SI 6 Beet-Root Coffee. 



many Icelandic books, weapons, dresses, Sec, at great cost, 

 Mr. Hooker visited the Geysers or hot spouting sprinf^s, 

 and pitched his tent for some time in their neighl)ourhood, 

 watching t'ne most favourable opportunities for making- 

 drawings of them. 



We regret to add, that nearly the whole of this gentle- 

 inan's labours were lost, by the disastrous circumstance of 

 the vessel in which he embarked for London taking fire 

 soon after thev were out of sijjht of the island, and beinff 

 burnt to the water s edge. The crew and passengers were 

 saved by a vessel which providentially came in sight soon 

 after the fire began. 



Mr, Hooker, after whom the president of the Linnean 

 Society named his new genus of mosses, is already well- 

 known to the lovers of natural history as the discoverer of 

 BiixbaKinia aphylla, as well as by his scientific drawings for 

 the valuable work on Fuci, by his friend Dawson Turner, 

 esq., of Yarmouth ; and his descrijuions of several new 

 mosses gathered by Dr. Buchanan, during his journey to 

 Nepal, published in the last volume of the Linnean Trans- 

 actions. 



Beet-Root Coffee. — We have frequently had occa- 

 sion to mention the progress made on the continent in ex- 

 tracting sugar from beet roots ; and it now appears that the 

 yellow beet root, when cut into slices and kiln-dried, fur- 

 nishes an excellent substitute for coflee, particularly if ground 

 along with a small quantity of Turkey or West India coflee. 

 It requires much less sugar than the foreign coffee, and is 

 said to be much stronger. M. Vinncn of Cobletrtz claims 

 the merit of having discovered this new application of beet- 

 root. He cautions his readers against stripping the plant 

 of its leaves for feeding cattle as is generally practised, and 

 which not only injures the growth of the plant, but mate- 

 rially alters the qualities of the juice. 



Great exertions are making in ever department of France 

 to produce substitutes for West India sugar, and prizes are 

 daily offered by i.he various oeconomical societies of the 

 continent for the discovery, of the most proper material for 

 that purpose. The saccharine matter of the grape has been 

 the chief subject of the recent experiments of the French 

 chemists. 



Mineralogy 



