530 FOURTH BULLETIN OF [1846. 



1 Tuftnd Duck, Fiili2;ula rufitorques. 



1 Golden Eye, Fuligula elong^ula. 



1 Long-tail d Duck, Fuligula glaciaiis. 



1 Hooded i-ierganscr, ftlergiis cucullatus. 



1 Black-bellied Darter, Plotiis alringa. 



1 Horned Grebe, Poiliceps oornutus. 



1 Great Northern Diver or Loon, (young,) Colyinbus glaciaiis, 



1 Black-throated Diver, (young,) Colymbus arcticus. 



1 Rod-throated Diver, (young,) Colymbus septentrionalis. 



1 Black Guillemot, Uria grylle. 



1 Do. do. (young,) described as Uria marmoruta, (Vieliot.) 



LETTER FROM Mr. ROOT, OF MOBILE, ON THE SUBJECT OF 



AMERICAN SILK. 



Mobile, June 20, 1846. 



Sir: I received though your kindness twelve seeds of the silk plant, and am 

 happy in saying that I have succeeded in growing six plants. They are now five 

 feet high and in bloom. The plant seems hardy, and is unlike any thing I have 

 met with in our country. The main stem and brancht-s are somewhat like the 

 senna of this region, but the foliage bears no resemblance. J. S. Skinner, esq., 

 editor of the Farmer's Library, saw the plant growing in April, and thought the 

 experiment a very fair one. The seeds were planted in January in pots and 

 slightly forced under glass, and transplanted in ]\Iay in dry sandy ground, six faet 

 apart. 



I shall not fail to send you a portion of the sends and the silk when at maturity. 

 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



CHESTER ROOT. 

 Fran'cis Markoe, Jr., Esq., 



Corresponding Secretary of the National Institute, Washington. 



LETTER FROM HON. RICHARD RUSH, OF PENNSYLVANIA, ON 

 THE SUBJECT OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE. 



Sydenham, near Philadelphia, July 18, 1846. 



Pear SiRf.Permit me to send you for the National Institute an old folio volumo 

 containing bound-up numbers of "The New York Mercury" and "New York 

 Gazette and Weekly Mercury," from 1758 to 1768, the numbers being pretty 

 full for some of the years, though scanty or deficient for others. From its pages 

 may be gleaned items of information not without interest concerning portions of 

 our political history before the Revolution, intermingled with little matters illus- 

 trative of habits, manners, and usages in New York and others of the old thirteen 

 States at that colonial day. It is sent in the hope that the Institute will do mo the 

 honor to accept it as a slight token of the continued interest I take in its welfare, 

 and of the undiminished gratification I derive from being continued on the list of 

 its corresponding members. 



In acknowledging your favor of the 8lh instant, conveying a copy of the memo- 

 rial proscnted by the Institute to Congress on the 16th of December, I cannot avoid 

 some little expression of the deep regret I foel at the pecuniary embarrassments 

 under which the Institute labors. Had these been brought on by imprudence — 

 had the members or officers been seeking emoluments or pecuniary advantages in 

 any conceivable way for themselves — or had there been any extravagance or waste 

 in managing the concerns of the body, relief could little bo expected from the 

 hand of Government. But when nothing of this kind is the case — when all have 



