Cultivation of the Mmoud. 147 



or cap to protect it, and that, too, not in the spring to be visited by the summer sun, 

 but under all the disadvantages of declining year. When we come to look more 

 closely at its mechanical organism, we find that, instead of being neglected, nature 

 has gone out of her way to provide for its security, and make up for all its defects. 

 The seed vessel which, in other plants, is situated within the cup of the flower, or 

 just beneath it, in this plant is buried ten or twelve inches under ground, in a 

 bulbous root. The styles always reach the seed vessel, but in this by an elongation 

 unknown in other plants. All these singularities contribute to one end. As this 

 plant blossoms late in the year, and would not have time to ripen its seeds before 

 the access of winter would destroy them. Providence has contrived its structure 

 such that this important office may be performed at a depth in the earth out of reach 

 of the effects of ordinary frosts. In the autumn nothing is done above the ground 

 but the blooming and fertilization. The maturation of the impregnated seed, which 

 in other plants proceeds within the capsule exposed with the rest of the flower to the 

 open air, is here carried on during the winter within the earth below the reach of 

 ordinary frost. Here a new difficulty must be overcome. The seeds, though per- 

 fected, are known not to vegetate at this depth in the earth. The seeds, therefore, 

 though so safey lodged through the winter, would after all be lost to the purpose to 

 which all seeds are intended. To overcome this difficulty, another admirable pro- 

 vision is made to raise them above the surface, and show them at a proper distance. 

 In the spring the germ grows up upon a fruit-stalk accompanied with canes. The 

 seeds now, in common with those of other plants, have the benefit of summer, and 

 are sown upon the surface. 



"How great and marvelous are His works," and how carefully are the minute 

 details of all His creatures, animate and inanimate, provided for. Relation of parts 

 one to another is and must be harmonious in mechanics, so in the animal economy, 

 so in the vegetable world. None of the works of the Deity want these harmonious 

 relations of parts and offices. 



Cultivation of the Almond. 



AT a meeting of the Sacramento (Cal.) Farmers' Club, a member said that, as 

 regards soil, the almond will succeed on almost any soil we have. It will suc- 

 ceed on drier soil than any other tree, if it is on its own root, and if on a peach root 

 it will succeed where it is too dry for the peach itself. He considered the Languedoc 

 the only variety that is worthy of cultivation. We have many kinds of seedlings, 

 but he had never seen any one that will compare with this variety. The paper-shell 

 almond is comparatively worthless. The tree is scrubby, ugly and crooked, to begin 

 with. Then it is not very prolific, and not only that, but the nuts are so soft-shelled 

 that the birds destroy them all. There are risks in growing almonds in this valley 

 because of the spring frosts. There is less risk on the high lands than on the low 

 lands ; in fact, he thought, there was very little risk on high lands. The tree is not 

 more liable than any other tree to be injured by excessive water. They will stand 

 more exposure, either wet or dry, than the peach tree. The raising of the nut ia, 

 very profitable, and is destined to become a matter of importance in this State, 



