518 Foreign Notices ; — France. 



covering up the surface of the ground with dry litter, to confine the heat ; we 

 have also endeavoured to encourage the root action by increasing the tem- 

 perature of cold light-coloured soils, by strewing soot on the surface for a 

 yard or two around the plant, and by nearly covering a like distance by pieces 

 of black trap rock, from 3 in. to 6 in. in diameter. The success from the pieces 

 of trap appeared greatest : they diminished the evaporation from the ground, 

 and thence there is less loss of heat, and of necessary moisture ; and, being at 

 once very receptive of radiant caloric, and a good conductor, they quickly 

 raised the temperature of the soil in the first half of the summer, when bodies, 

 from the increasing power of the sun, are receiving much more heat from 

 it than they are giving out by radiation," (^Matthew on Naval Timber, 

 p. 39.) Those who cannot command soot or trap rock may use coal dross, 

 or pieces of coal, laying them close together all round the plant. Roses may 

 be brought earlier into bloom in this way ; and we have produced an extra- 

 ordinary rapidity and vigour of growth by the same means, with the ad- 

 dition of liquid manure, in the Siberian cow parsnep {Hera.c\euvi giganteura). 

 — Cond. 



Poiuei-ful Antiseptic. — Professor Hare of Philadelphia has obtained, by 

 distiUing oil of turpentine with two parts of alcohol, and four parts of sul- 

 phuric acid, a liquor which, when saturated with ammonia and purified by 

 a second distillation, possesses an antiseptic power superior to that of creosote. 

 Thus, one part of milk, mixed with four parts of a solution of sulphuretted 

 oil of turpentine in water, was sweet and pure after the lapse of five days, 

 whilst another portion of the same milk turned sour in twenty-four hours. 

 Two drops of the oil itself, when dropped into a quart of milk, prevented 

 its coagulation for nine days ; and, although it did finally curdle, it yet reniained 

 sweet at the end of a month. Two pieces of meat were preserved in the 

 same manner for several months. Many other substances have been preserved 

 in the same manner. {UE'clio dii Monde Savant, Aug. 30. 1837.) 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 

 FRANCE. 



Improvement of Agriculture. — A sum of 500,000 francs is about to be 

 placed at the disposition of the Minister of Public Works, for the advance- 

 ment of agriculture, in 1838. This amount, which is the largest that has ever 

 been allowed, is another proof of the interest which is every day attached to 

 the progress of this art. {L'E'cho du Monde Savant, Aug. 12. 1837.) 



Remarkable Oak and Beech. — At Cambaniere, in the Forest of Hautanibout, 

 Black Mountain, there is a tree presenting a very remarkable phenomenon. 

 An oak and a beech have grown so close together, that their trunks appear as 

 one; and the head is composed of branches, some having the foliage of the 

 oak, and others that of the beech. {Ibid) 



Bollwyller, Departement du Haut Rhin, Sept, 30. 1837. — I send you our 

 priced Catalogue of hardy Trees and Shrubs for insertion in your Arboretum 

 Britannicum, on the terms proposed on the wrapper of the Number of that 

 work, and of the Gardeners^ Magazine for November, 1836 ; but I wish you 

 state to your readers that this catalogue does not contain the whole of our 

 collection, but only such plants as we have propagated in quantities. We have 

 a great number of species and varieties of which we have only a few plants, 

 and some of which we have only one plant ; but of all these we shall have 

 plants for sale in a year or two. You ask the extent of our nursery, &c. It 

 contains 125 acres (50 hectares); and we emploj', on an average throughout 

 the year, 150 men. We have above 100 sashes of green-house, besides several 

 hundred feet of pits in frames, all used in propagation. Among our newest 

 articles, is a seedling iJhododendron arboreum, a hybrid between that plant 

 and Azalea Indica alba. It has not yet flowered, but we have great expect- 

 ations from it. Its leaves are very remarkable, and I hope its flowers will not 

 be less so. — Napoleon Baumann. 



