Make a small basket, about the size of the hand, of iron wire or split willow; then take some lamp-cotton, untwist it, and wind it around every portion of the basket. Then mix alum, in the proportion of one pound with a quart of water, and boil it until the alum is dissolved. Pour the solution into a deep pan, and in the liquor suspend the basket, so that no part of it touch the vessel or be exposed to the air. Let the whole remain perfectly at rest for twenty-four hours; when, if you take out the basket, the alum will be found prettily crystallized over all the limbs of the cottoned frame. In like manner, a cinder, a piece of coke, the sprig of a plant, or any other object, suspended in the solution by a thread, will become covered with beautiful crystals. If powdered tumeric be added to the hot solution, the crystals will be of a bright yellow; if litmus be used instead, they will be of a bright red; logwood will yield them of a purple, and common writing-ink, of a black tint; or, if sulphate of copper be used instead of alum, the crystals will be of fine blue. But the colored alum crystals are much more brittle than those of pure alum, and the colors fly; the best way of preserving them is to place them under a glass shade, with a saucer containing water. This keeps the atmosphere constantly saturated with moisture, the crystals never become too dry, and their texture and color undergo but little change. The Magic Bottle. This trick, if well managed, is one of the most wonderful that can be performed in a drawing-room without apparatus; but it requires dexterity at the conclusion. The person performing the trick offers to pour from a common wine-bottle, port-wine, sherry, milk, and champagne, in succession, and in any order. To accomplish the trick, you must make solutions of the following chemicals, and label the bottles with numbers, thus: No. 1. A mixture of two parts perchloride of iron, and one part sulphuric acid (vitriol). No. 2. A strong solution of the sulphocyanate of potash. No. 3. A strong solution of acetate of lead. No. 4. A solution of bicarbonate of soda, or potash. No. 5. A clear solution of gum arabic. Procure a champagne-bottle, and wash it out well; then pour three teaspoonfuls of No. 1 into it. As the quantity is very small, it will not be observed, especially if you are quick in your movements. Pour some distilled or rain water into a common water-bottle, or jug, and add a tablespoonful of No. 5 to it; then set it aside, ready for use. Provide some wine-glasses, of four different patterns, and into one pattern put one drop of solution No. 2; into another, three drops of solution No. 2; rinse the third with solution No. 3, and the fourth with solution No. 4. Arrange the glasses on a small tray, remembering the solutions that were poured into each pattern.