Common Purslane. 
Everybody who has a garden or vegetable 
patch in New Englandknows what this lit¬ 
tle succulent plant is. We, last season, men¬ 
tioned how useful a species of green food 
this is for poultry. And many a bushel that 
ordinarily would have been suffered to go to 
rot, or to the pig-pen, if gathered after the 
first corn and potaio field hoeing, was pick¬ 
ed up and fed to the farmer’s fowls, last 
year, upon our recommendation in the 
Poultry World. This spreading weed grows 
quickly and may be taken up in quantities 
the last of this month and during July and 
August anywhere in our ploughed fields, or 
spaded gardens, where the soil is pretty 
rich. You certainly won’t find it in poor 
ground. Gather a peck or a half a bushel 
in the morning, while the dew lies upon it. 
Scald two quarts of corn nn al and bran, 
chop the “pussley” with a sharp spade in a 
tub or firkin and mix it with the meal. Feed 
it to your twenty, thirty or fort\ fowls, 
and you will find that they will devour it 
with a grand appetite. It costs little or 
nothing, and for the presaut season, while 
grass is becoming tough and wiry, it will 
answer an admirably economical and bene¬ 
ficial purpose, as every one agrees who has 
tried this hitherto quite neglected but use¬ 
ful and nourishing food for domestic fowls. 
—Poultry World. 
A Sierra Nevada Observatory. 
On the summit of Mount Hamilton in 
California will be found a splendid observ¬ 
atory, which is only awaiting a great tele¬ 
scope to be ready for use. This observatory 
was brought into existence by the will of 
an eccentric California millionaire named 
Lick. This heaven-observing institution 
would now be in practical operrtion were 
it not for the unfortunate failure of the 
glass makers to produce a piece of crown 
glass of the size and perfection required for 
the objective of the telescope. It is now 
reported that the new management of the 
firm of Feil, of Paris, has already overcome 
the difficulties incident to the making of 
the great disc; and if no accident shall 
happen, it is to be expected that the Clarks 
of Cambridgeport will have begun their 
work of figuring it before the end of the 
coming summer. The length of time which 
this operation will consume is unceitain, 
but two years is a reasonable allowance. 
The dome, meantime, will be seventy-six 
feet in exterior diameter, a size certainly 
large enough to cover the thirty-six-inch 
telescope. The excavations for this struct¬ 
ure in the solid rock of the mountain are 
already under way, and the director of 
works expects to complete its main walls 
during the coming summer, while the 
season of 1886 will suffice for the addition 
of the superstructure or dome proper. Si¬ 
multaneously with the optician’s work 
upon the glass disc, the equally important 
problem of the most suitable mounting for 
the telescope will be attacked, and all the 
intricate mechanism required for its conven¬ 
ient use will be constructed and put in 
place underneath the dome, so as to receive 
the great glass and make its use possible as 
soon as the optician’s work is complete. 
It may confidently be expected that this 
important event in the hi.- tory of astronomy, 
marking the completion of the first mount¬ 
ain observatory, will not be delayed beyond 
the autumn of 1887.-— Demorest's Motuhly 
for July. 
NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
Mr. C. L. Allen, of Garden City, 
L. I., one of the editors of the Ladies' 
Floral Cabinet , read a paper on “The Sex 
ual Relations of Plants.” before the meeting 
of the American Seed Trade Association, at 
Rochester, at the June meeting, which was 
written more particularly with a view of 
explaining the causes of variation of cab¬ 
bages under cross fertilization. It was a 
lengthy and exhaustive paper, made up in 
part from the best authorities attainable, 
coupled with some very original ideas pro¬ 
mulgated by the writer. Mr. Allen asserted 
among his other observations, that from 
the form and shape of cabbage blossoms, it 
is impossible for wind alone to transmit 
pollen to neighboring flowers, and thus 
cross fertilize cabbages. Insects of a cer¬ 
tain size and form are required, and if they 
can be kept away the flowers may be fer- 
