MISCELLANEOUS. 397 



Academy of Sciences of Berlin, of which lie was a member, ami 

 in German periodicals. Besides these, he was the author of a 

 1 Lehrbuch der Chemie,' in two volumes, which has passed through 

 two editions, and has been translated into French. Dr. Mitscherlich 

 was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 1828 ; and 

 in 1829 one of the Royal Medals was awarded to him for his 

 " Discoveries relating to the Laws of Crystallization and the prop- 

 erties of Crystals." It is, perhaps, by his researches into the phe- 

 nomena of dimorphism that he will be best remembered. — Athen- 

 aeum, No. 1876, p. 470. 



AMERICAN TEA PLANT. 



A newspaper announcement states that the Tea Plant has been 

 discovered by a Chinaman (or, as some say, by an Englishman 

 formerly engaged in the tea culture in Assam), in the United 

 States, " covering a large area of land in the central counties of 

 Pennsylvania ;" and that tea of excellent quality and various sorts, 

 green and black, has been made for the market by a company or- 

 ganized for the purpose. We are told that the agent of this com- 

 pany exhibits in this connexion a drawing, which is recognized 

 as representing a genuine Tea-Plant. 



A specimen of the prepared tea has been shown to us; by which 

 we recognize that this American Tea-Plant is the well known 

 Geanothus Americanus, the New Jersey Tea, the leaves of which 

 were used for this purpose at the beginning of the American revo- 

 lution. Some one has remarked that the substituted beverage 

 must have tried the patriotism of our great-grandmothers ; but 

 others report more favourably of its qualities. — Prof. Gray, in 

 Sillimarfs Journal. 



A Natural History Association has just been established in 

 Ottawa, which we hope will prove active and successful in 

 advancing the interests of Natural History in connection with that 

 interesting region. The following extract appears in one of the 

 Ottawa, newspapers : 



The public meeting, called for the purpose of organizing a Nat- 

 ural History Association, met, according to adjournment, at the 

 Mechanics' Institute, on Saturday evening last ; and after adopting 

 a constitution and code of by-laws, proceeded to the selection of 



