No. 2.] * BOTANY. 125 



A Maryland Oil Well. — A few years ago an oil well was 

 started near Cumberland, Maryland ; but instead of striking oil, 

 the pioneers came upon a gas chamber, and penetrated it. The 

 gas was ignited, and continued burning. About a year ago, Mr. 

 Haworth, of Boston, purchased the well, and obtained a patent 

 for the manufiicture of carbon. The gas is allowed to burn 

 against soapstone platos, on which the carbon is deposited in the 

 form of soot. Six hundred and sixty burners are now in opera- 

 tion, each burner consuming eight cubic feet per hour. By a 

 mechanical arrangement, the soot is scraped and deposited in 

 large tin boxes about 3 feet long, 1 J feet wide, and 1 J feet deep ; 

 scrapers are passed along the soapstone plates every twenty 

 minutes, and the boxes are filled on their fourth passage. A 

 building twice the size of the present one is now in course of con- 

 struction. It will have in use 1328 gas burners. The present 

 consumption of gas amounts to about one-twelfth the whole quan- 

 tity escaping from the well. The total consumption of gas by 

 the burners of both buildings will be one-fourth of the whole. 

 The carbon is generally used for the manufacture of ink. — 

 Quarterly Journal of Science. 



BOTANY. 



Home Botany. — It is to be regretted that although every 

 year a considerable amount of botanical research is made in the 

 neijrhbourhood of Montreal, few results are chronicled. In this 

 way much local botanical knowledge is lost, and much time is 

 expended by new enthusiasts in finding out what had already 

 been known to former workers in the sume department. Inas- 

 much as the natural productions of one's own vicinity are of 

 much greater interest than those of parts more remote, so it is 

 allowable for Montreal botanists to study with peculiar enthusi- 

 asm the flora of the mountain and regions lying within reach of 

 a day's excursion. If the interesting discoveries that are made 

 from year to year by new and older investigators in this limited 

 and well-searched area, were regularly published in our local 

 scientific magazine, the accumulated facts would gradually give 

 us a thorough knowledge of the flora of the district, which would 

 serve as an exploring shaft into the vegetable products of the 

 country, to shew their nature from the highest to the lowest forms. 

 The thorough study of such a district is of higher scientific value 

 than the superficial investigation of a whole province. The im- 



