phenomena of shooting stars. As the leading steps by which I arrived at this conclusion, after an extensive induction of facts, were very brief and simple, I may be permitted to repeat them here. I argued thus: If all the meteors which fell on this occasion (which were in vast numbers, and some of them proved to be bodies of comparatively large size,) had been restored to their original position in space, they would of themselves have composed a nebulous body of considerable extent. But, since the same shower had been several times repeated without any apparent exhaustion of the nebulous body, it was inferred that only small portions of that body came down to us, such as constituted its extreme parts which approximated nearest to the earth; and various reasons induced the belief that the nebu lous body itself was one of very great extent. It was a striking fact that the earth had, during several preceding years, fallen in with this body at exactly the same part of its orbit. Now, since it is impossible to suppose that a body thus situated, and consequently subject to the sun's attraction, could have remained at rest in that part of the earth's orbit while the earth was making its revolution around the sun, the conclusion was that the nebulous body itself has a revolution around the sun, and a period of its own. Since the earth and the body met for several successive years at the same point of the ecliptic, that period must obviously be either a year or less than a year. It could not be more than a year, for, in that case, the body would not have completed its revolution so as to meet the earth at the same point for successive years. Its period might be a year, and it might be less than a year provided the time was some aliquot part of a year, so as to make it revolve just twice or three times, &c., while the earth revolves once. The time being given we easily find the major axis of the orbit by Kepler's third law. On trying so short a period as one third of a year, it gives a major axis too short to reach from the sun to the earth, and hence it was inferred that the body could not have so short a period as four months, since it would never in that case reach the earth's orbit, even at its aphelion. A period of six months was found to be sufficient, and this was accordingly assumed at first to be the time, although the pos sibility that the period might be a year was distinctly admitted. But, extensive as I even then believed the nebulous body to be, I had formed very inadequate notions of its real extent, for this may clearly be sufficient to reach from the sun to the earth, and thus to correspond in dimensions to the zodiacal light; and since the center of gravity of this body may be far within the earth's orbit, so its orbit may, even at its aphelion, be distant from the earth, and yet the extreme portions of the body may reach beyond the ecliptic. It would, therefore, be entirely consistent with my original views, to assign to a nebulous body of such an extent as

that of the zodiacal light, a period as short as one third of a year, or even less.

I do not assert positively that the zodiacal light is the veritable body which produces the meteoric showers of November and August. Before such an hypothesis can be proved to be true or false, with certainty, a greater number of precise observations continued through a series of years, would require to be made, and a careful comparison instituted between the hypothesis and the facts. Should the zodiacal light be found at last incompetent to explain the periodical meteors, the existence of a nebulous body, as inferred from a full survey of the facts in the case of the meteoric shower of November 13th, 1833, independently of all hypothesis, will still be true. But, with great deference, I submit to the Association, the following presumptions in favor of the opinion that the zodiacal light is the nebulous body which produces the meteoric showers of November.

1. The zodiacal light, as we have found in our inquiry into its nature and constitution, is a nebulous body.

2. It has a revolution around the sun.

3. It reaches beyond and lies over the earth's orbit, at the time of the November meteors, and makes but a small angle with the ecliptic.

4. Like the "nebulous body," its periodic time is commensurable with that of the earth, so as to perform a certain whole number of revolutions while the earth performs one, and thus to complete the cycle in one year, at the end of which the zodiacal light and the earth return to the same relative position in space. This necessarily follows from the fact that at the same season of the year it occupies the same position one year with another, and the same now as when Cassini made his observations nearly one hundred and seventy years ago."

*

5. In the meteoric showers of November, the meteors are actually seen to come from the extreme portions of the zodiacal light, or rather a little beyond the visible portions; and the same was true of the radiant point of the meteors, (when watched, as it was by Mr. Fitch,† from Oct. 16th to Nov. 13th, 1837,) namely, that the radiant always keeps the same relative position with respect to the vertex of the zodiacal light, being with that vertex in Gemini, in the month of October, and travelling along with it through the Constellation Cancer, and into Leo, where it was on the morning of the meteoric shower. Observations, so far as they have been made, indicate a similar relation between the meteors of August and the extreme portions of the zodiacal light.

*For the first suggestion of this analogy, I am indebted to one of my former pupils, Mr. Hubert Newton.

Amer. Jour, Sci., xxxiii, 386.

These five propositions I offer as so many facts established by observation. Most of them appear in the original paper of Cassini on the zodiacal light; others may be seen in the tabular collec tion by Houzeau of all the known observations made at different periods; a few, not noted by others, have been added by myself. For the inferences here made respecting the connexion of this body with the periodical meteors, I alone am responsible.

ART. XXXII.-Cultivation of Nutmegs and Cloves in Bencoolen by Dr. LUMSDAINE.

.*

THE mode of culture adopted in the different nutmeg plantations is nearly the same. The beds of the trees are kept free from grass and noxious weeds by the hoe, and the plough is occasionally run along the interjacent spaces for the purpose of eradicating the Lallang (Andropogon caricosum) which proves greatly obstructive to the operations of agriculture. The trees are generally manured with cow dung and burnt earth once a year in the rainy season, but the preparation of suitable composts and their mode of application are but imperfectly understood. The pruning knife is too sparingly used; very few of the planters lop off the lower verticels of the nutmeg trees or thin them of the unproductive and straggling branches.

The site of a plantation is an object of primary importance, and doubtless the alluvial grounds are entitled to preference from the acknowledged fertility of their soil, and its appropriate organiza tion and capability of retaining moisture, independent of the advantage of water carriage. Several of the nutmeg trees of the importation of 1798 at Moco Moco, are placed in soil of this description; although never manured they are in the highest state of luxuriance and bear abundantly; and I have been informed by a gentleman recently arrived from that station, that the stem of one of them measures 38 inches in circumference. Some of the trees in my own experimental garden, corroborate the truth of this assertion; one of these blossomed at the early age of two years ten months and a half, a degree of precocity ascribable solely to its proximity to the lake which forms the southern boundary. This was the first tree that blossomed of the importa tion of 1803, which consisted of upwards of 22,000 nutmeg plants. Next to the alluvial deposits, virgin forest lands claim pre-eminence, their surface being clothed with a dark colored carbonized mould, formed by the slow decay of falling leaves and

* From a Paper in the Proceedings of the Agricultural Society established in Sumatra in 1820; cited from the Journ. of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, v, p. 78, Jan., 1851.

mouldering trunks of trees; and next to these are to be ranked the open plains. Declivities are objectionable from the risk of the precipitation of the mould and manure into the subjacent ravines, by the heavy torrents of rain that occasionally deluge the country. Above all, the plantation must be protected from the southerly and northerly winds by a skirting of lofty trees, and if nature has not already made this provision, no time should be lost in belting the grounds with a double row of the Cassuarina littorea and Cerbera manghas, which are well adapted for this purpose. This precautionary measure will not only secure the planter against eventual loss from the falling off of the blossom and young fruit in heavy gales, but will prevent the up-rooting of the trees, a contingency to which they are liable from the slender hold ther roots have in the soil. If the plantation is extensive, subsidary rows of these trees may be planted at convenient distances. No large trees whatever should be suffered to grow among the spice trees, for these exclude the vivifying rays of the sun and arrest the descent of the salutary night dews, both of which are essential to the quality and quantity of the produce. They further rob the soil of its fecundity, and intermingle their roots with those of the spice trees. It is true that by the protection they afford they prevent frequently the premature bursting of the husk, occasioned by the sudden action of a hot sun upon it when saturated with rain; but the loss sustained in this way is not equal to the damage the spice trees suffer from these intruders. Extensive tracts of land are to be met with in the interior of the country, well adapted for the cultivation of the nutmegs and cloves, and to these undoubted preference is due.

In originating a nutmeg plantation, the first care of the cultivator is to select ripe nuts, and to set them at the distance of a foot apart in a rich soil, merely covering them very lightly with mould. They are to be protected from the heat of the sun, occasionally weeded, and watered in dry weather every other day. The seedlings may be expected to appear in from 30 to 60 days, and when four feet high, the healthiest and most luxuriant, consisting of three or four verticels, are to be removed in the commencement of the rains to the plantation, previously cleared of trees and underwood by burning and grubbing up their roots, and placed in holes dug for their reception, at the distance of eighty feet from each other, screening them from the heat of the sun and violence of the winds. It is a matter of essential importance that the ground be well opened and its cohesion broken, in order to admit of the free expansion of the roots of the tender plants, and that it be intimately mixed with earth and cow manure, in the proportion of two-thirds of the former to one-third of the latter. The plants are to be set in rows as well for the sake of regularity as for the more convenient traversing of the plough, which is

now to be employed in clearing the intermediate spaces of lallang and other noxious grasses, carefully avoiding to trespass on the beds of the trees. They must be watered every other day in sultry weather, manured annually during the rains with four gar den baskets full of the above mentioned compost to each tree, and protected from the sun until they attain the age of five years. They will now be sufficiently hardy to bear the sun, and from that age until their fifteenth year, the compost should consist of equal parts of cow dung and burnt earth, and from eight to twelve baskets full will be required for each bearing tree, a lesser proportion being distributed to the males. From the power of habit the trees will, after the fifteenth year, require a more stimulating nutriment; the dung ought not, therefore, to be more than two or three months old, and the mixture should consist of two parts of it to one of burnt earth, of which the suitable proportion will be from twelve to sixteen baskets to each tree biennially. In all cases the prepared compost must be spread out in the sun for three or four days previous to its application, in order to destroy grubs and worms that may have lodged in it, and which might injure the roots of the plants.

In all plantations, whether situated in forest land or in the plains, the necessity of manuring at stated intervals has been found indispensable, and is indeed identified with their prosperity. The proper mode of applying it is in a circular furrow in immediate contact with the extremeties of the fibrous roots, which may be called the absorbents of the plant. Where there is a scarcity of dung, recourse may be had to the dregs remaining after the preparation of the oil from the fruit of the Arachis Hypogea, which in mixture with burnt earth, is a very stimulating manure; or composts may be formed from the decomposition of leaves or vegetable matter of any description. A very fertilizing and highly animalized liquid nutriment for plants, is obtained by macerating human ordure in water in proper pits for four or five months, and applying the fluid to the radical absorbents of the plants. Seaweed and many other articles may also be resorted to, which will readily occur to the intelligent agriculturist.

During the progressive growth of the plantation, the beds of the trees are to be regularly weeded and the roots kept properly covered with the mould, for these have a constant tendency to seek the surface; the growth of the lateral branches alone is to be encouraged, and all suckers, or dead and unproductive branches, are to be removed by the pruning knife, so as to thin the trees considerably and to admit of the descent of the night dews, which are greatly contributive to their well being, especially during the dry and sultry weather; creepers are to be dislodged, and the lower verticels lopped off, with the view of establishing an unimpeded circulation of air. The conclusion of the great