Agave Americana Maguey, Mex. This plant is extensively cultivated in Mexico, for the sake of its sap, from which the Mexicans distil their favourite spirit pulque. "The plants are set about five or six feet asunder, and, in favourable situations, come into bloom in about ten years, at which period the valuable liquor they produce is to be procured. As soon as the cultivator perceives the plant preparing to throw up its long flower stem, he cuts out the leaves which form its centre, and hollows it out in the shape of a bowl, at the same time removing most of the other leaves, so that the whole sap destined for their supply flows to the great stem, and is received by the bowl-shaped cavity, into which it runs with such rapidity as to require to be emptied several times a day, for a space of two months. The liquor, when collected, is placed in jars or skins; it undergoes a slight fermentation, which takes place in a few days, and it is then fit for immediate drinking. Strangers prefer it when fresh, but the natives seldom use it till it has acquired a strong taste, and a disagreeable fetid smell, denominated fuerte, when it is esteemed in high perfection. A strong spirit, called pulque brandy, is distilled from this liquor. This is also called vino mercal; and resembles Scotch whiskey in colour and flavour; but it has a little more flavour of alcohol. The leaves of the plant form the roofs of some of the Indian houses, the stalks their props and rafters, and both their fences; ropes; thread, cloth, and paper are made from it; some part of the plant is used medicinally, and the root, prepared with sugar, is converted into sweetmeats. -(Bullock's Mexico, p. 20, 21, 22.) Mr. Stevenson adds, that the Indians use the prickles as a substitute for needles; the leaves as a substitute for soap, and that the flower buds are eaten boiled or pickled. (Travels, vol. ii. p. 9). The plant attains a great size; some of the leaves measured ten feet long, fifteen inches wide, and eight thick; their flower-stalks were twenty feet high, and their arms, expanding like rich candelabras, clustered with yellow flowers. (ib. 70.) It is worthy of remark, that the flower-stem of the aloe, which we have noticed (Gard. Mag. No. 1. p. 89.) as having flowered last summer at the Duke of Devonshire's, was upwards of twentyfour feet in height.

Emigration. A few intelligent gardeners from the north of our island would soon acquire fortunes in the neighbourhood of Mexico, and be the means of increasing the blessings already enjoyed by the people in those delightful regions. In such a country and climate the finest productions of every part of the globe might be produced, but the whole is left to the care of untutored Indians, whose horticultural knowledge is indeed very limited. (Bull. Mex. vol. i. p. 192.)

SOUTH AMERICA.

66

Chilian Flower Garden. When Captain Hall was at Santiago, he visited a lady in the evening, who expressed great regret, owing to its being dark, that she could not show him her garden, which, she said, was "the pride of her life." In a few days afterwards he paid her a visit in the day time, when the good lady was delighted, and led the way with great glee to her favourite spot "It certainly," Captain Hall observes, was a brilliant spectacle; for in these climates where nature does so much, the least assistance multiplies the effect in a manner of which, in cold regions, we have no conception. But our good dame, who thought of nothing less than letting nature have her course, had planted her flowers, and cut her walks and borders into the form of beasts, birds, and fishes; not only had she displayed the figures of the animals in a sort of relief, by raising and depressing the soil, but she had attended minutely to the appropriate colours of each, by the careful distribution of the proper flowers; and, to do her justice, the spot looked more like a menagerie than a garden!”—-(Capt. Hall's Chili, Peru, &c. vol. i. p. 175.)

ASIA.

Tarts of Rose-leaves. A writer in the New Monthly Magazine observes that one of the best tarts he ever tasted "was composed of nothing but rose-leaves." What variety of rose it is whose leaves alone compose a tart, he does not mention. He adds, that the most exquisite conserves are made in the neighbourhood of Damascus, amongst which are dried cakes of roses. The celebrated plain of roses from which the tarts, the cakes, and the attar is obtained, is about three miles from. the town; it is a part of the great plain of Syria, and its entire area is thickly planted with rose-trees, which are cultivated, and irrigated with great care.(New Monthly Mag. No. 79. p. 434.)

Agricultural Society of Calcutta. At a meeting of this Society, held on the 22d March, a variety of seeds were presented, which were sent from Cachemire and Ladak, by M. Moorcroft. Among these seeds are mentioned the wild pear and apple, apricot, melon, marsh onion, buck wheat, lucerne, saffron, and the Prangos hog plant. Among the books presented was a Treatise on Agriculture for Nepal, by Raja Gunshan Shingh. -(Asiat. Jour. Oct. 1825.)

AUSTRALASIA.

Cotton. Some very fine specimens, grown in the parallel of 320 south latitude, has been sent to Glasgow for manufacture. There can be no doubt that in a short time New Holland will afford an immense supply of this article.

Van Diemen's Land. The following very interesting letter on the Horticulture of this colony has been communicated to us by Mr. Joseph Knight, F.H.S. Nurseryman, Kings-road, Little Chelsea, to whom it is addressed.

Sir,

Forcett, near Hobart's Town, Van Diemen's Land. 4th September, 1825.

THE good wishes you expressed for Van Diemen's Land, in your communications with Mr. Wedge, a young gentleman in the Surveyor's department in this colony, induces me to trouble you with this: I hope my intention will be my excuse, and that any further apology will be un

necessary.

I must first thank you for the very liberal supply of fruit trees, with which you were so kind as to present him, on his leaving England, in the ship Heroine, the beginning of last year, and though they may be considered his sole property, yet they will soon get distributed through the Island; they arrived at a very good time of the year, and were planted in a gentleman's garden, near Hobart Town, where many have recovered the effects of so long a voyage; those that suffered the most were the stone fruits.

Thinking you would be gratified with a specimen of the fruits of this country, but as the very great distance renders it impossible to send them, I have taking the liberty of forwarding figures of a few of the different kinds of apples grown in my garden: could I flatter myself, that any further description of them from me would be worth your perusal, I certainly would attempt it; I shall, therefore, merely state that they were all reared from pips in this colony, the oldest plant not being more than twelve or and fourteen years. Nos. are coloured just as they came off the but was tree, and are good representations. No. . is the same as No. gathered three or four weeks before it was painted. It may be gratifying to know that No. . is a very late apple, the buds not showing the least influence of the Spring, when all other kinds are in full bloom; it was raised by A. W. H. Humphrey, Esq. our superintendant of police, a gentleman much attached to Horticulture: the others were reared by a very industrious farmer, of the name of Stanfield; probably none more ignorant of Horticulture than he is; he sows the pips, and gets trees, which, if they

bear fruit, good or bad, is the same to him. His son has planted a considerable orchard (about six acres) and has taken the pains to graft the best kind of apples he could procure. I have also forwarded by this conveyance half a dozen trees in a box, viz. two of No. . two of No. . and two of a seedling apple, which was reared by Mr. Gunning, a neighbour of mine; it has borne only twice, and I unfortunately could not get one to have it painted; it is a handsome conical shaped fruit, brownish green, and above the medium size, something in the shape like No. We have twelve or fifteen kinds of seedling apples, of very tolerable sorts, and scores that are worth nothing. I have raised several, but not one I can call decent. Another year I may be able to send you a greater variety, and better specimens, as the last summer was so excessively hot and dry, the fruit did not swell to its proper size.

You will probably expect to have a description of the state of Horticulture in Van Diemen's Land, but when I tell you, that I do not know one scientific gardener in all our importations (to the credit of the craft), you must think we make but a poor show. The gardener which I have is by trade a Leicestershire stocking weaver, but. a very clever fellow with a spade or a hoe, and can observe any directions I may give him. All plants of the brassica tribe are grown in great perfection, as are all root crops. Peas and kidney beans are very prolific, but common garden beans are very bad bearers: the white blossomed bean is the best, but that hardly worth cultivating. Onions grow well, particularly the potatoe onion, and in this climate we can rear any quantity of onion seed, which cannot be done in New South Wales. We want varieties, the Globe and the Strasburg. It is now upwards of twenty-four years since I saw an asparagus bed in England, and not being then much accustomed to a garden, my recollection of one may not be very good, but I cannot conceive any thing of the kind can be superior to what we can show here. I durst almost challenge Mr. Judd. Sea kale grows very luxuriantly here, but is too troublesome (we have no potteries), and it does not precede the asparagus above a week. Of fruits, we have apples, pears (only two kinds), quinces, gooseberries a few varieties, currants, raspberries, strawberries; these last do not bear well, all the others most abundantly; grapes bear well, and ripen tolerably in good situations, also peaches and nectarines; of the last we have only one kind; I certainly never saw finer in New South Wales; they are very large, and deep blood red; only one plum, a kind of green gage; cherries, two kinds, the small Kentish, and May duke; they bear most abundantly. We have imported no apricots until the last year or two, when Mr. Frazer, the colonial botanist at Sydney, sent me a few scions of the Moor Park, but there are several bearing trees in the colony, reared from stones: I do not think they are worth much, but might be improved by proper culture. I do not know whether you will give credit to what I am about to relate, but the farmer who reared the apples positively asserts, that after eating a peach in his garden, he immediately planted the stone, which has produced a nectarine; I shall ascertain the fact, if possible, the next summer: from what I read in Loudon's Encyclopædia of Gardening, I should conceive it not impossible.

It gives me great pleasure in having an opportunity, direct from this port, of sending this, and should you consider it worth your perusal and acceptance, I shall be still more gratified, and in return, may I request you to procure me a couple of sacks of the best kind of potatoes, for a general crop, which Captain Carnes, of the ship Cumberland, will bring out to me. I should have requested him to execute this commission, but he might be imposed on by an old worn-out sort. Our potatoes are all gone that were good for any thing, and though we have reared a good many from seed, yet we have not what I call a good kind; they may improve another

year.

I hardly dare say how acceptable a few fruit trees would be, particularly apples, pears, cherries, and plums. The New Town pippin, and all the apples and cherries of your own rearing, I am sure, would thrive and ripen well in this climate. I am no great florist, but should like to see a moss rose, and a few varieties of roses, a woodbine, southernwood and wormwood; and the primrose, cowslip, polyanthus, and auricula, would be most pleasing to a person so long from England as I have been.

The common crab for procuring good stocks (I am looking a long way forward), also the Siberian and French crabs, would be very acceptable. I have requested Captain Carnes to procure me a few seeds of culinary vegetables, from the most celebrated seedsman in London, and have directed him to wrap them up in common brown paper, and bring them in his trunk with his clothes, or any chest standing in a cabin, that will be opened two or three times in a week, by which they will get aired. I have known persons arrive in this colony, who have taken great pains to have seeds soldered up in tin cases, or packed in paper cases, covered with three or four coats of varnish, which on their arrival, were entirely useless, though to all appearance perfectly good; while a few seeds brought casually in a trunk in brown paper, were as good as when packed in England; the reason is very obvious; those in tin cases, &c. were packed in some other large package, and stowed in the ship's hold, where it is probable, it was not again seen till the end of the voyage; the consequence was, that the heat of the air in the hold, in crossing the Torrid Zone, was so great as to destroy the vegetative principle of the seeds. It is impossible to conceive the oppressive heat of the stagnant air in a ship's hold, when under the Equator, except by those who have experienced it. A few years ago, the ship Lusitania brought here two hogshead of garden and grass seeds, which were perfectly air-tight; they were readily purchased, as they had such a fine dry appearance, and the ship had experienced a very short passage; not one seed in 10,000 grew, while a few ounces of different seeds brought by a passenger from the same seedsman were perfectly good. I received some seeds from a friend in Kent, of the golden Canterbury hop, which he informs me was tried previous to his writing to me, to prove its goodness, of which he assures me, he sealed it tight in a bottle, and I cannot get one to vegetate, though sown on an old melon bed, under the lights. In another instance, a friend of mine, anxious to bring seeds safe, purchased several sets of wine decanters with ground glass stoppers, in which he packed his seeds; there was not one grew. I conceive the air in the bottles had got stagnant and putrid; I may probably be wrong in assigning the cause, but such was the effect. This may be no information to you, but I think it would be well to recommend to persons taking seeds from England to the southern hemisphere, to pack them in the simple method I have described. If taken to Canada, or a climate north of England, it would probably be well to pack them tight to prevent damps. I beg leave to subscribe myself.

1

Sir,

Your most obedient,
Humble servant,

JAMES GORDON.

From the Hobart's Town Gazette. A principal part of our colonial politics is, the enormous fluctuation in the price of wheat. We have viewed, with no small degree of alarm, the late excessive price of this necessary article of consumption. We have no want of butcher's meat at a moderate price. The late alteration in the duties of spirits have so affected the distilleries that a great quantity of barley is now in the country, and a portion of that, mixed with the wheat, makes wholesome and even palatable bread and our climate is at all times propitious to the growth of

vegetables. But the late high price induces many to hoard up grain, in expectation of a still higher price. We have received some small supplies from Sydney, but that colony can never grow enough for its own consumption. The farmers there have, it is true, many resources which we have not; they have maize, in particular; fruits and vegetables in great abundance; and the season of harvest commences there at a much earlier period than with us. Notwithstanding all this, however, Van Diemen's Land must always be the granary of these colonies, for their wheat is of a much inferior quality, and so infected with the weevil, and other causes, that it can never be preserved through the circuit of one whole year. They may cultivate the vine, the cotton plant, and the sugar cane, to what extent they please, still they must, from time to time, look to us to supply them with their bread and meat.

ART. II. Domestic Notices.

ENGLAND.

Tredgar Prize Show. Mr. Miller, the nursery-man of Bristol, offered a prize of a silver cup for the largest pine apple, grown in the counties of Monmouth, Gloucester, Glamorgan, or Brecon. It was gained by the gardener of Sir Charles Morgan, Bart. At this meeting, premiums were given to cottagers for the best turkies, geese, ducks, and fowls, and for the greatest number of hives of bees.

Fonthill Abey. John Bennet, Esq. M. P. for Wilts, it is said, has lately purchased of Mr. Farquhar, Fonthill Abbey, together with four hundred acres of flower-garden and pleasure ground in which the rarest and most beautiful of the American trees and shrubs flourish in all the profusion and luxuriance of their native soil. (Newsp. Dec.)

Early White Stone Turnip. A gentleman in the neighbourhood of Knaresborough reaped a good crop of oats in the early part of August; on the 13th, he sowed the field with the early white stone turnip, which are now a fine crop, weighing on an average 10 tons per acre. He strongly recommends them as a profitable turnip; they may be sown in July, and appear to stand the frost well; they have only a light top with a small root. (Farmer's Journal, 6th Feb. 1826.)

Chamois Goat, Antilope Rupicapra. A male and female of this elegant animal have recently been imported, and are about to be introduced into the park at Windsor for the purpose of breeding. It is a native of the Alps of Tyrol, and commonly called the chamois goat.

Packing and Preserving Seeds. Mr. Curator Anderson, of the Chelsea Botanic Garden, says, he received about a year ago, from the East Indies, 24 seeds or nuts of corypha taliera; 12 of them were carefully wrapped up in paper, not one of which germinated; and 12 of them were bedded in powdered charcoal, every one of which grew freely.

To preserve Pinks, Carnations, and other Plants, from being eaten by Hares or Rabbits. Surround the plants by a cord or pack-thread smeared with tar, and at such a distance from the ground as that the animals cannot get under it, without the tar coming in contact with their down. A proof of the efficacy of this practice is, that the beds of pinks &c. in Lee's nursery, and other commercial gardens about town, liable to the depredations of these quadrupeds, are effectually preserved in this way.

Yellow Field Turnip. A variety of this turnip, partaking by fecundation of the qualities of the ruta baga, with red leaves and a conical top or neck, was raised about three years ago by Mr. Gibbs, the agricultural seedsman, and for field culture is likely to supersede the old varieties of the