-room. If we are not mistaken, the edifice had often been much
injured by the encroachments of the sea, and probably this led to its
removal.
_Conversations on Geology_.
We notice with much pleasure a handsome volume under the above popular
title, which represents that delightful science in the very attractive
form of a series of dialogues between a mother and her children.
The Huttonian and Wernerian systems and the Mosaic Geology, are here
familiarly explained, and illustrative phenomena and recent discoveries
glanced at in the progress of the conversations. How much more profitable
are such family recreations than sitting hours over spotted pieces of
paper, counting the pips of dice, or simpering over fashionable novels
and tales of scandal run mad. Bookish families are usually the happiest,
at least if we rightly estimate the term. In an early number we shall
endeavour to find some portion of these "Conversations" for our columns.
"_Arcana of Science for_ 1829."
This work will appear early in January. It will be on the same plan as
the volume of last year, and will contain at least _thirty engravings_,
on copper and wood. The _mechanical_ department is unusually copious, and
there are some abstracts in the _chemical_, which are of high value.
_Rice_.
Trials have recently been made to grow the dry rice of China in Italy;
and it is expected that in time an advantageous cultivation of it may be
introduced in France.
_Turf_.
A correspondent of a French work on gardening thinks that green turf may
be obtained in France by trenching the ground, freeing it from stones,
covering the surface with two or three inches of rich compost, and then
laying on the turf. The improved soil, he thinks, will retain moisture
sufficient to keep the turf growing all the summer, and, consequently,
green.
_Garden of the Hesperides_.
Lieutenant Beachey, in his _Travels in Cyrene_, recently published, has
thrown some curious light on the ancient account of these celebrated
gardens. It appears, that, like many other wonders, ancient and modern,
when reduced to simple truth, they are little more than common
occurrences. Baron Humboldt and Mr. Bullock have reduced the floating
gardens of Mexico to mud banks, with ditches between; and lieutenant
Beachey makes it appear, that the gardens of the Hesperides are nothing
more than old stone quarries, the bottoms of which have been cultivated.
_Preparation of Cinnamon_.
The rough bark is first scraped off with knives, and then, with a
peculiar instrument, the inner rind is stripped off in long slips; these
are tied up in bundles, and put to dry in the sun, and the wood is
sold for fuel. The operation was thus explained to bishop Heber by the
cinnamon peelers; but in the regular preparation, the outer bark is not
scraped off; but the process of fermentation, which the strips undergo
when tied up in large quantities, removes the coarse parts. The peelers
are called Chaliers.
_Power of the Sun's Rays_.
Mr. Mackintosh, contractor for the government works at Stonehouse Point,
Devon, lately had to descend in the diving-bell with workmen to lay the
foundation of a sea wall. The machine is fitted with convex glasses, in
the upper part, to serve the purpose of windows; and Mr. Mackintosh
states, that on several occasions, in clear weather, he has witnessed the
sun's rays so concentrated by the circular windows, as to burn the
labourers' clothes, when opposed to the focal point, and this when the
machine was twenty-five feet under the surface of the water!--_From the
MS. Journal of the Bristol Nursery Library_.
_The Cowslip and Polyanthus_.
By sowing the seed of the wild cowslip in the garden, a number of
varieties will be produced, some of which have flowers of a beautiful
bright red colour. May not this process be the first step towards the
formation of our garden polyanthus? if that be not, as is generally
supposed, a variety of the primrose, rather than of the cowslip.--_Gard.
Mag_.
_French Method of making Coffee_.
The principal points are these:--The coffee,--_Turkey or
Bourbon_,--should be roasted only till it is of a _cinnamon colour_, and
closely covered up during the process of roasting. In France this is done
in closed iron cylinders, turned over a fire by a handle, like a
grindstone. The coffee should be coarsely ground soon after it is roasted,
but not until quite cool: some think its _aroma_ is better preserved by
beating in a mortar, but this is tedious. The proportions for _making
coffee_ are usually _one pint of boiling water to two and a half ounces
of coffee_. The coffee being put into the water, the coffee-pot should be
covered up, and left for two hours surrounded with hot cinders, so as to
keep up the temperature, without making the liquor boil. Occasionally
stir it, and after two hours' infusion, remove it from the fire, and
allow it a quarter of an hour to settle, and when perfectly clear, decant
it. Isinglass, or hartshorn shavings, are sometimes used to clarify
coffee; but by this addition you lose a great portion of its delicious
aroma.
Coffee in England is generally _over-roasted_, and to this fault arise
all the inconveniences which are so often attributed to coffee, but which,
in reality, are produced by the imperfect modes of its preparation.--_From
the Coffee-Drinker's Manual, translated from the French_.
_Ivy_.
Attached to the officers' barracks at Winchester, is a very fine
specimen of ivy; its trunk has been severed off to a height of more than
two feet from the ground, yet it has for years continued in healthy
vegetation.--_Gard. Mag_.
_Parasite Sycamore_.
In Kinmel Park, Denbighshire, is an oak tree, which, twenty or thirty
years ago, lost one of its largest branches by the wind, and a partial
decay was the consequence; a key from a neighbouring sycamore fell into
the fracture, which, vegetating, has formed for the old mutilated oak a
new head. This parasite appears to have so completely seated itself, that,
though the place of its first lodgment is twelve feet from the ground, it
is thought that its roots will very soon penetrate to the earth, and at
last destroy its venerable nurse.--_Ibid_.
_Turpentine_.
Common turpentine is the produce of the Scotch pine. Trees with the
thickest bark, and which are most exposed to the sun, generally yield the
most turpentine. The first incision is made near the foot of the tree,
and as the resin flows most abundantly in hot weather, the operations are
begun about the end of May, and continued to September. The juice is
received into holes dug in the ground, is afterwards taken out with iron
ladles, poured into pails, and removed to a hollow trunk, capacious
enough to hold three or four barrels. _Essential oil of turpentine_ is
obtained by distillation. _Common resin_ is the residuum of the process
for obtaining the essential oil. _Tar_ is obtained from the roots and
other parts of old trees. _Med. Botany_.
_Gum Arabic_.
The purest and finest gum arabic is brought in caravans to Cairo, by the
Arabs of the country round Mounts Tor and Sinai, who bring it from this
distance on the backs of camels, sown up in bags, and often adulterated
with sand, &c. The gum exudes spontaneously from the bark and trunk of
the branches of the tree, in a soft, nearly fluid state, and hardens by
exposure to the air, or heat of the sun. It begins to flow in December,
immediately after the rainy season, near the flowering time of the tree.
Afterwards, as the weather becomes hotter, incisions are made through the
bark, to assist the transudation of the juice.--_Ibid_.
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