MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Issue 1978, 20 December 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

" I am not mad ; only incensed," said a dandy smelling of musk. He was not muscular though he smelt strong. tThe Washington ghost, which frightened several young ladies almost to death, has been captured. It waa a genial William goat. A rather curious scene (says the Tamworth News, N.S.W.) and one which gave a very viVid impression of the pluck of the principal actor therein, waa preRented a few days ago. A swarm of bees decided upon changing their quarters, and were pursued by their owner, who evidently did not mean to let them get away very easily, to the vicinity of Cohen and Levy's old store, where they came to rest temporarily. The owner, a weaker vessel, came up in hot chase, banging a tin-pot, subsequently changed for more effective instruments, in the shape of a pair of bullock bells, which were vigorously manipulated with a view to winning back the errant insects. The operator charmed so wisely that a number of the bees settled upon her hat, from which they hung in crawling pendants, never stinging the wearer, who, nothing fearsome, plied the bell until they gradually occupied the interior of an umbrella she had in the meantime expanded, when she bore them off in triumph, to the surprise of a number of spectators who stood in admiration of this exhibition of coolness and nerve on the part of a feminine bee hunter. For 28 years, tbe Q-eelong Advertiser observes, " the liquorice tree hag been grown by some of our vignerona before they found out its value. Twenty-eight years ago Mr J. H. Dardell brought a cutting from Launceston, and planted it in his garden at Batesford. From this cutting grew a tree from which other vignerons were supplied, among them Mr Dunoyer, who, forgetting what he had planted, was about to cut down what he took to be a useless plant, when he was I informed that it was a liquorice tree. Still neither he nor his countrymen thought of bringing the roots into market until this year, when Mr Hammerly, of Batesford, sold a quantity at £3 10s per cwt. to a chemist at Ballarat, and thus opened up a new branch of industry. The liquorice tree is easily cultivated, grows fast, is specially adapted to sandy soil, and tha roots are easily dus ud."