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even in New Jersey. We may have occasion for further remark on this subject hereafter. Evening Bulletin.

ARE OAKS PRODUCED WITHOUT ACORNS?

This question as to whether oaks are produced without acorns, seems to have set several people to thinking. Let them think. Thought is the germ that produces all that man can produce in improving the condition of life. The most useless mortal on earth is one who never thinks. None but an unthinking drone will say: "Let this question alone; science has settled it long ago; why think more about it?"

Science has not settled it, except by its ipsi dixit" it must be so-nothing ever was, ever will, or ever can be produced without seed of its kind. Perhaps so we don't deny it; we only ask men to think."

To the Editor of the N. Y. Tribune.

It is a well-known fact that the removal of one species of forest is followed by a growth of one entirely different, and it is supposed the one species has exhausted the materials necessary for its growth, while the soil has been gathering materials adapted to the other.

It is another well known fact that seeds buried in the ground below a certain depth retain their vitality for years, and, when brought under favorable circumstances, germinate as surely as the seed of the past year.

Some time since, while excavating, a number of peach pits were found, where they must have been buried for at least 30 years; they were planted, and produced trees. May not the removal of the dense foliage admit the warmth of the sun, and thereby wake from their long sleep the germs from the forests of past centuries supplied with more perfected materials for a more perfect growth than their progenitors, they to run their course and give place to a yet more advanced species in accordance with the great law of improvement?

How or when the first oak was made we know not; but may not this long sleep have imparted to the buried germ a strength and vigor to be obtained only in this way, thereby producing a tree quite unlike its ancestor? The influence produced by this rest has engaged the attention of scientific minds, and it may yet prove a valuable auxiliary to a more rapid improvement in the productions of the earth.

May not the spirit or life-principle remain intactible and invisible, disrobed of material substance, yet retaining its power to draw from its surroundings a body-and may not this account for the fact that such germs are destitute of the leaves which invariably attend the newly planted acorn? That these suggestions may lead to a research into this interesting field of investigation is the wish of S. L. E. E.

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A HARVEST HYMN.

O Father, merciful and good!
O Giver ever kind,
Who feedest us with daily food
For body soul and mind!

We worship Thee, we bless Thee,
We praise Thee evermore;
And heartily confess Thee

The God whom we adore!

How thick with corn between the hills
The laughing valleys stand!
How plenteously Thy mercy fills
The garners of our land!

And therefore we will raise Thee
Our humble anthem thus,
And, sinful children, praise Thee
For all Thy love to us!

As year by year, in ceaseless love,
Thy bounty never fails,
But still the blessing from above
O'erflows our hills and dales,
So, truly we adore Thee,
Thou Giver of all good,
And offer now before Thee
Thy people's gratitude!

THE LEAF.

SAMUEL G. GOODRICH.

It came with spring's soft sun and showers,
'Mid bursting buds and blushing flowers;
It flourished on the same light stem,
It drank the same clear dews with them;
The crimson tints of summer morn,
That gilded one, did each adorn.

The breeze, that whispered light and brief
To bud or blossom, kissed the leaf;
When o'er the leaf the tempest flew,
The bud and blossom trembled too;
But its companions passed away,
And left the leaf to lone decay:
The gentle gales of spring went by,
The fruits and flowers of summer die.

The autumn winds swept o'er the hill,
And winter's breath came cold and chill;
The leaf now yielded to the blast,
And on the rushing stream was cast.
Far, far, it glided to the sea,
And whirled and eddied wearily,
Till suddenly it sank to rest,
And slumbered in the ocean's breast.
Thus life begins; its morning hours
Bright as the birth-day of the flowers;
Thus passes like the leaves away,
As withered and as lost as they.
Beneath the parent roof we meet
In joyous groups, and gayly greet
The golden beams of love and light,
That kindle to the youthful sight.
But soon we part, and one by one,
Like leaves and flowers, the group is gone.
One gentle spirit seeks the tomb,
His brow yet fresh with childhood's bloom;
Another treads the path of fame,
And barters peace to win a name ;
Another still tempts fortune's wave,
And seeking wealth, secures a grave.

The last grasps yet the brittle thread,
Though friends are gone and joy is dead;

Still dares the dark and fretful tide,
And clutches at its power and pride,
Till suddenly the waters sever,
And, like the leaf he sinks forever.

From Household Words.

THE COCO-PALM.

the grey of the trunk and the green of the leaves of the coco-palm. High up the trunk, the cluster of the monkey-heads or cocos is observable just where the leaves will best shelter them from the blaze of the sun. Homely comparisons to tables and umbrellas must not be allowed to obscure the lofty grace and glorious loveliness of The Spaniards call apish tricks "cocos," and the scenery of the palm-islands. The Grecian the phrase" es un coco" means," you monkey." architects borrowed from the palm-trees the ideal The black bogies of the Spanish children are of the columns which gave dignity and elevation (( cocos." The word "coco" is of genuine quad- to their architecture. The trunks of the cocorumanal origin; being derived from the monkeys palms are curiously scarred by the marks of the themselves, the Indian species of which, called fallen leaves. The tidal waves, by washing away Maimons, cry "Co-co!" Undoubtedly, the the white sand, occasionally lay bare the roots, monkeys have a right to name themselves; and which often run out forty feet long and below the Indians and the Spaniards only acted sensi- the high-tide mark, and which are of a brown bly in adopting the name of the highest authori- color turning to red. What frequently completes ties in monkey-science. Monkey, or little monk, the strange beauty of these tropical shores is a is a name which paints them well; and there is line of blue painted on the white strand by the a nut which resembles the head of a coco suffi- innumerable ianthine or blue snail shells left at ciently for the Spaniards to frighten their chil-high-water mark by the tide.

vizors. Something of enchantment is given to the view of the hilly islands when the coco-palms are seen climbing up the sides of the hills, and wearing their crowns of green leaves, and their gigantic sheathes of golden flowers. Moreover the electric touch and thrill of human feeling is added to heighten the effect of all, when the simple islanders are seen in their canoes laden with cocos.

dren with it, by making them believe it is a The dazzling whiteness of the shores obliges monkey or a bogie. There is even a point formed the natives to protect their eyes with green by the joinings of the shell, which is not a bad model of the little pug nose. As the nut came to be called the coco from its resemblance to the animal, the tree became known as the tree of the coco-like-nut. It is mistake to call it the cocoanut tree, as the word "cocoa" belongs to a tree of a different family. The tree of the monkey-nut is a palm. The rude resemblance to the face of a monkey having given a name to the nut, the likeness of the leaf to the palm of the hand gives a name to the tree; and the coco-palm ought consequently to be the name of the tree. When described according to the place in which it likes best to grow, this palm-tree would be called the shore-palm; but, the nut is far more widely known than the

habitat.

The coco-palms are the trees of the tropical shores. Stray coco-palms may be found indeed, as far south, and as far north, as twenty-seven degrees of both latitudes, or, in other words, seven degrees further north than the Tropic of Cancer, and further south than the Tropic of Capricorn. Voyagers within the tropics describe in rapturous terms the astonishing beauty and magnificence of the coco-islands. When the low-lying coco-islands are seen from afar they resemble magnificent tables standing up in the

sea.

As the tallest trees border the ocean, and the shortest grow inland, the green tables seem to slope from their edges towards their centres. The scene changes when nearer. Then, under a clear sky, every tree suggests a resemblance to an umbrella planted upon the water. The top of the gigantic umbrella is green, the span of it is about forty feet, and the height of the grey handle is from seventy to a hundred feet. It is set in a white bank of coral sand. The gleam of the water, and the white of the sand, set off well

The general aspect of the coco-palm forests is often singularly modified by the winds, which play fantastical tricks with these grand umbrellas of the sea-shore. Bernardin de Saint Pierre mentions the effects of the hurricanes upon the coco-palms of the Mauritius in bending them like bows about two-thirds up, and thickening them at the bend. When the coco-palms do not grow in forests close enough to protect each other, they gradually stoop before the reigning southeast winds. The long leaves, instead of surrounding the trunk regularly, are all turned in one direction, and seem to take flight in the way of the wind. Sand-slips and hurricanes frequently upset the coco-palms; but when these accidents happen, they only call forth and bring into action the marvellous resources of nature. One of the most interesting objects ever seen upon the tropical shores is a fallen coco-palm, three months after having been felled by a storm The lower part is still nearly flat and level with the ground, and a goat may, perchance be seen standing on it and contemplating the surrounding scenery. The roots seem completely torn up, except a few suckers on the undermost side, which still have a slight hold of the soil. The nuts are prematurely scattered on the beach. The trunk, however, is bent upward; the head is high in spite of misfortunes; the falling tree is putting out fresh suckers. The square form

which the stem assumes remains as the most singular record of the disaster.

they contradict each other flatly respecting night and day, summer and winter, seed-time and This feat of the coco-palm is beyond denial. harvest, and they have entirely different notions "When," says Dr. Charles Reynaud, "a coco- respecting most of the modes of vegetal growth palm has been uprooted by any accident whatever, and life. The oak has branches, while the or even when the roots encounter a soil upon palm shoots straight up without them. When which they cannot creep solidly, or when it does a cut is made across a branch of an oak, each not furnish them with enough of nourishment, year's growth is seen recorded in successive it pushes out a great quantity of new roots from layers of fibres; when a cut is made in the trunk its swelled base which diverge toward the soil. of a palm, the bunches of fibres appear to be disBy this admirable mechanism of nature, it persed irregularly. The differences are so reassures its stability, and, at the same time, it markable, that a French botanist divides the doubles the organs destined to absorb the nutri- vegetal world according to them. The wood tive elements. It is not rare to see the coco- which surrounds the circumference of the cocopalms overthrown by a falling in of the earth, palm is very hard and almost horny, the interior and which hold still by a small number of roots, is tender, of a rosy color, and hardens as the without delay, (thanks to the means of repara- tree ages. If an adult tree is cut, the interior tion we have indicated,) raise themselves up will corrupt into dust, and the rind part will towards their leafy end, vegetating most beauti-scarcely be fit to form laths. If an old coco-palm fully, and so well that at the end of several years is cut, the wood will be found to be of the color they present the singular spectacle of a trunk of a beautiful chocolate, streaked lengthwise which may be said to grow square." A litho- with little veins as hard as ivory. graph, published by Monsieur Pitot, of the Mauritius, lies before me while I write, which represents a coco-palm, three months after it has been knocked down by a storm, in an attitude half raised up, and partaking curiously of both the prostrate and the erect positions.

The oaks and pines of Europe would never think of trying such a feat, and could not do it if they tried, on account of the structure of their roots. The suckers of what is called the axis of the root develop in them; and, in the palms, they waste away. The roofs of the palms which are developed, are what are called the secondary roots surrounding the axis. Issuing separately out of the trunk, vertically and horizontally, and straightly or twinedly, they are only of about the thickness each of a goose-quill and do not penetrate far into the sand. They seize the Soil in a matted and entangled manner for a range of about twenty or thirty feet around the tree, and form, by their interlacing, a solid mass amidst the loose and sandy soil. At the side nearest to the sea the roots extend sometimes as much as forty feet; and, when laid bare, their usual brown color becomes blood-red under the influence of the light. They are rather flexible and tough, and have a somewhat hard skin, which covers a spongy substance continued from the trunk. The feat of the fallen coco-palm in raising itself up, is not without its parallels in the vegetal world. As everybody knows, when a young willow is planted topsy-turvey, although the aerial buds do not become roots, the trunk sends forth new roots tipped with spongioles to receive food from the humidity around them.

The coco-palm bears five new leaves to replace five old leaves every year. The scars left by the fallen leaves upon the trunk would be a satisfactory record of its age if they were not too much obliterated and confused. The leaves, to the number of from twenty to twenty-five, are arranged spirally, and form a crown around the top of the column. The leaf is like a quill, twenty feet long; and the folioles, or barbs of the feathery leaf, have the forms of swords.

The flowers of the coco-palm are enclosed in a sheath, four or five feet long, and four or five inches thick, which is triangular in the middle and conical at the summit. The sheath is streaked white and green, and with time hardens and grows brown until it becomes horny. The sheath issues out of the armpit of a leaf; and out of the sheath comes sidewise the branching sheathlet or spadice, whose graceful branches, at first white and then brilliantly golden, seem proud (as all nature is) of their reproductive force and beauty. White when they first issue from the sheathlet, the flowers of the coco-palm grow gradually yellow; and then the male flowers become greenish and the female flowers green. After a time, first the male and then the female flowers fall, and while most of the ovaries wither away, the fifteen or twenty fecundated ovaries develop in the form of little balls. Each ovary consists of three lodges, two of which atrophy, leaving only one, which enlarges as a single cavity, with white and soft sides, and full of liquid. When three months old the coco is not much larger than a goose's egg, and is perfectly smooth and brilliantly green, and the base of the nut is inserted to the depth of about a third in The oak and the palm are indeed vegetal anti-a reddish cup which supports it. The coco podes, if I may use a learned word for a fact literally and naturally true. Their roots point at each other through the width of the earth;

reaches its full growth after seven months, or dimensions varying from the size of the head of a monkey to the size of the head of a man. Soft

"Well done, little ant!" exclaimed Freddy, "I'll treat my lesson as you did your food. I guess I can get it after all."

fibres now run along it from the base to the top; | time it carried its point. The unfailing energy and the nut becoming too heavy for its stalk of this ant cheered the rough soldier, and restorbegins to grow downward. During five months ed his courage. It is said he never forgot the more the coco hangs and ripens. When a year lesson he learned from this little teacher." old, the coco has acquired the hard brown and fibrous appearance familar to us all, and falls upon the ground with a noise that is heard from afar. The wind may bring cocos down all through the year, and the last remaining coco generally entrains in its fall the stalk and the sheath. Bernardin de Saint Pierre says, naively, the sound which the cocos make in falling upon the ground is intended "to call more than one guest to come to his refreshment." The sound is therefore, I suppose, of the kind of the dinnerbell or breakfast-gong. Thomas Hood may have had this notion in his mind when he sung

There is a land of pure delight
Where omelets grow on trees,
And roasted pigs come crying out,
O! eat me if you please,

The food view of the coco-palm which the numerous guests of the nut banquet unanimously take, gives an unrivalled interest to every detail respecting the life of this wonderful tree, from the long brown roots upwards to the fibrous monkey-nuts. I must not omit in the pages of a journal devoted to aid the conversations of the fireside to talk about the cocos as we know them in Europe, and as they come into our hands and households.

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So said young Freddy Faintheart the other day, as he sat with his elbow on the table, one hand in his hair and the other turning down dog's ears in his book. And then he gave such a yawn that his mouth seemed stretched from ear to ear-almost. His mother was star

tled by the noise, and said:

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Why Freddy, what is the matter?" "O, nothing, only I can't get this lesson. It is tougher than a pine knot, and I shall give it up," replied the boy pettishly.

"Give it up, Freddy? Never, my son. Don't let it be said that a little lesson, which a thousand other children have learned, conquered you. Remember the ant that cheered the Tartar conqueror, Timour, and master your lesson." "Tell me about the ant, mother?"

"Timour," said the mother, "was once forced to flee from his enemies. He hid, in a ruined building and gave way to feelings of sadness. Presently he saw an ant toiling to carry a piece of food into its cell in the old wall. But his load was too heavy. Timour saw it roll back with its load sixty-nine times! But the seventieth

And Freddy did get his lesson. A little effort conquered it, and he jumped up with a laugh in his eye, shouting as he leaped across the floor and saying:

"I've got my lesson!"

The first watches, of which we have any account, were made at Nuremberg, in the seventeenth century, and were called Nuremberg eggs. To Dr. Hooke belongs the honor of inventing the hair spring. The pendulum was suggested to Galileo by the swinging of the chandelier in the cathedral at Pisa. Huggens soon after invented the maintaining power. George Graham. originated the gridiron and the mercurial pendulums. The first pendulum turret clock in Europe was made and erected by Richard Harris, of London, in 1641. Perhaps, the most remarkable clock ever made was that by a clergyman, named Hahn, in the eighteenth century. It was a sort of historical orrery, embracing a period of about ten thousand years, and portraying the chief incidents from the erection until after the apocalypse.

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The Highest during that entire period, (1793-1804,)

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70°

The Lowest, do. do. (1840.) 609

It will be seen, that the temperature of the month

under review this year, exceeded the average for the
past sixty-eight years, almost one degree; while it
was about half a degree less in 1857, than in 1856.
Quite a contrast, however, will be found in the quantity
the month of this year, than last.
of Rains, having been nearly three inches less, during

account of the deaths for the month, of this year.

The writer has been unable to procure an official

Philadelphia, 10th mo., 1857.

J. M. E.

THE PRODUCE MARKET is feeling the money pressure, and lower prices for flour, wheat, corn, and cotton satisfy the holders. Our debts have got to be paid off, and in this process prices will have to go still lower, and become settled, and

food be so cheap that we can afford to go to work before business will flourish again. As all prices are settling at the same time, the relative values of exchangable products will not be much altered by this reduction, so that farmers will really get as much of exchangable value for their products as they did under high prices. They may get but one dollar for their wheat, but if that dollar purchases as great a supply of groceries or domestic goods as two dollars did during the expansion, they do not lose by the reduction. When one dollar does the work that two previously effected it is evident that it will not require so much capital to set industry in motion, or give labor an opportunity to help itself by its own physical energies.

Blest is that man whose happiness is increased at the reflection, that his piety, his wisdom, his kindness, his example, his counsel, his attention, his diligence, has made a little family community more happy, useful and virtuous.

Gratitude is the homage the heart renders to God for his goodness: cheerfulness is the external manifestation of that homage.

PHILADELPHIA MARKETS.

FLOUR AND MEAL.-The Flour market is very dull. Holders are offering standard brands at $550 per bbl. Sales to retailers and bakers, for fresh ground at $53 a $6 per bbl. and fancy brands, from $61 up to $71. Rye Flour is now held at $4 37 per bbl., and Corn Meal is held at $4 per barrel,

GRAIN. The receipts of Wheat continue light, and there is very little demand for it. Mixed red is

held at $1 22 a $1 24, and $1 23 a $1 28 for gold white; only a few samples were offered. Rye sold at 70 a 73 c. Corn is scarce, with small sales of yellow at 73 a 75 c afloat. Delaware oats are in fair supply, at 42 cents per bushel.

HESTERFIELD BOARDING SCHOOL FOR YOUNG MEN AND BOYS.-The Winter session of this Institution will commence on the 16th of 11th month 1857, and continue twenty weeks.

and tri-weekly from the former place. The winter term will commence on the 2d of 11th mo. next, and embraces all the usual branches, comprising a thorough continue twenty weeks. The course of instruction English Education, Drawing included. Terms: $57, including Board, Washing, Tuition, use of Books, Pens, Ink and Lights. The French, Latin and Greek and competent teachers, one a native of New HampLanguages taught at $5 each, extra, by experienced shire, and a graduate of a popular College in that State, whose qualifications have gained her a place amongst the highest rank of teachers. The house is large, and in every way calculated to secure health and comfort to thirty-five or forty pupils.

For Circulars, address

EDITH B. CHALFANT, Principal. Union-Ville, P. O., Chester County, Pa. 9th mo. 5th, 1857.-8 t.

ONDON GROVE BOARDING SCHOOL FOR
YOUNG MEN AND BOYS. It is intended to

L
commence the next Session of this Institution on the
2d of 11th mo., 1857. Terms: $65 for twenty weeks.
For reference and further particulars, inquire for cir-
culars of
BENJ. SWAYNE, Principal.
London Grove, P. O., Chester County, Pa.

ALDRIDGE HILL BOARDING SCHOOL.-The E Winter session (for the education of young men and boys) of this Institution, will open on the 9th of

11th mo., and continue 20 weeks.

The branches of a liberal English education are thoroughly taught by the most approved methods of teaching founded on experience.

Also the elements of the Latin and French languages. Terms, $70 per session.

Those wishing to enter will please make early application.

For full particulars address the Principal for a circular. ALLEN FLITCRAFT,

Eldridge Hill, Salem County N. J.

8 mo. 29, 1857-8 w.

G MEN AND BOYS.-The next winter session of this School will commence on 2d day the 9th of 11th month, 1857, and continue Twenty weeks. Terms $70 per session. Those desirous of entering will please make early application. For circulars giving further information, address either of the undersigned. DANIEL FOULKE, Principal. HUGH FOULKE, Jr., Teacher. Spring House P. O. Montgomery County, Pa.

WYNEDD BOARDING SCHOOL FOR YOUNG

TERMS-$70 per session, one half payable in advance, 8 mo. 22, 1857-8 w.

the other in the middle of the session.

RANKFORD SELECT SEMINARY.-This lu

No extra charges. For further information address HENRY W. RIDGWAY, Crosswicks P. O., Burling-stitution, baving been in successful operation for ton Co., N. J.

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the last twenty years, will now receive six or eight female pupils as boarders in the family. Age under thirteen years preferred.

Careful attention will be paid to health, morals, &c. and they will be required to attend Friends' Meeting on First days, accompanied by one of their teachers, also mid week meetings if desired by parents or guardians. Terms moderate.

LETITIA MURPHY Principal.
SARAH C. WALKER Assistant.
No. 158 Frankford St. Frankford, Pa.
REFERENCES.

John Child, 510 Arch Street.
Thomas T. Child, 452 N. 2d Street below Poplar.
Julia Yerkes, 909 N. 4th Street above Poplar.
Wm. C. Murphy, 43 S. 4th Street above Chestnut.
Charles Murphy, 820 N. 12th Street below Parrish.

Merrihew & Thompson, Prs.,Lodge St., North side Penna. Bank

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