ranks; firmly convinced, that whatever these produce will be right, and that they can only produce what shall be good for the whole. 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. The 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." În 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 "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; not to hurt their feelings. Cond. having received a shilling by way of donation. Their books consist at present of many botanical works, comprising eleven volumes of Smith and Sowerby's English Botany, Green's Universal Herbal, Smith's English Flora, Withering's Arrangement, Gardener's Magazine, and they are beginning to purchase the Encyclopædia of Plants. In the town of Bury, a few miles distant, another society exists, called the "Bury Botanical Society," only differing from the former inasmuch as it unites entomology with botany. The list of subscribers to this society contains about fifty names, comprising several highly talented individuals, tradesmen, mechanics, and a few labouring gardeners. Their library contains many popular works on botany and gardening, amongst which are, the Gardener's Magazine, Encyclopædia of Gardening, many volumes of the Botanical Magazine, Hortus Kewénsis, &c., with several entomological publications. The meetings of this society are held on the first Wednesday in each month, for the same purposes as the preceding. The method pursued at these meetings is this: - Each member brings what specimens of plants or flowers he chooses, which are all laid on the table, without order or arrangement, as nature exhibits them in a wild state: after the members are assembled and seated, the president takes a specimen from off the table, and gives it to the man on his left hand, telling him, at the same time, its generic and specific name; this person must pass it on to the next in the same manner, till it has gone round the room; and in this manner all the specimens produced, amounting sometimes to some hundreds, are handed round the company, and are then selected for the purpose of enriching a herbarium, or decorating a room. One person is president of both these societies, at least as far as the nomenclature of plants is concerned, a poor cotton weaver, or, if you please, a "degraded" Lancashire operative manufacturer. We have several other societies of a description similar to the above, established in various parts of the country, which have, besides their particular meetings, general ones, at which any person may attend who feels inclined so to do. By these means the indigenous botany (with the excep tion of some of the most obscure tribes of Cryptogàmia) of this neighbourhood is very well known; and, if our gardeners were as much inclined to assist in disseminating botanical knowledge as some of our mechanics are, our exotic botany would be equally so; but such an inclination exists only in a very few of them. But I think I have written sufficient for one letter at preWhat use you will make of this communication I know sent. not; I hardly think you will publish it, but you must use your own discretion. Whether you publish, mutilate, or destroy it, is but of little consequence to Your very humble servant, J. HORSEFIEld. Pilkington, near Manchester, December 14. 1829. WE shall be happy to receive from Mr. Horsefield accounts of the other societies to which he alludes, and are much gratified at the proof he has here given of the taste for, and knowledge of, botany, which exist among the weavers of Lancashire. We are still more gratified at the evidences which some of these operative manufacturers have afforded, at recent public meetings, of sound political knowledge and good moral conduct, and of their determination to persevere in their endeavours to obtain political reform. Whatever be the kind of knowledge which a man may find it necessary or desirable to obtain for his own private use or gratification, he ought always to join with it a knowledge of politics and political economy; in order that he may clearly understand his rights as a man and a citizen, the precise point to which his country has attained in civilisation and happiness with reference to other countries, and the political and moral improvement of which it may be susceptible. Having ascertained these things, it then becomes his duty to cooperate with his fellow-men, in every lawful, honest, and peaceable means, in bettering their condition. Cond. ART. III. Vegetable Pathology. By a WARWICKSHIRE NATURAL History is a study no less amusing than instructive. It extends the bounds of knowledge into regions which, though long in sight, yet have remained unexplored and neglected; and, while we have been seeking for objects of interest in distant climes, we have overlooked or despised the wonders of creation within our reach at home. The eager search after truth, in these days of restless enquiry, has redeemed the supineness of former times; and that heavenly fruit, which has so long hung on the tree of knowledge within the reach of the philosopher only, has been freely plucked by all who chose to gather it. Nature has been wooed in her thousand forms, and pursued to her thousand recesses; and the path which led to her retreat, |