On the whole, this is a phenomenon entirely new in as far as I have heard, and singularly curious; and the public are much indebted to Mr Haig for his attention in observing and bringing to Europe such a striking curiosity.

Argus bird.

Along with many other beautiful specimens of rare articles in natural history, are the wing and tail and other feathers of an argus bird, one of the most superb and beautiful of the feathered tribe, in high preservation. In a future number of his work shall be given some account of this rare and beautiful bird, accompanied with a figure.

A DISCOVERY IN VEGETATION.

Manner of propagating ferns.

Ir has been long suspected that the spots on the under side of the fern leaf contained the seeds of the plant; but hitherto no decisive experimental proof of it has been obtained in this part of Europe. This desideratum is now obtained. Mr J. Lindsay, keeper of the botanic garden in Jamaica, has cultivated many varieties of this class of plants so long, and has repeated the experiments so often, that there can no longer remain any doubt of this fact,

To succeed in rearing the fern from seed, he desires, that the healthiest plants be chosen, that have grown in a free situation; and when the leaves begin to turn yellow, and the spots on the under side have assumed a dark snuff colour, gather the leaves with care; spread them in an airy room upon sheets of white paper; and let them there dry gradually. The seed vefsels in a fhort time burst, and the seeds are scattered on the paper in the form of dark coloured dust. On examination by a good magnifier, this dust is observed to consist of two parts, the seed

a

and the chaff, which it is unnecessary to separate. The seeds, however, being smaller and weightier, and more. oily than the chaff, adhere more firmly to the paper than the chaff.

Let these seeds, when properly dried, be sown upon the surface of some loose moist mold, that has been carefully smoothed. They must not be covered with any mold, but kept moist, and in a situation where there is no want of light, but where they are entirely fhaded from the direct rays of the sun; for a very fhort glance of sunfhine upon the young plants, infallibly kills them. The young plants very soon appear in the form of a fine green mofs. The seed leaf is roundish and undivided. a fhort time the second leaf fhoots forth, which is palmated, and clearly is a fern. These may be allowed to remain in the seed bed for some time, till they have acquired strength, when they may be transplanted to where they are to remain; and if gently shaded, and kept moist, readily take root and grow freely.

In

Mr Lindsay has tried about a dozen of kinds of fern, and finds they all thus succeed perfectly well. How long the seeds, after gathering, will retain their vegetative power, he cannot tell; but is certain they may be safely kept for at least three months without losing their vegetating faculty.

This may appear at present a matter of mere curiosity.. But no person can say whether it may not in time prove of considerable utility to man. The roots of many kinds of fern are very large and succulent, and afford an excellent food for hogs, which are greedy of them, and search. for them with avidity; and in several parts of the world, particularly at New South Wales, the wretched inhabitants dig up these roots, and feed upon it themselves. There is also reason to believe, that some varieties of

Nov. 28; these may afford useful dyes; and in the Highlands of Scotland the natives obtain a glary juice, like the whites of eggs, from the root of the fern, which they account a sovereign remedy for sprains and burns. They all grow with great luxuriance on barren soils, where few other plants could be made to thrive; so that if they were properly cultivated there, it is highly probable that some kinds of them may be found in time to afford a much more valuable produce than could otherwise be obtained from such soils. Its use in making potash is well known.

SIR,

ANECDOTES OF SAMUEL BERNARD.

To the Editor of the Bee.

SOME traits which have been preserved of Samuel Bernard, unite the ideas of piety and vice, of a great and a little, of a steady and a capricious mind.

This man was a rich Jew, who lived at Paris in the beginning of the present century.--Being appointed banker to the court, he consented to bear the iniquities of government by pretending insolvency. One of his sons was a President of parliament, another, Master of Requests, and his daughter was married to a gentleman who was promoted to the rank of first President of parliament; yet Samuel himself adhered inflexibly to the religion of his fathers.

He resisted the flattery of courtiers with all the dignity of an independent philosopher. He was modest and unafsuming at his own table, a circumstance which rendered his company more supportable than that of his brother financiers.

His carriage and horses stood in readiness from the moment he rose till he went to bed. His porter was obliged to watch and listen to every noise, so as to have the gate opened before his coach drove up to it. The scup,

in virtue of a standing order, was served up as soon as he entered the house from transacting his business in the morning.

He was fond of brelan, but angry when he lost.

Habits

of method and temperance protracted his life beyond ninety years.

He was addicted to superstition, and firmly believed that his fate in this world was linked to that of a black hen, which he fed and treated with special care. This fowl gave up the ghost in January 1739, and Bernard resigned his breath in the course of the same month. He left behind him thirty-three millions of livres.

I am, Mr Editor, your most obedient humble servant, R. W.

Silk worms.

WITH regard to the large cocoons of coarse silk found by Sir William Jones in the east, Dr Pallas says he has seen something like them from China; and he remembers likewise to have seen about the year 1760 or 1761, when in London, a large species of cocoon containing a strong silk, at the house of the late worthy Mr Collins, (the Sir Joseph. Banks of that period,) which he had received from America, probably Philadelphia, where his principal correspondence lay on that continent. However, all are inferior to the produce of the true silk worm; although in the hands of the interprising and inventive manufacturers of Great Britain, many things become articles of commerce and public use which lay despised and neglected in lefs industrious states. Dr Pallas's time is so completely occupied at present, with the different works he has in hand at the Emprefs's expence, with the arrangement of her cabinet of natural history, and with intsructing the great duke in

Nov. 28. that amusing and useful study, that he is obliged to drop a great part of his former correspondence, otherwise the Bee might have been enriched with his occasional communications, as he much approves its judicious plan and useful tendency. You will receive inclosed however a paper signed Nemo, from another writer in Rufsia, in a different line, who has more leisure than the naturalist, and who proposes to contribute his mite occasionally to the Bee. ARCTICUS.

I

MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS ON AGRICULTURE.

SIR,

OBSERVATIONS

To the Editor of the Bee.

AM glad to see an attempt to make the Bee a vehic for the communication of useful observations relating to domestic economy, and shall be glad to contribute to give it a free course.

The exhibition of the Languedocian mode of fattening geese and ducks is curious.

The duck called Indian, is the Anas Indica of Aldrovand, and our Muscovy duck, which certainly tends to improve the size, though not the number or tranquillity of our duckeries, as he is a most impetuous drake, and extremely irregular in his connections, in so much that I was once forced to expel him from my poultry yard.

We are not sufficiently attentive to the economy of feeding poultry of any kind, which brings that amusing. and useful department of female economy into disrepute.

I should be glad to see this inconvenience removed, by a distinct account of profit and lofs, upon a systematic plan of rearing these useful birds, and others, upon a large scale, both for private use, and for the market.

The goose is monogamous; and if you give him more females than one, he becomes so far usele fs, and afterwards