AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 321 



Mons. Hourous says : Species is a succession of individuals which live 

 and perpetuate themselves. Resemblance is only a secondary condition, 

 hut the indispensable one is desceiidaJice. Learned men hardly agree in 

 definition. The primitive source of the horse no more exists to-day than 

 that of the ox ; and we may say as much of the dog, the camel, the drome* 

 dary. The fossil horses do not differ from the living species, &c. 



Note hy Meigs. — We have no evidence of the creation of any plant or 

 animal since the Genesis ; nor any account of creation comparable in the 

 slightest degree with that of Moses — neither in its geological views or 

 creation of life ; nor its chronology. 



I have studied all the cosmogonies, and that of Moses, which is the 

 only true one. 



[Maison Rustique des Dames. By Madame Millet. Fourth Edition.] 



Women are the good genii of the garden ; they lead the two utilitarian 

 men to love it, by showing how much charm it has for life. This book, of 

 two volumes, has a full system of lady gardening clearly and explicitly 

 taught. 



Dwarf Nasturtium, piimilum nasturthun of de Cambessedes. The 

 Tom Thumb Nasturtium of the English has honorable mention in the 

 Horticultural Society of London. It resembles a dwarf geranium, has a 

 fine red flower, and is easily cultivated. Mr. Edlington, of Winchhouse, 

 cultivates fine varieties, profuse in flowers, and as tufted as the hedge 

 primroses. 



CEREUS TRINITATENSIS. 



Mr. Herment, the able director and gardener-iu-ehief of the botanic 

 garden of Caen, cultivates and admires it. It is a cactus. Its flowers 

 are very beautiful-, of a yellowish copper color outside, white within, of 

 the diameter of 4 to 5 inches. 



AMERICAN WINE AND BRANDY. 



J. C. Provoost, (Greenpoint, L. I.) Having been frequently requested 

 by my friends to make a statement of my process of making brandy and 

 wine, I embrace this opportunity, I market none of my grapes, but take 

 the best of them fully ripe for the first quality of brandy and wine. For 

 brandy the grapes are thrown in a mill and ground until the seeds are 

 fine, for I think that the fine flavor and much of the medicinal quality 

 lies in the seed. They are then thrown into casks to ferment, which 

 usually x'equires six or eight days, according to the temperature of the 

 must. It is then put in the still, and the steam turned on with a 

 steady heat. At the first distillation we can only obtain low wines, or 

 brandy below proof. At the second distillation I pass it through the 

 coolers, and the fusil being heavier than the pure brandy, is drawn off" by 

 a tap below, separating it from the pure brandy, which passes through the 

 upper pipe down through the condensing tub into a receiver below. The 

 second quality is made from wine and lees of wine, without fermentation, 



[Am. Inst.] 21 



