records of past discovery, of very great botanical interest, but with no further bearing upon the 

 objects of' their owners. Douglas's collection, formed in Northwest America and California, 

 amounting to 500 species, was purchased by the British Museum for $150. Hartweg's, for 

 $100. The whole realized about $1,200. — The Independence Beige informs its readers that 

 "in the Belgian colony of St. Thomas, a potato has been grown, weighing more than 50 lbs." 

 Good-by, big gooseberries. — Fronds of ferns are employed to embellish baskets of fruit for 

 the table ; they give the fruit an ornamental and somewhat foreign appearance. — The forcing 

 of shrubs is most successfully managed when the pots are full of roots from early potting, 

 and these roots receive the advantage of a mild bottom heat before a higher temperature 

 afl'ects the buds. — Hives, in which swarms of bees of the previous year have died, should 

 be kept clean and dry, and out of the way of mice, for the pui-pose of hiving swarms in 

 them. The time this precaution saves a swarm can scarcely be credited. — Do fishes hear ? 

 is a question just now debated abroad ; the conclusion come to seems to be that they do not ; 

 ooncussions of the air by thunder, and so forth, startle them, but the sense of hearing is 

 believed to be wanting. — An ornamental object for a window, or room, may be made by 

 placing a large pine cone in the mouth of a glass having a small quantity of water at the 

 bottom. The scales of the cone are first slightly opened, and lentil seeds are dropped into 

 the openings. Water is sprinkled over the cone as may be necessary, say twice a day, 

 and, in a short time, the lentils send up their small green shoots, and cover the cone. The 

 scales are opened by placing them in any moderately warm place for short time. — In Lind- 

 ley's Theory of Horticulture, it is stated that a M. Otto, of Berlin, employs oxalic acid to make 

 old seeds germinate. The seeds are put into a bottle filled with oxalic acid, and remain 

 there till the germination is observable, which generally takes place in from twenty-four to 

 forty-eight hours, when the seeds are taken out, and sown in the usual manner ; of course, 

 placed in a suitable temperature as the seeds may require. Another way is to take a wool- 

 len cloth, and wet it with oxalic acid, on which the seeds are placed and folded up, and 

 put into a suitably heated structure. By this method, seeds have been found to vegetate 

 equally as well as in the bottle. Essential care must be taken to remove the seeds oiit of 

 the acid as soon as vegetation is observable. M. Otto found, that by this means, seeds that 

 were from twenty to forty years old grew ; while the same kinds, sown in the usual manner, 

 did not grow at all. — Some of the old gardeners have an idea that old cucumber and melon 

 seeds produce plants more fruitful than those from new seeds. The most luxuriant plant is 

 produced from the good, sound, and plump new seed. — The last priced catalogue published 

 by Groom, lately deceased near London, contained three varieties of the tulij}, at the enor- 

 mous figure of five hundred dollars each ; they were all of his own raising ; there is also one 

 at two liundred and fifty dollars, twelve at a hundred dollars, and four at fifty dollars each. 

 Mr. G. succeeded best by mixing large quantities of coarse river sand in his soil. His 

 whole stock has been dispersed since his death. 



The Cranberry, and its Culture, is the title of another manual, from C. M. Saxton & Co., 

 New York, written by B. Eastwood, very well illustrated, and full of information. The cul- 

 ture of this fruit is of great importance ; it will pay well in soils suitable for little else. A 

 large demand, even for export, has grown up, and, from the easy transportation of the fruit, 

 it is very profitable. Tlie experience detailed in this work cannot be dispensed with by 

 those intending to plant the cranberry. From ten to fifteen dollars a barrel is the price now 

 obtained in the Boston market; a pint has been sold in London for nearly a dollar ; all tliat 

 can be raised will find a market. In the appendix, there is an estimate of the profit of the 

 culture, by Mr. A. Flint, as follows: In 1853, he sold fifty barrels, at thirteen dollars the 

 hnvviil, m-iik.ing six hundred and Jifty dollars as the product of two acres oi what was quite 

 recently an almost worthless bog meadow ! 



The American Pomological Society will hold its next meeting at Rochester, on the 24th of 

 September. The regular notice from the President was unaccountably omitted last month. 



A. Looms, of the Byron Nurseries, Genesee Co., N. Y., has issued a very comprehensive 

 catalogue of fruit, and ornamental trees and shrubs, roses, vines, &c. We hope his neigh- 

 bors, and persons within reach, will consult the catalogue and plant the trees. 



The interest attached to the pursuits of floriculture is well expressed by Tcschemacher, 

 who says : "Examples are exceedingly rare of men once engaged in it ever giving it up but 

 their latest breath — 



What were life without a rose ?" 



