make cucumbers bitter. Bérard of Montpelier found that the ripening of fruits is merely the turning the acid which they contain into sugar, by exposure to the light; and that too much light and heat, before they have attained their proper size, will bring on premature ripening, and make them insipid. _Lindley's Lectures, reported in the Gardeners' Magazine._ * * * * * PLANTS IN ROOMS. It is very difficult to make plants grow in rooms. They must necessarily be deficient in the three important auxiliaries to vegetable life, light, air, and moisture; the latter of which cannot be maintained in apartments that are daily occupied. In large towns, plants cannot thrive even in the open air, as the minute particles of soot, which are constantly floating about, settle upon their leaves, and choke up their pores. The gases produced by the combustion of coal, &c., are also injurious to plants. Sulphurous acid, which abounds in the atmosphere of London, turns the leaves yellow; and the want of evaporation and absorption by the leaves prevents the proper elaboration of the sap, and makes the trees stunted and unproductive. _Ibid._ * * * * * THE CHLAMYPHORUS. In our account of _the Nine-banded Armadillo_, at page 57 of the present volume, we noticed the curious fact of the whole series of armadillos offering a notable example of one genus being confined to a particular country, viz. South America; of their standing perfectly insulated, and exhibiting all the characters of a creation entirely distinct, and, except as to the general character of mammiferous quadrupeds, perfectly of its own kind.