Whenever you see the branch of a tree blighted, or eaten by insects, procure a shoemaker's awl, and pierce the lower extremity of the branch into the wood; then pour in two or three drops of crude mercury, (which is the quicksilver in common use) and stop up the hole with a small stick. In about forty-eight hours, the insects, not only upon that branch, but upon all the rest of the tree, will be destroyed, and the blights _will immediately_ cease. G.W.N. _On the Live Stock of Britain, France, &c._ Dupin, in a work lately published, with a view to promote the numbers and breeds of the live stock of France, states, that, in Britain, the animal power is eleven times as great as the manual power; while in France it is only four times as great; hence, French labourers receive from animals only a third part of the aid yielded by them in Britain. He also states, that Great Britain consumes three times as much meat, milk, and cheese, as France. The following is the number of horses for every 1,000 inhabitants in the countries mentioned. Hanover, 193; Sweden, 145; Canton de Vaud, (in Switzerland,) 140; Great Britain, 100; Prussia, (six provinces) 95; France, 79. Numbers, however, give a very imperfect idea of the relative amount of horse power, the breeds being so various in the different countries. _Supposed Nervous System in Plants._ M. Dutrochet, in a volume on the moving powers which act in organized bodies, affirms, that there are seen on the walls of the cellular and fibrous tissue of vegetables, small semi-transparent globular bodies and linear bodies, which become opaque from the action of acids, and are rendered transparent by that of alkalies. He considers these small bodies as the elements of a diffused nervous system, to the action of which he ascribes the movements of plants, arising from what is denominated by him the _nervomotility_.--_From the French._ * * * * * THE NOVELIST. * * * * * THE MARRIAGE LESSON. [We are indebted to the last Number (4) of the _Foreign Quarterly Review_ for the following lively nouvelette, from the _Conde Lucanor_ of the Infante Don Juan Manuel, written in the beginning of the fourteenth century. It has much of the _naïvete_ and light humour peculiar to the Spanish novelists, and, to quote the ingenious reviewer, "besides its own merit, possesses that of some striking resemblances to Shakspeare's _Taming of the Shrew_."]