editor's table. 



by the iijiriglit habit of the tree, and the frait being somewhat later. Tlie fruit was very 

 large, tender, and melting, with a very agreeable and refreshing flavor. Mr. Rivers also 

 exhibited ripe specimens of Doyenne d'Ete Pear, which is the earliest variety they have in 

 England, coming in even before the Citron des Cannes and the Crawford. It is a pretty little 

 fruit, with tender and juicy flesh, and with a sweet and agreeable flavor. Mr. Rivers 

 brought specimens of a new seedling nectarine, which was raised fi-om the Sianirick; and 

 which he considered an improvement on that variety. We have, says the Cottage Gardener, 

 had an opportunity of seeing the fruit, and feel pleasure in saying that we regard it as one 

 of the greatest additions we have had to this class of fruits, not excepting the Stanwick 

 itself, to which it is infinitely superior both in size and flavor. The fruit is very large, one 

 of the specimens being eight inches in circumference, and of the shape of a truncated cone. 

 It is mottled with pale and very dark red wlierfe exposed to the sun, and is of a greenish- 

 yellow where shaded. The skin is thin ; the flesh separates freely from the stone, is exceed- 

 ingly tender and melting, being somewhat of a buttery texture, like the most delicate of the 

 Beurre Pears ; the juice very abundant, and so full of sugar as to be quite a syrup ; the 

 flavor is full and rich, and exceeds in richness that of any other nectarine. The kernel, like 

 that of its parent, is quite sweet, like a filbert. The fruit was from a plant grown in a pot ; 

 and it was suggested that, if grown in the open gi-ound, the fruit might even be larger. 

 There was one peculiarity which was remarked in all the specimens, that the stone, in every 

 instance, was cracked. 



Common Plants. — A recent writer well observes : " There is notliing too common, or beto- 

 kening stinginess or poverty, in having the oldest or simjjlest plant well grown and bloomed 

 in a pot ; everybody loves to see them. Look at the hanging plants in the Crystal Palace, 

 and say if you ever saw so many of the very commonest plants put together before. Not 

 one of them but the poorest man in the next village might have in his window, and yet 

 everybody admires them. It is only that fashion requires the rich to have more costly 

 plants, but surely there is no reason why you and I shoul'd not have them, or that we should 

 be so foolish as to hanker after guinea plants, which are not a bit the better for being 

 dearer." 



Baskets. — Tlie same writer says : " Every case I recollect of seeing ivy and flowers asso- 

 ciated, the effect was agreeable. I have seen hundreds of ladies admiring, and investigating 

 the modus operandi of hillocks, or baskets of flowers, fonned simply by driving rough pieces 

 of wood into the ground, covering them with ivy, and filling the space within with earth 

 and plants, having some of the outside rows of the latter of such a character as to interlace 

 a little with and fall over the ivy. I lately saw a nice ivy basket on the lawn. Originally, 

 a basket had been made, with one central stem to support it, and against this ivy had been 

 planted, trained up and round the basket. The original basket has long been gone, but the 

 ivy retains the shape, and bears, without flinching, the weight of the earth and plants ; the 

 diameter of the basket being, so far as I recollect, sometliing about four feet." 



The Law of Slopes! — The following is worthy of being stored in the memory: In France, 

 the high roads must not exceed 4° 46' by law ; in England 4^, or one foot rise in thirty-five. 

 A slope of 15^ is extremely steep, and one down which one cannot descend in a carriage. 

 A slope of 37° is almost inaccessible on foot, if the bottom be a naked rock or a turf too 

 thick to form steps. The body falls backwards when the tibia makes a smaller angle than 

 43° with the sole of the foot — 42° being the steepest slope that can be climbed on foot in a 

 ground that is sandy. When the slope is 44°, it is almost impossible to scale it, though the 

 ground permits the fonuing of steps by thrusting in the feet. A slope of 55° to man is 

 inaccessible. 



