334 intelligence respecting arts. July ge 
supported herself by her labour, and madame de Nuillant, 
who continued ‘to fhew her in the world.’ 
It was in the family of madame de Nuillant that 
Scarron, the facetious French poet, became acquainted 
with madame d’Aubigné. Her marriage with Scarron, 
when he was in a state of decrepitude; her exemplary 
conduct as his nurse, rather than his wife; her marriage, 
while in her state of widowhood, with Louis x1v. and 
her subsequent history, under the name of madame deiviain- 
tenon, are so well known, as not to require to be here 
developed. She was the most amiable woman that ever 
figured at that court; and her history makes a beauti- 
ful exception to the general train of base anecdote that 
so deeply degrades mankind in the eyes of the philoso- 
phical reader of the private history of that period. 
INTELLIGENCE RESPECTING ARTS. 
Hot house plants reared by the aid of steam, a new discovery. 
A cenrteman, who is eminently distinguifhed for his me- 
chanical talents, and his improvements in’several branches 
of rural economics, ha lately contrived to rear pine apples, 
melons, and other hot house plants, without the use of 
tan, or other fermentative mixtures, the necefsary heat be- 
ing communicated by means of steams and after having | 
practised it for at least two years, he can now, with some 
degree of confidence, pronounce, that it has even exceed- 
ed his highest expectations; and is, in several respects, 
preferable to any mode hitherto practised for any hot 
house plants, particularly in respect to insects; for he does 
not find that any’ one clafs of insects, have ever once at- 
tacked any of the plants that have been reared after his 
new method. 
Lom 
