AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 3lT 



" On the delivery of the premiums of gold and silver and honorable vien- 

 tion, the Minister of Foreign Relations, Col. D. Bartolomee Mitre said : 

 'We gladly proclaim to the world all the names of those worthy citizens 

 who have merited the premiums.' They are benefactors of the human race. 

 They have set noble examples by applying their science and labor to the 

 great work of enriching their country, by using its generous soil for new 

 and better plants and for animals. They and their sons have gained titles 

 more enviable far than the ensanguined laurels of war. Glory to them ! 



" Anciently, altars were raised to Ceres for wheat — she was crowned with 

 wheat of gold. Mexico never forgets the three grains of wheat whicb 

 covered the ancient lands of the Aztecs. Peru records with gratitude the 

 name of Maria de Escobar, the Peruvian Ceres. 



" In 1856, six bulls and one cow were introduced from Brazil into Para- 

 guay. These have produced the countless millions on our pampas, &c. 

 He spoke of the immense wool produced, &c., and concluded by saying, 

 that by human intelligence and labor, the poorest animal, plant or flower 

 can be ameliorated and exert happy influence over all men — much more so 

 than the discovery by an astronomer of a new star in the immensity of the 

 heavens." 



The Secretary read another paper upon 



MULTIPLYINa AZALIAS. 



If you will bend down the branches before the leaves start, into good 

 soil, and hold them down with a stone, and cover the whole with moss, and 

 keep that moist, you will have strong plants in one year, well rooted. So 

 says the Imperiale Journal of Agricultural of France. 



THE GROUND NUT. 



A letter from G. F. Waters, of Waterville, Maine, giving his opinion 

 about the ground-nut, that grows so common all over this country, in which 

 he says : 



" A. few words reported from your club, last year, on the ' Apios Tube- 

 rosa,' or 'American Ground-Nut,' directed my attention to the same. 

 The plant has been growing in a wet corner of my garden for years. I 

 have obtained tubers two inches in diameter. I send inclosed a few slices 

 from one of the large tuber, dried. You will find it rich in gums, starch, 

 &c., with a taste like 'Snake Root.' There are two kinds of this plant 

 indigenous hereabouts. I have not as yet distinguished them from each 

 other by the flower. The tuber in one kind is quite round, and has a 

 sweet taste, yellowish meat, &o. The other, which is the most common, 

 tapers towards the ends, one being blunter than the other ; meat white, 

 sweetish, and quite gummy. It was recommended in your club to use rot- 

 ten wood as a manure for this plant. I have found the ' Apios Tuberosa ' 

 to thrive best when well dressed with a rich compost ; and so tenacious is it 

 of life, that when once well under way in. a rich soil, it will be found quite 

 difficult to eradicate it. 



