>^ ^J ::2> >i>^ :3> >*:3»' >::3Li. o.>\jjife,)>3> » 3 3! >. ,^»«» jgaosaesfcs ■•> >L.2»i>>>^'-^:2g::».-SQiE». ^gJSiSO'''.'-^ -«,» TJB*"^ ~3afc>^~' ■•3 ■"^^J&B ^ JB»^ :3»)^g ^. x:>- THE LuESTHER T. MERTZ LIBR/iRY THE NEW YORK COTTlNiCAL GARDEN ^^ THE HOKTICULTUEIST, AND JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE, LANDSCAPE GARDENING, RURAL ARCHITECTURE, BOTANY, POMOLOGY, ENTOMOLOGY, RURAL ECONOMY, &c. Edited by A. J. DOWNING, ACTHOR OF " LANDSCAPE GAKDKNIXG,'?," DESIGNS FOR COTTAGE RE3IDENXES," " FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES OF AMERICA," "COUNTRY HOUSES," ETC., ETC. Vol. V. — July to December, 1850 ALBANY: PUBLISHED BY LUTHER TUCKER. BOSTON — JOSEPH BRECK AND CO., NO. 51 NORTH MARKET-STREET. NEW-YORK — M. H. NEWMAN AND CO., 199 BROADWAY. PHILADELPHIA — W. B. ZIEBER. 0 ^ -■ ;^^fe4 THB JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. Vol. V. JULY, 1850. No 1. No ONE pretencJs that we have as yet either a national architecture or national music in America ; unless our Yankee clap-board house be taken as a specimen of tlie first, and " old Susannah" of the second, fine art. But there is, on the other hand, perhaps, no country where there is more building or more " mu- sicianing," such as they are, at the present moment. And as a perfect taste in the arts is no more to be expected in a young nation, mainly occupied with the practical wants of life, than a knowledge of geometry is in an infant school, we are content with the large promise that we find in ilie present, and confidently look forward for fulfilment to the future. In almost every other country, a few land- lords own the land, which a great many tenants live upon and cultivate. Hence the general interest in building is confined to a comparatively small class, improvements are made in a solid and substantial way, and but little change takes place from one generation to another in the style of the dwelling and the manner of living. But in this country we are, comparativel}^ all landlords. In the country, especially, a large part of the rural population own the land they cultivate, and build their own hou- ses. Hence it is a matter of no little mo- VOL. V. 1 ment to them, to avail themselves of every possible improvement in the manner of con- structing their dwellings, so as to secure the largest amount of comfort, convenience, and beauty, for the moderate sum which an Ameri- can landholder has to spend. While the rural proprietors of the other continent are often content to live in the same houses, and with the same inconveniences as their forefathers, no one in our time and country, who has any of the national spirit of progress in him, i^ satisfied unless, in building a new house, ho has some of the " modern improvements" in it. This is a good sign of the times ; and when we see it coupled vsdth another, viz., the great desire to make the dwelling agreeable and ornamental, as well as comfortable, we think there is abundant reason to hope, so far as the country is concerned, that something like a national taste will come in due time. What the popular taste in building seems to us to require, just now, is not so much impulse as right direction. There are num- berless persons who have determined, in building their new home in the country, that they " will have something pretty ;" but pre- cisely what character it shall have, and whe- ther there is any character, beyond that of a " pretty cottage" or a " splendid house," is ' not perhaps very clear to their miud.s. 10 A FEW WORDS ON RURAL ARCHITECTURE. We do not make this statement to find fault with the condition of things ; far from it. We see too much good in the newly awakened taste for the Beautiful, to criticise severely its want of intelligence as to the exact course it should take to achieve its object — or perhaps its want of definiteness as to what that object is — beyond providing an agreeable home. But we allude to it to show that, with a little direction, the popular taste now awakened in this particular department, may develop itself in such a manner as to produce the most sa- tisfactory and beautiful results. Fifteen years ago, there was but one idea relating to a house in the country. It must be a Grecian temple. Whether 20 feet or 200 feet front, it must have its columns and portico. There might be comfortable rooms behind them or not ; that was a matter which tlie severe taste of the classical builder could not stoop to consider. The roof might be so flat that there was no space for comforta- ble servant's bed-rooms, or the attic so hot that the second story was uninhabitable in a mid-summer's day. But of what consequence was that, if the portico were copied from the Temple of Theseus, or the columns were miniature imitations in wood of those of Jupi- ter Olympius ' We have made a great step onward in that short fifteen years. There is, to be sure, a fashion now in building houses in the country — almost as prevalent and despotic as its pseudo- classical predecessor, but it is a far more ra- tional and sensible one, and though likely to produce the same unsatisfactory effect of aU other fashions — that is to substitute sameness and monotony for tasteful individuality, yet we gladly accept it as the next step onward. We allude, of course, to the Gothic or English cottage, with steep roofs and high gables, — just now the ambition of almost «very person building in the country. There are, indeed, few things so beautiful as a cot- tage of this kind, well designed and tastefully placed. There is nothing, all the world over, so truly rural and so unmistakeably country- like as this very cottage, which has been de- veloped in so much perfection in the rural lanes and amidst the picturesque lights and shadows of an English landscape. And for this reason, because it is essentially rural and country-like, we gladly welcome its general naturalization, (with the needful variation of the veranda, &c., demanded by our climate,) as the type of most of our country dwell- ings. But it is time to enter a protest against the absolute and indiscriminate employment of the Gothic cottage in every site and situation in the country — whether appropriate or inap- propriate— whether suited to the grounds or the life of those who are to inhabit it, or the contrary. We have endeavored, in our work on " Country Houses," just issued from the press, to show that rural architecture has more significance and a deeper meaning than merely to afl"ord a " pretty cottage," or a " handsome house," for him who can afford to pay for it. We believe not only that a house may have an absolute beauty of its own, growing out of its architecture, but that it may have a relative beauty no less interest- ing, which arises from its expressing the life and occupation of those who build or inhabit it. In other words, we think the home of every family, possessed of character, may be made to express that character, and will be most beautiful (supposing the character good,) when in addition to architectural beauty it unites this significance or individuality. We have not the space to go into detail on this subject here ; and to do so would only be repeating what we have already said in the work in question. But the most casual reader will understand from our suggestion, that if a man's house can be made to express EXPERIMENTS IN HORTICULTURE. 11 tte )3cst traits of his character, it is undenia- ble that a large source of beauty and interest is always lost by those who copy each other's homes without reflection, even though they may be copying the most faultless cottage ornee. We would have the cottage, the farm- house, and the larger country house, all marked by a somewhat distinctive character of their own, so far as relates to making them eomplete and individual of their kind; and believing as we do, that the beauty and force of every true man's life or occupation depend largely on his pursuing it frankly, honestly, and openly, with all the individuality of his character, we would have his house and home help to give significance to, and dignify that daily life and occupation, by harmonizing with them. For this reason, we think the farmer errs when he copies the filagree work of the retired citizen's cottage, instead of showing that rustic strength and solidity in his house which are its true elements of inte- rest and beauty. For this reason, we think he who builds a simple and modest cottage in the country, fails in attaining that which he aims at by copying, as nearly as his means will permit, the parlors, folding doors, and showy furniture of the newest house he has seen in town. We will not do more at present than throw out these suggestions, in the hope that those about to build in the country will reflect that an entirely satisfactory house is one in which there are not only pretty forms and details, but one which has some meaning in its beauty, considered in relation to their own position, character and daily lives. EXPERIMENTS IN HORTICULTURE, NO. IV— GRAPES. BY B., POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. For the last ten years, I have had under cul- tivation from three hundred to five hundred grapevines. They comprised about twenty varieties originally, but have dwindled down to three, viz., the Catawba, Isabella and El- sinburgh. I still retain specimens of the best foreign grapes ; but it is labor lost to at- tempt to produce fruit from them, in any quantity, in the open ground. The Cataw- ba I esteem most highly, especially for wine. The Isabella is preferred by many as a dessert fruit, although my taste Inclines to the former. The Elsinburgh makes a good wine, and is the most hardy of them all. Indeed, this last was the only variety which passed unscathed through the excessively cold winter of 1848-9. Without attempting to detail the various modes of iilanting and training which have been tried, I will merely state that which has proved most satisfactory. Take vines one or two years old, in the spring, and plant them in rows running north and south ; the rows to be six feet apart, and the vines eight feet apart in the row. Within a year or two, at your leisure, prepare posts with bottoms of locust and tops of pine fence railing, seven and a half feet in length, and set one equi-dis- tant between every two vines in the rows, so that they will stand five and a half feet in height. Then procure galvanised wire. No. 12 or 13, and having bored five small holes through each post at distances of eleven inches, pass the wire through, draw it tight and fasten each end. The upper wire is to rest on the top of the posts, and be fiistened by staples. Then paint your posts, and brace those at the extremities of the rows, to enable them to bear the weight, and you will have the fouu- 12 EXPERIMENTS IN HORTICULTURE. dation of a vineyard -whicli will endure for at least one generation, I planted one hundred vines in this manner several. years ago, and I am satisfied that I cannot improve upon the mode. The dis- tance is ample, as it gives forty-eight feet sur- face for the roots of each vine, and nearly the same space of trellis for the fruit. The wire, being galvanised, will not rust ; it makes no shade, and affords a convenient support for the tendrils to cling to. The rows, running north and south, give a fair proportion of sun to each side. The bottom of the posts are made of locust, for the sake of durability, and the tops of pine, for the sake of convenience in attaching the wires, and are painted to pre- serve them and improve the appearance. A considerable saving of expense can be made by fainting the wire white, which can be done very rapidly by taking a coil and spread- ing it over a paling, or stick thrust through it, and applying the paint with an ordinary brush. The paint Avill preserve the wire many years. Having thus planted my vineyard, I first proceed to train from each vine two horizon- tal arms along the lowest wire. At the next autumnal pruning these arms are shortened to four feet in length, and are always thus kept between two posts. After tliis I train from each arm four upright shoots gradually, from year to year, until they reach the top- most wire, — cutting in to one or two eyes the alternate shoots in alternate years. No rule can be laid down on this subject, as to the precise degrees of progression from year to year, as it depends much upon the vigor of each vine. The common error is to leave too much wood. It is an easy matter to cover one hundred square feet with a vine five years old ; but it is perfectly certain that if properly confined to one quarter that space, it will produce a much more valuable crop of grapes. I have no doubt that a vigorous Catawba vine can be profitably confined to forty square feet of trellis for thirty years or more. In regard to pruning, which is the great art in the cultivation of this fruit, I have re- cently modified my views, and am gradually changing my practice. I find that the old notion, that spring pruning would cause vinos to bleed to death, is entirely incorrect. I have pruned freely during the mouth of May of this year, as well as formerly, without the slightest Injury. The advantage gained, is that you can prune after your fruit buds open, and show how many bunches of grapes they can produce. You can then cut down to the pro- per number of bunches for the strength of your vine, which is the true principle of pruning. My general practice for the last five years has been to prune in November, and lay down the vines and partly cover them with earth or litter. This last precaution is taken to pre- vent the winter from pruning them a second time. For I had, on one or two occasions, lost nearly all the fruit buds between the knife and the frost. The importance of severe pruning to insure first rate fruit, cannot be too strongly urged. A vine, even of the hardiest sort, if left to itself, will soon become worthless. An ex- periment was tried by a near neighbor, at my suggestion, a few years ago, upon a young Isabella vine of great beauty and vigor. It was trained upon an arbor, and in June showed two hundred bunches of fruit. The grapes continued to grow and look as well as mine, until the middle of July, when they began to fail. The result, in short, was that not a single bunch of grapes ripened, and for a year or two after the vine showed but small signs of life ; and after a lapse of about seven years, and having been headed down to re- cruit its energies, it has not yet recovered from the shock. The only safe rule that I can adopt, is to direct my gardener to prune very closely in the fall, and then follow him EXPERIMENTS IX HORTICULTURE. 13 next spring, and cut out onc-Iialf of the ej'es he has left. In regard to preparing and manuring the ground, my experience does not accord with the rules laid down in the books. I have tried deep trenching, bones, sods, &c., ac- cording to the most approved directions ; but I have not yet perceived the slightest benefi- cial results. On the contrary, my best grapes come from an ordinary soil of about one foot in depth, kept well manured by street sweep- ings, which I deem a specific manure for all kinds of fruit. The explanation may, per- haps, be found in the fact that my soil is a heavy loam with a clay subsoil, into which it is not beneficial for grape roots to penetrate. At all events, mine do best near the surface. My strongest growing vines have been very heavily manured with coal ashes. Two years ago my Catawba grapes were much injured by the rot. In the autumn I covered the ground with ground plaster, at the rate of five pounds to a vine, and have not since been troubled in that way. Last year I made a great variety of ex- periments in wine pressing, — beginning with cherries, and ending with quinces. Among the rest, I pressed about a ton of grapes, which yielded about six gallons to the hun- dred pounds. The modus operandi was sub- stantially the same as that so well described by Mr. Longworth in a recent number of the Horticulturist, except that my grapes were not separated from the stems, and we added one and a half pounds of loaf sugar to a gal- lon of juice. It does not, perhaps, become me to say much in regard to the quality of the wine ; firstly, because I do not profess to be a judge — of wine, I mean ; secondly, because I could not be deemed an impartial one. All I shall say is, that according to the taste of those who have tried the Catawba, it is considered as good, and quite as pure, as any foreign wines brought to this market. If, however I can find an express to forward a basket, the editor shall have an opportunity of testing the the matter in propria persona. Poughkecpsie, June, 1S50. Our correspondent's article is full of excel- lent practical suggestions, based, as usual, on actual experience. We hope it will lead others to favor us with their views on vine- yards, wliich are becoming a somewhat im- portant branch of agriculture. We agree with B. entirely as to the main principles he deduces from his own experiments, viz., that upright trellises, frames or poles, are the best supports for the vines ; that the latter should be confined to a very moderate space and se- verely pruned ; and that none but native grapes as yet have proved of much value in the vineyard. He states very correctly that it is owing to the nature of his soil that trenching, ordina- rily of the greatest value to the vine, has proved of little benefit with him. If some- thing could be mingled with the subsoil, at the time of trenching it, to render it light and permeable by the air and roots, trenching would undoubtedly prove beneficial. Hence the great value of coal ashes for vines in a heavy soil, though they are nearly useless in sandy ground. The samples of wine which our correspond- ent so obligingly sent us, we received in ex- cellent condition. They were pure and sound, and some of them, (especially the Catawba,) of excellent quality. But from the amount of sugar per gallon added to the must, they are all sioeet wines, which we think inferior to the dry wines made on the Ohio from the same grapes. Now light dry wines, like Claret and Hock, (the natural product of the Catawba, &c.,) require little or no sugar ; and they cost less, and are more wholesome than sweet wines, like Muscatel, Malaga, &c. Ed. NEUMANN ON RAISING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS. Perhaps the best work on propagating plants by this means, is a little volume pub- lished in Paris, entitled " Notions sur I'art de faire les Boutures," by M. Neumann, the well known chief of the hot-house department of the Garden of Plants. We shall give in our succeeding numbers, commencing with the following article, a translation of the most important part of this little work, so useful to the plant cultivator. No. I. GrENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. — The Creator has willed that plants should multiply themselves by their seeds ; but man, still more to increase the riches of the vege- table kingdom, as if he found himself in too narrow a compass, incessantly assists Nature, whether he evokes the mysteries of artificial fecundation, or propagates species by grafts, layers, or cuttings. This last method of pro- pagation has arrived at such importance in our days, that I have thought it my duty to to state the nature of the proceedings which practice, and a long study of the numerous plants intrusted to my care, have suggested to me. A cutting, properly speaking, is a part of a plant which, being detached, is placed in the ground, where, under the influ- ence of different circumstances, it ought to develop itself, and produce an individual simi- lar to the parent plant. Monocotyledonous plants will only strike by cuttings from their branches ; but dycotyledonous plants offer for propagation, so to speak, all the parts which compose them — roots, branches, trunks, or portions of them, herbaceous shoots, and leaves. With but few exceptions plants struck by cuttings demand constant attention ; a temperature and moisture proportioned to the nature of the subject are the conditions which ought especially to engage the attention of the operator ; for the principal precaution is, to secure the cuttings at the same time from rotting and drying. With this end in view v.-e keep them in media of equal temperature and moistui-e ; we prevent evaporation of the soil, and arrest the perspiration of the cut- tings. Plants which are soft-wooded, or have vp'f^ i:>llular tissue, such as Malvaceae, Ge- raniacese, Solanaceae, and others, take root more easily, and demand less precaution, than the delicate, resinous, milky, hard and dry- wooded species. Cuttings of the greater part of the hardy ornamental plants suited to the climate of Paris, will strike in the open air, if they are protected from winds and currents o£ hot air. Others are struck in pots upon ex- hausted hot-beds, or in a pit not much raised and ventilated. Finally, cuttings of exotics, able to grow only under the influence of a heat which reminds them of the conditions among which they naturally live, strike root in glass-houses made on purpose, or are placed, agreeably to their nature, either in a hot-house or green-house. No. II. Soil proper for Cuttings. — Different sorts of trees do not root equally well in all soils. There are some cuttings which can scarcely be made to succeed in saline earth, while others succeed in it very well. The soils considered the best foi- striking cuttings in the open air, are those which are free, sandy, and soft to the touch ; of Fontenay-aux-Iloses, for example, of C la- mart, or of Massy. Tamarix elegans and T. germanica prosper in a soil rich in saltpetre ; but the Giugko and Poplars cannot strike in it ; these last succeed at Fontenay-aux-Iloses. Cuttings made in glass-houses generally re- quire to be planted in earth mixed with peat in preference to any other, but varied ac- cording to the nature of the plant. What- ever composition we use, we must take care not to employ it too dry or too moist ; in the first case, the earth not being able to sustain itself in a convenient manner around the cut- ting, the latter fulls or is displaced when we wish to water it; in the second case, the earth being too compact, it hinders the forma- tion of roots ; Nature makes vain efforts, and the cutting suffers, decays, and dies, in spite of its disposition to vegetate. No. III. Cuttings in the Open Air. — All our deciduous trees, and many evergreens, may be struck from cuttings in the open air, by the same process as that employed in the Colonies, if requisite care be taken. Thus in our Colonies, where there are no glass-houses for propagation, nor bell-glasses, I made cut- I tings entirely in the open air, in a bed shaded RAISING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS. 15 with straw ; these cuttings wore watered at random every day, taking no other precaution than that of not disturbing their roots. This simple method, the only one, it may be said, in use in our Colonies, is far from offering the difficulties which present themselves under the latitude of Paris, to secure the striking of the cuttings of plants foreign to - our climate. Here, in order to insure success, we take shoots and branches in full vegetation. In the Colonics, the gardener always chooses in preference the wood which has finished its growth. With us, on the contrary, there are plants whose cuttings in our glass-houses do not root uidess they are quite soft, and just before the wood begins to assume its natural colour; such are Semecarpus anacardium, Swietenia mahogaoi. Euphoria lit-chi, &e. These cuttings cannot bear exposure to the air, even for a moment. They must be planted the moment they are taken off, and covered by a bell-glass. However, this treat- ment will not succeed with milky, gummy, or resinous plants, such as Yahea Araucaria, Euphorbia, &c., whose cuttings, if placed in the earth as soon as they are ta- ken off, seldom root, but almost always rot. Such cuttings secrete from their wounds a peculiar matter, which ^^ must be discharged % before they arc plant- 1^ ed. For this purpose ^^^5== I put them upside down in pots ; I then fill the pots with rather moist earth, without pressing it in, leaving the wound alone uncovered. I leave them 24 or 36 hours, and sometimes more, in this po- sition, until the superabundant matter which they contain is thrown off. I then wash the wound with a sponge, and the cutting takes root more or loss easily, in proportion as the wound is clean. I know no tree from which we may make cuttings in the open air, with herbaceous shoots, without a bell-glass ; but those herbaceous plants which have some ap- pearance of wood, such as the Pelargonium, Geranium, Cineraria, and Calceolaria may be made to strike without heat, and under the shade of a wall. These cuttings are shaded with straw mats duiing the day ; however. they always succeed best in a cool frame. In order to make the plants which I have just named strike by cuttings, we commonly take the extremities of the branches after flower- ing. The soil which suits them best is peat mixed with well rotted animal or vegetable mould. Among Roses, the China, being the hardiest, is propagated by cuttings in peat soil, with wood one year old ; the other sorts strike in a hot-house, and under a bell-glass, for which purpose choice should be made of herbaceous shoots, taken from plants which have themselves been kept in a green-house. No. IV. Cuttings upon exhausted Hot-beds. — There are some plants which cannot be multiplied effectually in the open ground, and which require a mild and uni- form heat, in a still atmosphere, liking, how- ever, a little light, which should be given 1. — Propagaling H> them night and morning. The temperature which suits such plants when under propaga- tion, is that which is found under the glass of an exhausted hot-bed. After we have per- mitted this bed to lose its greatest heat, we put over it a low frame ; the pots containing the cuttings are then plunged in the soil of this bed. In this way we successfully propa- gate Diosmas, Fuchsias, Heaths, single Ca- mellias intended for grafting on, and similar plants. No. V. Cuttings in Propagating Hou- ses.— But the exhausted hot-bed is suited only to a limited number of species of plants. Many plants, even oranges, would not find there a heat sufficient to enable them to make roots. Plants whose nature it is to grow 16 RAISING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS. under the influence of a high temperature, are struck in propagating houses bxiilt on purpose, in which an equal temperature is maintained day and night. This indispensable condition, which has always been an object of great care among gardeners, has now become much more easy to fulfil, in consequence of the use of hot-water pipes. The flooring of the frame under which the hot-water pipes pass, is covered to the depth of 4 or 6 inches with sand or tan ; the pots for cuttings, which are plunged in it, are subjected to a heat of from 30° to 35° Cent. (87° to 98° Fahr.) for cut- tings of such plants as, from the difiiculty of striking them, require a high temperature, as for example Xanthochymus, Myristica, Guaya- cum, Diospyros, Mangifera, &c. Annexed is the section of a glass-house for propagation, such as I should recommend for strildng cut- tings in. Two pits, AA, are placed on each side of the principal walk B ; CC are two walks all round, for the use of the gardeners. The flooring of the pits ought to be covered with sand or tan 4 or 6 inches thick, before receiving the cutting pots. Hot-water pipes pass under these floors and heat the material in which the pots are placed, as well as the pots themselves, and then discharge their heat into the air of the house by means of trap- doors placed on hinges, and opening on each side of the pits ; by which we may regulate the surrounding temperature of the house. The dimensions of such a house would vary according to circumstances ; we must only bear in mind that the cuttings ought to be as near the glass of the house as possible. The plan of this house, as here figured, represents an interior 4 yards wide, of which l^- yard is employed for the walks ; but if the house to be constructed is to be narrower — 3 yards wide, for example — a single walk in the mid- dle might be managed. In a well-constructed propagating house we may strike cuttings all the year round. No. VI. Pots for Cuttings. — The pots which we choose for cuttings are about 3.| inches wide at the top ; we prefer pots with small bottoms, so that when we turn them up to ascertain if the cutting has rooted, there is nothing to stop the ball from coming out. I submitted to the Horticultural Society of Paris, some time ago, a model of a cutting- pot which has since been common. I am )^lad to have made it known, because it has contributed to the success of this part of horticultural sci- ence, which is now so generally appre- ciated. Fig 2, A, is an earthen pot, 2 J — 32 in. broad, and 21 — 2^ in. high Fig. 'i.— Pots for Cuttings. _ , in the bottom there is a hole as in a common pot ; this opening must not be obstructed by a crock, as is the cus- tom, but we invert inside a little pot, whose bottom ought to be level with the earth in the pot, as in the cut. This little pet is to receive the heat. The hot effluvium of the tan, or the heat developed by the hot-water pipes, enters the hole of the earthen pot, lodges in the pot which is inverted, and keeps the cuttings, which are planted circularly around it, in the condition most favorable to their vegetation ; this arrangement presents also a real advantage, viz., that the roots of cuttings do not force themselves one on the other, as in the old methods ; they may easily be separated afterwards. No. VII. Bell-glasses for Cuttings. — The green bell-glasses called Melon bell- glasses are generally used for propagation- IU!\J^\JI\jf Fig. 3.— A Melon Bel'-slass. but recent and repeated trials, and frequent observation, have given the preference to the use of blue and violet coloured glasses, as being more favorable for the striking of cut- tings. I give here the forms of the glasses used in the green-houses of the INIuseum of Natural History. Fig. 3 is a Melon bell- glass ; it is useful, inasmuch as it serves to cover a good many little pots, and also for Rose-cuttings. Latterly other bell-glasses called angular {a facettes) have been in use, constructed in the same manner as hand- glasses ; they are made of three difl"erent sizes, RAISING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS. 17 an advantage which the Melon-glasses have not, nearly all of them being blown of the same diameter. Fig. 4 is a long cylinder, in- tended to receive cuttings of large size. Fig. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. 5 is a wide but low cylinder, imder which you can place cuttings of small size, such as Heaths, Leschenaultias, Epacris, &c. When it is required to propagate a delicate and valuable plant, the striking of the cuttings will be more certain, if we place each sepa- rately under a single glass with a flat head, as in Fig. 6, and wliich corresponds in height to the length of the cutting. This glass should be placed upon tlie pot in such a man- ner that it excludes all conununication with the exterior air ; this may be done by not leaving any empty space between the glass and the edge of the pot. It is to be remembered, that when we pro- pagate under bell-glasses, we must always proportion the size of the cylinders to the quantity of the cuttings, and their strength : thus, a small cutting should not be covered by a large glass ; and in this last it will not grow so well alone as when there are many others. The process of striking cuttings seems to be certain in proportion to the smallncss of the space in which they are to grow. No. VIII. Cuttings of Monocotyle- dons.— We have thought till now that cut- tings of Monocotyledons were very difficult, if not impossible, to strike. I am convinced, from observations and repeated trials, that plants of this numerous class are among the most easy to multiply by cuttings of the branches. Experience has taught me that these branches of Monocotylcdonous plants should be takcn^ from wood of one year old or less, and that they root as well when they are 5 or 6 years old ; but herbaceous cuttings, as well as cuttings of roots, never succeed ; which is the more remarkable, because in Dycotyledons the contrary is the case. I successfully multiply from cuttings of branch- es, Dracaena, Freycinetia, Vanilla, and many others. Cuttings of Monocotyledons should be made with all their leaves, for it takes some time to replace these if they are cut off; how- ever, there are some species whose Ion leaves are difficult to place under glasses. We may remedy this inconvenience by turning the leaves back along the stalk, a position which we maintain by tying them as may be requi- site, as is shown in Fig. 7. Cuttings disposed in this manner seldom rot. FifT- 7. — Branch of Dracrna urn- , ,,, . brnculifera prepared for a cut- \ '// 'j tins- Fig. 8. The operation consists in cutting away, for abort l-5th of an inch from their point of attacliment, the leaves at the bottom of the cutting, all the length of the portion which is to be buried. It is not always necessary to take the extremities of branches for cuttinga of this sort. If cut into pieces they succeed nearly equally well ; it is thus that I multi- ply the Vanilla, in cutting the branch into pieces having two eyes each, as would be the case if the accompanying branch were divided at E, Fig. 8, keeping as near as possible to the point of attachment of the leaf, and taking care not to hurt the shoot in its axil. Fig. 8, VI shows the lower end of a stalk from which the leaf has been cut, and the appear- ance of such a cutting when it is rooting. No. IX. Cuttings of Dicotyledons. — I have always had reason to think that there is not a Dicotyledonous plant which may not be multiplied by cuttings, either of the roota or stems ; by herbaceous shoots, or even by detached leaves. 18 RAISING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS. Cuttings by Roots. — Cuttings by roots, although long known, are not generally used by our better horticulturists ; this mode, however, seems sufficiently efficacious to fix the attention of those who study the art of multiplication. I have several times had oc- casion to mention the case of Dais Cotinifolia. The roots of this plant, cut into small pieces, and spread on the earth of a pot in a hot- house, gave as many young plants as there were pieces of the root. I do not doubt that we may succeed in making cuttings of the soft wood of the Dais equally well ; but I have never succeeded with the branches when the wood is hard. I have already said that Paulownia impe- rialis may be struck from herbaceous cuttings produced in a green-house ; the manner of striking cuttings of the root of this tree is not less easy. Portions of the roots which vary in diameter from ^ to | of an inch, and in length from 1 to 2J inch, take root well. The month of March is the most favorable time for striking these cuttings ; for in Febru- ary they often rot, and the greatest care is necessary to save them. The first seed Pau- lownia which I sowed having only produced me one individual, I perceived that this plant when kept in the pot produced so few buds as to deprive me of all hope of multiplying it quickly. This led me to try cuttings from the roots, which perfectly succeeded, as the innumerable plants now seen in the nurse- ries sufficiently prove. The shoots of a Pau- lownia, struck from root cuttings, came out round the root, as is seen in Fig. 9, N.; this method of proceeding gives us the facility of split- ting the roots into several pieces, which, separately, strike as well as an entire root, Fig. 9, 0. When the shoots, which are developed upon the root, have attained a length of an inch, or Fig. O.—Cutihtgs ofaPavlmcnia an inch and a quar- imjmxaus. ter, we cut them above the two first leaves which appear ; the detached portions are the cuttings, which are placed in a propagating pot, just sufficient to keep them upright, taking especial care that the earth is not too dry. When the cuttings have once taken root, and attained some vigor, we cut off the head, which we again place in the earth ; thus we obtain two plants from the cuttings, both of which will form trees. During this time the root of the Paulownia gives other buds, which are subjected to tlie same opera- tion ; but it is useful, in order to draw the sap, to allow a bud to remain upon it, which at a later period, if left to itself, forms a stronger plant than the others. As soon as we perceive that the last cut- tings of which I have just spoken have taken root, we place them in a larger pot, and these pots ai-e placed in the green-house, in a spot the least exposed to currents of air ; the young plants will flag a little, but they soon recover. When they have begun to vege- tate, we take them from the green-house and put them in a half shaded cold frame, where a little air is allowed to enter if the sun is too hot ; we thus accustom the Paulownia to support the rays of the sun and the action of the air ; and, as soon as we think the cut- tings sufficiently strong, we plant them in the open ground. All these successive opera- tions take place so quickly, that a cutting made in March, and which is 4 inches high when it is first planted in the open air, at- tains by the following autumn the height of 1 foot or more, supposing that it has been planted in a soil suitable to its nature, and has been sufficiently watered. No. X. There are other plants whose roots send out, contrary to the Paulownia, their buds upon the cut itself; this is re- marked in Madura aurantiaca. Fig. 10. They are formed between the wood and the bark by an innumerable number of exceed- ingly minute bulbs, which turn green and produce the buds. The ciittings of this plant strike very easily in the open air, fol- lowing the same method of proceeding as in Paulownia ; the large end of the root must be placed even with the earth or nearly so. The Cydonia japonica is only multiplied by layers. The difficulty which this method offers for striking has not permitted this plant, up to the present time, to be as much distributed in ornamental gardens as it ought to be. But if we strike from the roots, re- sults will be obtained much better and expe- RAISING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS. 19 Fig. W.—Cuttinss of Madura aiirantiaca. ditlously. If we cut the roots the size of a pen, into pieces 2 or 2^ inches long, and plant them upright, we shall have the same year as many plants as there were pieces planted. These cut- tings should be made in the open air, along a bor- der or strip of peat, with- out any other covering than the soil where they are to grow. If we plant them vertically, we should cover them very slightly with earth ; and at the first watering the cut will be uncovered. If we place them horizontally, they should be covered with eai'th about one- sixteenth of an inch deep. This last method succeeds equally well, but it is less certain than the first. I have here mentioned these few species only to show what advantage we may derive from the method of multiplying dycotyledo- nous plants by cuttings of the roots ; the good results which I have just pointed out will encourage, I hope, other attempts of the same nature to be made upon other plants, whose multiplication upon hot-beds has been attended by little or no result. At the time when I was about to send the present treatise to the press, I discovered a new fact in corroboration of what I have stated, and I feel obliged to publish it. During the last six years, I have many times tried to strike an Araucaria from cuttings of the roots ; up to this time, I had had no satisfactory re- sults, but to-day, 10th May, 1844, 1 perceive that the cuttings of the roots of Araucaria Cunninghami, | inch in diameter, and about 2 1 to 3 inches long, planted in October, 1843, are at last sending forth shoots. I at- tribute my failure up to this time, to the pre- sence of the glasses with which I covered the cuttings : the concentration of air charged with an excess of moisture makes them perish. In the first place, the pots which contained the roots, were, in October last, plunged into tan still impregnated with a gentle heat ; pei'ceiving in March that the earth in the pots was decomposed, I changed it, without being able to distinguish the least sign of vegeta- tion on the cuttings. The pots were then placed upon a bench and exposed to a mode- rate temperature ; in April these pots were placed upon a warm bed of tan ; and it was this, doubtless, which, to ray great surprise, a month afterwards, excited vegetation. All cultivators who know how to manage the Araucaria will, perhaps, doubt the truth of this phenomenon ; but if they are willing to convince themselves by testimony of their eyes, I shall be happy to present them with a palpable proof. The realisation of this re- markable experiment, which nobody, I be- lieve, has before made known, will, I hope, become a fact of great importance both in horticulture and agriculture. If, as I have reason to believe will be the case, this mode of cuttings by roots succeeds as well upon all the species of the beautiful fiimily of Coniferae, the new Pines of the Himalaya and of other countries, which would for a long time have remauied scarce, may soon be propagated with certainty ; and I dare affirm, that the plants raised from cut- tings of the roots will form trees as well con- stituted as those produced from seeds. I am going to follow up my experiments upon Araucaria excclsa, being nearly certain at the outset that I shall obtain the same results as I did upon Araucaria Cunninghami. The autumn docs not seem to me the best season for this sort of operation, it ought to succeed best in spring ; a close observation teaches us this. There are some plants which are always kept so nuich the more scarce, as it has been impossible to multiply them even by the last process ; such, for example, as Ilalesia dip- tera, of which I have never been able to save a single layer once detached from its parent plant, notwithstanding these layers have been well rooted, and under the constant care of the operator. Likewise, we have never ob- tained a result of the grafts of Halesia dip- tera made on tetraptera. However, I have reason to believe that cuttings of the roots will strike. The stock of Halesia diptera which exists in the Jardin des Plantes, be- gins to give fertile seeds. Let us hope that soon we shall be able to obtain from some in- dividuals seed of this beautiful shrub. EFFECTS OF LOCALITY ON TEMPERATURE. BY VARDLEY TAYLOR, LOUDON CO., VA. In the last number of the third volume of the Horticulturist, is a short communication from James Grant, Davenport, Iowa, giving some account of the cold weather in the pre- vious winter. Mr. Grant considers it as disproving the opinion of a former writer, that peach blossoms are always killed when the thermometer is 14° below zero. He says " the trees protected by our bluffs will have as much fruit as they can hold. For days, during the winter, the thermometer was 20° below zero. The preservation of our trees was probably owing to deep snows and uni- form cold weather." There are so many modifying influences, in respect to cold wea- ther, caused by difference of elevation and exposure, either east or west, the presence of large borders of water, protection by bluffs, or other elevations, &c., that it is difficult to calculate the effect of cold on blossom buds, until ascertained by actual results. Were a series of observations made on such occur- rences, in different sections of our widely ex- tended country, giving minutely the situatiop, difference of elevation of places, and of all other circumstances bearing upon the sub- ject, with the effects in each case, much in- formation might be elicited ; and that branch of meteorology would not only be better un- derstood, but the probable effect of different localities for particidar fruit trees be ascer- tained with more certainty. With this view, I propose furnishing for the pages of the Horticulturist, our experience of the cold of last winter, with a theory of its effects, corroborated by our previous experi- ence. This district of country is peculiarly liable to great changes of temperature, situated as we are in the first valley between the two first ranges of mountains above tide-water, with the Blue Ridge — that great feature in the Apalachian system of mountains of the Atlantic slope — on the west, and one of its spurs — the Catoctin mountains — on the east. This valley has an elevation of from 4 to 600 feet above tide-water, while the mountains rise from 2 to 600 feet above the valley. Such difference of elevation is frequently marked by great difference of temperature, even at the same time. The peaches are often killed by the frosts of spring or the cold of winter, in the lower grounds, while on high situations or on the mountains, they arc rarely injured by either. Indeed, in some places a crop may be calculated on with per- haps as much certainty as in any part of our country, where frosts are liable to injure them at all. When the N. W. winds pre- vail, they bring the air of the Alleghany mountains to us, modified, it is true, by mix- ing with the air of the valley over which it passes, but still often in winter exceeding cold. A prevalence of south or southeast- erly wind in a little time will bring the warm air of the Atlantic or of the Gulf of Mexico, and produce an opposite extreme. Hence, the variations of temperature here are often great. But the thermometer never falls ae low in high windy weather, unpleasant as it is, as it does in calm weather, after a snow has fallen. Last winter the snow fell to the depth of several inches, and the clouds pass- ed off without wind, and it continued calm for several days, when one morning the ther- mometer indicated 14 ° below zero, and it is probable, from the effect produced, had it been ascertained in our lowest valleys, it would have been much lower. My orchard has a EFFECTS OF LOCALITY ON TEMPERATURE. 21 difference of elevation of about 80 feet, and tlie peach trees on the lower part did not produce hardly a single blossom, while trees on the highest ground had a good supply of bloom. The small branches of many on the low ground are killed, and even some of the apple trees there are injured, as if by the extreme cold weather. The heart cherries, though on high- er ground, have suffered ; some of their blos- som buds remain undeveloped, and even where the bloom was considerable, there are very cherries to be seen. The morello cherries do not seem to be injured, and the apple trees had a heavy bloom. They are all much later than usual ; the peach did not come into full bloom before the 25th of last month, about three weeks behind the usual time. On all high situations in this vicinity, the peaches promise a full crop, while in all low ones, no blossoms were seen. After examining the effects, the theory seems to be this : When the ground is covered with snow, so as to prevent any radiation of heat from the surface, and the air is perfectly still, the caloric in the air [i. e., the warmer strata of air,] will rise higher and leave the the cold air in the valleys below. This being continued for several days, must produce a great degree of cold there. But had tliere have been any wind, this separation of the air into colder and warmer strata, would not have taken place near the surface of the earth, for it would all have been mixed up, and have re- sulted in a uniformity of temperature in all places alike. In the winter of '34-'5, we had a snow here near eighteen inches deep ; the ground was not frozen when it fell, and it continued calm weather, without any wind, for near a week, when one morning the thermometer in low situations fell to 20° below zero, a de- gree of cold never witnessed here by ma- ny of us before. The peach trees suffered (Severely ; many of them were almost killed ; nearly all the smaller branches were destroy- ed, and in low situations they only put out shoots, when they did, far back on the larger branches. In this case a surprising difference of temperature was exhibited on different le- vels. While the thermometer in the valley near the west side of Catoctin mountain in- dicated 20° below zero, one at Mt. Gilead, on the mountain perhaps 200 feet above, and only a few miles distant, was only down to zero. And the different effects upon the peach trees in this instance, in the two extremes of level, would seem to confirm such a difference of temperature, for on the mountains they were but little injured. Another remarkable instance of the same principle, occurred here in the spring of '34. Between the 13th and 17th of the 5th month (May) of that year, we had a succession of frosts that froze the ground of nights, and fqjrmed ice of the thickness of window glass. The forest trees were out in leaf, many of them nearly full grown, and with young shoots six or eight inches long, and the peaches were as large as ripe currants. A destruction of fruit was the consequence for that season, and the effect on the forests in some instances was remarkable. I noticed a few days afterwards, in a small valley or ravine near Alexandria, that in the bottom of the valley, and up the sides of the hills to a certain level, the young leaves and shoots were entirely killed, and looked as if scorched by the fire, while above that level they were still alive. This level, in looking up the valley, as there was consid- erable size to it, reached the bottom of it, and was visible no further, while down the valley it passed along the sides of the hills some dis- tance from their base, and exhibited the fact of many trees that stood below the level of this line, having the leaves and shoots entire- ly killed on the lower limbs, while those on the higher branches were still alive. It would seem from the above facts, that a 22 THE ZINFINDAL GRAPE— THE CURCULIO. temperature of 14° below zero was sufficient to destroy the blossom buds of the peach, for the situation of the thermometer was some distance -below the line of level where the blossoms were general. And perhaps were the difference of elevation noted in the communi- cation alluded to from Iowa, it might account for so low a temperature not destroying the peach buds there, particularly if the weather was calm. We have noted here, even in sum- mer, that two thermometers, one situated about 40 feet above the other and less than 100 yards apart, both equally exposed, would in- dicate a difference of 5 or 6°; the lower one would show that much cooler temperature in the morning, while at noon it would show that much warmer, than the other. I remain thy friend, Yardley Taylor Loudon Co., Va., 5th mo., 1S50. THE ZINFINDAL GRAPE— THE CURCULIO. BY G. GABRIEL, NEAV-HAVEN, CONN. In the June Horticulturist, page 568, I am represented to have stated, with two other gentlemen, that the Zinfindal grape is better adapted to out-door culture in Connecticut than the Isabella. This is a mistake. •I have never entertained such an opinion. I have cultivated it several years in a cold- house grapery, where it does well. I have also seen it cultivated in the open air in this city several years. It needs protection in the winter, like the Miller's Burgundy, and the fruit grows in a similar compact manner. In the grapery, it requires severe thinning. Mr. Allen recommends taking out eight of every ten berries, which, however, I think, is rather more than I have done. A grape requiring so much attention, would be a source of disappointment if recommended for general cultivation. I am pleased to notice so many turning their attention to the curculio. I am confi- dent it will have to surrender its claim on the plum. Indeed, it would be humiliating to our superiority — standing at the head of ani- mal creation — should the united pomological forces of the country allow the ravages of this little impertinent to continue. I am trying several experiments this season, more simple and easy than the one I reported to you last autumn, of which, if successful, I will send you some notice in due time. My experiments at present are based upon this simple theory, viz., that the curculio is endowed with sufficient reason or instinct to provide, like other animals, for the continu- ance of its race, and will deposit its eggs only where its young may reach the ground and make their way into it.* If this be true, paving, iron shavings, or a cloth suspended from stakes under the tree, or anything else that will prevent the young from entering the ground, will determine the curculio not to lay its eggs there. A gentleman told me not long since that he had plum trees stand- ing by the side of water, the branches of which hung partly over the water and partly over the dry ground, and that the fruit over the water was never attacked by the curculio, while that over the dry ground was ; so that those not liking the other remedies may use * Any of your readers may call to mind other insects that show the same sort of intelliffence. Why does the clumsy parent of the canker worm climb from the eround fifly or a hundred feet, to the ends of the branches of ihe loftiest elms, to lay its efftts? Why, plandy. that its young- may be where youn": and'tender leaves first appear. Who has tailed lo no- tice the ingeimity of the honey-bee, building iu comb just in that most capacious, and yet most compact form, demonstrated by science to be the most perfect? The forecast ai\d cou- trivance of many insects elicit our admiration aud wonder. CRITIQUE ON THE MAY HORTICULTURIST. 23 water, if tliey can. It is not a very nume- rous army to contend with ; a large portion jiiust perish from the egg to the perfect in- sect. Judge Darling, (an experienced en- tomologist,) used to say they deposited about thirty eggs each. Where their marks are numerous, they themselves are but seldom seen, I believe their eggs are deposited during the day, as I have several times caught them in this business. These eggs may be destroyed, i. e., the punctures cut out, with any pointed instrument, and the plum will heal and mature. G. Gabriel. New-Haven, June, 1850. CRITIQUE ON THE MAY HORTICULTURIST. BY JEFFREYS, NEW-YORK. Your Leader. — A Spring Gossip. — Why, my dear sir, you must have been dreaming when you wrote that mild, flowery, sun-shiny article ! for that venerable personage, " the oldest inhabitant," never saw such a spring before. How it may be in your own " High- land garden," I know not ; but with us in the city, and so far as I have ventured to to poke my nose into the country, the weather has been a perfect budget of abominations for gardeners and farmers. Even the great Horse Chestnuts, in the church yard of old Trinity, whose roots luxuriate deep among the human dust below, are hardly in full leaf, (May 20,) to say nothing of the Elms and the Maples, tJie Limes and the Catalpas ; while Thorbum, and all the other Hyacinth and flower deal- ers, are fretting and fuming at the " extr 'or- dinary cold season," while shivering over their unoccupied counters. However, I shall soon venture out into the fields — even if with great coat and mittens — for the summer won't post- pone its arrival, whether warm weather does or not. But thus far there has been no "po- etry" in the season, if it exists "in the soul." Even in the latter case, I can't feel it as yet. If I did, I would make an eff'ort to echo some of your bird-throated warblings. Fruit. Culture at the South. — Why, my good Doctor Phillips, will you so misun- understand me ? I simply mean to say, that every locality, as a general rule, will origi- nate, from its proper seeds, its own best (on all accounts) productions — be they fruits, grains, or vegetables. And so I think is the weight of proof, not that I object to introdu- cing the better kinds from other localities, when the desired standard of excellence does not -exist at home, provided they may become acclimated and naturalized to answer the pur- poses ; but I would encourage by all means the production from seed of the best varieties, which under all circumstances can be depend- ed on for domestic use. Meantime, cultivate the good kinds from abroad that you can suc- cessfully. Hints for raising Seedling Pears. — I wish that some of our American pomologists would go into a systematic plan of producing new fruits, as Mr. Walker suggests. Something might thus be grown, if not superior to the excellent new varieties already originated here, at least proving that the thing may be done by desigti as well as by accident, as most val- uable kinds have already originated. A fetv words to beginners. — I have no per- sonal acquaintance with Mr. Beeciier ; but I never saw an article of his on the garden, or its fruits, but was worth a year's subscription to any paper which such an article adorned. He is here, as always, to the point exactly. Of all things, do I love to hear people talk 24 CRITIQUE ON THE MAY HORTICULTURIST. straight out, as they mean. Each word of this extract will be felt as living truth by ev- ery real gardener in the land. Why, it would tire me -to tell you, and you to hear me, of the thousand and one duplicate, triplicate sup- plies of plants, and shrubs, and flowers, that I have yearly given away — (I like to give away things that I can well spare, to those who will care for them) — until my patience was exhausted, to those negligent, gossipping people, who are eternally begging and never caring for whatever they get. No ; this is not charity. I have begged things myself — now and then ; but I always feel ashamed to do it, for fear some mishap might occur to them ; while there are your regular, systema- tic beggars — and folks M'ho profess to be some- body, too — that are a pest to all good neigh- borhoods. But Mr. Beecher has given the whole story so well that I'll not add another word. The YeUoivs caused by an insect. — If Miss Morris be in error in her suggestions of the "insect causing the yellows," we will thank her for her keen observations in entomology. Would that many others of our lady cultiva- tors would spend their leisure hours in speer- ing the ills our fruits are heir to, and give us the results of their discoveries. A new and valuable fund of knowledge would thas be opened to us. I trust her graceful pen will be often found among your pages. The Poetry of Trees. — Welcome, heai'ty old Christopher ! The "banks and braes of bonny Doon," the " castled crags," or the Highland locks which immortalize his beloved Scotland, are as familiar to him as the clus- tered beauties of his own retired cottage grounds at Villeray ; and all, as native to the discourse of his charming pen as the lectures from his professor's desk in Edinburgh, or the Nodes Ambrosiana from his chair editorial in Blackwood. What a mine of wealth, in all that associates a country with what is bright, and beautiful, and classic, and interesting, is such a man as John Wilson ! Perhaps no 'other land can boast two men, who have, coupled with ac- quirements and productions of the highest order in their several callings, shed such a halo over the several characters of their coun- try, as Sir Walter Scott and Professor WU- son. And now, that you have given this most beautiful " Rhapsody " of the latter, it would, at a fitting time, be equally edifying to reprint, in part, or in whole — for it is too long for a single number — Sir Walter's admirable es- say alluded to by the Professor. Although not, perhaps, of general application throughout our country, it is full of valuable suggestions to all tree-planters, and would be read with surpassing interest by many of your sub- scribers. Design for an octagon house. — "There is nothing new under the sun I" said the wisest of men. But Solomon, we venture to say, had never then seen an octagon villa. If he had, I have little doubt it would have been the subject of a special chapter in the ifecords of his wisdom! The story is told of a spectator at the feats of an eastern juggler, that when, on the ac- cidental explosion of one of his pyrotechnics the audience were blown out of the building, the poor fellow looked up in utter dismay from amid the rubbish aroudd him, and asked what was to be the next part of the perform- ance. This octagon, I take it, is one in the series of building performances. I sha'nt talk about this house. Overgrown catalogues. — This article was written in London, but would be equally ap- plicable, were it written at Boston, New- York, or Philadelphia. Let any one take up a great many of the printed catalogues and advertise ments of an American nurseryman, and he would require a special interpreter to select the kernel of wheat from the bushel of chaff CRITIQUE ON THE MAY HORTICULTURIST. 25 there presented Mm. I am not disposed to be too severe upon the good proprietors of many of our popular nurseries, who seem to be thus actuated by a vain spirit of rivalry, but I fancy that if called upon to furnish spe- cimens of all the choice and various samples advertised, they would be sadly puzzled to give the originals. Some rare stories might be told of these matters, if the various appli- cants for fruits, plants, and flowers, would but tell their experience. I wish that the whole fraternity of nursery- men in our country would read and apply the advice of this article ; and then, instead of an array of sounding names, which tend only to bewilder and mislead the uninitiated, our practical fruit proprietors could rely on some- thing tangible and to the purpose, for their wants ; for I now venture to say, that nearly, if not quite one-half of the articles sent from them prove nearly worthless, or have to be reworked by the cultivator, before he can de- rive any benefit from them. This shoa^be a subject of action in your next pomological congress ; and it only requires a little moral courage and independence to reform what is fast getting to be a crying abuse in our fruit propagation. The public will, most certainly, respond to it, and the nurserymen Avill as cer- tainly find their account in it. Agricultural im-provements. — I have known a man pay fifty guineas for one of Morland's horse pictures, or Landscer's cattle pieces, to hang up in his hall or parlor, that had no more true knowledge in the originals from which they were painted, than an Esquimaux Indian has of growing pineapples. Of this class is 7wt Lewis Gr. Morris. He loves not only the 'pictures of fine cattle, to adorn his dwelling, but is enthusiastically fond of the animals themselves — to keep and propa- gate them in all their purity and excellence, as well as to embellish his park and lawns with such living ornaments. Vol. v. 2 I am very thankful that you have inserted this notice in the Horticulturist, as it has given me an opportunity to touch a subject that I should hardly have ventured to intro- duce by itself into your paper. But it Is one as intimately connected with the furnishings of a complete genteel country residence, as any other — more so, in fact, than almost any beyond the immediate decorations of the plea- sure grounds and buildings, because of its great utility, in example to the country at large, as well as the beautiful Ywvag pictures that nothing else will supply. In Great Britain, where they understa?id these things — where they are educated to it — where every accide?it of fortune does not as- sume to give law, and tone, and sanction to taste and fashion in country life and residence — this matter is carried out as it should be. There, no genteel country establishment, where any considerable number of acres are embrac- ed, is complete without its Southdown, Lei- cester, or Cotswold Sheep ; its Shorthorn, i^^n, or Alderney Cattle, to crop the grass in its lawns and parks, and give those delight- ful living touches, without which the land- scape is bare and wanting. But how many in this country, amid all the extravagant out- lay, worse than useless in many cases, have the taste and discrimination to do it? Henry Clay of Ashland, Dan'l Webster of Marsh- field, have done so, and ma.^ other gentlemen of less note, but perhaps ot more wealth, and others of less, have done so, and in this have shown their true taste and patriotism, a source of pleasure and gratification to themselves as great as any other ; but as a rule, we Ameri- cans are the veriest clod-hoppers in existence, in our skill and knowledge of many varieties of fine domestic animals. And yet, those gentlemen are often the subject of ridicule for their vulgar predilection (!) in thus indulging an exalted taste, to the " 'cuter" multitude who affect a superior appreciation of gentility! 26 DESIGN FOR A RURAL SCHOOL-HOUSE. Nor are our American women — yes, John QuiNCY Adams says " women" — a whit be- hind our men, in their squeamish notions of country gentility, who would probably die of a thick shoe, if obliged to wear one ! In a past paper, you gave an extract from the late Mr. CoLMAN, in the portrait of an English Duchess, in country life. How many such — bating the high birth, breeding, and education of the English women — can be counted among our aristocratic country residents ? and all, the effect of a mistaken notion in education — artificial, unnatural, and most wretchedly mis- judged. The thing is all wrong in both sexes, and so I fear it must remain, for reasons which I may give hereafter. I will close this by an illustration : A young gentleman — he would dislike to be called less — the son of a wealthy man, who had furnish- ed him with a five hundred acre farm, and was then erecting upon it a house to cost 25 or 30,000 dollars, and in the construction of which his builder could have cheated him five thousand, and he be none the wiser for ^\ at the suggestion of a friend, went to purchase of a neighboring resident a few choice, high- bred sheep, to put upon his lawn. Their value was ten to twenty dollars each ; and yet this gentleman, who intended to furnish his house with costly furniture and statuary, for which unlimited orders, as to cost, were sent abroad, higgled at three cents a head in the price for the sheep, when the owner of them — and really beautiful animals they were — had al- ready offered them for two-thirds of their worth! Great country, this — and " extensive people," some that live in it I Strain at the gnat, and so forth, and so forth ! Horticultural Criticism Criticised. — Three mortal pages of closely printed brevier type ! Well, that will do. " The sargeant read me the chapter about Nimrod, the mighty hunter, the night before my christening, and a mightj aisevient it was, to listen to any thing from the Book!" Thus discoursed Betty Flan- NEGAN HoLLiSTER to Natty Bumppo, be- fore the bar-room fire in Cooper's "Pioneers:" and I trust that Mr. Leuchars, having no\.- taken his revenge, feels a little " aise- ment." If he is gratified, I am — certainly. Jeffreys. July, 1850. DESIGN FOR A RURAL SCHOOL-HOUSE. In a previous volume of this journal, we have endeavored to poitJt out the many advantages that would result from an increased attention to the design and arrangement of coimtry school-houses. Barnard's School Architecture, a most use- ful and valuable work, adapted to the United States, which has already found a large cir- culation, is doing much towards enlightening the public mind on all points relating to this subject. Not a school district in America should be without this work ; and we are glad to find that Jas. S. Wadsworth, Esq., of Geneseo, so well known for his liberality and sagacity on all matters connected with popular education, has caused a large number of copies to be distributed in the various school districts of the state of New- York. The district school-house, which ought to teach youth lessons of order and beauty, as well as the " fundamental branches" usually taught there, is perhaps the only public build- ing in the country which exhibits utter neg- lect. In New-England, this reproach is fast passing away, and public school-houses, ad- mirably designed, well arranged, warmed, RURAL SCHOOL HOUSE. •] SI I ' 1 ■ ■ 1 > ■ H ' 1 i i ■ ' i 1 1 m — 1 I 1 1 1 'Hurt: July t!»0. ZINFINDAL GRAPE. 27 ventilated, and fitted up in an excellent man- ner, are to be found in the neighborhood of many of the larger towns. Boston is in the ad- vance in this matter ; and we hope it is a " notion," that will rapidly spread to other parts of the country. The FRONTISPIECE for this number is a reduced copy from a design in a beautiful quarto volume, on schools and school-houses, by H. E. Kendall, Esq., architect, lately published in London. It represents a small school-house, in a style admirably suited to harmonize with rural scenery. It is built of stone, at a cost of £270, but might with pro- priety, in this country, be built of wood for about half that amount. "We offer it as a study for those interested in this sub- ject. The work in question contains fine designs, beautifully executed, and of much architec- tural merit. In most of them the house of the school-master or mistress adjoins, or forms part of the same building which contains the school, — an arrangement which not only in- creases the importance and good effect of the building, but adds very materially to the fa- cility of preserving the school and all its sur- roundings in the best possible order. ZINFINDAL GRAPE— THE CURL IN THE PEACH LEAF. BY CHARLES ROBINSON, NEW-IIAVEN. Dear Sir : I notice that in the Horticultur- ist for the present month, (p. 568,) you speak of the ZinfindM grape, as being endorsed by the late President and Secretary of our Hor- ticultural Society, as " better for open cul- ture than the Isabella." If such were the case, it is passing strange that the fact should not not have transpired here. Surely, when inquiry has been for years constantly made here, as elsewhere, for a grape such as your readers have reason to believe that to be, it will require hard knock- ing to induce me to believe that our President has been all this time cultivating just such a fruit, and while we, his associates in horticul- ture and pomology, have met with him semi- monthly, for the purpose of testing the quali- ty of fruits and for consultation and inquiry upon this precise general subject, that not a whisper should have been heard from him in- dicative of so high an estimation of that fruit. Not even a suggestion that It was at all com- parable in its general properties for open cul- ture to the variety so extensively disseminated among us. That our Secretary, Mr. Gabriel, did not thus misrepresent that fruit, I am assured from his own lips. In fact, he has never cul- tivated it except under glass, and there I think but one year. At the convention he did not speak of it at all, in reference to open to open culture. Probably Doct. Munson was also misunderstood by the reporter. Unfortunately, cultivators are too often In- duced by overdrawn descriptions to incur large expense and much trouble and care in the purchase and rearing of articles, which, after the salesman has made his full profit, result only in disappointment. Such unfortunate misdirection of effort is too apt to induce an inveterate disgust for all suggestions out of the beaten track. Too often, indeed, persons of a sanguine tem- perament are impressed with an idea that a certain article, or some particular remedy, or it may be some peculiar mode of culture, is 28" CURL IN THE PEACH LEAF. the "very best in tte world." And forthwith a flaming article appears, describing, perchance, as a real occurrence, and as the result of ac- tual experience, a successful experiment, which in truth had its existence only in the imagi- tion of the writer. All such off-hand suggestions and endorse- ments need cautious scrutiny, aijd the culti- vator will do well to bring his own common sense to bear upon each particular case, and to determine for himself, by careful compari- son and analogy, whether, after all, it is safe and expedient for him to enter upon the proposed speculation. Last year, I could have endorsed, with the most confident belief, your remark in your work on Fruit Trees, p. 468, that the ziirl of the leaf on the peach tree was caused by a minute aphis. In truth, there is a peculiar eurl which is caused in that manner ; but the true curl or rather cockle of the leaf is a very different affair. I have some fifteen peach trees, which, for three seasons have been regularly shortened in, and are now exceedingly thrifty and vigor- ous. I looked them all over this spring, for the express purpose, and could not find on any one of them a branch or even a twig injured in the least by the winter. They are indeed all I could wish, except the curl, which appears upon them all. They bloomed freely, and have set their fruit just in proportion to the absence of the curl. So far as I observed last year, the aphis appeared on every leaf that was curled. They were, however, all destroyed with soap and suds. This spring, not an aphis could be found by the closest and most careful inspec- tion, until long after the curl had inanifested itself to the fullest extent, and then only on a few detached leaves, which indicated their presence by their peculiar and very different appearance. The cockle was perfectly evi- dent upon the very first appearance of the leaves even as they burst from the bud, and could not have been induced by the action of any insect, except while in the bud itself, and before it opens. From the most careful and thorough exam- ination, I am satisfied that the injury is done while the leaf is folded in the bud, and that it is affected by an insect. What that insect is, I have not been able to discover. Indeed, the idea did not occur to me until after the buds were expanded, nor am I sure of a remedy, or rather preventive, but I have a notion that next year (Deo vo- lenti) my trees will be free from the difiiculty. Where the bodies of peach trees are occa- sionally covered with soap and potash so libe- rally that it rims down upon the ground around them, can the worm obtain access to the roots? I think not. Not one has appeared upon my trees for the last two years. For the application to the bodies of trees, the black " whale oil soap" is the most effec- tual, doubtless because it is made with potash. Even that is benefitted for that purpose, by the addition of more potash, but for use upon roses and other tender shrubs, to destroy the white fly, aphides, slugs, and worms, that which is of a light color is preferable. Being- finished with salt, it is less caustic, and the suds may be used much stronger. I have used it for years, so strong as to kill worms, upon all my plants, without the slightest in- jury to any of them, except the Harrison rose. That has a decided antipathy to any such application. That alone needs to be syr- inged with suds in the evening and water the next morning. Permit me to say, that my suggestions in your April No. respecting the use of char- coal for purifying cisterns have since that time been extensively adopted in this city, and with uniform and the most gratifying success. The finer the charcoal, (in fact, the nearer it is to dust,) the better. It will of course need to PRACTICAL HINTS. 29 be repeated. Indeed it would be strange if so small a proportion as one pint to a hogs- head would render water sweet for a very long time, particularly when impurities to a certain extent are continually flowing in. Charles Robinson. New Haven, June 20, 1850. We confess ourselves a little puzzled about the Zinfindal grape, and wan't to hear what Dr. MuNSON will say. Mr. Parsons is re- ported in the Proceedings -of the Fruit Grow- ers' Convention as stating that this variety " succeeded perfectly well in the open air" — and Dr. M. as saying that there was " no dif- ficulty with it out of doors." We were so much struck with these remarks at the time the discussion was going on, that we conjec- tured there must be some error about the va- riety— when one of these gentlemen — we can- not remember which — pointed out specimens then on the exhibition tables — which were certainly the true Zinfindal. Ed. PRACTICAL HINTS. BY AN OLD DIGGER. If you are going to water a favorite plant, that is sufi"ering by drouth, don't take the trouble to sprinkle three or four quarts of wa- ter upon the top of the ground, over the roots, every day. It is only "an aggrawation," as Mr. Weller said, when he drank off a glass of very small beer. The thing to be done in such a case is, to take off the top soil near- ly down to the roots — make a little trench or ditch to prevent the water running away, and then drench the roots with water. Put on as much as the ground will readily swallow. Then wait half an hour, till it is well settled, and put the loose soil back again. To make good thorough work of it, finish all by mulch- ing the surface — that is, covering it with hay, grass, litter of spent tan, or whatever refuse of that sort you can lay your hands on. One or two such waterings will carry a doubtful subject through a six weeks' drouth, and will cost you a vast deal less, both of labor and water, than the daily sprinkling system, which is the common practice. Almost every body, now-a-days, has a grape vine — either Isabella or Catawba ; but not one half of us ever get a good crop of grapes. The difficulty, when the seasons are long enough, is pretty much all owing to the igno ranee of pruning — for pruning is to a grape vine what a pond is to young ducks, some- thing not to be done without. The two great mistakes, in pruning hardy grapes, is not cut- ting away enough wood in the winter-pruning, and cutting away too much in felie summer-prun- ing. If you wish to have your vine thrive and well open to the sun, prune it as clean in February or IMarch as you please. If you wish to stunt and diminish the size of your crop of grapes by one half, delay summer- pruning till they are as large as marrow-fat peas, and then make slashing work of it. Of course, in this way you will take off about a third of all the young leaves and give a check to the plant, like the jog on a rail-road made by throwing a locomotive off the track. But you have " let the sun in to the grapes," and the grapes will thank you for it, by grow- ing about half as fast and two thirds as large, as they would have done if you had shorten- ed the shoots ten days earlier and taken off about half as much. The grape leaf likes the hottest sun — but nature hangs the clusters of fruit under the shade of the foliage, and if you won't take the hint from her, she will set 30 PAVING TO PREVENT THE CURCULIO. you to thiiiklng why your vines " turn out so poorly." If you find that your soil is poor, and if the crop does not set and swell-off proper- ly, give .them a good dose of soap-suds or li- quid manure at the roots once a week. Grape vines are cormorants, and if you want large and fine fruit, you must give them no homoe- opathic doses of manure. If I had " a call " to preach a sermon on gardening, I should take this for my text : Stir the soil. It's not an uncommon thing for people to admit the fact that nothing was made in vain ; but nevertheless they will put in for an exception or two. "I should like to know what weeds were made for !" What for? Why, to force you to keep hoeing and digging in order to stir the soil and make it light and mellow. " But why ?" Because the roots of plants must have air, and if the surface of the ground were never stirred — as for the most part it never would by lazy people, but for the weeds that must be cut up — it would become so hard and close, in many cases, that fresh supplies of air would never get to the roots. " But," the grumbler will say, " how do you get along with the fact that plants in a wild state, grow and flourish, though the soil is not stirred?" But the cases are, by no means, the same. Wild plants grow from year to year in the same spot, and there is a yearly deposit of leaves, stalks, and vegetable matter upon the surface of the ground, which keeps it light and open, so that the air can easily get to the roots. This is not at all the case in common soil, where the plants are scattered and the surface is bare, so that it " bakes and becomes hard " with the rain. On this account, the good gardener is always up and stirring his soil, and on this account all the little imple- ments— ploughs, hoes, cultivators, and hand ploughs, are things not to be done without by the raiser of good crops. If you have any doubts remaining, try the experiment for your- self, the first spell of hot, dry weather. Take 50 hills of corn or a couple of beds of vege- tables, and loosen up the soil about the roots very often — as often as it becomes a little hard. Directly along side, for the sake of fair play, leave as many hills or beds of the same crop, with little or no stirring. I won't waste room in saying what the result will be, but if it don't open your e3'es to the import- ance of not putting your roots on a short al- lowance of air, then set me down for an un- profitable Old Digger. 1^ PAVING TO PREVENT THE CURCULIO. BY L. A. SPALDING, LOCKPORT, N. Y. A. J. Downing, Esq. — Dear Sir : In page 62 of 4th vol. Horticulturist, is a communica- tion made by me on the subject of paving as a prevention to the curculio, in which I allud- ed to the experience of Lyman A. Spauld- ING, Etiq., of Lockport. That communica- tion called out considerable discussion, pro and con, but the question appears as far from settlement as ever. In the last January num- ber, page 315, your correspondent Jeffreys wished me to obtain further information from Mr. Spalding on the subject ; and as I met him a few days since, he obligingly promised to write his whole practice, with the results touch- ing this curculio question, which he has kindly done. I forward it to you for publication. I will further add, that Mr. Spalding is an eminently practical man, and little given to PAVING TO PREVENT THE CURCULIO. 31 mere theorizing. I know of no more reliable authority than him. Yours, truly, Lewis F. Allen. Black Rork, June 6, 1850. Dear Friend : The following statement will phow she effect of paving under apricot and plum trees, which was the subject of our last conversation. In the spring of 1834 T set out several rows of plum, peach, cherry, and apricot trees, twenty feet apart, and the trees ten feet apart in the row. My apricots are on plum stocks. Up to 1846, I had not a single fair crop of apricots from any of my trees. Some varie- ties of plums bore — the egg plum did not have but two fair crops in that time. At any rate, I was discouraged in trying to raise apricots and plums. On a lot on Main-street in this village, where I resided from 1823 to 1835, I had an apricot tree, near the garden fence, outside of which was the side-walk of the street, and in- side wais a brick walk leading to the rear of the garden. This tree bore uniformly fine crops to maturity, until it was destroyed about four 3'ears ago. I was puzzled to account for the fact, that my trees at my present residence should not bear to maturity, with all my pains of thumping and destroying the curculio, picking up and feeding the fallen fruit to the hogs — while the tree on my old place hung full. In 1846 I saw a statement that to pave under apricots, plums, and nectarines, would prevent the ravages of the curculio. This gave me a clue at once to the wherefore of the bearing of my apricot on my old place — and I resolv- ed to at once pave under my trees. In the spring of 1846 I spread leeched ashes under my apricots and plums, and paved all my ap- ricots and part of my plums. Those paved bore abundant and fine crops to maturity, in 1846, '47, '48 and '49, while the egg plums, which were not paved under till the spring of 1849, for fourteen years had but two good crops. In 1849 I paved under them, (the egg plums,) and they bore a fine crop. They are in one of the rows, and I know of no reason why they should not bear, but because they were not paved. They were bearing trees when set in 1834, and have ever been thrifty — the fruit uniformly falling off before maturi- ty, excepting as stated. I have a fine nectarine which always hangs full of green fruit, and it never yet produced a ripe nectarine — this was set out in 1835 in a row of peaches, and is not paved. I have this spring spread a coat of leeched ashes un- der it and paved it. It hangs very full, and I have no doubt I shall have a fine crop of ripe nectarines. I usually sweep up the fallen fruit and feed to the hogs — about one-third of my apricots are stung and drop, but more remain on the tree than I usually allow to ripen. Every year since I paved, ray apricots are loaded with ripe fruit. I sprinkle salt freely on the pavement to destroy the grass and weeds which spring up between the edges of the flat stones I used, and to fertilize the ground. Persons may theorize as much as they please — but I have the fullest confidence, that pav- ing must produce the same results every where. I have neighbors who attempt to raise plums and apricots without paving, and complain of losing their fruit; and fruit falling from my trees show, that the curculio exists here in great abundance. It is not the absence of the in- sect that saves my fruit, but in my opinion its instinct, which leads it away from paved trees, because the chance of reproduction is destroy- ed and its labor of love lost. Its darling mag- got cannot burrow in the ground under the the paved trees. Be it instinct, or desire to perpetuate the race, or what it may, I know that since I paved, I have fine apricots and a great abundance of them — at a season, too, when such fruit is a great luxury. The sur- 32 THE PEACH AND NECTARINE MYSTERY. plus commands a large price in our market, and pays better than any other fruit. The expense of paving is more than liquidated the first year. Hard brick, flat stones, or even cobble stones would do the job. Salt destroys the weeds and grass. Leached wood ashes, two or three inches thick, on which to lay the paving, is important, as being a substance in which no maggot would burrow, in dodging the stone or brick. A friend recently informed me that he cut down his nectarine trees, because the fruit uniformly fell off. INIany have given up try- ing to raise the apricot for the same reason, and the plum, too, is growing into disfavor from the same cause. If this certain remedy were known and applied, what a vast addition to the comfort and pockets of our people would result ! Very respectfully, L. A. Spalding. Lockport, N. Y; 6th 7no. Ut, 1850. I would mention that my pavements are nine to ten feet wide, and run lengthwise of the row. L. A. S. EVIDENCE ON THE PEACH AND NECTARINE MYSTERY. BY J. BINGHAM, HUDSON, N. Y. Wonders will never cease, until ignorance is lost in knowledge, and knowledge lost, if it can be, in intuition. In 1841, Mr. Charles Tompkins, of this city, planted in the yard back of his ware- room in Warren-street, a peach stone, from which has grown a tree twenty feet high. It has produced fruit regularly every season since it began to bear, of the large delicious free- stone kind. Some three years ago, " come peach time," Mr, T. gave a peach of this tree, weighing 14 ounces, to his friend and neighbor, Mr. Bu- chanan, a Scotchman. And the latter. Scotchman-like, gave it to Mr. Duncan Hood, a countryman of his, occupying some nursery grounds in the vicinity. Mr. Hood, gave it to his children to eat, taking care to preserve the stone for planting. This stone he opened, and found it a double one, con- taining two kernels. He closed the stone and planted it near his own dwelling. Here he lives, "the monarch of all he surveys," with- in his enclosure of four acres — an illustration of what a single-handed man can do, exercis- ing talent with industry and frugality rarely equalled, seldom surpassed. And now the interest of the tale com- mences. Yesterday, I saw the product of that one stone, in two trees, near ten feet high, twin- like, standing side by side, but each bearing different fruit from its companion, friend, neigh- bor and relative — one bearing Nectarines and the other Peaches ! Mr. Buchanan first made the discovery, I believe, the same day ; for I found him there ; having drawn Mr. Hood's attention to the mystery, which yet remains unsolved. We are in a quandary. Can you enlighten us ? J. Bingham. Hudson, N. Y., Wth June, 1850. We are obliged to our correspondent for giving another evidence of the identity of spe- cies between the peach and the nectarine. He has not, probably, seen the discussion on this subject published in our first volume. The nectarine is considered, by botanists, only a variety of the peach, and not a distinct spe- cies— hence, though nectarine stones usually AN ESSAY ON FLOWERS. 33 produce nectarine trees, and peaches, peach trees — yet it occasionally happens that necta- rine seedlings return back to the original form, the peach — and on the other hand, as in this case, the peach sports by seed with the necta- rine variety. The French call all nectarines " smooth peaches" — piches lisses. There are cases on record, in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, of both peaches and nectarines growing naturally on the different branches of the same tree. Our friend Mr. LoNGWORTii of Cincin- nati, who flatly denies the possibility of such a thing as a peach stone producing a nec- tarine tree, is, we think, bound to pay a visit to the "twins" at Hudson. AN ESSAY ON FLOWERS, BY II. T. TUCKERMAN, NEW- YORK. [With Mr. Tuckerman's obliging permis- sion, we copy from his last volume, — " The Optimist," — the following charming Essay on Flowers. Mr. Tuckerman's refined and cul- tivated taste in the arts and his love of nature are admirably displayed in it, and we have rarely met with any thing on the subject at once so full of poetical fragrance and scholar- ly culture. Ed.] Floral apostles! that in dewy splendor AVeep witlioiit woe, ami blush without a crime, O may I deeply learn and ne'er surrender Your lore sublime. IIokace Smith. ■I attended church on a fine day of midsum- mer, in one of the most beautiful \ illagcs of New England. The structure, though ex- ternally attractive, from its retired situation and the pleasant grove that surrounded it, like most places of worship in the country, had a very bare and unhallowed aspect with- in. The formal divisions of the pews, the superfluity of white paint, and the absence of anything venerable, either in form or hue, made it agreeable to turn the eyes from the thinly scattered congregation and faded pulpit drapery, to the open window, against which a noble linden lightly tossed its sprays, and through which stole in a delicious breeze, that made the leaves of the hymn-books flutter, a response to that sylvan whispering, which had in it more of devotional music than the screeching bass-viol and unchastened voices that soon drowned all other sounds. In re- verting to tlie scene more immediately adja- cent, however, I suddenly beheld a vase of flowers on the communion-table. They were most inartificially and tastefully arranged ; the brilliant tints judiciously lalended, the shadowy green naturally disposed, and the base of the jar which contained them wreathed with trailing blossoms. The sight of this vase of flowers was like enchantment. It seemed to fill that forlorn church with its presence. It spoke of nature, of beauty, of truth, more eloquently than the service. It atoned for the meagre altar, the homely edi- fice, and the imgariiished pew. It seemed to embody and typify the externals of worship with sacramental chalice, baptismal cup, and odorous censer. Science and sentiment have rather formal- ized than illustrated the association of flowers : the one by its rigid nomenclature, and the other by an arbitrary language, profane the ideal charms of the floral kingdom. It is pleasant to regard these graceful denizens of the garden and forest, in the spirit of that fine hymn of Horace Smith's which celebrates their beautiful significance. Instead of look- ing at them through the microscopic lens of mere curiosity, or according to the fanciful and hackneyed alphabet that Floral dictiona- ries suggest, let us note their influence as symbols and memorials. To analyse the charm of flowers, is like dissecting music ; it is one of those things which it is far better to enjoy than to attempt to understand. In ob- serving the relation of flowers to life and character, I have often been tempted to be- lieve that a subtle and occult magnetism per- vaded their atmosphere ; that inscriptions of 34 AN ESSAY ON FLOWERS. wisdom covered their leaves ; and that each petal, stem, and leaf, was the divining rod or scroll that held an invisible truth. Viewed abstractly, one of the peculiar at- tractions of flowers is the fact that they seem a gratuitous development of beauty; "they toil not, neither do they spin." In almost every other instance in nature, the beautiful is only incidental to the useful ; but flowers have the objectless, spontaneous luxury of existence that belongs to childhood. They typify most eloquently the benign intent of the universe ; and by gratifying, through the senses, the instinct of beauty, vindicate the poetry of life with a divine sanction. Their fragility is another secret charm. A vague feeling that the bright hue is soon to wither and the rich odor to exhale, awakens in the mind, unconsciously, that interest which alone attaches to the idea of decay. These two ideas — that of the gratuitous ofiering of na- ture in the advent of flowers, the benison their presence seems to convey, and the thought of their brief duration — invest flowers with a moral significance that renders their beauty more touching, and, as it were, nearer to humanity, than any other species of mate- rial loveliness. The infinite variety of form, the exquisite combination of tints, the diver- sity of habits, and odorous luxuries they boast, it would require an elaborate treatise to unfold. We may obtain an idea of the perfection and individuality of their forms by considering their suggestiveness. Scarcely a tasteful fabric meets the eye, from the rich brocade of a past age to the gay prints of to- day, that owes not its pleasing design to some flower. Not an ancient urn or modern cup of porcelain or silver, but illustrates in its shape, and the embossed or painted sides, how truly beautiful is art when it follows strictly these eternal models of grace and adaptation. Even architecture, as Ruskin justly indicates, is chiefly indebted to the same source, not only in the minute decora- tions of a frieze, but in the acanthus that ter- minates a column, and the leaf-like pointing of an arch, A skilful horticulturist will ex- hibit the most delicate shades of fragrance in different species of the rose, until a novice cannot but realise to what a miraculous extent the most refined enjoyment in nature may be sublimated and modified ; and the same thing is practicable as regards both hue and form. The spirit of beauty, in no other inanimate embodiment, comes so near the heart. Flow- ers are related to all the offiees and relations of human life. They bound the sacrificial victim of the ancients ; and, from the earliest times, have been woven into garlands for the victor, trembled in the hair of the bride and cheered the invalid's solitude. They have been ever offered at the shrine of beauty, and claimed as the pledges of love, nor ceased to adorn the banquet or be scattered over the grave. Thus domesticated, even without in- trinsic beauty, and exclusive of any appeal to taste, flowers are blended in the memories of the least poetical with scenes of unwonted de- light, keen emotion, and profound sorrow. Hence they have a language for each, not re- cognised in any alphabet, and their incense is allied with the issues of destin3\ McGregor's foot was more firmly planted, because upon upon his "native heather;" the Syrian, in the Jardin des Plants, wept as he clasped his country's palm-tree ; Keats said, in his last illness, that he felt the daisies growing over him ; and one who, even in renowned matu- rity, had wandered little from the singleness of childhood, declared he could never see a marigold without his mouth's watering at the idea of those swimming in the broth Simple Susan prepared for her mother, in Miss Edge- worth's little story. There is no end to the caressing allusions of Petrarch to the violet and the laurel, so identified with the dress and name of his beloved. Indeed, we might scan biography and the poets for years, and continually find new evidences of the familiar and endearing relation of flowers to senti- ment. Each of the latter have celebrated some favorite of the race in their choicest numbers ; and the very names of Ophelia and Perdita are fragrant with the flowers that Shakspeare, with the rarest and most appo- site grace, has entwined with their history. The Venetian painters must have studied colour in the hues of flowers ; for the bril- liant, distinct, and warm tone of their works affects the spectator exactly as these rainbow gems ; especially when they strike the eye in an isolated position, or surrounded by dim umbrage. Nor is this effect confined to the domesticated flowers ; for the richest and most delicate gradations of tint occur among uncultivated and indigenous plants — such as the lobelia of the swamp, the saffron of the AN ESSAY ON FLOWERS. 35 meadow, and the nameless variety of prairie blossoms. There are few more curious sub- jects of speculation than the modns operandi by which such an infinite diversity of colours are obtained from the same apparent source. This is an exquisite secret of nature's labo- ratory. The physiology of plants has been successfully investigated ; and it is interest- ing to consider that the vitality of flowers is much the same as our own as regards its pro- cess, though so different in kind. They have affinities of sensibility ; they germinate and fructify ; but the elements they assimilate are more subtle than those which sustain animal organization ; yet sun, earth, and air nourish them according to a nutritive principle not unlike that by which our frames are sustained. The reciprocal action between vegetable and organic life, and their respective absorption and diffusion of gases, is one of the most beautiful expositions of science. But the in- stinct of flowers is not less curious ; some fold their leaves at the approach of a storm, and others open and shut at particular hours, so that botanists have rejoiced in floral dials and barometers. Their relation to sight and smell is very obvious ; but that to touch is less regarded, and yet it is extraordinary how the feel of almost every known fabric can be realized by the contact of leaves. Where the touch is sensitive, experiments of this kind may be tried, much to the anmse- ment of the sportive ; for many leaves, if un- perceived, and at the same tinie subject to an exquisite touch, give the sensation of animal, insect, and even mineral substances, indicating how intricately modified are the proportions of fibre, down, juice, and enamel in their composition. In their associations, however, flowers are quite independent, both of rare qualities and peculiar beauty. Almost all great men have loved rural seclusion, and have had their fa- vorite villa, island, arbor, or garden-walk. In Switzerland, Germany, and, indeed, every- where on the continent, these places, conse- crated by the partiality or endeared by the memory of genius, are shrines for the travel- ler. Such are Clarens, Vaucluse, and Coppe. Lamartine's tenderness for Milly, his child- hood's home, as exhibited in his late writings, illustrates a sentiment common to all imagi- native and affectionate men; but it is ob- servable that sometimes these charmed spots boast no remarkable floral attractions, often only sufficient to make them rural ; a grove of pines, a small vineyard, a picturesque view, and not infrequently a single tree — like the famous old elm at Northampton, amid whose gigantic branches Dr. Edwards, who wrote the celebrated treatise on the Will, was ac- customed to sit and meditate ; — any truly natural object redolent of verdure and shade, is enough. And the hedges of England, the moors of Scotland, the terrace-gardens of Italy, the scrambling, prickly-pear fences of Sicily, and the orchards of America, are at- tractive to the natives of each country, on the same principle. It is the beautiful distinc- tion of flowers that, gathered into magnificent horticultural shows or hidden in lonely nooks, they alike address the sense of beauty, so that a little sprig of forget-me-nots may ex- cite a world of sentiment, and one scarlet ge- ranium irradiate an entire dwelling. Flowei-s not only have their phenomena, but their legends. The latter are usually based upon some idea of a sympathetic cha- racter, as that which transforms Daphne into a laurel, and changes the pale hue of a flower to crimson or purple at the occurrence of human shame or misfortune. Even venera- tion is excited by the mysterious natural his- tory of some flowers, or the idea they sym- bolize. Thus the aloe, that blossoms once in a century, and the night-blooming Cereus, which keeps vigil when all other flowers sleep ; and the Passion-flower, in which tlie Catliolics behold the tokens of our Saviour's agony, have a kind of solemn attraction for the eye and fancy. There is no little revelation of character in floral preferences. It accords with the hu- manity of Burns that he should celebrate the familiar daisy ; with the delicate ori.':anization of Shelley that a sensitive plant should win his muse ; and with Bryant's genuine Obser- vation of nature that he dedicates a little poem to an inelegant and neglected gentian. It is in harmony with the English idiosjTi- crasy and church attachments of Southey, that his most charming minor poem is in praise of the holly, the symbol of a Christian and national festival ; and no poet but Crabbe would descend to so homely a vegetable pro- duct as kelp. There is no flower more pecu- liar in its beauty and growth than the water- lily; accordingly, Coleridge, with his meta- 36 AN ESSAY ON FLOWERS. physical tendency to seize on rare and im- pressive analogies, has drawn a comparison from this flower which strikes me as one of the most poetical as well as felicitous in modern literature. Speakin ; of the zest for new truth felt by those ali-eady well instructed, as compared with the indifferent mental ap- petite of the ignorant, he says, " The water- lily, in the midst of waters, opens its leaves and expands its petals at the first pattering of the shower, and rejoices in the rain-drops with a quicker sympathy than the parched shrub in the sandy desert." The dreamy, half sensuous, and half ideal nature of Ten- nyson, is naturally attracted by the SAveet ravishment innate in the breath and juices of some flowers. He is fitted keenly to appre- ciate the luxurious indolence and fanciful ec- stasy thus induced ; and, therefore, one of the most effective and original of his poems is " The Lotus Eaters." Moore's famous im- age of the sunflower is a constant bone of contention between horticulturists and poets ; the former asserting that it does not turn round with the luminary it is supposed to adore, but is as fixed on its stalk as any other flower ; and the latter declaring that the metaphor " se tion e vero, e be?i travato.''^ Few plants are more graceful or versatile in contour than the fern. One can scarcely pass a group without recalling that line of Scott, which so aptly describes the utter lull of the air : " There is uo breeze upon the fern, no ripple on the lake." And what figure of rhetoric better suggests the caprice of woman than that which has almost become proverbial since it was incor- porated in his spirited verse : " variable as the shade By the light, quivering; aspen made!" Goldsmith's sympathy with the rural and human is associated intimately with the haw"- thorn, " for whispering lovers made." Rose- mary has been more emblematic of remem- brance, since it was so offered by the " fair Ophelia ;" and Heart's-ease is consecrated by the splendid compliment to " the virgin throned by the "West," to which it is indebted for the name of "love-in-idleness." The epicurean utilitarianism of Leigh Hunt recognised " com- fort" in the feel of a geranium leaf; and who that has read with appreciation Miss Barrett's fine poem, elaborating the beautiful sentiment of the Bible, " He giveth his beloved sleep," can see a poppy, that gorgeous emblem of the drowsy god, without a benisou on the thought- ful lyrist ? ^ I think that the yellow broom must have originally flourished in lonely pla- ces. For hours, I followed a mule-path in the most deserted part of Sicily, cheerful with its blossoms, whose rich yet delicate odor embalmed the air ; hence the significance of Shakspeare's allusion to this flower, "which the dismissed bachelor loves, being lass-lorn." Campbell must have had an oppressive sense of the poisonous horror of night-shade, from his reference to it, in the protest against scepticism, as the natural companion of dis- may. I have always thought the thistle an apposite symbol, not only of Scotland, but of her martyred queen — "its fragrant down set round with thorns, and rifled by the bee." One of the most popular tales of the day — "Picciola" — is based upon the interest which a single flower may excite when it is the sole companion of a prisoner ; and the favor this little romance has enjoyed, proves how natu- ral is the sentiment it unfolds. The most severely religious minds, however indifferent to art or scener.y, are not infrequently alive to this feeling ; the constant allusion to flow- ers, in a metaphorical way, in the Scriptures ; the rich poetical meaning attached to them in the East ; the lily that always appears in pic- tures of the Annunciation ; the palm-leaves strewed in our Saviour's path ; the crown of thorns woven for his brow, and his declara- tion of the field lilies, " that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them" — indicating that his pure eyes had momen- tarily rested on their familiar beauty — lend to such persons a hallowed sense of their at- tractiveness. There is yet another reason for this exception to a prosaic view of what is merely charming in itself, which those dis- posed to bigotry make in favor of flowers. It is that they symbolize immortality. No com- mon figure of speech is more impressive to the peasant than that which bids him see a " type of resurrection and second birth," in the germination of the seed, its growth, de- velopment, and blossoming. Again, too, there are the associations of childhood, whose first and most innocent acquisitions were gathered flowers, emblems of its own exuberance, offer- ings of its primitive love. I imagine the sense of colour — now regarded as a separate AN ESSAY ON FLOWERS. 37 and very unequally distributed faculty — is one of the earliest developed ; it explains the intense gratification even of an infant at the sight of a tulip ; and there is reason to be- lieve that the hues of flowers are the most vivid tokens of enjoyment that greet the dawning mind. The orientals, adepts in voluptuous ease, place vases of flowers around their fountains ; and, as they lie upon divans, their eyes close, in the refreshing siesta, with these radiant sentinels for the last image to blend with their dreams, and their odor to mingle with tike misty spray and cheer their waking. The Greek maidens dropped flowers from their windows on those that passed, to indicate their scorn, praise, or love. One of the poetic touches which redeem the frugal lot of the grisettes, is the habit they indulge of keeping a box of mignonette on their window- sills. You may see them at dawn bending over it, to sprinkle the roots or enjoy the per- fume. In Tuscany and the Neapolitan ter- ritory, peasants wear gay flowers in their hats ; while the more grave people of the in- tervening country rarely so adorn themselves. I was struck, at the wedding of an American in France, to sec the servants, tearful at part- ing with their mistress, decorating the inte- rior of her carriage with white flowers. There is something, however, very artificial in the dry ivimorfels, here and there dyed black, for sale at the gates of Pere la Chaise, and bought by the humbler class of mourners to hang on the crosses that mark the graves of kindred. Our own rural cemeteries are teaching a better lesson. The culture of flowers on such domains, is not only in excel- lent taste, but, when judiciously selected and arranged, a grateful memorial. At Monaco, a town in Italy, a few years since, the body of a young child was covered with flowers, according to the custom of the place ; and when sought for the purpose of interment, it was found sitting up and playing with the flowers — an aff"ecting and beautiful evidence of the ignorance of death chai-acteristic of that spotless age. Fashion seldom interferes with nature with- out diminishing her grace and efficiency. It denudes the masculine face of the beard, its distinctive feature ; substitutes for the har- monious movement of the chaste and blithe- some dance, the angular caprices of the polka ; clips and squares the picturesque in land- scape into formalized proportions ; and con- demns half the world to an unattractive and inconvenient costume. Even flowers seem profaned by its touch ; there is something morbid in their breath when exhaled pro- fusely in gorgeous saloons and ostentatiously displayed at a heartless banquet; and wisely as the florist may adjust them into bouquets, they are so firmly entwined and intricately massed together, as often to resemble mosaic. We turn often from the most costly speci- men of this appanage of the ball and opera, with a feeling of relief to the single white rosebud on a maiden's breast, or the light jasmin wreath on her brow. The quantity and showy combination of the flowers, espe- cially the heated atmosphere and common- place gabble of the scene, and often the Avanfc of correspondence between the person who so consciously hold^ the bouquet in her gloved hand and the sweet nature it represents, rob the flowers of their legitimate claim. In- deed, like all truly beautiful things, they de- mand the appropriate as a sphere. The east wind, in Boston, on the last national holiday, and the grave faces of the children, to say nothing of the idea that approbativeness and acquisitiveness were the organs mainly called in play in their little overworked brahis, ut- terly dispelled all genuine romance and grate- ful illusion frem the floral procession. Some- thing analogous in character, atmosphere, and occasion, is needed to render the ministry of flowers affecting and complete. We instinctively identify our acquaintan- ces with flowers. The meek and dependent are as lilies of the valley, and, like them, need the broad and verdant shield of affec- tionate nurture ; sycophants are parasites ; exuberant and glowing beauty and feeling are more like the damask rose than anything in nature ; the irritable annoy us like nettles ; the proud emulate the crown imperial ; the graceful are lithe as vine-sprays ; the loving wind around our hearts like tendrils ; and the cheerful brighten the dim background of life like the scarlet blossoms of the woodbine. Not a flower in the cornucopia of the floral goddess but hath its similitude and its votary. The boy's first miracle is to press the seed- vessels of the balsamine till it snaps at his touch ; or shouts, as he runs from bed to the garden, at the sight of the rich chalice of the 38 AN ESSAY ON FLOWERS. morning-glory, planted by his own little hand, that has opened while he slept. The clover's pink globe, and the deep crimson bloom of the sumac ; the exquisite scent of the locust, and the" auspicious blooming of the lilac ; the hood-like purple of the fox-glove, and the dainty tint of the sweet pea, stir, whenever they re-appear, those dormant memories of early and unalloyed consciousness, which " neither man nor boy, Nor all that is at enmity with joy, Call utterly abolish or destroy." Thus, from the first, perverted mortal, thou wert indebted to flowers ; — as a wayward ur- chin, loitering on the way to school, thou whistled shrilly against the edge of a grass- blade, held a butter-cup to the chin of thy little comrade, or puffed away the feathery seed-blossom of the dandelion to ascertain if thy secret wish would be consummated ; as a youth, with quivering pulses and flushed brow, thou wert not ashamed to seek the choicest flowers as interpreters of thy feelings towards one before whom thy words were tremulous, yet fond ; and in thy prime, when positive knowledge and accurate deduction constituted thy felicity, it was, or might have been, to thee a rational pastime to study the botanical relations, laws, and habits of these poetic effusions of the earth ; causing them to gratify thee through analysis, as they once did through sentiment. And "in that Indian summer of the soul," that descends on frosty age, how do flowers serve as the magic con- necting bond that unites senility and child- hood ! The eye of age softens as it beholds the shower of blossoms from the fruit-trees, thinks of its own flowery day, and is thankful for a serene maturity. Thus have flowers an utterance everywhere and always ; the wild columbine, on its thread-like stem, that hangs on the stony cliff; the fungus, that swells from the mouldering trunk of gigantic forest trees ; the tropical exotics of the stuffo, that almost bewilder in their strange beauty ; and the buds that open beneath Alpine snows, ad- dress our sense of adventure, of wonder, and of gentleness, in quiet, yet persuasive ap- peals, that sometimes we cannot choose but heed. The fondness of the Dutch for tulips, It may be conjectured, is partly owing to the flatness of their country, as well as its allu- vial soil ; the absence of picturesque variety in form inducing a craving for the most vivid sensations from colour. Perhaps the com- pactness and neat growth of bulbous roots, so adapted to their cleanly and well-arranged domicils, somewhat accounts for the exquisite degree of cultivation to which they bring this species of flowers. It is one characteristic advantage of such natural ornaments, that a few well selected, or even one in a room, or in the midst of a grass-plat, will diffuse re- freshment and excite imagination. Thus the flowers that cluster on the roofs of Genoa, and the little knot of violets imbedded in ge- ranium leaves dispensed by the flower-girls in Tuscany, are more pleasing than if the dis- play were greater. On revisiting a city of the latter state, after years of absence, as I followed the lagging porter who carried my luggage, in the twilight of early morning, I was startled by a cordial exclamation, " Ben ior7iato, O ben tomato signore!" and look- ing down a narrow street, I saw the flower- girl from whom I had so long ago been ac- customed to purchase, gaily advancing with a bouquet. It was a welcome such as awaits the traveller in few countries, and one which touched the heart with cheerful augury. There is, indeed, something in flowers re- dolent of hope and suggestive of amity. Their very universality renders them eloquent of greeting. The fair, maternal bosom of Ti- tian's Flora has a significance beyond that Avhich artists recognise ; it proclaims Nature as a beneficent parent, lavishly dispensing the flowers that strew life's rugged path, with sweet monitions and grateful refreshment. How, in the season of vivid emotion, has the unexpected sight of a pale crocus bursting from the mould in early spring, the teeming odor of a magnolia tossed on a summer breeze, or the green flakes of a larch, powdered with snowy crystal in the winter sun, kindled the very frame with a kind of mysterious delight ! There is to the poetical sense, a ravishing prophecy and winsome intimation in flowers, that now and then, from the influence of mood or circumstance, re-asserts itself like the reminiscence of childhood or the spell of love. Then we realize that they are the sur- vivors of our lost paradise, the types of what is spontaneous, inspiring, and unprofaned in life and humanity, the harbingers of a blissful futurity. It was, therefore, in a rational as well as a fanciful spirit, that trees were con- AN ESSAY ON FLOWERS. 39 secratetl into eralalems and auguries ; that the willow, in its meek flexibility, was made the insignia of desertion ; the cypress, in its solemn and dense foliage, of death ; the en- during amaranth, of immortality ; and the classic shaped, and bright green leaves of the laurel, of fame. — Not only in their native traits, but in their almost sympathetic habits, flowers come near our affections. How pa- tiently the ivy binds the disjointed stones of a ruined edifice, and the moss creeps over the grey and time-stained roots and rocks, as if to cover their decay, and relieve their sterility! With what a wreathing protection clusters the woodbine round the humble porch ! The field flowers, some one has truly said, smile up to us as children to the face of a father ; and the seeds of those destined for birds, fly on innumerable wings of down, to germinate the more abundantly. The warm hues of the dahlia would be oppressive in any other sea- son than autumn ; and the glitter of the ocean's strand is chastened by the gay weeds, whose variegated tints are freshened by every wave that dies along the beach. Even this herbal, the repository of memorials gleaned from hallowed scenes, or treasured as the fragile trophies of joys as fragile, " strikes the electric chain" of imagination and memory with a deeper vibration than a sketch-book or a diary. That little cluster of thin, pale green leaves, with a shade of delicate brown at the edges (called by the Italians the Hair of Venus,) which clings to the page as if painted on its surface, once hung from the dark, rocky wall of the remarkable cavern in Syracuse, called the Ear of Dionysius ; and as I look upon it, the deserted bay, crumbling tombs, and wreck-strewn camjiagiia of that ancient site are vividly before me ; even the flavor of the Hybla honey, and the echo of the mule's tramp, return to my senses. This weed, so common in shape and hue that it needs a reminiscence to justify its preservation, was plucked as I stood tip-toe on the edge of a gondola, and held fast to old Antonio's shoulder, while he checked his oar beneath the Bridge of Sighs, and I snatched it from the interstices of the arch. The piazza of San Marco, the Adriatic glowing with the flush of sunset, the lonely canals, and all the grey quietude of Venice, are conjured by the withered memento, "as at the touch of an enchanter's wand." More costly acquisitions have yielded less zest in the winning than this slender yellow flower, which, evading the jealous watchfulness of the guard at Pom- peii, I gathered to assure myself thenceforth that I had actually walked the streets of the buried city. How venerable seems this bunch of grass and flowers that drew its sustenance from the loamy walls of the Coliseum ; and with how marvellous a freshness do I call up the medieval architecture, exquisite campa- nile, and mountain boundaries of Florence, beholding again the anemone purloined, on a fine Sabbath morning, in the gardens of the Boboli I I cannot see this cassia blossom without feeling a certain impulsion to monas- tic life, as I think of the kind friars, the no- ble organ, lava-heaped confines and soothing retirement of the Benedictine convent, at Ca- tania, whence I bore it as the memento of one of those white days in the traveller's experi- ence, that atone for a thousand discomforts. Pleasant was the summer evening, at Messi- na, when, in one of the palaces that line the marina, we kept gay vigil in order to wit- ness the blooming of this faded Cereus ; and high beat the pulses of an entranced multi- tude on the night this faded nosegay was pressed to the lips of Amina, in that last sce7ia, when her voice quivered with uncon- trollable feeling, and carolled the " Ah ! non givnge'' in tones of such pathetic delight as brought a tear to the sternest eye. I will not throw away this rusty-looking japonica, but keep it as a talisman to guard me from the fascination of heartless beauty, reflecting on the character of the brilliant , in whose dark hair it rested during the last ball of her triumphant season, that bewitching face displaying every phase of expression, while not one look was inspired by a soul, any more than this flower, in its graceful prime, was imbued with fragrance. Far dif- ferent is the association that endears the scarlet honeysuckle and white holyhock be- side it. Through peaceful hours that over- flowed with unuttered tenderness, and an ecstatic sense of geniality and recognition, I watched beside one I loved ; the humming- bird and the bee sipping the nectar from their chalices, and compared the luxurious pastime with my own. Nor will I cease to treasure this orange-blossom given me by the dark- eyed Palermitan, in the grove of her father's domain, when the air was filled with the odor 40 AN ESSAY ON FLOWERS. of tlie sweet south, and musical with the far- off chime of the vesper-bells. The scent of this grape blossom is associated with the hos- pitality of a villa below Fiesole ; and that heliotrope makes me think of a fair invalid with whom I wandered among the ilexes of a palace-garden, in whose grassy walks the vanilla flower grew profusely, I saved the reedy leaf that is stitched to the opposite page, as one of the countless proofs of the thoughtful care of my motherly hostess at . She stuck it in my window on Palm Sunday. When gleaned in a field near Luc- ca, this little flax-blossom held a dew-drop, and looked like the tearful blue eye of a child. Arid as it is, the pink, star-like flower beneath whispers of romance. At a pic-nic, a friend of mine who has an extreme impa- tience of tenter-hooks, determined to have his position with a certain fair one defined, as, after some encouragement, she seemed half inclined for another. With true feminine tact she avoided an interview, though they constantly met. I believe she either could not decide between the two, or hat^d to give up my friend. He laughingly proposed, while we were resting in a meadow, to make his favorite a sybil, and handed her a knot of these starry flowers, to pluck the leaves one by one, and reveal the hearts of the company, according to a familiar game. When the time came to apply the test to her own senti- ments, she was "s^sibly embarrassed. He fixed his calm eyes upon her face, and I, knowing at once his delicacy and his superstition, felt that this was a crisis. The lovely creature's voice trembled, when, half petulantly, and with visible disappointment, she plucked away the last leaf, which proved her only his well- wisher. The omen was accepted, and my friend soon had " a roufflier task in hand Than lo drive liking lo the name of love." Flowers are the most unobjectionable and welcome of gifts. There is a delicacy in se- lecting an ofi"ering, whether of gratitude, kind- ness, or affection, that sometimes puzzles a considerate mind ; but where any such hesi- tancy occurs, we can turn to flowers with complacency. Nature furnishes them, and all her beautiful products may bravely chal- lenge fastidiousness. No human being not utterly perverted, can scorn flowers : nor can they be offered, even to the spoiled child of for- tune, without an implied compliment to taste. The fairest of Eve's daughters, and the proudest scion of nobility, as well as the village beauty, the most gifted and least cultivated — provided either imagination or heart exists — must feel gratified at such a tribute, whether from de- pendent or equal, new acquaintance or faith- ful lover. Like all spontaneous attractions, that of flowers gives them immunity from or- dinary rules. They are so lovely and so frail, that, like children, they bespeak indulgence ere they offend. Of all material things, they excite the most chivalric sentiment ; and hence, are given and received, scattered and woven, cultivated and gathered, worn and won, with a more generous and refined spirit than any other ornaments. They are radiant hieroglyphics sculptured on the earth's bo- som ; perhaps the legacy of angels, but cer- tainly oveiffowing with messages of love that are apart from the work-day scenes and pro- saic atmosphere of common life, and allied to better moments ; to the sweet episodes of ex- istence, to the promises of love, and the memories of youth : and hence they are con- secrated, and like " the quality of mer- cy," bless " him that gives and her that takes.'' The Stanwick Nectarine. — An extraordi- nary sale took place in London, on the I5tli of May last, of the first plants of a new necta- rine bearing this name, and wiiich having re- ceived the praise of the severest judges, and the highest authorities in England, cannot wc think but be the finest fruit of its class yet known. The following account of this fruit from the pen of Dr. Lindley, appeared in the Garden- ers' Chronicle. The original nectarine tree of this variety is in the possession of the Duke of Northumber- tAND, at whose seat at Stanwick, it has borne fruit for several years, and from which it de- rives its name. The Duke received it from the late Mr. Barker, of Suosdia, in Syria, a gen- tleman whose attention had long been turned to the cultivation of tlie finest fruits of the East, in the hope that ihey might be valuable in his native country. It was his anxious desire, tiiat such as proved to be adapted to the climate of the United Kingdom, might be immediately disseminated; and the sale now announced is in furtherance of his benevolent design. In sur- rendering his property in it to the public, the Duke of Northumberland has resolved that the proceeds, after paying the expenses of pro- pagation, etc., should be tranferred to a friend in aid of the Benevolent Institution for the Re- lief of Infirm Gardeners. The sale will take place on the anniversary of the Institution, and the purchasers will have the satisfaction of knowing that in this instance they may contri- bute materially to its funds, while at the same time they are conmlting their personal inter- ests. In excellence, the Stanwick Nectarine is as far beyond all other nectarines as a Green ffage plum is beyond ail other plums. Beyond this, praise cannot reach. It may, nevertheless, be as well to repeat, on the present occasion, what we stated sometime since, when the hiorn. 6— 7.17.6— Messrs. Hurel & McMuUeii. 7— 8.18.6— Messrs. Veilch, Exeter. 8— 7.17.6— Mr Turner. Slouch. 9— 4.14.9— J. H Barchard. Esq., Putney Heath. 10— .■).1.3.6— do. do. do. 11 — 5.15.6 — Mr. Ingram, sardener to her Majesty. 12 — 4.14.6— Messr.*. Vouell. Great Yarmoulli. 13 — 7.17.6 — Mr. Gaines. Baltersea. 14— 9. 9.0— The Earl of Derby. 15— 5. 5.0— H. Ilanbury. Esq. 16 — 8.18.6 — Messrs. Lee, Harrimersmith. 17— 7. 7.0— S. Rucker, Esq., Wandsworth. 18 — 6.16.0 — Messrs. Lucombe, Prince &, Co. 19— 4. 4.0— The Earl of Harrington. 20— 2. 2 0— Mr. Denton. 21 — 6. 0.0 — Messrs. Henderson. 22— 7. 7.0— Mr. Gaines. 2-3— 6. 6.0— Mr. Glendennin?, Turnhain Green. 24— 5.15.6— Messrs. lOiight & Perry, Kings Road. £164.17.0 24 small nectarine trees sold at about $S20, averaging more than $30 a-piece! The buy- ers, as many of our readers will see, are chief- 42 FOREIGN NOTICES. jy nurserymen, who will set about propagating the sort — but as the earliest time at which they can offer young trees will be in the autumn of 1851 — the next sale for the charity fund from the Duke of Northumberland's stock, will probably bring pretty large prices also j though Mr. Rivers announces that' he expects to have 500 plants ready for that sale, which is to take place early this autumn. We trust some of our enterprising nurserymen will secure a plant or two. Ed. Great Sale of Short-Horn Cattle. — We received the following interesting account of Mr. Bates' sale of stock, which attracted so much at- tention in England, too late for our last number. It will be seen that our friends Messrs. Morris and Becar have secured some of the most desirable animals for this country. Mr. Morris is looking very closely into the condition and breeding of the best herds in Great Britain, with a view to im- proving his own at Mount Fordham. Westchester CO., N. Y.—Ed. My Dear Sir — The great Bates sale took place yesterday. It was a sight which England never has, nor ever will see again, as to the ex- tent and quality of the herd. The attendance was from three to five thousand persons, from almost all parts of the world. The average price was about 63 guineas, the highest 205, and the lowest price for sound animals 30 guineas. Mr. Col- lings' sale reached higher prices I believe, but it was when this country was in a more properous state than it now is, and the terms of sale must have been more liberal than these. Mr. Bates' heirs and executors are in chancery, and all busi- ness done through a receiver, who made the terms half cash down, and balance on delivery of the animals, which was to take place five or six days, at furthest, from the day of sale ; the risk of the animals, immediately on being struck down, was to be borne by the purchaser. I purchased three head, and Noel J. Becar, Esq., of Long Island, whose acquaintance I made on board the steamer, purchased four head. I did not make my purchases until I had exam- ined all the herds of any note in the counties of Yorkshire and Durham, which is the finest short- horned section in the world; and even then I did not make my final selection until I had re-examin- ed Mr. Bates' herd several times, and the only animals I bid for I purchased. If I can get a complete list of the sale before the time of mail- ing this I will enclose it to you, but I am fearful that even this will not be in time for the steamer of to-morrow. I remain yours, respectfully, L. G. Morris. Kirk Leavington, Yorkshire, May 10. Steam Cullure. — " Have you heard," says a writer in " Chambers' Edinburgh Journal," " what the Recueil of the Societe Polytechnique" says about a new mode of turning waste steam to ac- count ? The proprietor of a factory took it into his head to introduce his waste steam under the roots of Pine-apple plants; and such was the com- bined effect of heat and moisture that a magnifi- cent crop of ripe fruit was the speedy result, and of a much finer flavor than usual, owing to the growing part of the plant having been daily ex- posed to the open air." This is a subject to which we gladly direct at- tention, for we have long felt convinced that the true places for forced vegetables and fruits of all kinds are near fixed steam engines, whose waste steam will supply all the heat that is required, without the cost of a farthing for fuel. While glass was dear this was a suggestion which it would have answered no good purpose to have made; but now that timber is cheap, glass about one-sixth of its former price, and that bricks may be expected to fall 50 per cent., it is evident that we want no Lisbon for early peas, or New-Provi- dence for Pine-apples, or even Penzance for winter broccoli, but that all such produce may be grown cheaper, and as well or much better in every manufacturing town. As matters are now arranged the heat belong- ing to the waste water of steam engines is utterly lost, instead of being economised, and applied to the production of food, or luxuries, in both the animal and vegetable kingdom. There is no con- ceivable reason why ponds should not be warmed, and made to produce magnificent marketable fish, bred beneath the foliage of water lilies and other beautiful aquatics of hot countries, while the ponds themselves impart a gentle warmth to the neigh- boring soil, teeming with early kidney beans, early lettuces, early asparagus, early salads, green peas in March; peaches, plums, and apricots in May, with grapes and Pine-apples at all seasons. To effect this, little labor is wanted, no great ele- vation of roof, no wide span, involving costly rafters of timber or metal ; but a series of low span-roofed pits, half sunk in the earth, to save materials. In such places the waste water would give warmth and moisture ; the moisture might be regulated by various cheap mechanical contri- vances ; and by the application of a little steam power the atmosphere of such places could be kept in any degree of agitation that might be re- quired for the healthiness of the vegetation. In short, summer breezes might blow, at the com- mand of a screw, even though the external air was that of Iceland at Christmas. The difficulty that gardeners experience with forced crops arises from the impossibility of venti- lating them — from the difficulty of keeping the earth, in which the roots grow, warm without over-heating — the air, in which the leaves grow, dry without withering — and in maintaining a pro- per temperature without such a consumption of labor and fuel as render the charges to a consumer such as to excessively limit all sales. At the side of manufactories all such difficulties vanish. The power which works the looms and the spinning- FOREIGN NOTICES. 43^ wheels will also work the houses in which plants are grown for market, without the effort being felt, and with little aid from manual labor. Ca- nadian timber cut at the sawmills, duty free bricks, glass at 4d. a square foot, a little engi- neer's work, and a clever gardener, will furnish all the rest. Suppose that a tank made of bricks, lined with inch Canadian planks, and six feet wide, were caused to enclose a given area; that the tanks were surrounded by twelve feet beds separated by pathways from the outside walls, and that the area enclosed by the tank were divided into six feet beds accessible by narrow sunken paths. It is evident that by a series of ridge and furrow roofs any such area may be perfectly covered over; and it is equally evident that, by some me- chanical contrivance, such for instance as Hur- ward's screw of Jones and Clark's rack and quadrant, the whole of such roofs could be opened or closed at pleasure, without the least difficulty. The water from such roofs might be carried off through hollow brick supports, upon which the wall plats might be made to rest ; and if the soil were dry enough, the whole structure, except the roof, might be sunk, so as to avoid the cost of thick outside walls, and to retain the heat extri- cated from the tanks. Head-room for working under might be obtained by excavation, and the earth so excavated would make the raised beds, which would be necessary in order to bring the crops close to the light. It is probable that air- heat enough for most crops would be obtained by this arrangement alone; but if it were other- wise, glazed pipes could be adapted laterally to the tanks, and made to convey more heated water to any place in which it could be required. In the same way subterranean irrigation might be effected; and in short every apjjlication of heat and water of which a gardener has need. In such buildings plants would be grown as in the open fields, beds of radishes and spring onions in the coldest parts, beds of strawberries in others somewhat warmer; seakale and rhubarb in cham- bers under the footpaths; lettuces, endives, and all sorts of winter salads in the same (juarters with radishes and spring onions; Pine-apples in the warmest parts; vines on the rafters, at such a distance as not to ovorshadow the crops beneath them; peaches and nectarines and apricots, with figs, plums, cherries, raspberries, and the like, in dwarf orchards apart, with the same crops be- neath them as in the open fields. All this might happen in winter; in May the glass roof might be wholly removed, and the ground cropped as a market garden, with this great advantage that stil! there would be an advance upon the seasons, and that the genial warmth of the tanks and un- der-ground channels of heat would give to English crops an excellence now only known in the sun- heated soil of southern countries. The experi- ments upon out-of-doors cultivation of the Pine- apple in summer, so cleverly tried at Bicton by Mr. Barnes, the gardener to Lady Kolle, have conclusively established the fact that Pine-apples thus produced are infinitely better in flavor than such as are nursed in a common hot-house. It is probable that they would not cost much more than cabbages; and at all events that if sold at the price of the wretched things called West Indian Pine-apples, they would yield a great return to the grower. In this way quite a new description of market gardening would spring up, a new employment for labor be discovered, and a new field for the profitable investment of capital. When carried out, Paris and Berlin and Brussels may be sup- plied with forced fruits and vegetables from Man- chester, and new elements of national competition be thus introduced, by which all may largely benefit. This kind of gardening is not, however, pre- cisely what the writer in Chambers' has referred to. The subject of his remarks is gardening without protection of any sort, by aid of earth heat alone; quite a distinct question, to which we may address ourselves next week. Gard. Chron. Grape- Vines in a Green house. — In looking over a mass of letters, before consigning them to the waste paper repository, I stumbled upon a statement of our editor's, that "vines, &c., grown in a green-house will come under your depart- ment." If I had not thus afresh been reminded of my duty it would have been no great matter for regret, as those who wished for information could easily find what was suitable to themselves in the statements of that veteran authority who provides over the fruit department. As some, however, might imagine that what was said re- specting the forcing of vines could have but a re- mote reference to those growing in a greenhouse, which might be said to be gently assisted rather than forced, we shall at times advert to a few prominent points, and the first of these shall be the Pruning. — It has been said that the donkey first taught the art of pruning the vine; man being merely an imitator, after seeing the effect of that very wise but much abused, and nicknamed stupid animal, cropping the points of the young shoots. Be this as it may one thing is certain, that seem- ingly trifling facts when reasoned upon evolve great principles. Even in countries where the vine is a native, climbing the rock and festooning the tree, pruning is resorted to; and how much more is it necessary under our glass roofs, where the concentration of the greatest possible vigour and fertility in the smallest possible space is the chief object aimed at. When once the matter is thoroughly understood, the process of preparing for pruning by disbudding in summer will become the chief subject for consideration. The whole ofothe phytological questions involved in such a 44 FOREIGN NOTICES. system we couW not now find room for, though the unfoklinjT of them would shed a light over many directions that, to the uninitiated, seem obscure and contradictory. This pruning is best performed in the autumn, when the leaves are fast losing their green color, for then, though there will be little assimilation of fresh matter, yet the slow vital action still con- tinued will swell and distend the parts retained, much more than it that action had been extend- ed over the whole of the branches, and more es- pecially if these branches to be cut away had been gradually deprived of their buds, though the leaves had been allowed to remain. The leaves on the stem, or parts left, should be allowed to hang until they drop or become yellow. Shortly after being cut, whether upon the alternate rod or the spurrinc system (the last being the best for a green-house.) the shoots may with propriety be unfastened Irom the roof, and trained horizontally along the front inside; the advantages of which will be the enabling the plants on the stage to re- ceive the whole of the light from tlie roof unob- structed, the preventing the necessity of getting among the plants for picking up fallen vine leaves, the keeping of the vines more cool if much fire is needed during the winter, and the ensuring a more equal breaking of the buds in the spring from the whole of the stem being placed in a simi- lar temperature. Now, says one of our friends, this is all very well, though rather tantalising to some of us; for there, now, are my vines that were nei- ther disbudded in summer nor pruned in autumn, bnt they are safe enough yet. because no more tire has been used than to exclude frost. But there is my kind neighbor, Mr. Meanwcll, who was resolved to give me the go-bye this sea- son, and astonish my family as well as his own with his early geraniums, fuchsias, &c. ; but he forgot that the heat he gave to his flowers would accelerate his unpruned vines, and now he is in a pretty quandary, for his vines are all upon the move, and his favorite Sweet-water has pushed nearly half an inch ; and when he tried to prune them, the cutting of the smallest shooi brought such a flow of sap, that — fearful it would act like a small syphon when employed to empty a wine barrel — he had recourse for stopjiing it to plasters of pitch, resin and wax; all of which evils might have been avoided if we had been re- peatedly told to cut vines " in the autumn." In all such matters we hold two principles: the first is, that apologies and beraoanings for evils and derelictions of duty will not rectify the mat- ter; the second is, that it is better to attempt to remedy what is wrong late than never. To our friend, therefore, we say, prune your vines direct- ly before the sap is in motion, and keep the house as cool as you can for several days afterwards. To his neighbor we say, let pruning alone. Some wise men would say, prune by all means, and let the vines bleed if they will ; the expanding shoots will soon monopolise the juices that are left- we think not so lightly of wasting these juices. When the vine is fully in leaf it may be cut then with impunity, so far as bleeding is concerned; because the double processes of assimilation of fresh matter and the perspiration from the leaves will leave no unappropriated fluid to bleed. Thin and prune these vines when they are in leaf, and let them alone until then. No! here there would be a waste of energy ; fertile vigor would be dis- persed over many channels, to be afterwards dis- carded, instead of being concentrated upon a few that were destined to be retained. Besides, the check given to the reciprocal action between the roots and the branches would cause a considerable time to elapse before the branches left would re- ceive more nourishment, in consequence of the oth- ers being removed. What is to be done then? Simply and quietly go over the vines when the buds are fiom a quarter to half an inch in length, or even more, and with the thumb or fore-finger quickly rub olf all the buds upon the wood which you resolve ultimately to remove, and no bleeding will ensue. Mind, you must not cut them off close to the wood from whence they issue, or you miiht as well cut otf the shoot at once. Any time after the plant is in full leaf you may remove the disbudded parts, which will often present dif- ferent appearances; generally, if very long, most of them will be dead, some will be somewhat alive, though not increased in size, and in a few there will be a little exudation of cambium mat- ter from the liber, or inner bark, where the bud was rubbed off. By this means, therefore, the resources, of the plant are pretty well as much husbanded and di- rected into defined and desired channels, as if pruning had taken place in the autumn. The buds left will be invigorated, though at first they will not be able to monopolise all the sap that supplied the others. Hence, for some time the sap will rise into the disbudded part, and descend again when the stimulus is removed, until the greater expansion of the buds left monopolise it entirely. A similar operation you may see, in working rapidly the handle of a pump, where the bore of the tube is larger than the delivering jet. The water will rise above the jet; bnt that would not be the case if the jet was larger in size. The rising sap, therefore, may be made to flow up- wards, downwards and horizontally, to where there are vents for its reception; and where none exist in the shape of buds and branches, it will make them for itself, by stimulating the organis- able matter stored during the previous season. Its general course, however, is upward, and, therefore, in the vine the largest buds are gene- rally formed near the points of shoots, a matter of great importance, so far as budding and pruning are concerned ; but that will enter more into sum- mer management than what is necessary to be at- FOREIGN NOTICES. 45 tended to now. The matters referred to, are as important in other plants as in the vine, though they may not show mismanagement so quickly. Much evil has been done by two classes of phyto- logists contending with each other — one asserting, that it is the swelling of the buds tliat causes the ascent of the sap; the other asserling, that it is the rise of the sap that causes the buds to swell and expand. Before the principles of pruning can be well understood, these contradictions must be harmonised. And they may be perfectly so, for both are right. The expanding of the buds, and the rising of the sap, are each in turns relative and CO- relative cause and consequence to the oth- er. No wonder though wise men smile at us, when from looking at a fact from diflTcrent points of view, we squabble as lustily about it as those clever fellows who were within a little of cudgel- ling each other, because about the chameleon's color they could not agree. R. Fish, in Cottage Gardener. Woolen Rags as Manure. — Many of our readers are old enough to remember the ridi- cule with which the proposition to use bone- dust as a manure was received by the cultiva- tors of the soil; and they must have heard, as we often have heard, the contemptuous qucrj-, " What! old knife-handles good for manure?" That ignorant prejudice has passed away; but another equally erroneous may arise in the mind of some of our readers, when they find that WOOLEN rags as a manure are the subject of our piesent observations. We are led to make these by two letters from very diflTerent parts of England; one asking, "Why the Kentish hop- growers turn woolen rags into the soil of their hop-gardens?" and the other, which may serve in part to answer the query, is from Mr. James Derham, of Wrington, near Bristol. He says: "What do you think of woolen rags for ma- nure? In the lower part of this county (about Crewkernc) cultivators attach great import- ance to them. There are a great many field- gardens there, and an immense quantity of on- ions are raised in the neighborhood. No one thinks of sowing unless he has dug in woolen shreds. These are collected all over the coun- ty, and sold at so much per ewt. I was round there the other day (March) and saw many wagon-loads of them; and in one or two in- stances I saw them plowing them in for corn {oats?). They tell me they put no manure. be- sides; and if this really is a good thing, how very easy for many persons to accumulate a stock. I have a large heap myself, and should be glad to know your opinion as to the use of them. I have thought if they were first soak- ed for some days in liquid manure, it would im- prove them . Would they not do to apply to fruit trees in that state?" Soaking the rags in liquid manure would be a very good mode of apj)lying the latter, and there is no doubt they would do well in combi- nation ; for the litjuid manure would be for the immediate use of the plant, while the rags, be- ing slow in decomposing, would serve it during the after stages of growth. They would do better for fruit trees without being so soaked, for these trees, except when growing in very poor soil, require no stimulating like that af- forded by liquid manure. Woolen rags are by themselves, however, a good manure; and the willy dust, and other woolen refuse, so abundant in the great cloth- iery districts of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Yorkshire, come within the designation of woolen rags; and as they slowly decompose in the soil, they all give out food highly useful to plants. During decomposition they produce ammonia and other matters soluble in water, every hundred parts being composed, like fea- thers, hair, &c. , of about 50 parts carbon or charcoal, 7 parts hydrogen, 17 [larts nitrogen, 24 parts oxygen and sulphur, and 2 parts sa- line matters. These last contain carbonate of potash, muriate of potash, acetate of potash and lime, all of which are salts, or bases of salts, useful to cultivated vegetables. We can quote many practical authorities as to the value of woolen rags as a fertilizer. Mr. R. Slack, paper-maker, of Hayfield, Derby- shire, has used them for many years. He finds them good for potatoes; and adds, " for hay grass I have nothing that will produce so good a crop, spread upon the land in January, and raked off in April."* Mr. J. M. Paine, writing in 1848, says that he had long been in the habit of using fifty tons yearly, paying for them in London from fifty to eighty shillings per ton; the dearest being those containing the most wool. Before put ting on the land, they are cut into very small pieces, (two inches square being the largest,) and from one ton to half a ton per acre are suf- ficient. He finds them most beneficial to hops and turnips. They are not so good when used mixed with lime; for although this decomposes them faster than when they are left to themselves, yet by such treatment the ammonia is driven off, in which their most active power is comprised. We believe that the best mode of applying woolen rags to the soil is to mix them previous- ly with the super-phosphate of lime, made from bones. This contains sulphate of lime also, which will fix the ammonia of the rags as they decompose, and the phosphate of lime is a sa- line manure, in which the rags are deficient. Mr. Cuthbert Johnson, in his excellent vol- ume on "Fertilizers," says, that "woolen rags ♦ Our OM'ii experience tells us that woolen rags are raosi useful to potatoes, straivberries, aiui raspberries. 46' FOREIGN NOTICES. are a very durable manure, remaining dissolv- incr in the soil, and forming elastic and soluble manures for the service of plants, for periods varying from two years on heavy clays, such as those of tJie Kentish hop-grounds of the Weald of Kent, to three or four years on the light chalky soils on the valley of the Kennet in Berkshire. Of these rags, the consumption by the Berkshire and Oxfordshire farmers, but es- pecially by the Kentish hop growers, is very con- siderable. I am informed by an extensive dealer in these rags, (Mr. Hart, White Lion-street, Bishopgate,) that 20,000 tons, at the least, are annually consumed by the farmers of the south of England. Mr. Ellis, of Barming, Kent, purchased annually between four and five hundred tons, almost exclusively for his hop- grounds. The cottager, even, is interested in these facts, for every shred of an old woolen garment is available lor his garden — is an ad- mirable manure for his potatoe ground; or, if he has not a garden, the collectors of rags, who gather for the large dealers, will readily give him a farthing per pound for all he can collect. Cottage Gardener. Management of Pear Trees. — The practice of what is termed root pruning has of late years attracted a good deal of notice. Root pruning is, however, no modern discovery. It has been fol- lowed less or more for a century, and perhaps even longer ; but the system of docking the roots, and dwarfing trees, is somewhat new in this coun- try, although well understood in the Celestial Empire. The result of this practice has been the production of stunted, bark-bound trees, the fruit from which partakes more of the character of the wood of the tree than that which we desire to find in a plump, well-grown Pear. I therefore take this opportunity of cautioning my amateur readers on a point which, to my personal knowledge, has sadly misled many of them. It may be stated, and in fact recognised as an axiom, that unless a tree is in a kindly growing condition, the fruit will at all times be inferior. Let it not be infer- red from this that I mean over-luxuriance ; in that case wood alone will be made. Pears should be generously used when they are first planted; the ground should be in good heart, and manured near the surface. If in the course of a few years the trees indicate a tendency to produce more wood than is desirable either as re- spect.* the fruitfulness of the trees, or out-growing the limits originally assigned them; then can- tiouslv examine the roots, and carefully curtail their exuberance, but this should be done by de- grees, and the month of August should be prefer- red to any other for the operation. The most important point in the management of Pear trees hinges on the summer pruning ; many imagine that when the trees are planted there is nothing more to be done, except picking the fruit. This notion has converted some little gardens into little forests. During summer let the superfluous shoots be stopped back to within 3 inches of the ' old bearing wood, broken off rather than cut. This will cause flower buds to be formed at the base of the shoots so treated. The projecting part can be removed in autumn or winter close to the fruit buds; by following this mode of treat- ment the trees will be kept within a limited space, and their productiveness secured. Gardeners' Ckron .... Continuous Blooming Roses. — I am prepa- ring to give your readers a descriptive list of a few roses which I have called continuous bloo- ming; but in truth none can be more so than the two which may be found in front of many hundred English cottages, and known as the common and crimson China. If the cultivators will but take the pains to remove the flowers as they fade, and prevent the seed-pods from swelling, they will not fail. I have been try- ing them on standards with varied success, be- cause I have found that a frost which does not injure a plant on a wall or house front cuts off many of the youug buds on the head of a stan- dard. I have many standard Chinas of differ- ent varieties, and somecalled Noisettes, a score or two of which more or less partake of the character of the old China; but as they have only blossomed one season, I am not satisfied that I have seen enough to justify a positive opinion. I will merely say that among the nearest approach to m)' desideratum, and at all events much longer in bloom than many others, I may mention first the Noisette Feilenburg, flowering from the end of June to the end of November, in a strong clay soil, seven miles north of London. This is bright crimson, flow- ers double and small, joints short as the crim- son China, and it has stood out three winters in a bleak situation, without protection of any kind, on ground but poorly drained. I will look over my notes, and give a few more, that even the first year of planting give promise of cov- ering very close when fully established. I ob- serve this rose is noticed elsewhere, but all the florists together cannot say too much of it, and those who want a few cannot do better than order Feilenburg, and as many more as they i require "of the same habit and season." lb. Massachusetts Agricultural School. — The Legislature of our sister state has placed the sub- ject of an agricultural school in the hands of the following commissioners, who are to draw up a plan, etc.: Marshall P. Wilder of Dorchester, Edward Hitchcock of Amherst, Thos. E. Pay- son of Rowley, Samuel E. Eliott of Boston, and Eli Warren of Upton. This is an admirable board, and we are heartily glad to find the name of Hon. M. P. Wilder, President of the Mass. Senate, at its head. Col. Wilder unites, perhaps more completly than any man in Massachusetts, a thorough knowledge of what an agricultural school should be, with that indomitable perseverance and energy which ena- ble him to develop a good idea into an existing fact. It is not enough to recommend plans to le- gislative bodies, (as the commission in this state found last winter.) There rnust be a champion of steel ready to answer all objections and demol- ish all opponents. For the very good reason that we think Col. W. such a man, do we congratulate the state on the excellent selection made by the governor. President Hitchcock, of Amherst who is now abroad, will, we learn, undertake to investigate thoroughly the condition and management of ag- ricultural schools in Europe. Clinton Point Vinery. — In reading our ac- count of this vinery, of which we gave a plate and description in our last volume, many good cultivators were astonished at the magnificent crop produced by vines actually of but one year's growth in the borders, and not a few predicted that the vines had been permitted to bear too large a crop, and would therefore be greatly injured by it. We confess that observation in similar cases would have led us to entertain the same opinion. But Mr. Van Rfnsselaer has convinced us that we were in error. The condition of the vinery is most admirable. The vines are not only strong and healthy, but have set a very fine crop — the bunches unusually large and perfect. Any culti- vator may judge for himself of the satisfactory condition of the vinery by the following statistics: The nnmber of vines in the house is 54 ; number of bunches cut the first thinning 864 ; number of bunches cut the second thinning 684; number of bunches left on the fifty-four vines 590. It must be remembered that these are partly trellis vines, and are not all trained to the rafters. It by no means follows from this result, that all vineries may be allowed to produce fruit heavily the second season after they are planted. But we think Mr. Van Rensselaer has conclusively pro- ved that a large crop of the finest grapes may, if the border is very thoroughly prepared, as in this case, be grown without the slightest injury to the vines. Indeed, give the grape plenty of food, and one may do almost anything with it. Burr's Strawberries — I perceive that "Burr's new Pine" strawberry is described bj' Mr. Hunts- man and by Mr. Prince, in the third volume of the Horticulturist, pages 67 and 70, as a '^pistillate" variety. Last spring, I obtained a few plants of that sort, in connection with one of my neighbors, from Mr. Ernst, of Cincinnati, and I find that at least three-fourths of the blossoms are perfect, or hermaphrodite. I enclose a specimen, hoping that your experience can inform me whether they are genuine or not. When in London in March last, I procured some plants of the "British Queen," which is the straw- berry of Covent Garden, but they died on the pas- sage. Can you inform me where I can obtain them in this country? Yours, truly. B. Pough- keepsie, N. Y., May 18, 1850. We had some of the same plants from Mr. Ernst last spring, and Mr. E. has made an error in disseminating them, which, of course, he will take pleasure in rectifying. The true " Burr's new Pine" is pistillate, and has been extensively sent out to various parts of the Middle States by the nurserymen at Rochester. We have seen plants from Elwanger & Barry and Bissell & Hook- er, blossoming in various gardens lately, and all correct. Some of our readers, who have the British Queen for sale, will oblige us by answering our correspondent through our columns. Ed. Burr's New Pine Strawberry. — We have just received from Mr. Ernst, a letter stating 48 DOMESTIC NOTICES. that he had. to his great mortification, discovered the error referred to, and had promptly returned the amount paid hi in by his correspondents here and at Poughkeepsie. Mr. Ernst informs us that he fell into error, in this case, not from want of care, but from the very desire he had to put the genuineness of the plants beyond a doubt — for he procured the plants referred to from Mr. Burr himself. We have before us a letter from Mr. Burr to Mr. E.. in which Mr. Burr deplores the mistake, and attributes it to the fact that the per- son to whom he delegated the task took up plants from a part of a bed where they had run logeiher. We will take occasion here to say, that though mistakes will sometimes inevitably occur in com- mercial establishments, from the necessity of pro- pogaling so large a variety — amateurs, who cul- tivate but small collections, when they undertake to send out a new or remarkable sort, have less apology for inaccuracies, — and they are held the more responsible, when the new variety is one originated by themselves. We have in our gar- den a case in point. A j-ear ago a correspondent in Washington sent us, as a fresent, a new climb- ing rose of reputed wonderful beauty, the flowers "yellow, striped with brown." Plants were not to be had at the time less than $25 each ! We therefore gave a little special attention to the val- uable present, took off our hat to it (mentally) as we walked by it, and conjured up the vision of clusters of yellow roses with brown stripes that would burst upon us the following June. Well, June is here, and the rose — the wonderful rose, is — a poor, common, semi-double Ayrsliire ! If our correspondent were here to see it, we are not sure that he would turn into a "pillar of salt," but we think he would be more dumb than a pillar of ro- ses. Albany & Rensselaer Horticultural Soci- ety.— The first exhibition of this Society for the present year, took place on the 18th of June. Owing to the uncommon backwardness of tlie sea- son, several articles, especially strawberries and roses, were not sufficiently advanced to make a large display ; and it was, therefore, deemed ex- pedient to omit the awards on fruits, and adjourn the competition in that department until the 27th. In several classes of flowers, also, there were no awards, for want of competition, and in all such the competition was kept open for the 27ih; on that day the show of strawberries was very large and fine — acknowledged by ail to be superior in extent and quality to any they had before seen. It comprehended all the most esteemed varieties known. The first premium for the best and most extensive collection, was awarded to Luther Tucker, who showed twenty-three varieties; and the second to John S. Goold. who showed nine va- rieties. The first premium for the best and finest flavored varietj', was awarded to B. B. Kirtland, for Burrh New Pine; and the second premium to E. C. McIntosh, for Hovey's Seedling. Among other varieties which received high commendation, were Royal Scarlet, Burr's Mam- molh, Burr's Columbus , (very prolific,) Ross Pha- nix, and Old Hudson. There was a very handsome show of roses and other flowers, and a very good display of vegeta- bles, considering the backwardness of the season. Some fine specimens of early cherries were exhi- bited J but they required several days more to bring them to a state in which they could be fair- ly appreciated. Fruit CuLTrRE in the West. — I am doing something towards supplying this region with good fiuit — with, however, but little profit to my- self, owing principall)' to our changeable climate, (Lat. 39^^" 20', Long. 94° 33' 30")— this being the most westward village in the United States. I know something of the manner of cultivating ia the valley of the Mohawk, but after five years' trial here, have not succeeded. I recently became a subscriber to your invalua- ble periodical, in which I discover many of the causes operating to my disadvantage — one of the prominent is our hot summer sun. Many of my weaker apple trees make quite a curve the reverse to the 2 o'clock tun. Will whitewashing counter- act this, as well as the premature moving of the sap in the wmter ? — if so, will stucco wash do? [Try white-wash, with about one-third wood ashes added to it. Better plant your orchards on the north sides of hills in all cases — if your district is hilly. Ed.] Another prominent source of evil arises from dry summers, usually followed by wet growing autumns, having the appearance of spring, often extending to the verge of winter — producing immature growth of wood. The first symptom of trouble after such a season, is the bursting of the bark at the surface of the thriftier varieties of ap- ple trees, upon the first slight frosts. This, bow- ever, 1 remedy by wounding the bark at the sur- face, in most any manner, during the summer, so to produce a cicatrix, or run the knife spirally around the tree from the surface six inches up- wards. But this does not remedy the evil whol- ly, for if a severe winter follows, the heartwood becomes doted, with all the bad results following in its train. I practice mostly root grafting. Hovr can I check the growth of my trees in time to mature their wood ? [By root pruning, or laying the roots partially bear. Ed.] I have a hearty, thrifty, growing variety of apple, a native, that appears to resist all vicissitudes — will it do to u>e it as a stock for the more delicate varieties ? If so, at what height should they be worked ? [No matter what height. Ed.] In giving you an idea of the eccentricity of our climate, I will state that I once saw apple trees in bloom on tha 26th March, which produced an abundant crop without interruption of frost. But at this date we have severe frosts, night after night, and no more appearance of spring than a raonlh since. DOMESTIC NOTICES. 49 This operates severely upon the California emi- orat^ts, who are conjjregaTed here by thousands, waitinj;; for grass. The fall of '45 continued un- til about the I8th Dec. pleasant and warm, the thermometer frequently at 75°, which it was on the 16th, and on the 20lh 6° below 0 ! Similar changes often take place during the winter. I shall keep a weather table, and if you can make it serviceable, I will send you the result. [Will be glad to see it.] Yours, respectfully, F. Hawn. Weston_ Mo., Jpril 11, 1850. P. S. The soil on which my nursery is situated is a strong limestone, producing 50 bushels of corn per acre with little labor, and rolling. The ori- ginal growth of timber was Hackberry, White Hickory, Walnut, Elm, Linn, and different Oaks, but no White Oak. After a continued severe winter, or an open winter with severe weather after, the roots of many of the apple trees are mostly killed, par- ticularly the fibres. F. H. licsTON HoRT. Society. — Dear Sir : I was much gratified with half an hour passed in the exhibiiion room last Saturday, and made a few rough notes, which I send you for publication. In the first place, those floral giants, the Tree poenias, had a grand time of it, and the show of them by various contributors was larger than ever before seen in this state, and as I presume in the United States. Among the contributors of this most brixom and altogether most magnificent of spring flowering shrubs, were Messrs. Breck & Co., Cabot, Wilder, and Hovey & Co. By far the largest collection was from Col. Wilder, who presented 80 flowers in 16 varieties. The most distinct varieties were P. rosea superba, alba ple- na Belgique, Newmanii, Hissieina, Grand Duke of Baden, Le Soleil, Imperafrice, Josephine, Wal- nerii, rubra splendens, ocuilata, and Heldii. Mr. Breck showed a superb specimen of IVista- ria sinensis. The novelties that attracted most attention were Mr. Barnes' new French Verbe- nas, and Col. Wilder'^; seedling Calceolarias. The Verbenas were Iphigene and Reine de Jour, both remarkably fine and distinct — superior to Ro- binson's Defiance. The Calceolarias from Haw- thorn Grove were exquisitely beautiful — or rather most delicately grotesque, for they resembled clus- ters of delicately spotted tropical insects, half- poised in the air, as much as flowers. The show of flowers and shrubs was fine, and of Hawthorns and Azaleas the variety was par- ticularly rich. These were chiefly from Messrs. HovEY, Breck, and Kenrick. Miss Russell and Miss Kenrick contributed some boqueis en corbeiile, charmingly arranged. Mr. Allen, of Salem, as usual, carried off the prizes for forced fruits. There were 17 dishes of ripe grapes from his vineries, on the tables, four varieties of large well-ripened cherries, besides figs, nectarines, and peaches. Some remarkably large and fine clusters of Black Hamburgh grapes from Mr. Bigelow of Brighton, were much prais^ cd. Yours, ^ Looker-on in Boston. June 10, 1850. Strawberries. — Mr. Downing — A fortnight since my gardener produced quite a sensation among the juveniles of the household, by appris- ing us that from a large and thrifty bed of straw- berries, (Hovey's Seedlings,) then in full bloom, we should not gather one berry. And sure enough, upon investigation all the plants were pistillates — when I directed him to transplant from a distant bed of other varieties, some stamanate plants, and place them carefully among the Hovey's Seed- lings— and the result is an abundant show of fruit. The effects oi' this horticultural wedlock will not surprise you, though it may interest some of your readers. Evelyn. Dutchess Co., N. Y., June, 1850. On the Virtues of Spent Tan-Bahk to thb Horticulturist and Florist.-- -Although averse to repeat thrice told tales, or to recapitulate w'hat I have for the past twenty years both written and orally advised horticultural friends, respecting the the many virtues of spent tan, I am induced, the more from your note appended to Mr. Cleve- land's article, to make a farther record of my experience with that article, especially as it is so generally condemned, ignorantly, as a dangerous if not an useless substance in the garden. On the contrary I believe, and practice' has satisfied me, that where it can be readily procured, it is a grand auxiliary and highly to be prized. In detailing you the following experiments, I beg leave to say, they are all from my own prac- tice and observation. 1st. A ton of spent tan, plowed or spaded un- der, and well comminuted with a stiff clay soil, in the fall of the year, will render such a spot fit for gardening purposes, sooner and better than ten tons of sand. It creates permeability, friability, and warmth, and decomposes, when thus covered, in the course of two or three years, giving great fertility to the soil. A stifl' clay should have ton or fifteen per cent of fresh tan spaded to the depth of a foot or more, repeating the dose for a season or two. On such a spot, with other of course proper manures, I have had a fine garden, yield- ing such crops of asparagus, beets, carrots, &o., &c., as rarely to be found on sand or gravel soils. As a mulching for strawberry beds, it has no equal. Put it on two or three inches thick. It warms the ground and prevents the plant heaving during the thawings of winter; and withal, it is the cleanest and sweetest article for the berries to lie upon — besides keeping the weeds down. The runners readily strike through it. Some use savr- dust or turners' chips, which do tolerably well, but are not at all equal to spent tan. As a mulching for dwarf pear trees, the goose- berry, and other fruit trees or shrubbery, it is cap- 50 DOMESTIC NOTICES. ital, as retaining both heat and moisture for a long period. Where it cannot be obtained, the in- verted grass sod stands I think next best. For mulching vine-borders. I have used it many years, and endorse fully Mr. Cleveland's trial with it. ' But there are other virtues possessed by it, which I think are as yet but little known, — among which the power it possesses of drawing new roots, and giving new vitality to dried and apparently dead trees, such, for instance, as have been recently imported, or otherwise long out of the soil. The roots and tops being properly prun- ed, bury them nearly in a horizontal position in a bed of fresh tan, [fresh? does not our correspond- ent mean spent tan? Ed.] having a small admix- ture of clean sand, a portion of the tops only be- ing left out. Should the tan be rather dry, wet it once well with rather hot water, and in ten to twenty days, I have found pear trees, roses, ca- melias, rhododendrons, and other shrubs, not only to have made beautiful roots, but the latent and apparently dead buds bursting and completely re- juvenated. The careful cultivator, however, will not fail at that point to watch them, that they may be suitably planted and shaded, &c., &c.; otherwise exhaustion and depletion must necessa- rily follow. In my green-house I have a table of tan six in- ches deep, for placing pots on, it being sweeter and free from mouldiness, and is withal vastly neater and better than any other material for such purpose. In this bed I have been astonished to see how rapidly roots will pass the bottom of the pots, and wander among the tan. A Passiflo- ra in a season rambled ten feet, throwing up fine shoots, ready for potting. A Chasselas Fontain- bleau grape in front of the house, with rods touch- ing the damp table, sent roots into the tan, which were potted off and bore the following season. Indeed, either tender or hardy plants seem to de- light and readily take root in it. And as a mate- rial for sticking cuttings, when slightly mixed with sand, or as a drainage for pot culture, I know nothing better. W. R. Coppock, Long Sight fjlace, Buffalo, N. i. Remarks. — Tan bark is likely to become popu- lar in gardening, judging from the advocates it finds. We know little of its direct value, but we believe it will be found excellent for mulching — one of the greatest means of good cultivation in this climate. Tan, fresh from the pits, we know will injure some plants. Professor Mapes, in his excellent Working Farmer, has the following note to the point — which explains why tan-bark is so well adapted to grape-vines and strawberries: — "We observe that Mr. Cleveland has made a single experiment in the application of spent tan bark about the roots of an Isabella grape, and cautiously recommends it. We know the caution of Mr.C. renders his recommendations always de- fendable, but he need not fear recommending the use of tan bark for grape-vines, or for any thing else that requires tannic acid. Both grapes and strawberries contain a trace of tannic acid, and we last year applied a solution of bark liquor to our strawberry beds with marked advantage." Hardiness of Plants in New Jersey. — Agreeably to the wish you expressed in the May number of the Horticulturist, for information as to the hardiness of newly introduced trees and shrubs, I send you a list of a few things — prin- cipally pines — which have proved perfectly hardy the past winter: Abies kutrow, douglasii, Picea pindrow, welbiana, altissima, acutissima, cembra, geraudiana, pinaster, pinea, pyrenaica, taurica, morinda, I could send a larger list of pines, but thougnt it unnecessary to send any but the more recent- ly introduced ones. Plumbago larpenta has stood out with a slight protection. The flower buds of the Paulownia imperialis have been completely killed with us, although the winter was more mild than usual. Respectfully yours, Jas. Goldie, Gardener to R. L. Colt, Esq., Paterson, N. J., May, 1850. Cedrus africanus, deodara, Juniperus excelsa. hiberniese. sueciaea, Cupressus elegans, torulosa, Araucaria imbricala, Mahonia acquifolium, Euoiiymusjapoiiica, Spirea prunifolia, pi., Forsylhia viridissiraa. Vineries. — I wish to solicit the attention of those of your readers who contemplate erect- ing vineries, or who feel interested in the culti- vation of house grapes, to a few descriptive re- marks on the Vineries of Wm. Niblo, Esq., situated at Yorkville, (on 84th St., New-York,) near the East river. I visited these houses a few days ago, and I certainly did not regret having paid this visit, for I never saw vines in a more healthy, vigor- ous condition than these are in at the present time. Mr. NiBLO erected these houses some six years agoj there are four of them, besides a handsome conservatory which adjoins the man- sion. The latter is well stocked with fine large Rhododendrons, Camellias, Acacias, &c. There are about 2,000 feet of glass in these houses; they are built in a very neat and substantial manner, well supplied with water, &c., &c. Three of the vineries range parallel with each other, and are each sixty feet in length, with span roofs ; and the fourth is a " lean-to," with an excellent propagating house at the back, and is 50 feet long. Rather more than two years ago Mr. N. en- gaged the services of Mr. Galbraith, (his present gardener,) who is well known as one of our most successful cultivators of this delicious fruit, to take charge of his houses. When Mr. DOMESTIC NOTICES. 51 G. assumed this charge, he found the vines in a very bad state; although planted four years, they had not then matured a single bunch of fruit. Mr. G. soon discovered of course the effects of bad soil, bad culture, or something or other wrong about them, and as, like a sound reasoiier, he usually goes back from effect to cause, he thought the most expeditious, and most certain vrny to discover the cause was to dive I at the root of the matter, and to the roots he went, with spade in hand, and dug them all up, every vine; this was in April, 1848. He found that the roots of most of the vines had rotted half away, and all of them were in a sickly un- healthy state, chiefly for the want of proper drainage to the borders. He immediately went to work, drained the borders well, got a suita- bly prepared compost, and after shortening-in the roots well, he replaced them again in the new border. One of the houses had been occupied during the winter with green-house plants, and the tem- peratuie necessary to keep the plants from free- zing, had started the vines into growth, and when the operation above described was per- formed on the roots, some of the young shoots were from three to four feet in length, and had showed some bunches of fruit ; notwithstanding this, they were so managed that not a single leaf flagged, and those bunches were ripened the same summer. Last year they produced a fair crop, and this year they can be seen in full fruit. Owing to the very severe weather we had a few weeks ago, Mr. G. informed us that it was w'ith great difficulty that he could keep the temperature sutficifintly high in the span roof houses to "set" the Muscats; but how- ever, they now look as promising as most of the others. The house "No. 4 " was planted with young vines, 17th April, 1848. Last year they were allowed to bear a few clusters, and now they are literally covered with fruit from the bottom, half way up to the rafters. I have been induced to send you this commu- nication, partly from having witnessed and heard of so much disappointment and so man}' failures in house vine culture. These failures generally occur in this way: — A gentleman makes up his mind to build a vinery, he puts one up, sends somewhere or other for his vines, gets as many varieties as he can, perhaps a diflTerent sort for each rafter; the border is made — i. e. the soil is scouped a foot deep proba- bly, and two or three wide, and what is thought to be a rich and suitable compost is put in its place. The border is perhaps never examined as to whether it requires drainage, or whether the subsoil is of too porous a nature. Well, the vines are planted thus, and probably in a year or two they may show some fruit, and in all probability some of them marked at the bot- tom of the rafters "Black Hamburgh," or "Muscat of Alexandria," will prove to be something else not better perhaps than the com- mon Isabella of the garden. [Our correspond- ent presents a picture of a very low state of knowledge in vine culture, which we hope is not drawn from the life, as that culture is usually seen on New-York island. On the whole we think the management of vineries is well under- stood in this country, and there are hundreds, especially about Boston and Philadelphia, where foreign grapes are grown in the highest perfec- tion. Ed.] I will close these few remarks by saying, drain (if required) and well prepare your bor- ders, procure from a respectable nursery, or some other reliable source, a few only of the best and well known varieties, (as there are not more than 6 or 8 sorts that are worth house room.) employ a skilful practical man to take care of them, and then I think we shall not hear of so much chagrin and disappointment in this department of horticulture. Respectfully yours, Vitis. New- York, May 15, 1850. Native Botany. — I was much disappointed on my arrival in this country to find that compa- ratively few of its inhabitants look into its indi- genous floral beauty; few penetrate the woods to observe the lovely grandeur of Flora's territory. A few days ago I found in a wood, in the vicini- ty of this city, Philadelphia, what to me was a rich treat, having been more accustomed to pluck the weeds which are to be met with in the British Isles. I first observed in flower on the 21st of April, Sangvinaria canadensis or Blood root. — This plant presents a pleasing appearance, and is quite abundant. It has marked medical proper- lies, varying from the quantity exhibited — of the order Ranvncvlacea, or Crowfoot tribe. I ob- served Ranunculus hirsutus and rhomboidea; also Caltha palustris and Thalictum anemonoides, the latter a very singular species, and likely to mislead the novice in Botany. The Hepalicas are still in flower. I found a white variety growing along- side the blue. Podophyllum peltatum will flower in a few days. This is known as the " May ap- pie," has a sub-acid fruit which is eatable and is called Wild Lemon also. The other portions of the plant are cathartic. Isopyrum fumanoides is also here a very delicate plant, just showing its little cluster of flower buds. The Claytonia virginica (order Portulacece) is in full flower, and in great abundance. Also Chrysospleneum or Golden saxifrage, easily overlooked, but not less curious on this account. The Saxifraga alba is in fine condition for specimens. All who admire and would preserve specimens of Nature's more deli- cate offspring should be stirring now; the flowers are fast unfolding and must be transferred to the Herbarium, for they will not linger long. Once there, we may view their shadow but the essence fades. Yours, &c., Hortophilus. Jlpril 22. 52 DOMESTIC NOTICES. Insect on the Gbape Vine. — " The Horti- culturist" has for some time past afforded me much pleasure and instruction. The work was recommended to me by Hon. S. Young, of Balls- ton, wliflse enthusiasm in the cultivation of trees and flowers may be known to you. The communications and inquiries received by you and published in the Horticulturist, constitute a very interesting part of the work, and the infor- mation sought and the subject of this communica- tion may be useful to others. Upon a recent examination of my hardy grape vines, which for some time previous, had given great promise of an abundant crop, to my great disappointment and mortification I discovered that the buds upon many of the vines had been almost entirely destroyed. At first I supposed " Jack Frost" some still night had touched them with his icy finger. I consulted my daily record of the thermometer and fotind that we had not had frost to injure them. I suspected at once that an ene- my, heretofore unknown and unseen, had trespass- ed uj)on my rights. Upon more careful examina- tion, I found that the buds had been bored, and the centre part was missing. I have a large number of grape vines, some of which for many years have produced large crops, and I had never before discovered such an attack upon them. I resolved to hunt up the enemy. At length I caught him busy at his trade — a small green bug. I send you a. pair of the rascals. Do you know him? I presume they will reach you alive and kicking. They are quick on the wing and have locomotive power not only on foot, but by a pecu- liar jerk, somewhat after the manner of the " snapping bug," so called. Can you inform me how and when to guard my vines from their at- tack? They are found in pairs. I noticed that the young vines had not been attacked, and also that the buds upon branches of the old vines which rested upon or near the ground had escaped. — The Isabella had suffered more than other vines. If you can give me any information in regard to this new entmy to the vine in your June number, I shall be thankful. I am truly yours, &c., Thomas M. Howell. Answer. — The insect reached us alive. It is the grape-vine flea-beetle (Haltica chalybea ) We have never seen this species in a living state before, nor have we seen its ravages, but the in- sect (a small glossy, greenish-blue beetle, about three-twentieths of an inch long.) is accurately described by David Thomas, in the 26th vol. of Sitliman's Journal of Science, and also noticed in Harris' Treatise on Insects. It appeared in great quantities in Cayugo co., N. Y., according to Mr. T. in 1831, and the same season was seen in great numbers in New-Haven, Conn., doing, in both places, great mischief by eating out tlie cen- tre of the buds and destroying them. The habits of the insects are not yet perfectly understood. Mr. Thomas thinks it undergoes its ffnal trans- formation in the ground, coming out to attack the buds in May. The beetle lays its eggs on the vine. These change to •' small chestnut-colored, smooth worms," that feed on the leaves of the vine in summer and pass the winter in a larva state, in the ground, coming out perfect beetles in the spring. Assuming this to be correct, the best remedy i» to destroy the insect when in the worm state j it ia found upon the leaves in summer, by syringing the leaves with tobacco water. Next, look over the vines carefully in March, or before the least vegetation commences in the spring — strip off all. the old or loose bark and white-wash the entire plant (winch of course has been previously prun- ed,) buds and all, with a mixture of white-wasl^ and sulphur — a pound of the latter to a pail-full, of the former. This will deter the insect from boring the buds. Next to this we should say dusting the buds with powdered lime, while the dew is upon them in the morning would be the best remedy. This is recommended by Harris. Of course the most effectual way of getting rid of the pest is to destroy it in the worm state, with tobacco water. — Ed. Practical School for Gardeners. — In your leading article in the April No. of the Horticultu- rist, you express your regret at the non-existence of a practical school for gardeners, wherein their knowledge of European gardening might be re- modeled to suit the climate. You go on to say,_ that the difficulty of getting foreign gardeners to enter this school would be removed by the readi- ness with which they could get from 50 to $100 a year more than they do at present, after spending 1 year there, and having its certificate to produce. I assure you that to the uninitiated your suggest tion looks well on paper — but men like me, who have spent ten summers here, and knovk^ something of the liberality of American employers generally, would not be caught by the golden vision you hold out. I am personally acquainted with a dozen gardeners who live with some of the first mer- chants in New York city — they give their em- ployers entire satisfaction, and yet $30 per month (and many of them only $25) is the most any of these gentlemen will pay — while these same mer- chants pay the porters in their stores from 35 to $40 per month for the very scientific process of sweeping out the store and nailing up a packing box. There is an intimate friend of mine who gave up the trade last summer, and is now getting $35 per mouth in a hardware store in Maiden Lane, N. Y. Would it not be better for a gar- dener to be in the New York police at $600 per year than live with one of your aristocratic neigh- bors on the banks of the Hudson for 300 or $360 per year? I mention these facts to show at what a discount the science of gardening is at, in these United States. In a country like this, where the chances of doing better are so numerous, it would DOMESTIC NOTICES. 53 .be absurd to suppose that practical jrardeners coming to this country would spend a year in your .preparatory garden. How is it, Mr. Editor, that our enterprising American young men never try to become gardeners? The answer is quite sim- ple— the wages tiiey would get when they had acquired a knowledge of the profession, do not come exactly up to their ideas of making money, and any thing that your genuine Yankee don't make money at, there is no use in Europeans try- ing. The science of gardening is left to us Eu- ropeans, and very often Americans, whom we have taught the little they know, turn round and be our critics. I think I can show that your la- ment about the scarcity of srood gardeners among us is imaginary. How is it that our leading com- mercial gardeners never have any difficulty in get- ting first class men? The reason is obvious — they know how to appreciate talent. The rivalry of trade compels them to employ the best gardeners, which they do, and pay them in round numbers just doulile the wages per year that your aristo- cratic neighbors pay their men. Then take our liberal and enterprising amateurs — Caleb Cope and James Dundas of Piiiladeiphia, Mr. Cush- ING and Col. Perkins of Boston, and Mr. Becar of New York — have they any difficulty in procur- ing first rate men? A visit to their places will answer the question. These gentlemen pay the very highest wages, and furnish tlieir gardeners with every facility for displaying tiieir talents. Now, Mr. Editor, these gentlemen find as good gardeners as they want, (all Europeans.) Their science has been all acquired without passing through your preparatory garden, and I see noth- ing in the way of every employer in the country to go and do likewise. To an intelligent gardener a residence of two years in our climate gives him a thorough knowledge of how to proceed. It matters not where you place a scientific gardener — whether at Cape Cod or the Cape of Good Hope — whether in a moist climate or a dry one — he will very soon learn how to combat the diffi- culties that surround him, the theory being the same. All he has to do is to shape his practice to the climate. That the country is flooded with half gardeners I will readily admit, but who has called them into existence ? It is the parsimonious employers, with whom the greatest qualification they can produce is, that they will work cheap. My object in writing this communication, was to show that there are plenty of good gardeners in this coun- try, and that the backward state of horticulture on this continent is to be attributed more to the illib- erality of the employers than to a want of scienti- fic knowledge among the gardeners; and a visit to the gentlemen's places that I have quoted proves the truth of Sam Patch's assertion, " that some things can be done as well as others." Your ap- peal for help to the Mass. Horticultural Society, I think will be made in vain — the funds of that in- stitution, although ample, seem to be jnst enough to divide in prizes among its own members. Re- spectfully yours, John Qui nn. Ida Farm, Troy^ N. Y., June 19, 1850. Answer. Mr. John Quinn has our thanks for the way he shows his colors and manages his guns, though he comes rather sharply into action. We happen, fortunately, to know Mr. Quinn, and have seen what he can do with his proper weapons — in other words, that he is an excellent gardener. The best answer, therefore, to the po- sition he takes, that really good gardeners cannot be found in this country, is to be drawn from the man himself — for we believe he has had higher wages for the past five years, by nearly one half, than the majority of gardeners get in this coun- try— and solely because he is such a gardener as we would have our school send out. We quite agree with him in his complaint that more than half the employers will not give a good gardener fair wages.* But this is owing to two causes — first, that the emplovers do not know what a good gardener is, and second, that there are hundreds of professedly good gardeners in America, who are almost good-for-nothing — but who offer to work cheap — and until there is some way of determining the value of what is offered, it is clear that those who are ignorant of it will be taken in. Hence, again, the utility of our pro- posed school. No doubt an able, clever man will quickly adapt himself to the climate — but as we happen to have had such in our own employment, and have lost many valuable plants while they were busy in this kind of adaptation, we think it would be better to have them ac(juire this at public cost. The reason why commercial establishments, nur- series and the like, get the best gardeners, is that they send out to like establishments abroad and receive men of certified character. Few private individuals can do this, and have to take garden- ers on their own showing. The school for garden- ers would therefore benefit employers by sending out men with reliable testimonials, and would gradually raise the wages of competent garden- ers, by forcing those who only call themselves such, to fall back into the ranks of day laborers. Ed. Common Names of Wiid Plants. — I know not how the Horticulturist would flourish without the monthly spice of your untiring correspondent Jeffreys. It is true, he sometimes seasons our dishes with assafcetida, and sometimes with rose- water, but then there is an air of honesty, ear- nestness, and sometimes of enthusaism about him, that every body likes. Besides, he seems to be an universal savant, for neither yourself nor your scores of correspondents can start a subject on *The difference between being a porter in a store at 35 or ?40 per month, and having to pay the increased expenses of life in-a city, and having a ranch less sum in the country, with perhaps a house and garden free, must be taken into account. It i> not what a man gets, but what he can save, that makes tik profit. 54 DOMESTIC NOTICES. •which he is not ready to say at least a few words. As a general rule, too, his suggestions are much to the purpose, having often, to my mind, been the means of introducing new ideas and improved methods. It is true, that when his critique, on the subject of deep growing roots, left me to the tender mercies of Dr. Stevens, I did not think he had got to the root of that matter; but now, when bethinks " I deserve a gold medal," for having talked up to the mark about Indigenous Flowers, I cannot but admire his taste and knowledge. Such is human nature. And now for his suggestion of giving the com- mon names of my indigenous list. I think this is a timely as well as a reasonable hint, and there- fore, as far as the plants have common names, shall give them, and I hope in season for the next number. Where there are several species, the name of the genus will perhaps be sufficient. Liatris — Gay-feather. Leptaiidria — Culver'' s physic. Lygodium — Cltnibing Fern. Mimulus — Monkey Flower. Myricn — Bay berry. Nymphfea — Poiid Lily. Osmunda — Floicering Fern. Priuos — i'potted Alder. Pyrol a — Winter-green . Rhodora — Canadian Rhodora. Rhododendron — Sicamp-pvk. Salix conifera — Cone-bearing Willow. Staphylea — Bladder-nut. Spirsea — Hard-hack. Sarraeenia — Side-saddle fotcer. Sagitlaria — Arrovj-head. Solidago odora — Sweet golden- rod. Typliia — Cat^s-tail. Thaliclrum — Meadow-rue. Triosteum — Fetter root. TnlUum—TriUittm. Teplirosia — Cat-gut. Vcrbascum — Moth mvllein. Viola — Bird''sfoot violet. Virburnum — Maple-leaved virb. Arrmc-wood. Vicia cracca — Tufted vetch. Ac oras — Sweet-flag. Acer — Maple. Aristolochia — Snake-root. Apocynum — Dog's bane. Aquilegia — Columbine. Actaea — Bane-berry. Arbulus — Bear-berry. Asclepias — Milkiveed. Aster — Star-flmier. Coplis — Goldthread. Calllia — Cou-slip. C ornus — Dog-wood. Clematis — Virgin's botcer. Convalaria — Solomon's seal. Clethra — Siceet pepper. Ceaiiothus — Jersey tea. Cypripedium — Ladies' slipper. Dirca — Leather wood, Epilobium — Willmv-herb. Equisetum — Scouring-rush. Gentiaiia — Soapirort gentian. Gerardia — Yellow Gerard ia. Hamameljs — Witch hazle. Habenaria — Orchis. Hepatica — Liverwort. Kalmia — Laurel. Liliutn — Yellmv and red Lily. Lysimachia — Loose stripe. Xiudwegia — Seed-box. Lobelia — Cardinal floicer. I might extend this list quite readily by extract- ing from that of Mr. Grkene, of Boston, publish- ed in your May number. He has added several fine specimens, and among them Calypso Ameru cana, Sabbatia chlorloides, Panax quinquefolia, all of which I should like to have by way of ex- change. Yours truly, /. L. Comstock. Hart- ford, June 6, 1850. Notes on Grape Culture. — Notwithstanding all that has been written and is daily appearing on the culture of the grapevine here, there is a lack of information as to its general management every where around us ; as well with people of high practical pretensions as with the mechanic and farmer. It is for the latter, and not for pro- ficients that I venture to become a contributor to your Journal. I shall not refer to any of the modes adopted in scientific works and extensive vineyards, but to that which is seen every where at the mechanic's cottage and the farm-house. Our people all plant grapes for two essential ob- jects, viz: Shade and fruit; but ere many years elapse the vines become stunted and feeble, the fruit shanks and shrivels, and nothing but shade can be obtained. The cause of this may be justly attributed to two prevailing evils, want of proper manure and bad manag^ement. The great relish every body has for this fruit in our warm climate, not unfrequently induces the majority of our people to forfeit quality for quan- tity. In endeavoring to achieve this object they seldom cut out any but the extreme tops of the branches in the winter pruning, while in summer every eye is left to bear shoots, and every shoot to ripen all the fruit it shows. In this confused state they become, by the end of summer, a com- plete mass of worthless, ill-flavored fruit, and useless, half-ripened branches. Others boast of treating theirs something more scientifically, in attempting to prune on the spur system, but with equally bad results. The manner in which it is performed, almost without exception, being this; the main branches being once established, they keep shortening the young shoots, year after year, till in a single spur there are several years wood, looking more like so many antlers than any thing else. This is one of the principle causes of shanking and shriveling, and the older those spurs are the more will those diseases increase; hence the ne- cessity of making a proper reserve in the summer dressing, and the sooner it will be now attended to the better. There is little or no difficulty in selecting a due suppl)' of young shoots at this season. Those nearest the main branches should be prefered ; if growing from the main branch so much the better, for it is such that always bear the largest and best fruit. All superabundant and useless branches should be cut away ; even your favorite old spurs can be cut now with as much safety as in the fall (besides gaining a season's growth,) tying the young shoots to their places to become the bearing wood of the next year, and nipping all laterals they produce above the first eye, and not cutting these laterals entirely away as too many do. This is a point seemingly but little understood, and to which I would like to call special atten- tion, for this reason, that when the laterals are cut clear away the principal eye will soon break again, and exhaust itself in the production of use- less branches. After a few years of this injudici- ous treatment it will be denounced as a barren and worthless variety, and the plant vender of whom it was purchased, will get his share of the blame. Those wishing information on the manure best suiting the vine can consult the articles on special manures in the Horticulturist. Fidelius. DOMESTIC NOTICES. 5^ ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. Pkuning Young Trees. — i Canada Nursery- man, (Toronto.) We prefer early summer pruning for all young trees like those you refer to. The branches then heal over rapidly, without attention. You may prune with safety at any season if you apply to the wojnci the shellac mixture given in our Fruits and Fruit Trees; otherwise the wounds (except in early summer,) are liable to decay, especially in a northern climate. Linden Trees. — Two Subscribers, Boston. — The spotted leaves of this tree like those you sent us we have seen before. They appear to us to be affected by a disease of the cuticle or outer covering of the leaf — owing, as we think, to some defect in the soil, as we have never observed it in deep, rich soils, which this tree prefers. The best remedy is to dig a trench two feet deep and as wide as you can afford, around the outside of the ball of roots, and fill it with rich soil — rather re- tentive of moisture, with a little salt sprinkled through it — say at the rate of half a peck to a trench for a tree 15 feet high. The autumn is the best time to do this. Pear Blight.—/. W. J. (Philadelphia.) We think the foliage you sent us discolored by a spe- cies of fungus — perhaps induced to fix itself upon them by a diseased condition of the trees. Slack fresh lime with brine, mix it with about fi\-e times its bulk of soil, and let it lie for a fortnight, then apply it as a top dressing to the roots at the rate of half a peck of lime to a small tree just begin- ing to bear, and half a bushel to a full-grown or old tree. Grape Vine.— Jf. L. S. (Geneva, N. Y.)— You should have cut your vine down to one strong bud (or rubbed off all the others,) when you planted it. It will answer now if you let but one shoot grow to each rafter, pinching off all the others. Elm Tree Insects. — H. A. Wright, (New- port.) The insect which infects your elm trees is we presume the canker worm. To prevent their attacking the trees they should have a belt or girth of coarse canvass or cloth closely wound round their trunks, and smeared with fluid india- rubber. To make it fluid burn a pair of old over- shoes over a gallipot or pan, (into which it will fall drop by drop before a very hot fire.) where it will remain fluid. It is so sticky that the insects in crawling on the trunk will be caught and cap- tured. Raspberries. — W. W. (Salem, Mass.) Your crop has failed for two years past because the plants have been so long on the same soil that they have exhausted it. Make a fresh plantation in another part of your garden — trenching in a little plaster and a plentiful dressing of ashes be- fore hand. Chinese Wistaria.— X. V. Z. (Buffalo.) No plant is more easily propagated. Take down some of the long shoots of the present year's wood immediately — bury a portion midway between the root and end under the surface, wounding the bark here and there a little with the knile when covered with the soil, and they will root finely by next November. July is the best month for mak- ing layers of roses or any hardy shrubs. Rhododendrons. — 4 Beginner, (Newark, N. J.) You will find it not difficult to cultivate those plants if you will choose a shady border on the north side of a fence or in the shade of trees ; though in the latter case the roots must be cut off the trees or they will exhaust the soil too much. If your soil is heavy mix peat earth well decom- posed, and coal ashes with it. Budding. — W. Thompson, (Clinton co., N. Y.) The plum fails usually because it is left too late. It should be inoculated the first moment the buds begin to be firm — which with you will be about the fourth of July. Roses should be budded im- mediately. Cape Jasmines. — 4 Lady in New-England. — Your plants are sickly because they have not the right soil. Send into the woods, get a basket full of the rich mould under the decaying leaves, and mix it with about a third white sand and a hand- ful or two of fine charcoal, and shake off a good deal of the old soil from the roots and repot them in this compost. They should be kept in summer in a half.shaded spot. PE.A.CH 1 rees. — W. Mayer, (New- York.) — Your peach trees have the yellows, and the bettor thing would be to dig them up and burn them. Get a fresh stock from some district of the coun- try where the trees are sound and healthy. The seedlings from the stone this spring will be fit to bud in September. Cherry Seedling?. — W., (Chicago.) If you wish to be sure of the vegetating of the cherry stones next spring you must sow them directly after they are gathered. Plant them in drills, like peas, about an inch deep, and cover the sur- face of the ground with hay, straw, litter, tan- bark, or whatever other mulching is most conve- niently obtained. Seedlings from Morello (pie cherries,) do not make good stocks for working on. The black Mazzard or " common Black English cherry" is preferred. Carnations. — M. T., (Baltimore.) MaKe the layers as soon as possible after the flowers have faded ; and in order to secure their forming an abundance of roots you should water them every evening. Cover the surface of the soil with a little new-mown hay to keep it cool. Brcgmansia.— /. P. W., (New-York.) The plant you describe as the double white Datura, is known as the Brugmansia Knightii — and, grown in a large tub or turned out in a rich border in summer, is one of the most showy of exotic shrubs. It is easily obtained of the principal flo- rists and grows readily from cuttings. Native Grapes. — Vitis, (New-Bedford.) We 56 PENNSYLVANIA HORT. SOCIETY. are familiar ^ith tne native white grape you speak ol'. It is the Early Fox grape, and though reddish amber color in the sun, is pale green in the shade. But few berries are borne in a cluster. We assure you this grope is too " foxy" in its flavor, and has too firm a pulp to be tolerated by good judges. It however, makes a delicious jelly. PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. The stated meeting of this society was held in the Chinese Saloon on Tuesday evening, June 18, 1S50. The president iii the chair. Premiums awarded on the occasion were, — by the cotrimit- tee on plauls and flowers,— pinks, for the hest six. to William Hobson. Hot-house plants— for the best three specimens, to James Bisset, nardener to James Dundas ; for the second best, lo Maurice Fiini. G reea-house plants— for the best three spe- cimens, to Maurice Film. Collection of plants in pols— lor the best, to James Bisset; for the second best, to Maurice Finn; for the third best, lo Wm. Burnley, foreman to John Sherwood. Desi<;n of cut flower*— for the best, to Maurice Finn; for the second best, lo Ben Daniels. Basket of cut flowers- for the best, to Ben Daniels; for the best bouquet of indigenous flowers, to Robert Kilviiigtoii. And special pre- miums', for a very large display of cut roses, three dollars, to Robert Buist; for two beautiful bouquet designs, three dol- lars, to Patrick Gallagher, gardener to Miss Gratz; for a handsome basket of indigenous flowers, two dollars, to Mrs Dr. Coleman, of Pemberton, N. J. By the committee on fruits. Grapes— for the best three bunches, of a black varietv (Black Hamburg,) to Ben Daniels, gardener to C. Cope ; for the best three bunches of a white variety, to F'd'k tV'oU". gardener to Mrs. Gamlies, Montgome- ry county Strawberries— for the best two quarts of a named variety, (Hovey's Seedlin?,) to Robert Lovelace, gardener to Mr Warne, Fraiikford ; for the second best ditto, (Hovey's Seedling.) to Anthony Feheii; for the third best, (Moyameii- eiiio-,) to Mr. Page, Burliiisftou, N. J. Cherries— for the best three pounds. (May Duke,) to Isaac B. Baxter; for the third best, (Early Richmond,) to Wm. Hobson. And a special premium of five dollars lo Ben Daniels, for eight varieties of grapes, three of peaches, and one of nectarines. The com- mittee recommend to the notice of the meeting the following varieties of strawberries, viz., Methven Scarlet, Baltimore, CuehiiiiT, and six seedlings by Dr. Brinckle. By the commillee on veiretables. For the best display by a commercial sardcner, to Anlhony Fehen ; for the best di.splay by an amateur gardener, to Ben Daniels, gardener to C. Cope ; for the second best display, to P. Gallagher, gardener lo Miss Gratz. The corresponding secretary reported a communication, re- ceived from Dr. J. A. Kennicott, of Illinois, in acknowledg- ment for his election as an honorary and corresponding mem- ber. Objects Shown.— Ptan««—By Ben Daniels, gardener to Caleb Cope, Stauhopea grandiflora, Ceropegia elegans, Brug- mansia Knightii. Mimulus cardinalis, Scutellaria VeiUenaltii, Rasselliajuucea, Lanlana crocea, Acropea I,oddiesii, Justicia carnea, Achimenes longiflora, A. patens, Cuphea platycen- tra, oncidium sp., Fuchsia Napoleon, Hero, Lady Sale, Chau- verii and Mirabilis. By James Bisset, gardener to James Dundas, jEschynan- thus Bosceanus, Zygopetalon, 6 Cuphea platycentra, 3 Achime- nes sp , 8 Calceolaria;, 8 Verbence, 6 Fuchsiae, Mathiola and 8 Viote. By Maurice Fitm gardener to John Lambert, Pentas car- nea, Ixora ro.sea, Gloxinia rubra, G. arborea, G. seedlings, Rondeletia speciosa, Hoya carnosa, Gnaphalium orieiitalis, Brugmansia floribunda. Calceolaria meteor, C. rugosa, C. seedlings, Hydrangeae, Fuchsia Chauverii, F. exoniensis, F. rosea alba, F. fulgens, F. mirabilis, Correlina, Pttuma, Pe- largonias. Rosae and CinerarisE. By John Sherwood's foreman, Cestrum aurantiacum. Fuch- sia magnificent, F. beauty supreme, F. flavescens, F. cottom of the standard B, is a nut and adjusting screw, W, to which the slip of bass wood is attached ; a plate of brass is screwed to the top of the wood, and is fastened by a pin to the lever E ; from this lever a silk thread is carried around the pulley L, in a spiral groove ; the axis of this pulley passes a dial plate and car- ries an index. At N is a vessel of water, having a proper supply pipe leading to it, the water being retained at a uniform level by the waste pipe P, and connected with the water in the small vessel I, by a syj'hon. The re- spective length of the legs of the syphon is immaterial, as the flow of the water depends upon the relative level of the surface of the water in the resei'voir, and that in the cup ; both legs being immersed, the syphon re- mains constantly filled with water. To put the instrument in operation, let the apartment be kept at its mean temperature, and at the degree of moisture rec{uired, both of the vessels and the syphon being filled with water. After the instrument has been exposed to this atmosphere a short time, turn the screw at W until the orifice in the vessel I is level with the top of the waste pipe P ; then turn the pully L, and set the index at zero. The instrument being thus adjusted, if the air becomes more dry the slip of wood contracts, the small cup descends, and water flows into it from the stationary reservoir ; the water then escapes from the orifice in the side of the cup, falls into a funnel, and thence into a pipe, which, when the insti'ument is used in green-houses, conveys the water to evaporating pans placed upon the flues, or to a horizontal pipe, having openings at its up- per surface at suitable intervals, from which the water falls at any point desired. As the water thus discharged evaporates, the sur- rounding air is moistened, the wood is ex- panded, and when it attains its original length, the orifice in the cup is again raised to the level of the surface of the water in the reservoir, and the flow of the water ceases. If, from any cause, the air should become too moist, the only efiect produced is, that the cup continues to rise, and a small C|uantily o^ water flows back to the large reservoir. If, by accident, the air should become very dry, the further contraction of the wood causes a larger quantity of water to issue from the cuj) than is due to this change in the hygrometric state of the air, the discharge being accele7-ated as the difference of level between the two surfaces increases ; thus the return of the air towards its normal condition is the most rapid at the time when it is of the most importance that the moisture should be restored. The same degree of moisture may be made to discharge a greater or less quan- tity of water, by moving the fulcrum of the horizontal \e\ev to the right or to the left. The opening and closing of valves and stop- cocks is attended with nuich friction, but in this instrument, it will be observed that the water flows through the syphon with a very small amount of friction, and that little power is required to depress the cup. This plan may, therefore, be used to advantage in many instruments in which the motive power is small, the weight of the water discharged being applied to produce more extended or more fitrcible movements. f John M. Baciielder. Boston, ilfajy 22, 1S50. ON RAISING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS.* BY M. NEUMANN, PARIS No. XI. Cuttings by Pieces of the Trunk. — This mode of multiplication, which I first published seven years ago, is now in use in all countries. I employed, for the first time, Cycas circinalis, which was then rare in Fig. 11. — Section of the trunk of Cycas circinalis.. green-houses. For this purpose I cut some slips, or slices, l.\ inches or 2 inches thick; I then left them freely exposed to heat for four or five days, to dry them ; then I ]ilantcd them in pots of suitable size, which I placed covered with a bell-glass, upon a hot-bed. These slices are not long before they emit roots, and show shoots between the scales ; (fig. 11.) When all these were formed, I de- tached them, in order to make cuttings, which developed themselves as well as the plant which served to make the cuttings'. I did not then doubt that, in dividing these slices of Cycas like the roots of Paulownia, I should obtain the same results ; I then cut them into several pieces {d c, fig. 11,) each of which gave me a new plant. The head of the Cycas (a,) which I had cut to obtain the slices, was planted after having been exposed to the air of the stove for three weeks ; I did not expect any result from it, because it was so young ; but, in the following year, I per- ceived that this head had taken root, and it soon produced shoots which showed them- selves in the same manner as the parts before cut. It is generally one year before these cuttings take root. Perhaps we shall be able some day to obtain plants of Cycas by striking the scales with which this plant is provided. Peg Cuttings.— The easiest and simplest of all cuttings is known under the name of peg cutting ; it is that generally used for^ml- tiplying trees which grow near wa- ter, such as Osiers, Poplars, &c. ^ For this purpose we employ branch- es of a certain strength, and we cut the lower end to a point, as in fig. 12 ; we then force it into a hole in the ground previously made by a stake, or, which is preferable, into a hole larger than the cutting, and which we then fill with earth, press- ing it down as soon as the cutting is put in its place. Everybody knows that cuttings root more easily in a light soil than in one too compact ; it is for this reason that I ad- vise tins last method. I ought here to no- tice, among the Poplars, P. heterophylla and P. argentea, which take root from cuttings with difficulty. They are, therefore, better grafted on P. Caroliniana, to -^^ which they have more analogy. Cuttings of the Trunk, — This species of propagation is the same as peg cuttings made with stronger branches ; I mention it separately here, in order to call to mind that we may make cuttings of trees o of considerable size, (fig. 13.) /l\'^' Anybody may have seen on)! ' the borders of rivers, where Willows are cultivated, the stems of such trees sharpened, and forced into the soil to keep together the beds ; these Wil- lows root freely, and often live for a long * Continued from page 19. Fig. 13. 64 RAISING PLANTS FROM CUTTINGS. Fig:. 14 — Heel-cutlivg of Gustavia aiigitsta. time, although they may have been injured hy the vinleiice used in jdaiiting them. There is in the possession of M. Jacques, at Neuilly, a specimen of Sophora japonica which took root in this manner. No. XII. Cuttings with a Heel. — This method, called cutting with a heel, is well known ; it consists in carefully raising up a branch (see fig. 14,) in such a manner that the wood wdiich unites it to the prin- cipal stem is detached with the cutting ; this wood has the advantage of exciting the development of the roots. The branches which are thus cut ought to be two or three years old ; the roots come out better from this wood than from one year old shoots. Such cuttings are made the length of three or four e3'es, of which two or three are buried, and one is always left above ground. Cuttings by Branches. — The evergreens which we cultivate in the open air ma}' be multiplied by cuttings, if we choose the branches of the preceding year at the time when the sap begins to rise. The month of March seems to me the best for the climate of Paris. The Abies Deodara, which I intro- duced into France some years ago, and which resists the severity of our winters so well, may be multiplied perfectly by cuttings of its branches. The instrument with which the branch intended to be put into the earth is cut, ought to be so sharp that the wound presents no raggedness ; it is usually cut rather a little be- low the petiole than above it ; if this operation has been well performed, the base of the pe- tiole ought to remain after the cutting, as is shown in fig. 15 ; the same branch cut into seve- ral portions, following the same plan, forms as many cuttings as there are pieces. The leaves which might hinder the planting of the cutting are cut at one-twentieth or one-sixteenth of an inch from the base of the petiole. There are certain plants, as the Clusia, for example, W'hose leaves we do not cut off. Buds are often formed in the axils, which pierce the earth and develop themselves in the air. It has been said, and some persons still say, that such cuttings never form fine trees ; this idea seems to me erroneous, and, in defence of what I say, I shall quote the examples of Araucaria excelsa and Cunuing- hami, which, raised from cuttings, cannot be distinguished from plants raised from seeds ; Poplars, Abies lanceolata, &c., are in the same ease. It is not, however, an indifferent matter, whether such or such a branch is taken for striking ; there are some trees which, when lateral branches are operated on, only give lateral branches, and never form ar head ; such are Araucarias, Abies, Proteas, some species of Leguminous and other trees ; but if we detach the head of these plants to make a cutting, we obtain a plant in every respect similar to that produced from a seed of the same species. However there are some species of trees whose cuttings made from lateral branches will produce, under the callus, when arrived at a certain strength, a true shoot which will not be long in showing itself, and will one day form a plant having the same appearance as that which a cutting made from the head would have produced. Physiology teaches us that the callus which is formed at the base of a cutting is nothing more than a successive collection of a multitude of small bladders or nipples, which are white when they are formed under the earth, and take their proper green colour as soon as they are exposed to the light : these bladders are easily seen by the naked eye. When they are suf- ficiently collected to give birth to a new being, the bud then developes itself, and the tree begins to grow ; such is the ef- fect which is remai-k- ed in the cuttings of Abies lanceolata, Gin- ko biloba, and many others. Fig. 16 gives anp.^^g_^^^^.^,^^^^.^^^^ idea of this phenome- ceoiata. CRITIQUE ON THE JUNE HORTICULTURIST. 65 non ; dis a lateral branch struck from a cut- ting, e is the callus, c a branch sprung from an adventitious bud and destined to become a tree which, to be well formed, ought to be produced upon the cellular matter of the cal- lus and not upon the stem of the cutting ; this last ought to be cut the moment that the shoot which it has brought to light is a little developed. Some years ago I was advised to put a lat- eral branch of Araucaria excelsa into the ground ; I was told that I should obtain along this branch adventitious buds which would form heads ; I tried it, and never obtained a satisfactory result, nor have I ever been able to find at any horticulturists a single fact in defence of the specula- tion. CRITIQUE ON THE JUNE HORTICULTURIST. BV JI:;FFREYi!, NEAV-YORK. Your Leader. — Our Country Villages. — All very well, and rightly said — the IMassa- ehusetts part, in particular. They do under- stand things better there, as a state, in the way of living clean and comfortable about their houses and grounds, than in any other state of the union. From Pittsfield to Na- hant, in its entire length, or from Northficld down the Connecticut valley to Long IMea- dow, in its full breadth, and through all its river com-ses, from the Ilnu^atnnic in tlie west to the Merrimack in the cast, are the loveli- est villages tliat live, and though barren, hard and rugged be the soil of IMassachusetts, " it is a land of beauty and of grandeur" — beauti- ful in its soft, sunny spots of cultivation and embellishments — grand in its mountains, riv- ers, valleys, capes, and ocean. But your regular villages ! they are 7iot in Massachu- setts. In all their beauty throughout the state — T mean the old ones, for they are by far the prettiest — those ancient villages are laid out on the cow-path system of pilgrim times ; no parks, but a " green ;" a wimpling brook or a babbling river, with broad elms and willows clustered over its silvery bed, to screen it from the fierce glare of the sun ; a stretch of luxuriant meadow ; a gentle hill or a rocky ledge now and then upon its outskirts ; mountains in the distance ; in its heart the neatest churches and school houses ; and spreading out upon its winding streets, the sweetest homes, the fairest lawns, the choicest gardens, and the grandest trees in the uni- verse ! Witness Stockljridge, Northampton, Lancaster, and a hundred others, to say noth- ing of the delicious places round aliout Bos- ton ; which, by the way, are losing half their beauty and rurality in the starch and macca- roni atmosphere which the city emigration has brought into them. Why, if you want to know the superiority of such winding streets, just recollect back a few years ago, when we were boys, and bring to mind the pleasant old roads crooking out in various ways from Greenwich-street, Broadway, and the Bowery, in this goodly city of Gotham, which thread- ed out all over the island, between old mossy stone walls, with wild-briar hedges overgrown; ledges of high rock ; the occasional market garden, and low perched cottage enclosed ; and now and then the hospitable looking, broad-porched old mansion of the Stuyve- sants, the Grades, the Bays, the Schermer- horns, or the Le Roys, with their long ave- nues of horse chestnuts, and elms, and Eng- lish cherries, and box, and arbor vitEe. And now where are they ? Gone, alas, forever , but that was country — rural; one could smell it, and feel it, as he coursed, or drove, or walked those pleasant lanes and bye-roads. And such, among such lands elsewhere, should 66 CRITIQUE ON THE JUNE HORTICULTURIST. be country residences now. I have known a man to spend a thousand dollars in blasting away a great cluster of rock, and turning off a delicious and chrystal brook from his lawn, where the same rock and the same brook, with ten dollars worth of vines and shrubbery planted about them, were worth, in rural ef- fect, all the frippery put together, which he had built there at an expense of ten thousand. Strange that people going into the country for a summer's stay, can't be content with the country alone, but make themselves and all about them miserable, because in their fool- ish pride, they will take the city and its nonsense along with them ! Why, my good friends, the very object of getting into the country at all, is to ruralize — to repose — to keep off the dust, and suffocation, and tur- moil, and pestilence of the city — to pick the wild huckleberries and blackberries, and eat them in your bread and milk, and make pies and puddings of them ; to feed your ducks and chickens, and enjoy your fruits and gar- dens ; and better than all, to turn the child- ren out into the lawn, or the paddock — to catch the pony and ride bare-back if they choose to, scampering boys and girls together over the pasture ! Then let the governess be dismissed for a summer's visit to her own friends. She will be all the fresher and more elastic in spirit for the next winter's cam- paign with the young daughters, who, in their buoyant romping over the fields, will expand their chests and dilate their lungs — •all the stouter for Mesdames "VValtz-enwack and Polka-lair to exercise their ingenuity up- on, in torturing and compressing them into the fashionable wasp dimension when they " come out." And if your summer retreat be in a farming neighborhood, turn the boys for a few weeks into the district school with the farm- ers' children. Let them play ball, trundle hoops, fly kites, run foot races, pitch quoits. Farmers' boys are usually smart at such play, and if yours should beat them in the games, 'twould be a trophy in their caps. Let them swim in the river too, fish for dace and chubs in the brook, or bob for eels in the mill-pond. All these will do your boys no harm — even if in wrestling with the other youngsters they tear their jackets, and dirty their faces in their rough play. Ten to one, these same tow- headed farmers' boys will one day sail your ships, be the partners of your sons in busi- ness, or mayhap, marry your daughters, and you like them all the better that their whole- some stamina was acquired in the pure air of a country life. Aye, and put yourselves at once on good terms with your quiet country neighbors. Al- though they be plain people, they possess kind hearts and many virtues, and will do you many a good turn ; and as you treat them, will you, in their estimation, be " the best kind of city folks," or mere "stick-ups." How many pleasant, social afternoon and evening visits do sensible people in their summer so- journings make among their farmer neighbors, who impart, in their own way, quite as much instruction and pleasure as is given in return by those who profess to be better informed ! And again, I have known even very good sort of city folks, when i7i the city, wonderfully fretted at the rudeness of their country neigh- bors, because they would not at first sight submit to their own arrogant pretensions of a higher gentility, and in their intercourse ac- knowledge a superior caste in their new neigh- bors, which they were utter strangers to, and had, most properly, never been taught to ad- mire ; thus making themselves wretched be- cause of a sheer misunderstanding of human nature. But the age of poetry is gone, and I sup- pose with the new fashions and the rail-roads, we are hereafter to have, in the new city-vil- lages which are to be built upon them for sum- mer resort, rectangular streets, and fancy hou- CRITIQUE ON THE JUNE HORTICULTURIST. 67 ses stuck up like the " four and twenty fid- dlers all in a row," on fifty-foot lots, as you say, and looking for all the world as nice and uniform as a shop-keeper's shelves with their shining wares so spruce and gingerly upon them. Well, I suppose the people like it, and there is no other way but to let them suf- fer— for enjoy them they cannot; that is alto- gether out of the question ; and as some folks take a great deal of comfort in being misera- ble, why, let them do as they like. You may talk, my good sir — and I am glad to hear you — as long as you please, but such people don't read you ; and if they did, three out of four could not understand what you meant. Plough Notes from the West. — I hope Dr. Kennicott will preach a little good sense into the people on the subject of substituting good fruits for apothecary shops, as articles of diet. No subject will better bear handling. As to your farmer schools, Dootor, you've got to hannner more tact into our farmers' heads than they have yet shown, either in le- gislation or election, before you'll work them up to a right understanding of their own in- terests. The demagogues and politicians have had it all their own w^ay thus far, and so they are like to have it for a long while to come, unless somebod.y wakes up suddenly. As to the " Bureau," Gen. Taylor has shown his proper estimate of the importance of intelligent agriculture, in proposing it, and Mr. EwiNG his correct appreciation of the true interests of the country in enforcing the measure, to Congress. But who supposes that the present Congress — the most fruitful in abortions yet seen — will do any thing for any interest beyond their own aggrandizement or the gratification of their own selfish objects? — No, answer. A Letter to Ladies in Toim. — '• To tliee, my Flower, wliose breath was given By milder genii," it may beunembarrassing that I am not a young man, persuasive and accomplished, instead of a gouty grandfather, merging into the " sear and yellow leaf;" for there would be a brisk chance of a proposal, and, in answer, most likely a — refusal, as soon after I could car- ry my spruce figure into New England, as eti- quette Avould permit. But such contingency past, I can only express my pleasure to find one of the gentler sex — God bless them all ! — " coming over to Macedonia to help us." The first music of the song-sparrow in spring, or the rich melody of the summer oriole, is not more welcome — and oh, how sweet the7j are! — than such heart-stirring notes in the Horticulturist. Write again, and often, my charming friend. Your auditory " is legion." And such a field no missionary — I speak it with reverence — this side the Caffrce country, has for his gathering. Coal Cinders for Pear Trees. — " Keep it before the people," as tlie politicians say. What is continually around us, is the last thing we see, or think of. Now here are not only hundreds but thousands t)f loads of cin- ders and ashes dumped daily into the rivers from our goodly city, as well as from most of the great towns all over the country, thrown away or buried, that would feed all the pear trees in cultivation, while thousands of dollars are annually spent to get rid of them, when but a trifle more expense would put them to excellent use. Do keep stirring up these ev- ery-day subjects, and show the public that the enriching material which they so expensively seek, is a perpetual nuisance under their feet and noses. The Good Effects of Mulching. — I am go- ing to tell you a story about mulching, by and by, if I live — provided present prospects don't blast before that time — that will en- lighten somebody, and probably no one more than myself. I've tried an experiment in that way the past spring, which will settle the virtues of this doctrine most thoroughly. 68 CRITIQUE ON THE JUNE HORTICULTURIST. Tan-hark for Mulching. — Any thing, Mr. Cleveland might as well have added. How many thousand loads of this invaluable mate- rial do we see daily rot tine in unsightly heaps around the country, that would be worth a fortune if applied about the roots of all sorts of trees, shrubs, and a great many vegeta- bles. To strawberries, tan-bark is the best mulching possible, for it keeps them moist and clean — two important requisites. I hope the the public will appreciate these valuable notes. I thank iNIr. C. for his kind sentiments to- ward myself ; but as I have continued my idle remarks without the hope of applause or the dread of censure, I trust I may survive the peevishness of the discontented. Design for a Gothic Country House., with an elevation and plan. As it is said to be but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous, so backward it is but a step from the ridiculous to the sensible. The house in this number is a good one — substantial, plain, diiiuified — very much so, in all three qualities. I have said much abovit houses — perhaps too much ; but as examples are placed before me, the spirit moves, and I must needs go on. And fii-st, a few words in general. lago said, '■ Men should be what they seem ;" and why not houses ? Our national propensity for im- itation has led a gi-eat many builders not only of houses but of churches and other public structures, to copy the stout presentiment of baronial castles, halls, temples, and rotundas, tis they exist in Europe, without the slightest conception of the absence of a corresponding fitness of things or circumstances in ovir own country to meet such structures. If we have the immediate means to erect them, we cannot transmit the hereditary wealth to perpetuate and maintain them in our posterity; nor, if so, have we the institutions which teach us to venerate and preserve them ; nor a substantial public taste to approve them. Yet our vanity and ostentation urge us on to the tinsel coun- terfeit of what, in its original, is truly grand and magnificent, to attain the temporary pos- session of what, among those entitled to judge, must only render its builder and occupant, in such character, contemptible. The nobility and hereditary aristocracy of Europe, with their immense landed estates, and numerous tenantry, from whose labors they draw an immense annual revenue, may, with great propriety — as they view things — indulge in the luxury of extended mansions, halls, or castles. Indeed, it is proper for them so to do. The soil of the realm is theirs — and they are, either by absolute right or courtesy, its legislators and masters. All the pomp and circumstance which they assume, they can and do maintain, as the same pomp and circumstance — according to the times — has been maintained through many centuries past, by their sires ; and they can perpetuate it to their own descendants in like manner that it was perpetuated to themselves. All such is the law of the land. Things are not so here. The millionaire of to-day, two chances to one, is the son of a " nobody" of yesterday — of parents " poor, but honest," and whose only inheritance was their good counsel and their blessing. The wealth which he amasses, by the fortuitous chances of life, may be squandered or lost by his immediate descendants ; or, by a remarkable vein of for- tune, may be perpetuated with a due quantity of saving ancestral brain, to a generation or two beyond. But the castle building million- aire in America has no capital but his money, on which to figure in his new habitation. True, he may buy a large landed estate ; he may squander a hundred thousand dollars, in filling his house with costly pictures, and sta- tuary, and furniture ; he may roll in his cha- riot, and be attended by his out-riders ; and in the excess of his afi"ected gentility, may " not dine till next day;" but he must do it CRITIQUE ON THE JUNE HORTICULTURIST. 69 alone ; or if not alone, he must surround him- self with sycophants and parasites ; for he can have no sympathy and companionship from the truly worthy among his countrymen on such pretense of mere wealth and ostentation alone. They tell a story of Davy Crockett, who repre- sented a mountain district of Tennessee in Con- gress, during the Presidency of Gen. Jackson, that wlien he had returned, after the first ses- sion, to his constituents, at a log rolling, where Davy was present, a large nundjer of his friends liad assendjled, who wei-e curious to know something of life in Washington. Among other things, said Davy, " the com- mon work-folks get their dinner ahout noon, as we do ; the store-keepers eat about one or two o'clock; Congressmen and office-holders dine at three to four ; the cabinet and foreign ministers dine at different hours — some at five, six or seven o'clock, as may be." "All very well," remarked his constituents, "but we want to know when Old Hickory gets his dinner." " Oh! that is altogether anoth- er thing," said Davy ; " General Jackson don't dine till next day !" The race of such a man is short. " Out, brief candle," is his history, so far as the " establishment" is con- cerned, and there is an end of his consequence. It therefore befits an American citizen to build such a house as he can, if necessary, dispose of without great sacrifice, or that shall not distress his family after him to maintain it. The old adage, that " fools build palaces and wise men live in them," is as true now as when first uttered, and no where has the pro- verb been so repeatedly verified as in the neighborhood of our large American towns. The grand old homes of the English barons and squires were what they purported to be. There was " donjon keep and turret wall," as well as " moated court, and bower, and hall," a fitness of things to time, and place, and life, in the ruder times we so daintily affect to im- itate in the building, altogether out of place and keeping with any thing which we have in the present day. The massive and imposing style of country residences of the olden time, is now absurdly mocked in our country in all sorts of ways. The stately old castle of unhammered stone, grey in weather-stained age, is counter- feited in its entire complexion, in modern brick, stucco, and paint ; with inside furniture and trimmings to match. The substantial, hard- burnt, russet bricks of the olden time, are here imitated in wood, lath, and plaster ; which, after three, four, or five years acquaintance with the weather, becomes as ragged and bat- tered with the frosts and rains upon its sides as a sheep afilieted with the scab ; and so on to the end of the chapter — a tawdry, untutor- ed affectation of what one cannot reach, and what, if he could, would only make him more ridiculous. The plan of the house in your frontispiece, is, in the main, a very good one, and may be made entii-ely so by trifling alteration. The entrance porch, however, is not a sufficiently prominent feature in the design — that always should stand out a chief feature in a country house — as a mark of welcome, of hospitality. It is, besides, too far from the centre of the elevation ; it would appear better at the room A, and in such arrangement better accommo- date the interior passage from the dining hall to the parlor — which, by the way, is not light- ed at all — a great defect — unless it be from above. A passage should also be made from the inner passage or hall to the kitchen or servants' room, that the front door bell or- knocker may be answered without going thi'ough the dining hall — a serious interrup- tion when the family are at meals. There is one grand feature in this hovise that I ad- mire— the huge outer chimney towering up the gable end from the dining hall. Wliat a grand wide place for a blazing wood fire, at thanksgiving, or christmas, or wedding time, or any other social time, with a back-log and 70 CULTURE OF GERANIUMS. fore-stick of good hickory or maple wood, drivingj in its glowing heat, your guests aiid family into a wide circle round the room, and lighting it up with such a cheerful, welcome radiance, as will put modern gas and sperma- ceti out of countenance — no sviell about it, but the delicious odor of the sweet exuding sap. Ah, my good sir, it is a very capital house I But why so large a landed estate, and stone so very plenty, to permit such a house to one who wants it ? I see no such great require- ments in these particulars. Rough stones are cheap — unhammered they should be ; and the house is certainly not a very large one — a good house, indeed, Mr. Downing. I wish some person would build one like it, with the alte- rations I have suggested. I would go a good way to see it. Whitewashijig. — The curculio again ! the pestilent rascal ! I hope some plan is to be ascertained among them all to stop their rav- ages. We'll wait a little longer, and see what this last cure will amount to. Cream Hill Vindicated. — I feared as much. "A pretty free sort of a country this," said Teague, just after landing, " that a jintleman can't say and do what he plazes, without such a patter about his ears, and a threat of the bilboes." One thing we have gained, howev- er. Cream Hill has produced Ijoth poetry and eloquence in its " vindication," and I trust the effort of its vindicator, at a descrip- tion of its fair proportions, has not "wrenched" him so sadly as a "nothing" else might have done. I thank your correspondent, however, most heartily, that in vindicating his favorite "hill," he has thus valiantly come up to my aid in il- lustrating the genus "Imitatii," through his signature "Fe?-eYas" — a name some thousand years or more in date, and applied by odd scores and more of pamphleteers and scrib- blers every year from the Romans down. No "imitation" in this, my good friend — none, whatever. Thus, Mr. Editor, terminates my random seribblings on your now past volume of the Horticulturist. That I have profited any one, I may well doubt ; that I have amused now and then a reader, is possible ; and if I have done no harm, I shall be, at least, content. My pen will now take its rest in the quiet re- pose of my farm, and among the society of my peaceful, rustic neighbors. Whether its labors will again revisit your pages, is a question of little moment, I presume, with yourself or your readers. That, time and tide must deter- mine. Jeffreys. ON THE CULTURE OF GERANIUMS. BY WM. CHORLTON, STATEN ISLAND. The Pelargonium (Geranium,) is not only one of the most splendid, but to the florist one of the most useful genera. So superb is the in- florescence of some, so unsurpassedly rich the scent, and so delicate and handsome the foli- age of other kinds, that no collection of plants, however small, can be said to be complete without a due selection of this favorite of Flora. From the time of our great-grand- mothers, it has been a justly popular plant. The old "Horse Shoe" and "Ivy Leaf," were once seen in every cottage window, and were looked upon as a part of the family by all, from the old grandmother, who put on her spectacles to watch its unfolding leaves, to the smallest child, who stood tiptoe on buf- CULTURE OF GERANIUMS. 71 fet to peep into the window, and though the gorgeous flowers of the new hybridized varie- ties, have in a great measure driven these and many other old veterans nearly out of the field ; yet all are deservedly admired. While too much praise cannot he given to such men as Beck, Lyne, Thurtell, GrARTH, GrAINES, and a few others, for their perseverance and ardor in bringing this genus to what is acknowledged, in a floricultural view to be perfection, yet it is much to be regretted that so many of the old and ori- ginally introduced species should have sunk into oblivion. There were in many of them forms as attractive, and colours equally bril- liant as the new sorts ; and though the flow- ers were not so large, the perfume of the leaves of many species amply compensated for this apparent deficiency. The florist, liaving now arrived at his own standard of perfection in this case, has become satiated, and looks around for fresh novelties upon which to try his skill ; yet he cannot relin((uish his old fa- vorite, and he is now working at what he pleases to call a foncy class of Pelargoniums, several beautiful varieties of which are now before the public ; but I am inclined to think, that in the long run he will again get into the same strain of flowers, for twenty years ago there were many varieties which are not unlike what he is now operating upon ; and as form and brilliance are instinctive feelings with him, I see no chance of other results. The geographical range of the genus may be said to be limited, being confined to the southern hemisphere, and, with a few excep- tions, to the Cape of Good Hope, from which place have been brought upwards of two hundred species and sub-species. It belongs to the class Monadelphia, and forms the or- der Heptandria of the sexual, and to the or- der Geraniaceae, of the natural system of bota- ny. By authors, it is reduced into many sub- divisions, owing to its multiplicity, for con- venience in ascertaining distinctions, and re- ferring more readily to individual species. In culture, the more hei'baceous and succu- lent kinds, as bicoloi', tricolor, carnosuvi, &c., require in winter a moderately warm tempe- rature, say 50° by night, and 60° to 70° with sunlight. The more robust sorts, such as Zonall, the scarlet, and all the fine show kinds, will do well with less heat, although all of them do not like too much cold, and par- ticularly sharp winds ; l»ut abundance of air should be given at every favorable opportu- nity. The whole family should be placed as near the glass as possible ; without wliich precaution they will grow weak and sappy, and the blooming will be very nmch deterio- rated. "Where proper convenience cannot be had, the scarlets (such as Tom Thumb, etc.,) may be taken up about the middle of Octo- ber, and the roots covered with sandy loam in a cool dry cellar, free from frost, and taken out in early spring before they have pushed much growth. If too soon td jilant in the open ground, they must be \)\\i into pots in a cool room, where there is light, and seldom watered, only giving barelj' enough of that element to support life till the weather is suf- ficiently open, when they may be planted into the flower borders, and will soon recover and make a fine display all the summer. But where there is sufiicient room in a green- house, if placed near the glass, they will con- tinue to bloom all the winter, and amply re- pay for the room they occupy. The culture of this genus is so simple that it is matter of surprise to me that we see so many ill grown and straggling specimens even, in some of our best places. It appears as if there were a determined intention to make the most lovely of Flora's gifts hideous. I am sure there is room for great improvement, and hope we shall see it. A well grown Pe- largonium should not have its stems in sight, 72 CULTURE OF GERANIUMS. but covered by its ample leaves over the pot edo-e ; its heii;ht ouo-ht not to exceed the breadth, including the top of the bundles of flowers. A plant of this form is always pleasing, and certainly far preferable to the naked scarecroivs we too often see. The whole tribe may be propagated from cuttings, portions of the root, or seed. The most common method is by cuttings or slips, which should be performed as follows : When the plants have done flowering, cut them down so as to leave only three or four eyes of the present season's growth, and select for the cuttings any portions which are hard and •woody. These may be cut into lengths of four joints each, — reserving the three upper leaves, but cutting away the lower ones. Then smooth off the lower part of the stem to just below the lower joint. Any shoots that have not flowered, and retain their crown of leaves, may also be cut in the same way and not topped. Choose as cool a place as possible, and shaded from the sun's rays, i^ut into a frame placed there a few inches of sand or sandy loam, make it moderately firm, and insert the cxittings four inches apart, being careful not to put them deeper than the lower joint, or they will be subject to damp off. Give a moderate watering to settle the earth close about them, and leave the frame open till the leaves are dry, when put on the glass, and be careful to give air in close damp weather, particularly at night. "When it is not requisite to propagate every portion of any variety, it is better to throw away the " cutting-down" branches, and wait till the plants have grown four or five joints. By this time the w^eather will be cooler ; besides, the slips will be in a much better state for striking. In this case, thin out the superflu- ous shoots, place them in a frame as above, or in the hot-house, either singly, into three, or four, or five, into five-inch pots. In about three weeks, they will be sufficiently rooted when they may be planted out singly into four-inch pots if robust growers, but weak growers into smaller ones. Propagation by roots may be perform- ed by cutting the roots into pieces, from half an inch to three inches long, and planting them about an inch apart into pots or boxes, placing them in an oblique position, leaving that end cut from nearest to the stock level with the top of the soil, or very little below it. Put them in a gentle hot-bed, when they will soon begin to grow. The process is best performed early in the season, immedi- ately before the plants begin to grow, as the roots then contain most organizable matter, and success is more certain. If performed through the summer mouths, the hot-bed may be dispensed with. This plan is most useful in propagating the more succulent and tender species. As some of them are rather impatient of the kiiife, and the cutting apt to rot, it is also serviceable in the other kinds when speedy increase is the object ; but cuttings of the latter make better plants. Propagation from Seed. — This method is practiced for the production of new varie- ties, and also to perpetuate the more tender and delicate species. In the former case, it is time thrown away unless due care is taken in impregnating the parents, which should be allowed to bloom in an apartment where no other of the same family is located, but the two plants between which the cross is desira- ble. Air should be freely given, or the em- bryo seeds will not swell or come to perfec- tion. They may be sown as soon as ripe. When the first rough leaf is expanded, they may be potted ofl^ singly into three-inch pots ; place them in the shade for a few days, and keep them in the house till they get strong enough to bear the open air. Remove into larger pots as occasion requires, They will flower the following season, when all that are worthless may be thrown out. CULTURE OF GERANIUMS. 73 To cultivate the Pelargonium well in pots, a moderately rich soil is required. Take for the free growing kinds the top three inches, (grass included,) of a free loam pasture, mixed up with one-third well rotted horse or cow manure, and one-sixth rotted leaves, which have lain together twelve months. Do not riddle or sift it, but break the larger lumps with the back of the spade. When potting, after putting in the bottom of the pots an inch or two of crocks, lay some of the decayed turfy and lumpy parts, and fill up with the finer portion ; by so doing, the su- perfluous water can drain away and prevent the soil from becoming sodden. For the weak and tender growing species, use equal por- tions of peat, leaf mould, fresh loam and sand. When the plants have clone flowering, cut them down as above mentioned, place them in a shady place in the open air, and turn the pots on their sides for two or three days, only allowing sufficient moisture to sustain life. This will prevent bleeding, which sometimes takes place, and the escaping sap from run- ning down the branches, which rots them. When they have grown an inch or two long, they may be turned out of the pets, and the old soil shaken from the roots, and all de- cayed parts cut away. Shorten-in the healthy roots a little, and re-pot in the same sized pot — using the above compost ; but if much diseased reduce the size of the pot, and use fresh, turfy, free loam, without any manure until the plant again becomes healthy ; re- place them in the shade for eight or ten days, and place boards or other substitutes under the pots to prevent the ingress of worms ; they may afterwards be placed in an open situation till about the middle of October, when they are to be removed into larger pots, which will serve for blooming in. If fine and abundant bloom is an object, never pot a Pe- largonium in spring ; the plant is thereby thrown into an undue luxuriant state, and the Vol. v. 5 flowers small and few. I again repeat, avoid sharp winds, but admit air freely at every favorable opportunity ; be careful of drip from the roof, and do not water overhead. Care in these points will help away the spot, which sometimes commits such ravages in this tribe. About the middle of February, examine all over, and thin out any superfluous or weak shoots, leaving four or five of the strongest. Provide a quantity of small stakes, and ar- range them equidistant, according to the num- ber of branches round the inner rim of the pot, slanting outwards ; tie the shoots down, one to each stake ; be careful that they do not break off" at the base, as this is easily done. It is well to run the ties through to the op- posite branch before bringing down, which will prevent the base of both opening too wide, when the head may be brought down as low as required without danger. Top the end of V. ach, which will cause them to throw off" side sh( ots and render the jdants bushy. Nothing further is required but occasionally fumigating with tobacco when the green fly (A]ihis) appears — careful watering, and tying the branches as growth proceeds. There is no occasion for a display of sticks, merely sufficient to prevent the plants from breaking down. When spring growth commences, oc- casionally (say once a week,) give a little weak solution of guano, (about one pound to twenty gallons water,) or liquid drainings from a dunghill. Where both are at hand, it is better to use each alternately. Always use these liquid manures in a dear state ; for if nmddy, they clog up the soil and prevent the air from percolating, thereby rendering the whole mass " sodden and sour." To ensure success, the plants must be kept near to the glass, have air abundantly supplied, and, when growing freely, they must never be al- lowed to droop for want of water. Without care in the latter case, the leaves will turn yellow, and the whole plant will present a 74 CULTURE OF GERANIUMS. withered appearance. Remember that plants, and particularly the Pelargonium, are " tell tales" in this respect, and are sure to expose netrligence. In this climate, with right ma- nagement, these plants grow very vigorously, and are correspondingly succulent ; and if the syringe is used too freely, " spot" and rot is the consequence. If the house is dry, and heated by brick flues, it is much better to damp the side walls and floor so as to produce a genial atmosphere. As fcir as my experi- ence goes, I would say never use the syringe in this case. Although it is so essentially requisite for the Pelargonium when growing freely in England, observation teaches me diff"erently here. When the plants begin to open their blooms, the under side of the glass should be coated over with a mixture of whiting and glue, which will readily wash off when required. This is better than canvass blinds, as they produce too much shade, and make the plants grow weak, and the blooms small and deficient in colour. I cannot too much deprecate the common practice of huddling these plants altogether in a corner during the winter and spring months in small pots, and when the weather opens, turning such scrubby things into the flower borders, in rich soil, where they stand like a boy upon stilts, for a while, opening a few meagre flowers ; and when the roots find their way out from their former cramped up abode, the tops grow with over-luxuriance, and if there is any bloom at all produced, it is small and scanty. If it is desirable to have them in the flower garden, turn out healthy plants with good roots into very poor soil, and mulch the top, and very different results will be obtained ; but as most plant houses are thinned out about the time when they begin to flower, I see no reason why they may not be left inside where the flowers will expand in perfection ; and wdiat would otlerwise be an empty space becomes an or- namental feature. Of course, this does not apply to the scarlets, or the strong growing, winter flowering roots. Criterion of a perfect Show Pelar- gonium.— The plant should be of bushy habit, vigorous, but not rampant growth, and disposed to flower freely. The leaves, a glossy dark green, flrm in substance, and well supported by the petiole. The flower stems strong, and sufficiently long to elevate the bundles of flowers above the foliage. The bunches should contain from five to nine flowers, of a thick velvety substance, bright and distinct in colour, the outline forming a perfect circle ; the petals a little cupped, but not so much as to prevent free expansion, with a clear white bottom, — the two upper ones having a decided blotch of a brilliant maroon colour, showing a clear edge of the ground colour ; the outer surface perfectly free from indentation or waviness. The fancy varieties may have the blotch over the whole of the top petals, or likewise in the centre of each of the lower ones, or merely a penciling. The ground colours tolerated in the former class are white, pink or rose, crimson, purple and scarlet ; in the latter, brilliance and dis- tinctness of any shade. The annexed list contains a few of those most worthy of cultivation ; and though some of them are not of the newest, they are never- theless of the best quality. I may here men- tion that all the newest are not the best, though some of them are perfection itself: White. Alpha, (Walker's.) Aiexandriiia. Camilla, (Wilson's.) Chaplel, (Lyiie's.) Eiiclianlress., (AVilson's.) Imosene. (liViic's.) Pearl. (Drurv's ) Queen of Sli'eba, (Wilson's.) Witch, (Garth's.) Puih or Light Rose. Aerial, (Foster's.) Amelia, (Hovle's.) Beauty of Clapliam, (Saun- der's.) Constellation, (Garth's.) Euclid, (Walker's.) Hebe's Lip, (Beck's.) King: of S^axony, (T,yne's.) Merry Monarch, (I,yne's.) Modesty. (Lyne's ) Sir J. NeM'ton, (Wilson's.) Rosy Red or Scarlet. Alladin, (Lyne's.) Auffusta. (iloyle's.) Comte d'Orsay. Duchess of Sutherland, (Gaines'.) Duchess of Leicester, (Gaines' ) Duke of Cornwall. (Lyne's.) Kin? of Saxony, (Gaines'.) Mars. (Garth's'.) The Cid, (Foster's.) FRUIT TREES FOR THE SOUTH. 75 Crimson. Aekbar, (Gauies'.) Ardeiis, (Foster's.) Brilisli Hero, (Noyes'.) Gigantic, (Hancock's.) Mount Etna, (Hoyle s.) Hybla, (Foster's.) Mogul, (Gaines'.) Pompev, (Hovlf's.) Pluto, (Tliurtell's.) Crion. Rising Sun, (Gaines'.) Sunrise, (Lyne's.) Standard of Perfection, (Nich- ols'.) Purple. Agrippina, (Caltleugh's.) Con.-ervative, (Garth's. ) Negress, (Garth's.) Sir'R. Peel, (Foster's.) Sullau, (Garth's.) Fancy. Anais, (Foster's.) Aurora, (Beck's.) Beauty, (Foster's.) Beauty of Wallhamstow, (Pamplin's.) Beaufort Cliief Gipsey, (Foster's.) John. Jessie, (Foster's.) Jewess, (Foster's.) liady Flora Oddity. Painted Lady. Sidonia. Splenii. Trafalgar. Tricolor. Fuique. Victoria. I am yours, most respectfully, Wm. Chorlton, Gardener to J. C. Green, Esq., Staten Islanc FRUIT TREES FOR THE SOUTH. BY W. A. WHITFIELD, SHELBY, MISS. Mr. Editor : — I hope I shall be pardoned in differing from the opinion of Dr. Philips, of Edwards, respecting the adaptability of northern fruits to every portion of the south. Jeffreys is right, so far as this region is concerned, and I should be tempted to tender him my thanks, but that I find myself in the condition of the Iri.shman who discovered the mud-hole himself. I feel confident that Dr. Philips has not learned the result of various attempts to raise fine northern peaches in this vicinity. We have no use fur the varieties mentioned in his article on page 403, includ- ing his favtirite Elmira. Nature has given us an atmosphere in which no foreign peach tree ever yet tried has proved itself profitable. Along the gulf and lake region of ^lississip- pi, within the last eight years, more than 30,- 000 dollars have been expended in procuring, planting and cultivating peach trees brought from northern states, and from the interior re- gion of Mississippi — many from the immedi- ate vicinity of Dr. Philips himself, in the Vicksburg gardens — including 54 varieties, upon every kind of soil; clay, clay-loam, sand, sandy-loam, flint and ferruginous gi-avels, al- luvial and primitive, new and old, poor and fertile, naturally so and made so by art, limed and unlimed, with the trees pruned and un- pruned, cultivated and in grass — and all — all, without one solitary exception, have failed. utterly failed, to the no small discomfiture of those who had built castles in the air ujion the proceeds of fine northern peaches sold in the neighboring market at sis dollars per do- zen. Thus, sir, the work of seven or eight years — trees mammoth in size, are being con- tinually hewed down, to give place to the more profitable seedling of the country. The history of all foreign* trees is the same. First year — If the tree has formed fruit buds l)efore its removal, and has suffi- cient root with a favorable spring, it will ma- ture tolerably well two, three or half a dozen peaches, well flavored and of medium size. Time of blooming, from middle of February till middle of March ; makes extraordinary growth. Second year — Blooms from six weeks to two months later — sets well, but without leaves to pi-otect the fraits from the burning suns of May — it all drops ofi". I have seen a few hold on for two weeks after the time of ripening at Vicksburg — 200 miles north of this — but what was there a fine, luscious peach, four inches in diameter, is here a mi--;- erable drivel, from the size of your thumb to an inch in diameter. We ought not to expect fruit here the middle of June, from trees which will not bloom until the first of May. I believe, however, Mr. Editor, our coun - * Foreign distinguished from Creole. 76 NOTES ON CHERRIES. try is well adapted to the growing of fine peaches. We only want the proper varieties. Where can we get them from ? We must raise them from seed. We have the Creole peach here — some well flavored and of good color, but Liliputian in size ; with others large enough to please the eye of the giant of Brobdignag, but coarse and ill flavored. I should like very much, to get seeds from sev- eral northern orchards. I want choice seeds. I believe in like producing like. From whom can I get ? I should like to procure cherry and plum stones, also. One word about grape vines. I found no difficulty in grafting them early in the sprin . 3Iy plan is, to cut ofi" in the winter, and cleft graft ; or in very large stocks, I split only the bark of the stock, and sloping my graft, press it in, and secure with a small thread. If it bleeds, wrap all for a short distance with old cotton rags, above and below the wound ; ap- ply the wax quite warm, so as to make the whole air tight. One of my finest vines this year, was one from accident left without wax or ties. A second one has a fine bunch of grapes. Yours, very respectfully, W. A. Whitfield. Shelby, Bay of St. Louis, Miss., June 15, 1850. NOTES ON CHERRIES. T. Eeine Hortense. — A French cherry, of considerable reputation, lately introduced into this country. It has fruited here this year, and is quite a distinct variety. It be- longs to the Duke class of cherries, but ripens about the height of the cherry season. The flavor is slightly sub-acid, like the May Duke. This variety is remarkable for its long and slender stalk, (measuring a little more than 2^ inches in length,) and the oval shape of the fruit. The skin is pale red and semi- trausparent — the suture distinctly marked by a dark line, without any depression ; the flesh tender, juicy, and of agreeable flavor ; and the stone (unless the fruit is very ripe) ad- lieres to the stalk. The pit is also of a long- ovjtl figure. This variety will, we think, be n)ore valuable at the west, from its hardiness, joined to other good qualities, than here, where all the other sorts flourish so well. II. Roberts' Bed Heart. — In our work on Fruits, we have not done justice to this cherry, which originated in Salem, Mass. It is remarkable for productiveness, for good flavor, and for uniformly bearing a good crop. The following is an accurate description of the fruit : A heart cherry : fruit of medium size, and roundish heart shape ; skin of a pale amber ground, but nearly overspread with pale red, mottled with deeper red, and with some pale amber specks. Suture quite distinct. Flesh white, juicy, sweet, and well flavored. Stalk long and slender, set in a depression of moderate depth. A very prolific bearer. Ripens last of June. III. Champagne. — A . , -in 1 Fi?- 17.— Roberts^ Red new variety, raised irom seed Heart. by Mr. C. Downing, of Newburgh. It is a very distinct variety ; and after waiting four years to satisfy ourselves of the constancy of its good qualities, we do not hesitate to say that it will prove one of the most valuable standard cherries. It is neither very large nor strikingly handsome ; but it has the great CRIST'S MOLE TRAP. 77 merits of being very hardy, a great and regu- lar bearer, and of withstanding all the vicis- situdes of rotting and blight, which destroy many tine cherries about the time of ripening. In flavor, the Champagne is peculiar, — nei- ther quite sweet or sour, but that lively min- gling of the two which suggested its name. It should be remarked, however, that the fruit is not ripe when it first appears so ; but should be allowed to hang on the tree, (as it will without rotting,' until perfectly matur- ed, when it is very sprightly and excel- lent ; and is preferred by many who have tast- ed it to all other cher- ries. The Champagne cher- ry has the excellent Fig."is:==cv^»;p«gn<: c/,.m/. habits, as regards health and productiveness, of Downer's Red ; one of the best of cherries for general culture in the United States — pro- bably because it originated in this country. In other words, while a person may have a tree of either Champagne or Downer's cher- ries, and be certain of a large crop of valua- ble fruit every season, he may not gather 50 cherries from a tree of many of the Heart or Bigarreau cherries per annum fur many years, — either by reason of the frosts in spring, or damp weather at the time of ripening. Fruit of medium size, roundish heart-shape, but always slightly angular or one-sided. Colour lively brick red, inclining to pink — a little paler on the shaded side. Stalk of moderate length and size, inserted in a rather flat, shallow depression. Flesh amber colour- ed, of a lively rich flavor — a mingling of su- gar and acid — something between Downer's Late and a Duke cherry. A most abundant bearer, and ripens very imiformly, maturing about the 20th of June, and hanging a long while on the tree. IV. Downing's Red Cheek. — This cher- ry, also raised in the establishment of our brother, some years ago, and described in our work on Fruits, proves to be one of the most beautiful and delicious of its class. It is far handsomer as well as more tender and sweet than the Bigarreau or Grafiion, which it some- what resembles ; and it will, we think, sup- plant that variety, when its merits are more generally known. A DESCRIPTION OF CRIST S MOLE TRAP. BY J. B., NAZARETH, PA. This newly invented trap consists of a frame, composed of two uprights, a a, about 22 inch- es high, joined by a top board, h — the whole fastened on a foot or base cC c. ^ is a heavy piece of scantling or block, which by means of grooves is guided along the uprights up and down. In the lower part of the block are inserted a number of sharp steel pins, about seven inches long in the clear. In the part C, of the foot-board, is attached a small piece of thin board in the manner of a pedal of a piano forte, which, when the trap is set, crosses the passage of the mole, /"is a wood- en latch, suspended by a wire from the cross piece of the frame, and terminating with a wire hook, g, at the lower end, somewhat flattened. In the upper part of the latch is cut a notch or shoulder, (z,) as a rest for the pin block when the trap is set. Set the trap lengthwise over the passage THE CALCEOLARIA. draw the block up and fasten it by tbe wire hook, /.-, to prevent accident co the trapper ; h Fiff. 19.— CWif'i Mole Trap. place the apparatus over the passage of the mole in such a manner that when the block falls it will come exactly in the middle of the passage. The ground under the trap in the passage should be taken out, and the bottom levelled, and the sides padded and made hard. The ground taken out should be freed from obstructions, and placed again loose in the passage; but before this is done, the block should be tried if it operates well, and falls right in the passage. Then hang the hook of the latch into a similar hook, projecting upwards from the pedal, so that they may separate upon the slightest touch, by the lift- ing of the ground on either side by the mole, which in an instant brings down the block and pierces the animal through. J. B. Nazareth, Pa., June 21, 18.50. THE CALCEOLARIA— ITS VARIETIES AND CULTURE. BY GEORGE GLEXNV.* [As this exceedingly pretty and unique ge- nus is just beginning to attract general atten- tion in the United States, we give the follow- ing article, from the best authority in Eng- land, regarding its culture. To those who cannot get plants, we may remark that num- berless varieties of Calceolarias may be raised from a single paper of the seeds, now to be had of the principal seedsmen ; and there are few more beautiful ornaments to the green- house, from April to mid-summer, than the many varieties so obtained. We have had a number of beautiful specimens sent us in April by that distinguished amateur, Mr. Becar of Brooklyn, N. Y., which have been in bloom for two months or more. Ed.] Some species of the Calceolaria have been cultivated for years in the English gardens, ]put their elevation to the dignity of a florist's flower is of comparatively recent date. Messrs. Young and Penny have the doubtful credit of making the first move in hybridizing some * From the London llorlieultural Magazine. of opposite characters ; and Mr. Clroom made early progress in collecting and selling some of the most remarkable. It is most likely that the work of hybridizing, as it is called, Fig. 20. — The Calceolaria. was going on simultaneously in several places, for there were many very singular, and, look- ing as we always do at the habit of plants, we may say beautiful varieties, offered about the same period, retaining all the shrubby proper- ties, and possessing many brilliant colours. THE CALCEOLARIA. 79 Perhaps the worst thing that ever occurred ia the progress of this plant towards perfec- tion, was the awarding of prizes to herbace- ous varieties, as well as shrubby khids ; for it induced people to grow both, and led to a degeneration of both. Wg have always main- tained that the shrubby ones only deserve tlie distinction of florists' flowers ; and it is now difficult to find, even among those ho- nored with prizes, anything like a good habit of jilant. Tlie hcrbacecus varieties give us the largest flowers ; and the captivatiou of size with peojde who do not study all the pro- perties of plants, led too many to encourage the herbaceous kinds for that property only. Mr. Green, gardener to Sir Edmund Antro- bus, was the first and most successful exhi- bitor of this elegant subject ; and the enor- mous flowers on some of his herbaceous va- rieties, comj letely riveted the attention of those whose taste, or want of taste, induced them to value flowers by measure. Mr. Green, so far as our observations went, was as completely in advance with calceolarias, as Mr. Thom|ison of Tver was Avith pansies ; and a spirit of emulation led others to buy his best sorts, and set to work with seedlings themselves. It is well known in the floricul- tural world, that our standard of excellence is a perfectly round flower, on a completely shrubby plant ; and the novelties are now principally estimated by that standard, though there is much to do before it can be obtained, even should it ever be accomjdished. Still, as herbaceous varieties, and the plants par- taking of that habit, afi"ord the largest blooms, it is difficult to make many judges pay suffi- cient attention to the superior merit of shrub- by plants. The colours and the markings of the calceolaria are becoming exceedingly nu- merous ; and, within the last two years, they have been diverted from their general charac- teristic in an extraordinary manner, and from speckles and blotches of all forms and sizes, they have produced blossoms with stripes like a carnation, ramifying from the hollow which is at the top, like rays from a centre, to the outer edge. The chief blemishes of these have been a dulness and indefiniteness in their colours and stripes. Nevertheless, there is no doubt, like all other subjects taken up in earnest, they will be improved; they have, too, the prevailing fault of deep notches in the outline. The herbaceous kinds are what florists technically call "miffy," a term de- noting easily killed or damaged by mis- management. The shrubby ones are more hardy and easily managed. We succeeded well for some years by the following treat- ment : Soil. — The compost we used was clean hazel loam, which, when ordinarily damp, but not wet, we could squeeze into a mass, and lay it down on the potting table without breaking, but which a pressure of the finger would crumble again readily. To two parts of this, we put one of leaf mould, one of mould formed by a rotten melon bed of stable dung, and one of Wimbledon peat — this being merely lumps of half decomposed wiry fibre and sandy earth, was rubbed through a coarse sieve, such as would let horse beans through. The loam, and dung, and leaf mould were sifted through the same sieve, and the whole well amalgamated, and often turned for some time. It should be mentioned, perhaps, that all these should be measured after the}' have been passed through the sieve, for one of them may have, and the peat especially, a good deal left behind, which would, of course, considerably aff"ect the proportions. This soil is not too retentive of moisture ; and then re- quires that all plants grown in it should be very carefully watched and watered. When the soil is required for repotting large plants, or to grow them with very large shifts from small to large pots, the sieve used may be coarser, large enough in the mesh to let a marble through. Some cultivators were using at the same time, and with equal success, three instead of two parts of loam ; but very much depends on the (luality of the loam, which, if heavier or of a more tenacious character than we have mentioned, should be rather lessened in quantity. Choice of Plants. — As there is no me- thod of choosing plants ecjual to that of se- lecting those in bloom, the following points should be attended to as much as possible. First, that the plant be of shrubby habit, the stems oeing woody and well clothed with foli- age, branching well, and forming a bushy shrub on a small scale. Secondly, that the flower stems should not rise too high al ove the foliage, for it would be desirable that no bare stalks should be seen between the leafy shrub and the flowers. Thirdly, that the flowers should .have footstalks of such length 80 THE CALCEOLARIA. as to display the bloom to advantage, without being crowded or too far apart. Fourthly, that the" flowers should be smooth and full, like a small distended bladder, not flattened, nor indented like a melon, perfectly round in the outline, whichever way it is viewed. Fifthly, that the colors should be bright or dense, which gives richness; that any marks or blotches should be well defined, and the ground color as good at the back as the front. Sixthly, that so far as is consistent with these points, the largest flowers should be chosen. But with regard to the roundness and freedom from indenture, so large a majority of the present varieties are deficient in these re- spects, that all we can do is to pick those which are the most round and least indented, and be satisfied with those that are the near- est to the standard we require. This selec- tion should be made without regard to names or price, for, like the varieties of many other subjects, the dearest are not by any means al- ways the best. If, however, we desire plants before they bloom, the onl}^ points we can choose are those which relate to the habit of the plant, which, if handsome when small will rarely grow worse as it increases in size. We may consult the last published authority for the best names, or take the recommendation of a respectable florist, (and we ought never to deal with any other,) for the number we require, first letting him perfectly understand the points we wish to secure. Nor must we be disappointed if the collection contain some which approach our standard at a very hum- ble distance. The Garden Almanac for 1847 gives us a list of the best new ones : — Mas- terpiece, Puissant, Julia, Emperor, Oscar, Lord Hardinge, Marmion, Marquetry, Match- less, Orlando, and Plant's Carnation stripes, and there is no doubt they are the best exhi- bited ; but some of them are mentioned for their color, some for their habits, some for their form, and some for their novelty. There are older ones which equal them, such as the Mr. Kinghorn's best half dozen, and Mr. Standish's best three or four, which may be had, as well by that distinction, as by their names. These plants, obtained early in the spring, will be best retained in their pots un- til their fibres reach the side ; or if, on exam- ining them, their balls are at all full of roots, they should be at once sifted. Repotting or Shifting. — Procure pots one or two sizes larger than those the plants are in ; for instance, if they are in the pots called large sixties, they maybe shifted either to the size called forty-eights, or the next size, called thirty-twos. We, for the sake of their taking less room, prefer only one size larger, and should use forty-eights. Give the new pots some broken potsherds or crocks at the bottom, say an inch or inch and a half deep ; then put enough compost in the pot to bring the ball even with the top of the pot without pressing. If the roots have grown about the crocks in the original pot, do not disturb them to hurt the roots ; but when the ball is turned out, rub off the soil from the top surface a little, but not enough to disturb the fibres ; then set it in the centre of the pot into which it is to be placed, press it down a little into the soil already there, so that the collar of the plant is just below the level of the top edge of the pot ; with the hand fill up the vacancy all round, shaking it gently down by knocking the bottom of the pot down on the potting table or bench, and, if necessary, gently pressing it down at the sides, by a piece of stick of a proper thickness, not to touch the fibres which are round the outside of the ball; then, placing a little of the compost on the top, which should be about as high as the edge of the pot, finishes the operation. The plant should be placed in a cold pit, or even a common garden frame, on a dry bot- tom, impervious to wet, so that the water that runs through the pots will not soak into the ground, but run off altogether; and they should be covered with the lights close for two or three days, being first watered gently, but thoroughly, to settle the earth to the roots. If the frame be like those for the cul- ture of ordinary melons and cucumbers, only one board thick, it will be as well to heap up earth all round, like a bank, providing, how- ever, by some means, for the running ofi" of the superabundant water ; and the greatest care must be taken to cover them from frost and cold winds, with matting or transparent cloths ; for the plant, though half-hardy, will be easily damaged with frost, if in a growing state, and cannot be too carefully guarded against it, although it requires no heat. Ma- ny who have a green-house, place them on some of the shelves, in preference to growing them in pits ; but, where there is so much space, there is more danger of frost, unless THE CALCEOLARIA. 81 artificial heat be given in hard weather ; and the Calceolaria does not thrive so well, nor grow so handsome in heat ; they are apt to draw, and it is the very last plant that should be at all drawn, on account of its spoiling the habit and aj)pearance, and weakening the flower stems. It is necessary to keep them near the glass, and it is almost impossil)le to have them too near. Besides, plants in frames or pits are so well under the eye, and we can see so much better v ''en they require water. Watering and (Iiving Air. — Although the Calceolaria is, with cai-e, among the easi- est managed subjects, that care must not be withheld, for it is the most liable to dam- age by the least neglect. Too much water will damp them off cjuickly ; too little Avill destroy them, or hand them over to the red spider, which almost instantaneously attacks an unhealthy plant. The compost should ne- ver become dry, and, except when the plants are growing rapidly, not too often watered ; there is never, or at any rate, there is rarely, sufficient attention paid to this important operation. It is almost destructive to omit watering one hour longer than the time they ought to have it. In mild weather the lights should be taken off; and this is the time when, if the weather be dry, the moisture rapidly passes off and requires renewal. On the other hand, in cloudy or dull, though mild weather, the moisture may be retained for a long time. It should never be thought too much trouble to turn out a plant, to examine the state of the soil and the roots. The great- est danger of suffering from wet is in the winter and early spring months. The greatest danger of suffering from want of water is after the spring growth commences in earnest, and the flower stems begin their work ; for the plant takes up a good deal of moisture, and the roots get near the side of the pot. If the weather be very foggy or damp, the frames are better covered up with the glasses quite close, but not darkened with mats or cloth, unless there is frost, or danger of it. The frames should not be opened in windy weather, unless the air be mild. In the S] ring months, if there be a genial shower, the lights may be removed, that the plants may have the benefit of it. One precaution is very neces- sary in the application of water ; it always ought to bo of fully equal temperature with the atmosphere ; and, if it be not so naturally, which is seldom the case, unless it be exposed to the sun in shallow vessels, it ought to be made so by putting a little warm water into the water-pot, so as to raise the tempera- ture a little. Water kept in a heated house would do ; but there is no way so simple as to put a little heated water to the cjuantity you are using. Many plants suffer greatly from the chill given by pump and other cold water, when they are sending forth their young growth. Shading. — As the warm days advance, the full power of the sun would be injurious to the plants, and rapidly dry up and heat the soil in the pots. To prevent this, a thin or trans- parent cloth should be used, that will not ex- clude the light, but yet keep off the power of the sun ; as the plants however want air. (he glasses should be propped up at all four cor- ners, with blocks of wood, or bricks, or flower pots, or some other contrivance which will al- low the air to pass freely over all the plants ; and the shading is only to be continued in the strongest heat of the day. At morning and evening, when the power is not great, they may have the benefit of it with the glasses off, until the period when the color of the flowers begins to show, when they must be still more carefully protected against the sun. Treatment to the Time of Blooming. — In the spring, when the plants begin to grow, the pots rapidly fill with roots, and it will be necessary to examine them, by turning out the balls of two or three occasionally, to see how far they may require shifting to larger pots, from 48s to 32s. The operation has to be performed in a manner precisely similar to that of the first shift from 60s to 48s, and they must be treated in all respects the same. In a comparatively short time even these will be filled with roots ; if the plants, from their size, require one shift more, the state of the roots must be examined as before recom- mended, and the shifting will be just the same as well as the treatment afterwards. As the stems rise for bloom they may require support, but proper habited plants will not, unless they are drawn up. If, however, for the purpose of traveling or for exhibition, tying up be- comes necessary, it should be done with very slight twigs of osier, with the bark on, and as soon as the flowers begin to swell and take their places in their bunches : the twig should reach above the flowers and be tied loosely, 82 THE CALCEOLARIA. for the stems would grow, and if confined, would be bent, unless the tie were loose enough to slip up with the growth. As the blooms develope themselves, it is the fashion to put the plants in a house, but shading and plenty of air must be attended to as usual, and plenty of water must be given. According to the size of the plants, so must the pots be increased in size as fast as the roots fill up the old ones; and a continuance of watering, giving air, and shading will bring them to perfection. Seeds and Seedlings.— The plants des- tined for seeding should be placed toge- ther in the open ground, or in a pit which can be altogether uncovered when necessary. If it be intended to fertilize one particvilar kind with another, take a camel's hair pencil, to collect the dust of the one, and brush the pistil of the other with the camel's hair pencil, and the dust will stick to the female organ of the plant ; but it is far better to place such as are considered good together in one place, and let them fertilize themselves. Cover them against excessive rains, because they are im- favorable to the seeding of any thing, but in an ordinary season they will seed plentifully ; and all that is necessary is to place none for seed that have not any distinct characters, and very desirable ones, so that any kind of mix- ture may bring two good properties together in one flower, which are at the beginning in two separate ones. The seed must be gathered carefully as it approaches ripeness, and the pods be placed in a paper under cover, where it will not be prematurely laid by in a damp or unripe state. It is better to gather it before it actually turns brown, because it ri]3ens as Avell for a week on the stems cut off, when once it is full grown, as it would on the plant. When once dried well, it may be sowed in pans or boxes, or large-mouthed pots, thinly and evenly, and be placed in the green-house, or in the pit, and covered with a bell glass luitil it comes up ; providing at all times for sufiicient moisture to prevent the seed from drying again after having swelled. It should also be shaded from the heat of the sun. Upon the whole, the seed, when sown, would be better in a green-house, covered however, with a hand or bell glass, and kept merely a little moistened by watering with a very fine rose or a patent syringe, for the water should fall in very fine pai tides like dew, as the seed would be dis- placed by it. When the seeds come up they should be carefully shaded, and the glass should be taken ofl' by day, and put on again at night. A simple and effective shade is to merely cover the side of the glass next the sun with a piece of paper ; it keeps oiF the bright and burning heat without materially affecting the light. When the plants fairly set off grow- ing, the bell or hand glass may be removed altogether ; and as soon as the plants are large enough to handle, they may be pricked out, in wide-mouthed pots, an inch apart, beginning a row close to the edge and working inwards ; a pot will hold a good many plants this way. After a very gentle watering with a fine rose or syringe, they should be covered with a glass and placed within sight near the window in the green-house or in the pit ; the glass must be kept over them until they have fairly estab- lished themselves, when it may be taken off, and they may grow until they pretty well touch each other. When they have become strong, and the foliage nearly covers the pot, they may be placed one each in the large 60 size pots, and be set in a frame, and after wa- tering them, to settle the compost about their roots, they may be shut up close for a day of two; they must be now shaded from the violent heat of the sun for a while, but when they have once got hold again, and established their roots, all the care required is to see they are well and frequently watered in hot weather. They will show their habits very early, and if we were growing them we should throw away all that showed they were her- baceous, for to say the truth, we do not value them more than we should a single pink or a double pol3'anthus. If the pots fill with roots towards the winter time, the changing to larger ones had better be deferred to the period at which they begin to grow again, as they can hardl}^ be kept better than at rest during the severe weather, if there be any. As the early spring approaches, they may be all shif- ted into 48 sized pots ; or if there are more than can be conveniently grown in pots, they may be held back, or a portion of the least promising habits may be held back, to bed out or put in the borders. The treatment, in short, of the seedling plants when once thej have been raised, up to the filling of the small pots, may be assimilated to that already given for other plants. Selecting from Seedlings. — We can- not do better than refer the reader back to THE CALCEOLARIA. 83 the instructions for the choice of plants when in flower ; for as he would pick from the stock of others for his own garden, so ought he to select from the stock of seedlings such as are worth cultivation, and throw or give all the rest away. Indeed, as the flowers come out, all that are good for nothing should be cast out the instant they are discovered, that they may not spoil the seed of the better ones by inoculation. Treatment op Plants after bloom. — The branches should be cut back a little into form, the useless or thin wiry shoots cut out, the i»lants cleansed, the top surface of the com- post stirred and thrown out, and a fresh top- dressing put on. They may stand in their frames, receiving pretty nearly all the weather, except the most violent of the rains and east winds, until September, when they must be deprived of more wet than is absolutely necessary, and be secured against frost. As the plants enlarge, they will require other pots, but they may enjoy a period of com- parative rest from the end of October till they make a fresh move in the early spring ; however, plants of good shrubby habits do not actually stop growing at all. Before they are shut up for the winter, the surface should be stirred, the loose mould shook oif, and the pots filled up level ; they will scarcely want watering all the winter, unless it be unusually bright and warm. Spring Shifting. — The established plants and seedlings alike require to be removed to larger pots as soon as there are any symptoms of nuxking new growth, that is, jjresuming the pots are full of fibres, or at least tliat these have reached the side. The sized pots in which they are to be placed must depend on the size they are removed from ; from 60s to 48s, from 48s to 32s, from 32s to 24s, from 24s to IGs, and 16s to 12s, which is large enough to car- ry a very handsome, well-grown specimen. The mode of shifting has been described. Cuttings. — In going over all the plants, to see that there are no useless shoots left on, many will be found that may be removed, by merely breaking them ofi" from the base ; very small ones will answer all the purposes of pro- pagation. Those who require many will grow a few plants pretty hard after blooming, to in- duce shoots on purpose to take ofi", but any small pieces will strike readily in the ordinary compost, with a quarter of an inch of silver sand at top. The cuttings must be put in so as to touch the compost, but not to go into it, and the sand will always protect them from the air by working down close every time it is watered. They should be covered Avith a bell glass, that touches all around the inside of the edge of the pot ; but as most cuttings strike more readily when placed close round the edge, so as to touch the pot, it is better to fill a pot with cuttings all round the edge, and to place this pot inside another, with a good inch of room all round ; the bell glass resting upon the soil, which must be filled in between the two pots. The object of the glass is to exclude drafts of air, and prevent evaporation from taking place too rapidly. A slight bottom heat will facilitate the striking, but the glass nuist be wiped dry inside every day, and the soil kept moist, for if once the cut- tings become dry, they would stand a poor chance of recovering. In a few weeks the cuttings will begin to grow, which is a pretty sa"e indication of their having struck, and when they have acquired some strength of root, they may be potted off" carefully, one in each pot, which nuiy be the smallest or thumb pot, or the first recognized size, small 60s. They should be closed up in a frame a day or tv.o, and flien submitted to the treatment already described for plants brought in, which, with some varieties, are rarely more than a struck cutting in the first separate pot. The kinds to select. — A very minute descrij.tion of each separate variety would have a great degree of sameness ; for the va- riety is occasioned by the different shapes of the spots as much as anytliing. ^Ve thei'efore give a list of the sorts we should buy to begin with, and sliould then be content to take in addition any tliat appeared better in blooming time, but none that were worse : — Lady Anne Charteris, Professor "\Vilson, Duchess of Sutherland, Kinghornii, Lady Blantyre, Celebration, Lady Constable, Stan- dishii. Masterpiece, Puissant, Julia, Emperor, Oscar, Lord Hardinge, Marmion, JMarqnetry, Matchless, Orlando, and Plant's Carnation Stripes ; which last is a singular strain, en- tirely run away from all the others. The Properties of the Calceolaria. — The plant should be shrubby ; the halat bushy ; the wood strong ; the foliage thick and dark green. The flower-stem should be short and strong; 84 FOREIGN NOTICES. and the foot-stalks of the blooms classic, and brandling well away from each other, to form a rich mass of flowers without crowding. The individual flower depends entirely on the form of the purse ; it should be a perfect round hollow ball ; the orifice and calyx can- not be too small, nor the flower too large. The color should be very dense; whether the marking be a spot in the middle, or stripes, or blotches, it should be well defined ; the ground should be all one color, whether white, straw, sulphur, yellow, or any other color The color of a self should be brilliant, and all over of the same actual shade ; dark flow- ers with pale edges, or clouded and indefinite colors, are bad and unfit for show. The bloom should form one handsome bunch of pendent flowers, commencing where the foliage leaves ofl"; the flower-stem should not be seen between the foliage and the flow- er, which latter should hang gracefully', and be close to each other ; the branches of the flower-stems holding them so as to form a handsome spreading surfac-e. The Market Gardens Round London, by James Cuthill, Florist, Camberwell. — Covent Garden, the head market of this great metropo- lis, has long been celebrated for the finest fruits, vegetables, and flowers in the world, being dif- ferent now from the time when the poor German gardener settled on a piece of land near the Mon- ster public house. Chelsea, on the lands of the Westminster family. This man bought dung where he could find it, and put it on his ground. The landlord brought an action against him; "but," says the landlord, " as you are an indus- trious man, I shall forgive you if you will promijse me never to poison my land any more, by putting such filthy stuff" on it." The market gardenei-s round London from time to time have been stimu- lated by receiving large prices for their articles, from living in the vicinity of such wealth. It being the head-quarters of the government of this mighty empire of a hundred millions of people, can it be doubted that the most extravagant prices could be obtained in Covent Garden market? For dung the carter is allowed 2s. 6d. for a single load, and for waggons 5s, I have known many coachmen in the Mews at the west end, that were obliged to give those carters 6d., 9d., and Is., to clear the manure away. These men have long hours; but between wages, which are from 15s. to 20s. weekly, and the buying of manure, their wages sometimes reach 30s. per week. A coun- try person will hardly believe me when I tell him that nine cart and waggon loads of vegetables have been brought by one grower, the celebrated Messrs. Fitch, of Fulham, off their 100 acres of land, and all sold in Covent Garden by Mr. Fitch by 9 o'clock in the same morning. Those men once sent in a four-horse waggon of scarlet Ten- weeks Stock, ail pulled up by the roots, and in full bloom; they were sold by 7 o'clock in the morning, an.d fetched 301.; but it did not pay the expenses, and was discontinued another year. Sixty pounds have been obtained for an acre of cabbages, and upwards of 1001. for an acre of rhubarb, and more for asparagus, 1401. for an acre of white Cos lettuce, 1501. for an acre of strawberries, 84c. I have myself taken 301. for 15 rods of ground of early potatoes in the open ground, managed as I have directed in my pam- phlet: 10s. for a cucumber, and 20s. for a melon, 2s. an ounce for forced strawberries, and 25s. for forced grapes per pound. I have also taken 6s. a pound for early strawberries, in the open ground, upon early borders. The above prices seem high, but the expenses are enormous. Mr. Fitch, of Fulham, has told me that his 100 acres have some years cost him, everj-thing included, very nearly 40001. The above prices cannot any longer be maintained ; an immense change has taken place since free trade and railroads have been in- troduced. The change is fearful upon the old market gar- deners— thej- cannot understand it. They little think how many fresh market gardens have sprung up in all directions, and along the lines of rail- ways— land at 30s. an acre instead of 101., labor low, railway carriage cheap, and everything else in proportion. And again, all those families that used to consume the London grown article, now have their own garden produce sent bj' railvvav. They little think, also, that railways and steam- boats are continually emptying London on the Sundavs. and all other times, by the tens of thou- FOREIGN NOTICES. 85 sands, to eat the fruits and vegetables of country gardens. Tliat was not the case a few years back. However hard it may be for those near London who are high rented and most severely taxed, yet it is a great and decided change for the general benefit of mankind. Railroads have given one great advantage in the early spring to the London growers. Having the climate in their favor, they send a great deal of their vegeta- bles northwards — as early potatoes, peas, French beans, cauliflowers, rhubarb, melons, cucumbers, and other finer sorts of fruits and vegetables. The foreign articles do not hurt our markets in the vegetable line, because being grown in a warmer climate, they come in long before we do, and bv the time our early potatoes, cauliflowers, peas, French beans, &c., are in, the foreigners' early crop is over, or at least it would not pay them to contend against us, unless in cucumbers, and they are bad. As for Dutch melons, no one of refined taste will eat them. The foreign grow- ers have hurt our fruit trade to an immense de- gree— such as apples, pears, plums, cherries, apricots, &c. As for Dutch grapes, they look beautiful, but are tough, and tliree seasons out of four tasteless. The middle classes in and round London cannot afford themselves strawberries more than a few timeS; and that only vvlicn a great crop is in full bearing. When a (jottie is sold by the cultivators at Gd., the weight of which is three-qnarlers of a pound, tlie grower gels only 3d., and after paying 4d. for the potlle, and 101. an acre, with all other expenses, the straw- berry grower is but poorly paid. Much more could be said about the market gardening of Lon- don; but the conclusion wo must come to is, that it consists in continual dunging, trenching, dig- ging, sowing, hoeing, planting, taking the pro- duce to market, bringing home money and dung, paying for labor, taxes, and breakage. I shall not disregard skill altogether, but dung is the very founlaiu-licad — it is the gold in a half-formed state; and from the immense profits returned, it stimulates to the use of still more manure, till at last the ground is almost a hot-bed. The crops are no sooner planted than they find their food at once, and their growth is rapid and fine. This will explain why a London gardener can get up acres of turnips where farmers fail. Rotation, no doubt, is good in all crops where the land is poor, but as I have grown potatoes these ten years upon the same ground, and every year the crop increases, I for one care little about ro- tation. The market gardeners of London could bring the early produce in mucli sooner by forming beds, the perpendicular part facing the north, the bed sloping to the south, as I have practiced myself years ago in a stiff" soil, and light, too; and with the protection of glass over these beds, as recom- mended in the Gardeners' Chronicle for peaches, apricots, and nectarines, they might almost bid defiance to the foreign grower. With the assis- tance of glass and the slopes together, they would certainly be equal to the gardens round Paris. Without protection of glass we can prolong fruits and vegetables out of doors without any loss, but what is most wanted is early fruits and vegeta- bles at a cheap rate, which can only be effected by some cheap process such as has been recom- mended above. I am about to publish a pamphlet on twelve of the leading and most useful plants and vegetables. I have proposed an entirely new- plan of growing asparagus and sea-kale, and if carried out properly, the million will partake of those most delicious vegetables which at present they never taste. Jlbrid^ed from the Maidstone Journal for the Gardeners' Chronicle. Brewing at Home. — Though an admirer of teetotallers, and always recommending, when practicable, the habit of drinking cold water, still, as there are some people who cannot work with- out the assistance of a glass of beer, and many others Vf ho fancy they cannot do so, I, therefore, think neither time nor space will be wasted if I make a few remarks on " brewing at home." I dare say such a sentence will frighten many, and they will immediately exclaim, " Brew at home, impossible ! I have neither coppers, cool- ers, mash-tubs, nor any of the hundred-and-one articles necessary for such an operation." Never mind, do not throw obstacles in our path, but read, learn, and practice ! I must, however, tell yau at starting, that it will cause extra trouble to the wife; but I am very sure there are few, if anv, amongst the " wives and daughters of old Eng- land" who will grudge a little exertion when once they feel that by so exerting themselves they will benefit their husbands, children, and, consequently, themselves. And now let us see wherein the be- nefit of brewing at home lies. In the first place it increases your comforts, in the second place it saves time, and thiidly it saves money — three very material points; but still, more than this, it removes many tempta- tions out of a man's path. The habit of going to a public house, if only for one glass of beer, has been the occasion of many an after pang, many a heavy heart. That constant habit of even fetch- ing your beer from the public house must waste much time, even if not tempted to drink it in the house instead of at home. Very often a child is sent to fetch it, and thus the young mind becomes early habituated to the sound of oaths and jests which every parent ought so carefully to screen their children from hearing; for who can tell the misery which arises from early acquaintance with vice? Early impressions take deep root, whether good or evil, and our hearts being so prone to sin, the evil habit which is imbibed with our early youth is more difficult to eradicate than the good ; therefore, how studiously should each pa- rent watch over the soul's welfare of his child, 86 FOREIGN NOTICES. and not place him in scenes where he knows " sins a.bound." I am sure, as I said before, when this is taken into consideration, trouble will not be withheld, but many will willingly try a plan which is likely lo place temptation a little farther from their threshhold. I will now tell you the articles necessary for brewing at home. Every cottage owns a large saucepan — one that holds about three gallons is a good size J this will answer the purpose of a cop- per. A tub will be the utensil for working the beer in; and if you cannot conveniently buy a small mash-tub, bore a hole in the bottom of a pail to allow the liquor to run slowly through. These three things are all that are really neces- sary; and now, as to the materials of the beer. Those who have been accustomed to drink brew- er's beer will not, perhaps, at first like the pure malt and hops; their taste, however, will soon improve; or if not, the}- will find by adding to every two bushels of malt the following ingredi- ents, they will obtain beer very similar to what they have always drunk: — " 31bs. su^ar, boiled up once in a very little water, with one pennyworth of coriander seed, and one pennyworth of capsi- cum.'" Malt must be carefully chosen, the amber coloured is the best. It should not be ground, but merel)' crushed. Hops should be new; when good, they have a yellowish green colour. Soft water should be used,,. if possible, for brewing; and every article must be most scrupulously clean. I will suppose you wish to brew six gallons of beer, and for that quantity you must have a pot which will contain four gallons of water. Have read}- in your mash-tub one peck of crushed malt (be careful to have the hole in the tub stopped.) When the water nearly bolls, pour it on to the malt, stir it well for ten minutes, cover the pail over with a thick sack or piece of wood, and place it by the fire for two hours. Hold the pail over the tub, draw out the peg, and let the liquor run. Stop the hole again, and add to the malt two gallons more of nearly boiling water, cover as before, and set by the fire for an hour. Put the first strained liquor into the copper or pot, and add four ounces of good hops ; boil for twenty minutes; strain it into a tub; return the hops to the pot, and add the second addition of wort, which has been standing by the fire; boil this half an hour; strain and cool this as you did the first; when lukewarm mix them together, and stir in | of a pint of yeast. Skim it frequently during the day, and when it has stood twenty-four hours in the tub, put it into a cask; leave the bung-hole open as long as any yeast rises, but when the fermentation is over, hammer the bung tightly in, and leave it for a week, by the end of which it will be fit for use. One of the chief points in brewing is to attend to the proper heat the water has before it is pour- ed on the malt. If it is too hot, it contracts the maltr and prevents the full flavor from appearing; the proper temperature is 180°, but as a thermo- meter is not a likely appendage to a cottage wall, the hand must be depended upon. You should just be able to draw your hand quickly through the water without experiencing pain. There are several other methods of making beer, such as with potatoes, mangold wurtzel, and sugar, but I will reserve these for some fu- ture occasion, mj' present object being to tempt the cottager's wife to brew her husband's glass of beer. At the present time it will prove most economical, malt being cheap, and brewer's beer remaining at the same price. London Cottage Gard. Working Gardens. — Resuming our observa- tions upon the light afforded to gardening by oth- er sciences, we will commence by observing that the benefits derived from keeping the roots of plants near the surface of the soil are more apparent in fruit trees and other perennials ihan in our annual crops, inasmuch as that the roots of trees being thus kept within the influence of the solar rays, always vegetate earU', and ripen well their young wood. The quantity of oxygen absorbed by the roots of growing plants, is very large; being, in the instances of the radish, carrot, and others, not less than their own bulk in the course of twen- ty-four hours. Digging, hoeing, and trenching, are the practi- ces emploA'cd for facilitating the access of the air to the roots of plants, by rendering the texture of the soil loose and easily permeable. Very few people ever consider in detail the ex- penditure of labor required from the garden labo- rer when digging. It is a labor above all others calling into exercise the muscles of the human frame; and how great is the amount of this exer- cise, may be estimated from the followinnd think we give it a fair trial. Bisscll £f Hooker. Rochester, A'. Y. Sale of Short-hohns — We earnestly hope that our country gentlemen who wish to embel- lish their farms, parks, or lawns with beautiful cattle and sheej), will direct their attention to the splendid animals belonging to Mr. Sheafe, at High ClifT, near New-Hamburgh, Dutchess county, which are to be sold on Thursday, the 29th of this month (August.) As ornaments to the grounds of a mansion, nothing can add more beauty, grace, or value than fine animals; and without them, such grounds are incomplete in all these requisites. Mr. Sheafe himself is an amateur in farming, and stock-breeding, and has spared neither j)ains nor expense to obtain a fine stock ; and intending to sj)end a few years in Europe, where he now is, offers his stock for sale. No better opprirtnnity will soon be presented for ci- ther country gentlemen or practical farmers to obtain fine Short-horn cattle, or South-down Slieep than is here opened. * Burr's New Pine Stawrekry. — As the lov- ers of good fruits are all interested in having the new kinds which arc highly recommended, tested as to their flavor, productiveness, and good (jualitiesfor gneral cultivation, I will give you the results of my experience in thecultivation of Burr's New Pine Strawberry , for the last two seasons, in the latitude of Hartford, Conn. I had but a few plants in April 1849, l)Ut by taking special care, they produced plants sufTieicnt to make a large bed in 1850. The}' have been remarkably productive, generally ave- raging fifteen strawberries to each fruit stalk, and of large size, though not so large as Hovey's seedling. In flavor they were delicious, and deci- dedly superior to any Strawberry I have ever cul- tivated, though I have eighteen or twenty diflTerent kinds of the choicest. My plants were covered during the winter with a little straw, not because I deemed it necessary, but to be on the safe side, and none of them were injured by the cold. Jl Connecticut Subscriber . Striped Bugs on Melons, Cucumbers, &e. — I hear great complaints of the destruction of vines by the striped bug, and have frequently suflered in the same way, and have tried numerous meth- ods recommended from different sources, but the only effectual remedy under all circumstances, is the following — Take 4 pieces of boards about 2 feet long and 7 to 10 in width, nail the ends to- gether and put around the hill of vines, and no striped bug will ever be found inside (if not there when the box is put on.) Three or four short boards put around the hill and kept there with wooden pins will answer the purpose eijually well. This season the bugs had destroyed more than half my vines before I put my boxes on. I then ])lanted the vacant hills inside the boxes; not a bug came on the vines after that, until I supposed the young vines (last planted) were strong enough DOMESTIC NOTICES. 99 to defy the bugr.. when I remoTed the boxes, and thev were immediately attacked again, and I was oblised to replace the boxes. I have tried this for several years, and can safely recommend it as a perfect protection. In this section onions are suffering from maggots or a small while worm that is found in the bulb of the voung onion which destroys them. We have been troubled in this way for the last three years. Can anv of vour subscribers tell us of a remedy. John W'. Bailey. Ptatt^burgh, July 11th, 1850. The Stobm of July 5th. — The atmosphere 2ave but slight indications of rain until five o'clock P. M., when a dark cloud arose slowly from the N. W., attended with thunder. After rising something like 30°, the progress of this cloud seemed to be to the north and east, until it spread over the northern sky to about 20° of the zenith. In this position, and at about 8 o'clock, it began to appear somewhat broken by seams, running from east to west and from X. W. to S. E. Dur- ing the time this cloud was gathering, and ex- tending itself over the northern skv, another rose in the west, and for a while passed south, mainly hanging south and west. From this cloud bril- liant sheets of lightning were issuins. and passins southwesterly from TJ o'clock until the clr^uds united at ^ past nine, while, during the interval, occasional chains of the fluid, with almost fright- ful glare, passed off in the same direction. At eight o'clock, it was evident that these two clouds were making a proximity, and their union, it was presaged, would result in a powerful storm. As they approached, the voice of the thunder was less frequent than when the clouds first issued from their birthplace in the western sky; but the lightning in the north, like that in the south, was vivid and grand beyond our de- scription. Broad sheets following each other from ; east to west, in so rapid succession as to keep the sky and the earth illuminated, with an occasional chain. — glowing with the heat of a furnace, — de- scribing the serpent's crooked path, and spittinjr fire in its rapid descent, passed off to the north of the valley, as if to vent its spite on the rugsed hills that surround it. A few minutes after nine, a breeze sprung up from the northwest, which brought the clouds to a speedy union. And as the nuptials of the storm ' were celebrating in mid-heaven, the lamps which had illuminated the pathway of the movins clouds, one after another rapidly went out. and then, the thunder spake the nuptial ceremony with sublime and fearful voice, rolling in its majesty from south to north through the whole extent of the thickly veiled canopy. Alternate flashes preceded each impressive sentence, with light so brilliant that, at one moment, every object of earth, within range of vision, was as visible as though the full glare of the noonda\- sun-beam fell upon them, and the next they were shrouded in darkness so deep I that no mortal eye could penetrate it. The wind had passed away, and all was settled into the calm of a summer evening now, when these fire- works of the skies, which threw so contemptibly into the shade all efforts of imitation which hu- man invention had designed, and human industry executed only one brief day before, to the aston- ishment and admiration of wondering multitudes, were giving their most noble and impressive af- terpieces. Ah, how frail is man, in his most mighty creations, and how deficient is art, in her most noble triumphs, when placed in comparison with nature, drawn out by natures God ! The evening previous, thousands had left their quiet homes, to minule in the inconveniences of the crowd, to see the short lived rocket shoot through the air, and witness other feats of art, both beau- tiful and brilliant. But who saw these illuminate the mountain, spread out the landscape in all the perfection of noonday, and r^eal the colour of the sleeping flower, as nature did when the storm was hanging over it ? And what was that cannon's booming, momentary voice, compared with the hoarse angry roar of the thunder, as it went bel- lowing throuah the sky? Yet, of the thousands who went away to witness the one, how few saw anvthins but gloom, and sadness, and fear in the other, while in the safety and quiet of their own homes. Oh, how long will the propensities of mortals be such that the inferior, dear-bought, and far fetched, will be preferred to the sublime, the beautiful, and home-born, that lie strewn around their every-day paths ! But to the storm. As may be supposed, so dark a cloud, and so much lightning, and con- siderable thunder, could not pass away without some rain. When we saw the two ciouds ap- proaching each other, and making a gathering point over us, we anticipated a deluge. Xor in this were we mistaken. It began to rain slightly about 9 o'clock, but soon ceased, to commence in earnest at half past ten, and continue until four the next morning — the most of the time falling in torrents, which deluged the fields, raised the streams to overflowing, and washed the roads to an extent which has not been before witnessed for vears; and all this without much effect in cooling or purifyins the atmosphere. Yours truly, W. Bacon. Richmond, Mass., July, 1850. A Visit to the CorxTRY Seat of J. W, Whitney. Esq. — His country establishment is situated three miles north of the city of Rochester, on the Rochester and Charlotte plank road, lead- ing to Lake Ontario and the mouth of the Gene- see river. It was the season for cherries and strawberries, and we found rich collections of both, including all the newest varieties. Mr W. has turned his attention to the cultivation of fruits on an exten- sive scale. His peach orchard covers many acres. The trees appear luxuriant and fruitful. He has 100 DOMESTIC NOTICES. all the popular sorts, which ripen in succession. His apple- orchards are. likewise, extensive. One young orchard, planted from root-grafted and budded trees, principally of excellent keeping sorts. A second orchard, — an old one, headed down, and top-grafted with such sorts as the Melon, Spy, Bourassa, St. Lawrence, Early and Late Strawberry, Yellow Bellflower, Ribston Pip- pin, Pomnie Gris, Fameuse, &c. — all promi^^ing magnificent heads, having been last year judi- ciously pruned, which put them at once into fruit- bearing spurs. The collection of pears here is of rare and ( hoice sorts, and the trees are making a thrifty, short-jointed growth, which is the shield against blight, canker, or cracked bark. The soil would be by some nurserymen considered too light for the well doing of this delicious fruit; still there is no indication of a want of those element?, which constitute a good pear soil. The large share of attention devoted to fruits here, occasions no neglect of the ornamenlal grounds; for the collection is enriched with every new and fine tree, plant, and shrub, as soon as it can be pronounced to be an acquisition. We found here the following specimens: Cedrus Li- banii, Cedrus deodara, Abies excelsa, Abies ame- ricana alba, Abies americana nigra. Picea bal- samea, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus pinaster, Thuya occidentalis. Juniperus virginiana, Paulownia im- perialis, Salisburia aidentifolia, Magnolia macro- phyllum, Taxus hibernicus, Taxus boccata, and many others too numerous to mention, besides a large collection of choice shrubs, herbaceous plants, Hyacinths and Tulips. Mr. W. has commenced making Pyrus japonica and English Yew hedges, and has the finest spe- cimen of a privet hedge I have seen, running the whole length of the avenue leading to his gardener's cottage. It is cut square on top, and is four feet high, two feet broad, and a perfect mass of lively green the whole season. C. J. Ryan. Greece, Monroe counly, July 3, 1850. Chester County (Pa.) Hort. Society. — Pursuant to previous notice, the Chester Coun- ty Horticultural Society held in its Hall, in West Chester, Pa., on the 14th and loth days of June, a general exhibition of Horticultural productions, in connection with Manufactures, the Mechanic Arts, the Fine Arts, Fancy Work, &e. The Hall of the Society was not as exten- sively decorated as it is at the autumnal exhibi- tions ; yet there were sufficient floral ornaments, independent of specimens deposited, to render its appearance highly interesting. The pyramids of flowers, the moss-covered vases, and baskets crowned with the richest treasures that Flora at this season dispenses with so liberal a hand, the sweet scented bou- quets for the hand and the mantle, and the rich, rare and interesting collection of roses, Calceolarias, Torenias, Fusehias, and other or- namental plants of the garden and hot house, skilfully arranged along the tables that extend- ed the length of the Hall, presented a most in- teresting and agreeable appearance to the eye, and loaded thb air with a bahnj' fragrance. The backwardness of the season prevented a very extensive exhibition of fruits and vegeta- bles, yet on the tables were displayed some beautiful specimens of strawberries, cherries, grapes, peache?, nectarines, potatoes, peas, onions, beets and gooseberries, most of them grown in the open air, though some of them were the productions of the hot-house. The committee regret to say that the manu- facturers and mechanics of the countj' did not exhibit as great an interest in displaj'ing the products of their skill and ingenuity as was de- sirable, yet such of them as did deposit speci- mens in the exiiibition, sent them of materials and workmanship of the most creditable kind. In this department the diplay of a lage assort- ment of carpets, of rich and beautiful patterns and excellent texture, was the most striking feature; and we are sure there were few pre- sent who had any idea that Chester county could produce an article so excellent in every essential quality as was to be found in the arti- cle alluded to. The coach and harness work, the agricultural implements, the marble work and other articles showed a high degree of skill and taste, and we are glad to learn that the ex- hibition was the means of bringing these branches of industry so prominently and favor- ably to the notice of our citizens, that several sales were made and orders given to the arti- ficers for more of the products of their work- manship. We have little doubt this branch will be pro- perly represented at the next exhibition of the kind the society may hold. The committee were well pleased to see a great many productions in the Fine Arts, em- broidery, worsted work and fancy work, the fruits of the leisure hours of the artists who ex- ecuted them. To the ladies, the exhibition is in.debted for its chief charms. Their taste and skill contributed most of the Floral designs, and their contributions in silk, worsted, embroi- dery, paper flowers, &c., &c., added greatly to the interest of the occasion. The lounges, chairs, ottomans, foot-stools, lamp screens, fire screens, table covers, cover- lids, counterpanes, knitting, netting and other similar articles, wrought by their patience and industry, were beautiful in design, rich in co- loring, and arranged and executed with great neatness and propriety, and to their liberal de- posits in this department may be attributed a large share of the enjoyment realized by the visitors. DOMESTIC NOTICES. 101 The comniitfee also take pleasure in alluding here to a bust moddled in clay, one of the first attempts of a young gentleman of this county, that displays the presence of a rare talent in that most elevated and most diflicult walk of the Fine Arts, and which only requires culti- vation to render its possessor distinguished amongst the artists of the land. A beautiful jet from the fountain in the cen- tre of the Hall, falling into and overflowing its urn, served to keep the atmosphere of the room at a pleasant temperature, and the gentle music of the falling waters, mingled with sweet airs from some fine pianos, and the lively notes of several cage birds, served to add to the interest of the whole. Report of Com. of Pub. The Prairie Rose — Rosa rubifolia. — This rose in its native state, grows wild over the whole western country, being very luxuriant in its growth, and covering the prairies, particularly in Ohio, Il- linois, Indiana, Michigan, &c. &c. In Maryland, Pennsylvania and the western States, in fact wherever it is indigenious, it is known by the name of the Prairie Rose, and why it should be called Michigan Rose more than Ohio or Indiana Rose, I cannot see the propriety. Knowing the history of the double varieties of this rose, perhaps it may not be unacceptable at this time to your readers. Mrs. Hannah Levering of Baltimore, Md., hav- ing removed to Lancaster, Ohio, forwarded seeds of the wild Prairie Rose to Mr. Samuel Feast, an eminent florist of Baltimore, who planted the same, and after they had vegetated, permitted a few to climb over a bed of Noisette roses. The blossoms of the Prairie became (many of them) impregnated from the pollen of the Noisettes. The seeds from the Prairie roses were carefully gath- ered and planted, and from the many seedlings, the following new varieties were produced, all fine double roses: 1. Beauty or Queen of Prairies. — Large beautiful deep pink, very double, exquisite form, frequently with a white stripe. This is the so called Double Michigan, prevalent in your city. 2. Perpetual Pink. — Pink, changing to pur- ple, very double, flowers several times during the season, large clusters. 3. Baltimore Belle. — Blooming in large clus- ters, full double, light blush, with a deeper centre. This rose possesses a valuable character, different from the other two, being as fragrant as a Tea rose. These are all vigorous climbers. Since the above have been produced, Mr. Joshua Pierce, of Washington city, D. C, procured a number of seeds of the single Praine rose, and planted them with reference to a hedge, a portion of them growing contiguous to a number of rose bushes of the old Maidens' Blush, and running over them. Seeds of these were again taken and plant- ed, and from many hundreds, he had the pleasure of sendinfiT out the following beautiful double climb- ing roses, of the same character as the three above described, raised by Mr. Feast, and vying with them in beauty, some even excelling them, and a number of them being quite fragrant: I. Pride of Washington. — Very dark rose, very fine form, cupped, full double, resembling Jane, blooms in clusters of about 20 flowers, habit vigorous and good. 2. Anna Maria. — Pink with rosy centre, cupped, and full double, beautiful large clusters 20 to 30 flowers, quite distinct from any of the others. 3. Eva Corrinne. — Flowers large, very deli- cate blush, with beautiful carmine or rose centre, globular and very double, clusters medium size from 10 to 20 flowers, rather compact, foliage medium, habit vigorous and very erect. This is the most delicate of all the Prairie roses, and its clus- ters of blush flowers, with their deep centre, which are perfectly globular and quite fragrant, entitle it to a prominent place in every garden. It blooms quite late. 4. Miss Gunnell. — Elegant delicate blush or buff", full double, clusters large, from 25 to 30, fo- liage large, habit vigorous, one of the very best, quite unique for the delicate tint of its flowers. 5. Ranunculiflora. — Pale blush, very hand- some, full double clusters large. 25 to 30 flowers, slightly fragrant, and blooms rather late. ti. Virginia Lass. — Splendid blush, in large clusters, full double. 7. Mrs. Hovev. — Splendid white, very double and beautiful, large clusters, the only double white Prairie rose: the flowers of this variety are larger than all the rest, and decidedly the best of the 12 seedlings; it is of supurb habit, with splendid deep green foliage, and as it is a pure white, it is the greatest acquisition which yet has been made to the double Prairies. 8. Jane. — Flowers medium size, of a beautiful lilac rose, imbricated and very double, clusters large and compact, 25 to 30 flowers, habit strong and vigorous. 9. President. — Blush with rosette in the mid- dle, compact, and very double, 15 to 20 in a clus- ter— habit vigorous and good. This is the latest flowering variety. 10. Triumphant. — Deep brilliant rose, imbri- cated, very double and fine, clusters large, 20 to 30 flowers, foliage large and handsome, bright green, deeply and sharply serrated. This variety is remarkable for its ample and beautiful foliage, as well as its deep and brilliant rosy flowers. II. Linn^an Hill Beauty. — Pale blush, very fine indeed, much admired — clusters large and full double. 12. Mrs. Pierce. — Not yet bloomed for us, and therefore cannot describe it. These 12 are Mr. Pierce's seedlings, and all very handsome. We have fine specimens of all on our grounds, and can exhibit, small bushes only 2 feet high, and 2 ft. wide, with 36 clusters of roses, some numbering as high as 40 in a cluster. 102 DOMESTIC NOTICES. To the above list of Double Prairies, may be added, the Kentucky Multiflora — it is of the same character," and a great climber — blooms very late — full double, and in large clusters. Flowers splendid deep rose. Thus, Mr. Editor, you will perceive there are double prairie roses of almost every hue; and who would not possess themselves of such rare beauties. We have procured these roses at great expense, and will offer all the above for sale this fall and next spring. The active partner will take much pleasure in showMng any of the above or other varieties of roses or plants to all persons wishing to examine them. He can at all times be found upon the grounds, or at his residence nearly opposite that of V. W. Smith, Esq. While writing on running roses, perhaps I may as well describe a new double yellow fragrant climbing rose, of which we are the proprietors, and which we think of letting go out next spring. This is a new seedling. In its character of growth, it i-esembles the double Michigan, putting up shoots from 18 to 20 feet in a season. The foliage is of the largest size and deepest green — the flowers pure yellow, and uncommonly largo, and no tea rose can exceed it in fragrance. Chro- matella and Solfaterre in their growing habits will bear no comparison — neither will Lamarque, and the flowers of each of the above are much lighter in colour, as well as much smaller. Neither Chro- matella, nor Solfaterre possess any fragrance — nor does Lamarque comparatively speaking. We consider this rose the greatest acquisition of all the new running roses, and it is the only one of this ro- bust, fragrant character, on record, either in America or Europe. A. Fahnestock. Syracuse Journal. Dr. Kikktland's Seedling Cherries. — Men- tion has several times been made in our columns of a number of new and valuable cherries produced from seed within a few years past by Dr. Kirtland of Cleveland, and in our paper of Nov. 1, 1847, descriptions are given [from the Horticulturist] of seven of the most promising of these seedlings. Since that time several others have been fairly tested, and found valuable, but no description of them has yet been published. Besides the large number of seedlings — some forty or more — Dr. K. has a large collection of the approved known and named kinds, so that his collection of cherries, now in bearing, probably exceeds that of any individual in the West, and is not excelled by man}' in the eastern States. It is proper to remark, that his soil is quite sandy, with a mixture of shade and gravel, which seems to be highly favorable for this fruit, and it is not prebable that the varieties would produce as much and as good fruit if removed to a clayey or otherwise unfa- vorable soil. At the time of our visit the past month we find the early cherries all in find eating condition ; among these are three of the seedlings described in 1847, to wit: Roekport Biggarreau, Doctor and Cleveland Biggorreau. The Roekport was not quite as large or well flavored this year, as usual, we were informed, [and in fact this might be said of nearly all cherries, owing we suppose to the drouth,] but it was very fine. The trees of Doctor and Cleveland Biggarreau were complete- ly loaded down with the rich tempting fruits. The former tho' small or medium in size is very sweet and rich; the latter very closely resembles the Yellow Spanish, except in its earlier maturity, and perhaps being more productive. " Kirtlands's Mary," " Ohio Beauty," and " Elliott's Favorite" were not ripe, but their appearance was exceed- ingly fine, especially of " Kirtland's Mary." Among the numbers of seedlings which have not been named or described as yet, we noted '• No. 10," a beautiful light red yellow cherry, of large size, very sweet and high flavour ; and we were imagining, how pleasant it would be to have a large tree in full bearing, that we might gather and eat at our leisure, when the Doctor drew us along, tasting of one and another, until we came to a black cherry, " No. 4." Tliis is a splendid fruit for gardens or orchards; it is nearly as large as the Black Tartarian, with similar outward ap- pearance, but the flesh is more firm and perhaps a little richer. From this we passed 1o " No. K." a seedling much resembling the Early White Heart, but ripening a few days later. " No. 31" is a black cherry of medium size, good but not yet of size and quality to commend ; this is its fir.st year of bearing, and it will probably improve. " No. 52," is a fruit above medium size, of a fine, clear, redor amber yellow mottled with red, as grown in sun or shade, of a waxany, glossy character, flesh slightly tinged with red, tender and juicy, first year's fruiting, promises fine. '• No. B. B." is a cherry of medium size, somewhat resembling the American Amber, very sweet, juicy and good flavor; this also fruited for the first time this year, and was not quite ripe when we saw it. •' No. N." is a cherry much resembling Black Eagle, but ripens earlier, and we should judge, would prove valuable. " No. 30;" this was fully ripe, and for a small tree and its first fruits, we think it promises much. It is a black cherry, something like Knight's Early Black, juicy, sweet and rich, and ripening with the Early White Heart. " No. A.A." promisedto be a fine black cherry ; it was not ripe, and so we might say of many more of which the Doctor with his wonted courtesy called our attention, but getting tired, we put up our note book, with merely adding, that we never saw a tree more abundantly loaded than was the Late Biggareau, but as the fruit was only about half ripe, we could say nothing of it. As we were wending our way towards the house, the Doctor called our attention again, and directed us to a seedling tree near his house, the fruit of which DOMESTIC NOTICES. 103 was unripe, but which had fruit two seasons pre- vious, and j)roved so fine that he had propagated it, and Mr. Elliott had named it " Delicate." Mr. Elliott being almost daily examining these cherries, with the Doctor by his side, and making his notes, the public may safely count upon having introduced to their notice only such as are really deserving. We will only add that the cherry known about Columbus as the'' German May Duke," has been decided by Dr. Kirtland, and also by Mr. Downing, we believe, to be identical with the " Early Purple Guigne" of the books and foreign catalogues. It is one of the very best cherries known, but it is said to be rather hard to propagate. Ohio Cult. Effects of Moisture ok Fruits. — Lieut. Maury, of the National Observatory, Wash- ington City, has made a valuable communica- tion to the Southern Planter, on the subject — " How the National Observatory is subserving the interests of the Farmer as well as the Mari- ner"— from which we take the following: My investigations show — always supposing the soil be there — that cotton, sugar, coffee, rice and tobacco and indigo, with spices, drugs and balsams of infinite variety and great value may be grown from the mouth of the Amazon all the way up to the base of the Andes — and they point to the valley of tliat river and its tributaries as one of prodigious capacities — of productive capacities as far exceeding those of our great and greatly boasted Mississippi valley, as this exceeds that of the Hudson. The valley of the Amazon is rich, wide and fruitful beyond measure. These investigations also indicate what, up- on inquiry I learn is the case: that there is a wet and dry side to the Alleghany Mountains, — that in some parts of the range, the eastern, and in others the western side is the dry side. Good grapes, I am sure, will grow on these dry sides, and it is probable that they would make good wines. Wc know how pow^erfuHy the presence of abundant moisture in the atmosphere affects the flavor of our delicate fruits; at certain stages of the crop a few days of rainy weather will destroy the flavor of the strawberrj', the peach, etc. ; and we know that the grape requires sun- shine and dry air to perfect its secretions. The finest grapes in the world are grown in the valley of the Caspian sea, where Humboldt tells us the air is so pure that the most finely polished steel may be exposed in the open air for days and days without having its lustre tar- nished. This is but another expression for a low dew-point, or a dry atmosphere. There the evaporation and precipitation , as in our val- ley of the great Salt Lake, are exactly equal. Though there may be here and there under the mountains of Georgia, the Carolinas, Vir- ginia, Tennessee, &c., small districts adapted to the production of wine, these charts " of the winds and currents of the sea," indicate that there is on this continent a large district, the climate — for I know nothing of soils — of which is admirably adapted to the culture of the grape. That climate is in Northwestern Texas and the regions thereabouts. i may be excused from mentioning another discovery with regard to the culture of the peach and other fruits to which I have been led by some experiments with the thermometer on a fleece of wool. I procured a bit of tanned sheep skin with the wool on, placed it with the woolly side up, in a bucket as though I intended it for a hen's nest ; I then put a thermometer in it with the bulb in the bottom of the nest; and set it out in the open air. This thermometer, of certain clear nights in August, when the thermometer on the outside of the nest and also in the open air stood at 7o°, and when that in the nest during the day had ranged as high as 150°, was found to stand at 42°. This explained to ine the reason of our find- ing in the low lands and bottoms the earliest signs of frosts in autumn, and the latest in spring. These are the places therefore which in clear weather, when radiation is active, are the hot- test in the day and the coolest in the night. And if vou plant the peach there, they will force its blossoms in the day, and nip them with their frosts at night. Now, on the hill tops and sides, the weather is cooler in the day, and warmer in the night when radiation is active — consequently the hill tops and sides will not force the buds so soon, nor make frost, nor kill the fruit when the bottoms will ; and therefore the hill tops and sides, not the bottoms, are the jjlaces for or- chards. There is a ridge about Washington upon which the peaches seldom fail, when failure is common to orchards planted a short distance from it on either side. Travelling last summer through the beautiful valley of Wyoming, I noticed near Wilkesbarre, that with fine mountain ridges close at hand, the apple orchards were all in the river bottoms — the worst possible place for them — and on in- quiry was told — what I knew would be said without asking — that it was a poor fruit country. The best fruit-growing height for each dis- trict must be determined by actual experiment ; and I have no doubt if the farmers of Wyoming valley would cut down their fruit trees in the river bottoms, and plant an orchard reaching from near the base to the top of the surround- ing hills, they would discover the best apple growing elevation ; and planting orchards at that pitch, they would probably be rewarded with fine fruit. PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. The stated meeting for July occurred on Tuesday evening, 16tli instant, iu the Chinese Saloon. Br. Wm. D. Brinckle m the chair. The display on this occasion was unusually rich in fruits — grapes especially; one large table being entirely covered with dishes contahiing that fruit alone — a most templing sight. The contributors were. Judge Kane's gardener, who presented four very large bunches of Black Hamburg; Tho- mas O'Brien, gardjner at Eden Hall, six bunches of Black Hamburg, three of Red Chasselas, three of Sweet Water, three of White Chasselas, and three of While Fronlignan; Frederick Wolf, gardener to S. AV. Gambes, Montgomery county, three of Malaga, and three of Chasselas — very large; Ben Daniels, gardener to the president, tliree bunches of Black Hamburg, and three of Reine de Nice ; James Dundas' gar- dener, three of Black Hamburg. Among tlie other fruits might be noticed remarkably large and fine flavored Moor- pai-k apricots, from Laurence Shuster's garden; and excel- lent specimens of the same variety t"rom Mr. Dundas' garden; also a large dish of good fruit from David Cook's Norristown grounds. Mrs. John B. Smith exhiliited apricots, pears, and two kiiids of gooseberries. James Bisset, gardener to James Dundas, presented a dish of very handsome Red Roman nec- tarines; Jacob Shedaker, fine Miser or Mirabelle plum; Rob't Buist, pears of the Madeleine and Doyenne d'Ele varieties; John Perkins, of Moorestown, N. J., apples — the Yellow Har- vest, Yellow Juneating, and AVoolman's Early Harvest; A. W. Roe, of Woodbury, N. J., Bough apples, and Morello cherries ; Dr. Brinckle, seedling raspberries, of the President Cope and Orange varieties. Of plants, there were five collections. In Peter McKen- zie's. there were, worthy of note, nine new and most beauti- ful Fuchsias, Torenia asiatica, and Verbena.s. In Mr. Dun- das', five Achimenes grandiflora, ten Fuchsias in variety, Campanula nobilis. very fine specimen of Hydrangea japoni- ca, Lilium lancefolium, Oucidium papilio, and other air plants. Among those from C. Cope's garden, tour Stephano- tis fioribundus, Vermica Lindleyana, Cacti in variety, and Fuchsias. In John Lambert's were Pentas carnea, Cuphea platycenlra. Calceolarias and Fuchsias; and in Jno. Sher- wood's were six choice Fuchsias, Justicia carnea. Double flowering Myrtle, six Verbenas, &c. &;c. The designs and bouquets were handsome. Among the vegetables there ■were many well grown specimens, by Anthony Felten, Maurice Finn, gardener to John Lambert, and Ben Daniels, gardener to our president. Premiums were awarded as follows : At the intermediate meeting, July 2d. By the committee on plants and flowers. Picotees— for the best six varieties, to Ben Daniels, gardener to Caleb Cope. Seedling Picotee — for the best American, to J. J. Jennings. The committee noted a display of Seedling Phloxes and Petunias, by Tho. Meehan, gardener. By the committee on fruits. Currants— for the best 2 quarts red, and for the best 2 quarts of white, to John. J. Jennings; for the best black, to Maurice Finn, gardener to John Lam- bert. Gooseberries — for the best quart, to Ben Daniels — for the Amber; for the second be.^t, to Jno. J. Jeimings. The committee were much gratified with specimens of seedling raspberries, grown hy Dr. Brinckle, consisting of eight varie- ties of much merit. On tlie present occasion, by the committee on plants and flowers. Cacti — tor the best six plants in bloom, in pots, to Ben Daniels, gardener to Caleb Cope. Ijilies — for tlie best two specimens in bloom, to Wm. Burnley, foreman to Jno. Sherwood. Hot-house plants — for the best grown three varie- ties, and for the second best diito, to James Bisset, gardener to Jas. Dundas. Green-house plants — for the best grown and finest flowered, to James Bisset ; for the second best ditto, to Ben Daniels. Plants in pots — for the best and most interesting- collection, to Maurice Finn, gardener to John Lambert; for the second be.st, to James Bisset; for the third best, to Wm. Burnley. Design of cut flowers — for the second best, to Ben Daniels. Basket of cut flowers — for the best, to Maurice Finn; for the second best ditto, to Ben Daniels. Basket of indigenous flowers, to Robert Kilvington. And a special pre- mium to Mrs. Dr. Coleman, of Pemberton, N. J., of one dol- lar, for a beautiful basket of indigenous plants. By the committee on fruits. Grapes — for the best three bunches of a black variety — Black Hamburg — to Tho. S. Blair, gardener to Judge Kane ; for the second best ditto — Black Hamburg— to Tho O'Brien, gardener at Eden Hall ; for the best of a white variety — Malaga — to Frederick AVolf, gardener to S. W. Gambes, Montgomery county; for the se- cond best — Reine de Nice — to Ben Daniels. Apricots— lor the best twelve specimens — the Moorpark — to John A. Goeh- ring, gardener to L. Shuster, Spring Garden; for the second best — the Moorpark — to James Bisset. Nectarines — for the best six specimens — Red Roman — to James Bisset. Pears — for the best^the Madeleine — to Isaac B. B;»xter; for the se- cond best — the English Jargonelle. Apples — for tlie best — the Yellow Harvest — for the second best — tlie A'ellow Junea- ting— to John Perkins. Plums — for the best — the Miser or Mirabelle — to Jacob Shedaker. And special premiums — for Morello cherries, one dollar, to A. W. Roe, AVoodbury, N. J. For one quart of gooseberries — the AA'hitesmitli — one dollar, to Mr. J. B. Smith; also to Ben Daniels of two dollars, for Black Hamburg grapes, and another of two Dollars lor AA'hite Chasselas, to Tho. O'Brien. The committee would also no- tice a few specimens of very fine seedling gooseberries, ex- hibited by Dr. Brinckle, and raised by him of the Orange end President Cope varieties. They also mention that Isaac B. Baxter exhibited, ad interim, very fine gooseberries; some measuring three inches in circunifereiioe. By the committee on vegetables. For the best display by a commercial gardener, to Anthony Felten ; for the best dis- play by an amateur, to Maurice Finn; and for the second best, to Ben Daniels. The treasurer reported his semi-annual statement of ac- counts. The amendment to the by-laws proposed at last meeting was adopted, by which the whole of the commiriees will be appointed in February; and the existing committees will con- tinue until successors are appointed. An intcresthig communication from corresponding member, Dr. J. A. Keimicott, on horticultural subjects, was read. The premium schedules of the Delaware Hort. Society, tlie New-Haven Co. Society, and Chester Co. Society, were re- ported as being received. Members Elected. — Joseph T. Johns, Michael Magee, and Charles Harbert. Adjourned. Tho. P. Jamks, Recording Secretary. JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. Vol. V. SEPTEMBER, 1850. No. 3. September is the month for the great horti- cultural shows all over the Union ; and it seems to us, therefore, a fitting time to in- dulge in a few comments on the influence of these shows upon the state of horticulture generally. These annual exhibitions of the choicest products of the garden, are certainly most beautiful and interesting in themselves, and most useful in begetting a popular taste for horticulture. Numberless are the examples where men are fairly astonished into the en- joyments of gardening, by having the wealth of the soil thus suddenly displayed under their eyes, just as in the olden times an uncontrolla- ble passion for wealth was begotten by the occasional exhibition of the treasures of gold and silver, made to poor mortals by the genii of the mountains. And many a sluggard, who would otherwise be contented with the most indifferent crops of apples and potatoes, is roused into becoming a good cultivator, by finding at the exhibition, that his neighbors are raising delicious fruits, and greatly im- proved vegetables, from the same soil as that which — because he is behind the times — only gives him pie-apples and drum-head cabbages. So far, then, as awakening a taste and ex- citing the spirit of emulation, Avhieh begets good cultivation, goes, our horticultural socie- Vol, v. 7 ties have done and are doing a great deal of good. But for twenty or thirty years, the most prominent of them have been working on precisely this platform, without apparently the least desire of reaching a higher level, or a more extended sphere of usefulness. Per- haps we ought partially to except the Massa- chusetts society, which has, by the publica- tion of a series of its Transactions, aimed at a wider range ; but still not all that could be desired from so influential an institution. To confine ourselves to the more immediate subject of the annual exhibitions — the great defect there, is in the small amount of practi- cal information which they convey to the minds of those who visit them for instruction ; for it must be remembered, that in this coun- try three-fourths of all the gardens are not cultivated by educated and competent garden- ers, but by the proprietors, with perhaps the assistance of a gardener who is little more than a day laborer. Now let us suppose the owner of a small garden of this kind, who has just commenced operations (and the exam- ples are numberless,) visits the annual show of one of our largest and oldest horticultural societies. He finds there a large display of fruits, flowers and vegetables. The variety of new fruit is indeed astonishing — especially the show in Boston, where he may find three 106 THE HORTICULTURAL SHOWS. or four hundred sorts of pears, all labelled, and carefully placed on the tables. Some are very large and beautiful ; others, fine looking but not so attractive ; and others so positively indifferent and ugly in their coats and com- plexions, that, except to serve as a foil to the others, he is at a loss to know what brought them Into such good company. To so much information as may be got by the eye, our visitor, in common with all others, is indeed fully welcome. But in the case of fruits, at least, every good cultivator knows that there are optical delusions, phantasmago- rias, and painted cheats, which, when put to the only true test — that of the sense of taste — show plainly that there are other sodom-ap- ples, besides those on the borders of a certain sea in Asia. There is, to be sure, a " testing committee" in all these societies ; but our novice has not the passport to the private room, where they hold their sittings ; and their information, which is of a genuine and substantial kind, is all free-masonry, so far as he is concerned. All that he is allowed to do, is to walk round the tables and admire the fine forms and proportions of the fruits, learn that this pear and that bunch of grapes were raised by Mr. A., or Mr. B., and see that they are really handsome looking specimens. It is true, that by seeking the personal acquaintance of Messrs. A. or B., and asking a variety of questions as regards quality and culture, our novice may learn much ; and it is well known, that in this kind of intercourse which takes place at the exhibitions, a great deal of useful information is actually given and acquired — far more than is directly dis- seminated in any way by the society. But, on the other hand, not one person in ten, of all the thousands who take advantage of the three days annual exhibition, have, or can readily obtain that personal acquaintance with the exhibitors, which would enable them to obtain such information. In every society there are, again, some members who are in advance of the others in making successful experiments, or in raising specimens of extraordinary size and excel- lence. They are in possession of information which they would cheerfully impart, and which, perhaps, they have imparted to many of the members. But as they are not always men who write for the press, and as their neighboring cultivators already know all about their practices, the society thinks it of little or no importance that the numerous assembly which throngs its exhibition rooms — among which are many novices, anxious to learn, (and who would learn fastest with the proofs of successful culture before their eyes,) should know anything about it, beyond the fact that they have made " a glorious exhibition." We visited, for instance, two years ago, the triennial exhibition of the Massachusetts so- ciety, and saw a great many surpassingly fine specimens. Among other remarkable things were pears of extraordinary size, beauty, and excellence, from Plymouth, — a bleak and in- hospitable climate for gardening, — yet whose active cultivators had unquestionably suc- ceeded in growing pears far more successfully than others equally skilful in more sheltered and apparently more advantageous sites in the interior of the state. There were the facts before our eyes, but the explanation we could not get for a long while. Some one or two individuals in the same climate, and with the same soil as their neighbors, had also succeed- ed in producing Seekel pears, of the size of the Doyenne or Virgalieu, without any loss of flavor ; and all that we could learn about it was, that it was done by high manuring, — but in what way, and what fertilizers were used, no one was present to tell. Now, let us suppose that at one of these exhibitions, the society — instead of being deaf and dumb, while exhibiting its charms to the admiring multitude of amateurs — should take RURAL LIFE. 107 it Into its head to speak ! Would not the ef- fect upon the audience be far more agreeable and instructive. This severe abstract address to the eye and the imagination, may do for poets and artists, but not for such realists and practical demonstrators as most horticul- turists are. Suppose, for instance, that com- petent committees are appointed sometime before the exhibition, who shall carefully scan the whole collection, and label, with the au- thoritative stamp of the society, a dozen — more or less — varieties of each class of fruits, *' good," " very good," " besi ;" (the now es- tablished classification of American Pomolo- gy,) letting it be understood that all sorts not so labelled were either not sufficiently proved, or if proved, were of no value for the palate. Suppose that whenever the committee should be satisfied that any remarkably fine objects in exhibition had been raised by a method of decided merit, not generally known, that such method should be very concisely stated in printed letters on a card accompanying the specimens. Suppose that a crop of vegeta- bles, raised upon common soil, which owed its superior fertility solely to having been made deep, should have stamped upon the label the words — " grown in trenched soiL" Suppose the exhibitor of a certain fruit, which he is able to produce in abundance and with faci- lity, should be (willingly) cross-questioned till the secret should be ascertained to lie in his soil, or in paving under his trees, or in using lime as a manure, etc., and such fact or facts should be concisely and legibly expressed and exhibited along with the fruit ; let us suppose such an exhibition, where valuable informa- tion should be made public in this manner, where, in short, the society should not only make its usual display, but disseminate "use- ful knowledge," and we think it cannot be denied that the utility of such an institution would soon be felt to be far wider and deeper than any existing at the present moment in the United States. "We offer these remarks as suggestions only, to the officers of the different societies. It is easy to see that, a beginning once made in this direction, a new system would arise, and new plans of direction would be formed, that would soon lead directly to fresh experiments and more careful and scientific modes of cul- ture. The advantage to the progress of hor- ticulture would be two-fold. First, in every society cultivators would spring up who would exhibit remarkable specimens, which would be doubly instructive as the result of well di- rected skill, and not of chance, (as at present ;) and second, there would be a gradual record and accumulation of facts in each society, which, when made public, would tend vastly to the progress of the art all over the Union ; since every art, the progress in which depends on ex- perimental knowledge, can make but little real advance, while the knowledge of successful experiments is confined to a few practitioners. RANDOM THOUGHTS ON RURAL LIFE. BY C. L. D., NEW-JERSEY I THINK it was Judge Parsons, of whom the anecdote is told, that while waiting for man, and, in a few minutes' conversation, im- parted to each so many useful hints in regard liis dinner at a country tavern, when on a 1 to his art, that when the two afterwards com- journey, he strolled into a blacksmith's shop, pared notes respecting the stranger, each was and from thence to that of some other trades- | lositive he must be a member of his particular 108 RURAL LIFE. craft. The caj^acity of acqi;iring and retain- ing such universal information, is certainly very desirable ; yet it is so rare as to excite astonishment when it exists naturally, and so difficult of attainment that most men who at- tempt it become mere smatterers, without a real knowledge of anything ; which last are always the greatest bores, as the former are the most entertaining companions. The great mass of the human race would do well to confine their energies to one chan- nel ; and yet, when we consider the endless variety of subjects which might naturally ex- cite the wonder and curiosity of every one at first sight, we can but be surprised not only at the great ignoi'ance, but at the indifference, of those who are constantly brought in con- tact with them. In nothing is this apathy more remarkable than in regard to the won- ders of the natural world. The wonders and mysteries of the life and growth of trees and plants, are enough to fur- nish subjects of study and reflection for a life time ; yet in nine-tenths of the human race, they excite less interest than the last new toy, or trick, whose operation is based upon well known principles, or whose mystery we know to be only a jugglery. The grapevine, which covers the arbor in which I write, is fed with materials offensive to the senses, and which would be destructive to health and comfort if left to spread their poison in the air ; but being buried in the earth, within reach of the roots of this vine, they are transformed into luxuriant foliage, — blossoms of most delicate fragrance, and fruit of most luscious flavor ; and then after a pe- riod of apparent death, the wonderful process is renewed, and so it goes on year after year for a life time. If the wealth of the universe were offered for its performance, human power could not accomplish this transformation. Human knowledge cannot explain, human imagination cannot conceive, how it is brought about ; and yet, for one man, who ever feels any surprise or curiosity at sight of such an object, you shall find a thousand who are as- tonished at the working of a steam engine, and ten thousand who are mystified and awe struck with the " Rochester knockings." But to come down to simpler matters. To one who is practically engaged in the cul- ture of the soil, it is amusing to observe how little is known of the subject by those whot are otherwise occupied. Thousands of worthy and intelligent inhabitants of our cities, whose means enable them to provide their tables daily with the best fruits and vegetables of the season, know nothing more of the history of the articles which minister so largely to their comfort, than that they are to be found, ripe or green as the case may be, in certain shops and stalls about the city. For the most part, it is probable that no thought of their previous existence ever enters their minds ; and yet the fact is not without interest, that the vegetables now smoking on the board, were yesterday growing in a field perhaps a hundred miles off, and for months have been an object of care and interest to some one who planted and reared them ; that their perfection is the result of scientific re- search and careful experiments, conducted for a long series of years. And to come closer home — how large a portion of the people who live in the country, and even of those who are actually engaged in the culture of the soil, are not only utterly ignorant of the nature of the plants they cul- tivate, the functions of the different parts, and the conditions of their existence and health, but have never even felt any curiosity on the subject, — in short, have never thought of it; and yet therein consists the true charm of the farmer's like — the life whose delights have been so often set forth by poets, good and bad, and have caused such oft repeated disap- pointments to rurally disposed cockneys. RURAL LIFE. 109 To hlin who has the taste to seek and search into the wonders and beauties, which every vegetable in daily use contains in the principle of its existence, the life of the culti- vator of the soil can never be dull or insipid, though it be passed in seclusion. As the cul- ture of the soil must always be the occupa- tion of the great mass of the human race, it is wisely and bountifully ordered by Providence that " the earth shall yield her fruits," on such simple conditions as to repuire but slight exertion of intellectual power ; and we ac- cordingly find, from time immemorial, that a large portion of the agricultural population is composed of very ignorant people. " How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plough, and glorieth in the goad ; that driveth oxen and is occupied in their labors, and whose talk is of bullocks ? He giveth his mind to make furrows, and is dilligent to give the kine fodder," These words were written two thousand years ago ; and though the common school system is somewhat improved since then — to say nothing of the equivocal blessings of cheap literature — there is still a large class of til- lers of the soil to whom they may justly be applied. Early habit has inured them to hard labor and rough fare ; and their wants being but little above those of their own cat- tle, their state of existence is not very dif- ferent. They plough, and sow, and reap, as their fathers have done before them, and look with suspicious eye on any innovation upon «stablished customs. On the other hand, the philosopher who de- Tights to fathom the mysteries of the natural ^orld, finds in the culture of the soil an end- less field for scientific research, whilst he also finds that the increased returns which result from the application of the principles he dis- covers, enable him to surround himself with many more of the comforts of life, which to him are necessaries, than the clown who could not appreciate if he had them. The position of such a man, I take to be one of the highest and most dignified, as it is the most natural, in which man can be placed ; and though there are few whose natural capacities, or whose opportunities of acquirement enable them to reach the highest standard in this character, yet there are thousands of hardy sons of the soil scattered over the length and breadth of our land, who, without other means of improve- ment than are within the reach of all, have yet raised themselves so far above the clown- ish stupidity of the class I first named, as to command the respect of all whose respect is worth having. In every rural community may be found representatives of this class, — men who read, and digest what they read, — men who think for themselves, and in whose conversation the wisest may find pleasure and instruction. They are not men to put them- selves forward ; but he who seeks, will find them enjoying the comforts and fighting the battles of life in comparative seclusion, but with none the less earnestness. They are practical philosophers, though perhaps they know it not themselves, and are noiselessly pursuing such a natural mode of life as many a social reformer is endeavoring to bring about with a vast amount of cumbersome ma- chinery. They feel no want of other sources of happiness than are within their reach ; for their taste for pure and simple pleasures has not been vitiated by the stimulants of fashion, or the excitement of speculation. The man whose life has been passed in the din and turmoil of the city, looks often with longing eyes to the quiet repose of the coun- try, and fancies that he too would be happy in such rural scenes. Perhaps the memory of a childish home among the hills, to whose tranquility he would fain return, adds a gild- ing to the picture ; but how often, on attempt- ing to realise his dream, does he find that h( has grasped a shadow ; and yet, it is not th(^ 110 BUILDINGS FOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES. picture which is false — it is himself who is changed. His tree of life has struck deep root into a far different soil, and it will not hear transplanting. The prevalence of the desire is evidence of the excellence of the ob- ject, which preserves its loveliness of appear- ance, even to him who has lost the power of securing it. It is a good omen for our country that 3 sense of the advantages of such a life is spreading among our people. With an in- creasing love of the beauties of nature, will come a higher perception of those of art, a more just sense of M'hat constitutes the true value of wealth, and a wider spread know- ledge of the true objects of existence. BUILDINGS FOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES, [FROM THE LONDON IIORT. MAGAZINE.} As many persons are deterred from building green-houses and conservatories by the ex- pense, or rather the supposed expense of their erection, it ought to be generally known that by going a proper way to work there is hardly an excuse for being without these luxuries, (for such we deem them,) in any moderate garden. It is true that those persons who set themselves up as builders of such con- cerns, and who would make it appear that there is something peculiar that takes them out of the ordinary builder's business, do charge very exorliitantly for all kinds of hor- ticultural buildings ; and where money ap- pears to be no oliject, they do not forget to throw a good deal of cost into certain features which are no improvements, and which add no single advantage to the concern. By adopting circular forms and domes, by arrang- ing designs so as to cause irregular cutting for the glass, by bringing in subjects out of the usual size, and using material that is diffi- cult to procure or work, it is very easy to swell the cost of anything; and it becomes simply a question of a great expenditure or none, for the party who wishes to build ; and often ends in their declining altogether to have anything of the kind erected. Let us, then, see how ecomomieally we can build a green-house and a conservatory, and we will reduce the thing to lines and figures, so that our readers may add the cost of carry- ing material, and of the labor on the spot, to put them together, and so see how much it would cost them ; or they may find builders on the spot, to complete the whole, without having any portion from London. There are to be had many carpenters who BUILDINGS FOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES. Ill are clever at sucli work, and who will execute the woodwork of any of these buildings at one shilling per foot. Suppose, therefore, we cal- culate that a lean-to green-house, Fig. 19, has Fig. 19. three feet of woodwork upright in front, and two six-feet lights from back to front, and three feet six inches wide, and that there be ten of these lights side by side to make the length of the house, which would then be thirty-seven feet. Suppose the tops are sloped so as to give us ten feet for the depth of the house, there would then be, three times 37 feet, (111) for the upright front, and twelve times 37 feet (444) for the roof, and say sixty feet for each end (120.) The doors will add about 20 feet. We now get at the total num- ber of feet, which is 695, Mhich number of shillings, thirty-four pounds fifteen shillings gives us the carpenter's work. We will reckon the glazing of the roof, or 444 feet, at 4^d. — eight pounds three shillings and two- pence, and the rest of the glass, 231 at 8^. — seven pounds fourteen shillings. There would be wanting the price of the bricklayer's work only to complete this building, this depending a little upon the price of the material in the locality, for sometimes the distance the bricks have to be drawn makes a good deal of differ- ence ; but the height of the brickwork, say eighteen inches in the ground, and two feet six out of the ground, together four feet, with the ends fifty-seven feet in length. This should be nine-inch work : say it will cost ten pounds, making sixty pounds, and under sixty-one. The heating of a house like this would require a conical boiler, say three pounds ; and eighty feet of pipe, at eighteen pence, six pounds ; and fixing, say two pounds more. Here, then, is a first rate range of green-houses, thirty-seven feet long and ten feet Avide, for about seventy pounds, as handsome as it can be built, and all complete.* A conservatory. Fig. 20, the same length and double the width, and with glass to the bottom, maybe reckoned at double the sum, and no one could doubt of the effective appearance of this style of building for both. The annexed sketches of a green-house and conservatory will give an idea of the buildings alluded to in the foregoing notice. The prices mentioned are quite the outside, and include all the fasten- ings, hinges, and necessary means of heating. The filling up of the inside is so completely a matter of taste, that it is impossible to say what would be the cost, until the intended plan is known. The best way to fit up a green-house is with a table or rack in front, two feet wide, and shelves the form of the roof at the other side of the path. Fig. 21. The conservatories may be fitted rather differently, for the object there is to make it a sort of winter garden. There should be a broad walk all round, laid with the finest binding gravel. The centre should be pre- pared for planting, and the borders should be glass, which is the most neat and elegant, as well as lasting of all borders. As the glass of the windows reach to within a trifle of the ground, there may be a rack or shelf one foot wide even with the bottom of the glass. Un- der this rack should be placed the hot water pipes for heating, a gutter being formed just below the si;rface to make room for them. This shelf or rack is to hold pots of blooming plants, with which it should be kept supplied. * The cost would be about the same price liere. if substan- tially built ; that is, at about SflO per foot, or $370 for the whole. Ed. 112 BUILDINGS FOR HORTIOULTURAL PURPOSES. The ties which are necessary ?cross the roof, and pillars which are usually placed at given distances, are so many useful supports for climbing plants, and the centre bed should be planted with much more regard to after-effect than any we have seen, for even that at the horticultural society is crowded with coarse, worthless subjects, which are damaging or banishing altogether much better things. A section of the conservatory would be some- thing like Fig. 22. The path round might be of marble or Portland stone, but it is better to have it like the principal gravel walks ; and with regard to the planting, the middle Fig. 22. should have the tallest subjects, not at the moment they are planted, perhaps, but those which are naturally tallest, and which are sure to go up. Camellia japonica, a few of the choicest kinds ; Azalea indica according to tlicir habit, the tallest in the middle. Nearly all the hard wooded plants of the Cape will do well, but a choice should be made of those that will be most effective. The conservatory is used by many as a common green-house, and the plants in pots are crowded into It for the winter ; but the luxury of the conservatory is absent altogether, unless it is heated as a winter garden. The centre should be dug like a border, and some plants should be put out as if they were shrubs in the open ground ; others may be plunged in pots for the sake of their bloom while in flower, and be removed for others as they pass their bloom ; but the conserva- tory should be supplied by means of other houses and pits with plants coming into per- fection, and removable when their beauty has gone. By this means it may be kept one mass of flowers the whole year round, and especially grand and imposing during the ■winter months, when the Camellia japonica, with its random flowers, begins lighting up the houses which even without forcing, but with a little management, can be produced flowering in abundance. All other early spring subjects can be hastened to bloom in winter ; and sum- mer flowering plants can be easily forwarded to bloom in spring. There are some things, however, so beautiful in themselves in all their stages, that they deserve a place in the conservatory, as permanent plants, and may be planted out in the centre beds to remain. Of these the Camellia japonica is one of the most striking, and three or four of the best kinds should be selected. The Azalea indica, Hovea Celsi, and a few others known to suc- ceed well in such situations, should be planted out ; and there are some few climbing plants worthy of a place in the very best selections. This, however, only explains the reason for some of the provisions made in a proper con- servatory ; our notions are that span build- ings should have ties, and these ties may be made subservient to our purposes, for climb- ing plants look best when allowed to run across the roof, as it were, and hang, as they will, in festoons, and their ends form complete receivers of flowers. The style and the build of those erections must depend a good deal on their situations, and the places adjoining : several of the sketches are given to show how they may be viewed. There is a method, too, of heating them, somewhat different to that which we have mentioned. For instance, a gutter may be made under the floor, if it is wished to conceal the pipes, or the gutter may be made waterproof and covered with iron plates, and this could be used as a tank, and the water flow round the house in them, instead of in pipes. But we know of nothing better than pipes, and should always use them in preference. To go from the consideration of these to other buildings. We have to mention that as the top lights constitute the principal expense in pits and frames, stoves, and propagating houses, they may be had for fetching at less than a shilling per foot, glazed complete and primed. Who would be without plenty of glass ? The stove is important. It should, in a small establishment, be made to answer for anything of the stove kind, though many people are so prejudiced against this general treatment of all plants. These may be con- trived in the same building, placed in the different degrees of heat that may be formed, or rather made, in the same house. There BUILDINGS FOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES. 113 can be always found appropriate places for different things ; and it is worth while to keep also different degrees of dampness by artificial means. In the stove or hot-house, Mr. Penns' system for circulating the air is the most ad- visable plan for heating the house. Tliis plan consists of giving off the heated air at the lowest portion of the house, that it may spread up the roof, and, as it falls, returning under the floor or false bottom to the place where Fig. 23. the fires continue to heat it as it passes from time to time, by which means a rapid uninterrupted circulation is kept up, and greatly contributes to the health of the plants. The section of a hot-hou.se upon this plan would be .something like Fig. 2.3. On a large scale, this would be a most effective plan, for there is nothing more simple, and when one of the pits constructed on this plan is clo.sed, the circulation of air is re- markably strong : holes are left, through which air may be admitted at pleasure j but it is not often required. The brick-work in the stoAC is more expensive than in a green-house or conservatory, and the false bottom under ^vhieh the cooled air passes from the back to the front™, rather increases the labor ; but in houses in which the tan pits are built, they would form an obstacle to the free circulation of air, if it were not for a grating at the back to let it down under the floor as it cools, and another grating under the pipes to let the cooled air coiue up again between them to be warmed again. The wood-work and glazing of a stove is no more than that of a green- house, and the build is much the same, except that the house should be deeper from back to frrnt. The operation of the boiler and pipes is very simple, and may be understood from the foregoing diagram (Fig. 24,) for, turn and twi.st the pipes as you may, all that is re- quired, is, that one end goes out at the top of the boiler, and the other end returns in at the bottom of the boiler. Thus the Fig. 25. boiler is like two inverted flower-pots, one less than the other, and the water is between the inner one which holds the fire, and the outer one which is exposed. The fuel is put in at top and shut down. The fuel is pro- vided for in the fixing. This boiler would feed hundreds of feet of pipe, and it is ])er- haps the simplest and best of the many jilans for heating horticultural buildings ; due re- gard being had to the capacity and the eco- nomy of the thing, for both are objects worthy of attention. It is easily managed, for when the fire is lighted well, the aperture may be filled to the top and covered over, the regu- lator of the flue being so far closed as to allow of slow steady combustion. If a tank for hot water is preferred to tan in the interior pit, the tank may be made about eight inches deep, or from that to ten, the top must be closed with large slates, cemented together, leaving only one aperture to open at pleasure ; this may be heated by sending the usual iron pipes through the tank ; on the top of this tank may be placed a foot of tan or soil, or any other medium in which to plunge pots, or plant whatever is to be grown. The top of one (Fig. 25,) is open to show the pipes, the Fig. 26. other (Fig. 26,) closed, to show the slates ; but the water in the tank may come direct from 114 BUILDINGS FOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES. the boilei', in which case the circulation takes place in the boiler; a partition, such as is shown (Fig. 27,) facilitates the circulation greatly, though it would act without any par- tition, but the circulation would not be so Fig. 27. direct and complete. The adoption of a tank for bottom heat does not render the usual ones a bit less necessary for the regulation of the atmosphere of the house. In the manage- ment of these pipes, there is a choice of allow- ing the pipes to go through the tank and heating the tank water by those means, or the water may be fairly discharged into the tank from the pipes, and after circulating in the tank, going out again through the returning pipes : in this case, the tank would be thus — Fig. 28. (Fig. 28.) Although only one pipe is repre- sented, it can be doubled and trebled ^yithout affecting the main plan, and the saving of tan in the pit will be a considerable object, especially in localities that require it to be drawn any distance, for the cartage is fre- quently a good deal more costly than the material itself. We should always set our faces against any of the complicated systems for headng houses. The more all operations can be simplified the better, and changes are Fig. 29. always bad, if the plan in operation answers the purpose at all well. The construction of ordinary plant preservers, admits of great variety, because there may be every degree of heat and coolness ; from the brick-built pit that is without any means of heating, to the necessary heat for stove plants, and there is scarcely any description of erection upon which there is so much money wasted ; and this expenditure is often the result of collusion between interested persons. Builders too often induce those who can influence masters to have very useless things built, and it has been greatly encouraged by the garden newspapers, recommending one ridiculous contrivance after another, much to the disadvantage of the gardeners who have the management of the concerns, and who no sooner get used to the things they have, than they are called upon to adopt something else no better — perhaps no worse, but nevertheless not a little expensive. A range of pits three feet high at the back, and fifteen or eighteen inches high in front, six feet from back to front — the glass and wood work of such a pit would be little ex- pense, for the glass ought to be small, and the whole might be comprised in a shilling a foot, or three pounds every ten feet of length ; ranges of pits of this description (Fig. 29,) will preserve heaths and hard wooded plants, with good covering, against frost, without any artificial heat, and they are the most useful of all the subsidiary buildings in a garden. If it be desirable, or necessary to preserve the surplus of stove plants, a single row of iron pipe, back and front, heated from any boiler, will answer the piirpose; and if to preserve orchideous plants, the only addi- tional precaution required, will be to provide the moist atmosphere ; but a pit of this kind, without much moisture, will be excellent as a resting place for those not intended to grow for a while. Camellias do well in such pits, without any fire heat, and only require to be closed and covered during the hardest frosts. Several ranges of such pits adapted to the plants they are to hold, may be erected in an appropriate place in front of each other; as, however, some require only cucumbers, and cannot obtain stable dung, one of the pits should be heated upon the tank system, like that already proposed for heating the centre pit of a stove : the construction in this case must be the same, and it will be well to carry out the plan of the hollow or Mse bottom for the circulation of air, for that will always be found an acquisition where it can be done conveniently. It is only necessary to obtain additional height for the room taken up by BUILDINGS FOR HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES. 115 tlie deptli of the tank ; many, however, prefer for pits, dung heat ; in this case, tlie wall of the pit must be perforated with holes, or ra- ther must be built with holes, leading to a hollow chamber, over which the bed is formed, and outside the wall must be a second wall, and a trench between them (Fig. 30,) or there are others who have archways leading to the chamber, and thrust the dung into it, raking it out and putttng a hot supply whenever the other gets too cold, so as to allow the heat of the bed to decline too much ; many, however, will do more with a common hot-bed and garden frame, than others can do with all the .Expensive contrivances of modern buildings, and this may be called the most unpretending and useful of all garden constructions. AVe believe we have gone through all the abso- lutely necessary buildings for a garden, for one or other of these may be used for peach, cherry, or fig houses, forcing house, or by whatever other name they may be called. The stove is fit for a pinery. The same con- trivance in lower pits will do for succession plants. The form of the green-house, with ap- propriate means of heating, will do for grapes, and if we make any other particular altera- tion, it would be in favor of orchideous Fig. 31. plants, but even here, we should deviate but little from the ordinary stove, except by mak- ing shelves and places whereon to hang the various contrivances to hold the plants, for when they are in flower, the conservatory should be their place, and when not in flower, there need be no great pains taken to render the house commodious for visitors, unless, indeed, there be what may be called a show orchideous house, in which case the paths may be wider, and an open tank of water, not to be heated, except by the natural warmth of the place. This house, however, might be made a sort of stove conservatory, and if so, there may be any fanciful flower adopted that may suit the taste of the owner. We, however, do not profess to find a hundred plans for structures, on which no tM-o persons' tastes would be indulged alike, and therefore leave this part of the subject for others, for each one will give a diff'crent opinion, and furnish a diff"erent design. As a protection for plants on walls, without heat, one of the most simple plans is to use the lights of a common pit placed in a sloping position (Fig. 31,) and for a great preserva- tion against the filling frosts, a coping should be always built on the wall. The lights may be placed close together, side by side, to ex- tend the range as far as may be desirable, and the ends may be closed with mats. As a protection for climbing jilants that are a lit- tle tender, it is very efiicacious, for the coping prevents the heavy rains from trickling down the wall ; and there is nothing more fatal to half-hardy plants that are nailed against a wall, tlian wet in winter. The upper portion of the glass rests under the coping, so that no wet can get behind it. We have seen it re- commended to place the entire fi-ame against the wall, and the lights put on the frames. Of course, in such case, the small front of the frame is placed upwards. This is purely theoretical ; no man could reduce it to " practice without finding out that the wood work could not be put close to the wall, unless all the stems of the trees or plants are nobbed into the wood work, nor would the wood work of the back, which is to be next the ground, lay even unless the border were level (which is not so in one of twenty places,) or as it were, propped to a level ; again, the plan would be use- less if the boder had any other plants on it ; again, wooden frames for lights are rarely more than six feet from back to front, so that all above six feet high would be exposed. The plan may do on paper, but not in prac- tice. The lights of pits are, for the most part, from seven to nine feet long ; and in all gardens there should be as much uniformity in the size of the lights as possible. All 116 A COUNTRY RESIDENCE IN THE ELIZABETHAN STYLE. wooden frames for hot-beds should be five and a half to six feet long, and three and a half wide. All pits should be from seven and a half to nine feet, by four, to four and a half wide ; but it saves immense trouble to have all the pit lights of the same dimensions ; they are more handy to stow away, it matters not where they are used, and it is proper always to have a few spare ones. In using these lights against a wall, no matter whether one or a dozen be required, the ends have simply to be matted to keep out the cold ; and whether there be six feet or sixty thus protected, there are but the two ends to mat. There are several considerations against using the wood framing ; among these, the flat top being exposed, the rain Avill run in somewhere, for there is nothing to keep it out ; in the next place, the glass is too far from the plants. The advantage of using the light only is that it can be placed nearly upright if necessary, or sloping out ; and in very severe winters mats can be used all over them, and be easily kept In their places ; not so if they project like a frame. If it be proposed to have framing on purpose, why, we might as well build a green- house at once. Our diagram gives a very good idea of what we propose, both as to the coping and the glass ; a slate coping, is all that need be put. This material is no Aveight for the wall, will easily fasten, and although much has been said for and against copings to Walls, it is one of those instances of contro- versy in which one or both parties look but to one side of the question. One says the trees on a wall ought to have all the rain, and the coping is only good in winter ; but all things under artificial treatment require to be ma- naged consistently all through. AVe all know walls are a great protection to fruit trees, as well as other plants ; but they have their evils as well as their benefit, unless we coun- teract them. The trees on a wall require the nourishment of the rains from which they are shielded, because when the wind is blowing from the back, the ram never touches them ; but if we, by artificial treatment, deprive a plant of any particular advantage, it is our business to supply it. Wall fruit trees, under proper management, have the advantage of moisture over their foliage, when they want it only, and thus escape an excess of wet which those unprotected do not. This moisture is supplied by syringes, and not one gardener in two takes the trouble to give it them. Syr- inging is one of the most efficacious opera- tions imaginable ; nothing keeps a plant so clear of vermin ; nothing disturbs the pests of the walls so much. The fineness or coarse- ness of the holes through which the water is forced determines the force with which it can be thrown against the trees. Before the buds open at all, it cannot be too strong, for the use of it then is to clean the stems, and wash out the dirt and vermin or eggs that may be behind them. When the growth is young and tender, it can hardy be too fine, for al- though driven with as much force as we can from the engine, there is no weight in such small particles to damage the young growth. Now the syringing under glass becomes still more necessary, so also does it under a coping, for as neither the rains sloping from the back, nor the downright rains can reach the plant, it would lose the necessary moisture alto- gether, if not artificially supplied. Pegs may be driven into the ground to prevent the light from slipping outwards, or a narrow board with a ledge for them to rest on, and when it is necessary to remove the lights, there will be no vestiges of the temporary protection remaining. The coping to the walls is found very beneficial to many half hardy and tender climbing plants, and is never detrimental to anything. A COUNTRY RESIDENCE IN THE ELIZABETHAN STYLE. We copy from Brown's Domestic Architec- ture— an English work, very little known here — the pleasant, comfortable-looking, coun- try house, /which makes our frontispiece. It is designed in that later kind of Gothic, which some architects call the Tudor, and others the Elizabethan style. Our object in placing it before such of our readers as are interested in rural architecture, is mainly to point out its beauties and defects, TUDOR SUBURBAN RESIDENCE. PRINCIPAL TLOOa. [HORT. ><>pi. l-> MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 117 as affording instruction to those who are en- gaged in studying plans preparatory to building. There is, then, much that is pleasing in the exterior of this house. As regards symmetry, proportion, solidity, dignity, and a certain ex- pression of substantial and refined comfort, it has claims upon our admiration. The ar- rangement of the first floor is simple and good ; and the position of the kitchen offices, in a separate wing, partly concealed by shrub- bery plantations, is excellent. On the other hand, there is a great archi- tectural deficiency in the composition of the roof, and sky outline of the elevation. We would both remedy this in a good degree, and improve the internal comfort and beauty, by placing the ehinmeys in the partition walls, exactly opposite the places in the })rincipal rooms where they now stand. This would bring out the chimney tops towards the mid- dle of the roof, instead of upon the outside walls ; and as they would of course bC'Carried up six or eight feet above the ridge, they would give central and p3ramidal height to the middle of the pile, where it is now squatty and meagre. In other words, it would im- prove the exterior composition. To such a country house as this, a veranda is an indis- pensable appendage in this country, though not essentially necessary in England. We wovdd therefore add it to that side of the li- brary and drawing-room where the chimneys now stand in the plan. Those chimneys or fireplaces being moved, as we have already suggested, to the opposite side of the rooms, a coui)le of broad windows, opening down to the floor of the veranda, should occupy their places, which would greatly improve the as- pect of the rooms themselves. The oriel window, which projects over the front porch, has a petty, cockneyish air, quite out of keeping with the rest of the front. By turning back to the frontispiece of our No- vember number, 1849, the reader will see an oriel window correctly designed, which would greatly improve the facade of this house. The staircase is both handsome and easy, — the hall in which it is placed being 14 feet wide, so as to give space enough for those broad landings and low steps which we rarely sec, except in first class houses. Altogether, this design might be remodel- led so as to make a very satisfactory country house for the United States, with a few alte- rations like those we have suggested. MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. My Dear Sir : — As, after looking at some constellation in a summer night, one remem- bers most vividly its largest and most potent star, so, from amid a constellation of fine country seats, I can write you to-day only of my visit to one, but that, one which for its pecidiar extent, overtops all the rest — War- wick Castle. Warwick Castle, indeed, combines in itself perhaps more of romantic and feudal interest than any actual residence in Europe, and for this very reason, because it unit.\s in itself the miracle of exhibiting at the same moment hoar antiquity, and the actual vivid present, having been held and maintained from first to last by the same family. In most of the magnificent country seats of England, it is rather vast extent and enormous expense which impresses one. If they are new, they are sometimes overloaded with elaborate details ;* if old, they *I,ike Eton Ha!I, near Liverpool, perhaps visited hj more Amcricuiis than any other seat— though the architecture is meretricious, and the wliole place as wanting in sfeiutiue taste as it is abounding in evidences of immense wealth. Warwick Castle bears, to an American, the same relation to all mo- dern castles that the veritable Noah's ark. if it could be found still in full preservation, would to a model made by an inge- nious antiquarian. 118 MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. are often modernised in so tasteless a manner as to destroy all sentiment of antiquity. Plate glass windows ill accord with antique case- ments, and Paris furniture and upholstery are not in keeping with apartments of the time of Elizabeth. In Warwick Castle and all that belongs to it, I found none of this. All was entire harmony, and I lingered within and about it, enjoying its absolute perfection, as if the whole were only conjured up by an enchanter's spell, and would soon dissolve into thin air. And yet, on the contrary, I knew that here was a building which is more than nine hundred years old ; which has been the residence of successive generations of the same family for centuries ; which was the fortress of that mightiest of English subjects, Warwick, "the great king-maker," (who boasted that he had deposed three English sovereigns and placed three in their vacant throne,) which, long before the discovery of iVmerica, was the scene of wild jarring and haughty chivalry, bloody prowess — yes, and of gentle love and sweet affections, but which, as if defying time, is still a castle, as real in its character as a feudal stronghold, and yet as complete a ba- ronial residence, as the imagination can con- ceive. To an American, whose country is but two hundred years old, the bridging over such a vast chasm of time by the domestic memo- rials of a single family, when, as in this case, that family has so made its mark upon the early annals of his own race, there is some- thing approaches the sublime. The small town of Warwick, a quaint old place, which still bears abundant traces of its Saxon origin, is situated nearly in the centre of England, and lies on one side of the castle, to which it is a mere dependency. It is pla- ced on a rising hill or knoll, the castle occu- pying the highest part, though mostly con- cealed from the town by thick plantations. Around the other sides of the castle flows the Avon, a lovely stream, whose poetical fame has not belied its native charms ; and beyond it stretch away the broad lands which belong to the castle. The finest approach for the stranger is from the pretty town of Leamington, about two miles east of Warwick. At a turn, a few hundred rods distant from the castle, the road crosses the Avon by a wide bridge with a mossy stone balustrade, and here, looking upward, " Bosomed high in lufled trees. Towers and baulements he sees." The banks of the stream are finely fringed with foliage ; beyond them are larger trees ; upon the rising ground in the rear grow lofty and venerable chestnuts, oaks, and elms ; and over this superb foreground, rises up, grand and colossal, the huge pile of grey stone, soft- ened by the effects of time, and the rich masses of climbers that hang like floating drapery about it. For a few moments you lose sight of it, and the carriage suddenly stops before a high embattled wall, where the porter answers the knock by slowly unfold- ing the massive iron gates of the portal. Driving through this gateway you wind through a deep cut in the solid rock, almost hidden by the masses of ivy that hang along its sides, and in a few moments find yourself directly before the entrance front of the castle. Who- ever designed this front, made up as it is of lofty towers and irregular wall, must have been a poet as well as architect, for its com- position and details struck me as having the proportions and congruity of a fine scene in nature, which we feel is not to be measured and defined by the ordinary rules of art. And as it rose up before me, hoary and venerable, yet solid and complete, I could have believed that it was rather a magnificent effort of na- ture than any work of mere tools and masonry. In the central tower opened another iron gate, and driving through a deep stone arch- way, I found myself in the midst of a large open space of nearly a couple of acres, car- MR. DOWMNG'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 119 peted with the finest turf, dotted with groups of aged trees and shrubs, and surrounded on all sides by the castle walls. This is the inner court-yard of the castle. Around it, forming four sides, are grouped in the most picturesque and majestic manner, the varied forms and outlines of the vast pile, partly hidden by the rich drapery of ivy and old mossy trees. On the most sheltered side of the circular walk which surrounds this court-yard, among many fine evergreens, I noticed two giant Arbutuses (a shrub which I have vainly attempted to acclimatize in the northern States,) more than thirty feet high, with trunks a couple of feet in diameter, the growth of more than 200 years. On the south side of this court lies the principal mass of the castle, affording an un- broken suite of rooms 333 long. At the north- east, Cassar's tower, built in Saxon times, — the oldest part of the whole edifice, whose ex- act date is unknown — which rises dark, gloomy and venerable, above all the rest ; while at the south-east stands the tower built by the great Warwick — broader and more massive, and partly hidden by huge chestnuts. The other sides are not inhabited, but still remain as originally built, — a vast mass of walls with embattled parapets broken by towers with loopholes and positions for defence — but with their sternness and severity broken by the tender drapery of vines and shrubs, and the luxuriant beauty of the richest verdure. In the centre of the south side of this noble court-yard, you enter the castle by a few steps. Passing through the entrance hall, you reach the great hall, vast, baronial and mag- nificent— the floor paved with marble — and the roof carved in oak. Along the sides, which are pannelled in dark cedar, are hung the armor and the weapons of every age since the first erection of the castle. I was shown the leather shirt, with its blood-stains black- enpf" bv time, worn by an ancestor of the present carl, who was slain at the battle of Litchfield, and many other curious and pow- erful weapons used by the great warriors of the family through a course of centuries. On either side of this hall, to the right and left, in a straight line, extend the continuous suite of apartments. The first on the right is the anti-drawing-room, the walls crimson and gold ; next, the cedar drawing-room — the walls richly wainscoted with wood of the ce- dar of Lebanon ; third, the great drawing- room, finely proportioned and quite perfect in tone — its walls delicate apple-green, relieved by a little pure white, and enriched with gild- ing ; next. Queen Anne's state bedroom, with a superb state bed presented to the then Earl of Warwick, by that queen, being antique, with tapestry, and decorated with a fine full length picture of Queen Anne ; and beyond this a cabinet filled with the choicest speci- mens of ancient Venetian art and workman- ship. Behind the hall is the chapel, and on the left the suite is continued in tha same manner as on the right. Of course a good deal of the furniture has been removed from time to time, and large portions of the interi- or have been restored by the present earl. But this has been done with such admirable taste that there is nothing which disturbs the unity of the whole. The furniture is all of dark wood, old cabinets richly inlaid with brass, old carved oaken couches, or those rich mosaic tables which were brought to England in the palmy days of the Italian states. Everything looks old, genuine and original. The apartments were hung with very choice pictures by Van Dyck, Titia and Rubens — among which I noticed a magnificent head of Cromwell, and another of Queen Mary, that riveted my attention — the former by its expression of the powerful self-centered soul, and the latter by the crushed and broken- hearted pensiveness of the countenance — for it was Mary at 40, just before her death — 120 MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. still beautiful and noble, but with the marks in her features of that suffering which alone reveals to us the depth of the soul. Not to weary you with the interior of what is only the first floor of the castle, let me take you to one of the range of large, deep, sunny windows which lights the whole of this suite of apartments on their southern side. Each window is arched overhead and wainscoted on the side, and as the walls of the castle are 10 to 12 feet thick, each window above 8 feet wide, it forms almost a little room or closet by itself. And from these windows how beautiful the landscape ! Although we enter- ed these apartments by only a few steps from the level of the court-yard, yet on looking from these windows I found myself more than 60 feet above the Avon, which almost washes the base of the castle walls on this side, wind- ing about in the most graceful curve, and lo- sing itself in the distance among groups of aged elms. On this side of the castle, be- yond the Avon, stretches away the park of about a thousand acres. As far as the eye reaches it is a beautiful English landscape, of fresh turf and fine groups of trees — and beyond it, for several miles, lie the rich farm lands of the Warwick estate. There are few pictures more lovely than such a rural scene, and perhaps its quietness and serenity, Were enhanced by contrast with the sombre gran- deur of the feudal court-yard where I first entered. Passing through a gate in the castle wall, I entered the pleasure grounds, and saw in the orangery or gr^n-house, the celebrated War- wick vase — the giant among vases. It is a magnificent mass of marble, weighing 8 tons, of beautiful proportions, of which reduced copies are now familiar to us all over the world. It was brought from the temple of Vesta, and is larger than I had been led to believe, holding nearly two hogsheads. It is also rather more globular in form, and more delicate in detail than one would suppose from the copies. In the pleasure grounds my admiration was riveted by the " cedar walk" — a fine avenue of cedars of Lebanon — that noblest of ever- greens— some sixty feet high, a tree which in its stately symmetry and gi-eat longevity, seemed a worthy companion of this princely castle. But even the cedar of Lebanon is too short lived, for the two oldest trees which stand almost close to the southern walls of the castle, and which are computed to be about five hundred years old — gigantic and venera- ble in appearance — have lately lost several of their finest branches, and are evidently fast going to decay. It was striking to me to see, on the other hand, how much the hoary aspect of the outer walls of the castle were heightened by the various beautiful vines and climbers intermingled with harebells, daisies and the like, which had sprung up of them- selves on the crevices of the mighty walls that overhang the Avon, and sustained by the moisture of its perennial waters, were allowed to grow and flower without molestation, though everything else that hastens the decay of the building is jealously guarded against. If anything more were wanting to heighten the romantic interest of this place, it would be found in the relics which are kept, partly in in the castle, and partly in the apartments at the outer portal, of the famous Grey, Earl OF Warwick, who lived in Saxon times, and whose history and exploits heretofore al- ways seemed as fabulous to me as those of Blue-Beard himself. Still, here is his sword, an enormous weapon six feet long, which it requires both hands to lift, his breast-plate weighing fifty-two pounds, and his helmet se- ven pounds. The size of these, (and their genuineness is beyond dispute,) shows that he must have been a man whose gigantic stature almost warrants the belief in the miracles of valor which he performed in battle — as an MR. DOWNING'S LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 121 enormous iron " porridge pot " of singular clumsy antique form which holds 102 gallons, does any amount of credulity as to the diges- tive powers necessary to sustain the Colussus who slew all the dragons of his day. While I was at Warwick, I ascended on a fine moonlight evening, the top of the highest tower, commanding the whole panorama of feudal castle, tributary town, and lovely land- scape. It would be vain to attempt to de- scribe the powerful emotions that such a scene and its many associations, under such circum- stances, awakened within me ; but I turned my face at last, westward, toward my native land, and with uplifted eyes thanked the good God, that, though to England, the country of my ancestors, it had been given to show the growth of man in his highest developmont of class or noble, to America has been reserved the greater blessing of solving for the world the true problem of all humanity — that of the abolition of all castes, and the recognition rif the divine rights of every human soul. This neighborhood is c(jually beautiful to the eye of the picturesque or the agricultural tourist. I was shown farms on the Warwick estate which are let out to tenants at over £2 per acre — and everywhere the richness of the grain-fields gave evidence both of high culti- vation and excellent soil. The chief differ- ence, after all, between an English rural land- scape and one in the older and better cultiva- ted parts of the United States, is almost wholly in the universality of verdant hedges, and the total absence of all other fences. The hedges (for the most part of hawthorn,) di- vide all the farm-fields, and line ail the road- sides— and even the borders of the railways, in all parts of the country. I was quite sat- isfied with the truth of this conjecture, when I came, accidentally, in my drive yesterday, upon a little spot of a few rods — where the hedges had been destroyed,. and a temporary post and rail fence, like those at home, nut in Vol. y. 8 their place. The whole thing was lowered at once to the harshness and rickety aspect of a farm at home. The majority of the farm hedges are only trimmed once a year — in winter — and therefore have, perhaps, a more natural and picturesque look than the more carefully trimmed hedges of the gardens. Hence, for a farm hedge, a plant should be chosen that will grow thick of itself, with only this single annual clipping, and which will adapt itself to all soils. I am, therefore, confirmed in my belief, that the buckthorn is the farmer's hedge plant for America, and I am also satisfied that it will make a better and far more durable hedge than the hawthorn does, even here. Though England is beautifully wooded, yet the great preponderance of the English elm — a tree wanting in grace, and only grand when very old, renders an English road side land- scape in this respect, one of less sylvan beauty than our finest scenery of like character at home. The American elm, with its fine drooping branches, is rarely or never seen here, and there is none of that variety of fo- liage which we have in the United States. For this reason (leaving out of sight rail fences,) I do not think even the drives through Warwickshire so full of rural beauty as those in the valley of the Connecticut — which they most resemble. In June our mea- dows there are as verdant, and our trees in- comparably more varied and beautiful. On the other hand, you must remember that here, wealth and long civilization have so refined and perfected the details, that in this respect there is no comparison — nothing in short to be done but to admire and enjoy. For in- stance, for a circuit of eight or ten miles or more here, between Leamington and Warwick and Stratfort-on-Avon, the roads,, which are admirable, are rcgularyly sprinkled every dry day in summer, while along the^ railroads the sides are cultivated with grass,. 122 MR. DOWNINGS LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. or farm crops or flowers, almost to the very rails. The ruins of Kenilworth, only five miles from Warwick, have been so often visited and described that they are almost familiar to jon. Though built long after Warwick cas- tle, this vast palace, which covered (including the garden walls,) six or seven acres, is entire- ly in ruins — like most of the very old castles in England. The magnificent suites of apart- ments where the celebrated Earl of Leices- ter, the favorite of Elizabeth, entertained his sovereign with such regal magnificence, are roofless and desolate — only here and there a fragment of a stately window or a splendid hall, attesting the beauty of the noble architec- ture. Over such of the walls and towers as are yet standing, grows however, the most gigantic trees of ivy — absolutely trees — with trunks more than two feet in diameter, and rich masses of foliage, that covered the hoary and crumb- ling walls with a drapery so thick that I could not fathom it with an arm's length. When the ivy gets to be a couple of hundred years old, it loses something of its vine-like charater, and more resembles a gigantic laurel tree, growing against and partly hiding the venera- ble walls. In the ancient pleasure grounds of Kenil- worth— those very pleasure grounds whose alleys, doubtless Elizabeth and Leicester had trodden together, I saw remaining the most beautiful hedges of old gold and silver holly — almost (to one fond of gardening) of them- selves worth coming across the Atlantic to see— so rich were they in their variegated glossy foliage, and so large and massive in their growth. As these ruins are open to the public, and are visited by thousands, the keep- ers find it to their account to preserve, as much as possible, the relics of the old gar- den in good order, though the palace itself is past all renovation. In this neighborhood, at a distance of eight miles, is also that spot dearest to all who speak the English language, and all who respect human genius, Stratford-on-Avon. The coach- man who drove me thither from Warwick Castle, and whose mind probaly measures greatness by the size of the dwelling it inhabits — volunteer- ed the information to me on the way there that it was " a very smallish, poor sort of a house," that I was going to see. As I stood within the walls of the humble room, little more than seven feet high, and half a dozen yards long, where the greatest of poets was born and passed so many days of his life, I invol- untarily uncovered my head, and felt how much more sublime is the power of genius, which causes this simplest of birth places to move a deeper chord in the heart than all the pomp and external circumstance of high birth or heroic acheivements, based as they mostly are, upon the more selfish side of man's nature. It was, indeed, a very " smallish" house, but it was large enough to be the home of the mightiest soul that England's sky ever co- vered. Not far distant is the parish church, where Shakespeare lies buried. An avenue of lime trees, singularly clipped so as to form an arbor, leads across the churchyard to the porch. Under a large slab of coarse stone lies the remains of the great dramatist, bear- ing the simple and terse epitaph composed by himself; and above it, upon the walls, is the monumental bust which is looked upon as the most authentic likeness. It has, to my eye, a wooden and unmeaning expression, with no merit as a work of art — and if there is any truth in physiognomy could not have been a likeness — for the upper lip is that of a man wholly occupied with self-conceit. I prefer^ o-roatly, the portrait in Warwick Castle — which shows a foce paler and strongly marked with traces of thought, and an eye radiant with the fire of genius — but ready with a warm, light- ning glance, to read the souls of others. DROOPING TREES. 123 I write you from London, where I have promised to make a visit to Sir William Hooker, who is the director of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, and have accepted an invitation from the DuKE OP Northum- berland to see the fine trees at Sion House. Yours most cordially, A. J. D London, July 29, 1S30. DROOPING TREES. BY P. BARRY, ROCHESTER, N. Y. The peculiar gracefulness and elegance of drooping trees, render them of great impor- tance in the embellishment of landscapes. Whether appropriately grouped, or scattered singly on a lawn, they are equally capable of producing the most charming effects. They are also peculiarly appropriate for planting rural cemeteries, for forming natural arbors, and various other rustic decorations. The rapid growth of taste throughout this coun- try, in regard to ornamental planting, im- provement of cemeteries,