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Show HSB 86 STAY AT NEW HARMONY-OSAGE WOOD. many travellers ; I will therefore merely observe that the plough is different in its construction from that used in Germany, and that the oxen are attached to it by a very peculiar yoke, which consists of a long, thick, crooked piece of wood, which is laid horizontally over the necks of the two oxen, with two bows underneath, through which the heads of the animals are put. The annexed figure will illustrate this : My stay at New Harmony, which was at first intended to be only for a few days, was prolonged by serious indisposition, nearly resembling cholera, to a four months' winter residence. At any other place in this country I should have extremely regretted such a loss of time, but here I derived much instruction and entertainment from my intercourse with two highly-informed men, Mr. Thomas Say and Mr. Lesueur, who, during my two months' illness, gave me constant proofs of kindness, and endeavoured to make our time pass agreeably and usefully. I received also much kindness from other estimable families, Messrs. Owen (who were educated by Fellen-berg, in Switzerland), Mr. Maclure and his sister, and Mr. Twigg. My walks and hunting excursions with the two naturalists were very instructive. Mr. Say's house was in a garden, where he cultivated many interesting plants of the interior of Western America. I there saw a large Madura aurantiaca (Nuttall), the bow or yellow wood, or Osage orange, from the river Arkansas, of the wood of which many Indian tribes make their bows. It is a prickly tree, with very tough wood. There was one at St. Louis, in the garden of Mr. Pierre Chouteau, which did not, however, flourish.* Dr. Pitcher had the kindness to give me some of the seeds of this tree, * In the splendid work, "Genus Pinus," by my lamented friend, A. B. Lambert, Esq., Vice-President of the Linnean Society, lately deceased, there is a plate and an interesting account of this tree. Mr. Lambert states that " it was introduced into England by Lord Bagot, from seeds received from the celebrated naturalist, Mr. Correa de Serra, then ambassador of Portugal to the United States. Lord Bagot has two fine trees in his conservatory, and was so good as to give me plants of it, which are now growing in my conservatory at Boyton."-Translator. |