





Miscellaneous Intelligence. 299 



This description is fully supported by the report of Mr. O. Matthews, 

 mining engineer, and that of a committee of three gentlemen, appoint- 

 ed expressly for an official inspection of the mine, in September, 1847; 

 as also from an analysis by Mr. J. C. Booth, of Philadelphia, of four 

 specimens, producing respectively, 16 dwts. 4 grs., 12 dwts. 12 grs., 

 6 dwts. 13 grs., and 2 dwts. 12 grs., to the one hundred pounds of ore — 

 who states they would produce three times as much if they could be 

 obtained free from matrix, and that either would yield a rich matt by 

 smelting. The direction of the Orange Grove Mining establishment is, 

 with the exception of two gentlemen, we believe, entirely under the 

 control of British subjects. 



5. On Common Salt as a Poison to Plants ; by W. B. Randall, 

 (Proc. Brit. Assoc, Athen., No. 1086.)— The following notice is pre- 

 sented as being likely to afford a useful practical caution to those inter- 

 ested in the cultivation of plants. In the month of September last, 

 three or four small plants in pots were shown to the writer nearly or 

 quite dead ; and he was, at the same time, informed that their destruc- 

 tion was a complete mystery to the party to whom they belonged, and 

 tnat Dr. Lindley had expressed his opinion from the examination of a 

 portion of one sent to him, that they were poisoned. Having searched 

 in vain for any strong poison in the soil, and in the plants themselves, 

 "6 inquired more minutely into the circumstances of the case, and 

 found that these were only specimens of many hundreds of plants both in 

 the open air and in the green-houses (but all in pots) which exhibited, in 

 a greater or less degree, the same characteristics. The roots were com- 

 pletely rotten, so as to be easily crumbled between the fingers ; the stems, 

 even in young plants, assumed the appearance of old wood ; the leaves 

 became brown, first at the point, then round at the edge, and afterwards 

 &H over; while the whole plant drooped and died. At least two thou- 

 sand cuttings in various stages of progress, and one thousand strong, 

 healthy plants had been reduced to this condition ; including different 

 varieties of the fir, cedar, geranium, fuchsia, rose, jasmine, and heath. 

 The sight of this wholesale destruction, coupled with the fact that the 

 *hoIe were daily watered from one particular source, suggested the 

 conclusion that the cause of the evil must reside in the water thus used ; 

 *nd this was accordingly examined. It yielded the following constit- 

 uents, making in each imperial pint of twenty fluid ounces, nearly 9& 

 grams of solid matter entirely saline, without any organic mixture : 



Carbonate of lime, 0600 



Sulphate of lime, 0-462 



Chlorid of calcium, 0-200 



Chlorid of magnesium, 1"252 



^ Chlorid of sodium, 6-906 



9-420 

 The mould around the plants and an infusion of the dead stems and 

 leaves also afforded abundant evidence of the presence of much chlo- 

 rid of sodium. Farther inquiry showed that the well from which the 

 water was procured had an accidental communication by means of a 

 dr ain, with the sea ; and had thus become mixed with the salt water 

 from that source, and had been used in this state for some weeks, prob- 



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