EXTRACTS — FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. 177 



of the House of Commons, containing; an account of the quanti- 

 ties of cured provisions of all kinds imported into England from 

 our colonies and foreign countries, for the year ending January 5, 

 1845. 

 The following are the particulars of the return : 



184:}. 1944. 



Salted beef, 60,633 c wt, 106,766 c wt. 



Saltedpork, 27.118 '• 30,780 " 



Ham of all kinds, 6,919 <' 6,732 « 



Bacon, 4^ « 36 « 



It also appears that a large quantity of that imported in 1844 

 was taken lor ships' stores, viz : salted beef 77,248 cwt. ; salted 

 pork, 16,987 cwt. j hams of all kinds 6, 298 cwt. 



GERMINATING SEEDS UNDER COLORED GLASS. 



The following remarks by Mr. Hunt, the Secretary of the Royal 

 Polytechnic Society, in England, relate to a most curious disco- 

 very ; and one which may prove very useful to the cultivators of 

 rare exotics. "We hope some of our readers will be stimulated to 

 repeat the experiments, and to send us the results. 



"It is scarcely necessary to explain that every beam of light 

 proceeding from its solar source is a bundle of different colored 

 rays to the absorption or reflection of which we owe all that infi- 

 nite diversity of color which is one of the greatest char.ns of crea- 

 tion. These rays have been known to possess different functions. 



"The light which ptimeates colored glass partakes, to some 

 considerable extent, of the character of the ray which corresponds 

 jwith the glass in color ; thus blue glass admits the blue or chemical 

 rays, to the exclusion, or nearly so, of all the others; yellow glass 

 admits only the permeation of the luminous rays, while red glass 

 cuts off all but the heating rays, which pass it freely. This affords 

 usa vtry easy method of growing plants under the influence of 

 any particular light which njay be desired. 



" The fact to wiiich I would particularly call attention is, that 

 jthe yellow and red rays are destructive to germination, whereas, 

 'under the influence of violet, indigo, or blue light, the process is 

 quickened in a most extraordinary manner. 



VOL. II. — NO. I. 



