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shall find unstinted praise of the amaranth or prince's feather with its 

 lovely variegated leaves. Now this old fiivorite is of the easiest 

 growth, and from one or two specimens he had happened to see — 

 rather poor ones — he would put it against any of the foliage-plants 

 of the present time for beauty, whatever they might be. Thirty or 

 thirty-five years ago the dahlia came in and supplanted many better 

 flowers, but now it has met a just requital, and few will grow a plant 

 that has so many practical difficulties about its culture. 



Mr. Tracy added some observations on the foliage of the autumnal 

 forests in New England, so striking to the eyes of tourists and so 

 much a riddle to the man of science. No other country is said to 

 exhibit it; and it has been attributed to the action of early frosts, 

 though this is probably an error. A better explanation is that our 

 l)cculiar climate induces a kind of ripening in the leaves, akin to 

 what usually appears on the surface of fruits, producing a like dis- 

 play of coloi's. In giving glory to our woods it cannot be compared 

 to anything else; but it is but a fleeting splendor beyond preser- 

 vation, even in specimens well selected and treated with the utmost 

 care. 



Mr. Tracy added some remarks upon the local antiquities of the 

 immediate vicinity ; referred to the dwelling house occupied by Mr. 

 Joseph Moulton, which, he said, was erected in IGGG. Also to the 

 construction of the canal which convej-s the waiters of Strawberry 

 Brook to the mills of ^Messrs. Berry & Son, and which was probably 

 one of the first canals constructed in this country. 



Mr. r. W. Putnam gave an account ot a recent observation of 

 much interest, made by Miss Grace Anna Lkwis of Kimberton, Ches- 

 ter County, Penu., upon the fluids contained in the bulbs of feathers 

 of living birds, and read the following extracts from letters received 

 from Miss Lewis : — 



'■ A few days since, while examining the feather capsule of a young 

 dove, just fresh from the bird, I was ])oth surprised and delighted to 

 find my glass slide covered with the most exquisitely delicate and 

 beautiful crystals, of at least from thirty to forty diflerent variations. 

 I have long believed that the animal kingdom repeats the primary 

 forms of both the mineral and vegetable, viz : the crystal and the 

 cell, but I do not know that this phenomenon can be considered in the 

 light of proof, since I do not know whether they w'ere poured and 

 ready formed from the ruptured capsule, or whether from some un- 

 known cause, the crystallization took place under my hand. I tried 

 sugar, salt, the white of egg, milk, potato water, and finally I pro- 

 cured another capsule from the living bird. Only in the latter, did I 

 find a repetition of the crystals. Did anybody ever see such crystals 

 as these in the fluid of a feather capsule before v" ****** * 



"In examining the adult plumage of our common barn-door fowl, and 

 the domestic turkey, I wished to free the cells from their enveloping 

 membranous covering, and for this purpose rubbed very fine cuttings 



