XV111 NOTES BY THE EDITOR. 



very great botanical interest, but with no further bearing upon the 

 objects of their owners. Douglass's collection, formed in Northwest 

 America and California, amounting to 500 species, was purchased by 

 the British Museum for $150. Hartweg's, for $100. The whole 

 realized about $1,200. 



The last priced catalogue, published by Groom, lately deceased, near 

 London, contained three varieties of the tulip, at the enormous figure 

 of five hundred dollars each ; they were all of his own raising ; there 

 is also one at two hundred and fifty dollars, twelve at a hundred 

 dollars, and four at fifty dollars each. Mr. G. succeeded best by 

 mixing large quantities of coarse river sand in his soil. His whole 

 stock has been dispersed since his death. 



The Imperial Agricultural Society of Paris has been trying to dis- 

 cover why seeds, apparently all alike, do not germinate all at the same 

 time. The conclusion is that the latest are so tightly inclosed in their 

 envelope, as to prevent or check the penetration of moisture, and they 

 are now inquiring whether the tardy seeds are the heaviest or the 

 lightest, and whether they are obtained from one part of a plant more 

 than another. 



The Belgian Government offers a prize of two thousand dollars to 

 any one who will discover a way to make starch for manufacturing 

 purposes from a non-alimentary substance. Enormous quantities of 

 flour are used in the cotton manufacture alone. 



