Domestic Notices : — England. 91 



these last four days. My gardener has made for me a new kind of bed 

 for growing the Russian cucumber. He makes a double frame of dung on 

 the plain ground, leaving a space between the two rows of dung 18 or 20 inches 

 wide, and about 18 in. high. The dung is not meant to give heat. In the 

 trough thus formed by the walls of dung he puts fine rich earth, and sows his 

 cucumber seeds in two rows. He assures me I shall have a better crop than 

 in the usual beds, and in case of a rainy season no comparison. We shall see. 

 — J.B. C. 



NORTH AMERICA. 



Jussieua grandiflbra. — Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright of Natchez, Mississippi 

 State, read a lecture before the Lyceum of that city, in 18.S9, on the health- 

 preserving property of the jussieua. It is found on the stagnant waters of Lower 

 Louisiana in great quantities, floating on the surface ; and where it appears the 

 water is more or less clear, in proportion to the greater or less quantity of the 

 plant. Dr. Cartwright thinks that the pores of the plant constitute the 

 alembic through which the impurities of the water pass off. The plant bears 

 a flower 3 or 4 feet above the surface of the water ; the root is several feet 

 in length, lies horizontally in the water, about*2 in. below the surface ; and, 

 with the leaves, forms such a dense covering to the water, as to constitute a 

 bridge sufficiently strong to enable snakes and the smaller animals to pass 

 over the pools in which it grows. Dr. Cartwright thinks that the growth of 

 this plant is conducive to the health of the region in which it abounds, by 

 purifying the water in which it grows ; for, though he visited the region to 

 which the plant is indigenous in the hottest season of the year, he found the 

 stagnant waters of the lakes and bayons, which were covered by the plant, as 

 pure to the sight and taste as if it had just fallen from the clouds. South of 

 the district where the plant grows, stagnant pools and bayons become very 

 impure, and he therefore infers that it consumes or feeds upon those substances 

 which, in other situations, corrupt and vitiate stagnant waters in warm climates. 

 In proof of his theory, he adduces another fact, viz. the salubrity of the 

 region in which the plant abounds, notwithstanding that it contains more 

 stagnant water and swamps than any other inhabited district of the same 

 extent in 'the United States. The health of the people is even remarkable. 

 The growth of the plant is bounded by the 30th degree of north latitude, 

 and the soil and face of the country on both sides of it are similar, viz. 

 alluvial, and containing lakes, swamps, and stagnant water, and covered with 

 nearly the same vegetable productions. The country north is unhealthy, its 

 stagnant waters impure, and life of short duration. On the south side, the 

 atmosphere is wholesome, the water pure, and, as just said, the people 

 healthy. In the country on Bayon Lafourche, where the plant grows, a 

 great number of the original settlers were living, who migrated from Nova 

 Scotia before the American revolution. The negro population is very 

 numerous and remarkably long-lived, many living beyond the age of 100 years. 

 I had the pleasure to see Dr. Cartwright in this city two months since, when 

 he confirmed to me the fact of the health-preserving quality of the jussieua, 

 by the relation of two cases, the particulars of which I will procure and send 

 to you J. M. PldladeljMa, Nov. 27. 18i0. 



Art. III. Domestic Notices. 

 ENGLAND. 



Ce'REUS Northumberlandia and Ci/perus longus. — I have enclosed you the 

 account of the cactus I mentioned to you. It was brought home by Mr. 

 Nightingale from Tobago, and bears a very large white flower. I should like 

 it named after His Grace the Duke of Northumberland. Would Cereus 

 Northumberlandf« do ? [According to the received rules, C. Northumber- 

 landi!a?2fl! would be preferable. See Lindley's Introduction to Botany, 3d ed., 



