Areola

“ As only one areola belongs to each cell, and as in many cases where it exists in the common cells of the epidermis, it is also visible in the cutaneous glands or stomata, and in these is always double—one being on each side of the limb—it is highly probable that the cutaneous gland is in all cases composed of two cells of peculiar form, the line of union being the longitudinal axis of the disk or pore. ”

“ Some of the larger kinds of aloes are of great importance to the inhabitants of countries in which they grow. Beset as the leaves are with strong spines, they form an impenetrable fence. The negroes of the western coast of Africa make ropes and weave nets of the fibrous part of these leaves. The Hottentots hollow out the stems of one of the kinds into quivers for their arrows. In Jamaica, there is a species of aloe which supplies the inhabitants with bow-strings, fishing lines, and materials from which they are able to weave stockings and hammocks. ”

“ It prefers, I believe, the trees that grow on the sides of a gentle declivity. The choice of a twig being made, the male Oriole becomes extremely conspicuous. He flies to the ground, searches for the longest and driest filaments of the moss, which in that State is known by the name of Spanish Beard, and whenever he finds one fit for his purpose, ascends to the favourite spot where the nest is to be, uttering all the while a continued chirrup, which seems to imply that he knows no fear, but on the contrary fancies himself the acknowledged king of the woods. ”

“ In some of those saline and arid districts, where no other fresh water is to be found, there grows a species of the aloe, well known to the natives, from which, on being tapped by an incision made in one of the thickest leaves, a clear stream will spurt out sufficient to allay the traveller's thirst. ”

“ Aroideae are poorly represented compared with either South America or Malays. A peculiar feature in which tropical Africa stands alone is that at least one-fifth and probably more of the species are common to both sides of the continent and presumably stretch right across it. ”

“ A colony of cornflowers garnished a stalk ceded by moss-roses, and which now waved about, a thyrsus thenceforward blue. An araucaria unfolded at the tip of its bristling branches the indigo-colored bells of the gentian, and along an espalier among nasturtium leaves and on the loops of its serpentine stalk, camelias and parti-colored tulips blossomed fraternally together.
Opposite the entrance-door, a clump of bushes rose up against the glass wall. The shrub which stood highest drew my attention. ”

“ Salvinia natans, Hoffm., the only European species, extends from the South of France to Northern China and the plains of India: the other twelve species are mostly tropical. Azolla, represented by four species, occurs in Western and Southern North America, South America, Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, and is widely spread in tropical Asia and Africa.
Species of Azolla frequently form a considerable proportion of the floating carpet of vegetation on inland waters [1212] growing under conditions which might be supposed favourable for preservation in a fossil state. ”

“ On the left bank of the Marico, spreading out over the best half of a large meadow, was a carpet of fiery red, set in a frame of verdant sward, and enclosed with the dark green foliage of the mimosa. This spectacle of beauty was caused by masses of flowering aloes, which sent forth their gorgeous spikes of blossom some three or four feet above the cluster of prickly leaves. Where the aloes were thickest, I noticed that they were not unfrequently overhung by a beautiful sulphur-coloured creeper. ”

“ The Pampas grass and Arundo conspicua are perfectly hardy. The Arundinaria falcata is rather more tender, but unless it flowers, when, like the American aloe, it will die, it will generally spring up from the root, even when its long canes themselves are cut by the frost. The aralia, ricinus, and others, are no doubt safer for being housed during the winter, and then plunged, either as centres for [29] flower-beds, or as separate shrubs in the outside garden. Nothing gives greater character to any garden than the occasional introduction of plants like these. ”

“ A very useful as well as the most ordinary plant in the valley is the American aloe, or "Century Plant." [38] It is the largest of all herbs. Not naturally social, it imparts a melancholy character to the landscape as it rises solitary out of the arid plain. Most of the roads are fenced with aloe hedges. While the majority of tropical trees have naked stems with a crown of leaves on the top, the aloe reverses this, and looks like a great chandelier as its tall peduncle, bearing greenish-yellow flowers, rises out of a graceful cluster of long, thick, fleshy leaves. ”

“ Yet several instances occur of the same or of very nearly related genera, peculiar to the southern hemisphere, which are common to Terra Australis and South America, and which do not exist at the Cape of Good Hope. Thus the Pavonia or Laurelia of Chili has its nearly related genus Atherosperma in Van Diemen's Island; where also a genus that I shall name Tasmania occupies the place of the Wintera of South America, from which it differs chiefly in having a single ovarium; a species of the Araucaria of Chili exists in New Holland as well as in Norfolk Island and New Caledonia ”

“ We wind up the steep hill behind Meta, every foot of which is terraced for olive-trees, getting, at length, views over the wayside wall of the plain and bay and rising into the purer air and the scent of flowers and other signs of coming spring, to the little village of Arola, with its church and bell, its beggars and idlers,—just a little street of houses jammed in between the hills of Camaldoli and Pergola, both of which we know well. ”

“ The male inflorescence is like a large, brown, pendant catkin, 4 or 5 inches long; the huge female cones take two years to ripen, when they open, and each discharges 200 or 300 large seeds, 1 to 11⁄2 inch long. These seeds are freely produced in nearly all parts of Britain; self-sown seedlings spring up where the undergrowth permits them; and as an article of food the kernels are not to be despised when cooked as chestnuts.
The araucaria is one of many South Chilian plants which relish the climate of western Britain and Ireland. ”

“ So bustling and energetic is he, so cheerful and self-confident, without unpleasant aggressiveness, that he always attracts attention. The uninitiated frequently call him an oriole, whom he does resemble in having a glossy black head, throat, back, and tail, and white markings on his wings, with reddish-brown like that of the orchard oriole on his sides; but there the resemblance ceases, for the oriole has in addition a reddish-brown breast, belly, and rump. ”

“ Araucaria excelsa, which was first observed in Norfolk Island and New Caledonia, is found also on the east coast of New Holland, immediately within the tropic: it is there, however, a tree of very moderate dimensions, and never of that enormous size which it not unfrequently attains in Norfolk Island.
ORCHIDEÆ. [79] The Australian species of this order already known amount to 120, many of these, however, are of very rare occurrence, and none of them appear to be produced in abundance. ”

“ Urodela also eat this skin. As a rule the first ecdysis takes place towards the end of the metamorphosis, preparatory to terrestrial life. So long as the animal grows rapidly, the skin has to be shed frequently, since this corneous layer is practically dead and unyielding. Adult terrestrial Urodela do not seem to moult often, mostly only when they take to the water in the breeding season. Anura, on the other hand, moult often on land, at least every few months. ”

“ The aloe plant is commonly used for fences, its long sharp-pointed leaves proving an excellent repellant to any intruder. From the centre of the plant rises a smooth green stem, or column, of about twenty or thirty feet high, broad at the base, and tapering to the top, where it branches out into numerous pedunculuses, or flower stalks. This plant has no calyx; the corolla is monopetalous, and of the colour of the brightest gold, which produces a splendid appearance when in bloom. They are very hardy plants, and can scarcely be destroyed even if wished. ”

“ CROCOSMA aurea.—This beautiful Iridaceous plant is perhaps better known as Tritonia aurea. It is a native of South Africa, and has fibrous-coated corms, narrow sword-shaped leaves, and brilliant orange-red starry blossoms borne on branched stems about 2 feet high, in August or September. It likes a rich sandy loam and leaf-soil and soon makes fine clumps in the milder parts of the kingdom. In cold districts and the north generally, the corms may be lifted in October or November, when the leaves have withered, and may be stored in sand or soil until spring. ”

“ The bundle-scars are near together and conspicuous. The buds are covered with loose scales and are small for the size of the stems. The white pith in the stems is conspicuous when they are cut.
Among all trees and shrubs the aralia is unique in winter. Its stout, club-like stems, thickly beset with prickles, are so large they never fail to attract attention, and whatever lack of beauty there may be is overlooked owing to their grotesque aspect. In our Northern gardens it is only a shrub, but it invariably arouses curiosity and seems to compel attention more than trees three times its size. ”

“ They are, when one knows something of their habits of growth, very easily cared for. Little water in winter, and a cool even temperature, are its simple requirements.
The araucaria is, I think, the most beautiful of all formal decorative plants. Its dignity, simplicity and beautiful plumelike foliage place it in a class of its own. The branches leave the main stem at regular intervals, in whorls of five, and the foliage is a clean soft green, lighter at the tips. Propagated by cuttings from leading shoots, not side shoots. ”

“ Among yet more developed or degraded wind-fertilized plants, this crowding of the blossoms becomes even more conspicuous. A common American rush-like water-plant, known as eriocaulon, helps us to bridge over the gap between the' rushes and such compound flowers as the sedges and grasses. Eriocaulon and its allies have always one seed only in each cell of the pistil; and they have also generally a very delicate corolla and calyx, of from four to six pieces, representing the original three sepals and three petals of the lilies and rushes. ”

“ Still, the case of mutual help between two such different orders of beings is remarkable. A very peculiar case is that of the waterfern, Azolla, which has certain roomy cavities on the underside of its leaves. These are always found to be occupied by a small unicellular organism of the Alga order (Anabæna) . It is of no apparent use to the Azolla, which provides it a home. The arrangement must have been of immensely long standing, for it occurs in all the four species of Azolla, one of which is found in America, two distributed over Australia, Asia, and Africa, and one only in the Nile. ”

“ What I have said of Epilobium above, is true of Typha and Arundo, both now passed flowering, and both found in India, to a considerable extent.
Royle’s idea of the comparatively greater extent of distribution of water plants is not I think correct, in the sense he seems to entertain it; to be so, the species should be the same, which they are certainly not. It is only with pre-eminently aquatic forms that the annual temperature can be more equalised than obtains with strictly terrestrial plants. ”

“ These cork-groves are also occupied by many other species—by birds of plumage whose resplendent hues appear almost tropical—such as Golden Oriole, Roller, Bee-eater, Hoopoes, Woodpeckers, Azure-winged Magpie, and others hardly less brilliant. Amid the ilex-groves the Golden Oriole hangs suspended, hovering like a Kestrel in mid-air, his rich orange lustre justifying the Spanish name—oropendola: the Roller, clad in chestnut and azure, and rich parti-coloured Hoopoes and Pied Woodpeckers flit among the foliage. ”

“ We hear much of the marvellous nests of tailor- and weaver-birds, but never of that of the oriole. Naturalists, equally with poets, have neglected this beautiful species. An oriole’s nest is in its way quite as wonderful as that of the tailor-bird. If a man were ordered to erect a cradle up in a tree, he would, I imagine, construct it precisely as the oriole does its nest. This last is a cup-shaped structure slung on to two or three branches of a tree by means of fibres which are wound first round one branch, then passed under the nest, and finally wound round another bough. ”

“ The flowers of this plant are distinguished by having the tube of the corolla narrowed in the middle, the stamens longer than the corolla, and the style longer than the stamens.
This magnificent native of North America is by no means an uncommon plant in our gardens, but, with us, it is seldom seen in flower. There is indeed a notion, but it is an erroneous one, that the American aloe does not bloom until it is a hundred years old. The fact is, that the flowering depends almost wholly on its growth. In hot countries it will flower in a few years ”

“ To the lover of birds, the oriole in its flight among the trees, like a yellow meteor flashing past, is a sight that instantly rivets the attention, and is as delightfully startling to the eye as its song is to the ear. But I know of no device by means of which they can be attracted to nest in any given locality; their tastes are not well enough known to us; "houses," like those which attract the blue-bird and the martin, possess no charm for the oriole. With the first of June Gram watched, wistfully, for the return of this pair, during a number of successive springs ”