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reply, " We do not know." All we do know is, that science is daily 

 becoming more difficult; and that, unless people begin to sober down, 

 and think a little before they favour the world with the result of their 

 investigations, we shall at no distant period find botany in a state 

 to which that of the Augean stables affords no parallel. 



Potato Disease. — It is well known that, not only in England, but also 

 in other parts of the world, a belief is current that the introduction of 

 railways has caused the mischief among the potatoes ; that the steam 

 and smoke have fallen upon the leaves, and, by a process variously de- 

 scribed, proved fatal to the health of the plant. If the thoughtless many 

 entertain such views it can only provoke a smile, but if the thinking 

 few have opinions, if not the same, at least equally absurd, there is 

 reason to assume a more serious countenance. Nearly every scien- 

 tific man has tried to account for the strange malady, and shown — 

 to his own satisfaction — its true cause. Yet it must be confessed, 

 humiliating as it is, that not one has been able to force his opinion 

 upon more than a limited number of converts. The mystery remains 

 as dark as ever. Like many other phenomena of Nature, the fact 

 of its existence is known : the how and lalii/ are unknown. A Swiss 

 Professor, whose name, for his own sake, we suppress, has tried to dis- 

 pel the darkness, and discovered a light where it was least expected. 

 He found that a too great accumulation of phosphorus caused the 

 tubers to become rotten. And whence does the phosphorus come ? 

 According to our learned friend, from nothing else save the frequent 

 use of phosphoric matches. Had we, like our forefathers, been less 

 impatient to get fire, and, instead of employing lucifers, stuck to the 

 flint and steel, we should not now have to hear the cry of distress from 

 every district in which the potato forms the chief portion of subsist- 

 ence. Though having no desire to be classed among the thoughtless 

 many, nor any pretension to place ourselves among the thinking few, 

 and though we do not want to launch another hypothesis on the ocean 

 of conjecture, we may be allowed to hint that the potato disease 

 existed long before the invention of railways, and many years before 

 the use of flint and steel came to be relinquished. 



Lettuce a Politician. — As a singular, but characteristic, specimen 

 of fanaticism, it may be stated that a Croat, in order to show his hatred 

 for the Hungarians, went so far as to prohibit the appearance of let- 

 tuce upon his table, because he recognized in the tender leaves of 

 that plant those hateful colours, red, white, green. We knew that 

 many countries had selected certain herbs and trees for their national 

 emblem, and we have heard people talking about the language of 

 VOL. IV. 3 P 



