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to their satisfaction, would by this way, with the ordinary patience and practice which are necessary for success in any pursuit, succeed in preparing good and clean slides, and acquire the means of opening up for themselves a fund of pleasurable and profitable microscopic entertainment, in working with guano and other fossil deposits, even in the dark and dreary days of winter, when nature affords but a limited supply of other objects for microscopic study and investigation.

Armagh.Lewis G. Mills, LL.B.

It is a curious circumstance respecting this plant, that after the great fire in London, in 1666, a most abundant crop of it sprung up over many acres of the ruins. Dr. Morrison, Professor of Botany at Oxford, one of our earliest writers on Systematic Botany, and who lived at that time, has a long dialogue on the subject, a translation of which (it is written in Latin) may perhaps amuse some of your readers. The parties are a Botanist and a Fellow of some society.

Bot. On the 2nd day of September, in the year 1666, began that lamentable fire which lasted three or four days, and which could not be extinguished by any human means. Indeed, it was brought about by Divine Providence; for "shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it?" The east wind, having opened (if I may so express it) the prison of the winds, raged all that time. About eight months afterwards, I was taking a walk among the ruins, which covered nearly two hundred acres, and coming near to the old Exchange, formerly called Gresham College, I observed among the fallen buildings a very large quantity of a species of wild mustard, which Columna calls the smooth rocket-leaved Irio. Returning to the same place in about two months' time, the plants had grown to such a size that they might have been reaped like a crop of wheat.

Soc. Well, whence do you suppose arose such an abundance of the plant—from sowing the seed?

Bot. What can induce you to put such a question, since all the buildings about St. Paul's and in the centre of the famous city of London have been built and stood a thousand, or at least, many hundred years?

Soc. Then I suppose that the seed, having been concealed in cellars or cavities of the earth, sprang up when exposed to the sun and rain.

Bot. Let me say, I am not a Pliny to impose upon the world the stories of other men; nor am I a Matthiolus, to invent what never existed; but if you wish, I will tell you my mind in plain unvarnished words.

Soc. Say on.

Bot. The seed of no plant, how carefully so even kept, will grow after ten years, very rarely after five, much less after some hundreds or a thousand years.

Soc. Then some one sowed these seeds among the ruins?

Bot. I do not believe, nay I am sure, so much seed could not have been found in all Britain, nor in France, nor in Germany or Italy, in one part of which, Naples, it grew plentifully in the time of Columna: so that even had there been persons willing to sow it, so great an abundance of seed could not have been supplied from all these kingdoms.

Soc. I do not doubt it. Whence, then, do you conclude the great abundance of the rocket came from? Did it arise spontaneously? At that time you will have observed that many other pappus-bearing plants and grasses, and other species sprung up.

Bot. Yes I did.

Soc. Whence came these?

Bot. A pappus-bearing or downy seed may be carried many miles by the wind, and wherever it falls will sprout and grow up.

Soc. I do not doubt it: and grasses will spring up abundantly in any neglected soil: might not, then, this rocket spring up spontaneously among the ruins of London?

Bot. There is a difference between this rocket and the grasses. Grasses are the most abundant of all plants, and their seeds are scattered everywhere, and thus are easily propagated.

Soc. You have already told us that a perfect plant is propagated only by seed.

Bot. I have always believed, and do still believe this. I would only ask, do you suppose that this rocket was sown by some gardener, or other inhabitant of the city among the ruins?

Soc. I am sure no one would take the pains, nor could he obtain sufficient seed for the purpose. Therefore, as it came neither from sowing nor from seed by accident, from what source do you suppose it arose?

Bot. I certainly shall not endeavour to prove that it arose from some volatile or fixed salt—from salt-petre, sulphur-trampled earth and water, however mixed—in fact, I know not what to believe. Perhaps it arose spontaneously. But this opens a door to certain Rationalistic Philosophers, who hold that plants of any kind, even trees or shrubs, may arise from the earth spontaneously, without any seed. But such an opinion, as it seems to me is contrary both to sacred Scripture and to reason. However, I think I have said enough at present. What remains I leave to be discussed by your learned Fellows, whether of London or Paris. Farewell.R. W.