204 
found in a state of cultivation in every place where the 
first navigators landed; in Mexico, according to Hernan- 
diz, and in Brazil according to Zeri, and that in the vari- 
ous countries, it had proper names. Such as Maize, 
Flaolli, §:c. while in the old world its names were either 
all of American origin, or names of the neighbouring re- 
gion whence it was immediately derived, and that imme- 
diately after the discovery of America, it spread rapidly 
in the old world and soon became common, a fact not re- 
concilable with the idea of its former existence there. 
To these proofs Aug. de Saint Hilaire has added another. 
He has received from M. de Larranhaga of Montevideo, 
a new variety of Maize distinguished by the name of Tu- 
nicata, because instead of haying the grains naked they are 
entirely coed by the glumes. This variety is from 
Paraguay, where it is cultivated by the Guaycurus Indians, 
a people in the lowest scale of civilization, and where, 
according to the direct testimony of one of them, it grows 
in the humid forests as a native production. 
[Bib. Univ. Jan. 1830, 
EFFECT OF CERTAIN MINERAL POISONS ON 
LIVING PLANTS. 
~ ByDs,, Hare. 
In order to destroy the caterpillars which feed upon 
them so ravenously, I was desirous of ascertaining how far 
certain poisonous solutions could be introduced into the 
circulation of plants without injury to them. Having cut 
off a few twigs from a Linden tree, I introduced a twig, 
with its leaves attached, into different phials of water, 
severally impregnated with iron, copper and arsenic; also 
one into pure water. That introduced into the ferruginous 
solution, died in about twenty-four hours. The twig ex- 
posed to the copper lost its proper hue and looked sickly 
in about two or three days, and finally appeared dead in 
about five days. Nearly five days had elapsed before the 
twig in the arsenious acid, although saturated, became sen- 
sibly injured, and even then it was only changed in colour. 
During the first three days no difference could be perceived 
between the leaves of the twig here mentioned and that 
sustained by pure water. It would appear from these ex- 
“periments that metallic solutions are poisonous to a vege- 
table in the inverse order from that in which they affect 
animals, and that small portions of arsenic may be intro- 
duced into trees, so as to be poisonous to the insects which 
destroy their foliage. On macerating a leaf of the twig 
in the arsenious solution, only about forty-five hours after 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
it was introduced into it, the water to which it was sub- 
jected gave with the ammoniacle nitrate of silver a yellow 
precipitate, and after five or six days, this experiment being 
repeated, a copious precipitation ensued, indicating arse- 
nite of silver. Caterpillars put upon the leaves impreg- 
nated with the arsenic died in a day or two, excepting one 
which was too far advanced to eat. These observations in 
your Journal, so hastily made and described, may need 
some indulgence from your readers. —Silliman’s Jour. 
QUALITIES OF THE DOG. 
Tue dog is not only the friend of man, but the de- 
fender of the oppressed. In the wise order of the creation, 
this animal seems always to have been designed to be the 
friend and companion of man, his fellow-traveller, the fol- 
lower of his fortunes, (and he never deserts him as our 
fellow man does, ) his watch, and the minister to his wants 
and pleasures, inasmuch as he is essential to the hunter in 
procuring at once his food and his amusement, and, if al- 
lowed to plunder, is no bad caterer in time of necessity. 
So many proofs exist to bear us out in this statement—so 
many examples of high courage and unshaken fidelity— 
that it would be superfluous to enlarge upon this subject. 
We are now about to givea farther proof of the high quali- 
ties of the dog, by showing him the avenger of wrong 
and the defender of the oppressed, and that not towards 
man, his lord and master, his patron and benefactor—him 
whom he loves and fears, and on whom he depends—but 
towards one of the brute creation, not of his own species, 
but of one with which no common animal sympathies 
could subsist, and which is generally deemed wholly at 
variance with the canine race; in a word, the Cat.—Not 
to trespass further on our sporting brothers’ time, nor to 
ear out the indulgence of our reader, we shall simply 
detail a scene that took place at Liverpool some years 
back, the proofs of which still exist, together with the liy- 
ing animals which furnish the following story. 
An ill-fated cat fell into the hands of some juvenile ruf- 
fians, commencing the first stage of cruelty, which often 
leads to great crimes and to an ignominious end: the little 
wretches had passed from cruelty to cruelty, alternately 
stoning their victim and dragging it through a dirty pool 
of water, then beating and bruising it, and menacing it 
with drowning. Bipeds passed by, unheeding the ago- 
nised animal’s cries of distress, which were now nearly 
coming to a close with its life, when a feeling quadruped 
came forward to save it. The Dog, having contemplated 
for some time this scene of inhumanity, and barked his 
