36 



THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



that the blocks be cut from dry wood, and used soon after being cut, lest 

 their figure vary by warping. 



linn.ean society. — A Plant producing perfect Seed without any apparent 

 Pollen or Stigma. — By Mr John Smith, A.L S. 



The subject of the present notice belongs to the natural family of Eu- 

 phorbiaceai, and has been cultivated for several years in the Royal Botanic 

 Garden at Kew, under the name of Sapium aquifolium. It is a native of 

 Moreton Bay, on the east coast of New Holland, where it was discovered 

 by Mr Allan Cunningham, who sent three plants of it to Kew in 1829. 

 A short time after their introduction the plants flowered, and they proving 

 to be all females, they were naturally passed over as belonging to a dioe- 

 cious plant, until Mr Smith's attention was particularly drawn to them by 

 the fact of their producing perfect seeds. They have annually flowered 

 and matured their seeds since; and, notwithstanding the most diligent 

 search and constant attention, no male flowers or any pollen-bearing or- 

 gans have been detected. Young plants have been raised, at different 

 times, from the seeds, and they bear so close a resemblance to their pa- 

 rents that it is scarcely possible even to suspect the access of pollen from 

 any other plant. Mr Smith considers the plant as the type of a new genus, 

 which he names Cozlebogyne. It forms an irregular branched, rigid, ever- 

 green shrub, of about three feet in height, with alternate, petiolate, ellip- 

 tical, mucronate, coreaceous leaves, having three large spinous teeth on 

 each side, and furnished with two small subulate persistent stipules. 

 The paper was accompanied by a young plant raised from seed produced 

 at Kew, and by a beautiful drawing of the parts of fructification from the 

 pencil of Mr F. Bauer. 



THE PLANS AND INFLUENCE OP THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 

 OF SCOTLAND. 



The labours of the Society have been productive of much good, were it 

 only by having banished all political discussions from the meetings, and 

 taught the agriculturists of Scotland that in the Hall of the Society they 

 could meet as brethren. Nor has this beneficial change extended only 

 to the proceedings of the Society, or told within its walls ; for, as the page 

 of history narrates how a wicked monarch and a dissolute court spread 

 the rivers of a moral pestilence throughout the fated land, till every in- 

 habitant in the darkest cave and lowest cottage was inoculated with the 

 soul-destroying plague ; and, turning to the bright side of the picture, a 

 good king and a virtuous queen are found, not only making a healthier 

 atmosphere in the court itself, and throwing an aroma (as it were) of 

 purity around their own exalted sphere, elevating the tone of morals 

 throughout the land ; so, in like manner, has this now powerful body 

 given the tone to all the local associations throughout Scotland, so that 

 in the business as well as social meetings of every one of them, nothing 

 but harmony and unanimity is to be found. Again, in the days of its 

 youth and feebleness, the Highland Society sent the leaven of the turnip 

 husbandry into all the glens and straths of the north, by offers of small 

 prizes to certain Highland parishes, and the same may be said as to the 

 growth of clover and the finer grasses. As it advanced in strength, (as to 

 numbers and cash,) attention was turned to premiums for stock ; then 

 came offers of reward to men of science to discover better implements 

 and machines to diminish friction, and consequently draught, such as in 

 the thrashing-mill, and other parts of agricultural machinery. Still advanc- 

 ing in the scale of intellect and of science, premiums were offered for essays 

 to bring to light the facts connected with chemistry and natural philo- 

 sophy ; and under the auspices of the Society was set up the Quarterly 

 Journal of Agriculture, a work which has been the vehicle of conveying 

 so much useful information to the agriculturist that, we humbly venture 

 to say, it ought to appear on the table and book-shelf of every farmer's 

 parlour. After this the great stock-shows ,were resolved upon, as another 

 link of union between the Society and the practical farmer; at the same time 

 throwing aside all paltry feeling, and making them open to stock from 

 both sides of the Tweed. How well they have succeeded let the last one 

 at Glasgow bear witness. Nor has the Society forgotten the beauty of 

 the country, as the premiums offered in legard to planting trees and such 

 like subjects fully testify ; and, to sum up all, it may be said, the High- 

 land Society bas been a " point d'appui," a rallying point, to which the 

 agriculturists of Scotland might look, and a fostering mother to all who, 

 although strong in talent, were weak in interest to make it public. An 

 ardent lover of the plough, and all that can speed it, the writer would 

 do what he can to advance the delightful science, the culture of the 

 fields. 



. - . " The men 



Whom Nature's works can charm, with God himself 

 Hold converse ; grow familiar day by day 

 With His conceptions; act upon His plans, 

 And form to His the relish of their souls."" 



Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, June 1839. 



MISCELLANIES. 



Stereography — We must direct the attention of our readers to the 

 specimen of the art we have just named, as exhibited in page 34, more 

 especially as the representation of the Dinotherium would appear to a 

 casual observer as nothing more than an ordinary wood-cut. 



The inventor of this new art, to which he has applied the name Stereo- 

 graphy, an old if not very familiar word, is our ingenious fellow-citizen, 

 Mr William Howell. He was occupied with it, together with others, 

 and chiefly Mr Daniel Somerville, drawing-master in Edinburgh, some 

 twenty years ago, the last gentleman especially producing many creditable 

 specimens ; but all, at the time, failed in bringing it to any practical bear- 

 ing or general application. About four years ago Mr Howell again turned 

 his attention to the subject, and ever since, under many discouragements 

 and sacrifices, has devoted much time and labour in advancing its progress. 



The process he pursues, stated in general terms, is, we understand, 

 the following : — He prepares a tablet of artificial stone of the required 

 size, as if for lithography. Upon this the subject to be cut is drawn with a 

 pencil. Thisdrawing is then carefully scratched, and the stone thus scratched 

 forms a mould whence the cast is taken, in the same manner as common ste- 

 reotypes would be. It is in the method of preparing the stone that Mr 

 Howell's claims of merit chiefly rest, it being of a nature to resist injury 

 from the contact of the heated metal ; and also in the manner in which 

 he produces light and shade, which he keeps a secret. The great object 

 and the great difficulty in all attempts of this kind, has been to produce 

 cross lines, or hatching, as it is called, in the style of ancient wood en- 

 graving, and all endeavours at this have usually been failures. A glance, 

 however, at our figure will at once show that this obstacle has at length 

 been effectually overcome. 



In the Scotsman of the 25th September last we find the following ob- 

 servations from the pen of our ingenious artizan : — " In stereography, as 

 in lithography, it is the original lines that give the impression, but, unlike 

 it, the design does not require to be reversed, while no more care is re- 

 quired than with drawing paper, and alterations can be made with facility. 

 The size of the drawing causes no more difficulty than in the present 

 mode of stereotyping, with this advantage, that it is not subject to break 

 in casting. Of the immense number I have cast I have never lost one. 

 The plate can be of any dimensions, by being joined, as stereotype work 

 is at present. When injured, it can he easily repaired, or altered, if re- 

 quired, casts can be taken to any amount, and the expense is small." 

 We have had the pleasure, at the University Press, (where Mr H. has 

 introduced important improvements in the art of stereotyping.) of examin- 

 ing the specimens above referred to, and have no hesitation in saying, 

 that they merit the high commendation of being striking resemblances of 

 the copies they are designed to represent, a remark which pre-eminently 

 applies to our own specimen. We at the same time learned, that accu- 

 rate copies of all kinds of wood-cuts can, by this method, be easily ob- 

 tained ; and, moreover, that fac-similes even of copperplates, such, for 

 example, as maps, can be obtained in the same way ; and that from these 

 stereograph blocks hundreds of thousands of impressions may without de- 

 triment be thrown off - . Lastly, we learned that the expense of this art in 

 comparison of wood-cutting, from the great saving of time and trouble, is 

 at a reduction of between 20 and 30 per cent, of the present price of wood- 

 cutting. In conclusion, let it be noted that this art is still in its infancy, our 

 present specimen being the second that has been published. 



INTERESTING DISCOVERY IN VACCINATION. 



Mr Ceely, Surgeon, of Aylesbury, has demonstrated the important fact, 

 that small-pox and cow-pox have the same origin, the latter being small- 

 pox communicated to the Cow. 



Mr C. inoculated Cows with small-pox matter ; the vesicle produced 

 in the animal had every appearance of the vaccine pock. To ascertain 

 the point, children were inoculated with matter taken from the Cow thus 

 artificially infected ; the result was, a fine genuine vaccine vesicle. To 

 establish the fact satisfactorily, these children were submitted to small- 

 pox inoculation, and found to be protected from the disease. Twemy- 

 five successive inoculations have now been performed with this new virusv 

 which may truly be named Variola vaccina, and it continues to produce 

 the most satisfactory vesicles ; the matter has been employed in Bristol 

 with perfect success. The importance of this discovery cannot be too* 

 highly appreciated. Small-pox often breaks out in countries where cow- 

 pox cannot be procured ; now it is only necessary to inoculate a Cow 

 with the small-pox, and that virulent, morbid poison, so fatal to human 

 life, will be converted by this useful animal into a mild fluid capable of 

 protecting all inoculated with it from that dreadful malady the small-pox. 

 — Bristol Journal. 



Edinburgh: Published for the Proprietor, at the Office, No. 13, Hill Street. 

 London : Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill. Glasgow, and the West of 

 Scotland : John Smith and Son - t and John Macleod. Dublin : George 

 Young. Paris : J. B. Balliere, Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine, No. 13, bis. 



THE EDINBURGH PRINTING COMPANY. 



