"The most common kind used in Egypt is made of wood called garmashak (I believe it is maple). The greater part of the stick, from the mouth-piece to three-fourths of its length, is covered with silk, which is confined at each extremity by gold thread, often intertwined with colored silks, or by a tube of gilt or silver; and at the lower extremity of the covering is a tassel of silk. The covering was originally designed to be moistened with water in order to cool the pipe, and consequently the smoke by evaporation; but this is only done when the pipe is old or not handsome. These stick pipes are used by many persons, particularly in winter; in summer the smoke is not so cool from them as from the kind before mentioned. The bowl is of baked earth, colored red or brown." AUSTRIAN AND HUNGARIAN PIPE STEMS. Before passing to the subject of the costly mouth-pieces of Oriental pipes, we must say a few words concerning the extraordinary care bestowed on some kinds of plain wood sticks for stems or tubes. Cherry-tree stems, under the name of agriots, constitute a specialty of Austrian manufacture. The fragrant cherry (prunus makaleb) is a native of that country; and the young trees are cultivated with special reference to this application. They are all raised from seed. The seedlings, when two years old, are planted in small pots, one in each; as they grow, every tendency to branching is choked by removing the bud; and as they increase in size from year to year, they are shifted into larger pots or into boxes. Great care is taken to turn them round daily, so that every part shall be equally exposed to sunshine. When the plants have attained a sufficient height they are allowed to form a small bushy head; but the daily care is continued until the stems grow to a proper thickness. They are then taken out of the ground, the roots and branches removed, and the stem bored through after being seasoned for some time. The care shown in rearing insures a perfect straightness of stem, and an equable diameter of about an inch or an inch and a half. The last specimens, when cut from the tree, are as much as eight feet in length, dark purple-brown in color, and highly fragrant. At Pesth are made pipes about eighteen inches in length, of the shoots of the mock orange, remarkable for their quality in absorbing the oil of tobacco, they are flexible without being weak. The French make elegant pipe-bowls of the root of the tree-heath, but their chief attention is directed, as far as concerns wood pipes, to those of brier-root, which are made by them in large quantities. The bowl and the short stems are carried out of one piece, and the wood is credited with absorbing some of the rank oil of tobacco.