NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 673 
“eccentric origin, ts » impressions conveyed to the mind through 
the senses and nery 
Instinct is sia in the lower animals, and the new-born of the 
higher. The young acts first by instinct, until experience and contact 
with the outer world awakens the dormant reason. 
The author thinks that instinct is capable of improvement, that it 
can be educated through a series of generations, so that ‘‘the intelli- 
gence of former generations becomes converted into instinct in the 
descendants.” Instances of the abe 
have instinct; that is, a force co-existent with their growth, and im- 
planted originally in the seed, which impels them to the performance 
of act ioa, calculated to preserve their existence, or secure their well 
b u 
efer the reader to the article itself for facts in illustration of 
o pae 
NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
PAA Ea 
BOTANY. 
BOTANICAL NOTES AND QUERIES. — Is Tillandsia usneoides, the 
“ Black” or “ Long Moss” of the Southern States, strictly an epiphyte, 
or in some sort a parasite? I was once informed by a very intelligent 
person, that in Florida, where the Tillandsia is used by lumbermen 
as fodder for cattle, the plant always withered and died when the tree 
that bore it was cut 
upon the dead surface of the bark. 
My gama is ae ag to this point by a paper on The Relation of 
he health and value of Trees, read by Dr. Lindsay 
before the ae ce of the British Association. Noting that arbo- 
-_riculturists generally regard Lichens as detrimental to the trees they 
w on, Dr. Lindsay adduces, in confirmation of that view, the fact 
gro 
that Lickeus of the sort, such as Usnea, Ramalina, etc., contain silica, 
hich could not have been 
come from the foster- 
oes not certainly =~ however, that the Lichen is para- 
sitic, as Dr. Lindsay is disposed to think, for the thallus may as well 
take up these earthy elements fin the dead and decaying bark, and 
be without connection or contact with any living part of the tree. The 
general opinion of nurserymen and tree-growers is, that 
upon the tree, or at least in some way injure it.—A. GRAY. 
AMERICAN NAT., VOL. I. 5 
Lichen-grow 
