Would it be desirable to have such an institution as the Jardin des Plantes in this country? We do not think it would. We are sufficiently advanced in the arts of culture, have such an extensive intercourse with every other country, and have so many wealthy commercial establishments for effecting the reception and distribution of plants, and so many books which treat of their culture, that the interference of government is rendered unnecessary. In early stages of society there are many things that should be undertaken by governments, which they ought afterwards to cease doing, on the principle of lessening their own labour, and, consequently, lessening their expense to the governed. It was laudable and wise in our royal and papal ancestors to take learning, arts, and religion under their protection, and to establish colleges and academies; but these institutions, and the objects for which they were founded, now protect themselves, and therefore ought to be left to themselves. Government might probably be justified in establishing a Jardin des Plantes, and a professor of culture, in Australia, and at the Cape of Good Hope, but nothing of the kind is required of the government for Britain. Let associations of individuals establish such institutions if they please; but by no means let government have any thing to do with them.* While we state this as our opinion, we shall also state that in all colleges, universities, and other institutions for education, we should wish to see professorships of botany and culture, and botanic gardens combining, as far as practicable, all the features of the Jardin des Plantes. We should wish to see something of the art of culture always taught along with physiological and scientific botany. We have no wish to see, in every provincial botanic garden, examples of the hundreds of varieties of grafting and pruning, and all the forms of hedges, ditches, fences, and implements, that are in the Jardin des Plantes: but we should certainly wish to see, in every botanic garden, specimens of all the principal domestic and medical plants; a few of the different species of grafting, pruning, and training; and some of the other modes of propagating; because we would wish every human being to know how to propagate

*We know that it was the intention, some years ago, to try to get government to take the Chiswick garden off the Horticultural Society's hands; and we have heard it asserted that, if the Earl of Liverpool had lived, something of this sort would have been done. We hope, for the honour of His Lordship's memory, that this report is not true. It would argue the greatest imbecility in the ministry of a country so situated as Britain now is, to have any thing to do with an institution which, even if it were perfect in its kind, may truly be called, in a national point of view, a trumpery concern.

and cultivate vegetables, and to acquire a taste for this and for building houses. We would therefore have all these plants and examples in the gardens of our Parochial Institutions; and we would teach, both theoretically and practically, the art of culture to every boy, as well as the art of building arches and erecting various descriptions of structures with miniature bricks. (Des Etablissemens, &c., p. 52.) Every girl, in like manner, we would instruct in the management of cows and poultry, and in the whole duties of a farmer's wife. We would teach these things to all, without exception of rank; and the good which we should expect to result from them would be, such a desire for the possession and use of a house and garden, as would lead to conduct calculated to obtain them, either by industry and economy in the country of our birth, or by emigration to some other. The same taste for the quiet enjoyments of a country life would enhance the difficulties of going to war; and, at the same time, coupled with our plan of teaching all boys the military exercises, the different modes of self-defence, as well as the higher branches of military science (Des Etablissemens, &c., p. 51.), would excite double vigilance in personal or national defence when either became necessary.

Practical men may smile at the idea of teaching at school the labours of the garden and the field; they can only smile at the idea of teaching what they already know, or what, if they did not know, they think they could inform themselves of by observing what is going on every where around them. But the same objections to our proposal may be applied to the study of languages; and because every one can speak, it may be said, boys need not be taught grammar. It may be asked, also, why teach the art of vegetable culture universally, any more than several other arts, the exercise of which is equally essential in civilised society? Why not make every man a tailor and a shoemaker, as well as a cultivator and a warrior? Do so too, if there are time and capacity: but make sure of the latter arts, because they are more universal; because they are more favourable to peace; likely to be much more useful to emigrants, of whom, it appears probable, there will require to be a great many from this country for ages to come; and, finally, because society must, in no very distant age, settle down into something like a more general distribution of territorial property than what now exists. We have not the slightest wish to force forward this or any state of things by laws; much less would we advocate any thing not founded on justice, honour, and honesty: we trust entirely to the love of liberty and independence inherent in every commercial community, and the spread of a high degree of education among all

ranks; firmly convinced, that whatever these produce will be right, and that they can only produce what shall be good for the whole.

The

The museum of natural history and the menagery connected with this garden, and forming with it parts of one grand scientific whole, ought not to pass unnoticed. The museum is known to be the richest in the world in objects of natural history, and to be open and free to all persons, without exception, on certain days in every week. menagery, as well as the different departments of the garden, is arranged in compartments, enclosed by light open fences, and surrounded by elegant highly kept walks; and, as these walks are open to the public every day in the year, they form a perpetual source of interest and enjoyment to natives and strangers of all ranks. The taste and variety displayed in the buildings containing the different animals, the beauty of the scattered exotic trees and shrubs, the movements of some of the animals, and the singularity of form, of colour, or of sound, of the others, render this place to the citizen and his family a paradise of wonder and delight. The influence which these exhibitions must have on the minds and feelings of a people to whom they are accessible, is, doubtless, very considerable. The most indifferent cannot see so great a variety of natural objects without having his views of nature enlarged and his mind expanded. If this is the case with respect to the museum, it is still more so in the menagery, where to forms and colours are added life, motion, and character. We have little doubt that the Parisian populace owe a part of their urbanity and politeness to their familiarity, in the public and royal institutions and gardens, with the rarest and finest productions of nature and art. We think we can see something of the same kind producing in the London populace, in consequence of their greater familiarity, within the last fifteen years, with the collection in the British Museum, and from their comparatively frequent habit of viewing various exhibitions of pictures, sculpture, and other objects. That there is a powerful taste for such exhibitions is proved by the immense number of persons who, during the last two years, have visited the gardens of the Zoological Society.

The Establishment of Alfort is a sort of agricultural college, in which are a number of professors paid by government. Since the return of the Bourbons it has been neglected, the professors have not been paid, and the large agricultural garden is in a deplorable state of neglect. This garden contains the remains of what has been a tolerably complete arboretum ; a more extensive collection of hedge plants and specimens of

live hedges than that of the Jardin des Plantes; a grass ground containing patches of several yards square of all the principal grasses, including the cultivated corns; and another compartment for large patches of the leguminous plants in field culture, the oil plants, plants for clothing, cordage, dyeing, &c. Most of these are now run wild, and a great many of the examples of annual plants are wanting. There were at one time here, we were told, upwards of 150 sorts of potatoes, and a great many fruit trees: at present several acres are under a potato crop as a matter of profit. Close to the college, which is a large building, and was formerly, if we do not mistake, a convent, is a small systematic botanic garden, representing perhaps fifty of the Jussieuean orders. The gardener, an intelligent man for the country, and exceedingly attentive to strangers, lamented to us his situation in being obliged to see the plants which he had reared and loved, neglected and going to ruin. He is not allowed the least assistance, and to keep what is under his charge in good order would require at least two men. He pointed out to us a specimen of Juglans olivæfórmis, of forty years' growth, and from 40 to 50 ft. high, which bears abundantly every year; a Gleditschia monosperma, 40 ft. high, with its long broad pods; and a good-sized tree (30 ft.) of Pìnus halepensis.

(To be continued.)

ART. II. Notice of the Prestwich Botanical Society, and the Bury Botanical and Entomological Society, preceded by some Critical Remarks on a Passage in the Account of the Conductor's Tour in France. By Mr. J. HORSEFIELD, Weaver, Pilkington, near Manchester.

Sir,

I HAVE long been desirous of sending you some account of the botanical societies that exist in this part of the country, but natural timidity and want of education, together, have hitherto prevented me from acting according to my desire; but you have at length vexed me to the use of my pen. Fond. of botany and horticultural pursuits, and placed by Miss-Fortune in such circumstances that I cannot practise half enough of either, I make up the deficiency in some measure by reading; consequently, the contents of your Gardener's Magazine are to me highly interesting: but it may be necessary here to remark, that sometimes several weeks elapse between the publication of a Number and the time of my perusing it,

which circumstance will account for the lateness of this communication. In your Notes and Reflections during a Tour through France (Vol. V. p. 123.), in comparing the state of the lower orders of the people in France with those of England, you remark, "for ignorance, and the necessity of continual hard labour, both of parents and children, seldom allow the English mechanics to have more than two ideas, getting and expending;" and further, in your desire for the future welfare of the French cotton manufacturers, you express a hope that they will be prevented "from falling into that dreadful state of degradation which is, or was till lately, characteristic of the Lancashire operative manufacturer." In this last assertion I am particularly interested. What your ideas of our "dreadful state of degradation" may be, I cannot positively say: had you used the word destitution instead of degradation, you would have been more correct *, at least as far as my observation extends; and, unhappily for me, that observation is practically confined to a part of this county, being a Lancashire operative manufacturer myself. If to be half-employed, half-paid, and half-fed, constitute "dreadful degradation," I can sincerely assure you we are now dreadfully degraded indeed.

As for our 66 ignorance," I don't think we are more ignorant than any other class of His Majesty's subjects. The intricate paths of science are seldom sought for by any man, whatever his station in life may be, except he thinks that they will lead him to some post of pecuniary gratification; and even amongst us you might find some instances of devotedness to literature and science. It is no uncommon circumstance in this neighbourhood for a gardener to ask a weaver the names of plants; botany being a favourite pursuit amongst us, and botanical meetings frequent and well attended. But I will give you an account of some of our societies.

In 1820, a society, entitled the "Prestwich Botanical Society," was formed, which holds its meetings on the second Monday in each month, for the purpose of raising a fund (towards which each member pays 6d. a month) for the exhibition of specimens of plants, and for the exchange of books. The members have never been numerous, always varying between twelve and twenty, but seem much attached to the subject. They possess about 40l. worth of books, without ever

We agree that it would; and are sorry to have used such an ungracious epithet. At the time of writing we had in our mind's eye the condition of the agricultural labourer, ignorant, starved, and reduced to poaching and thieving, with no prospect but the poor-house or a prison. Whatever we have said or may say on this subject, our object is the good of the parties;