made as pure as possible, it is kneaded into cakes for use. Four pounds of berries yield about a pound of wax, which is at first yellow, but finally assumes a greenish tinge.

The Shirt Tree is found in South America. Baron Humboldt, the Prussian traveller, who visited that country, thus describes the plant; "We saw on the slope of the Sierra Dnida, shirt trees, fifty feet high. The Indians cut off cylindrical pieces, two feet in diameter, from which they peel the red and fibrous bark without making any longitudinal incision. This bark affords them a sort of garment, which resembles sacks of a very coarse texture, and without a seam. The upper opening serves for the head, and two lateral holes are cut to admit the arms. The natives wear these shirts in the rainy season; and as in South America the amazing bounties of Providence are generally perverted by the inhabitants to the indulgence of habitual indolence, the Roman Catholic Missionaries accounted for it by observing, when they exhibited, as natural curiosities, these shirts of Marima, that in the forests of the Oronooko, the natives find even their garments ready made upon the trees." The Pitcher-plant was first discovered on the Southern shores of New Holland. The peculiarity of its structure consists in certain appendages called ascidia or pitchers, which are supported by stalks and arranged in a circle below the leaves; these are so many urns containing each a portion of water. In the morning the lid is closed, but it opens during the day, when a portion of the water evaporates; this, however, is replenished in the night, and each morning the vessel is full, and the urn closed. As this plant grows in sultry climates, and is found in the island of Java, in the most stony and arid situations, how welcome and exhilarating must the sight of it often be to the weary traveller; and the marks of teeth upon the vessel may be taken as evidence, that beasts also supply their wants from the same source.

The Palo de Vaca, Milk-tree, or Cow-tree, so called from the resemblance its singular juice bears to the milk of animals, is thus described by Baron Humboldt; "I confess that, among the great number of curious pheno

mena, I have observed in the course of my travels, there are few, which have made a stronger impression on my mind, than the Cow-tree. On the barren declivities of a rock grows a tree, whose leaves are dry and coriaceous: its thick roots scarcely enter the rock; for several months in the year, rain scarcely waters its fan-shaped leaves; the branches appear dry and dead; but, when an incision is made in the trunk, a sweet and nutritious milk flows from it. It is at the rising of the sun that the vegetable liquid runs most abundantly, then the natives and the negroes are seen to come from all parts, provided with vessels to receive the milk, which becomes yellow, and thickens at the surface. We have seen on the road from Patito to Puerto Cabello, all these trees full of incisions, made by the traveller, who seeks them with anxiety."

Various.

X.--CLASSIFICATION OF QUADRUPEDS.

THE number of distinct species of quadrupeds is supposed to be about two hundred. Of these we have already noticed various classes distinguished by the name of some well known animal, which they resemble in their habits and structure. Thus we have noticed the animals of the cat kind, those of the dog kind, and also those of the horse, cow, sheep, and deer kinds. The remaining classes are-1st, The hog kind, comprehending the common sow, the wild boar, the babyrouessa or Indian hog, with two large bending tusks springing from its upper jaw, and two smaller from its lower; also, the peccary or tajacu of South America, with bristles almost resembling the quills of a porcupine, and without a tail. All these have cloven hoofs, and an appetite for flesh.

The next class is that of the weasel kind, having a long small body, with five toes or claws on each foot, the first of them separated from the rest like a thumb. This comprehends the weasel, six inches long, the ferret, eleven, the polecat, seventeen, and the martin, eighteen inches long; the ermine, and the sable, whose furs are

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the most valuable hitherto known, a single skin being sometimes sold for several pounds sterling; and lastly, the genet and civet, both of which yield a valuable perfume.

The third class is that of the rabbit kind, comprehending the rabbit, the hare; the Guinea-pig, the squirrel, the dormouse, and some others.

The fourth class is that of the hedge-hog kind, with claw feet, and covered with prickles, comprehending the hedge-hog, with spines an inch long, the porcupine, with spines or quills a foot long, the couando of South America, and the urson of Hudson's bay, the latter two having shorter quills.

The fifth class is that of the tortoise kind, comprehending the tortoise, covered with a shell; the pangolin, misnamed the scaly lizard, a native of the torrid zone, whose scales are so hard as to turn a musket ball; the armadillo or tatou of America, covered with shells, which lie in bands lapping over each other.

The sixth class is that of the amphibious kind, comprehending the otter, which has webbed feet, fitting it for an aquatic life; the seal, seven or eight feet long, resembling partly a quadruped and partly a fish, having a limb like a hand at each side with five long black claws; the walrus, improperly called the sea-cow or sea-horse, from twelve to sixteen feet long, and eight or nine in circumference, with two large ivory tusks like the elephant, having no trunk, but hands and feet like the seal, and a long and tapering body covered with hair; lastly, the beaver, which has taught us to what a degree animals, without language or reason, can combine for their mutual comfort.

The seventh class is that of winged quadrupeds, containing the bat and the flying squirrel.

The eighth class is that of the ape and monkey kinds, with hands, and feet resembling hands.

The animals which seem to approach no other kind either in nature or in shape, but to form each a distinct species in itself, are the elephant, the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, the camel, the camel-leopard, the bear, the American tapir, resembling a hog with its hoof divided into three portions, and with a proboscis somewhat re

sembling the elephant's trunk, but much shorter; and the opossum and kangaroo, with very short fore-legs and long hind-legs, and having an abdominal pouch for carrying their young. The most interesting of these will be described in a subsequent lesson. In the meantime, we shall close this with an account of two rather remarkable animals, though of very different habits.

The Glutton, sometimes ranked in the weasel class, is larger than a badger, of a glossy black-brown colour, and so remarkable for its voracity, that it will eat thirteen pounds of flesh in a day without being satisfied. It is found in Lapland and Siberia, and is a dangerous enemy to the rein-deer and other animals. It waits whole weeks together for its prey, hid in the branches of some spreading tree; and when the wild rein-deer passes underneath, it instantly drops down upon it, fixing its teeth and claws into the neck, just behind the horns. In vain does the wounded animal fly to seek protection, in vain it rustles among the branches of the forest-the glutton still holds on, and although it often loses a part of its skin and flesh, which are rubbed off against the trees, it still keeps fast, until its prey drops with fatigue and loss of blood. The deer has only one method of escape, which is by jumping into the water; this compels the glutton to quit his hold, and consult his own security.

The Beaver is about two feet long and nearly one foot high; shaped somewhat like a rat, except its tail, which is flat and covered with scales, and is an actual portion of a fish joined to the body of a quadruped. The tail is a foot long, about six inches broad, and one inch thick, and serves as a rudder to direct the motions of the animal in the water. The beaver is the only creature among quadrupeds furnished with such an appendage; it is also the only quadruped that has membranes between the toes on the hind feet only, and none on the fore feet, which supply the place of hands as in the squirrel. Its colour is a bright brown; and its teeth are like those of a rat or squirrel, but longer and stronger, admirably adapted for cutting timber or stripping bark, purposes to which they are almost constantly applied.

The beavers begin to assemble in June and July, numbers arriving from every side, till they form a company of about two hundred, which are to continue as one society till the following spring. They fix upon the bank of a lake or river for their abode. If it be a lake they build no dam; but if it be a running stream, subject to floods and falls, they set about building a dam or pier across the river, so as to form a dead water either above or below. This dam or pier is often eighty or one hundred feet long, and ten or twelve feet thick at the base, diminishing towards the top, where it is no more than two feet broad. The whole slope, however, is towards the current, the other side being quite perpendicular. If we compare the greatness of the work with the powers of the architect, it will appear enormous; but the solidity wherewith it is built is still more astonishing than its size. They select a part of the river where the water is most shallow, and where some great tree is found growing by the side of the stream. This tree, though thicker than a man's body, they cut down with their teeth, and they always contrive to make it fall the way they wish, that is across the river. They then cut off the top branches, to make it lie close and even; and it serves as the principal beam of their fabric. They then cut from the forest large pieces of wood, some as thick as a man's arm or thigh, and from four to six feet in length. They drive in the one end of these stakes into the ground at a small distance one from the other, intermingling others that are smaller and more pliant; they then fill up all the cavities with a kind of mortar made of clay and dry grass, so that the water is duly confined. Whilst this work is going on, the busy artificers may be seen swimming with their mortar on their tails, and their stakes in their teeth, to the place where they are wanted.

The dike or mole being thus completed, they build in a very firm and substantial nanner on the edge of their reservoir, a fabric of three stories, consisting of several apartments, each capable of containing six or eight beavers. These are vaulted inside, and plastered