taken of the Meloncito, which is undoubtedly a new species of Cùcumis. 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.

A SUBSCRIPTION Park and Warren for Field Sports. The Drapeau 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 remainder 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. racemosa 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. europæe'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 autunfn, 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 in bloom, commencing on the road from Leyden to Haarlem, five or six

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

in

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

74

A

folding up the machine, and using it as a short ladder, or laying it aside in little When a stair-carpet is to be

space.

beaten, the machine, which we shall call a carpet-horse, is brought out and set up (see fig. 74.); the roll of carpet is placed at b; a portion of it is drawn out, and a man or woman at one side, or two persons, one at each side, commence beating it; and, as it is beat, it is passed over the top of the horse (a), and finishes by being left in a roll, completely cleaned, at the opposite end (c). It is almost needless to mention, that the hinges used are so constructed as that the short end ladders (b and c) can only open to a certain width.

At the Hague, Mr. Knight found a number of very large trees in the palace garden, called The Wood, blown down by a hurricane; some of them with trunks 2 ft. in diameter. The roots of these trees had invariably extended themselves along the surface, never penetrating into the water below.

The season of the year which Mr. Knight chose for visiting Holland was decidedly the best for visiting that or any gardening country. During March and April, all the main operations for the crops and products of the year are performed; the state in which plants have been kept through the winter, and the progress of forcing, are obvious; and while trees and shrubs in the open air are budding, the eye can still penetrate through them so as to determine the anatomy of groups and masses with reference to landscapegardening, and of standard and wall-fruit trees with reference to pruning. Cond.

ITALY.

Vegetables and Fruit at Florence. The vegetable market at Florence now exhibits profuse supplies of fine cauliflowers, broccoli, blanched endive, and young cabbage-lettuce for salads, young turpips and carrots, celery (not blanched), large white radishes, &c. &c. Cardoons (Cynara Cardúnculus L.), which we have not seen before, are abundant, the thick inner leaf-stalks being blanched by the leaves being tied together. These supply the place of the kohl-rabi of Germany (turnip cabbage), which is not grown here, and, when well stewed, are not very dissimilar in taste. No headed white cabbages for sauerkraut, as in Germany, but borecole, savoys, and several other allied varieties, with loose leaves. Potatoes, mostly of a roundish red-skinned kind, indifferent in quality, and dear, 5 quattrini (equal to three farthings English) the pound of 12 ounces. This high price, compared with the low price of cauliflowers, of which a fine head costs only 4 or 5 quattrini, would seem to indicate that the cultivation of potatoes is not well understood in this part of Italy; as, indeed, I am inclined to think it is not any where on the Continent. Apples abundant; pears not so plentiful: the quality of each good, but not superior, and no great variety of kinds. Grapes in great plenty, both white and black, and very delicious: the skin shrivelled, and the juice very sweet, from having been hung on strings in airy rooms since being pulled six weeks ago; price now, 8 quattrini the pound. Oranges, citrons, and lemons, green, with a leaf or two to each, and some ripe oranges from Sicily. Great quantities of the seeds of Pìnus Pínea, called by the Italians Pinochi, which are as large as an ordinary nut-kernel, but more oblong, and almost as pleasant to the taste, with a slightly resinous flavour; and chestnuts at the corners of every street, where they can be had in seven different forms: raw; cooked and hot, both roasted and boiled; dried by heat (the skins

being taken off), in which state they have a much sweeter and superior flavour; and made into bread, a sort of stiff pudding, and into thin cakes like pancakes. This valuable fruit constitutes a considerable portion of the food of the lower classes, who must daily consume in Florence some tons. From the low price of chestnuts in Italy (5 quattrini for about a pint), there can be little doubt that they might be imported into England (at a lower duty), and afforded at a much cheaper rate than they are usually sold there, and so as to become one of those innocent luxuries of the poor which every benevolent political economist would desire to see Italy enabled to exchange for our hardware and cottons, if the custom were introduced in London and other towns, of roasting them on small beat iron stoves, heated by coke or charcoal, at all the green-shops and gingerbread-dealers, so as to tempt passengers with them, " piping hot," as is the case in Italy, in every street; where, in cold weather, the labourer or schoolboy, in buying a pint of chestnuts, stores up in his pocket a stock of portable caloric, which warms his fingers, while he at the same time both gratifies his palate, and appeases his hunger.-W. S. Florence, Jan. 2. 1830.

Weather at Florence. The first half of November was clear, dry, mild, and altogether delightful. On the 15th and 16th, a deluge of rain fell, with snow, on the distant Apennines. The wind then veered to the N.E.; and, from the 18th to the 23d, it froze more keenly than I remember it to have ever done so early in England, the ice on the ponds being fully three inches thick, with boys sliding on it. The chief cold must have been in the night, as Fahrenheit's thermometer, at eight in the morning, stood at 36° and 37° on the 18th, 19th, and 20th; at 33° on the 21st and 23d; and at 30° on the 22d; and, during the whole period, the sun shone brightly in the daytime, and the thermometer rose to 45° and 50°. Previously to this frost, which was much more severe than is usual here in November, all the orange trees in pots had been housed. Those of the hardy variety, called arancio forte (a sort with a bitter peel, like that of Seville oranges), of which there are many trees 12 and 15 ft. high in the open ground at Florence (and which, as they often endure, unprotected, a much greater degree of cold, would, doubtless, stand the winter equally well in Hampshire, Devonshire, and probably the whole of the southern coast of England), were not injured; nor the plants of Nèrium Oleander, which abound in gardens. The crop of olives, however, seemed to suffer. Perhaps one third of the crop had previously the dark purple tint, indicating ripeness, but two thirds were still green; and I observed, when the frost went, that these last had their skins much shrivelled; and they are now assuming an unnatural chocolate colour, and have no appearance of ever becoming perfectly mature.* On the 24th of November the frost broke up; and, from that time to the 26th of December, the weather was mostly open, with occasional slight frosts, and very high winds, and often heavy rain, and altogether resembling the same season in Devonshire, except in the longer continuance and much greater quantity of the rain that fell, and the greater heat of the bright days, on one of which (Dec. 13.) I observed three butterflies (Vanessa Atalanta, Còlias Hyale, and Hipparchia Ægèria), and many other insects, on the wing. On the 26th of December, frost set in, and continued, at the close of the month, very keenly, the thermometer being as low as 22° on the 30th.

The following are the results of my journal of the weather at Florence, for the last 13 days of November and the whole of December:

* Some of the ripe olives were gathered by hand by the middle of December; but the great bulk of the crop will not be pulled off for some time yet, the total gathering often being not ended till March and April: indeed, towards Naples, the ripe olives are sometimes suffered to hang till the new blossoms appear in May.