rust those Bostonians who are in such hope will edify the public as
to the final result of their experiment. What has that veteran in
botany, Dr. Asa Gray, to say about it? Let some one well qualified
tell us more about this frost flower of Russia.

J. Stauffer.
Lancaster, Pa.

* * * * *

PATENT MATTERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

_To the Editor of the Scientific American:_

From the report of the Commissioner of Patents, just issued, it
appears that its surplus revenue for the past year amounts to over one
hundred and five thousand dollars, and that there is nearly a million
dollars in the United States Treasury to the credit of the Patent
Office; and yet, notwithstanding that this enormous amount is lying
idle, our pseudo-economists at the Capitol refuse to grant the Office
sufficient of its own funds to carry on its business promptly. So much
is the work behindhand in some of the departments that, as the
Commissioner states in his report, some of the attorneys who require
certified copies of papers have been obliged to employ their own
clerks to do office copying, and then had to pay the full legal rate
of ten cents per hundred words, the same as though the Office had done
the work. This style of _economizing_, by making inventors pay two
prices for their work, may be "reform" in the eyes of the average
Democratic Congressman; but speaking for myself, as one of those who
have had to pay twice, I would prefer to dispense with this style of
"retrenchment and reform," and therefore ask you, Messrs. Editors, in
behalf of the inventors of the United States, to so stir up our
legislators that they will allow the Office sufficient of its own
funds to do its work properly, and not delay the work of the
inventor--work that he has to pay for in advance--and so prevent the
discouragement and trouble which these delays always cause.

As the Patent Office has been doing a good business lately, there
appears to be some attempt at rivalry at the Capitol, as the following
list of applications for extension will show:

LIST OF APPLICANTS FOR EXTENSIONS OF PATENTS NOW BEFORE CONGRESS.

---- Reynolds, power loom brake.
Strong & Ross, scales.
Wm. & W.H. Lewis, photographic plates.
T.A. Weston, differential pulley.
S.S. Hartshorn, buckles.
H.A. Stone, making cheese.
N. Whitehall, cultivator.
J.R. Harrington, carpet lining.
H.L. Emery, cotton gi