MARCH. 143 



TwENTY-EiGHxn Annual Exhibition of the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society. — At a recent meeting of this Society it was voted 

 to hold the next Annual Exhibition on the third week in September, com- 

 mencing on Tuesday the IGth, and continuing open during the week, or 

 longer, if the Committee of Arrangements deem it expedient. The appro- 

 priation for premiums has been increased, and very liberal prizes are offered 

 to induce our amateurs, as well as professional cultivators, to make a grand 

 display. We anticipate one of the finest exhibitions ever made by the 

 Society. 



The Vinegar Plant. — Much attention has recently been directed to 

 this plant, which has been used to considerable extent for furnishing a sup- 

 ply of fresh vinegar. A friend of ours has had it in use in his family for 

 three or four years, and a small jar, holding three or four gallons, yields as 

 much as he can use. Its botanical appellation is Penicilium glaucum. It 

 is a fungoid plant, and is rapidly increased by taking off a piece and 

 placing it on the prepared liquid, on which it floats and changes it into 

 vinegar equal to that made from the best cider. We shall give our friends 

 a receipt for making the vinegar in a future number. 



Purple-Breasted Grosbeak. — I was pleased to see the remarks of your 

 correspondent, J. P. Kirtland, of Cleveland, Ohio, concerning the purple- 

 breasted grosbeak. Having never seen this bird, and being very slightly 

 acquainted with its habits, I should be glad to obtain all the information 

 respecting it which Mr. Kirtland should be pleased to communicate. Ac- 

 cording to the best accounts of this bird, it would seem to be justly entitled 

 to be called the nightingale of America ; but it is not known in the New 

 England States. " The purple finch, or American linnet, an allied species, 

 is very common with us, and is a superior singing-bird. 



There is another bird of this genus, of which I should be happy to learn 

 the history, and would call Mr. Kirl land's attention to the following remarks 

 from P. H. Gosse's "Canadian Naturalist": 



" C. Notwithstanding the day has been so warm, now that the sun is 

 down, the air is chilly and even cold. (April.) Listen to the singular 

 sound proceeding from yonder cedar swamp. It is like the measured tinkle 

 of a cow-bell, or regular strokes upon a piece of iron quickly repeated. 

 Now it has ceased. 



" F. There it is again. I will give you all the information I can about 

 it, and that is very little. In spring — that is, during the months of April, 

 May, and the former part of June — we frequently hear after nightfall the 

 sound you have just heard : from its regularity it is usually thought to re- 

 semble the whetting of a saw, and hence the bird from which it proceeds is 

 called the saw-whetter. I say ' the bird,' because, though I could never 

 find any one who had seen it, I have little doubt that it is a bird. I have 

 asked Mr. Titian Peale, the venerable Professor Nuttall, and other ornithol- 

 ogists of Philadelphia about it, but can obtain no information on the subject 

 of the author of the sound : it seems to be ' Vox et prseterea nihil.' Carver, 



