editor's table. 



To MAKE Skeleton Leaves. — In your last " Gossip," mention is made of a new process of 

 pointing on anatomized leaves. This is very beautiful work. For the benefit of your lady 

 readers, I give the following, which I take from my note-book, where it was inserted some 

 years ago : " Fill an earthen pot with rain-water ; then put in leaves or seed-vessels, selected 

 in a state sufficiently matured for the woody fibre to be completely formed, so as not to be 

 flaccid ; at the same time, it should not be too old and hardened. Let them remain in the 

 water, without changing, until they become pulpy, and the outer skin and fleshy matter 

 will brush off (with great care) with a common painter's brush. Should any part of the 

 skin still remain firmly fixed, put them again into the water, and wait patiently. When 

 perfectly clean, bleach them in chloride of lime. Magnolia leaves require about six weeks ; 

 pear, tulip, and mulberry-tree leaves, about three ; ivy (very pretty veins) requires three 

 months' maceration ; orange and lemon leaves, six months." Yours, &c., S. 



Catalogues, etc., received. — Premiums and Regulations for the Eighth Annual Fair of 

 the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, to be held at Cincinnati the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18tli 

 days of September, 1857. Competition open to other States. 



Regulations and List of Premiums of the Sixth Annual Indiana State Fair, 1857, to be 

 held at Indianapolis, October 5th to 10th, inclusive. Officers : President — Alexander C. 

 Stevenson, Putnam County. Vice-Presidents — William H. Bennett, Union County ; I. D. G. 

 Nelson, Allen County. Secretary — Ignatius Brown, Indianopolis. Treasurer — Salmon A. 

 Buell, Indianapolis. General Superintendent — Calvin Fletcher, Jr., Marion County. 



Prospectus of the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan. Lansing, 1857. A highly 

 important movement. 



Frank G. Johnson's Self-Regulating Wind-Mill, with wood cuts explanatory. N. David- 

 son, 9 Spruce St., New York. 



Addresses delivered at the Dedication of the Clinton (N. Y.) Cemetery, with a copy of 

 the Act of Incorporation. Utica, 1857. This is an interesting pamphlet that all interested 

 in cemeteries should peruse. The address of Professor North is a scholarly and finished 

 oration. 



Biographical Memoir of the late Franijois Andre Micliaux. By Elias Durand. From the 

 Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, and printed separately in a brochure, 

 1857. This memoir possesses great interest, but it is imperfect in many points, and its 

 style is that of a translation, the amiable author being of foreign birth. We hope to pre- 

 sent its facts in these columns at no distant day ; meantime, the memoir of the elder 

 Michaux will be found in our columns this month, paving the way for the life of the sou 

 hereafter. 



Notice of some Remarks by the late Mr. Hugh Miller, author of the " Testimony of the 

 Rocks," &c. &c. By W. Parker Foulke, Philadelphia, 1857. 



Answers to Correspondents. — (T. T. S.). Cornus is derived from Cornu, a horn, from 

 the wood being thought to be as hard and durable as liorn. The Cornus sanguinea grows 

 in the shade and drip of trees, and is very ornamental in winter, from the red color of its 

 bark, thus forming a valuable plant for thickening shrubberies and strips of plantation 

 that have become naked below. The contrast of color with evergreens has a fine elTect. 



(A Correspondent). Capillaire is so called, from being prepared from a plant, Adiantum 

 CapiUus veneris, which is considered to be undoubtedly pectoral and slightly astringent, 

 though its decoction, if strong, is believed to be a certain emetic. The stem of many species 

 ferns to which this is allied, is both bitter and astringent, and is emjiloyed in various 

 es ; one species is used for tea, another is eaten by natives of different countries. The 



