Miscellanies. 399 
which these very prolific colonists sent out their croaking detachments 
through the adjacent country, whose progeny spread from field to 
field through the whole kingdom. No statue has yet been erected 
to the memory of the natural philosopher who enriched our island 
with so very valuable an importation of melodious and beautiful crea- 
tures.” We may state, however, that we have learned from good 
authority, that a recent importation of snakes has been made, and 
that they are at present multiplying rapidly within a few miles of the 
tomb of St. Patrick.—Dublin Med. and Chem. Journal, vol.v. No. 
xv. p. 481. 
2. On the Rapidity of Vegetable Organization.—The vegetable 
kingdom presents us with innumerable instances, not only of the ex- 
traordinary divisibility of matter, but of its activity in the almost in- 
credible rapid development of cellular structure in certain plants. 
Thus, the Bovista giganteum (a species of fungus) has been known 
to acquire the size ofa gourd in one night. Now, supposing with 
Professor Lindley, that the cellules of this plant are not less than the 
zi,th of an inch in diameter, a plant of the above size will contain 
no less than 47,000,000,000 cellules ; so that, supposing it to have 
grown in the course of twelve hours, its cellules must have been de- 
veloped at the rate of nearly 4,000,000,000 per hour, or of more 
than 96,000,000 in a minute!* and, when we consider that every 
one of these cellules must be composed of innumerable molecules, 
each of which is composed of others, we are perfectly overwhelmed 
with the minuteness and number of the parts employed in this single 
production of nature. 
8. How to make Eatable Food from Wood.t—To make wood- 
flour in perfection, according to Professor Autenrieth, the wood, 
after being thoroughly stripped of its bark, is to be sawed transverse- 
ly into disks of about an inch in diameter. ‘The saw-dust is to be 
preserved, and the disks are to be beaten to fibres in a pounding- 
mill. The fibres and saw-dust, mixed together, are next to be de- 
prived of every thing harsh and bitter which is soluble in water, by 
boiling them, where fuel is abundant, or by subjecting them for a 
* Introd. to Bot. p. 7. 
+ Ina former number of this Journal we gave some details in regard to bread 
made from wood and from bark. 
