654 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Batatas, or Igname of China, gives magnificent products, is accli- 

 mated, and its cultivation is realized in France. We doubt whe- 

 ther the Ignames of New Zealand, of India, or of the Moluccas can 

 succeed here. 



' TREES FROM THE TROPICS FOR EGYPT. 



We have a letter from our member. Doctor Figari Bay, a mem- 

 ber and director of the Botanic garden of Cairo, desiring us to 

 send to Cairo seeds of the forest trees of the intertropical regions, 

 that the borders of the desert may be clothed with verdure. Na- 

 poleon has already made fountains of fresh water on the desert, 

 where none ever were since the deluge ! Dr. Livingstone is about 

 sailing into the heart of Southern Africa, in a steamboat ! Will 

 Africa be subdued by the agricultural and mechanic power of the 

 civilized world 1 



DOMESTIC LIGHT, SAFE AND CHEAP, 

 Is a matter of much more JVational importance than is usually 



supposed. 



Mr. Meigs — Our republic now contains about thirty millions ot 

 people, living in about four millions of dwellings. Five winter 

 months lights are wanted from 6 o'clock p. m. until 9 o'clock p. m., 

 and in the morning from 5 o'clock a. m. to 6| o'clock, to make 

 ready for the occupations of the day. Then if only a single light 

 is used for the winter evenings and mornings, there must be daily 

 lighted in the republic, eight millions of lights. The long even- 

 ings of winter, especially demand our attention; for it is then, or 

 hardly ever at another period of the twenty-four hours, that ihe 

 master and mistress, children, servants and guests, assemble 

 around the table to read the bible or the newspaper, or magazine 

 or history, &c. A single brilliant light, near the centre of the 

 table, suffices for all the readers and for those who prefer draw- 

 ing, &c. The wretched penny dips, w^ould stultify a people! 

 There is no good reading to be done by such darkling candles ! 



Inventors have within a few years given us brilliant carbonic 

 lights, many of which explode and are worthy of national execra- 

 tion for the cruel murders they have committed on (usually) poor 

 servant girls who alone have the cleaning, fixing and lighting of 

 them ! for masters and mistresses never touch them. 



