EPlTOIi'S TABlf. 



iRRiTAiiiLiTY OF Plants. — " In iilluiliug, fncidoutally, so luucli to cleanlinoBS, I give it," says 

 an I'luinunt writer, "a proniinent place in tho elements of succesB. A great point its gained 

 when wo come to look upon a plant as an organized existence very difl'erent from a clod or 

 a stone, and with powers of irritability froi]Uontly approaching that of sensation in animals. 

 I liavo seen many gaze in wonder at the mysteries of the Seiuiitive Plant (i\m Mimosa pudica), 

 whose leaflets droop at the slightest touch, and from that day become more earnest and careful 

 cultivators. I have seen dozens of boys and girls watching the leaflets of various Acacias, 

 the Cassia corymbosa, and even tho common French Bean, folding back and going t* sleep 

 at night, and I have been assured that they in future experienced a love and a sympathy 

 for plants which they never felt before. When we find our young people talking of tlu; 

 shaking vagaries of the side leaves of the lledysarum ijyrans, while the terminal leall<t 

 alternately rouses itself into wakefulness, and then lulls itself again to drowsy repose ; when 

 you hear them making out lists of flowers that open and shut at certain hours and in cer- 

 tain states of the atmosphere, some at mid-day, and others at midnight, or of others that 

 throw off their perfume in compliment to the sun, while others hoard up such treasure in 

 honor of the stars and moon ; when you hear learned discussions on how mineral and 

 vegetable poisons exercise a similar and as destructive an influence upon plants as upon 

 animals ; and when you listen to expressions of delight at the beautiful harmony and 

 reciprocity existing between the vegetable and the animal world, then, indeed, may we 

 expect to see beautiful plants more generally in windows, and the culture of them attended 

 with a charm and an interest never formerly known," 



RoASTEn Gourd-Skeds. — It is only partially known that the roasted seeds of many of the 

 Gourd tribe furnish an excellent addition and nice variety to the dessert, particularly tliose 

 of the Cucurhita pcpo gicjantea, which produces seeds in abundance, possessing an agreeable 

 nutty flavor. Amicus. 



Newport. — A few lines from Newport thus speak of the late winter : " Our evergreens 

 look sadly brown and red, but I think they are not seriously injured. This has been the 

 most severe winter ever known at Newport.'' 



A NEW work on French fruits, called " Le Jardin Fruitier du Museum ou Iconographie de 

 toutes les Especes et Varietes d'Arbres Fruiters cultivcs dans cet etablissement, avec leur 

 description, leur histoire, leur synonymic, etc.," is announced in Paris, from the pen of the 

 eminent botanist, M. Decaisne. It is to appear monthly, in small quarto, each number 

 containing four colored plates, price five francs. Pears are to be taken first. M. Decaisne 

 announces his intention to sweep clean away such vulgar (banale) names as Beurre, Colmar, 

 Bergamot, which he says have lost all meaning, and he will propose one name only for each 

 sort of pear, to the exclusion of the crowd of names now producing chaos everywhere. Let 

 us hope that the intended revolution *rill not end in worse confusion still. 



At a late London horticultural exhibition, there was a large piece of the root of Aralia papy- 

 ri/era, which Mr. Fortune brought over to show how the Chinese make their rice paper from 

 it ; but why they call it rice paper, is best known to themselves. The pithy part of the root 

 is so thinly sliced by the Chinese as to resemble paper, which they make into ornaments, 

 and wliich they sell much cheaper than our cheapest paper. There was also a plank of 

 Beech, to show how the soft and inferior woods may be impregnated witli a solution, to 



nder them as durable as the best Oak. Some fine drawings of new Orchids, from Mr 

 n. were on the table. 



