1886.] MISCELLANEOUS. 655 



white oak is 84; white ash, 77; dogwood, 75; white hazel, 72; 

 apple, 70; red oak, 60; beech, 65; black walnut, 65; yellow 

 oak, 60; white elm, 58; hard maple, 56; white cedar, 56; yellow 

 pine, 54. Ironwood, hornbeam, almond, hard beech, teak, and 

 thorn arc of notable hardness, and, of course, very serviceable 

 where that quality is essential. 



The finest floors are said to be seen in llussia. For those of the 

 highest grade, tropical woods are exclusively employed. Fir and 

 pine are never used, as in consequence of their sticky character 

 they attract and retain dust and dirt, and thereby soon become 

 blackened. Pitch pine, too, is liable to shrink, even after being 

 well seasoned. The mosaic wood floors in liussia are often of extra- 

 ordinary beauty. One in the Summer Palace is of small squares of 

 ebony inlaid with mother-of-pearl. A considerable trade is done in 

 Dantzic and Piiga by exporting small blocks of oak for parquet 

 floors. 



Wood Ashes and theih Uses. — We have had ample means of 

 testing the value of wood ashes or charred earth, both as a means 

 of warding off the attacks of slugs and other garden pests from 

 tender vegetables, and as a material for enriching the soil, and con- 

 sequently accelerating growth. The old remedy, freshly-slaked 

 lime, if used in excess, is positively injurious to some crops, and 

 after it has lain on the damp soil a short period it loses its burning 

 character, and then slugs pass over it with impunity. Ashes of 

 every kind have been used, but more especially those from wood 

 fires, and we strongly recommend that every kind of garden refuse 

 be converted into ashes by burning it. At this season of the year, 

 when the thinning of shrubberies is generally receiving attention, 

 any or every kind of trimmings may be converted into valuable 

 ashes, as when once a good bonfire is kindled, and a glowing red 

 heat is obtained — no matter how green the wood and leaves may 

 be — the fire will burn away as fiercely as the driest straw-stack, if 

 kept constantly fed with fresh material until the whole is consumed ; 

 and there is therefore no more certain way of getting rid of noxious 

 weeds, such as couch grass, bind-weed, docks, etc., than that 6f 

 passing them through the fire, as it destroys all seeds that generally 

 abound in rubbish heaps that have been rotted away by the slow 

 process of fermentation. 



Cukiosities of the Vegetable Kingdom. — It is a remarkable 

 fact that vegetation is found alike on the mountain-top and in the 

 depths of the sea, upon the face of the granite precipice and the 

 surface of the stagnant pool, in the swift-flowing river and in the 

 dark caverns of the coal mine, amid the sands of the torrid zone 

 and in the boiling springs of Iceland. In one of these celebrated 



