AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND GEOLOGY. 207 



Pyrethrum) is imported every year from Persia and the Caucasian provinces into all parts 

 of the Russian Empire ; and that used fresh, sprinkled over the window-sills, it makes all the 

 flies fall instantly, asphyxiating them ; but that at the end of a year it loses its energy. He 

 also states that it is the Pyrethrum carneum and roseum which produce this powder. 

 Journal d 1 Horticulture de Belgique. 



Alcohol from the Tubercles of the Asphodelus ramosus. 



THE tubercles of Asphodelus ramosus have been employed for some years in Algeria for 

 the manufacture of alcohol. It has been asserted that they contain neither starch nor sugar, 

 and the experiments of M. Clerget fully confirm this opinion. When grated and pressed, 

 they yield 81 per cent, of juice, of specific gravity 1-082. When treated with iodine, not the 

 slightest indication of starch can be obtained. The juice has no action on polarized light, 

 but if it be heated with hydrochloric acid at the boiling temperature, it rotates the plane of 

 polarization to the left very powerfully. When mixed with two per cent, of yeast, it enters 

 rapidly into fermentation, and yields eight per cent, of alcohol, being about twice as much 

 as can be obtained from the juice of sugar-beet. The dried tubercles of the plant do not 

 yield more than three per cent, of alcohol. M. Clerget is engaged in the investigation of the 

 principle which undergoes fermentation. 



Odors of Flowers. 



SCIIUBLER and Kohler have made many interesting observations on odors as well as colors. 

 They found that, of the various colors of flowers, some are more commonly odoriferous than 

 others, and that some colors are more commonly agreeable than others. 



The white most odoriferous and agreeable the yellow and brown most disagreeable. 

 Prof. Darby. 



On the Aroma of American Wines. 



AT a recent meeting of the American Wine-Growers' Association at Cincinnati, the fol- 

 lowing was read from N. W. Thatcher, of Chillicothe : 



* " The great desideratum in wine-growing is, doubtless, to procure 

 a grape possessing at once sugar in abundance and an agreeable aroma; probably the 

 Catawba (there are some spurious varieties of this grape) possesses these qualities to a more 

 profitable degree than any grape we now cultivate, inasmuch as it is perfectly hardy ; but 

 this grape should not be regarded as the type of American grapes, for we shall yet surpass 

 it ; and to those whose palates do not accord too much with the foxy aroma of the Catawba, 

 the Herbemont is the most acceptable grape, but the latter is not sufficiently hardy for exten- 

 sive and profitable cultivation ; but as we have several varieties of that class of grapes, we 

 may look for the production of seedlings from them that will surpass any of the Fox family. 

 Doubtless a cross of the Herbemont and Cataicba would produce a valuable grape as to flavor 

 and juiciness. It is, doubtless, a desideratum to obtain a grape possessing all the requisites 

 for good wine ; that is, it should be productive, hardy, juicy, sweet, and well-flavored. Until 

 we can get one grape possessing in a sufficient degree all these, we can cultivate several 

 varieties and attain our object by mixing the berries in the mash-tub. This is desirable, at 

 least, to afford variety in our wines, as well as to give flavor to strong-bodied wines which 

 are without it. The taste of the juice of the grape, as well as for various kinds of food, 

 becomes fixed to some particular sorts by custom, and finally to the exclusion of any thing 



