208 Foreign Notices. — Germany. 



"Rhododendron ponticum is found to contain some grains of common 

 sugar, of a pure and white colour, on the inner surface of the upper division 

 of the corolla. {Bui. Un.) 



The Roots of a Black Mulberry Tree, which had lain dormant in the 

 ground for twenty-four years, are said at the end of that period to have 

 sent up shoots. {Ann. des Scienc. Nat., torn. ix. p. 358., as in Brande's Jour., 

 Oct. 1827.) 



The Alternation or Succession of Crops, found to be of so much importance 

 both in gardening and agriculture, has been proved to be a general law of 

 nature, by M. Bureau de la Malle, in the Ann. des Scienc. Nat., torn. v. 

 p. 553-, Aout, 1825. The facts which he brings forward are perfectly con- 

 sistent with the experience and observation of various naturalists and cul- 

 tivators. The botanist Ray observed, after the great fire of London in 

 1666, that Sisymbrium IYio sprung up among the ruins, where it had 

 never been seen before ; and Professor Pallas, in the end of last century, 

 observed in Russia that, when pine forests were destroyed by fire, they 

 were not succeeded by the pine or fir tribe, but by wild service, birch, 

 lime, poplar, and analogous trees; Dr. Dwight also, in the beginning 

 of the present century, found that his grandfather's field near North- 

 ampton in Pennsylvania, which a century before was covered with oaks and 

 chestnuts, after being under the plough for two generations, and then left 

 to itself, brought forth a thick grove of white pines, without a single oak 

 or chestnut tree. From the various instances, both of herbaceous and 

 ligneous vegetables, adduced by M.Dureau, he concludes that the succession 

 of plants is a fundamental law of vegetation in a state of nature, and that its 

 imitation by art, in our fields, gardens, and woods, is of the first importance. 



Spildnthes oleraceus, Corymbiferae, the Cress of Para in India, and a stove 

 biennial in this country, is found to be perfectly hardy in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, and to ripen its seeds in the open air. {M. E. Rousseau in Nouv. 

 Bull, des Soc. Philomat., Oct. 1826, p. 156.) 



Flavouring Wines. — Among the roots used by the ancients for this pur- 

 pose were the following, which, it is said, are still employed in the same way: 

 Andropogon Schcenanthus and JVardus, ^4'corus Calamus, and /Yis floren- 

 tina. The root of the latter has the odour of the violet. The root of (7y- 

 perus longus is also very odoriferous. {Olivier de Serres.) 



GERMANY. 



Ripe Grapes of the black kind were gathered in a vineyard near Wir- 

 temburg, on the Lower Rhine, on the 50th of July. The fact was con- 

 sidered so extraordinary that it was formally attested by the mayor of the 

 district. {Times, August 28.) 



An Onion planted by the side of a Rose, so as to touch its roots, is said to 

 render the odour of the latter more intense. {CEcon. Neuigk. und Verhandl., 

 1827, No. 12.) — We do not think it likely, but it may be worth a trial. 



Preservation of Grain. — In the citadel of Mayence, a great quantity of 

 corn was discovered in a vault, where it had remained since 1528. It was 

 in such excellent preservation that bread made from it was found to be 

 very good, though the corn had been kept nearly two centuries. In the 

 department of the Pas de Calais, at Andres, may still be seen one of these 

 vaults, made by the Romans, and used as granaries. {Olivier de Serres.) 



The Seeds of Dodder, Cuscuta europae v a, a parasitic annual of the Convol- 

 vulacese, Pentan. Monoc. L., are not unfrequent among Dutch clover 

 seed, the plant being a great nuisance to the fanners in that country and 

 Flanders ; but the seeds of Cuscuta, not being above a sixth part of the size 

 of those of clover, are easily separated from them by sifting. {CEconom. 

 Neuigk., 1827, No. 12.) 



