rary suspension of our monetary system. House of Commons; but it is not unlikely Unsoundness at home must have been, both that the revelations to be obtained by such here and in Hamburg, the chief element in an inquiry might have some influence in corextending the mischief beyond the immedi-recting the system which has led to such ate circle of the. houses in direct connexion fatal results. America, having been first to with the United States. However high the yield to panic, is showing now the earliest rate of discount might have been raised by symptoms of revival. With a prudence foreign demand, there would have been no creditable to themselves, though indirectly panic here had the busniess of our own injurious to us, the suspended banks in New banks and analogous institutions been con- York and other States never for a moment ducted with reasonable prudence. relaxed their endeavors to prepare for a resumption of specie payments. Already they have recovered their normal stock of gold; and, to use the graceful language of the New York Herald, "We have Wall-street alive again-stocks going up like rockets, and speculators making money like dirt." We must beware, indeed, of relying too much on this estimable print, for it appears now to have become, by an intelligible transition, as enthusiastic in encouraging confidence as it was a month or two ago energetic and successful in creating panic. There is every appearance, however, of a decided recovery in America, which will help our own progress towards a natural condition of trade. Hamburg alone has shown no sign of improve ment; but it is to be hoped that the worst has been reached, and that the steady co-operation of her citizens in their attempts to meet the panic will not long remain fruitless. The formation of a discount bank to meet the emergency is certainly a safer and more rational form of relief than the step by which we have laid the foundation for a regular series of similar misfortunes. When things shall have taken a favorable turn in Hamobserva-burg, the crisis will be everywhere over, and the trade of the world will begin a fresh career-we wish we could say with some new store of wisdom gathered from the experience of recent calamities.

The same may probably be said of the Hamburg crash. In fact, from beginning to end, it has been in a high degree a banking affair. Loose banking in America began it. Bill-broking rashness and Scotch banking brought on the climax with us, and now the banks and discounters of Hamburg are falling one after another. The prevalence of speculative money dealings, in all three countries, destroys the value of the comparison that might otherwise have been drawn between the systems of currency adopted in America, England, and Hamburg. Notes upon a basis of securities, with little or no gold, constitute the Transatlantic currency. In Hamburg every note is a representative of so much actual bullion in deposit. We have an intermediate system. Yet none have escaped; and if we can learn nothing else from what has happened, we may be assured of this-that it is possible for the mischievous energies of speculators to derange the affairs of a country, whether its currency be governed by the wisest or the weakest regulations. It is some satisfaction to know that the root of the evil among ourselves will not be allowed to escape

tion. We do not imagine that repressive legislation can be founded on any inquiry into banking practices by a Committe of the

men.

By far the most important animal in South | Africa is a little fly called the tsetse, which determines the fortunes and habits of thousands of It is not much larger than the common house-fly, and is nearly of the same brown color as the honey bee. Its bite is certain death to the ox, the horse, and the dog, but is entirely harmless to man, mules, asses, goats, swine, all wild animals, and even calves as long as they suck the cows. If a man is bitten, a slight irritation follows, but there are no further effects: nor are there any immediate effects when an ox is bitten, but a few days afterwards emaciation

The

commences, and the animal pines away.
poison operates on the blood, and is injected
through the probosis, and not by a sting. For-
tunately, the tsetse is local, and although found
in one valley may never come near the next.
But as there is no remedy known, and as a very
few flies will destroy a whole herd of oxen, there
are many tribes that abandon any attempt to
keep oxen or horses, and between contiguous
tribes the possession of the localities free from
tsetse is a constant object of jealousy and dis-
pute.-Saturday Review.

ON THE CULTIVATION OF TRUF-
FLES.

Up till a very recent date, it was universally believed by naturalists that the truffle was a purely vegetable production. Recent researches have thrown considerable doubt upon the subject, and one gentleman thinks that he has demonstrated its animal origin. The gentleman to whom we refer, M. Martin Ravel, of Montagnac, near Riez, Basses Alpes, is well known as one of the largest truffle merchants in France; and as he combines with his mercantile pursuits those of a diligent and painstaking naturalist, his opinions are entitled to the highest consideration, although very decidedly at variance with the views of naturalists in general. This fact, however, would not justify a rejection of his views, but p ints out the necessity of caution | in receiving them.

M. Ravel thinks that the truffle is produced quite accidentally in the vegetation of a peculiar kind of oak, by the puncture made by a fly. The tree he distinguishes as the truffle-oak, and the fly as the truffigene. It is assuredly no new fact in natural history, that certain flies do puncture certain plants, in order to produce excrescences in which to deposit their eggs; and that these excrescences vary in their character according to the nature of the plant and the insect. The gall-nut, or nut-gall, is a familiar example, being produced by the prick of the gall-fly, which causes the formation of gallic acid. M. Ravel assures us that the truffle is produced in a precisely similar manner by the truffigene in the fibrous roots of the tree. He thinks

that the truffle may be considered as a species of gall: differing from it in being produced by a different insect, and in containing different chemical elements; but resembling it in being produced by an insect in its effort to provide a nest for its eggs, and food for its larve. The manner in which the truffigene proceeds is minutely described by M. Ravel. It may be seen in great numbers in winter time flying about the truffle grounds, and especially in the vicinity of the oaks which bear the truffles: it penetrates the ground, and makes its way to the fibrous extremities of the roots of the tree, and puncturing them, deposits its eggs in e orifice. A drop of milky fluid immediately oozes out, which slowly enlarges by the addition of nitrogen, obtained from the roots of the tree on the one hand, and from the air on the other.

Sometimes several drops of the milky fluid come in contact with each other, and unite to form those large, irregularly-shaped truffles so frequently seen their shape and size varying according to the number of drops so united. The incipient truffle being fully formed, the roots from which it sprang die; and the truffle left to itself increases and expands, in virtue of the nourishment it receives, both from the earth and the air.

It is considered an additional argument in favor of M. Ravel's theory, that naturalists have never been able to discover in it any germ or radicle which a true vegetable is germ or radicle which a true vegetable is always expected to possess. The following account of the truffle and its mode of reproduction is given in Cuthbert Johnson's « Farmer's Encyclopædia: "The truffle (Tuber cibarium) is a round fungus growing under ground, destitute of roots and leafy appendages. It aborbs nutriment at every point of its surface. The truffle is composed of globular vesicles, destined for the reproduction of the vegetable, and short barren filaments called tigellules; and the reproductive bodies, trufinelles. Each globular vesicle is fitted to give origin to a multitude of reproductive bodies, but only a few of them perfect the young vegetable. The parent dies: the trufinelles are nourished by its dissolving substance, and the cavity it originally filled becomes the abode of a multitude of young truffles: but many of them die, the stronger starving the weaker.

Neither the mode of propagating here described, nor any other, appears to have been very successful, and the dealers have had to depend for their supplies chiefly on the spontaneous productions of the soil; which were scented out by dogs trained for the purpose, and afterwards scratched up by them, or dug up by their masters. In conformity with M. Ravel's theory, a new mode of propagating is now proposed, and he has issued a circular announcing that he is prepared to supply the acorns of the truffle oak to those who may feel inclined to carry his method into practice. The only kinds of soil suitable for the cultivation of this plant are those of a calcareous or sandy nature; into which the acorns should be sown in the manner described by M. Ravel in his circular. He considers that at the end of five years the oaks will be ready for the larvae of the truffigene fly, which he will be then prepared to supply to those who have purchased acorns.-Titan.

POETRY.-Funeral of Crawford, 280. Geo. Levison, 288. Sewing Machine, 290. Enigma, 290. Little Bell, 318. Palestine, The Chapel Bell, 319. To George W. Curtis,

319.

318.

SHORT ARTICLES.-Moss-Side, 287. Life in Israel, 293. A Woman with Wrongs, 293. Chambers' Youth's Companion, 299. Siberia, Oriental and Western, 301. The Eye, as an Illustration, 301. Tsetse, 316.

LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.

WASHINGTON, 27 Dec., 1845. Or all the Periodical Journals devoted to literature and science which abound in Europe, and in this country, this has appeared to me the most useful. It contains indeed the exposition only of the current literature of the English Language; but this, by its immense extent and comprehension, includes a portraiture of the human mind, in the utmost expansion of the present age. J. Q. ADAMS.

This work is made up of the elaborate and stately essays of the Edinburgh, Quarterly, Westminster, North Brit ish, British Quarterly, New Quarterly, London Quarterly, Christian Remembrancer, and other Reviews; and Black wood's noble criticisms on Poetry, his keen political Commentaries, highly wrought Tales, and vivid descriptions of rural and mountain Scenery; and contributions to Literature, History and Common Life, by the sagacious Spectator, the sparkling Examiner, the judicious Athenæum, the busy and industrious Literary Gazette, the learned and sedate Saturday Review, the studious and practical Economist, the keen tory Press, the sober and respectable Christian Observer; these are intermixed with the Military and Naval reminiscences of the United Service, and with the best articles of the Dublin University, New Monthly, Fraser's, Tait's, Ainsworth's, Hood's and Sporting Maga zines, and of Chambers' admirable Journal, and Dickens' Household Words. We do not consider it beneath our dignity to borrow wit and wisdom from Punch; and, when we think it good enough, make use of the thunder of The Times. We shall increase our variety by importations from the continent of Europe, and from the new growth of the British colonies.

Published every Saturday, by LITTELL, SON & COMPANY, Boston. Price 12 cents a number, or six dollars a.year. Remittances for any period will be thankfully received and promptly attended to.

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