beat of the porcelain furnaces of Sèvres. By this means, Prof. Mitscherlich has succeeded in obtaining several species that occur in nature. He has likewise observed among the different kinds of slags more than forty species in a crystallized state, particularly of such minerals as are found in primitive rocks, but likewise a good many others which have not hitherto been observed. We propose giving in our next number a full statement of the farther details of these most important experiments. [Brewster's Journal.]

Additions to the Cabinet of Minerals at Cambridge.-Since our last, several boxes of American minerals have been received, and others are announced as on the road. We have prepared the following list from the letters of the gentlemen to whose liberality and zeal, the university is indebted for these accessions to the cabinet; circumstances not having as yet permitted any examination of the specimens. The prompt compliance with the wish expressed in the circular letter, published sometime since, and the great number of specimens which have been received, evince a lively interest in the advancement of this object, and a liberality highly honourable to the several contributors. It cannot but be highly gratifying to the friends of science and of the University to witness the success which thus far has attended the efforts made to increase the facilities for studying an important branch of science, and of adorning its halls with an extensive collection of the mineral riches of our own country.

A list of plants, which have flowered in the conservatory of the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, in the months of January and February. (Communicated by Mr Nuttall.)

* The following description of this substance we extract from Mr Shepard's letter. "It occurs in a green talcose rock, having a slaty structure with veins of serpentine of a dark colour running through it occasionally in various directions. The Anthophyllite exists in such abundance in the rock, as to constitute the greater part of it. It is both massive, and in long circular prisms, which are generally disposed in a radiating form. Its masses possess, a highly crystalline structure and very readily admit a cleavage parallel to the lateral planes of a rhombic prism of 1250 and 55° There is also a cleavage apparently perpendicular to the axis of the prism, but it is attended with some difficulty, and the planes produced by it are not very brilliant or perfect. Its colour is hair brown of various shades. It possesses a shining nearly pseudo-metallic lustre. It is translucent. It scratches fluate of lime and glass; the latter, however, with difficulty. Before the blow-pipe it is infusible "

The mineral supposed to be Iolite, Mr Shepard describes as follows. It occurs in small masses which, with few exceptions, are amorphous, and of an oval form. Occasionally it is found crystallized; but from the smallness and irregularity of the crystals, their precise form cannot be discerned. None of these crystals admit of any cleavage, nor can appearances of natural joints be discovered in any direction whatever. Its fracture is uneven, and its lustre vitreous. It scratches adularia and appears to be of the same hardness with Quartz. It is translucent. Its colour is a pale blue Its specific gravity is 2.6. When thrown in the state of powder upon a hot shovel, it phosphoresces slightly with a reddish light. Alone, before the blow-pipe, it fuses into a bluish glass, though with difficulty; with borax it fuses slowly into a colourless glass. It is found imbedded in Cleavelandite, and is often accompanied with Indicolite, Rubellite, and rose coloured Mica."

Mit Clear

THE

Boston Journal

OF

PHILOSOPHY AND THE ARTS.

ART. XLIV.-Contribution to a Natural and Economical History of the Coco-Nut Tree. By Mr. HENRY MARSHALL, Surgeon to the Forces, and Author of Notes on the Medical Topography and Diseases of the interior of Ceylon. [Mem. Wer. Soc. Edin.] (Concluded from page 380.)

In

MANY useful products are derived from the flower and fruit of this tree. By a peculiar manipulation the flower yields a rich saccharine juice, convertible into arrack or sugar. The word arrack, or arak, or rack, is probably a corruption of the the Arabic word uruq, spirit or juice, indefinitely; whence we may infer that the art of distillation was conveyed from Arabia to India and the eastern Archipelago. We are informed that, in the Ladrone Islands, it is called uraca. Ceylon, and many other parts of India, the term arrack is employed in a sense similar to that with which we use the phrase spiritous liquors. Distilled spirits, of whatever kind, obtain this denomination through a great part of Asia, and along the northern coast of Africa. In the Singhalese language, sugar, manufactured from palm-juice, is called hackurur, which is commonly corrupted by foreigners into jagery, and may be the origin of the Arabic word sukker. A Sanscrit scholar has suggested, that sugar may be derived from the Sanscrit word goor (sweet); the superlative of which, he tells me, is seogoor (sweetest).

Sweet juice is extracted from the unexpanded flower,, in the following manner :-A man, in colloquial language, called a "Toddy-drawer," cuts off the point of the spadix, and ties

the stump firmly round with a ligature. It is then beaten with a stick; which operation is supposed to determine the sap to the wounded part. This process is repeated for several days, cutting off daily a small portion of the end of the spadix. Under this management, the juice soon begins to flow from the cut surface of the flower, and is carefully collected in an earthen-ware vessel, suspended from the spathe. A thin portion of the flower and spathe is sliced off daily, and the end of the stump is bound with a ligature. A good healthy blos som will give from two to four English pints of sweet juice daily, and some flowers will continue to yield juice for about four or five weeks. Hence there are frequently two spaths on one tree, yielding toddy at the same time.*

I may here state the mode by which a toddy-drawer ascends the tree. He takes the dried stem of a creeping plant, and forms it into a circle of about a foot diameter. The feet are next put into this circular band. He then raises himself up a little on the stem of the tree, by means of his hands, and subsequently supports his whole weight upon the feet and the connecting ligature. By the alternate motion of his hands and feet, he reaches the top. The ordinary implements of a toddy-drawer are, the shell of a large gourd, capable of containing several pints of sweet juice, and a broad knife, which he suspends to a belt tied round his waist. In Bombay, the stem is sometimes notched on each side, to enable the toddydrawer to ascend the tree.

But when it is intended to draw juice from a "tope," or cluster of trees, the toddy-drawer collects a quantity of some creeping plants, with which he connects the heads of a great number of trees. In some districts, coir-rope is used in place of these creepers. There are a number of species of creepers, suitable for this purpose, which have stems many yards long. The toddy-drawer selects a tree, of easy access, near to the centre of the tope, the trunk of which he surrounds with a number of bands made of some creepers, each at about a foot distance. He then ascends, by means of these bands, and passes along, from tree to tree, upon the connecting stems, assisted by the horizontal leaves, collecting, as he proceeds,

* "The Gomuti Palm yields toddy for two years, at the average rate of three quarts a-day."-CRAWFURD on the Indian Archipelago.

According to LABILLARDIERE, a date-palm will furnish, for upwards of two months in the year, six or eight litres of liquor a day." Account of a Voyage in search of PEROUSE," by M. LABILLARDIERE, vol. i. p. 334.