Gossip. — It was the boast of TiUculhis that he clianged liis climate with the birds of pas- 



sapo; but how often must he have felt that the master of many houses has no home. 



If alchemy was an error, says the Westminster Review, "it bore a precious jewel on its 

 head," which has lighted men on the difficult path of discovery. By the very necessities of 

 the case, it coerced the minds of men into studies repulsive and difficult — it forced them to 

 create the Experimental Method — it forced them to become accurately accjuainted with all 

 substances, and it furnished thorn with the means of elaborating a science, the marvels of 

 which may fairly be said to surpass the wildest dreams of any alchemist. If the intro- 

 duction among us, says Punch, of hor.scflesli, as an article of food, is effected, it will proba- 

 bly become necessary, in ordering a steak at a chop-house, to tell the waiter whether you 



mean a rump-steak or a sweep steak ! Since the use of steamships in commerce, oranges 



have become an item of immense export from the Continent to England ; 200 departures of 

 steamvessels from one port yearly are on record, taking 200,000 boxes of 1000 oranges e^ch. 

 England imports 300 millions of oranges each year, of wliich 100 millions are consumed in 

 the metropolis ; 20 millions of lemons are also consumed, the principal vendors being of the 



Jewish persuasion. Paris absorbed 4,906,320 oranges and 3,336,100 lemons in 1855. 



There is a beauty which the Italian poplar possesses which is almost peciiliar to it ; and 

 that is the waving line it forms when agitated by the wind. Most trees in these circum- 

 stances are but partially agitated ; one side is at rest, while the other is in motion ; but the 

 Italian poplar waves in one single sweep from the top to the bottom, like an ostrich-feather 

 on a lady's head. All the branches coincide with the motion, and the least blast makes an 



impression on it when other trees are at rest. The substance which exudes from Juni- 



perus communis is the gum sandarach of commerce. This is powdered, and is then known 

 as pounce, an article formerly in much use to fill scratches made on paper when erasures 



were required. The twigs and leaves of Yew, eaten in a very small quantity, are certain 



death to horses and cows, but to deer, sheep and goats and birds they are innocuous. The 

 leaves are fatal to the human species, though the berries are not ; the Yew is propagated 

 fiom the latter, sown as soon as they are ripe ; or mixed with sand, and laid in a heap, to 

 be turned over two or three times during winter, and in spring, the seeds from which the 

 pulp will have rotted, are sown in beds of light loamy soil. By either mode, a part of the 

 plants will come up the first season, and the remainder in the following. The oil of nut- 

 megs is highly narcotic ; the grated nut taken in too large quantities produces drowsiness, 



great stupor and insensibility, and on awakening, delirium. The Clematis flourishes best 



when planted on a dry subsoil, in a mixture of peat and loam, and all the varieties may be 

 freely increased by layering the shoots from July to October. The generic name is from 



the Greek, selemn, the climbing tendril of a vine, which this plant resembles in habit. 



A machine for digging potatoes is in successful operation in Scotland and Ireland. It con- 

 sists of the framework, coulter, share and mould-board of a common plough ; by a pinion 

 working into a wheel which acts as sole-plate in taking the weight of the plough, motion is 

 given to a set of revolving forks placed so as to operate on the furrow slice just as it leaves 

 the turn furrow. These forks fairly disintegrate the whole mass of earth as it is lifted, and 

 scatter the potatoes it may contain over the surface of the ground on which the i:)lough has 



already operated. Lovers of plants begin to prefer graceful forms to mere spots of color, 



and this is considered as a satisfactory evidence of a great general advance in good taste. 



Agriculture in France holds the first place in the production of national wealth ; it 



employs 25 million hands, and produces in value, every year, upwards of 3600 millions of 

 pounds. This immense mass of produce, in which Wheat figures to the amount of 56 

 million pounds is, nevertheless, not sufficient to prevent the country from going abroad to 

 make up the necessary supply of grain. We have said, elsewhere, that good authority 

 indicates the same thing as likely soon to occur in Ohio ; if in France this is true, why 



