63 



Tobacco is not much cultivated in Louisiana for general consump- 

 tion. The perique is, perhaps, the only kind which has Acquired 

 considerable celebrity, for its strength and the purity of its materials, 

 and is preferred by inveterate smokers to every other kind of the 

 manufactured article. It is principally cultivated in St. James 

 parish, and perhaps, also, in Natchitoches. 



MICROSCOPICAL BOTANY. 



This new branch of botanical science, brought to light by Pro- 

 fessor Ehrenberg, of Berlin, who was the first to dicover fossil 

 silicious shells, and extending his investigations, he found many 

 living types exactly identical with those in a fossil state. As 

 these little organisms move freely in water, it was at first supposed 

 that they belong to the animal kingdom; but it is now established 

 beyond all controversy that the desmidiae and diatomaceae are 

 unicellular plants belonging to the class of fresh water and marine 

 algae. Since that time an extensive microscopic flora has been dis- 

 covered, and a great number of specimens have been described, 

 existing in every part of the world. 



The diatomaceous algae present the most beautiful forms, the 

 most exquisite carvings, and the most brilliant coloring. This 

 branch of botany possesses as much fascination, and excites an 

 interest as intense as that felt by the astronomical observer, who 

 watches with close attention, with the aid of his instrument, the 

 course of the stars and the revolutions of the planets, plunging into the 

 world of the infinite and the unknown ; thus unveiling the secrets of 

 nature, and extending his ravished vision beyond the ken of ordinary 

 mortals. 



The student of microscopic botany transfers himself into a new 

 world; not to that which is infinitely great in space; not to that 

 which, though of immense magnitude, can not be seen by unaided 

 vision, on account of the vast distance which intervenes between it 

 and the eye of the observer; but to that world which is near and 

 within reach of human sight, but is nevertheless invisible to the 

 human eye, on account of its almost inconceivable diminutiven 

 The most minute diatom, which in size measures only one-thousandth 

 part of an inch, is as much the work of the Creator as those immense 

 masses of worlds, in comparison to which our earth is a mere speck 



