160 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 














rose, which he picked up and brought away with him. This hesu 
sequently gave, while residing at Quincy, Ill., to Mrs. Gov. Wood. | 
opening the seed-cup, she found several seeds, which she planted in: 
flower-pot, in her cease idee e. In the course of three weeks, two 9 
these germinated, and, the next year, blossomed, producing a pink 
rose, unlike any American variety with which they were acqual 
The estimated age of the mummy, from which the seed-cup was t 
was twenty-five hundred years 
Dr. Marks has in his possession some seeds of the dura (which 
supposes to be the corn spoken of in the Book of Genesis), obtained t 
him from Egyptian T mummies; but he has never tested their vitality. 
He testifies. avers’ to the fact of some dura seeds having been foul 
in the hand of a mummy unrolled at Springfield, Ill., a few years sin, 
which were planted by the Rev. Albert Hale, pastor of the First P 
terian Church in that city, and which produced the same year sè 
talks, as large as Indian corn, and covered over with clusters 
fruit rae matured. 
s throwing some light on the causes of this wonderful presé 
of vitality, Dr. Marks states that the mummy-pits are perfectly dry, ' 
situated from three to five hundred feet above the level of the Nile 
cut out of the rock of the mountain, which is a soft pune limestou 
The pits are never either cold or damp.—Gro. L. CAR 
[If these seeds had been only thirty or forty years s old their prom 
germination, although -77 Mae those who are in the abit of 
old seeds know how difficult it is to make any old pe br 
deception by the Arabs, than that seeds 2, Ga old actually grew-— 
Bres vs. Fruir.—It is high time, we may add, that the Pet 
emy of Science were in full operation in Essex County, when pa 
towns votes to “abate the nuisance” of bees, on the 
are injurious to fruit! Hh 
As to the nectar of the red clover being out of the reach oF aea 
bee, it may be asked whether this be the case with the eee 
to? 
ing of the second crop of red clover is thought to be owing * 
greater abundance of bumble-bees in oe latter part of 
. GRAY. 
these curious facts. That the Drosera catches flies in this way 
ever, known to botanists and recorded in botanical works 
century ago. But the statement attracted little attention, and fi aie 
died out of the books. It was re-discovered by Mr. Darwin, IM 
