considers that their large leaves do good to the asparagus roots by protecting them from the sun, while the tall stems of the asparagus afford a shelter to the leaves of the gourds. Last summer's extraordinary drought, had burned up, on his gravelly soil, the cabbages, peas, turnips, &c. by the beginning of August, and had he not been - provided with gourds as a substitute, the family must have had recourse to market. The servants disliked them at first, but soon came to like them better than summer cabbage. He therefore recommends, especially where the soil is liable to be burnt up in summer, planting the vegetable marrow and other Cucurbitaccæ as a reserve crop.

Note.-To the above we may add, that the tender tops of all the edible species of cucurbitaceæ, boiled as greens or spinage, are a fully more delicate vegetable than the fruit. It must be worth something to gardeners and cooks to know that either, or both, may be used for this purpose, when scarcely any thing else can be got.

2. On the Cultivation of the English and American Cranberry and the Water-cress, at Bretton Hall. By Mr. CHRISTIE DUFF, late Gardener there. Dated December 20th,

1825.

THE beds are made across a bank which slopes to the south, and the plants, instead of being shaded, as is generally recommended for those planted in gardens, are fully exposed to the summer's sun. The advantages to the fruit are obvious. The beds are six feet wide with two-feet trenches between them, through which passes a stream of running water. The sloping situation renders it necessary to run a small line of puddle along the lower edges of each bed, as high as the surface of the peat, to prevent the escape of the water. By this, and other obvious arrangements, the water circulates from trench to trench, entering at the top and passing off at the bottom of the declivity. Very sandy peat is used. In winter the water is kept low, but in summer it is raised as high as the surface of the beds, and so as occasionally to flood them. Abundance of water Mr. Duff considers as essentially necessary to the success of this plan.

The cresses, it will be easily conceived, are grown in the trenches among the running water; a little sand being laid along them to promote their rooting. The sub-soil of the whole bank devoted to this mode of culture is a retentive clay.

3. On the Management of newly-imported Orange and Lemon trees. By Mr. WILLIAM MOORE, Gardener at East Ham, Surrey. Dated Jan. 25th.

THE trees, as soon as received, were immersed half way up their stems in water about 64° for twelve hours. They were then potted, their stems wrapped round with soft haybands, from the root to the bud; the shoots from these buds cut down to three eyes; and finally the pots' plunged into a bed of nearly spent dung, made up in the vinery. They were regularly watered morning and evening, and the hay-bands well moistened every time; the water used was of 65°, the tempeFature of the house. In ten days they all began to push vigorously; excepting one plant, which was neither steeped in water, nor wrapped round with hay-bands, and which remained a month quite inactive, while the others had produced shoots from four to eight inches long. Heat and proportionate moisture, Mr. Moore concludes, are the grand agents of vegetation.

4. An Account of an Experiment, which serves to show that Hot-house Flues may draw very well without terminating in an upright Shaft or Chimney. By Mr. MATTHIAS SAUL, of Lancaster, Inventor of Saul's Fruit-gatherer (Encyc. of Gard. $1347.) and other Machines. Dated Feb. 7th.

MR. SAUL'S green-house flue always had the worst draught in frosty weather, apparently from some defect in the upright chimney. As an experiment, he made an opening into the flue, and made a wood flue sixteen inches long (fig 30. b). "I found," he says, "the smoke came out with great force and ran along the ground (e), and none came out at the chimney (ƒ). I then supposed my chimney (ƒ) must be too small.

30

I therefore made a wooden flue, to fix on the sixteen-inch piece, when it completely stopped the smoke. I then fixed it in a sloping direction (g), when a little smoke came out; I then took it completely away, as I was convinced the sixteen-inch flue answered the best. I have made a stop to put on the sixteen-inch flue, as the chimney draws well when it is not frosty weather, and no smoke in the least comes out at the tube (6) when it is not frost."

5 On the Winter Management of Bees, by a Clergyman, in Morayshire. Communicated by Miss ANN DINGWALL. Dated Feb. 9th.

In a severe winter, bees are for the most part asleep, and do not eat much of their honey; in a mild winter they are in motion, and eating, and have not an opportunity of renovating their stores from flowers. Keeping these facts in view, and the winters in Morayshire being remarkable for mildness, Miss Dingwall's friend put his bees to rest in the month of October, by burying them in a peat-stack; and did not restore them to motion till the willows were in blossom, in the following April. The success was most complete, and the practice worthy of imitation in other districts, by placing the hives in cold dark cellars, or ice-houses.

6. Historical Notice of two Varieties of the Garden Pea. By Mr. T. H. MASTERS, Eden Nursery, Stoke Newington. Dated Feb. 25.

MASTER'S Imperial Marrow Pea was raised a few years since by Mr. W. Masters, seedsman, Canterbury. Among some green marrow-fat peas which he was saving for seed, he observed one or two very different from the rest, which were carefully preserved, and they have proved a valuable addition to our list of peas; they are hardy, and grow about five feet high; their size, dark green colour, and richness of flavour, will always recommend them at table.

The Dwarf Knight's Marrow Pea was raised by a gentleman's gardener, in the vicinity of Sittingbourne, Kent, and is a newer variety than the preceding one. This pea attains nearly the same height as the Blue Prussian Pea, but never higher; in all other respects, even to the shrivelly appearance of the seed, it resembles the very excellent pea raised by the indefatigable President of the Horticultural Society. 7. On the Cultivation of Pear Trees for Perry. By RusTICUS, of Kent. Dated Feb. 25th.

RUSTICUS observes, that in many orchards, containing apple and pear trees, the apples will be found cankered and un

154 Or. Pear Trees, and certain Exotics at Wormleybury.

healthy, while the pears are sound and vigorous. The pear, he says, is naturally less capricious than the apple, both in regard to soil and situation. For this reason, he suggests, that pear trees, especially those kinds whose fruit is adapted for perry, should be more frequently planted than at present. In every orchard he would have both apples and pears, in such quantities as to admit of making the fruit into cider or perry; and as the pear crop often succeeds when the apple crop fails, when cider could not be made, perry might be had. 8. Remarkable Specimens of Paeonia Papaveracea, Madras Citron, and Magnolia Conspicua, in the Gardens of Wormleybury, in Hertfordshire. Communicated by Sir ABRAHAM HUME, Bart. F. R. S. H. S. &c. the Proprietor. Dated March 18.

Paonia Papaveracea is in a house 16 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 8 feet high, and is entirely filled with the plant, so that its circumference may be estimated at 39 feet; and it would be still larger if the tree had sufficient space. There are on it at this time 630 buds.

The Madras Citron is 21 feet in height, and 15 feet in width, trained on the wall and partly on the glass roof of the conservatory. It bore last year between three and four dozen of fruit, some of which weighed above five pounds.

Magnolia Conspicua (fig. 31.) is 20 feet in height, and spreads 20 feet on the wall, and 5 feet above it. It requires no protection, and produced a year or two ago above 900 flowers; this year 730 are coming out.

156

PART II.

REVIEWS.

ART. I. Systematic Botany.

Caroli Linnæi Systema Vegetabilium, editio decima-sexta ourante CURTIO SPREngel. Vols. 1. & 2. Gottinga, 1825, 8vo.

THE physical sciences are generally supposed to depend almost entirely upon the powers of human observation for their perfection and final developement, and it was formerly admitted as an incontrovertible axiom, that philosophical induction or metaphysical classification had little or no effect upon the actual amount of ascertained facts, or, which is the same thing, upon the elements of science. It has been a common belief that the classification of natural objects had no other end than that of forming a sort of index to the science of natural history, and that systems bore the same relation to sciences as alphabets to languages. With regard to botany, the description of a plant, with a detail of its qualities in medicine or art, actual or supposed, was the utmost which was attempted by the most celebrated writers, and it certainly was never by such persons for a moment supposed that an acquaintance with the mutual relations and affinities of the vegetable kingdom, would in any degree influence the discovery of new objects. But the experience of modern times has shown that directly the reverse of this opinion is consonant with facts, and that so long as the mind remained occupied in no other manner than in the acquisition of new plants, without knowing in what way to appreciate their respective peculiarities, discoveries continued to be made slowly, and to be of little value when made. As soon, however, as botanists arrived at the art of arranging, upon philosophical principles, the materials which they possessed, their attention was strongly directed towards supporting their respective systems by the addition of new objects and of new facts.