494 
watering and keeping the turf; large greenhouses with their appurte- 
nances; small conservatories for the apartment and for the window; 
aquariums for aquatic plants; water-jets and apparatus for ornament- 
ing gardens. 
Class 86.—Flowers and ornamental plants.—Species of plants and 
specimens of culture illustrating the characteristic types of gardens and 
residences of each country. 
Class 87.—Kitchen-garden plants—Species of plants and methods of 
culture characteristic of.each country. 
Class 88.—Fruits and fruit-trees.—Species and methods illustrating 
the pomology of different countries. 
Class 89.—Seeds and plants of forest-trees.—Species of plants and meth- 
ods of culture characteristic of different countries. 
Class 90.—Greenhouse plants.—Specimens of cultures adapted to differ- 
ent countries, either for utility or pleasure. 
The juries of admission to these several classes have been appointed, 
embracing leading scientific, industrial, and commercial men of France. 
VITAL STATISTICS OF SWITZERLAND.—The Swiss Federal Bureau of 
Statistics has recently published a general statement of births, deaths, 
and marriages in Switzerland during the first quarter of the current 
year. The number of marriages is about 1.8 per aece 1,000 inhabitants, 
or 5,012 in all, the population being stated at 2,750,135 souls. This 
would give an average of 7.2 per 1,000 for the whole year, whereas the 
average from 1867 to 71871 was about 7. This figure is lower than that of 
other ‘European populations. Italy, from 1868 ‘to 1870, averaged 7.4 per 
1,000; France, 8 per 1,000 from 1861 to 1865; England 8, i, and the grand 
duchy of Baden 8.4, from 1867 to 1871; Bavaria, 8. 5 from 1864 to 
1868; Austria, 9.6 from 1867 to 1871. 
The total number of births during the first quarter of 1876 was 23,612, 
which would give 35.88 per 1,000 inhabitants for the entire year, if the 
proportion was uniform. But the dead-born amounted to 1.55 per 1,000, 
or 4.3 per cent. of the total number of births. The proportion of male 
births is unusual, 106.8 to 100; this proportion is still greater among the 
dead-born, which show 121 males to 100 females. The proportion of 
total births for the quarter is greater than the average of past years. 
Not counting dead-born infants, the total of deaths was 19,195 
during the quarter ; including those, the proportion of deaths was 29.48 
per 1,000. Asthe rate of mortality is usually greater during the winter, 
this average is too large for the whole year. From 1867 to 1871 this 
average in Switzerland was 25.6 per 1,000. The regular average of Ham- 
burg, with its urban population, is 26.5 per 1,000 inhabitants. 
WOOL PRODUCTION AND MANUFACTURE IN GERMANY.—M. Maurice 
' Block, a prominent French statistician, gives the following results of a 
voluminous analysis of German wool-trade reports, embracing 102 
chambers of commerce and about 200 societies, reunions, and great 
manufacturing establishments. Wool manufacture in Germany ranks 
in importance next to that of England and France. It employs 
1,250,000 spindles for carded wool and 530,000 for combed wool, while 
Austro-Hungary bas but 600,000 for the former and 80,000 for the 
latter; Italy has 250,000 for the former and 28,000 for the latter. 
France has 2,898,929 spindles working up unmixed wool and 403,455 
mixed wool, without regard to the method of preparation. England 
reports 3,165,569 spindles for carded wool and 2,182,792 for combed 
wool. 
During three years, from 1872 to 1874, Germany imported on an 
