could exist in a
healthy state for five or six days, if immersed in the same quantity of
spring water, he tried them with five or six grains of opium dissolved
in an ounce of water, the consequence of which was, that in the evening
the leaves had dropped, and, by the middle of next day, they were dead
beyond recovery. Other vegetable poisons of the narcotic class produced
a similar effect. Hemlock was equally fatal, and six grains of dry
powdered foxglove, in an ounce of water, began to operate, by wrinkling
some of the leaves of the bean in a few moments, which it completely
killed in twenty-four hours. Oxalic acid or salt of sorrel, though found
in common and wood sorrel, and a great many plants, proved a very fatal
poison to others. The absorption of one-tenth of a grain, killed a rose
branch and flower in forty--eight hours.--

_Quar. Jour. of Agriculture._

* * * * *

NOTES OF A READER

* * * * *

KNOWING PEOPLE.

How happily do these few lines characterize a certain set of people who
pick up news from "good authority," and settle the fate of the nation
over strong potations of brandy and water, or Calvert's porter,
forgetting that "people who drink beer, think beer." Suppose a question
of great public interest afloat:--"Reports are abroad, precisely of the
proper pitch of absurdity, for the greedy swallowing of the great
grey-goggle-eyed public, who may be seen standing with her mouth wide
open like a crocodile, with her hands in her breeches-pockets, at the
crosses of cities on market-days, gluttonously devouring whatever rumour
flings into her maw--nor in the least aware that she is all the time
eating wind. People of smallish abilities begin to look wiser and wiser
every day--their nods seem more significant--in the shaking of their
heads there is more of Burleigh--and in short sentences--that sound like
apophthegms--they are apt to impose themselves on their credulous selves
as so many Solomons."

* * * * *

NEW CHURCHES.

Among the numerous sermons lately preached in pursuance of the King's
letter for the enlargement and building of churches and chapels, we
notice one by the vicar of Dorking, in Surrey, from which we extract the
following:--"In many places of this country it is lamentable to behold
the ruinous state of churches. If a man's dwelling-house be decayed, he
will never cease till i