320 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



VEGETATION. 



Those persons who become most familiar with the mighty ope- 

 rations of nature are most fully excited to admiration of their 

 sublime and marvellous character. The phenomena which pro- 

 duce the life in plants are utterly incomprehensible, and however 

 intimately we can know the plants, we have no power to pene- 

 trate the mysterious secrets of vegetation, which are known only 

 to God the creator. Our knowledge is limited to such agency as 

 is capable of being appreciated by our narrow powers of observa- 

 tion and study — the body and not the spirit. 



Light, as to the agency in the work, plays a great part. Seeds 

 can scarcely germinate while fully exposed to the rays of the sun. 

 They must be buried in earth to a certain depth, doing the work 

 of child-birth, we may say, best in the dark, and like a child when 

 it first breathes the air. The seed will not germinate in vacuo 

 whether in light or darkness. 



The Secretary *was always happy to bring before the Club from 

 all quarters of the globe such matters as had importance to agri- 

 culture. He read from the newspaper, the California Farmer, 

 (an able paper published in Sacramento, California,) of the 31st 

 of October last, an account of the agricultural fair held at Sacra- 

 mento in October. A sugar beet weighing one hundred and three 

 pounds; Lima beans very large, parsnips also; cabbage fifty lbs.; 

 pumpkin two hundred and fifty-six pounds; oats very fine, one 

 hundred and thirty-four bushels per acre on an average; turnips 

 three feet in circumference; a vinegar plant, likely to become an 

 important crop. Several hives of honey of the very best quality, 

 produced by bees very recently introduced into California where 

 it was before entirely unknown and seems never to have existed. 

 Some think that the sugar cane will not flourish there without 

 irrigation. Six samples of silk by Dr. Behr : 



1. Spun from native cocoons. 



2. Spun from Floretti silk from native cocoons. 



3. The native cocoons. 



4. Wild native cocoons. 



5. Cocoons raised in the house. 



6. Cocoons raised on a rose bush. 



