very early in the morning to the forests, and lop off With hatchets the branches that bear it, carrying these
afterwards to the shade, where they can collect the grains at their leisure. It is then sold to merchants, who
lix a considerable price upon it at a distance from the place where it is found, and the Venetians have many
different names for the varieties of it. If kept longer than a year, it is apt to lose its proper taste and to be
spoiled.»
In Dauphiny this manna has been very generally employed by the apothecaries as a laxative, but it is said
to possess not more than half the strength of the product of the Calabrian ash. The mode in which it is
formed, however, deserves to be more fully inquired into, and it would be satisfactory to ascertain whether
there be any difference between this saccharine matter and the Mel Cedrinum, roscidum, and aerium, of the
ancients. Galen (in his third book on aliments) describes a mode of collecting the “ Eos Montis Libani’ very
similar to that given by Bellonius respecting the manna of the Larch.
B O L E T U S L A R Y C IN U S .
A g a r ic u m . Bel Ion. Axtius, tab. 20, 21. Dale, &c. Jacquin Miscel. Austr. 1. p. 164.
“ Boletus abies Lands dicta.” Linn. Mat. Med. 497.
Purging Agaric, (of the shops).
On the trunk of the Larcli is sometimes found a remarkable species of Boletus, well known to botanists,
and which is well described by Jacquin and Pallas/ It does not occur very frequently in the more southern
parts of Europe, rf we may credit Bellonius, but it is common in some parts of the Russian empire, and
exported largely from Archangel. The form is generally oblong, variously lobed, and the lower part is always
somewhat truncated, porous, and of a sort of mud colour, whilst the remaining surface has an ashen hue.
Its parenchyma is soft, sweetish, (at last ot a nauseous bitter taste) and saponaceous, whence it is used among
the women in some parts of Siberia for washing their skins, and even their linen.
Bellonius'1 speaks of this fungus yielding a fine purple dye, which has been found out, it appears, by the
Tungoos, these people employing a decoction of it with the roots of Galium for staining the hair of the rein
deer, to ornament their persons.
As a medicine, the Boletus Larycinus is now very rarely employed in England, but it retains a place among
the domestic remedies of the Russians, as an emetic in intermitting fevers, and for some female complaints.
The Baschkirs sprinkle the powder on foul ulcers of cattle, as a detergent and autiverminous remedy.'
If it be intended to apply the Boletus Larignus to medicinal purposes, some caution seems to be necessary,
in regard to the time of gathering it. Bellonius’ recommends the autumn, that being the season at which,
in common with fruits, he supposes this vegetable production to be just in a state of maturity. Should it
have exceeded two years growth, its qualities, he says, will have undergone a change of a deleterious nature;
and if it should not have completed one year, the exhibition of it may be followed by effects equally
pernicious.
0 Vide locum supra citatum. p FI. Ross. Tom. 1. p. 3. ’ “ De Arb. Conif." p. 26. Pallas, (loco supra cit.) p. 26.
COPY OF A LETTER
FROM
M R. T H O M A S D A V I S , OF 110 M M I JVC S HA M, WILTS,
RELATIVE TO THE
TIMBER Y IELDED B Y VARIOUS SPECIES OF PINES.
DEAR SIR, ,,
. H o m m in g s i ia m , S f. pt. 9 , 1797.
I am convinced, from repeated observations, that the Scotch Fir produces the
deal called in London “ Yellow Deal," and in the country “ Red Deed," and being generally imported from
Christiana, sometimes called “ Christiana Deal" They frequently come hither in planks, but oftener in
boards, called twelve inches wide, though seldom above ten inches and a half, cut through and through, or
as the sawyers call it, cut “ /letch.' Of course the trees are not above twelve inches diameter, and yet I
have counted their rings and found their growth to be from sixty to an hundred years. They must therefore
grow thick together, and upon poor or rocky land, and this is also evident by the smallness of the knots, pro-
ceeding from the want of room to push out strong boughs.
The Scotch Fir raised in England is equal to the foreign in weight and durability, but is seldom so line
in the grain, and has a greater quantity of sap owing to its rapid growth, occasioned either bv the superior
strength of the land, or greater distance from one another, or both. But the quality is sufficiently similar to
ascertain that they are the same species.
A foot square of Scotch Fir, English grown, and moderately dry, will weigh fifty-one; a foot of oak not
much more than sixty-one.
A tree of an hundred years old (I look upon the ultimatum of its growth in England as not more than an
hundred and fifty) may measure four load, or two hundred feet, and is fairly worth fifteen pounds.
Land planted with Scotch Firs eight feet and a quarter apart, viz. six hundred and forty to an acre, will
pay ten per cent, compound interest, supposing very poor land at three shillings per acre, worth about four
pounds in fee, and the planting to cost six pounds more, in all ten pounds per acre. In twenty-eight years
ten pounds, at compound interest, will be forty pounds, and in that period the trees at only two and sixpence
each will be worth eighty pounds.
Spruce Firs from which the deal we usually call white deal in England, is produced, are perhaps (he next
valuable to Scotch Fir; and, what is remarkable, those grown in England, are superior to any imported.
That kind of tree not being hurt by knots, is the belter for rapid growth, and the deal the handsomer.
But it does not grow well in exposed situations. It there loses all its side branches, and not growing front'
leaders as a Scotch Fir does, gets mossy, lingers and dies: and if put close together, it never rises to any size.
Perhaps it may be two or three load in one hundred years, worth seven or eight pounds, but an hundred
years seem to be the full ultimatum of its growth. It is in fact fit for nothing but a garden, where it is a
piefiy thing for twenty or thirty years, when it grows naked, and should be removed and replaced by others.
I he Silver Fir, the most beautiful in external appearance of all the genus, either young or old, grow s much
faster than either the Scotch or Spruce. At one hundred years old it is frequently above an hundred feet
high, twelve or thirteen feet round, and contains at least six loads of timber, worth about fifteen pounds.
I he timber is more open, or (as the sawyers call it) “ roacher in its grain,” than the spruce, occasioned
partly by the superior luxuriance of its growth, and therefore should be used in large scantlings, where its
strength and toughness render it a valuable wood, particularly for beams; only great care must be taken that
the ends are dry and accessible to air.
1 he Weymouth Pine is a white pine, but still lighter and roacher in the grain than the preceding sorts.
Its principal use in its own country (America) is for masts of ships, for which its toughness makes it proper.
It " ill. it placed in strong land well sheltered, get to four or five load in an hundred years, worth eight or
ten pounds.
Larch is a delicate coloured wood, not unlike the Cedar used for black lead pencils, either in colour or
smell. It has but little sap, and is convertible to flooring board at an early age, but its knots are then rather
unsightly. We have few in this kingdom of a large size, and 1 have observed they decay and become mossy
about forty years old. They grow best in sheltered situations. However it is a valuable and pretty looking-
wood, either standing or converted.
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