317 



Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, 

 Vol. vi. Part 5. 



This Part terminates the sixth volume of the Transactions of 

 this Society ; it contains the Preface, Index, and other ma- 

 terials for completing the volume, and a few miscellaneous 

 papers, which will be noticed presently. 



The Preface acquaints us with the progress of the Society 

 since the termination of the fifth volume, and of the influence 

 which its proceedings have exercised over similar institutions 

 in various districts of the country. We are told that ** from 

 an anxious desire to hold out assistance and countenance to 

 the efforts of all such bodies, wherever they may exist, the 

 Council of this Society has lately determined to give annually 

 to each local Horticultural Society whose affairs are directed 

 by a president and council or committee, one of their large 

 silver medals, to be awarded by the local society to some 

 one individual in their own district whose skill in gardening 

 shall appear to them to be most deserving of the distinction." 

 This is a measure which we hope will conduce most mate- 

 rially to the fostering and encouraging of horticulture in 

 every corner of the country. We are also informed, that of 

 the expeditions undertaken at the expense of the Society in 

 foreign countries, one is still in operation and the other has 

 terminated. The former, under the charge of Mr. David 

 Douglas, extracts from whose very curious Journal we laid 

 before our readers in our last number, is expected to produce 

 the most valuable additions to the ornamental plantations of 

 Great Britain ; and, to use the words of the preface, '* it is 

 hoped that from this expedition our gardens will become as 

 well filled with the beautiful vegetation of the borders of the 

 Columbus and of the Rocky Mountains, as it is already with 

 that of the Ohio and Mississipi." Of that which has termi- 

 nated under the direction of Mr. James M*Kar, who accom- 

 panied the Sandwich Island Chieftains on their return from 

 this country, it is stated that this individual 

 •' successively visited Rio Janeiro and St. Catharine's in Brazil, several 

 ports on the coasts oi Chili and the Sandwich Islands. On his return, 

 he landed upon Albemarle Island, one of the Gallipsyos, touched at 

 Chorillo Bay, on the coast oi Peru, and revisited Chili, when he found an 

 opportunity of reaching Santiago, and botanizing among the little-known 

 region of the Cordilleras. Upon this occasion, Mr. M'Kar succeeded in 

 procuring a supply of fresh nuts of the highly-prized Araucaria Pine, 

 which arrived m England in a living state, and fiom which a considerable 

 distribution has already been made by the Society. The collection of 



