488 MISCELLANY. 



in which they live maintains a temperature more equal than the atmosphere, 

 and more similar in different countries. Their stalks or their seeds, protected 

 from cold and heat by a mass of fluid, develop immediately the season becomes 

 favorable, whatever be the temperature of the atmosphere during the rest of the 

 year. 



The mean temperature of Montpellier during the three summer months (June 

 July, Aug.) is 24°, C, as at Naples. It is sufficient to ripen the seeds of many 

 aquatic plants belonging to hot countries, and especially to those which are 

 analogous, as the U. S., Van Dieman's Land, or Japan. In the cold season, 

 during the months of Dec, Jan., and Feb., a mean external temperature of +8°, 

 which is perhaps +10 to 12° in the waters of the Lez, cannot be very hurtful to 

 these same species. The aerial or land plants, on the contrary, are exposed to 

 mountainous temperatures of — 7°, or — 8°, C. 



In confirmation of these principles, I may observe, that Mr. Lichtenstein, of 

 Montpellier, sowed some rice in a salt-marsh of the province of Aude, with 

 remarkable success. A summer heat of 23, C, suffices on an average to ripen 

 rice, as may be ascertained by the geographical situation of the rice-grounds of 

 Piedmont. In M. L.'s experiment the obstacle to be feared was less the temper- 

 ature than the saline quality of the ground, but it appears that rice does not 

 suffer from a certain degree of salt. We may therefore perhaps one day see the 

 vast saline ponds which surround the middle of France, from the mouth of the 

 Rhone to the Pyrenees, covered with productive rice-grounds, and furnishing to 

 the inhabitants, now overwhelmed with fever, a means of resisting this evil by 

 better food, better clothes, and more healthy dwellings. — Bibliotheque Univer- 

 selle de Geneve, New Series. 



CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES. 



ZOOLOGY. 



The Ring Pigeon (Columba palumbus) breeding in confinement. — I have 

 this year succeeded in breeding the Ring Pigeon in confinement. I took the old 

 birds from the nest in the autumn of last year. This year they bred a pair of 

 young, which have now passed through the first moult, and are not distinguish- 

 able from the old birds.— Thomas Allis, York, l\th Mo. 4, 1837. [This fact 

 tends to confirm the opinion we ventured to advance in The Naturalist, Vol. I., 

 p. 132.— Ed.] 



Substitute for Cork- lining in Entomological Cabinets. — The following 



