472 American Institute — FG<rmer^s Cluh. [October, 



insects. Nor is only the lower dense and vaporous strata of the 

 atmosphere thus filled with life, but also the higher and more, ethe- 

 real regions. Whenever Mount Blanc or the summits of the Cordil- 

 leras have been ascended, living creatures have been found there. — ■ 

 On the Chimborazo, 8,000 ft. higher than Etna, we found butterflies 

 and other winged insects, borne by ascending currents of air to those 

 almost unapproachable solitudes, which man, led by a restless curi- 

 osity or unappeasable thirst for knowledge, treads with adventurous 

 but cautious steps : like him, strangers in those elevated regions, 

 their presence shows us that the more flexible organization of ani- 

 mal creation can subsist far beyond the limits at which vegetation 

 ceases. The condor, the giant of the vulture tribe, often soared 

 above all the summits of the Andes, at an altitude higher than would 

 be the Peak of Teneriffe if piled on the snow-covered crest of the 

 Pyrenees. The rapacity of this powerful bird attracts him to these 

 regions, whence his far-seeing eye may discern the objects of his 

 pursuit, the soft-wooled vilunas which, wandering in herds, frequent, 

 like the chamois, the mountain pastures adjacent to the regions of 

 perpetual snow. — Humholdt. 



AMERICAN INSTITUTE— FARMERS' CLUB. 



The Secretary, Henry Meigs, made the foUoiciug report, 



Septerriber 5th, 1857. 



VITALITY OF THE DIOSCOREA BATATAS, OR CHINESE YAM, BY 



MR. P. DUCHARTRE. 



The attention of gardeners is now so fixed upon the cultivation of 

 this Igname (Yam,) that all the fiicts in reference to it should be 

 stated. I ask permission of the Imperial Society to lay before it 

 some of them. 



I have heretofore stated the remarkable energetic vitality of this 

 tuber, and submit the following : 



On the 1st of July, 1855, Monsieur Francois Delessent receiv- 

 ed from Shang-IIai a~considerable quantity of these tubers — being 

 of the crop of 1855, in China. 



They came to France, around the Cape of Good Hope — a long 

 passage — but they arrived in very good condition, (tres bon etat.) — 



