No. 199. J 485 



March 5th, 1850. 



Judge Robert Swift Livingston in the chair. Henry Meigs, 



Secretary. 



Mr. Meigs read the following translations, made by him, from the 

 Parisian works recently received by the Institute. Remarking first, 

 that Paris collects from all the world, and therefore is an emporium 

 of art and science exceedingly convenient and useful to the general 

 diffusion of knowledge. 



Extracts from Revue Horticole of December, 1849. 

 Preparation of plants for an Herbarium, to preserve ahnost unalter- 

 ed the colour of the leaves and flowers. — By the common methods the 

 trouble is considerable and the colour lost. As I gather plants, I 

 arrange them in leaves of brown paper, which absorb the moisture 

 from dew or rain. They suffer here no change in twenty-four hours. 

 On the next day I arrange them m very dry paper, and then place 

 them in an apparatus of my own invention, in which they dry perfect- 

 ly in twenty-four to thirty hours, and the brilliant colours of leaves 

 and flowers are preserved. My plan is founded on the fact that the 

 water which is in the composition of the plant, slowly volatilizes un- 

 der ordinary circumstances. I then thought of raising the tempera- 

 ture and at the same time diminishing the atmospheric pressure. For 

 this purpose I made a cylindrical copper vase about twenty inches 

 deep by twenty four inches diameter ; this holds conveniently my paper 

 packet with the plants. This vase is then heated by slacking lime 

 placed around the empty part of it ; I then use my air pump and ex- 

 haust the air within ; I pump at intervals for two or three hours j I 

 then let the vase alone for 24 to 30 hours. At that time I find my 

 plants perfectly dry with their colour in all. 



Revue Horticole, Paris, November, 1849. 

 PLANTS OF INDIA AND CHINA. 

 Translation by the Secretary of the Farmer's Club, of the American Institute. 

 Discoveries of J. Ballon Hooker, of new garden plants in the Hima- 

 laya Momitains. — Our readers have doubtless not forgotten, that about 

 four years ago, an English collector of plants, Mr. Fortrune, was com- 



