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PART III. 

 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Foreign Notices. 

 FRANCE. 



Equivocal Production of Plants. " It is undoubtedly a very remarkable 

 phenomenon, that the earth, when dug to the depth of eight or ten feet or 

 more, produces many sorts of plants, provided it is advantageously exposed 

 to the sun ; but what is more extraordinary, is, that this new vegetation 

 frequently affords plants of kinds which have never been remarked in the 

 country. It is natural to ask, whence came these plants ? Can it be ad- 

 mitted that the seeds of those new plants were contained in the several 

 kinds of earth ? But could all those seeds, which had been perhaps above 

 three thousand years under ground, without having ever been exposed to 

 the action of the sun, have preserved the power of generating ? If we 

 strew ashes on high and arid heaths, we shall see some time afterwards 

 clover and vetches growing there, though these two plants had never before 

 been seen on those places. Shall we believe that the seeds of the clover 

 and vetches were in the ground, and only waited for a stimulus to ger- 

 minate ? But how did the seeds come there ? We know that high and arid 

 heaths never produce clover : it cannot therefore be considered as proceed- 

 ing from a plant which formerly grew there. But even did we admit the 

 possibility that these kinds of earth may contain clover seed, this opinion 

 cannot be maintained in some parts of East Friesland, where wild clover is 

 made to grow by strewing pearl-ashes on peat marshes." — {Bull. Univ.) 



Substitute for Mulberry Leaves. Dr. Sterler of Bavaria has found that 

 the leaves of A'cer tartaricum, a hardy tree, common in the nurseries, may 

 not only be substituted for, but are even preferred, by silk-worms to those 

 of the mulberry ; and M. Mat. Bonafous of Tourin, after a great many ex- 

 periments, ascertained that the utmost which can be effected by substitutes 

 is the sustenance of the worms for a few days. The leaf of the bramble, 

 (ronce, Fr., riibus, Lin.) maintained them till the second change, but did 

 not enable them to produce their cocons. The dandelion sustained them 

 till the fourth change, when the leaves of the mulberry were substituted, 

 without which they would not have been able to produce their silk. The 

 leaves of Myagrum sativum, an annual plant, cultivated in the north of 

 Italy for its seeds to be crushed for oil, sustained the worms sixteen days, 

 after which many of them perished, but a number of them revived on being 

 supplied with mulberry leaves. On analysing the leaves of the mulberry, he 

 finds they contain a sweet substance, which serves as nourishment, and a 

 resinous matter, which he considers as serving for the formation of silk ; and 

 he suggests to chemists the composition of a vegetable material, combining 

 these two properties, to be used as a substitute for feeding silk-worms, in the 

 same way as linseed-cake and rape-cake are used for feeding cattle and sheep. 

 {Bui. Univ.) It may be of some value to those who are engaged in the 



