Some microscopic photographs exhibited at Manchester, England, excited much admiration. One, of the size of a pin's head, when magnified several hundred times, was seen to contain a group of seven portraits of members of the artist's family, the likenesses being admirably distinct. Another microscopic photograph, of still less size, represented a mural tablet, erected to the memory of William Sturgeon, the electrician, by his Manchester friends, in Lonsdale Church. This little tablet covered only l-900th part of a superficial inch, and contained 880 letters, every one of which could be. distinctly seen by the aid of the microscope. - Uncommon Growth. There is hanging in our office, says the New Haven Register, the forked bough of an apple-tree, each part of which measures only twenty-two inches in length, on which there are one hundred and forty-seven apples! thicker upon the wood than human ingenuity could possibly affix. They are of an average diameter of two and a half inches, and the weight of the branch is thirteen pounds.

It was out from a tree on the premises of Mr. J. Haley, in the western part of the city, and is called the "Anti-Know-Nothing Apple," from its' great yield. - Squash. A squash was on view, at Chicago, the other day, weighing one hundred and ninety-two and a half pounds?-----The Garden.

No land pays a higher rate of interest than the humble, despised garden. - The quantity of vegetables which it can be made to produce almost exceeds belief; and farmers may well open their eyes when told that under good management two acres of a garden will be more profitable than twenty acres of a farm as it is usually conducted. In the vicinity of cities and large towns, the raising of vegetables for market is conducted on a large scale, and is very lucrative, and even the poor man can, by his own labors at odd times, secure an abundance of food for his family, which is as good as money saved as well as earned.-----Town And Country. We wish that any hints we can offer might induce our stalwart young men who are struggling for a livelihood in towns and cities, to go forth into the country, throw off the livery of conventional life, put on the frock, and, with unrolled sleeves, seise themselves the plough, and "greatly independent" live. The prolific bosom of mother earth has enough for all her children who will seek their supplies from her abundanoies, for giving doth not impoverish her; and scattering her blessings but increases her means.-----At the last meeting of the British Pomological Society, Mr. Snow again showed his new Black Grape with a muscat flavor.

It was pronounced by all present to be a first-olass sort, and it was stated that it ripens satisfactorily in the same house with the Black Hamburgh. It was named Snow'n Muscat Hamburgh. A new French grape came from Mr. Rivers. It had the flavor of the Sweetwater, with a slight tinge of muskiness, and looked as if it would make a good sort for,out-of-door culture.-----Those who have attended the French markets at a sufficiently early hour, will have probably lamented over the misery of the people who cany off, at a low price, the pea-shells for pottage; but they might reserve their sympathy, and would do so if they had partaken of such soup as, at a very trifling cost, may be prepared from the article. Take three quarts of water in which meat has been boiled the previous day, and place it on the fire, with a small teaspoonful of pepper, and three larger of Bait (if the broth has been made with fresh meat), taking care, however, that neither ingredient la predominant. Add the. shells of half a peck of peas, and a bundle of herbs, including a good quantity of chives or sweet leeks, and, if possible, a sprig or two of tarragon - small quantity only.

When the pea-shells are sufficiently boiled, pour the whole through a colander, and when the liquor is strained off, pound the pea-shells and herbs in a mortar, returning them to the colander, and rubbing through what will pass easily. Add now a small cupful of peas, two lettuces shred rather small, the more stalky the better, properly blanched, and a couple of sprigs of mint, and you will have a soup which would not disgrace any table, especially if a \ittte fried bread is added, and an ounce of white sugar. If a thick soup is preferred, a little flour and butter, or other thickening, must be used. It is not necessary to have anything stronger than common broth as the foundation. - - Irish Moss. The value of Irish moss collected at Scituate, Mass., in 1855, is said to have amounted to $4,855. - -Seeds of weeds should be carefully prevented from ripening. Thistles produce an increase of one hundred and fifty fold. If plants are shedding their seeds at the time they are taken away, the very hoeing insures their safe plantation, while, if left, they might have flown away to a distance.

The practice of taking out those and other pests, and throwing them in the road just as the seeds are ready to be distributed by the wind, is a moot thoughtless process; they are blown back to the opened soil, or to neighboring grounds, and, instead of being extirpated, are very often multiplied. - - A mode of estimating the value of milk, is by the use of an ingenious new machine called a lactoscope, invented in Paris. It consists of two tubes, one of which may be pushed into the other like the joints of a telescope, and the end of each tube is closed with, glass, so that when milk is peured into the outer tube by a small opening on the side, by pushing in the inner tube a layer of milk of any thickness may be obtained. The apparatus is placed on a stand, the value of the milk is estimated by the thickness of the layer of it through which the light of a. small wan taper, at a fixed distance, can be observed, the value of the milk being in the inverse ratio of the transparency; the larger the amount of fat present, the greater of course will be the opacity.

The thickness of the layer of milk is measured by a scale on the instrument, and a table sold with it shows the percentage of cream to which it corresponds. - The London Athenaum, in reviewing the new book, "Salad for the Social," says, with severity: "The author appears to be, in fact, a pair of scissors, with this difference in favor of the scissors - that he has no points of his own. - A writer in Frazer's Magazine asserts! "I am quite sure that every man has a much better chance of passing through life comfortably, who can quit a city for a country life; as a nation which depopulates its rural districts to over-populate its commercial, will some day learn to its cost." - Jonah's gourd has been variously supposed to have been ivy, but it neither grows up in a night, nor is consumed by a worm. Augustine called it a gourd, and accused Jerome of heresy for calling it ivy; yet they both seem to have been wrong. It was, more probably, the kiki of the Egyptians, a plant of the same family as ricinus, or castor-oil; this plant is of rapid growth, and has such large leaves, that the people of the Bast plant it before their shops for the sake of its shade. - Cinnamon was so much esteemed by the ancients, that Cleopatra carried it into her sepulchre with her jewels; it was kept, in wooden boxes, among the rarities of kings, and only employed for unguents, and on great occasions.

A French Catalogue of D. Danvesse, Orleans, France, Just laid on our table, contains a great variety, but, as is too usual with these French articles, the prices are enormously high; it would seem to be a retail list of no use in America, and we advise the sender to save his postage, and us any farther paragraph.

Not so with the Catalogue of Andre Leroy't Nurseries, at Angers, France, the source whence is derived such quantities of seedling trees that our periodicals are constantly discoursing of. The sole agent in America is Mons. F A. Brugiere, 138 Pearl Street, New York, by writing to whom you may know how to buy trees in quantity at the price of beets or carrots!