editor's tablk. 



and thus grailually a soil is made rich in organized matter, coustantljr increased in tlieir 

 decay ; their successors live more healthfully upon the inheritance, heing supported partly 

 upon what they industriously take from the air, and partly upon the ancestral accumula- 

 tion of vegetable mould. In this way, each successive generation may enrich the soil ; and 

 when it dies, it bequeaths to the soil not only all it took from it, but all that it drew from 

 the air. It is in this manner, esix^cially, that the liumble lichens, mosses, ferns, and other 

 plants, which short-sighted man terms useless, jjlay an essential part in the economy of 

 nature. They caw live directly on the air. Tlieir minute seeds, quite invisible to the naked 

 eye, and, in number, far surpassing man's power of computation — light almost as the air 

 itself — are widely scattered by the winds over mountain and plain, and lodged upon every 

 naked rock, or stagnant pool, or tract of barren sand, where all they need is moisture, to 

 excite and maintain their growth. Some, like the lichens, require even little of this. They 

 attach themselves to dry rocks or plains of lava, which are washed only by the occasional 

 shower, and here they make the earliest inroads upon barrenness. Not only do the accu- 

 mulated remains fill the crevices with fertile mould, and the water, which it holds like a 

 sponge, by its freezing and thawing, aids in the disintegration of the rock, but many of 

 them create, from aerial elements, oxalic arid — a powerful solvent — which, as it is gradually 

 set free, acts upon and excavates the stony surface to which the plant firmly adheres. Tlius 

 the dying lichen digs for itself in the solid rock a sepulchre in which its dust may rest. 

 Well did Linnaeus, in his lively fancy, term the lichens vemaculi, or bond slaves, chained, 

 as it were, to the rocks which they labor to cover with soil for the benefit of others, though 



they derive from it no nourishment for themselves. A very curious passage in natural 



history might be written by any one who would group together what may be called fish 

 paradoxes. Thiis there are fish that fly ; fish that climb ; fish that hop like frogs, using 

 their fins as veritable legs ; fish that ruminate (the carp) ; fish that discharge electricity 

 in sufficient intensity to decompose water ; fish that migrate ; fish tliat make nests ; fish 



that incubate; and fish that bring forth their young alive. Hugh Miller says: "As 



another family of plants, the Rosaceae was created in order that the gardens which it would 

 be one of man's vocations to keep and to dress, should have their trees ' good for food, and 

 pleasant to the taste ;' so flowers, in general, were profusely produced just ere he appeared, 

 to minister to that sense of beauty which distinguishes him from all the lower creatures, 

 and to which he owes not a few of his most exquisite enjoyments. The poet accepted the 

 bee as a sign of high significance ; the geologist also accepts her as a sign. Her entombed 

 remains testify to the gradual fitting-up of our earth as a place of habitation for a creature 

 destined to seek delight for the mind and the eye as certainly as for the grosser senses, and 

 in especial, marks the introduction of the stately forest-trees, and the arrival of delicious 



flowers." The same author illustrates the wonders revealed by geology by the bones of the 



Dinormus giganteus, exhibited by Dr. Mantell, in 1850, which greatly exceeded in bulk those 

 of the largest horse. A large thigh-bone, it was held, must have belonged to a bird that 



stood from eleven to twelve feet high, the extreme height of the African elephant. " If," 



says the President of the British Association, in his late speech, "as is indicated by the 

 small density of the sun, and by other circumstances, that body has not yet reached the 

 condition of incompressibility, we have, in the future approximation of its parts, a fund of 

 heat quite large enough to supply the wants of the human family to the end of its sojourn 

 here. It has been calculated that an amount of condensation which would diminish the 

 diameter of the sun by only the ten-thousandth part, would suffice to restore the heat 



emitted in 2,000 years." Jewellers' gold is now alloyed (adulterated) with zinc instead 



of silver, and presents a fair api^earance ; but a galvanic action is produced upon gold so 

 alloyed, by means of which the metal is split into separate pieces, and the articles rendered 

 perfectly useless. Gold chains, pencil-cases, thimbles, and lockets, are the articles of which 



