editor's table. 



333 



ance. Buds taken from shoots in active growth, are not so good as those selected from 

 branches that have partially exhausted themselves. To this end, stopping a strong grow- 

 ing shoot a few days before we intend to use it for budding, checks the circulation upwards, 

 and throws more organizable matter into the buds. With us, also, it is not of importance 

 to take out the wood after cutting out our bud ; the best operators take as little as possible 

 with the bark. A great cause of failure is in not taking out the bud with a straight, clean 

 cut. The edges of the bark, after the bud is cut out, must not be split and cracked up as 

 if a jackplane or shingle-shaver had been employed, or failure will be certain. Use a thin 

 bladed knife, and keep its back well away from you, or downwards, while using it. 



Seed and Fish Experiments. — Mr. Darwin, the eminent naturalist, says the Gardeners'' 

 Chronicle, is continuing his experiments on the vitality of seeds, with a view to arrive at 

 data as to the distribution of plants. Among the points involved in this interesting inquiry 

 are — the length of time in which a seed will live in the intestines of a bird or other animal, 

 and the circumstances under which it may be dropped in a distant place, and germinate : 

 also, how long will seeds retain their vitality when floating in the currents of the sea ? 

 The last question is now under investigation with seeds collected on the coast of Norway, 

 a'nd at the Azores, whither they had been drifted by the Gulf-Stream. Another branch of 

 the inquiry relates to the distribution of species of fish. Naturalists want to know, for 

 instance, whether the eggs of salmon will retain their vitality sufficiently long to produce 

 fish, when carried through varying temperatures to places wide apart. In one way, the 

 question has been answered in the affirmative by the piscicultural experiments to which we 

 have more than once called attention. Dr. Davy has now solved it in another way. He 

 took impregnated ova of the char, from a stream falling into Windermere, and subjected 

 them to temperatures varying from 70° to 98°. The result showed, that the older the eggs 

 the better they resisted the heat : the youngest died in the first experiments. Another 

 mode was sending ova packed in wet wool, inclosed in a tin box, from Ambleside to Pen- 

 zance, and back again — more than a thousand miles — and with like results. And such 

 being the case with the very delicate char, there is good reason to believe of the more hardy 

 salmon species, that the strength of vitality of the impregnated ovum, or its power of re- 

 sisting agencies unfavorable to its life, gradually increases with age, and the progress of 

 foetal development. 



The MACL0EA. — A valued correspondent calls our attention to an article that has had some 

 currency in the West, respecting a change of name for the Madura. The writer, who is a 

 large cultivator of this hedge plant, wishes it to be called " the Prairie Hedge Plant," to 

 which our correspondent very properly objects ; he says : " ' Osage Orange' is beautiful, 

 romantic, grateful, appropriate ; all but universal ; these kind of people are no better than 

 the Tame plum, Tame gooseberries, and Tame grapemen ! Why don't they call the Hickory 

 the Axe-Helve-Tree ? If one has a foolish whim that a horse ought to be called a saddle, 

 let him do so himself quietly, but not disturb conventional Anglo-Saxondom, by printing 

 silly arguments in support of his whim." We apprehend there is no great danger of his 

 succeeding. 



Michigan Transactions. — We have received a complete set of the Michigan Agricultural 

 Transactions from J. C. Holmes, Esq., its estimable Secretary, and another copy for the 

 Philadelphia Library, an institution with which we have long been, and still are, connected, 

 and to which we shall be happy to forward pamphlets, books, &c., on this subject, or any 

 other, that are worthy of preservation. Mr. Holmes has our thanks, and he will be offic 

 informed of the estimation felt for his gift by the proper officer o; tlie Library. 



