HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 121 
tap-root of pine, its light wind-driven seed, and its abundant foliage, fit it, 
in an eminent degree, to recuperate impoverished old fields, and prepare 
the surface of the ground to bear a crop of oaks, or corn or cotton. The 
growth of pines does not, however, necessarily induce the growth of oaks or 
beeches ; for there is no reason to suppose that the pine forests of North 
and South Carolina and Georgia have not flourished on the same surface for 
twenty successive generations of trees. There is no evidence of a natural 
system of a rotation of plants from, pine to oak, and oak to pine in Southern 
cultivation. — L. in Am. Cotton Planter. 
REMINISCENCE AND ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS. 
February 22d, 1815, I was a student of medicine in the University of 
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. That day was celebrated by a parade of 
large numbers of the "Washingtonian Societies, with their flags and para- 
phranalia, together with a numerous body of military. The procession 
marched down Market street to the music of " Washington's Grand March," 
amidst a most severe snow storm. 
On the same occasion, a battalion of colored persons, in gray uniform, 
also marched through the streets with a fine band of music and with banners 
flying. They have been enlisted for service by the United States in the war 
with Great Britian. They numbered some two or three hundred; were 
well disciplined, and presented a martial appearance. 
The river Delaware was frozen over so firmly that large supplies of wood 
were furnished from New Jersey by means of sleds, running on the ice. 
Anthracite coal was not then used. At the Navy Yard the then new frigate 
Java, fitted for a cruise, lay, ice bound. McMahon was the principal Horti- 
culturist in Philadelphia. 
One half of that day I spent in attendance on the Clinique at the Penn- 
sylvania Hospital, where Professors Physic and Dorsey were engaged in 
extirpating a large tumor from the back of a colored woman, a sketch of 
whom, with a description of the case may be found in Yolume 1st, (new 
series), of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, page 298. 
Before commencing the operation, Professor Dorsey sketched the likeness 
of the patient with so much precision, that her features are accurately repre- 
sented in the engraving. 
What wonderful changes have occurred during this forty years interval in 
your city, our country and the world at large ! 
J. P. KiRTLAND. 
