le and dandelion are familiar examples of this mode
of dissemination. "How little," Sir J.E. Smith observes, "are children
aware, as they blow away the seeds of dandelion, or stick burs in sport
upon each other's clothes, that they are fulfilling one of the great ends
of nature." Dr. Woodward calculates, that one seed of the common spear
thistle will produce "at the first crop, twenty-four thousand, and
consequently five hundred and twenty-six millions of seeds, at the second."

Some plants discharge their seeds. Thus, a certain fungus has the property
of ejecting its seeds with great force and rapidity, and with a loud
cracking noise, and yet it is no bigger than a pin's head!

_Why is a milky fluid found in the cocoa-nut?_

Because in this case, as well as in a few others, all the fluids destined
to nourish the embryo of the fruit does not harden, whence a greater or
less quantity of this kind of mild emulsion is contained within the kernel.

_Why are certain eatable roots unfit for the table when the plants have
flowered?_

Because the mucus or proper juice in the tubular cells being appropriated
for perfecting the flower stem, the flower, and the fruit, is absorbed as
the fructification of the stem advances; and, as these are perfected, the
cells are emptied, and their sides become ligneous.

_Why is the Jerusalem Artichoke so called?_

Because of its corruption from its Italian name, _Girasole Articiocco_,
sunflower artichoke, as the plant was first brought from Peru to Italy,
and thence propagated throughout Europe.--_Smith._

* * * * *

AMERICAN MANNERS.

We suspect certain pages of Mrs. Trollope's _Domestic Manners of the
Americans_ to be highly coloured, but they are cleverly written, and will
be read with considerable interest.

_A Backwoodsman._

"We visited one farm, which interested us particularly from its wild and
lonely situation, and from the entire dependence of the inhabitants upon
their own resources. It was a partial clearing in the very heart of the
forest. The house was built on the side of a hill, so steep that a high
ladder was necessary to enter the front door, while the back one opened
against the hill-side; at the foot of this sudden eminence ran a clear
stream, whose bed had been deepened into a little reservoir, just opposite
the house. A noble field of Indian corn stretched away into the forest on
one side, and a few half-cleared acres, with a