356 [Assembly 



4eep. The stems of the plants are coijverted into good hay. 

 Cattle and stock lap up the seeds with their tongues, eat this na- 

 tural hay, and become fat upon it. I had a ton of potatoes from 

 Santa Crnz, and bet with a doubter that they would average one 

 pound weight apiece, and won the bet on a portion of them. I 

 •sffdred to make the same bet upon the whole ton, but it was re- 

 fused. 



Mr. Sheltou : One clover of large growth lias been called iu 

 honor of myself the Sjielton clover. One root of it, stalks and 

 all, weigh six pounds. Its heads are first a cream color tint, 

 then turning light purple. There is a white clover wliich grows 

 about three feet high. My Herbarium and Flora contain about 

 lane thousand specimens. The apples and peaches are small ; the 

 pears fine and good size. I gathered a large collection of speci- 

 mens of mineralogy in the course of my rambles. They occupied 

 -extensive tables in the exhibition at San Francisco. 



Mr. More, from Switzerland, now a florist in New York, exhib- 

 ited the seeds from the melo cactus — iu the Repository. The two 

 cactus are from the island of Jamaica. The seeds are imbedded 

 in the red top of the cactus. This red top is composed of red 

 tJiorns of an inch in length ; while all the ribs of these oblong, 

 melon-shaped cactus are beset with keen thorns pointing every 

 "Way. Mr. More stated that the seeds germinate slowly, produc- 

 ing a very minute plant, of very tardy growth. That the speci- 

 soaens before us, which are about two feet high, by one loot diam- 

 eter. One, having twelve longitudinal ribs of thorns, and the 



<otiier, eleven such ribs, are about fifty years of age. 



« 



Subjects : New plants, new uses of old plants, and the Osier 

 Willow, continued. 



Ortmotion of Alanson Nash, Esq., the Club adjourned to Tues- 

 day next, November 30, at noon. 



H. MEIGS. Secretary. 



