214 Miscellanies. 



tween four hundred and five hundred miles, its breadth approaching 

 one hundred and fifty miles, and its depth nine hundred feet. 



It is in reference solely to the mineral, and other physical resources 

 of the vast territory lying contiguous to its shores, that we feel it proper 

 to mention the subject in this Journal, which has no relation to politics. 

 We are free however to express our opinion that the general govern- 

 ment ought at once to espouse this work, and give it a prompt and 

 thorough execution, at whatever cost. It is due to the far west, to the 

 near west, and even to the east, as the whole country is bound together 

 by interests which justify and imperiously demand national aid to give 

 them full activity, and thus to unite, by indissoluble ties, the most re- 

 mote extremities of our immense empire — an empire which the people 

 rule, and for the improvement of which the people are willing to pay. 



11. Destruction of the Public Conservatory at Boston. — This valua- 

 ble and beautiful collection of exotics, occupying a large circular domed 

 conservatory, was totally destroyed by fire, which caught from one of 

 the furnaces employed in heating the house ; and although the flames 

 were very soon extinguished, the escape of noxious gases and the en- 

 trance of cold air (14° F.) from without, soon ruined all that the house 

 contained. This establishment was under the enlightened direction of 

 Mr. J. E. Teschemacher, a gentleman whose scientific attainments are 

 well known, and whose zeal in the department of horticulture and veg- 

 etable physiology, eminently qualified him for the post. He had at the 

 time of the accident many interesting experiments in progress, espe- 

 cially on the subject of manures. The house contained the largest and 

 most splendid plants of the Camellias and Rhododendrons in this coun- 

 try — the result of long years of judicious culture, and whose loss can- 

 not soon be repaired. All the rare foreign birds in the conservatory 

 also perished. 



12. The De Candolle prize for Botanical Monographs. — The late 

 Prof. De Candolle having bequeathed the sum of two thousand four 

 hundred francs, in trust, to the Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Nat- 

 urelle de Geneve, the interest of which is to be awarded, from time to 

 time, as a premium for botanical monagraphs,* that society announces, 



1. That, on the 9th of September, 1846, it will award a premium of 

 five hundred francs to the author of the best monograph of a genus 

 or family of plants. 



2. The premium is open to the competition of all naturalists, without 

 distinction, except the ordinary members of the society that holds the 



* Vide American Journal, Vol xliv, p. 23. 



