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fove be the vigorous shoots from a rich soil that should be 
taken rather than the weak and often stunted from the dry 
quarters. 
We should never loose sight of the rule laid down by Pro- 
fessor Lindley : — ce It is a general rule that seeding take after 
their parents, an unhealthy mother producing a diseased off- 
spring and a vigorous parent yielding a healthy progeny in all 
their minute gradations and modifications.” 
Mr. Paruit closes his work with the enumeration of those 
ingredients which may be found at hand to compose a ma- 
nure which he recommends to the attention of sugar cane 
planters. 
We cannot devote too much time to this question of Ma- 
nure in Mauritius. It is as old as the world it is true, but an 
inexhaustible subject to treat. 
In fact, manure, machinery and water are the three great 
productive powers on which depends the progress of Euro- 
pean as well as of Colonial and tropical agriculture. 
The Secretary read a notice which he intituled “ Resear- 
ches on plants ; ” his object was to discover in the pheno- 
menon which constitute the vitality of plants, something 
which might denote, not exactly the sensibility possessed by 
man and those organic beings which approach him, but any 
kind of sensation and in some cases the exercise as it were, of 
a will by the plant, manifested by tendency towards light, the 
direction of its roots towards the water, etc. 
lie also noticed the mode of repartition of certain plants in 
Mauritius, some of which have followed a rising course, such 
as the “ Daphne viridiflora ,” the point of departure of which 
was the Pamplemousses Garden, and which may now be seen 
on the mountains at Villebague and Nouvelle Decouverte 
whilst others on the contrary have followed in their dissemi- 
nation a descending course, such as the Elephantopus scaber , 
which from the heights of the forests has come to grow on 
the borders of rivers at a pretty considerable distance from 
its usual habitat. 
The Secretary has been fortunate enough to consecrate to 
the memory of his friend, the Hon. G. Fropier, a plant native 
of our forests. The genus Fropicra , , although its floral organs 
