VOb. \»V.NO. 31. 



\ N GARDE l\ K K ' S .1 U U K N A I. 



243 



i\I<1ST BXTRAOIIDINAKV, ] I' TKUK ! Tlu' ('>ll- 



lowiiif; account of a new ciiiiosiiy in Natnial 

 History, cannot but |nno iiiglily iiucijciiiig lo 

 naturalists : — 



A s|)('riuien of a natural proiluclion was shown 

 us a few L'veninirs sincf, that is neitlirr fisli nor 

 fli'sli, 1)1 ast nor bin), nuiinal, vegetable nor niincr- 

 nl ! It was procured in I'lynioutfi, North Caroli- 

 na, and brought to this city in a g ass of Alcohol. 

 'I he thinir, for it is without a name, is both onto- 

 miilojrical and vegetable. When its entoino'ogical 

 nature comuiences, and when its vegetable charac- 

 ter has arrived at maturity, its entomological char- 

 acter developes itself and its vegetable existence 

 disappears. In other words it is alternately a bird 

 and insect, ii is perhaps about one inch in length 

 and ihreefourths of an inch in rircuuiference. It 

 is of a brownish color, shaped like a wasp, destitute 

 of wings, head similar to a beetle, with two an- 

 tenna; or horns, has neither its liead on either side, 

 a short leg shaped like those of the mole, with 

 broad, serrated extremities, and intended, doubt- 

 less, like those of the earth. It hasa'so two pos- 

 terior legs, the purpose of which shall be seen. 

 AVben the insect has attained its growth, it disaji- 

 pears beneath the siirfa(;e of the ground and dies. 

 Immediately after its death the tsvo posterior legs, 

 just spoken of begin to sprout or vegetate. These 

 two shoots soon appear above the earth, and the 

 insect plant soon attains the height of about six 

 inches. It puts forth branche'ii and leaves resem- 

 bling trefoil. The extremities of the branches 

 bear a bud, which contains, in embryo, neither 

 leaves nor flowers, but an insoct ! As the insect 

 developes itself and grows, it neither falls to the 

 ground, or returns upon its mother plant, but feed- 

 ing on its leaves, until the plant is exhausted, when 

 lie insect returns to earth asain, and again the 

 plant shoots forth \ 



The true nature of this insnct jdant or vegeta- 

 ble insect; we know not what lo call it, is entirely 

 inexiilicable to us. It may l>s surmised that an 

 insect has here associated itself with the seed of 

 a plant, in such manner, that they produce and 

 mature each other. Or, it may be supposed, that 

 nature has invested this specimen of existence 

 which attributes the nearest possibly assimilated 

 to those of both the vegetable and animal king- 

 dom, yet belonging not exactly to either, but en- 

 tirely to both. It may seem to be the hinging 

 point at which the animal kingdr.ni merges into 

 the vegetable, and the vegetable into the animal 

 kingdom. It is certainly a wonderful curiosity, 

 and we believe that it is not entirely unknown to 

 naturalists, but has never before been publicly de- 

 scribed. 



We understand that a gentleman in Philadel- 

 phia of whom the specimen we saw was procured, 

 is cultivating a quantity of them which he has 

 obtained from North Carolina, for the pur|)ose of 

 furnishing the Museums. We hope to be able to 

 furnisli a more particular account of this insect 

 vegetable hereafter. In the specimen we saw, the 

 plant had grown about three inches, and the in- 

 sect was yet preserved in its original and nearly 

 jicrfect state.— Tarn. Mag. 



Douglas' Patent Stove. — combining all the 

 conveniences of a Fire Place and Cooking Stove. 

 In it there are two places in which to put fire 

 when necessary, one open like a Franklin Stove, 

 over which are two boilers, and from which heat 



pa.s,^.^ iUMii,;i! an o\c'n sulVu ient t.) l)ake breail — - 

 .•mother close place, over which is one large boil- 

 er, and from which also tlio omu is heated. In 

 the winter, the fire-place oidy will be needed for 

 onlinary piu'poses, and in the snuuner the fire 

 p'ace may be closed ami used at the same time or 

 not, as occasion may require. — 'I he first of these 

 stoves which has been cast, has just been put up 

 in this vil'age and promises to dp well. It is wor- 

 thy of the attention of all who are about to pur- 

 chase Cooking Stoves, and Publishers of newsjia- 

 pers will confer a public favor by imticing the 

 improvement. — Brunswick Pioneer. 



Coal i.n Palmvra. — We were yesterday fur- 

 nished with a specimen of a substance dug from 

 the bottom of a well in Palmyra, in this State. It 

 was found about 15 feet below the surface of the 

 ground, under a covering of iron ore. ^Veare not 

 much of a judge of these matters but from the ap- 

 pearance of this specimen and its ready combus- 

 tion when thrown into the fire, we have no doubt 

 it is a genuine article, and if found in any quanti- 

 ty must render the district which contains it very 

 va'nable. It has a striking simiiitude to the Le- 

 high coal, with which we saw it comjiared. The 

 ground in which this specimen was found is now 

 under bond, and we understand it is the intention 

 of the holder to examine the subject thoroughly 

 as soon as his apparatus can be got ready. — Ban- 

 gor Adv. 



Vital Principle of Seeds. — A small portion 

 of the Royal Park of Bushy was broken up some 

 time ago, for the purpose of ornamental culture, 

 when immediately several flowers sprang up, 

 of the kinds which are ordinarily cultivated in 

 gardens; tliis led to an investigation, and it was 

 ascertained that this identical spot had been used 

 as a garden not later than the time of Oliver 

 Cromwell, more than one hundred and fifty years 

 before. — Monthly Mag. 



Eco.NOMY. — 'Oh, eat it up, dear; eat it up,' 

 says mamma. ' I can't ma, I've ate enough.' 

 ' Oh, yes, dear, eat up what's on your plate, so 

 that it need n't be lost ! ' 



How common a practice that is ; stufiing chil- 

 dren beyond the wants of nature, and making 

 them gluttons all their lives, so that the scraps 

 need not be lost .' Precious economy this ! — Ga- 

 laxy. 



To Drive Bugs from Vines. — The ravages 

 of the yellow striped bugs on cucumbers and me- 

 lons, may be eft'ectually prevented, by silting char- 

 coal dust over the plants. If repeated two or 

 three times, the plants will be entirely free from 

 annoyance. There is iu charcoal some property 

 so obnoxious to these troublesome insects, that 

 they fly from it the instuBS it is applied. — Indiana 

 Aurora. 



On Seasoning Sausagks. — A lady has suggested 

 to us that the old method of seasoning sausages 

 is attended with much inconvenience. For in- 

 stance, when the meat is chopped without weigh- 

 ing, the seasoning must be put in by guess. Care 

 must be taken, of course, not to put in too much at 

 first; and perhaps, in nine cases out often it will 

 be found, after tasting, that there is too little. The 

 chopped meat must then be sprinkled a second 



tiin: , ^;iid \]t:: wli'jle liiUcli cijopiK',! ovur again 

 for the purpose of ndxing it thoroughly. 



Now there nrs lahor-saviiig calculations as well 

 as lahorsaviiig machines; and we are assured 

 that the following proportions have invariably 

 been found to be right: For one hundred pounds 

 ol' meat take three pounds of salt, ten ounces of 

 sage, and ten ounces of pepper, all fine y pow- 

 dered, and SjTinkle them over the meat before it 

 is chopped. Cvery part during this process will 

 be intimately intermixed. 



The same proportions hold in all cases. Thus 

 for twenty pounds of meat, take nine ounces and 

 a half of salt, two ounces of sage, and two ounces 

 of pepper. The old rule of cutting and trying 

 among carpenters, is not more troublesome than 

 seasoning and tasting amoi>g sausage makers. — 

 Gen. Farmer. 



Large Apples. — We have seen accounts from 

 different sections of the country of apples of un- 

 common size and weight. Ihe largest that we 

 now remember to have seen mentioned, weighed 

 24 ounces. Our own country of Franklin exceeds 

 anything that we have heard of in the growth of 

 the apple. We have seen an ap| le which grewr 

 on the farm of Harrison Blanton, Esq. in this 

 neighborhood, which, when puled fr un the tree, 

 weighed twenty-six ounces. The fruit is of the 

 pippin kind, and is fair to the eye and delicious to 

 the taste. The apples on the tree from which 

 this one was taken, would average more than a 

 pound in weight, and we are told that a lady in 

 town, from four of them only, made a dessert 

 which was sufficient for the entertainment of 17 

 persons. The crop of ap| les throughout the State 

 is generally unusually fine, and we do not believe 

 that the apple any where grows to greater perfec- 

 tion than it does in Kentucky. — Frankfort, Ky. 

 paper. 



Hooshieb Oats — 'J here is now in the office 

 of this paper a stool of oats ; it has 12 stalks and 

 heads, one of the heads, which we selected as a 

 fair average contains 270 grains, making in all 

 3240 grains. Ihe stalks measure 12 inches in 

 circumference, six feet and a half in height. They 

 were rai.sed oy Mr Garret Seymour, who is lately 

 from the Old Dominion, (Virginia.) and however 

 its soil is noted for-the production of great men, 

 he says the Hooshier State far outstrips it in the 

 production of oats. We think few countries can 

 equal this production ; the increase is 3,240 fold. 

 Mr Seymour would without <loubt, have taken the 

 premium of our Agricultural Society, but unfor- 

 tunately the Society was vetoed r.ot long since. — 

 Indiana paper. 



Flax in Ireland. — Seven years ago, the value 

 of flax grown in the north of Ireland, was little 

 more than £50,000, annual value. In 1834, it 

 amounted to £700,000 sterling. The jiresent 



year, the quantity is expected to be doubled 



Improved mills for spinning by machinery, are 

 rapidly increasing. — Journal of American Inslitvie.. 



Mortal Calculation. — The aggregate popu- 

 lation on the surface of the known habitable globe 

 is estimated at 895,300,000 souls. If we reckon 

 with the ancients, that the generation lasts thirty 

 years, then in that space of time 895,300,000 hu- 

 man beings will be born and die ; consequently 

 81,740 must be dropping oft' into eternity every 

 day ; 3407 every hour, and about 56 gverv minute 



