AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 211 



Jidy 18, 1859. 



Present, 38 memlDers. Dr. Trimble, of Jersey, in the chair. 



Mr. Meigs : — 



Our great tree Washingtonia, of California — baptized by Europe Sequoia 

 Gigantea — succeeds *in Ilurope as far as Northern Europe. In Eng- 

 land it bore fruit in 1858, at Thetford, under care of I. Buckle.. Some 

 alarm prevailed as to its health — the small limbs fall off. (The trunk is 

 out of all proportion as to its size compared with its branches.) It was 

 not injured, however. Lobb began it in 1853, and sold single plants for 

 $5.25 out of Veitch's nursery. 



American Weeds and Useful Plants, being a second edition of Agricultural 

 Botany, Illustrated by Dr. Darlington ; Revised by Prof. Thurber ; 460 

 pages, 18mo, is full of valuable information. 



[By Henry Meigs.] 

 NEW WORKS RECEIVED BY THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE SINCE THE LAST 



MEETING. 



Presented by the Hon. Charles F. Loosey, Consul General of Austria — 

 The Verhandlungen Mittheilungen, des Neider Osterreischisscher Gewerbe 

 Vereines. [Transactions of the Trade Union Society of Lower Aus- 

 tria,] containing the recent improvements in chemistry, chemical technolo- 

 gy, mechanics and mechanical technology, with statistics, &c. 



From Kentucky. — The Valley Farmer, of July, 1859, which contains a 

 compliment well merited to the Agricultural Society of Massachusetts, for 

 their one thousand dollar 'premium for a plantation of forest trees grown 

 from seed, on not less than fve acres. One white oak for every twenty 

 square feet ship-timber to be grown. Competition for the premium ia 

 1870. Notice of beginning on or before January, 1860. 



From Wisconsin. — The Wisconsi?! Farmer, Madiso?i, July 5, says : 

 That a Georgia farmer plants this year one hundred acres of the Chinese 

 Sorghum. It grows better than any he plants. He fed all his stock on it 

 since the first of August last — better for hogs than anything he ever gave 

 them. It has changed my farm from a provision buyer to provision seller. 

 I think I shall sell this year from $1,500 to $2,000 worth, and have plenty 

 left for family and stock. Last two years I have made 1,200 to 1,300 gal- 

 lons of syrup, all more or less granulated sugar. It grows finely on land 

 run down by cotton and corn, and I think it will prove valuable as a rota- 

 tion fertilizer. Mark that idea ! Not half the cost of culture as corn or 

 oats. I fed my seed to stock. 



PARTHENOGENESIS. 



Mr. Meigs : — 



This absurd theory has recently been subjected to more close observa- 

 tion and of course dissipates. The follies of the Acarian products of 

 chemical action form food for laughter among true chemists. Such is the 

 weak propensity to stretch a small fact into a system of the universe. 

 The moHoculi in science are many, and their nasals are Himalayas — so 

 with the pitiable one idea man. God alone knows how life is in matter^ 

 All created beings know not the life in a mustard seed or in a gnat. 



