the name given by the Spaniards to a cluster of islands in the South Sea, discovered on the 27th of February 1781 by Don F. A. Maurelle, a celebrated pilot of that nation.

These islands are described by him as abounding with tropical fruits and roots, as highly cultivated, and as inhabited by a people considerably polished. The fertility of the land, says he, is such, that its cultivation cannot fail to promise a favourable harvest. Everywhere are seen an endless number of cocoa-nut trees, beautiful banana trees ranged in lines with the greatest order, and numerous plantations of potatoes, of which he describes some as fifteen feet in length, and of the thickness of a man's thigh. He admired the order with which everything was disposed. No weeds were suffered to grow between the plants; and their roads were kept in repair with a diligence deserving imitation by the most civilized nations.

Their government appears from his account to be despotic. The sovereign, who is called the Tubou, is held in the highest veneration by his subjects, whose lives and properties are at his disposal. Under him there is an order of nobles called Equis, who, though they shrink into insignificance in the presence of the Tubou, have great authority over the people. These people are said by Maurelle to be of great muscular strength and large stature, the ordinary height of the men being six feet or six feet four inches, while many of them are much taller. It would appear, too, that they delight in gymnastic exercises; for when the Tubou, by whom he had been treated with great hospitality, wished to amuse him and his ship's company, he exhibited to them feats of wrestling and boxing, and that as well by the women as by the men.

Though these people put the greatest confidence in the Spaniards, and frequently laid whole nights on board the frigate, they had yet the common inclination of savages to steal. "Every time they came on board (says our author), clothes, iron-work, whatever fell in their way, they considered as lawful prize. They drew out through the port holes, or the windows, whatever was Dracena was within their reach. They thieved even to the very chain of the rudder. I made my complaints to the king; he gave me permission to kill whomsoever I should detect in the act; and I was assured he had himself discovered and punished with death the authors of the complained of theft. Our vigilance was necessarily called into action; we surprized the islanders striving to tear away the new rudder chains; we fired a pistol at them, one of them fell dead on the occasion, and this was an awful lesson for those who were either on board or alongside of the frigate; they said to themselves, or to one another, *chito* (robber) *fama* (death).”

They make of the bark of trees a kind of cloth not unlike that which has been brought from other islands in the South Sea; and our author describes the women as being peculiarly neat both in their dress and in their persons. They had their mantles or loose garments adjusted in neat plaits and folds, and becomingly attached by a knot over the left shoulder. They wore garlands or wreaths on the head, and chaplets of large glass beads round their necks; the hair was pleasingly disposed in tresses, and the whole person perfumed with an oil of an agreeable odour; above all, the skin was so exquisitely clean, that they would not have suffered the smallest particle of dust to remain upon it a moment.

In this archipelago Don Maurelle found a safe harbour, to which he gave the name of El Refugio; and which he places in South Lat. 18° 36' and W. Lon. 177° 47' 45" of Greenwich.

**DRACENA Draco** (*see Dracena, Encycl.*), is a native of Madeira, though it is there becoming scarce. The following account of it is by La Martinière, naturalist in the last voyage of discovery by La Perouse.

“The idea of the dracena draco (says he) given by the shabby specimen cultivated in our hot-houses, is far inferior to that we entertain of it when we have an opportunity of seeing it in its native soil. I met with three in particular, of which the trunk was six or seven feet high, and four and a half, or five in diameter. The principal branches, 12 or 15 in number, and as thick as a man's body, shoot out a little obliquely, dividing themselves generally into two, and now and then into three, to the height of 40 or 50 feet, including the seven feet of the trunk. The leaves are all at the extremity of the branches, where they are placed in alternate order, and form a clatter. This tree presents the most perfect regularity to the eye, and tempts the spectator to think, that the most skilful gardener makes it the object of his daily care.”

**DRAINS.** Under this word in the Encyclopædia we published Mr Bayley of Hope's method of draining land; and by a letter from the author, we have since learned, that experience, the best guide, has fully proved the usefulness and durability of his drains. With a candour, however, worthy of a man who writes not for fame, but for the good of the public, he informs us of a mistake into which he had led us; and requests us to correct it in this Supplement:

“I wish (says he) that, in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia, due notice may be taken of a very great error into which I was led in my scheme of making the main drains. I conjectured, that where the bottom of the trench was of a hard or solid body, as clay or marl, it might not be necessary to lay it with bricks or stones; but in this I was quite wrong. By the runs of water, the alternate changes from wet to dry, and the access of air, these hard bottoms have been rendered friable; they have crumbled away, and let in all my drains which were not supported by a bottom laid with brick or stone.” For this information we request the author to accept of our thanks, and we are persuaded we may add, the thanks of the public.

As the draining of land is a matter of great importance in agriculture, and as the subject has been again brought before us, we imagine that our agricultural readers will be glad to find here the substance of a paper on this subject, for which the author received the silver medal of the Society instituted for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. That author is Mr John Wedge of Bickenhill, near Coventry, who is not only a great farmer himself, but has likewise been employed by the Earl of Aylesford in the management of several estates. Encouraged by his lordship's liberality, Mr Wedge informs the society, that he had been employed for some years in draining large portions of land, of which part was in the Earl's occupation, and part in his own, as tenant to his lordship. The principles upon which he proceeded, as well as his mode of procedure, he states in the following terms:

In every country there are large portions of land that, in wet seasons, have always what may be called a dry surface, and other portions of land that have always a moist or wet surface; the former of these admitting all the water which falls upon them to sink freely through their pores to various depths, till falling on clay, or some other unctuous earth, whose pores will not permit it to pass through, it is there held up to a height proportioned to the quantity of water which comes upon it, and the facility with which that water is discharged. Thus, held up to various heights, it serves as a fountain to distribute its water (either by veins of sand, pebbles, or rock), according to the formation of the different strata on the neighbouring lands, and there forms bogs and other varieties of wet surface, on a basis that will be always found to consist of marl, or clay, or some mixture thereof. The effect of water thus distributed may be divided into two classes. The first class, where the water is thrown out by a body of marl or clay, &c., upon the surface of descending ground, and in the valley (there held up by clay also) forms bogs or swamps. The second class, where the water is held up by marl or clay, as before, having above that marl or clay a stratum of sand, or pebbles, through which the water passes; and above those sands or pebbles another stratum of marl or clay, through the weakest parts of which the water, by a continual pressure from its fountain, forces a passage upwards; and thus, through the weakest parts of the marl or clay, furnishes a continual supply of water on the surface, for the formation or growth of bogs, &c., in proportion as this water is more or less abundantly supplied by its fountain or head, namely, the higher lands, into which rain-water freely passes, as before described. There are also different soils, under different circumstances, which may form a third class of land for draining; such as, strong deep soils, or open light soils, having near the surface a body of marl or clay. In either of these cases, the water which falls on the surface must, for reasons which are self-evident, keep such lands, in rainy seasons, constantly wet and cold; and it should be observed, that a mixture of all the three before-described classes of wet land sometimes occur in one field, by sud- den alterations of the under strata, and thereby perplex the operator, by requiring all the different modes of draining in the same field.

If it be admitted that bogs are thus formed and fed, their cure may be effected with certainty. The first clafs, by cutting through the stratum (be it sand, peb- bles, or rock,) that conveys the water to the bog, and carrying off that water by a clofe drain to some proper place, where the level admits of its discharge. The fe- cond clafs, by finking a drain to any convenient depth in the upper clay; and then digging or boring with a large auger, at a small distance on one fide of this drain, through the remaining part, be it (the upper clay) ever fo deep, into the under stratum of sand, peb- bles, or rock, through which the water paffes; which will then run up into the drain fo made, with a velocity proportioned to the height of the land or fountain whence it is fuppofed. As this drain advances through the land, holes muft be dug or bored, as before, every seven yards, or at fuch distance as the strength of the springs may require; and the whole of the water thus brought up by tapping the springs, is carried off by the drain made in the upper clay, which muft be a clofe one, to its proper level, and there discharged.

By both these methods of draining, large tracts of land, under favourable circumstances, may be cured with one drain. The best place for fixing these drains is where the stratum that conveys the water comes near to the furface; and the best method of ascertaining that, is to bore or dig in different parts through the dif- ferent under strata.

The third clafs may be easily cured by clofe drains, at fuch distances and depths as will bef carry off the furface-water. It may not be improper to obferve, that where the different strata or measures crop out, that is, become gradually more and more shallow in fome cer- tain direction (as is often the cafe, till, one after the other, they all prefent themfelves in fucceffion on the furface of the earth), draining may often be much more easily and better effected by crofling with the drain the different strata or measures where the levels and other circumstances will admit.

Some of the land drained was part of a common, in the parish of Church Bickenhill, in the county of War- wick; part of it was covered with mofs and ling, had a peaty furface about fix inches deep, and produced little or no grats; in all wet feafons it was filled quite to the furface, and often overflowed, with water. Some of the land was much more unfound, deeper of peat, and covered with mofs, in moft parts nine inches long; another part was an absolute bog in all feafons.

Having dug or bored with a large auger into feveral parts of the land, Mr Wedge found peat, gravel, and sand mixed, and a quick-fand almost uniformly. The quick-fand in every part, after getting an inch or two into it, feemed almost as fluid as water. Judging from this, that no materials for a drain could be laid in the quick-fand, but what it would immediately bury, he dug a trench almost to the quick-fand, leaving gravel, &c. of fufficient strength to bear up the materials for a hollow drain; thefe materials were two fides and a cov- erer of flone, with a peat-turf on the top to keep out the foil. At every seven yards forward, by the fide of this drain, he dug a hole in the quick-fand as deep as it would permit. From thefe holes the water rofe free-

ly into the hollow drain, and was by it discharged at a proper level. It may be proper to remark, that the flone made ufe of for this drain, and all others here mentioned, was a red fand and rag-flone, which easily split into proper fizes for the purpofe, and is very du- rable; it cost about fixpence per ton getting, exclusive of carriage. The drain thus formed ran on the whole rather freely, and made the land dry for a few yards on each fide thereof; but was far from having the effect he improperly expected; for it evidently appears that the drain could only take a very fmall portion of the water from fo large a quick-fand, which it did not penetrate more than two inches; and that it could drain only to its own depth, or, at moft, to that depth in the fountain which fupplied the quick-fand. His purpofe was then defeated; and his motive for mentioning this error can- not, he hopes, be miaken.

He now did what he fays he ought to have done be- fore, that is, examined the different strata to a greater depth, particularly on the bog, and at the upper edges thereof, and found the bog to be what has been defcri- bed under the firft clafs. He therefore determined to attempt the cure in the manner before prefcribed for that clafs, namely, to cut through the whole of the stratum (in this inftance, of quick-fand), through which he found the water paft. This he effected as follows: The summer being dry, and favourable for the purpofe, and having previously made his main open drain, he began his main clofe drain the firft week in June 1791, three feet wide, on the declivity near the edge of the great bog. In the firft operation he dug through the peat, the hard fand, and gravel, and one spade's graft (about nine inches deep, and feven inches wide) into the quick- sand the whole length of this drain, which was 73 perches, or eight yards to the perch, in length. The drain thus dug ran copioufly, not lefs than 60 gallons per minute. In this flate he left it about nine days; the effect of it was rapid, both above the drain and on the bog below. Upon examination, he now found about three inches on the top of the fpade's graft, which had been made into the quick fand, perfectly dry. He then dug out thefe three inches of dry fand, to nearly the whole width of the drain, three feet; and at the fame time dug out, as before, another fpade's graft from the top of the quick-fand, as near the middle of the drain as poftible. This was left to run a few days, as before, and had the fame effect, namely, three or four inches more of the top of the quick-fand became dry and hard. The fame operation was repeated again and again with the fame effect, till the purpofe of getting through this quick-fand was completed, fo far at leaft as the level of the main open drain would permit. The stream of wa- ter continued increasing during the whole operation; the bog below the drain was quite dry, and the land above perfectly fo. The drain which was firft made, and continued running for fome time during the pro- gress of the main clofe drain, became gradually dry; and has not, fince that drain was finished, discharged one fingle drop of water. Great care was neceffary, in making the main clofe drain, to keep the stream of wa- ter in the middle of it, otherwife the current would have undermined the fides, as it fometimes had done, and caufed them to fall in. For this reafon it was necef- fary, when the dry fand was taken from the top of the quick-fand, immediately to take out a fpade's graft from

SUPPL. VOL. I. Part II. Drains.

The middle thereof, in order to divert the current from the sides.

The main close drain thus made was three feet wide at top, about nine feet deep on the average, and, beveling a little from the top, it was about one foot ten inches wide at the bottom. The stone and other materials were put into this drain in the following manner:

Where the drain went through the quick sand into the stratum of clay below it, as in most places it did, the bottom, and in some instances the sides, wanted no particular security (a); but where it did not go quite through the quick sand, which the level of his main open drain in some places would not admit, the bottom of the drain was covered half an inch thick with lings; then peat-turfs, one foot wide and three or four inches thick, were cut in convenient lengths, and placed on their edges on each side of the bottom of the drain, forming two sides of a trough of peat; then side stones about eight inches high, and a stone coverer, were put in upon the lings between the peat turfs; a large peat-turf, near two feet wide and four inches thick, was then cut and firmly placed over the whole; this left in the bottom of the drain an open space, of more than six inches square, for the water to pass. The whole was then completed by filling in the upper part of the drain.

In this way the author drained, for about L. 80, thirty acres of land, which, from being of no value whatever, became worth at least 14 shillings per acre of yearly rent. He likewise hollow-drained nine acres by the method prescribed for the third class of wet land. These drains were made a few yards below that part of each field where the dry and wet land separate, about 22 inches deep, with sides and a coverer of stone, and lings on the top of it, to keep the earth from running in. The length of these drains was 880 yards, and the expense of labour and materials three halpence per yard. The drains, in wet weather, discharge a large quantity of water; and will, he has no doubt, answer the intended purpose. Thus far relates to land in his own occupation.

Nine acres of the land in the earl of Aylesford's occupation was almost an entire pulp. This bog was of the second class, namely, water passing through a quicksand, and confined by a stratum of clay below, and another stratum of clay above it. The water thus confined, being pressed by its fountain, and forced up thro' the weakest parts of the clay, had formed a bog of irregular thicknesses on the surface, in some places five feet deep, in others not more than two. As there is a considerable fall in this land from east to west, he thought it expedient to put two drains into it; and this appears to him to have been necessary, from a consideration that both these drains continue to run in the same proportions as when first opened. The manner in which these drains were executed was, by digging through the different upper strata, and as deep into the clay as the main open drain would admit; then digging or boring through the remaining part of that clay into the quicksand, at the distance of about five yards, in a progressive manner.

The water rising rapidly through these holes into the close drains, has effected a complete cure of this land, every part of which will now bear a horse to gallop upon it. These drains discharge 3660 gallons an hour; which is much less than they did at first, as must be the case in all bogs. This land will be worth twenty shillings per acre. The draining cost twenty-five pounds; and the length of the underground drains is eight hundred and fourteen yards.

Mr. Wedge had just finished (January 1792) draining another piece of land, about forty-three acres. As this was intended to answer two purposes, one to drain the land, the other, to give an additional supply of water to a mill-pool, and as a circumstance arose in the execution of the work which frequently happens in draining land, namely, a sudden alteration in the position of the under strata—a description thereof will not, we hope, be thought tedious. This draining was begun at the level of a mill-pool, and continued, without any great difficulty, to the distance of about thirty-two chains, in the manner before described as a cure for the second class of boggy land; but at or near that place the under strata altered their position; the quicksand which conveyed the water now became twice its former thickness; and the clay, which had hitherto been above that quicksand, for some distance disappeared. From the quicksand thus becoming so much deeper, he could not, with the level of the mill-pool, cut through it; nor indeed, from the wetness of the fenland, would such an operation have been proper. He therefore continued a shallow drain to some distance, making side-holes into the quicksand, which ran freely; but as this could not cure the whole of the bog below, he branched out another drain (which was made by the method described for curing the second class of wet or boggy land), by fixing a close drain through the upper strata into the upper clay, and then, at a small distance on one side of this close drain, boring a hole with an auger through the remaining part of that clay into the quicksand; and at every eight yards, as this close drain advanced, still boring other holes, in the manner before described: through many of these holes the water rushed with great rapidity. The water discharged by these drains into the mill-pool is 168 gallons per minute, or 5780 hogsheads in a day; which is after the rate of 1,379,700 hogsheads in a year.

About six acres of this land were always found; about twelve acres on the north side were an absolute pulp, and the remaining twenty-six acres very unformed. The whole is now found, and will when cultivated be worth fifteen shillings per acre. This land would have been drained at a much less expense into the main open drain; but then the water, which was much wanted for the mill, would have been lost. These close drains are in length 1432 yards, and cost L. 100, of which about L. 30 ought to be charged to the mill.

Important as this subject is, we must not enlarge this article, or we should make large extracts from Dr Anderson's Practical Treatise on Draining Bogs and Swampy Grounds, lately published. It is proper, however, to inform the public, that the author puts in his claim for

(a) He will probably find in time that he was under the same mistake with Mr Bayley, and we hope that with Mr Bayley's candour he will acknowledge it. for being the first discoverer of that mode of draining for which Mr. Elkington has obtained from parliament a premium of L1000; and the reader who shall turn to the article Drains in the Encyclopedia, will perceive that his claim is well-founded.

DROSSERA Anglicana, or the Sundew (see Drosera, Enzyt.), is a very minute villous plant, usually growing entangled with moss on peat-bogs; the leaves are curiously fringed with numerous strong red-dish hairs, terminated by small, pellucid globules of viscid liquor, which occasion, by the reflection of the sun, that peculiar lustre from which its name is derived. It is in these hairs that the essential properties of the plant reside; for if a small insect should fix itself on one of the leaves, these hairs immediately begin to close, one by one, till the insect is wholly environed by them, and then the leaf in which it is imprisoned gradually bends inwards, so as to reach the base: in this state the insect is killed by the operation of the acrimonious juice exuding from the ends of the hairs. Rothius (as quoted by Withering, in his Arrangement of British Plants,) mentions the effects of this singular plant, occasioned by the irritation of an ant, which he placed on the centre of one of the leaves with a pair of pincers. The ant, in endeavouring to escape, was held fast by the viscid juice of the smaller hairs till the large ones, together with the edges of the leaf, closed in and imprisoned it. The ant died in fifteen minutes; but he observes, that the effects followed sooner or later, in different experiments, according to the state of the weather. Dr Withering has published a similar account of the sensitive properties of the sundew, which was communicated to him by two of his botanical friends, and which he has made very entertaining and interesting. The same thing is confirmed by a writer in the Monthly Magazine for August 1797; who says, that whenever he made experiments on the drosera with ants and other diminutive insects, he commonly found them perish in a shorter time than fifteen minutes. His experiments were made on the drosera rotundifolia. Rothius, however, observes, that the longiflora produces the same effects, but with greater rapidity. In concluding his account, Dr Withering suggests this enquiry: "Whether this destruction of insects be not necessary to the welfare of the plant?" And it is surely worth some botanist's while to take some pains to answer the question.