AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 123 



Soeiete Imperialc Zoologique D'Acclimatation. 



Report made in the name of the council on the subject of the formation 

 of a Garden of Acclimation in the Bois do Boulogne. Paris, 1858. 



Extracts translated by H. Meigs. 



" Four years ago, this society was founded by the powerful impulse of 

 an illustrious naturalist, (the Secretary General, Count d'Epremesnil.) 



There are already nearly 1,700 members of it, among whom we count 

 eleven sovereigns, seventeen princes of sovereign houses of Europe, 

 Africa, Asia and America, and above all. His Majesty, the Emperor of 

 the French, who has honored the society with his protection, and the 

 Imperial Princes have given their aid. 



A great many of the members are out of France, in various parts of 

 the world, acting as the most enlightened and devoted agents of the 

 society. 



In 1854, our brother member, Mr. Montigny, aided by our generous 

 government, put us in possession of the only herd of Yaks tliat ever came 

 to Europe, and they prosper and readily acclimate. To him, also, and to 

 our missionaries, we are indebted for three of the most precious vegetables 

 from China. 



The Igname (dioscorea batatas) distributed in 1855, by this society — 

 its bulbilles by hundreds of thousands through all Europe, and this tuber 

 which is so important a part of the nourishment of the Chinese, ought, on 

 account of its merits, to be placed by the side of the potato, for it is now 

 completely acclimated and cultivated on a great scale. The mode of per- 

 fecting it is being studied, and one Mr. Hardy, the able and zealous direc- 

 tor of our Algerian Nursery, is growing it of a better figure — not so long 

 as we have it. 



The sugar sorgho, also, an excellent forage and yielding very pure 

 sugar ; the oak silk worm thrives ; the Palma Christi thrives and feels 

 well on thistle ; the Loza for its chlorophyll, valuable ; geese of Egypt ; 

 American patridge ; the parrot ; ducks of China and Carolina ; the black 

 swan ; the Gambra partridge, introduced and propagated in France by the 

 care of the Emperor Napoleon ; modern pisciculture, stocking rivers and 

 ponds ; oysters cnltivated ; lobsters, also ; leeches ; cray-fish ; the hemi- 

 one, or wild horse of the Hinimalayas, lama, &c. 



It is only since 1825 that France has introduced and acclimated the beef 

 and mutton of England, and her pigs from Middlesex, New Leieester, 

 Berkshire, &c. 



Societo Iraperiale Zoologique D'Acclimatalion. Paris, April, 1858. 



YELLOW LUPIN FOR MANURE. 



Mons. Sacc gives to the society ten quarts of Yellow Lupin, to be tried 

 as a fertilizer. He says that if plowed into sandy land, while green, it 

 changes the land to fertile soil completely, and secures a vigorous crop of 

 other plants. Rye or wheat thrive on it the first season. 



