editor’s table. 
35 j 
(Editor’0 <&abk. 
Virgalieu or White Doyenn^ Pears. —Will any¬ 
one who has two or three hundred of this kind of pear- 
trees for sale, inform us what is the lowest price he 
will take for them 1 
Floral Exhibition of the Brooklyn Institute.— 
This pleasing anniversary was opened at the Lyceum, 
in Washington Street, on the 28th of September, and 
continued open three days. Although not large in 
number, the articles exhibited were very choice of their 
kind, and gave universal satisfaction to the numerous 
visitors present. Among the fruits particularly worthy 
of notice, were Isabella grapes, from George Wood¬ 
ward, of Port Chester, three inches in circumference; 
peaches, oranges, melons, &c., from Story and Shaw, 
of Brooklyn, preserved by ice, after Kephart’s method ; 
preserved strawberries and gooseberries from England, 
by Mr. Thomas S. Woodcock; quinces and ox-apples 
from Henrys, of Brooklyn, twelve inches in circumfer¬ 
ence; and Duchess d’Angouleme pears, from L. Pro¬ 
vost, of Astoria. The hall was splendidly decorated 
with bouquets and flowers, among which were choice 
collections of dahlias from J. M. Thorburn, of Astoria, 
and Dunlap and Thomson, of New York. The gar¬ 
den vegetables exhibited were very fine and large of 
their kind, a squash in particular from Henrys, which 
weighed 125 lbs. 
A New Medical Dictionary; containing an Ex¬ 
planation of the Terms in Anatomy, Human and Com¬ 
parative, Physiology, Practice of Medicine, Obstetrics, 
Surgery, Therapeutics, Materia Medica, Pharmacy, 
Chemistry, Botany, and Natural Philosophy, with the 
Formulas of the Principal Pharmacopoeias, and valua¬ 
ble Practical Articles on the Treatment of Disease. On 
the Basis of Hooper and Grant. Adapted to the Pre¬ 
sent State of the Science, and for the Use of Medical 
Students and the Profession. By D. Pereira Gardner, 
M.D., Professor of Chemistry and Medical Jurispru¬ 
dence in the Philadelphia College of Medicine. New 
York: Harper & Brothers, pp. 686, 8vo. Price $ 2 . 50 . 
Dr. Hooper’s Medical Dictionary has been, since its 
first appearance in London, a standard in the profes¬ 
sion. The edition on which the present work is based 
has been completely revised and considerably improved 
by Professor Klein Grant, a gentleman of distinguish¬ 
ed medical celebrity, before its revision by Dr. Gard¬ 
ner, who has produced a dictionary entirely adapted to 
the use of medical students, retaining, at the same time, 
most if not all the practical matter of previous writers, 
so as to make it equally invaluable to the general prac¬ 
titioner. He has made an addition of several thousand 
articles, and more especially in the modern improve¬ 
ments in the departments of chemistry, physiology, sur¬ 
gery, and the practice of medicine. We warmly com¬ 
mend this work to the notice of our medical friends and 
apothecaries, and should judge that it would be indis¬ 
pensable to any member of the profession. 
Norman’s Southern Agricultural Almanac, for 
1848. Edited by Thomas Affleck, Esq. New Orleans : 
B. M. Norman, pp. 106, l2mo. This little publication 
is got up with much care and ability, and is devoted 
exclusively to the agricultural interests of the South ; 
and in addition to the calendar, it contains sundry 
statistical tables and practical essays on the sugar 
and fodder crops, forest-trees and their uses, tur¬ 
pentine, rosin, pitch, tar, stable arrangements, &c., &c. 
To the manufacturer and dealer in agricultural im¬ 
plements and machines, in farm and garden seeds, to 
the grower of fruit-trees and shrubs, and the breeder of 
fine stock of every kind, the advertising pages will be 
found particularly useful. 
The Plantation Record and Account-Books ; by 
Thomas Affleck, of Washington, Mississippi. Tnese 
are large, handsomely bound, blank books, arranged j 
for keeping every account and record required on the 
plantation. Mr. Affleck has rendered an important ser¬ 
vice to the planting community in thus placing under 
their appropriate head, all the subjects necessary to be 
known and "recorded; and we are happy to learn that 
his taste and labor have not only been properly appreci¬ 
ated, but also well rewarded, considering the novelty 
of the undertaking and the short time they have been 
published. 
Mr. B. M. Norman, the enterprising publisher at 
No. — Camp street, New Orleans, has got them up in 
a most attractive style, and every way worthy the pa¬ 
tronage of the planters, which we trust they will abun¬ 
dantly receive. 
Landreth’s Rural Register and Almanac for 
1848. This is an unpretending pamphlet of 100 pages, 
devoted to the interest of agriculture, horticulture, and 
rural economy, and may be profitably read by every 
farmer of the land. It is handsomely got up and illus¬ 
trated by numerous engravings. 
Failure of the Alpaca Project. —In the June 
number of this journal, it was stated that the services of 
J. D. Williamson had been secured by the committee 
appointed by the American Agricultural Association, 
for the purpose of introducing the alpaca into this 
country, and that he was to proceed forthwith to Peru, 
free of charge, in one of the United States ships, for 
the procurement of the animals, &c. We are now au¬ 
thorized to announce, from one of the committee, that, 
owing to the state of the funds of the Association, it was 
not deemed expedient to attempt the introduction ol 
the animals without more efficient means, and that the 
funds already raised for the object will probably soon be 
returned to the subscribers. * 
American Hemp. —We learn from the St. Louis 
Reveille that the receipts of the dew-rotted hemp at that 
place since the beginning of the present year more than 
double those of the whole preceding year. The receipts 
this year amount to 72,394 bales, while those for the 
corresponding period last year were but 27,948 bales, 
and for the whole year 34,853 bales. The receipts for 
1844 amounted to 59.292, and those for 1845 were 
30,997 bales. 
Vegetable Curiosities. —The editor of the Roches¬ 
ter (N. Y.) Advertiser says:—“We were yesterday 
shown a limb of an apple-tree which had upon it with¬ 
in the space of seventeen inches , no less than sixty-five 
apples! They were placed upon the stick like kernels 
upon a corn-cob. Yesterday, we saw a cucumber 
which ‘ beats all.’ The length is three feet eleven inches 
and a fraction. Also, a branch of a peach-lree about 
two feet long, which bore sixty-three peaches !’’ 
Potato Planting. —Mr. Edward Williams, of 
Mount Pleasant, Maury County, Tennessee, communi¬ 
cated to the Council the favorable result he had obtain¬ 
ed by planting potatoes in furrows of which the bottom 
was covered with cotton-seed remaining in the ground 
under such circumstances without vegetating. From 
three ounces in weight of seed-potato, he obtained a 
produce of 17 lbs. under favorable circumstance® He 
ascribes the success of his plan to the oily nature of the 
seeds, and to the protection which they afford to the po¬ 
tato plant in the early state of its growth, in conse¬ 
quence of their mechanical texture and their resistance 
to rapid conduction. 
Lectures on Agriculture and Chemistry at 
Yale College. —We would call the attention of our 
readers to the lectures of Professors Norton and Silli- 
man, advertised in another part of our columns, as being 
justly worthy of their patronage. Professor Norton, the 
public are already aware, has taken ample time and 
special pains to prepare himself, in Europe, for the hon¬ 
orable station he holds; and Professor Silliman is no 
less distinguished in knowledge of the branches he pro¬ 
fesses to teach. The opportunity is a favorable one, and 
I we trust these lectures will receive ample support. 
