editor's TAIU-K. 



rtKinirpB poetry and health to contrast with his physical anfl moral destitntion; he lives 

 l)ottf>r in the open air than in hadly vontilntod lionses ; he lives lonirer in the conutry than 

 in towns ; terrestrial macnctisni acts more directly and more prolitahlyon the ])easant tlian 

 on the citizen, hocause the latter walks on stone pavement, which is an isolator, whel-eas 

 the peasant walks with bare feet on the humus (the eartli), his mother and his nurse, lie 

 forgets, perhaps, that the modern Parisian walks almost as much on as]ihalto as on stone 



pavements. The Anemone Pulsatilla, and, indeed, all other species, are extremely acrid 



in all their jiarts. It causes, when applied externally, or introduced into the stomacli, all 

 the effects of acrid and corrosive substances, as violent inflammation, and a stuitefyim? 



action on the nervous system. A correspondent descrilies the park at Hampton Court 



humorously thus : "The 'park' at Hampton Court was first laid out, like the garden, in Hk- 

 Dutch style, and there are still long avenues with double-planted rows of trees on oaili 

 side, radiating off from the front of the palace like a pair of tongs with more legs than a 

 pair, with level green Inward between them. A few scores of highland ' stnrks,' alias Scotch 

 bullocks, and some hundreds of fallow deer, graze here at ease and comfort, and shade and 

 shelter themselves in the avenues." He says strawberries are forced there in such abun- 

 dance, that they are gathered by the bushel for routes and public breakfasts. All forcing, 



it will be found, is up-hill work before the days have begun to lengthen. It is not at all 



uncommon, in old places, to find magnificent trees so situated, that, instead of being objects 

 of beauty and interest, they are just the reverse — objects of regret. We once saw a splen- 

 did Cedar of Lebanon, the trunk of whicli measured upwards of four feet in diameter, grow- 

 ing so close to the front door of the edifice as to lash the windows with its branches. This, 

 though exceedingly annoying, no doubt still remains a mark of censure upon the hand 

 that planted it. Had this tree been judiciously placed some thirty yards from the building, 

 instead of being offensively troublesome, it would have been highly interesting, and the 



admiration of every one. Attention is largely attracted to a new disinfecting powder, 



invented by a Mr. McDougall, the composition of which is yet a secret. Farm-yard manure, 

 in the worst stage of noisomeness, was turned over in presence of a great many observers, 

 and the odor disappeared almost instantaneously on the application of a slight sprinkling 



of the powder. It is not generally known that the cajepat oil of India is obtained from 



trees very similar to the common Melaleucas, and that even from the leaves of the Euca- 

 lypti an oil can be obtained of equal utility. The sandarac gum, exuding from the Callitris, 

 or pine-tree of Victoria, is now collected in the greatest abundance. An Australian manna 



is being introduced into commerce, but is of inferior quality to the Ornus manna. All 



the gutta percha-trees of Singapore have been destroyed, to procure the gum of commerce, 

 and exi)lorers are in search of new localities ; there is said to be five sorts of the gum, pro- 

 duced hy different trees. The death of the late Professor Edward Forbes, of Edinburgh, 



is considered, by his fellow-laborers in science, as a national calamity. By the time he was 

 seven years of age, he had foi-med a small, though tolerably well-arranged museum of his 



own, and, from that early age, he was indefatigable in the pursuit of natural history. It 



is a most dangerous experiment to write about things without a practical acquaintance with 

 them. When Oliver Goldsmith, genius as he was, tried his hand at a Uistonj of Animated 

 Nature — and a very delightful book he made of it — he knew so little of the chief subject 

 of his chapters (that of (quadrupeds), that he described the cow as casting her horns an- 

 nually. There is no information which passes more speedily and thoroughly away from 



the memory than that of natural history, if it be learned from books only. Genial Dr. 



Darlington, who, to extraordinary botanical acquirements, adds the bonhommie of an agreeable 

 man, in his Flora Cestrica, or Botany of Chester Counti/, Penn., allows the student the benefit 

 of his extensive reading, and enlivens the details of the science by an occasional quaint 

 remark or quotation. We cannot do better than to close our " Gossip" to-day with the 



