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WHEN we, a few weeks since, invited the attention of our readers to some supposed cases of the TRANSMUTATION OF CORN, we were not aware that so many such instances were on record. Thanks, however, to our correspondents, we have now before us several statements as to one kind of plant changing to another, so that the inquiry seems more than ever to be worth following up. Not that we anticipate a confirmation of these stories, for they do appear most incredible, and contrary to the usual order of things; yet, as we have before observed, some very recent and most astounding instances of change, quite as great as that of Oats into Rye, have occurred, concerning which there cannot be a doubt, and there is no knowing what more may be behind.

Mr. Darwin, who agrees with us that so curious a subject is well worth investigation, "even if it should prove to be only a history of error," points out a passage in Dr. J. Anderson's "Recreations," &c. (vol. ii. p. 238) for the year 1800, where he remarks on an extract from a Dutch journal, in which it is said, that a countryman sowed Oats and cut them green three times, and that "in the ensuing spring only a few stalks set out any fresh shoots, and these were good Rye." Dr. Anderson attempts to explain this by supposing that seeds of both grains were in the ground, and that the Rye, from being the hardier plant, alone survived the winter; and he concludes by exclaiming "What a bonfire it would make if all the books which record such experiments were burnt at once!" But Dr. Anderson knew nothing of the modern facts above alluded to.

Another correspondent finds the following in the "Millions of Facts," by Sir Richard Phillips, p; 153:— "Barley in rainy seasons or years degenerates into Oats; and Oats in dry seasons change into Barley. These facts related by Pliny, Galen, and Matthiolus, have been confirmed by the experiments of naturalists. — St. Pierre."

Of all the statements, however which have been made upon this subject, the most remarkable are those of a Dr. Weissenborn, which were published by the late Mr. Loudon in his "Magazine of Natural History," in the year 1837, and from which the following are extracts, with some verbal alterations:—

"Within the last few years two experiments of this sort have been made with more than common care. One was in Livonia, In the middle of a Cabbage-garden, a bed of 12 feet square was carefully dug and pulverised, and sown about the end of June, 1836, with picked Oats. The blade sprang not particularly well, and was thin, as the seed had suffered from frost in the receding autumn. It was cut, for the first time, when part of it had already begun to form a shoot. The second mowing took place in autumn. This year, the second of the experiment, the bed is covered with healthy Rye-stalks though fewer in number than the Oat-plants, which stood on the bed last year."

The other case is that of a Lieut-Col. de Schauroth, who five years previously had found this experiment succeed seven times, and that in every case Rye had sprung from Oats, when the latter, during the first season, had been prevented forming stalks. Col. de Schauroth had been averse to publish his observations, from his dislike to controversy; but as he was fully satisfied about the truth of the phænomenon, he asked me," says Dr. Weissenborn, "to repeat the experiment; I delayed doing so till I could have an opportunity of sowing Oats on ground which had neither yielded a crop of Rye, nor had been manured with litter for a long time previously, Three years ago, however, I ploughed up a paddock in which there had been nothing grown but Grass for the last 14 or 20 years. It was planted with Potatoes for two years, and the third spring, sown with Oats and Lucerne, which were fed off by sheep, so that none of tie Oat-plants could run to ear, During the severe spring of the present year, the greater part of the Oats were destroyed; but when the Lucerne had attained a sufficient size to he fed by sheep, it was found intermixed with a great many healthy Rye-plants, just in ear. It appears unnecessary that the Oats should be sown about midsummer day; and it is very natural that the Rye-plants should be fewer than those of the Oats, because all summer Corn is, in a great measure, destroyed during winter."

These statements were made in 1837. In the following year Dr. Weissenborn again brought the subject before the public, in the second volume of the "Magazine of Natural History." "With reference," he says, ''to the transformation of Oats into Rye, this remarkable phænomenon has not only been verified by new experiments, but we have caused beds to be sown with Oats, in order that we may be able to convince disbelievers, by producing Rye-stalks which have sprung from the crown that still shows the withered leaves of the Oat plant of the previous year. I repeat that this transformation does take place, if Oats are sown very late (about midsummer-day), and cut twice as preen fodder before shooting into ear; the consequence of which is, that a considerable number of Oat-plants do not die in the course of the winter, but are changed in the following spring into Rye, forming stalks which cannot be known from fee of the finest winter Rye. We must expect that this fact will be considered by many as a mere assertion, and there are others who are still in doubt about it; the latter, however, own that they either have not made the experiment, or have sown their Oats too early, and, therefore, had cut them oftener than twice, in order to prevent their running to ear, whereby the plant loses the power of surviving the winter, and of being transformed into Rye. I cannot notice such adversaries as reject the result without having put it to the test of experiment, or who rest their opposition on experiments that have not been conducted in the right manner. Let any one sow Oats during the latter half of June, and the transformation in question will certainly take place! The time of sowing the Oats did not formerly appear of paramount importance, nor was it believed that it could make any difference whether the Oats were cut more than twice; in consequence of which a few experiments have failed. Now, however, we must conclude, that if the transformation occasionally takes place with Oats that have been sown too early, that is merely an accident depending on a peculiar state of the weather, or other accidental circumstances; whereas the result is quite certain if the Oats are sown towards the end of June. If the soil is too dry about that time, one of the reporters on the subject, to the Agri. Soc. of Coburg (Lieut. Donauer), concludes from an experiment he made in 1837, that one watering, so as to enable the Oats to germinate, may be recommended; although if this be done repeatedly, the high temperature of the season will cause the plants to grow so luxuriantly, that it becomes necessary to cut them three times when about 1 1/2 foot high, to prevent their forming their ear, whereby the object would be wholly or partially lost. If, however, among those who doubt the fact, there be found people who pity us because we trust more to actual experiment than to theory, we should almost feel tempted to pity theorists, whose self-sufficiency has prevented them from thoroughly investigating an important phenomenon which was noticed s0 many years ago. Nor can we commend the discernment of such as are unable to discover in the plants in question, both the preceding year's dry stubble and leaves of the Oats, and the fresh stalks and leaves of the Rye, which latter form in May upon the crown of the Oat plant, and produce fine winter Rye.

The Society takes credit to itself for perseverance, in having struggled against the opinion of the public for several years, in order to establish a fact which no physiologist would believe, because people are always apt to confound the laws of Nature with those of their systems," Such is the state of the case, as far as is at present known. We cannot conclude our relation of these strange stories better than in the words of Dr. Weissenborn himself, "It is not," he says, "with a view of engaging anybody to believe the alleged transformation, that I call the attention of the English reader to the above observations, but merely from a wish to relate a curious phenomenon whose frequent recurrence can hardly be doubted, on account of the mass and respectability of the evidence now before the public; and the cause of which, for the same reason, it appears not altogether irrational to inquire into, by repeating the same experiment in various localities."

We wish we could persuade a few gardeners to bear these statements in mind, and to make the trial next year, when midsummer arrives. It is a question much more likely to be answered satisfactorily in a garden than in a farm.