in color, both in the interior and exterior. Different patterns of paper will make two rooms 

 of the same proportions no longer look alike, and the same result will be obtained on the 



exterior, by adopting different tints for the walls and the wood-work." The use of a 



philosophical discovery is often slow to get some of its most useful applications. The in- 

 vention of a double-walled pitcher, is an instance : Ice p\it into a pitcher of this kind with 

 water, remains ice all the hottest day, to the great convenience of the family. We made 

 double walls for ice-houses, and then brought the ice up, for fifty years, to be melted in an 



hour. Every one who has used the new ice-pitcher, will commend it to his neighbors. 



We are pleased to see that a marl Comjjauy has been formed for distributing the green-sand 

 marl of New Jersey. The Company sell it at seven cents the bushel, which, when dry, 

 weighs eighty pounds, and is said to contain five per cent, of potash, or nearly as much as 

 there is in a bushel of unleached wood ashes. There can be no doubt that it contains much 

 that is necessary to our commonly cultivated plants. Charles Sears, Riceville, N. J., is 

 President of the Company, and T. Townsend, 82 Nassau Street, N. Y., Treasurer. Having 

 witnessed the beneficial effects of marl on grass lands many years since, we are prepared 

 to believe the use of it in gardens and greenhouses may be highly important. Our read- 

 ers must have been struck with the name of the Director of the " Acclimation Society" at 

 Algeria, mentioned in our last " Gossip." They are ascertaining which plants can be accli- 

 mated, and the Director is Monsieur Hardy. A book, by M. Field, on Rural Architecture, 



just published in New York, by Miller & Company, asserts that the greatest lovers of the 



country, are those who live in cities ! This will be news to most. 'A gardener, the other 



day, made a calculation that he could find work in the village gardens where he resides, 

 but about ninety days in a year. The business begins in April or May, and ends in August or 

 September ; take away from one hundred and fifty days the rainy and the Sundays, and it 

 will be discovered he is nearly correct. We have thus about eight months of winter, as he 

 would say, at the North. It is bad enough, we admit, and we shall never scold very hard 



at those who seek a milder climate after Christmas. The first question two acquaintances 



or friends put to each other is : " How do you do ?" proving that health is uppermost in our 

 appreciation of happiness. The second expression is: "Fine weather to-day!" proving, 

 also, that after health, the greatest blessing is the enjoyment of a fine day. The weather 

 to us, in fact, is somewhat the same as the water to the fish. It is a less dense medium, 

 but we move and swim in its air as fish do in water, and it is a great consideration whether 

 that medium be dirty or clear, cold or warm, depressing or exhilarating ; therefore, it is wise 

 to leave the South in the warmest weather, and flee to the mountains, and also to leave the 



North in the coldest, and flee to Florida or Cuba. Sir William Hooker writes to a valued 



American correspondent: "This week I have received a fine collection of museum objects 

 from Java, and another from the Falkland Islands. Among the latter, a splendid specimen 

 of the "Balsam Bag" {Bolax glebaria), two feet high and ten feet in circumference — a com- 

 pact hemisphere, this one specimen weighing four cwt." Do any of our readers know moi"e 

 about this production ? Upon the coast of Provence, there is a portion of the Mediter- 

 ranean called La Prairie, or the Meadowy Sea, the bottom being covered with plants. Such 

 plants, it is supposed, were at the bottom of the Red Sea when a green field was opened for 



the Israelites to pass over. In the expression of David, " Sharp aiTows of the mighty, 



with coals of Juniper," commentators have endeavored to show that Juniper not only 

 abounds in a penetrating oil, but that the coals of the wood will keep a glowing fire for the 

 space of a year. " For want and famine," says Job, " they were solitary ; they cut up mal- 

 lows by the bushes, and juniper roots for meat." These terms apply, no doubt, to some 



other plant than our juniper. An old treatise on " Hawking and Falconry," gives receipts 



for curing the diseases of the birds. They were purged with a mouse and boiled chicken ; 

 they used, also, the ink of cuttle fishes, with betony, wine, and honey, infusions of rhubarb, 



