Engystoma marmoratum

India.

Pipa monstrosa, Laurenti (Asterodactylus of Wagler), Surinam Toad, female, reduced. The upper figure shows the disposition of the cells, and their situation in the skin, which is turned back, and the muscle seen below. The small sepa rate figures are tadpoles, in different stages of development.

Hyla bicolor (half nat. size). South America.

FOSSIL FROGS.

Fossil frogs have been found in the coal-formation of the Rhine (Papier-kohl) in company with the fishes Leuciscus mucrurus and L. papyraceus. Two species have been described, and there are many examples in the museum at Bonn. In this country specimens are to be found in the collections of Lord Cole and Sir Philip Egerton, bart.

FROGSBIT, the common name of a wild water-plant, called Hydrocharis Morsus Ranæ.

FROISSART (JEAN, or JOHN), was born at Valenciennes about 1337. He was the son, as is conjectured from a passage in his poems, of Thomas Froissart, a heraldpainter, no inconsiderable profession in the days of chivalry. The youth of Froissart, from twelve years upwards, as he himself informs us, was spent in every species of elegant indulgence. In the midst of his dissipation however, he early discovered the ardent and inquisitive spirit to which we owe so much; and even at the age of twenty, at the command of his dear lord and master, Sir Robert of Namur, lord of Beaufort,' he began to write the history of the French wars. The period from 1326 to 1356 was chiefly filled up from the chronicles of Jean le Bel, canon of Liège, a confident of John of Hainault, and celebrated by Froissart for his diligence and accuracy. It is reasonable to believe that this work was interrupted during a journey to England in the train of Philippa of Hainault, the heroic wife of Edward III., and mother of the Black Prince. Froissart was for three or four years secretary, or clerk of her chamber, a situation which he would probably have retained but for a deep-rooted passion for a lady of Flanders, which induced him to return to that country; a circumstance equally favourable to the history of the Continent, and unfortunate for that of Britain. During his residence in England he visited the Scottish mountains, which he traversed on a palfrey, carrying his own portmanteau, and attended only by a greyhound. His character of historian and poet introduced him to the court of David II., and to the hardly less honourable distinction of fifteen days' abode at the castle of Dalkeith with William, earl of Douglas, where he learned personally to know the race of heroes whose deeds he has repeatedly celebrated. He was in France at Melun-sur-Seine about April 20th, 1366; perhaps private reasons might have induced him to take that road to Bordeaux, where he was on All Saints' day of that year, when the princess of Wales was brought to bed of a son, who was afterwards Richard II. The prince of Wales setting out a few days afterwards for the war in Spain against Henry the Bastard, Froissart accompanied him to Dax, where the prince resided some time. He had expected to attend him during the continuance of this great expedition, but the prince would not permit him to go farther; and shortly after his arrival sent him back to the queen his mother. Froissart could not have made any long stay in England, since in the following year, 1368, he was at different Italian courts. It was this same year that Lionel, duke of Clarence, son of the king of England, espoused Joland, daughter of Galeas II., duke of Milan. Froissart, who probably was in his suite, was present at the magnificent reception which Amadeus, count of Savoy, surnamed the Count Verd, gave him on his return: he describes the feasts on this occasion, and does not forget to tell us that they danced a virelay of his composition. From the court of Savoy he returned to Milan, where the same count Amadeus gave him a good cotardie, a sort of coat, with twenty florins of vold; from thence he went to Bologna

and Ferrara, where he received forty ducats from the king of Cyprus, and thence to Rome. Instead of the modest equipage he travelled with into Scotland, he was now like a man of importance, travelling on a handsome horse, attended by a hackney. It was about this time that Froissart experienced a loss which nothing could recompensethe death of queen Philippa, which took place in 1369. He composed a lay on this melancholy event, of which, however, he was not a witness; for he says, in another place, that in 1395 it was twenty-seven years since he had seen England. According to Vossius and Bullart, he wrote the life of queen Philippa; but this assertion is not founded on any proofs.

Independently of the employment of clerk of the chamber to the queen of England, which Froissart had held, he had been also of the household of Edward III., and even of that of John king of France. Having however lost his patroness, he did not return to England, but went into his own country, where he obtained the living of Lestines. Of all that he performed during the time he exercised this ministry, he tells us nothing more than that the tavernkeepers of Lestines had five hundred francs of his money in the short space of time he was their rector. It is mentioned in a manuscript journal of the bishop of Chartres, chancellor to the duke of Anjou, that, according to letters sealed December 12, 1381, this prince caused to be seized fifty-six quires of the Chronicle' of Froissart, rector of the parish of Lestines, which the histortan had sent to be illuminated, and then to be forwarded to the king of England, the enemy of France. Froissart attached himself afterwards to Wenceslaus of Luxembourg, duke of Brabant, perhaps in quality of secretary. This prince, who had a taste for poetry, commissioned Froissart to make a collection of his songs, rondeaus, and virelays; and Froissart, adding some of his own pieces to those of the prince, formed a sort of romance, under the title of Meliador; or, the Knight of the Sun; but the duke did not live to see the completion of the work, for he died in 1384.

Immediately after this event, Froissart found another patron in Guy count de Blois, who made him clerk of his chapel, for which Froissart testified his gratitude by a pastoral and epithalamium on a marriage in the family. He passed the years 1385, 1386, and 1387 sometimes in the Blaisois, sometimes in Touraine; but the count de Blois having engaged him to continue his history, which he left unfinished, he determined in 1388 to take advantage of the peace which was just concluded to visit the court of Gaston Phoebus count de Foix, in order to gain full information of whatever related to foreign countries and the more distant provinces of the kingdom. His journey to Ortez, the chief residence of the count de Foix, in company with Sir Espaing du Lyon, is one of the most interesting parts of Froissart's Chronicle.' The count de Foix (of whom we have already spoken in a former article) received and admitted him as a member of his household. Here Froissart used to entertain Gaston after supper by reading to him the romance of 'Meliador,' which he had brought with him. After a long sojourn at the court of Ortez he returned to Flanders by the route of Avignon. We learn from a poem referred to by Monsieur de St. Palaye, that on this occasion the historian, always in quest of adventures, met a personal one with which he could have dispensed, being robbed of all the ready money which his travels had left him. After a series of journeys into different countries for the sake of obtaining information, we find him in 1390 in his own country, solely occupied in the completion of his history, at least until 1393, when he was again at Paris. From the year 1378 he had obtained from pope Clement VII. the reversion of a canonry at Lille, and in the collection of his poetry, which was completed in 1393, and elsewhere, he calls himself canon of Lille; but pope Clement dying in 1394, he gave up his expectations of the reversion, and began to qualify himself as canon and treasurer of the collegiate church of Chimay, which he probably owed to the friendship of the count de Blois.

nobles. He finally settled at his benefice of Chimay, and employed as usual the hours of his leisure in arranging and detailing the information collected in his travels. Four years brought him to 1399, when the melancholy fate of his benefactor Richard II. became the subject of his latest labours. It is uncertain how long Froissart survived the death of Richard and the conclusion of his 'Chronicle;' he was then about sixty years old, and died shortly after at Chimay, according to an entry in the obituary of the chapter.

The period of history embraced in Froissart's Chronicle' is from 1326 to 1400. The best of the old editions of the original is that of Lyon, in four volumes, in folio, 1559. The latest is that in the Collection des Chroniques Nationales Françaises, avec Notes et Eclaircissements, par J. A. Buchon,' in fifteen volumes, 8vo., Paris, 1824-1826. Froissart's Chronicle' seems to have been first printed at Paris by Ant. Verard, without date, 4 vols. in folio, and was reprinted by Guill. Eustace, Par. 1514. There are two English translations; one by Bourchier lord Berners, made at the high commandment' of king Henry VIII., fol. Lond., Pinson, 1525-6; reprinted in two volumes, 4to., Lond., 1812, under the editorial care of E. V. Utterson, Esq.; the other, with additions from many celebrated MSS,' translated by Thomas Johnes, Esq., appeared from the Hafod press,' in four volumes, 4to., 1803-1805.

The principal particulars of Froissart's life have been here condensed from that by St. Palaye, translated and edited by Mr. Johnes, 8vo., Lond., 1801, and revised and re-published in 4to., Hafod, 1810.

'There are several splendidly illuminated manuscripts of Froissart's Chronicle,' quite or nearly contemporary, preserved in the British Museum: one a complete copy, belonging to the old royal library of the kings of England, 14 D. ii.-vi.; another consisting of the second and fourth books in the same collection, 18 E. i. and ii. ; a third in the Harleian Library, MSS. 4379 and 4380, containing the fourth book only; the fourth copy is in the Arundel collection lately transferred from the library of the Royal Society, No. 97, containing the first, second, and third books; but this MS. is mutilated, and has lost many of its illuminations.

FROME, a town in the parish of Frome Selwood and hundred of Frome, and in the county of Somerset, 105 miles west-by-south from London. It is agreeably situated on the river Frome, a branch of the AvON, and on the north-east declivity of several hills contiguous to the forest of Selwood, whence the town is frequently called FromeSelwood. It is lighted with gas, but irregularly built, and the streets are narrow and ill-paved. The borough of Frome was not represented before the passing of the Reform Act; it now returns one member. It is not incorporated. It was formerly governed by a bailiff, but is now under the superintendence of the county magistrates. Frome is in the diocese of Bath and Wells. The parish church, dedicated to St. John Baptist, is a handsome structure, surmounted by a quadrangular tower with a neat stone spire. The average net income of the vicarage is 7207.; patron, the marquis of Bath. The town is said to be prospering, and contains several extensive manufactures of woollen cloth, mills for rolling iron, and some considerable breweries. According to the census taken in 1831, its population was 11,240. There is a grammar-school of the foundation of Edward VI., besides several other institutions, among which is a good charity-school. The market-day is Wednesday. The cattle-fairs are held 24th February, 22nd July, 14th September, and 25th November.

(Carlisle's Top. Dict.; Collinson's Hist. and Ant. of the County of Somerset, Bath, 1791; Beauties of England and Wales; Parliamentary Papers, &c.)

FROME, river. [SOMERSETSHIRE.]

FROND, a botanical term intended to .express such organs as are composed of a stem and a leaf combined; the leaves of ferns and palms were thought to be of this nature; but as it is now known that the leaves of such plants are in no important respect different from those of other plants, the term frond has ceased to have any precise meaning, and is disused by the best botanists.

FRONDE, the name of a political faction in France during the minority of Louis XIV., which was hostile to the prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, and to the queen regent, who supported him. In consequence of some disputes between the parliament of Paris and the court, on the occasion of some new taxes levied by the minister, the carVOL. X.-3 S

more than half full, it will be liable to be burst by the expansion of the water in freezing; the remaining cavity should be as perfect a vacuum as can be readily obtained. One of the balls is made to terminate in a capillary tube, and when water admitted into the other has been boiled over a lamp for a considerable time, till all the air is expelled, the capillary extremity, through which the steam is still issuing with violence, is held in the flame of the lamp till the force of the vapour is so far reduced, that the heat of the flame has power to seal it hermetically.

When an instrument of this description has been successfully exhausted, if the ball that is empty be immersed in a freezing mixture of salt and snow, the water in the other ball, though at the distance of two or three feet, will be frozen in the course of a very few minutes. The vapour contained in the empty ball is condensed by the common operation of cold, and the vacuum produced by this condensation gives opportunity for a fresh quantity to arise from the water in the opposite ball, and with so great a reduction of its temperature, that the water freezes.

According to the doctrine which does not admit of the existence of positive cold, we should represent the heat of the warmer ball to be the agent in this experiment, generating steam as long as there remains any excess of heat to be conveyed. But if we should express the cause of its abstraction, we must say that the cold mixture is the agent, and may observe in this instance, that its power of freezing is transferred to a distance by what may be termed the negative power of steam.

FROZEN OCEAN, a term used to indicate the seas surrounding the Poles, in which great masses of ice swim about. It is consequently synonymous with Icy Sea, and in some degree also with what are called the Arctic and Antarctic Seas or Oceans.

FRUIT, in botanical language, signifies that part of a plant in which the seed is lodged, whatever its size, colour, or texture may be, so that the seed-like grain of a sage, the grain of corn, the nut of a chestnut, the dry capsule of a lilac bush, are as much fruits as those of a peach, an apple, or a pine-apple. In the ordinary acceptation of the term however the word fruit is exclusively applied to seed cases which are eatable, and generally to such as require no preparation to render them fit for food.

The eatable fruits known in this climate are of so much importance to the comfort as well as luxury of society, that without entering much into details we shall here introduce some general observations, which will inform our readers what are the kinds most deserving of cultivation in select or confined gardens. In doing which we have the advantage of producing in a condensed form the important results of the laborious and costly investigations conducted for so many years in the garden of the Horticultural Society of London at Turnham Green. These have already been made known to the public in the second edition of the Catalogue of Fruits,' cultivated in that establishment; and our only task is to make a judicious selection from the thousands of varieties included in the Society's list. The species of cultivated fruits are far from numerous; and most of those of the temperate regions have been introduced, at one period or another, into Britain. The genera from which these have sprung are comparatively few, and chiefly included in the natural orders Rosacea, Vitaceae, Urticaceae, and Grossulaceæ. To the first of these are to be referred the genera producing the species called apples, pears, plums, cherries, apricots, peaches, and nectarines, quinces, medlars, raspberries, and strawberries; to the second, the vine; to the third, the fig and mulberry; and to the fourth, the gooseberries and currants. Moreover there are chestnuts and filberts belonging to Corylace; walnuts to Juglandacea, and the melon and pine-apple respectively to Cucurbitacea and Bromeliacea.

In this place we shall briefly enumerate what may be considered the most valuable varieties of each as objects of cultivation.

APPLES are the most numerous class in cultivation. It has been conjectured that they were brought to this country by the Romans; but it is doubtful whether the varieties then introduced would succeed in this climate, presuming on the fact that the Malo di Carlo, well known as being so exceedingly beautiful and delicious in the North of Italy, has, in one of our finest English summers, proved pale and insipid, and that the apples of the South of Europe are generally worthless in England. A hardier breed, it is more

than probable, was introduced by the Normans, especially of such as were suited for the manufacture of cider. Apples are usually divided into three principal sorts, according as they are fitted for dessert, for kitchen use, or for cider. For dessert, the following are early varieties: Early Red Margaret, Early Harvest, Oslin, Kerry Pippin, and Summer Golden Pippin. In succession to these, the Wormsley Pippin, King of the Pippins, Golden Reinette, Ribston Pippin, Court of Wick, Pearson's Plate, a remarkably handsome dessert apple, Golden Harvey, one of the very highest excellence, Hughes's Golden Pippin, Herefordshire Pearmain, Lamb Abbey Pearmain, Court-Pendu plat, which blossoms late, thereby escaping the spring frosts, Reinette du Canada, Old Nonpareil, and Scarlet Nonpareil. For early kitchen use: Dutch Codlin, Keswick Codlin, Hawthornden, Nonesuch, which last deserves particular notice on account of its beautiful transparency when made into apple jelly, for which purpose it is the best sort known. For winter and spring use, from many excellent varieties, the following are selected: Blenheim Pippin, which may be also used at dessert, Dumelow's Seedling, Bedfordshire Foundling, Alfriston, Gloria Mundi, Royal Russet, Brabant Bellefleur, Northern Greening, Norfolk Beaufin, from which the Beaufins,' or 'Beefins,' so generally to be seen in the London shops, are prepared; and French Crab, which will keep above a year. For cider, Siberian Bitter-Sweet, Foxley, Red Streak, Fox Whelp, Golden Harvey, Coccagee, Hagloe Crab, and Cooper's Red Streak, are amongst the most celebrated.

Of the varieties of PEARS, few, till lately, have originated in this country; most of the kinds in former cultivation were from France, but they generally required the protection of walls. The greater intercourse with the continent consequent upon the establishment of peace in 1815, led to the introduction of a number of new and hardy varieties o this fruit from Belgium, where its cultivation and improve ment had been, and still are, attended to with great assiduity. These new varieties, with some of equal merit, and even superior hardiness, raised within the last few years at Downton castle, in Herefordshire, now compose the principal part of the most select lists, and are at the same time rapidly excluding the old French varieties from cultivation. Pears are divided into three classes, dessert, kitchen, and perry. The following are amongst the finest : for dessert, Citron des Carmes, Jargonelle, which requires a wall; Summer St. Germain, Ambrosia, Fondante d'Automne, White Doyenné, if grown as an open standard; Seckle, Louise Bonne (of Jersey), Marie Louise, Beurré Bosc, Gansel's Bergamot, which also requires a wall; Duchesse d'Angoulême, Beurré Diel, Nelis d'Hiver, Althorp Crassane, Winter Crassane, Napoleon, Glout Morceau, Passe Colmar, Knight's Monarch, Neplus Meuris, Easter Beurré, Beurré Rance. These are enumerated in their order of becoming fit for use. For kitchen use: Bezi d'Heri, which is excellent for stewing and very free from grittiness; Bequêne Musqué, Spanish Bon Chrétien, Double de Guerre, Catillac, Uvedale's St. Germain. For perry: Oldfield, Barland, Longland, Teinton Squash.

The best varieties of PLUMS for the dessert are, the Green Gage, Washington, Reine Claude, Violette, Drap d'Or, Kirke's, Coe's Golden Drop, Blue Imperatrice. For kitchen use: Orleans, White Magnum Bonum, Shropshire Damson, which last is excellent for preserving, as are also the St. Catherine, Coe's Golden Drop, Green Gage, and Quetsche; the latter is the sort of which the German Prunes of the shops are made, by slow and repeated drying in an oven.

CHERRIES, it is said, were first cultivated in this country at Sittingbourn, in Kent, where they are supposed to have been introduced about the time of Henry VIII. That county is still famous for a sort called the Kentish cherry, identical with some of the varieties of the Montmorency cherries of the French. They are round, bright red, and acid, and much used for pies. They have also the peculiar property of the stalk adhering so firmly to the stone that the latter may be drawn out without breaking the skin, excepting at the base. The fruit is then dried in hair sieves in the sun, or otherwise placed in a gently heated oven; the cherries will then keep for a year, and have the appearance of raisins. The best cherries for dessert are the Elton, Downton, May Duke, Royal Duke, Knight's Early Black, Early Purple Guigne, Bigarreau, Florence. For preserving, the Kentish and Morello are best.