278 General Notices. 



"The specimen marked 'Sprats and Lime' was sprats put into quick- 

 lime, alternate layers of each, the sprats not being broken. The worm and 

 maggot attacked them ; and this mode is inadequate to their perfect pre- 

 servation. 



" I have tried blood, flesh, and a variety of substances, such as the entrails 

 and refuse of fish, which all produce useful and valuable fertilising manures. 

 I appeal to your Society for a verdict, and I leave the subject in your hands ; 

 it being foreign to my purpose to pursue it any further. Convinced of their 

 value and importance, I respectfully submit to your decision." (Vol. liii. p. 9.) 



There is a paper " On the Amputation of the large Branches of Trees," with 

 a view to prevent the stump from rotting. *' The branch is cut off at a distance 

 of 3 or 4 feet from the tree, care being taken to support it in a manner to 

 prevent it from splintering the stump. The bark of the stump is then cut into 

 narrow longitudinal strips, which, after being carefully peeled oiF with a bark- 

 ing tool, as far as the body of the tree, are tied back so as to keep them clear 

 of the saw in the amputation of the stump close to the body of the tree. The 

 saw-cut surface is then cut smooth with a wide mortise-chisel, and is covered 

 with" the strips of bark, cut and fitted to it as accurately as possible, and 

 fastened down with brads driven in to the depth of about one eighth of an 

 inch. The wound and surrounding parts are next covered, to the depth of 2 

 or 3 inches, with a cataplasm, according to the following receipt : — Clay, 4 

 parts ; fresh cowdung, 2 parts ; wood ashes finely sifted, 1 part." (p. 10.) 



There are papers on the "Cultivation of Tea in Assam," a " Report on Tea 

 from Brazil," and some other articles of more or less interest to the cultivator ; 

 but the parts are, as might be expected, chiefly occupied by discoveries and 

 practical applications in chemistry, manufactures, and mechanics ; the whole 

 illustrated by well-executed engravings on copper and wood. In a word, 

 these two parts ably sustain the long-established reputation of the Society, at 

 once the parent and the model of so many others. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Vitality of the Genera 'Pljrus and CratcB'gus. — It is not, perhaps, so generally 

 known as it ought to be, that most or all of the species of the above genera, 

 when transplanted of considerable size, and with few fibrous roots, will some- 

 times remain a year in the ground without putting forth leaves, and yet do so 

 abundantly the spring of the second year. We have observed this, many years 

 ago, in the case of transplanting the stumps of large thorn hedges, and also, 

 more recently, in the case of the mountain ash and Pyrus comunis salicifolia, 

 and there are now examples of it in the case of fifteen or twenty species or 

 varieties of thorns, standards, in Mr. Forrest's Nursery, Kensington. The fact 

 is capable of useful application, more especially in transplanting large thorn 

 hedges. — Cond. 



A Camera Lucida, well adapted for Gardeners, has recently been invented 

 by Sir John Robison, late Secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 

 whose plant-case is described in our Vol, for 1840, p. 117. This camera is 

 remarkably cheap, and easily constructed, and is peculiarly applicable to the 

 delineation of flowers, fruits, bulbs, seeds, and other small objects. It 

 was exhibited to the Edinburgh Society of Arts, on March 8. 1841, and there 

 is an account of it in the Mechanic's Magazine for March 6., and in Jameson's 

 Journal for April ; and the following notice is compiled from the last two 

 sources. " Something similar," Sir .Tohn Robison observes, " was suggested 

 to me, some years since, by the Rev. Mr. Taylor of York, but it had escaped 

 my memory until lately ; when, looking at some plants confined in a frame of 

 plate glass, I was struck with the vivid images of the plants reflected from 



