MISCELLANY. 
221 
demand for them will be limited and uncertain ; but that may have been said of 
a number of other things of a similar nature, which now meet with a regular 
sale, and which the growers, of course, endeavour to cultivate according to the 
demand they have for them. The American Cranberry would be the easier 
managed, and most productive for general use; but, as many prefer the flavour 
of the English Cranberry, there would also be a demand for it.— Id. 
The Alder Tree. —The Alder is much valued in Germany for its great use¬ 
fulness. Its flowers constitute the panacea of the country and town people over 
the whole north of Germany. They are carefully dried in airy rooms, but so 
that the rays of the sun cannot fall upon them. Two flowers, upon which a pint 
of boiling water is poured, give a tea of an agreeable taste and flavour, which, 
for its diaphoretic qualities, is considered as the best remedy for all disorders 
of the stomach, of colds, coughs, hoarseness, influenza, and all rheumatic com¬ 
plaints.— Id. 
Agave Americana. —We understand that the fine specimen of this magnificent 
exotic, in the ladies’ flower-garden, at Clowance, the seat of Sir John St. Aubyn, 
Bart., is now in a state of blossoming, and upwards of 200 of the flowers are 
expanded; and so richly are these blossoms supplied with honey, that it actually 
drops from them. From the vast number of flower-buds, there is no doubt but 
this most curious and interesting flower will continue in bloom for the space of 
five or six weeks. No fewer than 1,360 persons have already seen and admired 
this most beautiful plant, and we have every reason to believe many hundreds 
more will be added to the number.— Id. 
GEOLOGY. 
Visit to the Salt-mines at Northwich. —Through the medium of The 
Naturalist (Vol. II., p. 476) we have been furnished with very interesting 
details of the excursions to Know^sley and Leasowes, by a “ Member of the 
British Association.” Could not some of your correspondents also supply the 
readers of your Journal with an account of the visit to the Salt-mines at North¬ 
wich ?-—T. B. Hall, Woodside , Liverpool , March 1 , 1838. 
Teredo in Fossil Wood.— In my collection of fossils from the Iquanodon 
Quarry, Maidstone, I have a group of Teredo in fossil wood, and in some of the 
valves is seen a spiral shell of, I believe, an unknown species. It appears much 
like the mealden formation. Their occurrence is very remarkable, as I never met 
with a specimen of this spiral shell detached from fossil wood in the green sand, 
and I have no other way of accounting for their presence than supposing, that 
they had inserted themselves when the wood which contained the Teredo was 
floating towards the sea, the exuvise of which surrounded the fossil in question. 
An elucidation of this opinion presented itself to me last summer, when inspect- 
