=Natural History.=--There are some peculiarities about the Peanut plant that make it interesting to the naturalist. Its habit of clinging close to the soil, the closing together of the leaves at sunset, or on the approach of a storm, the beautiful appearance of a field of it when full grown, and the remarkable wart-like excrescences found upon the roots, are some of its more notable characteristics. Its striking preference for a calcareous soil is another of its peculiarities, the Peanut producing more and better crops on this kind of soil than on any other. The Peanut belongs to the Natural Order _Leguminosæ_, or pod-bearing plants, and this particular member of it is as unlike all the rest with which we are acquainted, as can well be conceived. No other grows so recumbent upon the soil, and none but this produces seed under ground. The botanical name of the Peanut is _Arachis hypogæa_. The origin of the generic name _arachis_ is somewhat obscure; it is said to come from _a_, privative, and _rachis_, a branch, meaning having no branches, which is not true of this plant. The specific appellation, _hypogæa_, or "under-ground," describes the manner in which the pods grow. The following is a partially technical description of the plant: Root annual, branched, but not fibrous, yellowish, bitter, and warty; Stem procumbent, spreading, much-branched, somewhat hairy towards the extremities; Leaves compound, leaflets obovate, mucronate, margin entire, ciliate when young, smooth and almost leathery with age, leaves closing at night and in rainy weather; Flowers papilionaceous, yellow, borne upon the end of an axillary peduncle. After flowering, the forming-pod is, by the elongation of its stalk, pushed into the soil, beneath which it grows and ripens; Legume, or pod indehiscent, woody and veiny, one to four-seeded; Seed, with a reddish coat, the embryo with two large, fleshy cotyledons, and a very short, nearly straight, radicle. Figure 1 represents a portion of the Peanut plant. [Illustration: Fig. 1.--PORTION OF THE PEANUT PLANT, showing how the minute pods from above-ground flowers are forced into the soil to grow and ripen.]