AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 503 



A noble animal, the el ana, abounds; herds of elephants, giraffes, 

 &c.; the lion and hippopotamus are frequent. The heat of sum- 

 mer is very great, and the rain of winter very great. It is not 

 probable that the region will lever be habitable by white men. 



The Secretary read a note from Mr. Norcross, of San Francisco, 

 (in reply to his note, requesting seed of the great American tree,) 

 promising to send some to the American Institute. 



Solon Robinson — I hold in my hand a letter from E. Miller Stil- 

 well; of Lancaster, Massachusetts, detailing his method of grow- 

 ing celery, which I hope will be interesting at this time to many 

 persons who are anxious to grow this excellent vegetable. The 

 letter reads as follows, so far as it relates to this subject : 



I have always succeeded in raising a bountiful crop, free from 

 rust, blight or attack of insects. Celery is a marsh plant, and re- 

 quires a great deal of moisture. It succeeds remarkably well on 

 black meadow mud, or peat soil; but I have grown it with, or of 

 equal excellence, on sandy loam, but it must be liberally supplied 

 with water. To insure early, and strong and evenly growing 

 plants, the seed should be soaked in warm water, and placed in a 

 warm place, to preserve its temperature, the water to be renewed 

 as often as fermentation threatens, until the seed shows signs of 

 germination : the seed is very hard to start, and it is frequently 

 many days before the germ will show itself, a minute speck like 

 the point of a cambric needle. The trenches should be twelve 

 inches in perpendicular depth, twelve inches broad at bottom, and 

 one-third broader, or eighteen inches at top, as this ratio affords 

 such an angle for the sides as obviates covering or washing, and 

 affords the greatest possible amount of rain. The manure used 

 should be well rotted, and perfectly decomposed, so that there is 

 none of the latent heat of fermentation, that is the nursery to in- 

 sects, from its comparative high temperature to the surrounding 

 soil. Green, unfermented, or fire-fanged manure, will rust celery 

 inevitably and invariably, and no nostrum, not even salt, which 

 is a necessary constituent of the plant, will preserve it, any more 

 than will medicine make a healthy mail of him who is daily sub- 

 jected to the influences of poison. And now for the grand rem- 

 edy, which is salt, common salt, and which is as necessary to the 



