cultivated. About ten years since, it was also introduced into the East Indies, where it is now successfully cultivated, and grows to the height of seven feet: it admits of being frequently cut, and makes excellent hay. Cattle eat it, both in a fresh and dry state, with great avidity: hence the culture of this valuable herbage has been strongly recommended to the farmers of Cornwall and Devonshire. The following remarks on the culture of this grass are by the late H. Lawrence, of South Carolina. In the last spring, I procured from Jamaica three half-pints of Guinea-grass seed, which I planted in the drills of one-fourth part of an acre of very indifferent land; the seed sprung up and soon covered the ground with grass four feet high and upwards. Being desirous of saving as much seed as possible, I cut one bundle of grass for horses: they ate it all with great avidity. "In August I took one of the grass roots and divided it into 28 parts, which were immediately replanted: every part took root, and the whole are now growing very finely and seeding. I am of opinion this grass will make the best pasture we can wish for. From former experience I have reason to believe the Guinea grass is perennial. It is easily managed, requires but one good hoeing, after which it will take care of itself. "I am informed a gentleman near Kingston, in Jamaica, makes upwards of 1000%. sterling per annum by Guinea grass hay." (Domestic Encyclopædia.) GUINEA PIG (Covia cobaya). This curious little animal is not a native of Guinea, but of Brazil, whence it has been imported into Eutope. It is about seven inches in length, and its white body is variegated with irregular black and orange-coloured spots. In their wild state these animals multiply prodigiously, and would become innumerable, if they were capable of sustaining cold and moisture. The female breeds at two months old, and brings forth 10, 12, or 14 young ones, several times in the course of the year, after a gestation of three weeks. Guinea pigs feed on all kinds of herbs, but are particularly fond of parsley, as also of apples and other fruits. GULLION. A provincial name for gripes in horses. See GRIPES. GUM, BLACK. See BLACK GUM. GUTTA PERCHA. A peculiar gummy substance, consisting of the dried juice exuding from trees growing abundantly in Singapore, Borneo, and other parts of the East Indies. The remarkable properties of this singular substance were first made known to us by Dr. Montgomerie, in 1815, since which it has come rapidly into use for numberless purposes in the various mechanic arts, those especially in which leather, wood, iron, brass, and tin were used. When immersed in water heated to 150 deg. Fahrenheit it becomes plastic, and is capable of being moulded to any required form, which it retains upon cooling. It is a perfect repellant of water, acids, and fixed oils, and is therefore well adapted for machine belts in damp localities. It is also found to possess, at ordinary temperatures, a permanent elasticity of about 5 per cent., and does not oxidize like metals, or mould like leather; for water pipes, both for suction under great pressure, and for aqueduct purposes, it is found superior to any other substance. It is imporous, and conveys sound better than wood or metal, hence it is superior for speaking tubes. It is a non-conductor of electricity, and is useful for insulating telegraph wires under water or the ground. It never contracts or expands under any degree of cold or heat from zero to 100 deg. Fah., and is unaffected by dryness or moisture. At 220 deg. of Fah., it is the most adhesive substance known, remains perfectly adhesive at all lower temperatures, as well as under water. It resists abrasion in an eminent degree, and is decidedly more durable than the best of sole leather. It is a good absorbent of heat when exposed to its direct rays, and a poor conductor. Ice and milk can, it is said, be kept in gutta percha vessels longer than in any other substance. It has great strength, and cannot be broken by the most violent blow-is insoluble in alcohol, ether, or camphene at any ordinary temperatures; but is readily cut by heated camphene, or dissolved by coal naphtha and chloroform, and held in solution at a temperature of summer heat. The trees producing it are the largest in the Eastern forests, growing from 60 to 70 feet high, and 2 or 3 feet in diameter. Their fruit yields an oil which the natives use with their food, but the wood is of little value. GYPSUM. See PLASTER of PARIS. H. HACK, or HACKNEY. In horsemanship, a general term for a road horse, which does not always convey any sense of inferiority, or refer to horses let out for hire. It is, however, often used in that sense. HACKBERRY. A species of nettle tree, a native of the United States, where the banks of the Delaware, above Philadelphia, may be considered its north-eastern limit. East of the mountains it is abundant only on the Potomac and Susquehanna, especially near Columbia and Harrisburg. In the western country it is abundantly multiplied in all the river valleys where the soil is fertile. On the Ohio it is called Hoopash, and in Kentucky, Hackberry. On rich soil this tree grows straight and undivided to a great height; its bark is grayish, and unbroken. The wood is weak, and subject to speedy decay when exposed to the weather. Its elasticity, however, adapts it for making baskets and chair bottoms. It splits readily, and makes handsome fence rails. The hackberry is certainly one of the most beautiful trees of its genus, and one of the most remarkable for height and for majesty of form. In rich soils, the luxuriance of its vegetation is shown by sprouts 6, 8, and 10 feet in length, garnished on each side with large, substantial leaves. In France it is principally esteemed for the rapidity of its growth. (Am. Sylva.) HACKLE. A board set with sharp iron spikes for combing or pulling out hemp and flax. Also the name of an artificial fly used by anglers. HACKMATACK, or American larch (Larix Americana). The European and American larches, says Michaux, are more strictly confined than any other resinous trees to the northern zone of the two continents, and they are the first to disappear in approaching a milder sky. The American species is most abundant in the States of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine; but though the soil is well adapted to its growth and the winter is long and severe, it does not form the hundredth part of the resinous growth, which consists principally of the black spruce, the hemlock spruce, and the red cedar. According to my father's observations in his journey to Hudson's Bay, it is only beyond the St. Lawrence, particularly near lake St. John and the great and the little lake Mistassin, that it begins to abound and to form masses of woods, some of which are several miles in extent. I have been informed that it is profusely multiplied in Newfoundland, in nearly the same latitude. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the coldest and gloomiest exposures in the mountainous tracts of Virginia, are the limits of its appearance towards the south: but it is rare in these states, and in Lower Jersey, in the vicinity of New York, it is seen only in the swamps of white cedar, with which it is scantily mingled. The numerous descendants of the Dutch in New Jersey call it tamarack. I have remarked that in the States of Vermont and Maine the larch grows only in low and moist places, and never on uplands, as about Hudson's Bay and in Newfoundland; hence we may conclude that the climate of the northern extremity of the United States is too mild for its constitution. The larch is justly appreciated in the United States, but it is little employed, because it is rare and may be replaced by several resinous trees which are cheaper and more abundant. Sir A. B. Lambert, in his splendid work upon the pines, describes two species of the American larch, the first of which is evidently the tree we have been considering; the second he denominates Larix microcarpa, and characterizes it by smaller fruit and drooping branches. My father doubtless considered it as a variety, and has omitted to mention it: as I have never visited the northern parts of America, I cannot decide the question. The cones of the European larch are twice as large as those of the American species, but the two trees are so analogous that a separate description is unnecessary. (Am. Sylva.) HAIR (Germ. haare). The characteristic covering of the mammiferous class of animals. It consists of slender, more or less elongated, horny filaments, secreted by a matrix, consisting of a conical gland or bulb, and a capsule, which is situated in the meshwork of the corium or true skin. The hairs pass out through canals in the corium, which are lined by a thin layer of cuticle adherent to the base of the hair: the straightness or curl of the hair depends on the form of the canal through which it passes. The hair is formed in an elongated sheath or sack, to the bottom of which the bulb or soft part of the hair is fixed. The structure of hairs differs: thus, in the bristle of the hog there is an internal cellular part, and an external or cortical fibrous part; and this is also the structure of the hair of the roe deer. The hair of the bat is knotted, and that of the mouse is mottled with black and white. Hair is usu to its size and appearance. The strongest and stiffest of all is called bristle: of this kind is the hair on the backs of hogs. When remark ably fine, soft, and pliable, it is called wool, and the finest of all is known by the name of down. Spines, bristles, fur, and wool (see those heads) are therefore all modifications of hair, having the same chemical composition, mode of formation, and general structure. The American laren, like that of Europe, is a magnificent vegetable, with a straight, slender trunk 80 or 100 feet in height, and 2 or 3 feet in diameter. Its numerous branches, except near the summit, are horizontal or de-ally distinguished into various kinds, according clining. The bark is smooth and polished on the trunk and longer limbs, and rugged on the smaller branches. The leaves are flexible, shorter than those of the European species, and collected in bunches: they are shed in the fall and renewed in the spring. The flowers, like those of the pines, are separate upon the same tree: the male aments, which appear before the leaves, are small, oblong, and scaly, with two yellow anthers under each scale; the female flowers are also disposed in aments, and are composed of floral leaves covering two ovaries, which in process of time become small erect scaly cones 3 or 4 lines long. At the base of each scale lie two minute winged seeds. On some stocks the cones are violetcoloured in the spring instead of green; but this is an accidental variation, for the trees are in no other respect peculiar. The wood of the American larch is superior to any species of pine or spruce, and unites all the properties which distinguish the Eu ropean species, being exceedingly strong and singularly durable. In Canada it is considered as among the most valuable timber, and has no fault except its weight. In the State of Maine it is more esteemed than any other resinous wood for the knees of vessels, and is always used for this purpose when proper pieces can be procured. Turpentine is never extracted from it in America, as is done from the native species in Europe. In the spine of the porcupine, the bulb secretes a fluted pith, and the capsule invests it with a horny sheath, the transparency of which allows the ridges of the central part to be seen. In the spine-like whiskers of the walrus, as well as the bristles of the hog, the twofold structure of the hair is very conspicuous; but in the finer kind of hair, as of the human head an beard, the central pith can only be demon strated in fine transverse sections, viewed with a microscope. Some kinds of hair, as of the human head, the mane and tail of the horse, are perennial, and grow continuously by a persisting activity of the formative capsule and pulp: other kinds, as the ordinary hair of the horse, cow, and deer, are annual, and the coat is shed at particular seasons. In the deer the horns are shed contemporaneously with the deciduous hair. Many quadrupeds, especially those of cold climates, have two kinds of hair: a long and coarse kind, forming their visible external covering; and a shorter, finery and more abundant kind, which lies close to the skin, and called "fur." With respect to structure, Eberle has proved that the sheath of the hair is vascular, and the substance of the hair is formed by the secretion of horny matter on the surface of the vascular pulp. J. Cowperthwait, Esq., near Bristol, Pennsyl vania. It is quite an old tree, and has attained the height of 35 or 40 feet. There are two species of halesia, one called flower-winged (H. tetraptera), and the other the two-winged (H. diptera). The leaves of the latter are six times the size of the former, and the fruit has two large wings and two minute ones. HAM (Dutch, hammen; Fr. jambon). In commerce denotes the thigh of a hog or bear salted and dried, so as to preserve it in a state possessing a pungent and agreeable flavour. York, Hants, Wilts, and Cumberland in England, and Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, are the counties most famous for producing fine hams. Those of Ireland are comparatively coarse, and without flavour. See BACON. The hams of Portugal, Westphalia, and Virginia are exquisitely flavoured, and are in high esti The organization of the hair is such as to allow of its undergoing certain changes when once formed, according to the state of health and general condition of the rest of the frame, and even to be affected by loss of colour in consequence of violent mental emotions in the human subject. Some of the lower animals, as the Alpine hare, are subject to periodical changes of colour of their fur, by which it is made to harmonize with the prevailing hue of the ground which they habitually traverse. The chemical properties of hair were first pointed out by Mr. Hatchett, in his paper in the Phil. Trans. for 1800. It chiefly consists of an in-mation. The method of curing hams in the durated albumen, and when boiled with water, it yields a portion of gelatin. Soft flexible hair, which easily loses its curl, is that which is most gelatinous. Vauquelin discovered two kinds of oil in hair: the one colourless, in all hair; the other coloured, and imparting the peculiar tint to hair. Black hair also contains iron and sulphur. The following is his analy-a week longer on the bench, or in the saltingsis:-1. An animal matter, constituting the greatest part. 2. A white solid oil, small in quantity. 3. A grayish-green oil, more abundant. 4. Iron; state unknown. 5. Oxide of manganese. 6. Phosphate of lime. 7. Carbonate of lime, very scanty. 8. Silica. 9. Sulphur. Leuwenhoeck (Phil. Trans.) and Hooke (Micrographia, p. 156) have published their microscopical observations on hair. most celebrated districts, is to rub them very hard with bay or other salt; then leave them on a stone bench, in order that the brine may discharge itself. In a few days the rubbing process is repeated; about half an ounce of saltpetre (nitrate of potassa) being added to each ham. When they have continued about And tub, among the brine, they are commonly hung Human hair makes a very considerable article in commerce, for wigs, &c. The hair of horses is extensively used in the manufacture of chairs, sofas, saddles, &c.; while the hair or wool of beavers, hares, and rabbits, &c., is much employed in the manufacture of hats, &c. The refuse hair of different animals, particularly the short hair from hides, and that of hogs, when it can be procured in sufficient quantity, will be found useful as a fertilizer; a fact that might readily be imagined when it is known that its chemical properties closely ap-ally till they acquire a moderate degree of heat. proximate to those of horn. HAIR GRASS. See AIRA. HALESIA. The name of two beautiful species of shrub, or small trees, natives of North Carolina and other Southern States. They are known by the familiar names of silver-bell and snow-drop tree, and are highly ornamental, producing very early, whilst the tree is completely leafless, a profusion of snow-white hanging blossoms, having a pleasant odour and very much frequented by humming-birds, bees, and other insects. The flowers are disposed in bunches all along the branches, each bud producing from 4 to 8 or 9. The flowering continues during two or three weeks, and the blossoms are succeeded by pretty large winged juiceless drupes, hanging likewise in bunches. The tree is propagated by cuttings or suckers from the roots, and appear to stand the severe winters of more Northerly States, very well. A Halesia, with several distinct trunks from the original root, is now flourishing at the seat of Hams may be cured in order to resemble, in taste, those of Westphalia, by the following process:-Cover a young ham of pork with dry salt; let it be for 24 hours to draw off the blood; then wipe it perfectly dry, and take one pound of brown sugar, a quarter of a pound of saltpetre, half a pint of bay salt, and three pints of salt; incorporate these ingredients in an iron pan over the fire, and stir them continu In this pickle the ham must be suffered to remain for three weeks, frequently turning it, when it should be suspended in a chimney for drying by means of smoke from no other but a wood fire. The smoke from oak saw-dust or shavings is the best for imparting a fine flavour. This smoke contains imperfectly formed pyroligneous acid, which is the agent that communicates the flavour to the Westphalia hams. In Dumfriesshire the pickle for hams is sometimes made with one-half ale, which renders the hams shorter, and adds greatly to the richness of their flavour. The imports of bacon and hams into England, have been kept low by the heavy duty of 28s. exacted on each cwt. But the duty having been recently greatly reduced, a large amount of hams cured in America will be sent to the English market. In 1842, the duty on foreign hams imported into England was reduced to 14s. the cwt., or jus half of what it had been for many years. On those imported from British colonies the duty is only 3s. 5d. per cwt. Although dried hams pay a duty of 14s., those shipped in pickle pass the English Custom House at the pork duty of 88. per cwt. As a set off, however, against the 68. saved in duty, it must be observed that pork cured in pickle is of inferior quality to that cured in dry salt, and will not bring an equal price. It is also shipped in that form at an increased cost of packages and freight, and pays a duty on a greater weight than when dried. See SWINE. HAMES. The iron or wooden harness by which draught-horses are attached to the carts, &c. A HAND. The measure of the fist when clenched; it is equal to four inches. The height of horses is computed in this way. horse 15 hands high stands five feet at the shoulders. |2 feet 4 inches from the end of the nose to the HARIFF, Goose-Grass, Cliders, Cleavers, or Catchweed (Galium aparine). Pl. 10, h. This HARE (Lepus timidus). The hare is natu- is an annual plant, with a fibrous root, growing rally a timid animal, and extremely swift in in hedges almost everywhere. It is found wild motion when pursued by dogs. Hares are even in Nepal. The flowers are small, pale, dispersed over almost every climate, and con- and buff-coloured, few together, on lateral sequently the varieties are extremely numerous; leafy stalks, and blowing from May to August. and the sizes, forms, and habits, adapted to the The root is fibrous. The stem branched, britphysical wants of the family, greatly multiplies | tle, supporting itself upon other plants; often their diversities. Although hunted in all coun-three or four feet long; the four angles beset tries, being prolific in the extreme, their spe- with hooked prickles, which are also abundant cies does not apparently diminish in number. on the edges and keels of the leaves, by all They begin to breed in the first year, and the which the herb sticks to the hands and clothes female generally produces four or five leverets, of those who touch it, as well as to the coats after a gestation of about 31 or 32 days; and of animals, as do likewise the seeds. The she is supposed to breed four or five times in fruit is a double globe, beset with minute, short the year. Unlike dogs, the eyes of these ani-hooks. The expressed juice of the herb is mals are open at their birth; and after being suckled for about three weeks, they are abandoned to their fate. Hares in a state of nature are believed to live from 9 to 12 years. The hare is known to have been a favourite object of the chace more than 2000 years ago. Two or three species of the hare genus are natives of the United States. The common American rabbit, found all over the country, is the Lepus Americanus and Lepus Hudsonius of naturalists. It is smaller than the English hare, and even less than the European rabbit. In dry places it often burrows in the earth, and is very prolific, bringing forth 3 or 4 times a year from 5 to 10 at a time. It carries its young about 6 weeks. In the domestic state the male rabbit will often destroy the young. A second American species is the Varying Hare, the Lepus Virgianianus or Lepus variabilis of naturalists. This inhabits the Southern and Middle States, and most probably as far north as New England. Its colour is grayishbrown in summer, and white in winter; the rbits of the eyes are at all times surrounded oy a reddish fawn-colour; tail very short. The largest of this species are about 18 inches, total length, and weigh from 7 to 8 lbs. These animals never burrow, but frequent meadows, &c., near the base of mountains, and when pursued retreat into hollow trees. They bring forth several times a year, 3 or 4 at a birth, after a gestation of about 30 days. In the extreme northerly parts of the continent. Captains Parry, Sabine, and other travellers, describe another American species under the name of Lepus glacialis, which is somewhat larger than the varying rabbit, being reckoned anti-scorbutic; but this is doubtful, as well as some imaginary virtues in cancer which have been attributed to it. The roasted seeds are said to be no bad substitute for coffee, to which they are botanically related. Three-flowered goose-grass is one of the names of the rough-fruited common bed straw. (G. tricorne). HARRIERS. A breed of dogs kept princi pally for hunting the hare. There are three prominent varieties of the harrier,-the old southern hound, the modern harrier, and the beagle. Subordinate divisions occur, and a cross breed is used in hunting the otter. The modern harrier is little more than a dwarf foxhound. The size and form of the harrier, like those of the fox-hound, should be adapted to the nature of the country hunted over. Some sportsmen have a penchant for packs of undersized harriers; and a gentleman of the name of Harding used to hunt the open grounds about Dorchester with about 17 couple, which were not more than 16 or 17 inches high. (Blaine's Rural Sports, p. 404.) HARROW. For the chief portion of the following article, I am indebted to the Messrs. Ransome, the celebrated agricultural implement makers of Ipswich; than whom no persons can be better acquainted with the construction and uses of different machines and implements for agricultural purposes. This instrument succeeds to the plough in the natural order of description, and in the uses to which it is applicable. Its purpose is to pulverize the ground which has been moved by the plough, to disengage from it the weeds and roots which it may contain, or to cover the |