488 
MISCELL AN,Y. 
in which they live maintains a temperature more equal than the atmosphere, 
and more similar in different countries. Their stalks or their seeds, protected 
from cold and heat by a mass of fluid, develop immediately the season becomes 
favorable, whatever be the temperature of the atmosphere during the rest of the 
year. 
The mean temperature of Montpellier during the three summer months (June 
July, Aug.) is 24°, C., as at Naples. It is sufficient to ripen the seeds of many 
aquatic plants belonging to hot countries, and especially to those which are 
analogous, as the U. S., Van Diemans Land, or Japan. In the cold season, 
during the months of Dec., Jan., and Feb., a mean external temperature of 4-8°, 
which is perhaps 4" 10 to 12° in the waters of the Lez, cannot be very hurtful to 
these same species. The aerial or land plants, on the contrary, are exposed to 
mountainous temperatures of —7°, or —8°, C. 
In confirmation of these principles, I may observe, that Mr. Lichtenstein, of 
Montpellier, sowed some rice in a salt-marsh of the province of Aude, with 
remarkable success. A summer heat of 23, C., suflices on an average to ripen 
rice, as may be ascertained by the geographical situation of the rice-grounds of 
Piedmont. In M. L.’s experiment the obstacle to be feared was less the temper¬ 
ature than the saline quality of the ground, but it appears that rice does not 
suffer from a certain degree of salt. We may therefore perhaps one day see the 
vast saline ponds which surround the middle of France, from the mouth of the 
Rhone to the Pyrenees, covered with productive rice-grounds, and furnishing to 
the inhabitants, now overwhelmed with fever, a means of resisting this evil by 
better food, better clothes, and more healthy dwellings*— Bibliotheque Univer- 
selle de Geneve^ New Series. 
CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES. 
ZOOLOGY. 
The Ring Pigeon {Columhapalumbus) breeding in confinement.—I have 
this year succeeded in breeding the Ring Pigeon in confinement. I took the old 
birds from the nest in the autumn of last year. This year they bred a pair of 
young, which have now passed through the first moult, and are not distinguish¬ 
able from the old birds.— Thomas Allis, York^ \lth Mo. 1837. |^This fact 
tends to confirm the opinion we ventured to advance in The Naturalist^ Vol. L, 
p. 132 .—Ed.]) 
Substitute for Cork-lining in Entomological Cabinets.— The following 
