describes potatoes as " those round balls of
farinaceous food," but they were destined in
after days to acquire, at least for a time in
Ireland, the appellation of the " root of all evil."
The spot near Youghal, where they were first
planted in these islands, on the estate which Sir
Walter had acquired by the forfeiture of the
Earl of Desmond, one of the Geraldines, is still
pointed out to the stranger, and tradition declares
that the early knowledge of their value came by
accident. Sir Walter having directed his gardener
to gather some of the plants for his table, the
valueless seed-apples which had been produced
from the blossoms were accordingly presented
to Raleigh, who, on tasting the supposed sample
of fine American fruit, immediately commanded
the gardener to dig out and throw the worthless
weeds away. In this operation the roots were
subsequently found in high perfection, and the
discovery must have attracted notice, for we
find potatoes mentioned twice in Shakespeare.
Falstaff in the Merry Wives of Windsor,
exclaims: "Let the sky rain potatoes!" and in
Troilus and Cressida, Thersites in the Grecian
camp before Troy certainly a strange anachronism
complains of the devil luxury, with
"his potato finger." Asparagus probably was
brought from Western Europe, for many of the
steppes of Southern Russia are covered with the
wild plant, which is there eaten as grass by
horses and cattle. Lettuce and celery, also
acclimatised vegetables, are in their present
state of perfection striking examples of the
influence of culture: while the pine-apple and the
melon, productions of the tropics, are by the
artificial aid of glass so reared in England as
to become more delicious than they are in their
own lands. The Jerusalem artichoke is a native
of Brazil, but the plant having the habit of the
sunflower, the name is a strange corruption of
Girasol, from the Italian words "girare," to
turn, and "sol," the sun, to turn to the sun,
and the blunder is well clinched in modern
cookery, when out of Jerusalem artichokes is
made Palestine soup.

So much for what we have received. For
what we are going to receive let us now show
ourselves thankful. The eland antelope is the
finest specimen of the deer kind which the land
of antelopes, Southern Africa, has as yet sup-
plied. But the eland is no longer exclusively
African. The travelled sportsmen who had
revelled amidst the wild herds of Caffraria were
loud in praising the venison, and the trials we
have as yet had of the haunches justify report.
Sir Cornwall Harris, in delight, assures us that
"the venison fairly melts in the mouth, and as
for the brisket, it is absolutely a cut for a
monarch." The eland has been already
successfully acclimatised in our parks, and its
imposing size—for it frequently attains the height
of nineteen hands, and weight of from fifteen
hundred to two thousand pounds—makes it an
object of real economic interest. It has proved
itself capable of enduring all the vicissitudes of
our climate, breeds freely in confinement, and
requires little more care than is usually bestowed
on valuable cattle. This noble animal promises
to become a permanent inhabitant, and while
some day delighting epicures by the splendour
of its cheap venison—

The haunch is a picture for painters to study,
The fat is so white, and the lean is so ruddy—

may by its strength and speed, if the agricultural
machines do not make an end of the use of
animal strength as a moving power, come into
harness on our farms. The Impeyan pheasant
of the Himalaya, perhaps, from its size and the
richness of its plumage, the most splendid of all
birds, has proved itself by endurance of
confinement, and by breeding in this country under
that disadvantage, able to bear the rigours of
our winters and adapt itself as a mountain-bird
to the northern forests of our island. The black-
necked swan of Chili has recently produced in
England young and healthy cygnets, and these
noble birds, brilliant in the contrast of velvet
black and snowy-white with coral bills, are des-
tined to add graceful and interesting ornaments
to our rivers and our lakes. The mandarin
duck, so highly prized in China that it was with
extreme difficulty that a few pairs could be
procured for England, will soon be a natural
member of our poultry-yards. There are no true
partridges in America, but their absence is amply
supplied by a numerous family of which the
Californian colin is the most prized, and, as it
breeds freely in England, we anticipate that we
shall yet see it established as one of our favourite
game birds.

Our own Australian dependencies have already
transmitted to us new and remarkable varieties:
the black swan, considered by the Romans an
impossibility, has been long naturalised, and we
have lately received a fine bird, between a swan
and a goose, known as the white swan goose,
which thrives in confinement. The satin bower
birds of Australia have been successfully
acclimatised, and may be seen at the Regent's Park
weaving with consummate decorative skill from
twigs, feathers, shells, and other simple
materials, their arbour-like galleries and over-arched
avenues, through which they pursue each other,
Professor Owen, in a recent publication,
observes that the female, like our magpie,
builds the nest in the concealment of a tree,
and suggests that the propensity of our native
pilferer to carry off glittering objects may be
the remnant of a similar bower-building and
ornamental instinct, although in the case of our
magpie circumstances have restrained to
necessaries the indulgence of its taste. The brush
turkey of Australia, or, as the colonists term
this extraordinary bird, the talegalla, has been
naturalised in our Zoological Gardens, and is an
object of extreme curiosity, from the singular
manner in which the reproduction of its family
is effected by mound-raising. The birds raise
a mound of earth, leaves, grass, and other
vegetable materials, capable, by fermentation, of creating
and retaining heat. In this the eggs are
deposited, and, being buried carefully, are watched
by the birds until the youngsters, fully matured,