1827.] 



Varieties* 



427 



struction of the boiler we noticed some time 

 ago the advantage this posseses over the 

 common engines are 1, its perfect safety, 

 which has been proved by the pressure of 

 steam to more than ten times its working 

 power 2, its practicability the boiler and 

 its engine may be constructed so as not to 

 exceed two cwt. to each horse power for 

 engines of ten-horse power and upwards 

 3, the space it occupies is not more than one- 

 tenth of what is necessary for ordinary en- 

 gines 4, the quantity of water in proportion 

 to a given power, is less than that required by 

 any other engine, in consequence of the steam, 

 after it is generated, being expanded, by 

 coming in direct contact with the flues 5, the 

 saving in fuel is so considerable that the cost 

 in London would be less than nine pence per 

 day for each horse-power. 6, the primary 

 cost will not be greater than that of engines 

 on the ordinary construction. 

 4rch<eology. The Abb 6 Ambrose, who has 

 very recently returned to France from Ame- 

 rica, communicated last month to the geogra- 

 phical society of Paris, that, during the time 

 of his stay at Saint Louis, a brass coin found 

 in the Valley of Bones to the south-west of 

 the Missouri, and very far in the interior, 

 had been transmitted to Mr. Clarke, the gen- 

 tleman who, in company with Mr. Lewis, 

 travelled to the mouth of the Colombia. The 

 inhabitants say that no Eavopean had ever 

 been seen there. After a very careful exa- 

 mination, this medal was ascertained to be a 

 Roman one, struck during the reign of Nerva. 

 The same traveller adds, that in digging a 

 .well in Tennessee, an earthen pot was found, 

 containing a large quantity of gold coins, 

 which were unknown to the inhabitants of 

 that district. 



Geology. Brydone mentions an orchard 

 belonging to a convent near Catania, planted 

 upon a mass of decomposing lava, and which, 

 at a subsequent eruption of Mount JEtna,had 

 been removed some distance by a new tor- 

 rent of lava undermining the stone, and tran- 

 sporting it upon its surface. In Switzerland 

 several instances occur of tracts of land 

 sliding from their locality on a mountain's 

 side to the valley below. The Abbe Ambrose 

 states that, while traversing a part of the 

 great chain of the Alleghany mountains in 

 America, the ground on which he stood, and 

 to the extent of two or three acres, with the 

 trees growing thereon, detached itself from 

 the side of the mountain, and with a gentle 

 motion descended into the valley at its feet 

 similar phenomena are frequent in this 

 part of the world. 



Hogs. The following facts in the natural 

 history of the hog are, we presume, new to 

 most of our readers, and are extracted from 

 some observations on the climate and pro- 

 ductions of Washington county Ohio, inserted 

 in Professor Silliman's valuable journal. " In 

 the early settlement of the county, when the 

 woods were full of wild plants, neat cattle 

 could live very comfortably the whole winter 

 without any assistance from man, and, at this 



time, large numbers of hogs pass the winter 

 as independently as the deer and the bears, 

 subsisting on nuts and acorns. Single indi- 

 viduals are sometimes destroyed by the bears 

 and wolves, but a gang of ten or twenty 

 hogs are more than a match for a wolf or a 

 panther. An old hunter informed me that 

 he once saw a large panther spring from a 

 tree into a drove of wood hogs who were aware 

 of his approach, and prepared for defence ; 

 the moment he touched the ground the large 

 hogs fell upon him with their tusks, and the 

 weight of their bodies, and killed him and tore 

 him in pieces in a few minutes." 



Frie's Systema Mycologicum. The fungi 

 have probably received less attention than 

 any other part of botany. The following is 

 a. compendious view of a natural system of 

 theni, which has been published, in several 

 volumes, at Lund, in Germany. The whole 

 evolution of a fungus is determined by what 

 the author calls cosmica momenta, of which 

 there are four: 1. Nisus reproductive, or 

 earth and water 2. Air 3. Caloric 4. 

 Light. The first is the principal agent in 

 producing sporidia, or fruit, the first and 

 second in producing floccos, or elongated 

 fibres, on which the fruit appears; the first 

 and third produce the uterus, or a closed fun- 

 gus ; and the first and fourth the hymenium, 

 or an open fungus. These are the four lead- 

 ing characters, and the system is divided into 

 four classes ; a single class being composed 

 of those plants that exhibit one of these cha- 

 racters more prominent than the others. 

 The names of the classes are Coniomycetes, 

 Hyphomycetes, Gasteromycetes, and Hyme- 

 nomycetes, signified by the letters C, M, U, 

 and H. The class C has sporidice, naked ; 

 M. Thallus flocose ; U. a closed fungus ; and 

 H an open fungus. Each class is divided 

 into four orders, and each order into four 

 genera, arising like the classes from the ac- 

 tions of the natural causes. The orders are 

 designated by the letters E, M, U, and H ; 

 and are the same in every class. C.E. denotes 

 first class, first order, and U. U. third class, 

 third order. If an order be divided into two 

 sub-orders, as the fourth order of the fourth 

 class, it is expressed thus: H. HI, for the 

 first sub-order, and H.H2, for the second. 

 The genera are represented by either of these 

 letters, E, M, G, X, or U, according to its 

 habitat. E. denotes that it grows on decay- 

 ing plants, or on those recently dead. M. 

 that it grows on plants in the process of fer- 

 mentation. G, that it grows on the ground. 

 The second sub-order of the fourth class, 

 fourth order, stands as follows : 

 Genera. Formulae. 



1 . Thelaphora H. H. 2 E 



2. Hydnum M 



3. Polyporus ...X 



4. Agaricus G 



In the artificial system the orders qnd 

 genera are not limited to four; they are 

 regarded as natural families, having many 

 allied genera. Agaricus has three allied 



3 I 3 



