THE ESSENCE OF TFIE FINE ARTS. 



ery year from that time to the present — care having been annually taken to leave a space 

 about two feet square for the growth of the plants from the bulbs. It has been interesting 

 to me to observe from time to time, the growth of the small bulbs lying on the ground, in- 

 creasing from about a quarter of an inch to near or quite an inch in length during the winter 

 season. The soil in which they were planted I suppose to have been so unsuited to their 

 nature as to prevent the production of seed, and they were obliged to call into operation 

 the additional power of their nature given to prevent the extinction of the species. 



But the reproduction from bulbs is not rare. During the past season a singular exten- 

 sion of power was shown; there were but few plants permitted to grow, and I examined 

 them for bulbs at what I thought the usual season, and found none, but continuing to ex- 

 amine occasionally, I found a few bulbs on some of the plants, of smaller size and later 

 in the season as I thought, although I may have been mistaken — but on two of the plants 

 there were no bulbs, and on one of these, late in the season — when the others were entire- 

 ly dead, and of this one the top was entirely dead to within two inches of the ground, I 

 discovered three buds on the living part, perhaps half an inch apart, and on different sides 

 of the stalk; these buds differed in form from a common bud, producing a branch, and 

 also from the common bulb — being of a conical form, about half an inch in length, and 

 about as large at the base as the stalk to which they were attached, and resembling the 

 spur of the common dunghill cock; this singular growth, originating in the decaying stalk 

 of an annual plant, I regarded as being unusual, and upon examining them a few days 

 after, I found one of the buds lying upon the ground, apparently prepared to form a new 

 plant, as the bulbs have hitherto done; and upon re-examination a few days after, 

 although it still differed much in appearance from the bulbs around it, yet there remained 

 no doubt that its office was the same, and if not destroyed, that it Avill become a perfect 

 plant, showing the care of the Creator in providing the means to prevent any species from 

 being lost. A. W. Corson. 



Montgomery County, Pa., 11 vio. 27, 1350. 



THE ESSENCE OF THE FINE ARTS. 



BY S. H. 



[TVe find the following interesting article in a late number of that useful serial, the Lon- 

 don Builder, and transfer it to our columns for the gratification of our readers.] 



My endeavor in the following remarks is to sketch a theory of art generally, which I 

 attempt under the conviction that some of its branches are not fully appreciated even by 

 those who take an interest in its manifestations. By a large proportion of educated per- 

 sons, the arts of painting and sculpture are classed among mere amusements, or hobbies, 

 and considered only as vehicles for the display of talent, affording at the most a refined 

 species of pleasure to the observer. Of architecture they have no idea as one of the means 

 of intellectual enjoyment and improvement to man. They see nothing in it but brick or 

 stone, and wood, formed and arranged to serve certain purposes of utility, presenting at 

 the farthest a clue to the condition, as to wealth or station, of the occupant of the struc- 

 ture. Very few, I apprehend, think of art as an influence to move the heart, or suppose 

 it has functions to perform, and ends to fulfil, in any way connected with the moral sense 

 and intellectual progress of mankind. 



has, I suspect, been a result of the excessive commercial development of our coun- 

 and it is perhaps natural, until the general mind becomes fully awake to the impor- 



