Is The Kalmia Poisonous?

I hope not; although I have often heard that both sheep and neat cattle have died after eating their leaves. I think, with Nuttall and yourself, Mr. Editor, it is more probable that the indigestible quality of the leaves was the cause of death in the animals than any poisonous quality they possessed; for I have known thousands of cattle and sheep which grazed through the summer, in safety, on the hill and mountain sides, where the laurel grew in full luxuriance. How my old heart jumps back to early boyhood when I think of the beautiful Kalmia latifolia 1 I grew up among them; and how many times, in the joyous spirit of a young lamb, have I skipped among the rocks, and over the hills, when their blushing, brilliant beauty lighted up the ground, and filled the air with fragrance 1 The memory of those long passed days saddens me, and I will pass on to.

Isabella

Not a ripe berry on my grounds, although a number of bearing vines. [This fruit is uncertain in Pennsylvania, and, now that we have better, will gradually be superseded here. - Ed].

Isabella #1

Grown everywhere, and everywhere in this vicinity liked, when allowed to ripen, and not plucked in an immature state.

Isabella #2

Excellent for the table north of Maryland, although inferior in its native South; prolific, pulpy, and sweet. Ripens at Washington in September." Sparkling Isabella wine is very poor stuff, to our mind.

The Isabella Cot A Native Grape

I don't consider Mr. Buckley's argument on this point sufficiently convincing to remove the Isabella from the list of natives; indeed, in the face of all the testimony in favor of its American origin, it would be difficult if not impossible to prove it a Spaniard. I observe that even Mr. B. himself has abandoned his' position, and in a late number avowed himself convinced of his error.

Island Pear

The Island Pear originated with Cornelius Bergen, Flat Lands on Bergen Island (adjoining Long Island), some ten years since. Tree, a strong, free grower. Young wood, yellowish-brown. An early bearer, and very productive.

Island Pear.

Fruit, medium size, short, pyriform, inclining to turbinate; often turbinate or Bergamot-shaped. Skin, pale yellow, netted, sprinkled, and patched with russet, and thickly covered with small brown dots, and slightly shaded with crimson where exposed to the sun. Stalk, very short, rather stoat, inserted in a moderate depression by a ring or lip, surronnded by russet. Calyx, closed, or partially open. Segments, recurved, set in an abrupt, uneven basin, russeted. Flesh, white, a little granular, juicy, melting, with a sweet, sprightly, perfumed, somewhat aromatic flavor; "very good." Ripe, September to October.

The Israelites To Pass Over

In the expression of David, "Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of Juniper," commentators have endeavored to show that Juniper not only abounds in a penetrating oil, but that the coals of the wood will keep a glowing fire for the space of a year. " For want and famine," says Job, "they were solitary; they out up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for meat." These terms apply, no doubt, to some other plant than our juniper. - An old treatise en " Hawking and Falconry," gives receipts for curing the diseases of the birds. They were purged with a mouse and boiled chicken; they used, also, the ink of outtle fishes, with betony, wine, and honey, infusions of rhubarb, agaric, & c. In short, they had quite a hawk pharmacopoeia, wrapping them up in blankets, using fomentations, steam and vapor baths, and giving nettle seeds and batter I A green -lizard cut up, or a tortoise out of the shell, cured them when in consumption! Queer old practitioners were the hawk doctors.