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lordship then directed the boat to row with great quickness past the rock, when, upon our crossing the place which had before affected the needle, it was again affected during the passage, though very quick, and recovered soon after passing this point. We could hardly venture to assign any cause for these appearances, but by supposing something magnetical in the rock, extending the whole distance from the Compass Hill to the headland at the mouth of the harbour. If this should prove to be the case, we had no scruple in pronouncing this to be the largest loadstone as yet discovered in the world. A part of the rock was broken off at the very spot where this affection of the needle was observed, and was applied to the compass when removed from the rock; but it seemed to produce no effect upon the needle whatso ever also, the compass was carried about the length of the boat from the rock, and it was also placed in the same line on the opposite side of the harbour, at about a quarter of a mile's distance; neither of these experiments produced any effect on the needle.

In this island there are many columnar appearances not unlike to Staffa; and several both straight and bent, and every way as regular, which seems also to have, like Staffa, escaped observation till very lately.

PRODUCE OF WHEAT.

The produce of a single grain of wheat, propagated in the garden of the Rev. Dr. Drake, rector of Amersham, Bucks, by Wm. Rebecca, gardener. "On the 1st day of August, I sowed, or rather set, a single grain of the red wheat; and in the latter end of September, when the plant had tillered, I took it up, and slipped or divided it into four sets or slips. Those four sets I planted, and they grew and tillered as well as the first. In the end of November, I took them up a second time, and made thirtysix plants or sets. These I again planted, which grew till March, in which month I, a third time, took up my plants, and divided them into two hundred and fifty-six plants, or sets. For the remaining part of the summer, till the month of August, they had nothing done to them, except hoeing the ground clean from weeds, till the corn was ripe. When it was gathered, I had the cars counted, or numbered, and they were three thousand five hundred and eleven; a great part of which proved as good grain as ever grew out of the earth. Many of the ears measured six inches in length, some were middling grain, and some very light and thin.-This was the reason I did not number the grains; but there was better than half a bushel of corn in the whole produce of this one grain of wheat in one year.-Query, would not this practice (springplanting) be of great use where the crops miss by various accidents incidental to farming?"

Salt, moistened with as small a quantity of water as possible, is said to be an effectual remedy against the inflammation occasioned by the stings of bees and wasps. A wasp being swallowed, unperceived, by a person while drinking a glass of beer, stung him, with all its power, inside of his throat. This simple remedy, salt, effected his recovery, although his gullet was swelled, and his breathing was so strongly affected and interrupted from the violence of the pain, &c. as almost to suffocate him.

German Recipes-For the destruction of caterpillars, ants, and other insects.Take about two pounds weight of black soap, the same quantity of flowers of sulphur, two pounds weight of truffles [ly coperdon tuber. Linn.] and fifteen gallons of water. The whole must be well incorporated, by the aid of a gentle warmth. Insects on which this water is sprinkled die immediately.-Query, is this liquor effectual in destroying that noisome vermin the bug? If so, its composition cannot be made too extensively known; as we do not perceive that it is likely to damage bed furniture, &c. To restore the lustre of glasses that are tarnished by age, or accident.-Strow on them powdered fullers' earth, carefully cleared from sand, &c. and rub them carefully with a linen cloth.

Mountain Ash-tree bearing Pears.

We have already given the history of several unique or remarkable trees. The following may certainly be added to them. Report speaks of a mountain ash-tree in the forest near Bewdly bearing pears. This identical tree was described by alderman Pitts of Worcester, in the Philosophical Transactions, as long ago as the year 1678. It still flourishes in the forest of Wyre, near Bewdly, in full strength and beauty. A few years ago it was accurately and

scientifically described by Mr. Sowerby in his English Botany, under the name of the Pyrus Domestica. The plate 350, of that useful and elegant work, represents a branch of the tree bearing fruit and flowers, which was sent to the editor, as a specimen, by lord viscount Valentia, who then resided in the neighbourhood at his seat at Over Asley. This tree is, I believe, quite a rarity, and I think, likely to remain so, as every endeavour to propagate it has hitherto failed of success. The country people call it the "Witty Pear Tree."

It is probable that the seeds or saplings of this tree, it being out of the common course of nature, may not have prolifick power sufficient to propagate their species. We would recommend a trial of the Chinese method of treating the branches; and if some of the most promising could be induced, by careful management, to take root, by that means, they would no doubt retain the same powers as they possessed while united to the parent tree. This appears to us to be the most probable mean of establishing this accidental specimen into a species.

Rapid Cultivation of Fruit Trees.

The Chinese, instead of raising their fruit trees from seeds or grafts, as is the prac. tice in Europe, adopt the following method. They select a branch fit for the purpose, and round it they wind a rope made of straw besmeared with cow dung, until a ball is formed five or six times the diameter of the branch. Immediately under this ball they divide the bark down to the wood, for nearly two thirds of the circumference of the branch. A cocoa nut shell, or small pot, is hung over the ball, with a hole in its bottom, so small that water put therein will only fall in drops. By this, the rope is kept constantly moist, a circumstance necessary to the easy admission of the young roots. In about three weeks it is supposed that some of the roots have struck into the rope, when the remainder of the bark is cut, and the former incision carried deeper into the wood; it is repeated in three weeks more.—In about two months, the roots are seen intersecting each other on the surface of the ball, which is a sign that they are sufficiently advanced to admit of the separation of the branch from the tree, which is done by sawing at the incision, taking care not to cut off the rope, which by this time is rotten, and the branch is planted as a young tree.-It is probable that a month longer would be necessary for this operation in England, from the difference of climate; but by this means, when the branches are large, three or four years are sufficient to bring them to a state of full bearing. Timber trees, it is supposed, may be advan tageously propagated in the same way.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

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A New, Literal Translation from the original Greek, of all the Apostolical Epistles.. With a Commentary and Notes, Philological, Critical, Explanatory, and Practical. To which is added, a history of the life of the Apostle Paul. By James Macknight, D. D. author of a Harmony of the Gospels, &c. In 6 vols. To which is prefixed, an account of the life of the Author.

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Lectures on Systematick Theology, and on Pulpit Eloquence. By the late George Campbell, D.D F. R. S. Ed. Principal of Marischal College, Aberdeen, 8vo. 9s. Evening Amusements for the year 1809; being the sixth of the series of annual volumes, for the Improvement of Students in Astronomy. By W. Frend, Esq. 3s. The Compositor's and Pressman's Guide to the Art of Printing. By C. Stower, Printer. Royal 12mo. 3s. 6d.

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Mr. Renouard, of Trinity College, Cambridge, has in the press a Treatise on Spherical Trigonometry.

Mr. Robertson Buchanan, who lately published an Essay on the Teeth of Wheels, with their application in practice to mill-work and other machinery, has a second essay nearly ready for publication, and three more prepared for the press. He will also speedily publish, a second edition of his Essay on Heating Buildings by Steam, which will contain a methodical collection of the facts that have since been ascertain. ed, and have rendered the practice certain and commodious.

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The London Medical Dictionary, including under distinct heads every branch of medicine, viz. anatomy, physiology, and pathology, the practice of physick and sur gery, therapeuticks, and materia medica, with whatever relates to medicine in natural philosophy, chymistry and natural history. Illustrated by a great number of plates. By B. Parr, M. D. F. R. S. of London and Edinburgh, and Secretary to the Exeter Hos pital. 2 vol. 4to. 41. 16s.

The Iron Mask, or the Adventures of a Father and a Son; a romance, by the Rev. J. P. Hunt, 3 vols. 12mo. 15s.

A society of physicians in London has been engaged for some time past in collecting materials for a new work, to be entitled, the "Annual Medical Register." They propose to comprise in one volume a complete account of the Medical Literature of the preceding year, together with a historical sketch of the dicoveries and improvements in Medicine and the collateral Sciences; a report of the general state of Health and Disease in the metropolis; and a brief detail of such miscellaneous occur rences within the same period as may be deemed worthy of record. The volume for 1808 is now in the press, and will be published with all possible expedition.

Mr. Saunders, Surgeon of the London Infirmary for curing Diseases of the Eye, and Demonstrator of Anatomy at St. Thomas's Hospital, purposes, in the course of a few months, to publish a Tract on some select, practical points relating to Diseases of the Eye, and particularly on the nature of the Cateract in persons born blind, and the method which he has, for a long time, pursued with uniform success for the cure of such cases at the earliest periods, and even in infancy.

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