metimes
injurious. Too much light renders the skin of fruits tough, and will
make cucumbers bitter. Berard of Montpelier found that the ripening of
fruits is merely the turning the acid which they contain into sugar,
by exposure to the light; and that too much light and heat, before
they have attained their proper size, will bring on premature
ripening, and make them insipid.

_Lindley's Lectures, reported in the Gardeners' Magazine._

* * * * *

PLANTS IN ROOMS.

It is very difficult to make plants grow in rooms. They must
necessarily be deficient in the three important auxiliaries to
vegetable life, light, air, and moisture; the latter of which cannot
be maintained in apartments that are daily occupied. In large towns,
plants cannot thrive even in the open air, as the minute particles of
soot, which are constantly floating about, settle upon their leaves,
and choke up their pores. The gases produced by the combustion of
coal, &c., are also injurious to plants. Sulphurous acid, which
abounds in the atmosphere of London, turns the leaves yellow; and the
want of evaporation and absorption by the leaves prevents the proper
elaboration of the sap, and makes the trees stunted and unproductive.

_Ibid._

* * * * *

THE CHLAMYPHORUS.

In our account of _the Nine-banded Armadillo_, at page 57 of the
present volume, we noticed the curious fact of the whole series of
armadillos offering a notable example of one genus being confined to a
particular country, viz. South America; of their standing perfectly
insulated, and exhibiting all the characters of a creation entirely
distinct, and, except as to the general character of mammiferous
quadrupeds, perfectly of its own kind.

The nearest resemblance to the armadillo is, we believe, to be traced
in a very curious little quadruped which is occasionally to be seen in
the district of Cuyo, at the foot of the Andes, on the eastern side.
The first instance of its being brought to Europe was a specimen
preserved in spirit, which was added to the Museum of the Zoological
Society, about four years since, by the Hon. Capt. Percy, R.N. who
received it from Woodbine Parish, Esq. British consul at Buenos Ayres.
It had been previously known only by the figures and description given
by Dr. Harlan, in the Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New
York. His specimen was, however, deprived of the skeleton and inte