least _thirty engravings_,
on copper and wood. The _mechanical_ department is unusually copious, and
there are some abstracts in the _chemical_, which are of high value.

_Rice_.

Trials have recently been made to grow the dry rice of China in Italy;
and it is expected that in time an advantageous cultivation of it may be
introduced in France.

_Turf_.

A correspondent of a French work on gardening thinks that green turf may
be obtained in France by trenching the ground, freeing it from stones,
covering the surface with two or three inches of rich compost, and then
laying on the turf. The improved soil, he thinks, will retain moisture
sufficient to keep the turf growing all the summer, and, consequently,
green.

_Garden of the Hesperides_.

Lieutenant Beachey, in his _Travels in Cyrene_, recently published, has
thrown some curious light on the ancient account of these celebrated
gardens. It appears, that, like many other wonders, ancient and modern,
when reduced to simple truth, they are little more than common
occurrences. Baron Humboldt and Mr. Bullock have reduced the floating
gardens of Mexico to mud banks, with ditches between; and lieutenant
Beachey makes it appear, that the gardens of the Hesperides are nothing
more than old stone quarries, the bottoms of which have been cultivated.

_Preparation of Cinnamon_.

The rough bark is first scraped off with knives, and then, with a
peculiar instrument, the inner rind is stripped off in long slips; these
are tied up in bundles, and put to dry in the sun, and the wood is
sold for fuel. The operation was thus explained to bishop Heber by the
cinnamon peelers; but in the regular preparation, the outer bark is not
scraped off; but the process of fermentation, which the strips undergo
when tied up in large quantities, removes the coarse parts. The peelers
are called Chaliers.

_Power of the Sun's Rays_.

Mr. Mackintosh, contractor for the government works at Stonehouse Point,
Devon, lately had to descend in the diving-bell with workmen to lay the
foundation of a sea wall. The machine is fitted with convex glasses, in
the upper part, to serve the purpose of windows; and Mr. Mackintosh
states, that on several occasions, in clear weather, he has witnessed the
sun's rays so concentrated by the circular windows, as to burn the
labourers' clothes, when opposed to the focal point, and this when the
machine was twenty-five feet under the surface of the water!