Domestic J^otices. 155 



purpose, it is very simple, and easily tried. Perhaps some of your 

 readers may suggest another plan. 



It is said the best manure for the calla, is to cut up the old stocks 

 as fast as they die, and spread them on the dirt. I have seen that 

 tried, and it appears to answer very well. 



Perhaps these hints may be the means of inducing others to give 

 you some, which wdl benefit you as well as — .A Subscriber, Boston, 

 March 11, 1841. 



Premium for the destruction of the Canker worm grub. — A subscrib- 

 er of ours, a gentleman who feels interested in the subject of garden- 

 ing, has authorized us to ofler a \\vem\umo? txoeiity -five dollars to the 

 person who shall discover a better, and more expeditious and less trou- 

 blesome way of getting rid of the canker worm than by any of the pres- 

 ent modes. Communications upon the subject may be addressed to 

 us. — Ed. 



Large Pine-apples. — A ^q\v days since, a captain of one of the 

 West India vessels at this port brought out a few fine pine-apples, one 

 of which weighed ten or twelve pounds. — Id. 



Dr. Torrey's Report on the Botany of New York. — Dr. Torrey's 

 report on the botany of New York has appeared in the geological 

 survey of that State, and is the first one of importance received from 

 him. He is charged with the collection and preservation of seven 

 sets of each species, and the arrangement and naming of the whole. 

 From the nature of his duties, the assistance of many observers and 

 collectors, in various portions of the State, was indispensable, and 

 they seem to have placed at his disposal, v^ith truly scientific libe- 

 rality, their catalogues and collections, for the purpose of enabling 

 him to make out his own catalogue. 



" The whole number of species in the State, indigenous and nat- 

 uralized, including the lower orders of the cryptogamia, probably 

 exceeds two thousand four hundred. Of the phenogamous, or flow- 

 ering plants, one thousand three hundred and fifty species have been 

 found; of ferns, and plants allied to them, fifty-three species; of 

 the mosses, one hundred and fifty s[)ecies; of Hepaticee and Char- 

 acea?, thirty species; lichens, more than one hundred and fifty; and 

 fungi, at least three hundred. Of the flowering plants, two hundred 

 and seventy-seven are trees or shrubs; one hundred and fifty are 

 reputed to possess medicinal properties; two hundred and fifty are 

 ornamental herbaceous species; and one hundred and forty are 

 plants which have been introduced from other countries, and are 

 now naturalized in our soil. Of proj)er grasses, our flora contains 

 one hundred and fifty species, twenty-four of which are of foreign 

 origin. In the nearly allied tribe of the sedges, there are one hun- 

 dred and forty species, more than half of which belong to the genus 

 Carex." 



The natural method is employed in the catalogue, with the syn- 

 onymes, locality, time of flowering, &c., and the final report will 

 contain full descriptions of all these plants, and of others that before 

 its publication may be discovered and adtled to this catalogue of 81 

 pages, 8vo. — {Silliman^s Journal.) 



Vegetable Coffee. — A plant which answers as a substitute for coffee 

 has been cultivated in Detroit, Michigan, and is now attracting con- 

 siderable attention in that vicinity. Its botanical name is Cicer arie- 



