would wish them to devote a portion of every day, in favourable weather in the open air, and in unfavourable weather under a veranda or in a green-house, to some of the lighter operations of gardening, for health's sake, and for giving a zest to in-door enjoyments. Cutting out weeds with a light spud, which does not require stooping; stirring the surface with a light two-pronged spud, the prongs of which need not be much larger than those of a carvingfork, and the handle of willow or poplar, or cane not thicker than a fishingrod; and pruning, with the sliding-shears, shrubs from 3 to 7 ft. high, are operations which do not require stooping, and which may be performed during the hottest sunshine, by the use of an Epinal hat, or a broad-brimmed straw hat, or other light broad-brimmed hat of any sort. Thinning out and tying up herbaceous plants and low shrubs; tying up climbers and twiners, and tying the shoots of trained trees to trellises or to nails, with eyes fixed in the walls; cutting off decayed flowers, flower-stems, withered roses, and dead points of shoots and leaves; and pruning shrubs under 3 ft. high, require stooping, and are fit operations for the mornings and evenings, and for cloudy weather. Watering is best performed in the evening; and, if any lady wishes to do this in a masterly manner, she ought to have one of Siebe's rotatory garden-engines, fitted up with a wheel and handles like a wheelbarrow: this she may wheel along the walks; and, by an operation not too severe for a healthy young woman, and which would add greatly to the strength of her arms and the tranquillity of her nights, throw the water from 30 to 40 ft. in every direction. We would much rather see ladies at these operations common to all countries, than see them shifting and otherwise working with sickly hot-house plants in pots, which cannot be done well without more or less affecting the hands. Watering with a light or small-sized Reid's syringe, or Macdougal's syringe, would not, perhaps, be an unfitting operation for a lady; but the best of all may be watering with a neat little green flower-pot, the supply of water being near at hand, and obtained from a cock, on no account by dipping, or carried to her by some attendant friend or maid. The care and watering of neat little alpine plants in pots is what most ladies are very fond of; and one of the principal enjoyments of city ladies, who know plants only or chiefly as pictures, consists in performing this operation. The plants to be presented to such amateurs ought to be plants that require water at least once a day, and that grow fast to require tying up, and make frequent dead leaves to require picking and dressing. The principle is, something to be taken care of, and to care for and depend on us; something that requires labour, the beginning and ending of all improvement and enjoyment. Having said so much respecting garden operations fit for ladies, we shall add that we should feel extremely obliged to any lady living in a district much in the trade of working in straw, if she would undertake to get us a few Epinal hats manufactured, and sent to Cormack and Sinclair's Viridarium (p. 379.) for sale. These hats do not require the straw to be platted, and they would come, we think, exceedingly cheap, and fit both for rich and poor. We will send our pattern hat to the first lady who writes that she will undertake this service for her countrywomen. To recur to the sliding-shears, they may be had through any ironmonger or seedsman. — Cond.

Hovea purpurea Sweet Fl. Aust. t. 13. Our first knowledge of this beautiful species of Hòvea is derived from the above-cited work (the discontinuance of which must be regretted by every botanist and cultivator), where a good figure and detailed description may be seen; but, as necessarily only a solitary branch is there displayed, it does not convey a correct idea of the growth and beautiful appearance of the species. My plant is erect, with numerous branches, about 33 ft. in height, presenting a fine bushy shrub from the ground upwards, which is now in a temperature of 50° to 55°, profusely covered with elegant, pale-purple, odoriferous flowers. It is situated among other plants in a small pit 3 ft. deep, with about a foot

of chalk drainage; the remainder is composed of rich turfy loam and peat. From its luxuriant and healthy state, it would evidently admit of being cultivated in a warmer atmosphere, so as to produce its flower in December, which would materially enhance its value, from there being so few flowers in blossom at that season of the year. After flowering, and during the summer months, it will be advisable to allow it plenty of air, in order to preserve it in health, and a proper state for flowering the subsequent season. In a border of the conservatory, its more natural situation, the period of flowering is March, where, if it is carefully impregnated, it will produce seeds, which is, I believe, the only mode of propagation, except occasionally by layers of the young shoots. - G. P. A.L.S. Jan. 28. 1830.

Argemone mexicana. — Lunan, in his Hórtus Jamaicénsis, gives a curious history of the discovery of the narcotic properties of the seeds of this plant. It appears that one night a runaway negro visited a sheep farm, guarded by an old and infirm watchman, and desired him to select the finest of the flock for his supper. The old man, conscious of his inability to resist, yielded an apparent consent, but asked his visitor to smoke a pipe with him first, to which he consented; the old man then slily mixed a few grains of Argemòne seeds with the tobacco, before giving it to his visitor, who took it, unsuspicious of harm, but before he had half smoked out the pipe, he fell into profound sleep, during which the watchman had him secured and bound; and finding himself on awaking a prisoner, he declared the old man had used Obeah. Such is an abstract of Lunan's tale, which furnishes some useful practical suggestions.-W. Hamilton. Oxford Place, Plymouth, March 1. 1830.

The Dolichos tetragonólobus is a most valuable agricultural plant; as, when sown about November, December, or January, it covers the ground with a dense mass of vegetation, effectually securing the soil from the action of the sun, and affording a most nutritious pasturage to cows, who devour it greedily when penned upon it, giving an increased quantity of milk, and enriching the ground both with their manure, and with the quantity of unconsumed vegetable matter which they tread into the ground. The plant flowers about July and August, and, if sown near that time, flowers and dies without any luxuriance of growth. The pods resemble those of the Stizolòbium pruriens, but want the stinging pubescence. They are, however, when young, often mistaken for this last, and eradicated in consequence. The young beans resemble Windsor beans, and are excellent for the table; but as they advance to maturity they become unwholesome, and produce disorders of the stomach and bowels. - Id.

The Cow Tree, Palo de Vaca, or milk tree of Demerara, of which plants were lately brought to this country by Mr. Fanning of Caraccas, has been examined by Mr. Arnott of Edinburgh, who, from specimens not very perfect, considers it to be a Tabernæmontana. Mr. Don thought it a Brósimum. Mr. Arnott has little doubt of its belonging to Apocýneæ, though he observes the usual properties of the milk of this order are deleterious. "Future observations may, however, perhaps ascertain similar mild qualities in other species of Tabernæmontana, especially in their young branches, or when the sap is on the ascent, and before it is elaborated. Among the Asclepiadece of Brown, which have similar baneful properties, and which many botanists indeed consider a mere section of Apocyneæ, an instance is also known of the milk being wholesome. I allude to a plant found in Ceylon, which the natives call Kiriaghuna, from kiri (milk), and who employ its milky juice when the milk of animals cannot be procured; its leaves are even boiled by them as a substitute in such dishes as require to be dressed with milk: it is the Gymnèma lactiferum of Brown. The young shoots of several species of plants belonging to both the Asclepiadea and Apocýnea are used as food." (Jameson's Journal, p. 320., April 1830.)

taken of the Meloncito, which is undoubtedly a new species of Cucumis, The seeds should be sown in a hot-bed in January or February, the young plants cut down and shifted into larger pots several times before the beginning of April, and then planted out in a common melon frame, with a good strong bottom heat, in which they will flower and fruit abundantly in June, July, and August. By no other plan is a crop certain, as the Duke of Portland's gardener can tell you, and as Pontey knows, never having obtained fruit since the first year. -W. Hamilton. Oxford Place, Plymouth,

Nov. 7. 1829.

Strawberries.

-

This fruit has engaged the attention of so many able pens, that it may appear almost presumption to add to the list; yet the high estimation in which the fruit is deservedly and universally held may justify a few more words on the subject, the object of which is to protract their enjoyment to a later period than, at least, I had till very lately contemplated possible. In the spring of this year, I turned out of pots, in which they had been kept all the winter, about 100 plants of Keen's seedlings, which showed no disposition to blow; my object was to obtain strong runners for my next year's potting. After some time, about a third of these plants came into blossom, and have continued to bear in succession until this month, leaving many unripe berries on the plants. I am aware that the showery season may have greatly contributed to produce this unusual effect; but to those to whom so late a crop is an important or even a desirable object, the means of supplying the want of rain will readily present themselves.-J. M. Brighton, Nov. 1829.

Potatoes are a very fit esculent to lower the food of the opulent, and to diminish their consumption of richer viands; but as the sole support of the poor, as a substitute for bread, they are totally inadequate. Man cannot live upon them long, in health and strength, whatever may be said of the Irish. Bread replenishes the system of itself, unaided by flesh meats; whilst the potato provokes and nurses a desire of ardent spirits, and places the individual so miserably fed in the situation of a traveller, who, his fare being coarser than usual, finds consolation in extending the indulgence of strong potations. Poor nourishment may drive a whole people into habits of drunkenness, into which, with better fare, few, comparatively, would be led: thus we may soon see the hitherto steady, industrious, joyous English people, changed into a nation of miserable turbulent drunkards. (Times, Oct. 28. 1829.)

ART. II. Foreign Notices.

FRANCE.

The Drapeau

A SUBSCRIPTION Park and Warren for Field Sports. Blanc gives notice of an association of a new kind, for the purpose of enabling persons of all ranks to enjoy the pleasure of the chase. A park of great extent is, it is said, taken on lease at no great distance from Paris; its extent is above 6000 acres, partly arable, and partly forest ground. The plan is, to open it to subscribers during six months, viz. from September 1. to March 1., an ample stock of game being secured in preserves. Part of the shares are, it is said, already bought up, and the purchase of the remain der is recommended to all amateurs of sporting, as bringing within the reach of almost every class an amusement hitherto confined to men of fortune. (Scotsman, Jan. 9. 1830.)

We rejoice in this, as we do in every attempt to bring those pleasures, which at present almost exclusively belong to the rich, within the reach of their poorer brethren. Knowledge and accomplishments, sports and recreations, fine clothes and comfortable houses, were all rare and exclusive pos

sessions a century ago; in a century hence they will probably be considered necessaries of life to the general mass of society in Europe; at least in France, Germany, and England. - Cond.

A new Passiflora, certainly the finest of the whole genus, between P. racemòsa and P. Rermisìna [?], has been raised here, and will be given out under the name of P. Loudoniana. — Nap. Baumann. Bolwiller on the

Upper Rhine, Dec. 1. 1829.

A hardy Ceanothus, with fine blue flowers, received from America under the name of C. ovàtus, will be on sale next spring. — Id.

Tilia aurea, a new variety of the common lime, found in a forest in this neighbourhood, is already on sale; it is a beautiful and singular plant; it will not graft on T. europæ`a, but takes freely on T. americàna. A problem for vegetable physiology to solve. — Id.

GERMANY.

Weather at Munich. It may deserve recording, as an instance of that extensive range of the changes in atmospherical temperature which sometimes take place, that when we were at Munich last autumn, a fall of snow (melting, however, as it fell) occurred so unusually early as on the 7th and 8th of October, and that the English papers stated, that on one of the same days the stage coaches had come into Dover and other places on the coast, covered with snow. - -W. S. Florence, Jan. 2. 1830. .

The District between Ling and Saltzburg in Bavaria.— I hope when you next visit the Continent you will be able to take in and give us an account of the district between Ling and Saltzburg, which (the Tyrol excepted) pleased me far more than any other portion of our summer's tour of 2000 miles, partly from the natural beauties of the country itself, which much of the way resembled a drive through an English park, but chiefly on account of the universal marks of prosperity exhibited by the houses of the peasants, which were so gaily painted, their gardens so trim, and every thing around so neat and orderly, the very dunghills, when in front of the houses (which they rarely are), being concealed with a wall and top of neat boards, so as to present a delightful proof of well-being and comfort, the cause of which I should have liked much to have investigated, if my health would have allowed. [No man has a house in Bavaria without land attached.] This enquiry, I trust, you will some time or other devote a few days to in passing to Vienna; and I only wish it were possible for you to spend six months every year in viewing and explaining a thousand other interesting points of Continental rural and domestic economy, of which books of travels, all filled with endless repetition of descriptions of churches and palaces, and almost always false descriptions, give not the slightest hint, and of which it is incredible how little is known in England, considering the cart-loads of travels that the last twenty years have produced.

We thought of wintering at Rome, but having met with (for Italy) a very good school for my two sons, who are fast getting to speak Italian as fluently as they do French and German, and having besides stumbled on delightful lodgings, a first story of ten rooms looking in part on a large convent garden, and behind on the large Jardin Anglais of the Marquis (I forget his name), we shall remain here for at least a month or two longer Yours, &c.-W. S. Florence, Jan. 2. 1830.

HOLLAND.

Mr. Knight's Visit to Haarlem.—Mr. Knight of the Exotic Nursery, King's Road, spent a fortnight in the bulb district, in April last, and was very much gratified with his visit. He had been in Holland and the Netherlands several times before, but never during the blooming of the hyacinths. He saw, he supposes, upwards of 100 acres covered with this plant

miles from the latter place. It seems the soil in Haarlem is now worn out, and no longer fit to grow hyacinths in sufficient vigour; and the growers, therefore, send their bulbs to be grown, by contract, on lands in the neighbourhood of Overveen and other places, in the same manner as the London seedsmen send seeds to be grown by country seed-growers in Essex and Norfolk. Wherever the bulbs do well, he observed the soil to be of the lightest description of sand, such as can be blown away by the wind; and the water stands under it not nearer the surface than 15 in., nor farther below it than 2 ft. 6 in. This, it seems, is the level of the water in the adjoining canals and ditches; and it is owing mainly to the points of the fibres going down to this water, that the plants are so fresh and vigorous, while the dry sand above prevents their bulbs from being rotted. As a proof of the exceeding lightness of the soil, immediately after putting in a crop in the spring season, the surface is raked, generally thrown into beds, and, from barrels, wheeled along the alleys between, cow-dung and water are thrown over the surface with a scoop, so as to cover it all with a thin crust, through which the finest seeds vegetate, and without which the entire surface would be blown away: the cow-dung is taken fresh from the cow-house. In these cow-houses no litter is used; the cattle stand on a level surface paved with brick; immediately behind the cows is a gutter, from which the liquid part of the manure runs off into tanks to ferment, and the remaining part is taken from the gutter for immediate use, in the manner mentioned. The cow is fastened by two ropes, one proceeding from each side through a ring in a post, and with a weight at the end; the two weights, as in the case of horses so tied, tending to keep the cow in the middle of the stall. She eats out of a trough, which is supplied from a broad passage in front of the heads; and there is also a broad passage behind the gutter. The points of the cows' tails are all tied to the ceiling or roof, to prevent them from dropping into the gutter when the cow lies down, or from whisking about while the operation of milking is going forward. They are combed, brushed, and kept covered with a cloth during winter; and in spring, when they are first allowed to go out and graze, they are clothed with a sheet till the weather becomes decidedly warm. (See Encyc. of Agr., § 516.)

Mr. Knight found forcing going forward in the manner which we have described as practised at Hylands (Vol. III. p. 385.); raspberries ripe, and cauliflowers cut, about the middle of April. He was much taken with the standard fruit-trees generally trained in a pyramidal form; and with curious dwarfs, some of them saucer-shaped, 10 ft. diameter, and not more than 3 ft. high; others in the form of a bowl; others with a stem 1 ft. high, with only two branches proceeding from it, perfectly horizontal in position, and in opposite directions, with shoots covered with spurs rising perpendicularly from these two horizontal branches, at equal distances; those in the centre, 3 ft. high, gradually diminishing to 1 ft. at the extremities, and having, altogether, a strangely artificial appearance. These trees occur now and then in pleasure-grounds as odd ornaments, much in the same way as we graft dwarf or drooping shrubs, such as Cytisus purpureus, or some of the robinias or caraganas, on the top of tall stems. Among domestic improvements, Mr. Knight noticed a foot-scraper for sandy soils (fig. 73.), which consists simply of a small bridge, formed by fixing iron bars in the circumference of two segments of ovals. The sand drops between the bars; and, when the space is filled, the scraper is

73

removed.

He also observed a machine in use for beating stair-carpets and long covers for tables. (fig. 74.) This may be described as consisting of two ladders, about 6 ft. long each, joined by hinges at the middle (a), and appended to shorter ladders (b c), also, by hinges. These hinges admit of