When combined with sulphur, it is called cinnabar, which is the red pigment otherwise known as vermilion. The ores of mercury are not widely distributed over the globe almost the only mines known are those of Idria in Germany, Almoden in Spain, and Guanca Velica in Peru. The uses of this metal, in medicine, the arts, and experimental philosophy, are numerous; but its chief use is in the separation of gold and silver from their ores, by a process called amalgamation. When mercury is amalgamated with tin, and laid on glass, it forms mirrors.

Copper, before the general introduction of iron, appears to have been used for almost every purpose to which the latter metal has since been applied. It was made into swords and other edge tools; a considerable degree of hardness being communicated to it by an alloy of tin. Native copper is of a yellow-red color, and is often found nearly pure, in large masses, on the surface of the earth. This was probably the cause of its being brought into early use; it is obtained from most of its ores with considerable difficulty. These ores are numerous. The uses of copper in all its various states are almost endless, and only inferior to those of iron. Alloyed with certain proportions of zinc, it forms brass, pinchbeck, tinsel, and Dutch gold, in imitation of goldleaf. With a small proportion of tin, it forms bellmetal, and bronze for statues and cannon; with a larger proportion, it forms speculum-metal for reflecting-telescopes.

Tin is the lightest of the ductile metals. It is of a white color, nearly approaching to that of silver. It is easily fusible, and produces a peculiar cracking noise

when bent. It has not hitherto been found in a native state, and its ores are not widely distributed over the globe. The uses of tin are numerous and important. Some of them have been already specified. With lead it forms pewter, and solder. It is employed in the preparation of tin-plate, which consists of sheetiron tinned over, to prevent rusting. It is also applied to the inner surface of copper vessels designed for cooking, to prevent the injurious effects arising from the copper. The chief mines of this metal are those of Cornwall, in England, and Banca, in the East Indies.

Lead is of a bluish-gray color, and is very malleable, ductile, inelastic, and soft. It has hardly ever been found native, but its ores are numerous. The almost constant occurrence of silver with lead, seems to indicate that these metals have a common origin. By friction, this metal exhales a peculiar and somewhat disagreeable odor. It would scarcely be possible to enumerate all the valuable purposes to which lead is applied in the arts, in medicine, and in the common wants of man. Among its less obvious uses, lead is employed to glaze pottery, and its oxide enters into the composition of glass. Four parts of lead and one of antimony, with a little copper, form type-metal.

Iron is an ingredient in almost every rock, from the oldest primitive to the newest alluvium, and also in very many earthy and metalliferous minerals, and in all soils; it is, therefore, considered to be the most abundant and most generally diffused of all the metals. Whenever found, and with whatever combined, it is mostly in the state of an oxide, except when united with sulphur.

When pure, it is of a bluish-gray color, and of a granular texture; it is hard, ductile, and malleable, and is the most tenacious of metals, next to gold. It has the remarkable property of being magnetic; and so readily is polarity acquired by iron, that a bar remaining a long time in a vertical position becomes magnetic; the north pole is always at the lower extremity. Iron has been met with in a nearly pure metallic state, in considerable masses, reputed to have fallen from the skies. This meteoric iron always contains a portion of nickel, which, it is worthy of remark, is also found, by analysis, to be a constituent part of all those stones which, in various parts of the world, have been known to fall from the atmosphere, and are, therefore, denominated meteoric stones. A mass of meteoric iron was found in Peru, weighing 15 tons. It was compact in substance externally, and marked with impressions as if of hands and feet, of enormous size, and of the claws of birds; internally, it presented many cavities.

It is unnecessary to attempt the enumeration of the uses to which iron is put by the ingenuity of man. Steel is an artificial combination with carbon. Plumbago, or black lead, is a natural combination of the same materials.

Antimony occurs, in the native state, alloyed by iron and silver; in its ores, it is combined with sulphur and other materials. Zinc occurs in similar combinations. Nickel is a rare metal, and is found in the state of an oxide, and also combined with arsenic. Arsenic is involved, in small portions, in several of the native metals, and in the ores of some others. Cobalt is not very plentiful in its ores, it occurs with iron and arsenic.

The remainder of the metals are comparatively rare, and do not require a minute description.

The whole of the elementary constituent parts of minerals, at present known, are not fewer than fifty. They comprise twenty-eight metals, the bases of ten earths, and of three alkalies, with nine other elementary substances. Since the discovery of the metallic nature of the earths, the chemist can no longer regard them as elements, but as metallic oxides, or unknown bases combined with oxygen. Yet, as the bases of the earths never occur in nature in an uncombined state, the mineralogist may still speak of the earths as simple

BOTANY is the science of the vegetable kingdom, and is one of the most attractive, useful, and extensive departments of human knowledge. It is, above every other, the science of beauty. There are few plants which are not beautiful, considered as separate individuals, and in all the parts of their individual organization; and there is a beauty in the grouping of plants, whether as grouped by nature, or by skilful art, to