AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 205 



Last January they laid again, 14 eggs, ending in first days of March, 

 1858. One egg was first put out of the nest, and remained untouched by 

 the ostriches. Every time they began to set, they turned every egg over, 

 and changed their position. When it rained, both male and female united 

 their wings to cover the nest. On May 11, some young ones were seen. 

 On the 13th, in the morning, both quit the nest, having a flock of nine 

 young ones. The younger moved with unsteady steps ; the older ones 

 picked and eat tender plants, the father and mother both watching them 

 with anxious vigilance, the father especially, and he sheltered them with 

 his wings at night. All sorts of eatables were offered to them by the 

 parents, but they preferred salads to all others. They eat bread, but in 

 very small quantities. When hatched, they were covered with long thick 

 down. The other couple were set on a dozen eggs. They first wondered 

 at them. After several days, pecked them, seeming to count them ; at last 

 they began to set. The female lays about fifty eggs a year. These eggs 

 weigh about three pounds each ; so that the ostrich lays about 150 lbs. of 

 eggs per annum. Twenty-four eggs of the Spanish hen are about equal to 

 one ostrich egg. The ostrich egg is less delicate to taste, but they are 

 perfectly eatable. Their feed is grains and herbs ; they love to swallow 

 shining articles, pebbly metal, &c. 



Two points are settled. 1. The ostrich bears domestication and repro- 

 duces ; 2. Never abandons the nest; 3. It is monogamous, or if polygam- 

 ous, that is an exception. 



[Journal de la Societe Imperiale et Centrale d'Horticulture. Paris, Juillet, 1858.] 



CHINESE YAM. {Dwscorea batatas.) 



Excellent drawings are given of the male and female vines, fruit, seed, 

 &c., by Mons. Duchartre. 



The vine can grow 14 or 17 feet in length, and about one-quarter of an 

 inch in diameter. It entwines from left to right ; sends out branches volu- 

 ble, like itself; leaves bright green above, pale below ; it is dioiqne, that 

 is, some vines have male flowers only ; others, female only. Until 1856, 

 we had in Europe, none but male flowers ; these are very small and green, 

 growing in little groups of two and three. The female flowers are disposed 

 by four and five at spaces. The fruit is a capsule of fawn color, about two- 

 eighths of an inch long, with three concave sides. The seed is fawn col- 

 ored, and is in the middle of a sort of wing, very thin, with irregular light 

 plaits radiating from the seed, but not reaching the border of the wing ; 

 the whole seed is nearly semi-circular ; the seed is a little oily ; the seed 

 remains attached to the vine, sometimes for three months and an half; the 

 seed sowed in a pot in the beginning of April, came up at about the end of 

 it, and most of them formed young plants in May and June. The crop 

 from tubes is more convenient and a better crop. 



The most interesting experiment in this, was made by Mons. Leveau- 

 Vallee, of Rome, 1858. He planted in thumb pots cuttings of the tuber 

 one-eighth or less of an inch, and like ones in open ground. From 470 of 



