Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/766

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cut in two tranfverfely is feen to be principally compofed of four parts. I. A skin or rind, which is only a continuation and expanfion of the outer bark of the tree. 2. A parenchy- ma or pulp, which is an expanfion and Jntumefcence of the blea, or the inner bark of the tree. 3. The fibres, which are ramifications of the woody part of the tree. 4. The core, which is the produce of the pith of the wood, indurated or ftrengthened by twigs of the woody fibres intermixed with it. This ferves to furnifh a proper lodging for the feeds, and fil- trates the juices of the parenchyma or pulp, and conveys them to the feeds.

Of the fibres there are generally reckoned fifteen branches, of which ten penetrate the parenchyma, and incline to the bafis of the flower ; and the other five afcend more particularly from the pedicle or ftalk, and meet with the former at the bafe of the flower ; and to thefe branches the capfulze, or coats of the kernels, are faften'd. Thefe branches being firft ex- tended through the parenchyma to the flower, furnifh the ne- ceflary matter for the vegetation of it; but as the fruit in- creafes, it intercepts the aliment, and by this means the flower is ftarved, and falls of?.

In a pear there are five parts to be diftmguiftied j the skin, parenchyma, ramification, ftone, and acetarium. The firft three parts are common to the apple ; the ftone, obferved chiefly in choak pears, is a congeries of ftrong corpufcles, which are difperfed throughout the whole parenchyma, but in the greateft plenty, and amafTed clofeft together, about the center of the acetarium. This feems formed of the ftony or calculous part of the nutritious juice. The acetarium is a fub- fhnce of a tart, acid tafte, and of a globular figure, inclofed in an aflemblage of feveral of the ftony parts before-men- tioned.

In plums, cherries, £5V. there are four parts, the coat, paren- chyma, ramification, and ftone. The outer part or {hell of the ftone feems formed of the calculous part of the nutritious juice of the plant, and the inner part or kernel of the pith of the tree, derived thither by feminal branches, which penetrate the bafe of the ftone. The acorn confifts of a fhell, cortex, and medulla. The fhell confifts of a coat and parenchyma derived from the bark and wood of the tree. The cortex con- fifts of an inner and outer part ; the firft of which is a dupli- cature of the inner trunk of the fhell ; the fecond is a fofter fubftance derived from the fame fource as the parenchyma of the fhell. But authors are not agreed whether the medulla or pulp of the kernel does arife from the pith of the tree, or from the cortical part thereof.

Berries, grapes, &c. contain, befide three general parts, viz. coat, parenchyma and ramification, grains of a ftony nature, which are the feeds. Miller's Gard. Di£. The ufe of fruits with us might, under proper regulations, be rendered much more extenfive than it is. Many fruits which do hurt when eaten raw, would make wines equal in flavour to many of thofe now obtained at great prices from abroad ; and lands which will not bear corn, yet would bear trees and fhrubs producing fuch fruits ; and the confequence of our fall- ing heartily into it would be, that much ground, at prefent lying wafte, would be occupied, and great employment found for the numerous poor of fome of our counties, where the quantities of wafte land are proportionably fo great, that there is not employment for the people of one half of the county. Cherries properly managed make an excellent wine, and that in very large quantities; and plums alfo make a very agree- able kind, but that it hasan aufterenefs, which muft be taken off by mixing a little fugar with it when in the glafs, not before it is drawn off*.

A coarfe plum, fomewhat larger than a damfon, is the beft kind for this wine. This is a fort of plum that grows wild in fome of our hedges. It will fucceed on any ground, the pooreft that can be imagined, and it produces a great abun- dance of fruit. The wine that is made from it is of a very confiderable ftrength, and affords a pleafant brandy by diftilla- tion in confiderable quantities. Our common garden cur- rants afford a very agreeable wine, and our goofeberries are not fecond to any thing. All thefe produce fruit in great a- bundance ; and the planting and taking care of them is very cheap, and the operation very eafy. The common way of making thefe wines yields very good ones ; but when the art of the experienced Vigneron is employed in it, the liquors will prove greatly better. Phil. Tranf. N° 124. We have a very remarkable account of the production of flowers zndfruit, given in a treatife of Franc, de Lanis, with fuch an air of affurance and demonftration, that many would be apt tofuppofc it indubitable. He fays, that he took a quantity of orange flowers, and put them into half a pound of oil of fweet almonds, with a little roach alum, this was expofed together to the fun, and he added frefti flowers every week as the others putrified. The oil after this being poured off into (everal vials, and fet by till the next fpring, he tells us that there were then feen flowers fwiming in the oil, wholly refembling the orange flowers firft put in ; and that as the fea- fon advanced, thefe flowers ripened into fruit as thofe grow- ing on the tree ; and the fruit in the vials he fays, was no

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way deficient from the oranges growing on the tree, bat in fize. The author is not content with declaring this, on his own pofitive knowledge, but brings in as a witnefs of the truth of it, a nobleman of the fame place, who he fays, had one of the vials of oil, which annually produced flowers, and fruits, at the time that the orange trees did fo. This author is very free in his cenfures of the Englifh philofo- phers, particularly of our lord Bacon, and gives this as an inftance of his own improvements in that ftudy j but the thing is in itfelf fo abfurd, that probably no body will pay refpeft enough to this author, to think it worth a trial. The Petersbourg academy furnifhes us with two very Angular inftances of fruits growing in an unnatural manner j the one of thefe in the fig-tree, the other in the apple-tree. In both thofe cafes, the fruit inftead of its common fituatlon, was placed upon the trunk of the tree with no branch or leaf near it, but only a fhort pedicle for its fupport. The inftance of the fig-tree afforded three figs in a clufter, the middle one of which withered, but the other two grew to their proper fize, and were like the reft of the figs on the fame tree. The 0- ther inftance of the apple tree afforded only one fingle fruit, but there was in it fomething very Arrange, or that appeared (0 however at firft fight, for the apples produced on the branches of the tree were of one kind, and this of another. The tree had been grafted, and all the fruit of the branches grew from the graft ; this fingle one which ftood upon the trunk of the tree below the graft, was of the fpecics produced by the ftock. This had doubtlefs been preceeded by a flower, tho' unobferv- ed, and it could only be as it appeared of the nature of the genuine fruit of the ftock. All gardeners know that the ftock fuffers no change from the graft; in both thefe cafes there was probably the rudiment of a branch where the fin- gle fruit appeared, and every other part of it except the bud of the fruit alone had perifhed, while that arrived at its deftined fize and maturity. "We have alfo an account in the Philofo- phical Tranfactions a, of an apple-tree bearing a confiderable quantity of fruit for many years together, without bloilbmine. PNV385-]

Fruit^j, a name given by gardeners, and others, to a fort of fmall black flies, found in vaft numbers among fruit trees, in the fpring feaibn, and fuppofed to do great injury to them. Thefe are a fpecies of fmall black fly. Mr. Lewenhoek pre- ferved fome of them for his microfcopical obfervations. He found that they did not live longer than a day or two, but that the females in this time ufually laid a great number of longifh eggs. The gardeners who fuppofe that thefe flies wound the leaves of the trees, are miftaken : it is true that they feed on their juices, but they have no weapons, with which to extract this themfelves ; they feed on fuch as is natu- rally extravafated, and when there is not enough of this for * their purpofe, they haunt thofe places where the pucerons re- fort, and feed on the juices which thefe little creatures extra- vafate by means of the holes they bore in the leaves with their trunks. Thefe pucerons are a fmall fort of infect very common on our fruit trees, and other plants and trees; they are of a greenifh colour, and are commonly called tree lice. Philof. Tranf. N°. 262. See Puceron.

Fruit flams. The mifchiefs arifing from the bad cuftom of many people fwallowing the ftones of plumbs and other fruit are very great. The Philofopbical Tranfaclions give us an account of a woman who fuffered violent pains in her bow- els for thirty years, returning once in a month or lefs. At length a ftrong purge being given her, the occafion of all thefe complaints was driven down from her bowels to the anus, where it gave a fenfation of ftoppage, and diftenfion, and pro- duced a continual defire of going to ftool, but without void- ing any thing. On the afiiftance of a careful hand in this cafe, there was taken out with a forceps, an oblong ball of an oval figure, of about ten drams weight, and meafuring five inches in circumference; this had Ciufed all the violent fits of pain fhe had been fo many years afflicted with, and after the taking it out, fhe became perfeaiy well. The ball ex- tracted looked like a ftone, and felt very hard, but it fwam in water; on cutting it thro' with a knife, there was found in the center of it a plum -ftone, round which, feveral coats of this tough and hard matter refembling a ftone, had gather- ed. Another inftance given in the fame papers is of a man who dying of an incurable colic, which had tormented him many years, and baffled the effects of medicines, was opened after death ; and in his bowels was found the caufe of his diftemper, which was a ball of the like na- ture with that juft mentioned, but fomething larger, being ' fix inches in circumference when meafured, and weighing an ounce and half; in the center of this, as of the other, there was found the ftone of a common plum, and the coats were of the fame matter with thofe of the former. Thafe and feveral others inftances mentioned in the fame place, fuflkient- ly fhew the folly of that common opinion, that the ftones of fruits are wholefome.

For tho' by nature the guts are fo defended with their proper mucus, that people very feldom fuffer by things of this kind, yet if we confider the various circumvolutions of the guts,

their