Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/735

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duToJved; then dip a fine hair pencil in this liquor, and with it daub over the backfides of the leaves, and lay them carefully down on a half fheet of white paper fairly expanded, and prefs them with fome more papers over thefe. When the gum water is fixed, let the preffure and papers be removed, and the whole work is finished. The leaves retain their verdure in this cafe, and the flowers ufually keep their natural colours. Some care iriuft be taken, that the heat of the oven be not too great. When theflowers are thick and bulky, fbme art may be ufed to pare oft* their backs and difpofe the petals in a due order j and after this, if any of them are wanting, their places may be fupplied with fome of the fupra numerary ones dried on pur- pofe ; and if any of them are only faded, it will be prudent to take them away, and lay down others in their ftead : the leaves may be alfo difpofed and mended in the fame manner. Another way of keeping hoth flowers and fruit the whole year without fpoiling, is delivered by the fame author in the fulluw- ing manner : take fait petre, one pound; bole armeniac, two pounds; clean common fand three pounds ; mix all well to- gether, then gather fruit of any kind, that is not fully ripe, with the ftalk to each ; put thefe in one by one into a wide mouth'd glafs, laying them in good order ; tie over the top with an oil cloth, and carry the glafs into a dry cellar, and fet the whole upon a bed of this prepared matter of four in- ches thick in a box ; fill up the remainder of the box, with the fame preparation, and let it be four inches thick over the top of the glafs and round all its fides. Flowers are to be preferved in the fame fort of glafTes in the fame manner, and they may be taken up after a whole year as plump and as fair as when buried. Flowers, in antiquity. We find powers in great requeftatthe entertainments of the anticnts, being provided by the matter of the feaft. and brought in belore the fecond courie;or as fome are of opinion, at the beginning of the entertainment. They not only adormd their heads, necks, and breaffs with flowers, but often beftrewed the beds whereon they lay, and all parts of the room with them. But the head was chiefly regarded. Potter, Arcrneol. Gkc T. 2. p. 383. See Garland, Cyd. Flowers were likewife ufed in the bedecking of tombs. Potter Arcfoeol. Graze. I. 4. c. 7. T. 2. p. 232. feqq. See Burial and Burying. Lab'taied Flowers. SeeLABiATED Flowers. Flower de luce, in botany. See Iris. 'Trumpet Flower. See Trumpet. Wind Flower. See Wind Flowar.

FLOWERc/y/W/fl, a name given by the people employed in finding the ofteocolla to a fort of white mailev matter, which they ufually find on the furlace of the ground in the places where the ofteocolla lies underneath. It leems very nearly al- lied to the nature of the ofk-uculla itfelf, and ufually has under it fome of thai blackifh maiter refembhng rotten wood, which the ofteocolla itfelf is fornud upon, and which fills up thofe hollows we find in molt of the pieces, while the ^v hole is-in the ground. This rotten vegetable matter has much the re- femblance of the roots or branches of trees, and is called by the common people the root of the ofteocolla or hammoftei radix. Phil. Tranf. N°. 39. FLowER-rofli' worm, in natural hiftory, a peculiar fpecics of fly- worm, which makes its habitation only in the bulbous roots of /lowers. The roots of the narciffus at the time they are taken up out of the earth toward the end of autumn, very frequently are found to contain each a fingle worm, which eats and deftroys them. Sometimes one root is found to con- tain two of them ; but this is but rarely the cafe. The roots which have them may eahly be known, by having each a round hole in fome part, at which the deftroyer has entered while it was fmall, and which probably ferves it now in its larger ftate for refpiration of the freer air. The interior part of thefe bulbs is always found rotted and deftroyed, and the worm is found in thele, lying in a brown fort of dirt made by its own liquid excrements, mixed among the fragments of the coats of the root which it has deftroyed. Reaumur's Hift. In- tel, vol. 4. p. 499.

When thefe worms are firft taken out of the roots, it is not eafy to know which end is the head, which the tail ; for both appear almoft equally pointed. The intermediate fpace is cylin- dric, and made up of vaft number of circular or annular fibres. It is not long, however, before the worm begins to change place, and one may then fee him extend his head, and difcov- er, that it is furnifhed, as in the reft of thefe kind of infedfs, with two hooks. The way to fee thefe hooks diftin&ly is to prefs the worm between the fingers, it then throws them out as far as pofiible, and one fees that they are thick, and whitifli at their bales, and pointed and brown at their extre- mities, and are hook'd inward toward the belly. At a little diftance above each of thefe hooks, the creature has a pair of flefhy horns which are forked at the ends ; and a little below the infertion of the horns, it has two brown fpots which are probably its anterior ftigmata. in order to fee the pofterior ftigmata of this worm, it is neceffary to prefs a little the hin- der part of the body, and it will then throw out a fort of fmall tube of a blackifh brown, which is ufually hid among

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the commiflures of the pofterior rings. On the upper part of this little tube are two apertures, which are the two pofterior ftigmata. Thefe are of around circumference, and in the cen- ter of each there is a fmall black eminence* which feems the half of a little round ball. This is the place where the pofte- rior ftigmata are fituated, and this larger (ingle piotubeiancc* anfwers all the purpofesof the r.wo tubes placed clpfe together, which are fo common in the other il ■/■ w,oiins of this fort. A little below this there are two fleihy appendages, between which, is the anus of the worm. When viewed with the mi- crofcope, the whole body of the creature appears fumewhaf rough and wrinkled, and has a few fhort hairs thinly fcattered about it. Reaumur's Hjft, Inf. v. 4. p. 502. Thefe worms undergo aHtheir.ckmges u, a fhellmadeof their own skin, which is of the fame egg fafhioned fhape with that' of the blue flefh fly, but coiiiHici,tijIy larger, and of a greyifh colour. But this is not all its difference from thofe fhclls *ior on its anterior and fupeiior part, it has two horns of the fame kind with the four of the (hells of the r.it tailed worms, and Item- ing to lerve to the lame purpufes, and ferye to convey the air necefTary for the life of the creature, into its corcelet ; the old ftigmata which ferved the creature in its worm ftate being .now obliterated, and fomething neceiiarily wanted in their place. After having undergone all the neceffary changes, the fhells are burft open, in the month of April, and let out the By they contained.

This has fo much the appearance of an humble bee, that at firft fight, it is fcarce to be dift'ingui{hed from it. It is covered with black, yellow, and reddifh bain;, as the ("mailer kinds of the common humble bees are; but its antenna, which are of the battlcdoor fafhion, prove plain enough, that it is really no bee, even before one can determine with certainty, that it has- only two wings. FLOWERING of bulbous plants. Thefe plants will grow and flower in water alone without any earth, and make a very ele- gant appearance. We daily fee this practifed in fingle roots, but there is a method of doing it with feveral together, as fol- lows: take a common fmall garden pot, ftop the hole at the bottom with a cork, and lute in the cork with putty that no water can get through ; then fit a board to the top of the pot, and bore fix or {even holes in it, at equal diftances, to place the bulbs in, and as many imaller holes near them to receive fticks, which will ferve to tie up the flowers. Then. fill up the pot with water to the board, and place tulips, jon- quiles, narciffus's and the like plants in the ioor upon the holes, fo that the bottom of the roots may touch the water; thus will they -AX flower early in the feafon, and be much more beauti- ful than any put of gathered flowers, and. will laft many weeks in their full perfection. After the feafon otfloweritig is over, the roots will gradually fhrmk thro* the hole;, of the boaid, and get loofe into the water, but inftead of becoming fpoiled there, they will foon increafe in lize, ib as not to be capable of coming back, and will produce feveral off-lets. It is natural to try from this, the confequence of keeping the roots under water during the whole time of their blowing, and in this man- ner they have been fuund to fucceed very well, and flower even ftn.nger and rrn re beautifully, then when in the ground. They may thus alio with proper caie in the degree of heat in the room, be kept flowering trom before Chriftmas, till March or April. It is not ealy in this Lift manner to manage the keeping the boards under water, for which reafbn it is better to procure fome fheet lead of about four pounds to the foot, and cut this to the iize of the mouth of the pot ; in this there fhould be bored holes for the bulbs, and other holes for the fticks ; and in order to keep the fticks quite firm, it is proper to have another plate of lead fhaped to the bottom of the pot, with holes in it, anfwering thofe in the upper plate made for the fticks. The fticka will by this means be kept always perfectly fteady, and the roots being kept under water by the upper plate of lead, w.ll flower in the molt vigorous and beautiful manner imaginable.

Some have thought of adding to the virtues of the water by putting in nitre in fmall quantities, and others have added earth and fand at the bottom, but it has been always found to fucceed better without any addition.

It may be more agreeable to fome to ufe glafs jarrs, in this laft method with the leads, inftead of earthen pots. The bulbs fucceed full as well in thele; and there is this advantage, that the progrefs of the roots is feen all the while, and they are managed better as to the fupply of water. By repeated experiments in this way on dried bulbs, and on thofe taken frefh out of the ground, the former have been. found to fucceed the beft; for thofe taken frefh out of the ground being full of moifture, will not fo foon upon changing their element be nourifhed fully by a new one; and the fi- bres which they had ftruck in the ground always rot when put into the water, and new ones muft be formed in their places, fo that it requires more time for them to come to fiuw~ er'tng. The bulbs themfelves will not rot in this manner, but they will never be fo ftrong as thofe which were put into the wa- ter dry, which gradually fill themfelves with moifture from, it, and regularly plump up. The beft method of managing

the