DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



SSI 



hood, is sweet and another acid, and why one fruit 

 is juicy, and another dry; why one flower is fra- 

 grant, another offensive to the smell j why one 

 herb is healing and another poisonous; why one is 

 nutritious, and another without the nutrient qual- 

 ity j why the body of one vegetable structure is 

 dense and hard, another loose ami porous; why 

 one will barn for hours in fire, and another con- 

 sume in a moment ; and why fruits and ilowers 

 }ntt on an almost infinite variety of colors; and 



wherefore it is that the vegetable world assumes 

 sueh a diversity of qualities, appearances and con- 

 ditions. Yours, C. Smith. Newport) N.Y. Jan. 



1850. 



" A great many substances have been discover- 

 ed among organic In. dies, composed of the same 

 elements, in the same relative proportions, and 

 yet exhibiting physical and chemical properties 

 perfectly distinct, one from another." 



" A great class of bodies known as the volatile 

 oils, differing widely from each other in their odor, 

 in their medicinal effects, in their boiling point, in 

 their specific gravity, See., are exactly identical in 

 composition — they contain the same elements, car- 

 bon and hydrogen in the same proportions. 



" The ultimate atoms of bodies, do not pene- 

 trate each other ; they are only arranged side by 

 side with each other in a certain order, and the 

 properties of the compound depend entirely upon 

 this order. "We may suppose that one atom com- 

 bines with one atom of another element to form a 

 compound atom, while in other bodies two and two, 

 four and four, eight and eight, are united, so that 

 in all sueh compounds, the amount per cent, of 

 the elements are absolutely equal, and yet their 

 physical and chemical properties, must be totally 

 different, the constitution of each atom being pe- 

 culiar in one body, consisting of two, in another of 

 four, in the third of eight, and in a fourth of six- 

 teen simple atoms." 



Introduction of New Plants. — I have been 

 engaged a day or two past in reading the corres- 

 pondence of our early botanists, JOHN BAR- 

 TRAM, and HUMPHREY MARSHALL, as re- 

 cently published by Doctor Darlington, and be- 

 lieve I entered somewhat into the feelings of the 

 good, indefatigable and enthusiastic Peter Col- 

 LINSON, in his hopes of new plants and seeds to be 

 obtained in the next, autumnal excursion, and his 

 disappointment when the beetle destroyed the but- 

 terflies, or when the rats fixed their habitation du- 

 ring the sea voyage in the box, to the entire des- 

 truction of the plants, and when again and again 

 the ship arrived without some expected and ar- 

 dently desire. 1 -reds or plants, or when having ar- 

 rived it was found that their vitality had been des- 

 troyed in the passage. He in one letter gave no- 

 tice that stocks continued to fall, and that he had 

 thousands unemployed, which he did not know how 

 to lay out — yet it was but a passing notice, and 

 not repeated ; the language is not earnest as for 

 (' the sod of Pyrola,"or " the wasp's nest built in 



th" bush." To minds fond of nature, this corres- 

 pondenoe is extremely interesting, for although 

 we consider the Pyrola and the wasp's nest as not 



v'i\ important, yet to citizens of the old world 

 then, the discovery and acquisition of new and 

 beautiful natural objects, were sources of pleasure 

 and deep interest— and so they now remain to us 5 

 for as " westward the star of empire wends its 

 way," hills rise o'er hills and alps o'er alps arise] 

 and the difficulties and duties of the European Nat- 

 uralists of the last century, have descended to their 

 American brethern of the present, some of whom 

 should step forward and perform for America 

 what Sloane. Ellis, Collinson, and other wor- 

 thies af their time, did for Britain, by introducing 

 rare and newly discovered plants into this country. 

 A wide field of labor of this kind is now opened, 

 under very favorable circumstances, in introducing 

 the vegetable productions of California, Oregon, 

 Deseret and Mexico, into the well settled part of 

 the original United States. For this purpose we 

 enjoy advantages at present, that will decrease 

 hereafter. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands 

 of our citizens have within the past year, gone to 

 Oregon, California or Mexico, by various routes, a 

 part of them by crossing the Rocky Mountains.— 

 Our friends who have thus left us are men of more 

 than usual enterprise and energy, and many of 

 them have more or less acquaintance with natural 

 history; there are probably few neighborhoods if 

 any, from which some person has not departed for 

 the western side of the continent , and therefore 

 most persons who have an extended acquaintance 

 at home, are probably acquainted with one or 

 more persons now in some of those places. Our 

 friends who have left us, find upon their arrival 

 there, many species of plants and animals which 

 they had never seen before; these, whilst new to 

 them, they will regard as worthy of notice here, 

 and will be pleased to transmit to us as memorials 

 of former friendship, or specimens of the produc- 

 tions of their new homes. But time and distance 

 will dim their memory of home and us, and when 

 the novelty of the objects around them shall have 

 passed away, they will distrust our grateful re- 

 ception of seeds or plants which to them have 

 become common and of little or ho value. In or- 

 der to enjoy the advantages of our relative posi- 

 tion, it is necessary therefore immediately to pro- 

 vide some way by which our friends there may 

 transmit seeds or plants to us without difficulty. — ■ 

 If any Horticultural or Botanical Society would es- 

 tablish at each of the three or four towns on or 

 near the coast of the Pacific, a place of reception 

 for plants and seeds, and give notice of it, and 

 agree with the regular packets, (that will be or 

 are established to transport merchandize, to and 

 from those porta) for the freight of such a6 may 

 be furnished ; and upon their arrival here, would 

 furnish at the office of the Society, sueh packages 

 as may be directed to private persons, upon the 

 payment of expenses incurred, I believe that tho 

 plants of those countries would be speedily intro- 



