Called Caravaggio, belongs to the school of Lombardy by birth, but to that of Rome by education. He was born at Caravaggio, in the Milanese, in 1495, and died in 1543, aged forty-eight years. His parents being very indigent, he went to Rome in search of employment, where he was engaged as a porter by the artists who were employed upon the Vatican, to carry mortar for the plaster of their fresco paintings. Whilst occupied in this humble station, he observed very attentively with what facility the artists executed the designs of Raphael; and, inspired by his natural disposition for the arts, he made some attempts, which attracted the notice of this master, of whom he afterward became one of the most illustrious disciples.

Having formed an intimate friendship with Maturino of Florence, and assisted by his advice, Caravaggio applied himself assiduously to the study of ancient statues and bas-reliefs; in the delineation of which he so much excelled, that he was selected by Raphael to paint the friezes which accompanied the works of that master in the Vatican; and they were in no way unworthy of being placed with the sublime productions of that artist.

It was the custom, at this time, at Rome, to ornament the exterior of the principal houses and palaces with the works of eminent artists executed in a style called by the Italians ‘graffito,’ expressed by hatchings on the plaster, in the manner of engraving.  In works of this nature Caravaggio and his friend Maturino were much employed, and it is greatly to be regretted, that their exposure to the weather and the ravages of time, have deprived the art of these valuable productions, of whose beauty we may form some judgment, from the prints which have been engraved from some of them by Alberti, Goltius, and Galstruzzi.

The tibia, which is the principal and internal bone of the leg, is of a triangular form, and larger above than below. The upper end of the tibia is large, bulbous, and spongy, and is divided into two cavities, by a rough, irregular protuberance, which is hollow at its most prominent part, as well before as behind. The two cavities are for receiving the condyles of the femoral bone. At the back part of the tibia, the same canal is continued between the condyles, for transmitting blood-vessels and nerves, as in the bone of the thigh. At the anterior part of this bone, is a cavity for the reception of the patella, which corresponds with one between the condyles of the femoral bone. At the internal part of the lower end of the tibia, is a process which forms the inner ankle. Still lower, at the extremity of the tibia, is a transverse articulating cavity, covered with cartilage, and divided by a ridge, which receives one of the bones of the foot. The body of the tibia has three angles, and as many flat surfaces. One of the flat surfaces is turned directly backwards, and one of the angles is placed directly at the fore part of the bone, and is that sharp ridge, called the shin, which is felt by the finger, being only covered by the common integuments of the body.

The fibula, which is placed externally, and parallel to the tibia, is a triangular and very thin bone, nearly as long as the tibia. Its superior extremity is united to the head of the tibia by means of cartilage. Its head does not rise quite so high as that of the tibia, and has, therefore, no connection with the thigh bone.

This tree may be cultivated by scions and layers, or by budding on stocks of the same, or on the pear, hawthorn, &c. It flourishes best in a moist soil, where it produces the greatest crops, but will thrive in almost any good upland soil. It requires little attention as to pruning, but must be kept clear from suckers at fie root; an occasional thinning out, however, of superfluous upper branches, where too close and interfering with one another, would be advantageous. The Orange Quince is the earliest in ripening, and the Pear and Portugal next, and the Winter being the latest of all, may be preserved for a long time, and used as occasion requires. From the south of France some other fi ie varieties have been received, which are enumerated in the Catalogue, and whose merits will be noticed in a subsequent publication. The following having been originally from China and Japan, I will make a few remarks in relation thereto.

Chinese Quince—This tree is said to produce flowers ©fa fine red color and pleasant odor, to yield oblong fruit of beautiful appearance, which ripens in October and November; the fruit, however, is not considered suitable for the table, or equal to other quinces for preserves ; and the tree must be considered as more calculated for ornament than use.

Jafian Quince, or Cydonia Jafionica.—This was formerly called Pyrus Japonica, and it is not till latterly that its title has been changed, after the discovery that Its fruit, when well ripened, is of good size and nearly equal to the favorite quinces usually cultivated in our gardens; there are two varieties, one with scarlet and the other with pale blush colored blossoms, which are very ornamental.

Bred chiefly in the midland counties, is a very powerful animal, and used for agricultural purposes; but the most powerful specimens are sent to the large towns as dray horses. The color is generally black. The whole form is so constructed as to possess great power, and the gentle willing obedient nature of the animal renders him one of the most valuable slaves of man. The head of the cart horse is not always thick and chubby; it is often on the contrary finely formed, the neck arched, the shoulders thick, the breast very deep, broad and capacious; the shoulder but slightly slanting, the legs, especially the fore ones, very muscular, the back a little slack, arising from high feeding; great rotundity of form and well ribbed in: short fetlocks and round hoofs complete the picture of one of the most noble and massive animals—combining with his amazing strength the gentleness and docility of a pet, so that an infant might drive him.

The peculiar click of the tongue by his owner will set him to draw a couple of tons weight cheerfully, while he is instantly obedient to the carter’s “woh;”—an “aw” turns him round to the left—while a “gee” possesses the same power in turning him to the right; and he possesses endurance, and patience, and affection, which renders him even intelligent. Happy ploughman! whistling your merry tune, the horses gallantly tossing their heads in delight; you live in light, and air, and freedom, and glow under the radiance of the canopy of heaven.

The most renowned among the immediate scholars of Raphael, his heir, and the continuator of his works, was born at Rome in the year 1492, and died in 1546, aged fifty-four years. While a pupil, he followed less his master’s delicacy, than energy of character, and chiefly signalized himself in subjects of war and battles, which he represented with equal spirit and erudition. Vasari, who visited him at Mantua, prefers his drawings to his pictures, as being fuller of that original fire which distinguishes his conception, and which was apt to evaporate in the longer process of finishing.

After he had completed the Hall of Constantine in the Vatican, from the design of his master Raphael, he went to Mantua, where he found a wide field for the exercise of his powerful genius, both in architecture and in painting, at the palace of the T, which was ornamented entirely by him, or by his scholars under his direction. The ‘ Victory of Jupiter over the Giants;’ the ‘ Fall of Phaeton;’ the ‘Marriage of Cupid and Psyche;’ and ‘ Acis fleeing with Galatea from the monster Polyphemus,’ are all finely executed, and command the admiration of connoisseurs.

The altar pieces of Giulio are not numerous, and he did not live to complete those which he had commenced at Mantua. The most remarkable of those which he finished with his own hand, are the three frescos at St. Mark, and, in the church of St. Christopher, the athletic figure of that saint, groaning under the weight of the divine Infant on his shoulders.

The thigh is made up of the femoral bone, covered with muscles and the common integuments, including between them the femoral artery and veins, and the nerves of the lower extremities. The large muscular mass, situated on the front part of the thigh, is the principal instrument by which the leg is extended; it is assisted by three muscles, situated on the sides of the thigh. The muscles on the back part of the thigh are for bending the leg. The muscles which move the thigh itself arc situated, principally, about the sides and back part of the pelvis. Two very considerable ones, however, are within the lower part of the abdomen; they are those by which the thigh is bent forwards; the tendons of these muscles pass out at the openings in the inferior part of the pelvis; some smaller muscles of the thigh also rise within the pelvis; these are principally concerned in the lateral and rotatory motions of the limb.

The femoral bone.—the femoral, or thigh bone, is the longest bone in the body, and is the largest, thickest, and strongest of the cylindrical bones. The lower extremities are connected to the trunk by the head of this bone, which is received into the acetabulum. The thigh bones are not placed in a perpendicular direction, their upper ends being much further apart than the lower. The body of this bone is somewhat of a triangular form; it is convex before and flat behind, and is marked, particularly behind, by bony ridges, which serve for the connection of muscles. This bone is perforated at one or two places for the reception of blood-vessels.

This is a tree which accommodates itself to a variety of soils, and will succeed anywhere but in a clay, a very arid, or a low wet situation. The soil, however, to be preferred, is a light, rich, or sandy loam of considerable depth. The soil around them must be kept cultivated until they have attained a considerable size. If thfi bodies of the trees become bark-bound, some rotten manure must be dug in around them, and the bodies and largest branches be brushed over with soft soap.

Yellow Sfianish.—This is a cherry of the largest size, and at the same time one of the most luscious It is a variety of the Duke, of a sti aw color, dotted on one side with small red spots, and added to its fine quality, it is a constant bearer. The skin appears so delicate, that I do not think it so well calculated for transportation as some others, and I have also noticed that, probably from the same circumstance, the fruit is apt to rot during long continued rains at the period of ripening. At Boston this cherry is sometimes called the Carnation, and by others the Bigarreau, the latter term invariably indicates hard cherries.

Elkhorn.—This is one of the largest black cherries I have ever seen, its size varies little from that of the Black Tartarian, but it ripens two weeks later, and is peculiarly distinct from every other kind; the flesh, when eaten, having a liver-like consistence and very solid.

Whatever share the fleet sons of the desert may have in our rural sports, or whatever share they may be supposed to add to man’s safety, there is no other race of horses so utterly indispensable to man as the draught horse. He is the substratum of all animal power. Ho tills the land, he carts the produce in its raw and manufactured state, he is the precise link between civilization and barbarism; nay, without him it is impossible to conceive a state of very high civilization at all. There are three prevailing breeds in Great Britain, which are each of them valuable in their way and for their locality,—the Clydesdale or large Scotch horse, the smaller but not less broadly developed Suffolk Punch, and the medium between the two, the old English draught horse, the parent of the dray horses in London.

The present breeds of draught horses in England are remarkable for their gigantic size, vast power, and slow, deliberate motion. The most esteemed Scottish horse is the Clydesdale; for that breed, although of large size, possesses greater suppleness of limb and more activity than the heavy Flemish. He is not infrequently sixteen to as much as sixteen and a half hands high. Power more than beauty, however, is their prevailing characteristic. They have often large heads, ill-defined jaws, and round sour-looking muzzles. They are sometimes somewhat flat in their sides and plain and low in their quarters. Still they are the most powerful and enduring horse known for the plough and the cart.

Raphael Sanzio Da Urbino, the third and last of the great triumvirate, was born in the city of Urbino, on Good Friday, March 28th, 1483, and died at Rome on Good Friday, April 7th 1520, when he had just completed his thirty-seventh year. He was the son of Giovanni Sanzio, a painter of no great reputation, who finding that the taste of Raphael merited more skilful instruction, placed him as a pupil with Pietro Vanucci, commonly called Perugino, who was then in very high esteem.* In 1499, Raphael, then only sixteen years of age, quitted Perugino, and went to the neighboring town of Citta di Castello, where he painted the ‘Crucifixion,’ for the church of the Dominicans, a ‘ Coronation of the Virgin,’ for the convent of the Eremitani, now in, the Vatican, and a ‘ Holy Family,’ at Formio, in which the Virgin is represented as lifting a veil from the sleeping infant.

About this time the painting of the library of the cathedral at Seinna had been entrusted to his friend and fellow pupil, Pinturiccio, who invited Raphael to assist him in the work. He complied with the request, and had already completed a great part of the cartoon, illustrative of the history of Pope Pius II, when his curiosity was excited by the fame spread throughout Italy of the cartoons prepared by the great artists Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo, for the council hall at Florence. He consequently left his engagement with Pinturiccio, and in the autumn of the year 1504, preceded to that city.

The fingers are composed of three bones, each articulated, one to the end of the other, forming joints which enable them to bend inwards towards the palm of the hand; these bones are covered with ligaments, cellular membrane, and skin. Along their sides run blood-vessels, and on their inner surface the tendons of the muscles which can move them.

The lower bones of the fingers are attached by a moveable articulation to the bones which form the body of the hand. The motions of the fingers are effected by muscles, situated on the fore arm, from which long tendons run down over the wrist and palm of the hand, to be attached to the bones of the fingers. At the wrist, they-are bound down by a circular ligament: were it not for this ligament, when the fingers are bent, they would start up from their places like the string of a bow.

One set of the tendons is inserted into the middle bones of the fingers, the other into the extremities of the latter. To preserve the free action of the two sets, and, at the same time, that they may be disposed in the most convenient manner, there is a loop or slit in each of the short tendons, through which the others pass. By this contrivance, the strongest muscles *are made to act upon the part at which the greatest power is required.