well selected scientific and literary notes. Under the careful editorship of Prof. Chapman, this sister journal of western Canada continues to maintain its high standard of scientific and literary excellence.

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia has sent us pages 325 to 360 of their Proceedings which are chiefly taken up with descriptions of new species of North American serpents in the Smithsonian Institution by Kennicott; and contributions to American Lepidopterology by Clemens.

The Natural History Society of Boston has also sent us pages 385 to 416 of their Proceedings, in which we find some valuable geological notes by Prof. Rogers to which we hope to draw attention in a future number.

The Essex Institute has sent us its Proceedings, Vol. II, Part 2, 1857 to 1859, the chief interest of which is the record they contain of the Field Meetings of this Society. These meetings we have long admired, and consider them most effective and pleasing means of promoting the interests of Natural Science. The Historical Collections of the same Institute, Vol. 2, No. 6, have also been received, and contain much curious and ancient lore.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Botanical Society of Canada, abstract of Recent Discoveries in Botany and the Chemistry of Plants. BY PROFESSOR LAWSON.

SEA-WEED AS A MANURE.

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The attention of the English farmer has been recently called to the use of sea-weed as a manure. This material is thrown up enormous quantities on the shores of Britain, and on the east coast of Scotland it is extensively employed to fertilize sand dunes that would otherwise be worthless. In dry sandy soils it acts in two ways; first, by directly contributing food materials to the crop, and, secondly, by the hygroscopic action of the mucilaginous tissues in maintaining a certain degree of humidity in the arid soil, a result that is no doubt aided by the presence of the sea-salt accompanying the weed. The richness of the ash of the common sea-weed in potash, soda, phosphates, and other materials

of plant growth, shows that it has a high manurial value. In Greenland specimens, the ash has been found to contain ten per cent of phosphates. The proportion of water in the recent weed is so large, however, that sea-weed cannot be profitably carried to great distances, but along the shores of the lower St. Lawrence and in other maritime provinces, where it can be readily obtained at certain seasons, its value can scarcely be overrated. The processes that have been suggested for converting the sea-weed into a paste for transport, mixing with peat ashes, &c., do not seem likely to lead to any useful result, so far as the British American provinces are concerned.

PAPER MATERIALS.

The cry for " more rags" which paper-makers raised some years ago, necessary failed to increase the supply of rags, but it served to bring materials to the paper-mill that had not been previously thought of. Hollyhock stems and straw and heather, and a hundred other substances, were tried and found suitable in various degrees. Many of these, while capable of being converted into paper, could not be profitably used in the manufacture; but several have taken their place as really important sources of paper fibre. Plants that require to be cultivated exclusively for this purpose are not likely to yield satisfactory results, and of late years, therefore, attention has been especially directed to the waste products of agriculture. In all agricultural plants woody fibre is produced to a greater or less extent, and that of the straw of cereal grains has been used for a number of years to a considerable extent. The leaves and husks of Indian Corn (Zea Maize) are also coming into extensive use, as appears from interesting details published by Professor Lindley in the Gardeners' Chronicle. Dr. Lindley's account of the manufacture appears to be founded upon statements that have appeared in the Breslauer Gewerbeblatt and the Daily Telegraph, a London paper. The following extracts will be of interest on this side of the Atlantic, where Indian Corn is produced in such enormous quantities:

"Recent experiments have proved Indian Corn to possess not only all the qualities necessary to make a good article, but to be in many respects superior to rags. The discovery to which we allude is a complete success, and may be expected to exercise the greatest influence upon the price of paper. Indian Corn, in countries of a certain degree of temperature, can be easily cultivated to a degree more than sufficient to satisfy the utmost demands of

the paper market. Besides, as rags are likely to fall in price, owing to the extensive supply resulting from this new element, the world of writers and readers would seem to have a brighter future before it than the boldest fancy would have imagined a short time. ago. This is not the first time that paper has been manufactured from the blade of Indian Corn; but, strange to say, the art was lost, and required to be discovered anew. As early as the seventeenth century, an Indian corn paper manufactory was in full operation in the town of Rievi, in Italy, and enjoyed a world-wide reputation at the time; but with the death of its proprietor the secret seemed to have lapsed into oblivion. Attempts subsequently made to continue the manufacture were baffled by the difficulty of removing the flint and resinous and glutinons matter contained in the blade. The recovery of the process has at last been affected and is due to the cleverness of one Her Moritz Diamant, a Jewish writing-master in Austria, and a trial of his method on a grand scale, which was made at the Imperial manufactory at Schlogelmuhle, near Glognitz (Lower Austria), has completely demonstrated the certainty of the invention. Although the machinery, arranged as it was for the manufacture of rag-paper, could not of course fully answer the requirements of Her Diamant, the results of the essay were wonderfully favourable. The article produced was of a purity of texture and whiteness of colour that left nothing to be desired; and this is all the more valuable from the difficulty usually experienced in the removal of impurities from rags. The proprietor of the invention is Count Carl Octavio Zu Lippe Weissenfeld, and several experiments give the following results :—

1. It is not only possible to produce every variety of paper frem the blades of Indian corn, but the product is equal and in some respects even superior, to the article manufactured from

rags.

2. The paper requires very little size to render it fit for writing purposes, as the pulp naturally contains a large proportion of that necessary ingredient, which can at the same time be easily eliminated if desirable.

3. The bleaching is effected by an extraordinary rapid and facile process, and, indeed, for the common light-coloured packing paper the process becomes entirely unnecessary.

4. The Indian corn paper possesses greater strength and tenacity than rag paper, without the drawback of brittleness so conspicuous in the common straw products.

5. No machinery being required in the manufacture of this paper for the purpose of tearing up the raw material and reducing it to pulp, the expense, both in point of power and time, is far less than is necessary for the production of rag paper.

'Count Lippe having put himself in communication with the Austrian Government, an Imperial manufactory for Indian corn paper (maishalm papier, as the inventor calls it) is now in course. of construction at Pesth, the capital of the greatest Indian corn growing country in Europe. Another manufactory is already in full operation in Switzerland; and preparations are being made on the coast of the Mediterranean for the production and exportation on a large scale of the pulp of this new material.'"

The ancient vegetation of North America.-The following general results are selected from an excellent article in Silliman, by Dr. J. S. Newberry:

1st. The flora of the Devonian and Carboniferous epochs in America, was, in all its general aspects similar to that of the Old World, which has been so fully described; most of the genera, and a larger number of species than at any subsequent period having been common to the two sides of the Atlantic. The relative number of identical species has, however, it seems to me, been somewhat overrated. In many of the species, regarded as the same in Europe and America, the American plants present prevalent or constant characters which may serve to distinguish them. These differences, though frequently remarked by writers, have not been thought to have a specific value; yet it it quite certain that they are as tangible and important as those which now separate many American and European species of recent plants and recent or fossil animals. I have a conviction that the progress of science will considerably diminish the proportion of identical species; a closer scrutiny and more extensive comparison of specimens resulting in the discovery of constant, though inconspicuous characters, which shall be ultimately conceded to be specific.

It is true, also, that in molluscous paleontology, recent geology, and botany the number of species common to the two continents has been considerably reduced of late years; a large number of American representatives of European species, at first considered identical for their striking and obvious coincidences, having, on closer study afforded constant though less conspicuous differences.

2nd. The Permian, Triassic and Jurassic rocks have hitherto furnished us but few species for comparison, but the material is increasing, and I have now on hand a large collection which has not yet been studied. Enough is already known to show that the great revolution which took place in Europe at the close of the Permian epoch was matched by a parallel though less sudden change in the flora of America.

Here as there the Lepidodendroid trees, the Sigillariæ, the Næggerathia, the Asterophyllite, and the great variety of ferns that gave character to the Carboniferous vegetation were superseded by Voltzia, Taniopteris, Camptopteris and a varied and beautiful Cycadaceous flora, in which were many species of Zamites, Pterophyllum, Nilsonia, &c., the representatives of those of the "Age of Gymnosperms." which culminated in the Jurassic epoch of Europe.

During this great interval the generic correspondence between the floras of Europe and America was perhaps as plainly marked as during the Carboniferous age, but the relative number of identical species was apparently smaller.

3d. At the commencement of the Cretaceous epoch the flora of the continent was again revolutionized, and the vegetation of its temperate portions given the general aspect that it now pre

sents.

This statement will surprise many, for the flora generally ascribed to the Chalk period is greatly different from that of the present. Unger has thus represented it, and Brongniart ealls it a transition from the great Cycadaceous flora of the Jurassic period to the Angiospermous flora of the Tertiary. In Europe the Cretaceous flora was apparently more like that of the Lias and Oolite than in this country, for while the genera Salix, Acer, Populus Alnus, Quercus, &c., were then introduced there as here, its general aspect was modified by the presence of numbers of Cycadaceœ, and its sub-tropical character attested by fan-palms.

We may find hereafter in other parts of the continent than those in which I have examined the Cretaceous strata, fossils which shall assimilate our flora of that period more closely to that of Europe; but as far as at present known, our plants of this age present an ensemble quite different. I have now some sixty or seventy species of Cretaceous plants, collected in New Jersey and in various parts of the great Cretaceous area of the interior of the continent, all of which indicate a flora very similar to that now