This plum, sometimes called the Bolmer, is of doubtful origin, and it is bur of latter years that it has been known by either of the above titles. Some few years ago, Mr. Bolmer, a very respectable merchant of NewYork, finding it in his collection, and deeming it a new variety, it was presented by him to a number of his friends, and from one or more of them received the appellation of Bolmer’s Washington.

Its extraordinary size and fine gage flavor caused it to attract much notice, and supposing it a novelty, I procured a tree for myself, for which I paid three dollars, a price at which they were readily selling at the time; but what Was my surprise, when, as its foliage and fruit were developed, to find it an old and familiar acquaintance, which had been cultivated at the Nurseries at Flushing during a long course of years, under the title of ” Superior Gage;” and of which trees, of the thickness of a man’s thigh, were to be seen throughout the country, and particularly in the garden of Mr. Van Sindren, and others in this vicinity. Mr. James Bloodgood, of Flushing, (since deceased) made also the same discovery about the same time. Three years since, happening to be on a visit at Albany, I was again surprised to meet the same plum in the garden of Isaac Dennisen, Esq., under the name of the ” Double Imperial Gage.” The trees in his garden were of very large size, and he stated to me, that he had obtained them under the above name 18 years before, from the vicinity of New-York.

It is not an easy task to find a good description of the Cleveland Bay, a horse fit in itself for all sorts of work—that is to say, combining more of all qualities, draught, speed, and power, than perhaps any horse we could name; and yet possessing none of these in too high a degree. There are few races of horses which a cross with the Cleveland will not improve in making it fit for all work. Strong as is the clay of the Vale of Cleveland, still the horse is light, clean-legged, and compact,—good in bone, and excelling both in speed and in action;—will draw the cart or plough with cheerfulness and facility— will take his master to fair or market with pleasant action if not with spirit—will pull gallantly, if not at high speed, his dog-cart or his gig—nay, will on a pinch carry him after the harriers, or even the foxhounds, over a heavy country;—and, though she can neither fence nor gallop so well or so fast as some, she will carry him fairly through a long hard day; it must be confessed, however, that she is here more out of her element, than, perhaps, in any other service.

In herself she is neither a roadster, a coacher, nor a hunter; but give her a cross of blood and her progeny is fit for anything. An excellent drudge of all work; she may be made useful in her way for all, by judicious crossing. Hence the pure bred Clevelands are fast dying out, and it is hardly possible to obtain them without some alloy.

Rome takes the precedence of all other schools of painting, in having furnished the first name that stands on the catalogue of its great masters. The stimulus of example it owes undoubtly to Florence, and seems very early to have profited by the light that began to restore the arts to view in the thirteenth century.

This school owes its great importance and success to the fact that Rome was so rich in the productions of Greece, either brought from that country, or finished in its own bosom by the Grecian artists; and by the study of those inestimable relics of antiquity within her walls, her artists were evidently formed. They derived from them, the knowledge of design, beauty of exquisite form, greatness of style and justness of expression. From them also they obtained the principles of the art of drapery, and while following their examples, they made the drapery of modern paintings even more large and flowing than that practiced by the ancient sculptors.

The Roman school was altogether devoted to the principal parts of the art — to those which require genius and vast conceptions; and was no farther occupied with colors, than was necessary to establish a difference between painting and sculpture, or rather between painting varied with colors, and in chiaro-scuro.* This effect however was but imperfectly Chiaro-scuro, (compounded of two Italian words, chiaro, light, and understood till about the middle of the fifteenth century, the painters prior to this period having had very little idea of what are called projecting shadows.

This very important part of the human body—to the possession of which man is indebted, in a very great degree, for that dominion which he exercises over all the objects by which he is surrounded—is composed of bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles, covered with the common integuments. It is divided into the metacarpus, fingers, and thumb. The metacarpus is composed of four long slender bones which sustain the fingers, and form with the latter a joint.

Each of the fingers is composed of three bones, attached by a moveable joint to the end of each other. The thumb, like the fingers, is composed of three bones; but the bone at its base, instead of being articulated to a metacarpal bone, is jointed to one of the bones of the carpus. The principal muscles which move the hand, with the exception of those of the thumb, and one or two of the little finger, are situated on the fore arm, and are attached to the bones of the hand by long tendons.

The muscles of the thumb are situated about its root, and those of the little finger, on the outer side of the hand. The rotary motion of the hand is produced by muscles which act upon the radius, to which the hand is attached, and cause it to revolve partially at its lower extremity around the ulna. Man is the only animal that possesses an organ similarly constructed with the hand; and to this, as well as to his intellect, is he indebted to his supremacy over every other animal.

This plum, I have little hesitation in saying, is the largest known either in Europe or America. The largest white or yellow plum in Europe, as far as my “information extends, is the Yellow Egg, or White Magnum Bonum, which is an oval fruit; and the largest red or purple plums are the Imperial Violet, Jerusalem, and some of the prunes. The Hulings’ Superb I received from Dr. William E. Hulings, of Pennsylvania, a gentleman distinguished as much for his zeal and perspicuity in the introduction of new and valuable fruits to proper notice, as for the extreme liberality evinced in their dissemination to others.

To that gentleman I am indebted for the following remarks:—” I have had a fully ripe and delicious plum from my tree, ‘ weighing three ounces and seventy-eight grains, and measuring round six inches and seven-tenths.” I saw the fruit of this tree, which stands immediately beside a Washington plum, and it was decidedly the largest of the two. The fruit is of a roundish form and greenish color, bearing an affinity to the gage, from which it doubtless originated. Where I to venture a supposition as to its parentage, I should suppose it to have originated from the Green Gage, impregnated by the White Magnum Bonum.

It is three years since I began to cultivate it, and I have already sent a number to different parts of the Union, and several hundred are now in the Nurseries. In a more recent letter from Dr. H., he remarks, that this plum “is very fine flavored and sweet, and the first in rank among filiums”—in which opinion I fully concur; its present title was given to it by me, in honor of that gentleman.

The first use of the horse, after his subjugation and domestication, was undoubtedly that of carrying his rider on his back. This would be suggested by his having four legs and a back suited to carry a burden, and, above all, fitted to be bestrode by his master, man. But soon his power of drawing a burden after him would also be obvious, the fitness of his shoulder for this purpose, would very speedily manifest itself. Hence lie would draw first perhaps the sledge, then the wheeled carriage,—both for the purpose of transporting his master from one locality to another, and also for transporting his food and his conveniences in any direction which might be necessary. For these purposes he required power for the heavy weight, and speed for the lighter. The ratio between speed and power, so easily reduced to a graduated scale in the inanimate steam-engine, is equally applicable to animal power;—mean capabilities being taken into consideration in both cases equally. The ultimate power of a horse depends on the amount of weight he can draw in a given time.

Thus, taking an average horse to be able to draw one hundred and sixty pounds, his pace would be two miles per hour. There is a great mistake generally prevalent as to the force of traction a horse possesses. Take a plough as a criterion; the lightest two horse plough draws equal to one hundred weight, or 112 lbs. per horse, and he walks at the rate of three miles per hour, for ten hours a-day; while the heaviest plough in which two horses are put will take fifty per cent, more force of traction, or say one hundred weight and a half per horse.

The last distinguished master of the early Florentine school, was born at Florence in 1616, and died in 1686, aged seventy years. He was a disciple of Jacops Vignati, an artist scarcely known in history. His first attempt was a whole length figure of St. John, painted when he was only eleven years of age, which received extraordinary approbation; and this was succeeded by the portrait of his mother, which gained general applause; and from this period his new and delicate style procured him much employment at Florence and other parts of Italy. He was particularly fond of painting sacred subjects; and his works are easily distinguished, not so much by any superiority to other great artists in design or force, as by the peculiar delicacy of his compositions; by a pleasing tint of color, improved by a judicious management of the chiaro-scuro, which gave a surprising relief to his figures; by the graceful air of his heads; and a general harmony pervading the whole.

His most celebrated works are an ‘Ecce Homo’ and a ‘Saint Apollonia,’ in the Corsini palace at Rome, the latter said to be a portrait of his eldest daughter ;* a ‘ St. Sebastian in the Corsini palace, and the ‘ Four Evangelists,’ in the Ricardi palace at Florence, a ‘ Saint Cecilia,’ ‘Herodias with the head of John the Baptist,’ and ‘Christ blessing the Bread and Wine, in the Dresden gallery.

Carlo Dolce left a daughter Agnese, who imitated without equaling her father, and furnished many of the copies made from his numerous pictures.

The upper extremity, in man, from the shoulder to the wrist, is called the arm. It is composed of three bones, covered with muscles and the common integuments, and is plentifully supplied with nerves and blood-vessels. From the shoulder to the elbow, the arm contains a single round bone, called the humerus. It has a large round head, partly set on one side, by which it ia attached to a superficial cavity, situated on the anterior part of the shoulder blade. The humerus is larger and rounder at its upper part, and becomes smaller and flatter as it approaches the elbow. This bone is liable to be dislocated at the shoulder joint, and to fracture at any part of its length.

The arm, or fore arm, extending from the elbow to the wrist, has two bones, extending parallel the whole length of the fore arm. The inner of these bones, called ulna, forms the elbow by a large hooked projection; the upper end of the ulna is the largest, and is connected by a hinge-like joint to the humerus. The radius is the outermost of the bones of the fore arm; it is nearly similar in shape to the ulna, but having its largest end at the wrist, with which it is articulated by a kind of hinge-joint; the upper end is attached to the side of the ulna by a ring of cartilage: there is a somewhat similar attachment of the lower end of the ulna to that of the radius; in consequence of this arrangement, in the rotatory motions of the wrist, the radius revolves above upon its own axis, and the ulna below, partly around the radius.

The plum is not difficult in adapting itself to almost any soil; indeed, it flourishes in every situation but in a clay, marshy, or too sandy soil. A light rich soil is however preferable, and the same care is necessary as has been recommended for fruit trees generally, in keeping the ground cultivated around them when young; for although it is a common observation, that plum trees succeed best in a hard trodden soil, and though such a situation may cause the trees to retain their fruit, still it must be decidedly unfavorable to their growth. Plums, apricots, and nectarines, are smooth skinned fruit, and are in some parts of the United States subject to be injured by a small bug called the curculio, which stings the fruit, and causes it to drop before it has attained its proper size.

Their depredations may be effectually prevented by paving round the trees as far as the branches extend, as it has been incontestably proved, by frequent experiments made by the author and others, that the curculiu will not infest those trees where they cannot find means of immediately concealing themselves in the ground on dropping from the branches. Plum trees are also subject to injury from another insect, which stings the branches, and causes large protuberances to form on them, which, if not cut off, produce a canker that in time destroys the tree.

There are a number of kinds, however, which are very little subject to the attacks of this insect, and some which are not at all so.

Silvertail was another of these extraordinary horses: he was not discovered to be a trotter till past his tenth year, when, a person riding him, got angry with him, and beat him severely, which had only the effect of making him trot faster, instead of breaking into a gallop. On making this discovery several matches made were won by him, and he was sold for £100. He was afterwards sold for much less; then he increased in value. But his owners and matches were so numerous that we cannot here enumerate them: he trotted sixteen miles and a-half in the hour when twenty-eight years old. In color he was a rich cream-color, with white flowing tail and main. When trotting he had very high action and carried himself well.

Some hackneys are also famous for their power of walking—a most invaluable quality where it exists in a high degree. The most valuable of the Australian horses are remarkable for this quality, and prized accordingly; for, while in that country any horse serves for the chase and ordinary riding in the bush, the journey horse is highly valued. It is no uncommon thing for one of these horses to walk a hundred and fifty miles in three days, travelling ten hours a-day, and continuing that performance unceasingly for many days. Indeed, Australia seems destined to become a great breeding country for the horse. Its extensive plains, and the purity and dryness of its atmosphere, admirably adapt it to the constitution of the horse. And the Anglo-Saxon race, true to their characteristic, have already established races in nearly every village in the three colonies, where every encouragement is given to breeding.