to receive standards or slight buttresses, to keep the wall or partition perpendicular; and against the face of the wall trellis-work of wood, or other fit material, may be placed, for the support of the branches of the trees. Walls or partitions for gardens formed in this way will transmit the heat of the sun through them; and hence fruit, which may be growing against these walls having a northern aspect, will receive the benefit of the sun's warmth, transmitted through the slates. In the construction of these transmitting walls, the patentee does not confine himself to slate, but considers that plates of iron, applied in the same way, might answer the purpose nearly as well, provided that their surfaces were blackened, which would cause them to absorb more of the solar rays. Even frames of glass might answer the purpose, applied in the same manner, and perhaps some other materials might do; but it is desirable that the frames should be light enough to admit of their being removed without difficulty, in order that these partitions may be shifted from place to place [put under cover during winter], and set up in different parts of the garden, as convenience may dictate. (Newton's Journal, vol. iii. p. 257.)

A Composition for the Shoes of Gardeners. — Sir, Perceiving how assiduous, and I may say public-spirited, you are in recommending any measures calculated to increase the comforts of working gardeners, particularly in providing them with sabots, or wooden shoes, to protect the feet from cold during the pruning season (Vol. V. p. 575.), I venture to send you the following receipt for a composition or ointment for shoes, which I have myself long been in the habit of using, and have found, by experience, to be a very excellent one. However familiar this or similar receipts may be to some of your readers, to others it may be unknown, and therefore acceptable: Take 1 pint of boiled linseed oil; 2 oz. yellow wax; 1 oz. Burgundy pitch; 2 oz. spirit of turpentine. Melt the ingredients well together, over a slow fire, and apply the composition to the shoes with an ordinary brush, repeating the operation as often as the ointment will dry in. Take care to rub it well into the seams, and set the shoes to dry in the sun. This composition not only renders the shoes more impervious to wet, but preserves and gives a tone to the leather, and enables it afterwards to take an exceedingly fine polish from blacking. I would, therefore, recommend its use, not only for strong shoes to gardeners, farmers, sportsmen, &c., who are obliged to be much exposed to the wet, but for shoes and boots in general. The composition may be kept in an earthen cup or gallipot for a length of time, and laid by for use as occasion requires.

"Si quid novisti rectius istis, Candidus imperti; si non, his utere mecum."

Packing Fruit Trees for Exportation.- Sir, The following is the plan adopted by Mr. Prince of New York, in packing fruit trees, and which I can recommend, from experience, to your readers: - As soon as the tree is taken out of the ground, the roots are dipped in a thick mixture of earth and water. The roots are then tied in bundles, and dipped in all at once, and a mat is lapped over them, to keep the earth round them together. They are afterwards placed in a box, and a piece of wood is fixed across the box, over the top part of the roots, to prevent them from moving, as the branches are not lapped up at all. I have had trees packed in this manner, which have remained in the above condition four months; and, when unpacked, the roots were throwing out new fibres. This occurred last spring; and, although the season was so unfavourable, the trees made exceedingly fine strong shoots. The plan adopted by Messrs. Buel and Wilson, of the Albany nursery, in packing their fruit trees, is as follows:- They dip the roots well in a mixture of earth and water; but instead of lapping the roots in a mat, they lay them in the end of the box, and fill in between them with

wet moss; so that the lid of the box presses against the moss, and thus prevents the roots from being shaken. I, however, consider the plan of lapping the roots in a mat superior to that of filling in with wet moss, because a dampness proceeds from the moss, which produces a mildew on the branches of the trees so packed. This has been the case with trees that I have received packed in this way; but, after they had been unpacked for a short time, the mildew disappeared. The trees which I received this season, from Messrs. Buel and Wilson, are:

Fruit Trees (Pears and Apples) were taken out to Madras, in 1793, by Mr. Main, in a box of damp moss; the moss was damp when the trees were packed, not touched by the way, and, after a voyage of three months, was found dry, but the trees alive. Some gooseberries and currants, which were packed with them, were dead. The vessel sailed from London on Jan. 1., and arrived the beginning of April. The trees came from Messrs. Loddiges. Cond.

Garden Operations fit for Ladies. We have seen some very handsome pruning instruments of the sliding-shears description, manufactured by Steers and Wilkinson of Sheffield. (fig. 72.) The largest size, resembling common hedge-shears (a), cost about 15s. a pair; and with them a man may cut through a branch as thick as his arm with ease. The smaller sizes, at from 4s. upwards, are particularly adapted for gardening ladies, as, with them, the most delicate hand and arm may cut off branches from prickly or thorny plants, or from trees and shrubs of any kind, half an inch in diameter, By using both hands, the most delicate person may cut through a branch of an inch in diameter. The great advantage of these instruments, as we have stated in our Encyc. of Gard., is, that they amputate by a draw-cut like a knife, instead of by a crushing cut like common scissors or hedge shears. This is effected by the spring levers (b and e), and the oblong opening (c), by which a compound motion is produced in the cutting blades (d and f.) Neither these instruments, nor the very excellent grape and flower gatherer (g), manufactured by the same party, are of recent invention, but they have been improved on by Messrs. Wilkinson in various ways; and are so admirably adapted for lady-gardeners, that, considering the views we have as to the suitableness of certain parts of gardening for females, we

cannot sufficiently recommend them. We would wish every lady who lives in the country not only to be fond of botany, to collect specimens, dry

them between blotting-paper compressed with a bag of hot sand, and then gum them into a ledger indexed according to the natural system; but we

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 3 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 Stizolobium 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 Tabernæmontàna, especially in their young branches, or when the sap is on the ascent, and before it is elaborated. Among the Asclepiadea 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 lactíferum of Brown. The young shoots of several species of plants belonging to both the Asclepiadece and Apocýneæ are used as food." (Jameson's Journal, p. 320., April 1830.)

The Meloncito d'Olor, Cucumis sp.?-No notice has yet I believe been