little toper, without appearing the least encumbered with its bloody cargo. I must further observe, the insect was altogether about one minute on my finger; that no part of the outer sheath of its proboscis was inserted beneath the skin; that I did not receive any warning of its intentions from its pipes. There was not the slightest pain, inflammation, or mark of any kind left that was perceptible.-J. A. -Mag. of Nat. Hist. ii. 69.

9. Destruction of Weevils in Granaries.-After trying all the methods of extirpating these creatures that have been proposed, M. Boode found the most effectual to be as follows:-The floors and sides of the granary are to be watered with a mixture of urine and water before the corn is stored up; this watering is to be repeated several times, the walls and floors of the granary being well swept between each operation. The success which M. Boode obtained by this process was perfect, and was the more striking, as previously he was troubled with enormous quantities of these insects.-Bull. Univ. D. xi. 31.

10. Zoological Weather Glass.-At Schwitzengen, in the posthouse, we witnessed for the first time what we have since seen fre quently, an amusing application of zoological knowledge, for the purpose of prognosticating the weather. Two frogs, of the species Rana arborea, are kept in a glass jar about eighteen inches in height and six inches in diameter, with the depth of three or four inches of water at the bottom, and a small ladder reaching to the top of the jar. On the approach of dry weather the frogs mount the ladder, but when wet weather is expected they descend into the water. These animals are of a bright green, and in their wild state here climb the trees in search of insects, and make a peculiar singing noise before rain. In the jar they get no other food than now and then a fly, one of which, we were assured, would serve a frog for a week, though it will eat from six to twelve in a day if it can get them. In catching the flies put alive into the jars the frogs display great adroitness.— Mag. of Nat. History, iv. 479.

11. The Great American Bittern.—I was much interested with an account I heard the other day of a bird, a species of heron. I believe called by Wilson, in his Ornithology, the Great American Bitternd but, what is very extraordinary, he omits to mention a most interesting and remarkable circumstance attending it, which is, that it hasƐ] the power of emitting a light from its breast equal to the light of a common torch, which illuminates the water so as to enable it to discover its prey. As this circumstance is not mentioned by any of the naturalists, that I have ever read, I had difficulty in believing the fact, and took some trouble to ascertain the truth, which has been confirmed to me by several gentlemen of undoubted veracity, and especially by Mr. Franklin Peale, the proprietor of the Philadelphia Museum. (Letter from Philadelphia, Oct. 11, 1828.)-Mag. of Nat. Hist. ii. 64.

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12. Introduction of Coffee into Europe.-The introduction of coffee into Europe is not quite certain, but it appears to have been first employed in Venice about 1615, at Paris in 1644, and at London in 1652. It is estimated by the Abbé Raynal that twelve millions of pounds were imported annually into Europe before the plantations in the colonies were established. The Dutch introduced it into Batavia about the year 1696; the French into Martinico in 1727, after it had been in the Isle of Bourbon in 1717; and the English into Jamaica in 1728. The cultivation of it was then introduced at Ceylon, Sumatra, and other European possessions in India. It had been propagated at Surinam in 1718. This plant has been found native at St. Domingo, in Abyssinia, at Mozambique, on the coast of Zanguebar, and in the forests of Orapu.-Oriental Herald.

13. French Eggs and Apples.-63,109,618 hen's eggs, and 14,182 bushels of apples were imported from France into England in the year 1827.

14. Enlargement of Artichokes.-An effectual means of increasing the size of artichokes is to split the stem into four at the base of the receptacle, and introduce two small sticks in the form of a cross. This operation has long been practised in the south of France, and for some years past in the neighbourhood of Brussels. It should not be carried into effect until the stem has attained the height it ought to have.Jour. d'Agriculture.

15. On the Preservation of Potatoes.-Potatoes, at the depth of one foot in the ground, produce shoots near the end of spring; at the depth of two feet they appear in the middle of summer; at three feet of depth they are very short, and never come to the surface; and between three and five feet they cease to vegetate. In consequence of observing these effects several parcels of potatoes were buried in a garden at the depth of three feet and a half, and were not removed until after intervals of one and two years. They were then found without any appearance of germination, and possessing their original freshness, firmness, goodness, and taste.-Ann. de la Soc. d'Agric.

16. On the action of Mushrooms upon Air and upon Water. -All who have paid attention to vegetable physiology know that most plants, during the period of their vegetation, have the property of changing the chemical nature of the air in which they are placed. Some experiments upon mushrooms, in respect to this property, are detailed in the following paper. Up to the present moment, the vegetables in question are so little known, and differ so much from the rest of the vegetable kingdom, that every comparison between their properties, and those of ordinary vegetables, appears to me interesting.

On this subject, I have found the following passage in the Aphorisms at the end of the Flora Fribergensis of M. de Humboldt, pub

lished in 1793: Specimina agarici campestris juniora antequam pileum expilatum et annulum perruptum, diu et noctu gaz hydrogeneum emittere deprehendi; and, in another place, Idem in agarico androsaceo deprehendi.

M. de Candolle, in the second volume of his French Flora, says he has found that the sphæria digitata, exposed under water to the sun, yields a gas in which he found seventy per cent. of hydrogen. The same savant told me that he has obtained fourteen per cent. from the peziza nigra, placed under the same circumstances.

I undertook the following experiments to ascertain, 1°, if mushrooms, during the period of their vegetation, really exhale particular gases, or change the nature of the air like other plants; 2°, of what nature are the gases which seem to be exhaled by mushrooms placed under water, and what may be the cause of this phenomenon.

§ i. Action of mushrooms upon air.

I covered, with a glass receiver, an agaricus which was only just springing from the earth. Having surrounded the whole base with a sort of unctuous lute, I made the receiver adhere in such a way, that it was impossible there could be any communication between the included and the external air. At the end of three days, the agaric had increased to nearly four times its original size. I then analyzed the air contained in the receiver to see if it had undergone any change. This experiment was repeated three times on different spe cies of agaricus: in no case did I discover the least trace of hydrogen gas. There was found in the receiver only a very small quantity of carbonic acid gas, varying in quantity according to the species of agaricus, and even to the individual subjected to the experiment.

Mushrooms gathered from the earth, and exposed under a glass bell either to the sun or to darkness, appeared to me not to change the nature of the air in which they were, and in no case evolved hydrogen gas.

§. Examination of the gas exhaled by mushrooms placed

under water.

If mushrooms be placed in a receiver under water, at the end of a few minutes small bubbles of gas are seen to be disengaged. The following experiments were made upon different species of mushrooms exposed, 1st, to the direct rays of the sun; 2d, to perfect darkness; 3d, alternately to the sun and to darkness, during given intervals.

§ 1. Mushrooms exposed to the sun. Many species of mushrooms were exposed under water to the rays of the sun. At the end of some hours there was always developed some gas composed of hydrogen, of azote, and sometimes of two or three parts per cent. of atmospheric air. The quantity of the gases developed, and their proportion, varied according to the different species of mushrooms subjected to the experiment. The following are examples of it.

i. Three mushrooms of the species agaricus leucocephalus, placed under a receiver in the sun, disengaged, in six hours, two cubic

inches of a gas composed of forty-two hydrogen and fifty-six of azote; the other two parts were of atmospheric air.

ii. Three stems of sphæria digitata, exposed in the same way, gave, at the end of ten hours, a gas containing sixty-five per cent. of hydrogen, and thirty-three of azote.

iii. Two mushrooms of the species agaricus ericeus, exposed during ten hours to the sun, disengaged one inch and three quarters of a gas containing fifty-five parts of hydrogen and forty-four of azote.

iv. Many individuals of the species agaricus deliquescens, exposed like the preceding, yielded, at the end of from six to eight hours, two cubic inches of a gas containing seventy per cent. of hydrogen, and

the rest azote.

§ 2. In the case where the mushrooms were exposed to darkness, most frequently during twenty-four, and sometimes even during fortyeight hours, there was no disengagement of gas. Nevertheless, after a greater lapse of time, a little was generally produced; but it almost always contained less hydrogen, and more azote, than that which was disengaged from the mushrooms exposed to the sun. Thus, for example, two stems of the agaricus contatus, placed during more than twenty-four hours in a dark place, evolved no gas: at the end of sixty hours, only two cubic inches were evolved; while mushrooms of the same species, exposed to the direct rays of the sun, yielded the same quantity of gas at the end of six hours. The sphæria digitata, placed under the same circumstances, afforded results altogether analogous.

§ 3. Many individuals of the species agaricus physalloide, were placed in water during forty-eight hours, in perfect darkness. At the end of this time, there was found only one bubble of gas in the receiver; the mushrooms remained perfectly fresh, inodorous, and shewed no tendency to decay. Having then exposed them to the sun, at the end of two hours I observed two cubic inches of a gas composed of fifty-one parts hydrogen and forty-three of azote. The boletus aurantiacus, the agaricus campestris, and many other spe-, cies, presented the very same phenomena.

§ 4. Cause of the phenomenon. The disengagement of hydrogen which takes place, when recently gathered mushrooms are placed in water, appears to me a fact worthy of remark. Does this phenomenon arise from a species of vegetation which continues to take place in the water, and by which this, being decomposed, would yield its oxygen to the mushroom, and allow its hydrogen to be disengaged, or is it the result of an incipient putrefaction? The following reasons induce me to believe that the disengagement of hydrogen gas arises from the first of these two causes, that is, from a sort of continuance of vegetation, rather than from the second.

i. The mushrooms I subjected to experiment were always perfectly fresh; the moment they shewed any sign of putrefaction, I discontinued the experiment.

ii. Some extremely coriaceous mushrooms, in which putrefaction

!

could not shew itself till after a very considerable time, such as the sphæria digitata, have evolved in many cases, and, at the end of a short time, a considerable quantity of hydrogen gas. On the other. hand, mushrooms of a much softer consistence, and more disposed to putrefaction, frequently disengage only a small quantity of this gas. It is thus that M. de Candolle has proved that the peziza nigra, which belongs to the last case, disengages only fourteen per cent. of hydrogen, while the sphæria digitata, a very coriaceous mushroom, according to the same botanist, and as appears from his own experiments, disengages from sixty-five to seventy per cent. of this gas.

iii. At an equal temperature, the disengagement of gas appears to take place more rapidly in the sun than in darkness. Nevertheless, light has never been assigned as a cause favourable to putrefaction, while, on the contrary, it has a great effect upon vegetation.

iv. Lastly, in admitting that the disengagement of gas is the result of this species of vegetation of the mushroom, the presence of a great quantity of azote is easily explained by supposing that it arises from the decomposition, either of the air which is included in the water, or of that which exists in the pores, and in the very tissue of the vegetable.-Annales de Chimie, xl. 318.

17. Extraordinary effect of an Earthquake at Lima, 1828. (Communicated by Captain Bagnold.)-Dear Sir,-Having experienced, during my residence at Coquimbo on the coast of Chili, no less than sixty-one smart shocks of earthquake in twelve months, without taking minor ones into consideration, I was induced to obtain, from an officer of H.M.S. Volage, the particulars of the destructive visitation which occurred at Lima in 1828. As one of the effects produced appears to me worthy of record, I transmit it you for a place in the Journal.

On the 30th of March, H.M.S. Volage was lying moored with two chain cables in the bay of Callao; the weather was remarkably fine and clear, when, at half-past seven o'clock, a light cloud passed over the ship-at which moment the noise usually attendant on earthquakes in that country, resembling heavy distant thunder, was heard; the ship was violently agitated; and, to use the words of my informant, "fell as if placed on trucks, and dragged rapidly over a pavement of loose stones." The water around hissed as if hot iron was immersed in it;" immense quantities of air-bubbles rose to the surface, the gas from which was offensive, resembling, to use my friend's phraseology again, "rotten pond mud;" numbers of fish came up dead alongside; the sea, before calm and clear, was now strongly agitated and turbid; and the ship rolled about two streaks, say fourteen inches, each way. A cry of "there goes the town," called my friend's attention towards it: a cloud of dust, raised by the agitation of the earth and the fall of the houses, covered the town from view, whilst the tower of the garrison chapel, the only object visible above the dust, rocked for a few seconds, and then fell through the roof; and, from the high perpendicular rock at the north end of the island 2 F APRIL-JUNE, 1829.