off champagne corks, or throw stones, without disturbance to your neiglihor." " I^ut," he rods 

 on to say, " this desire for seclusion has led some further into the wilderness than neces- 

 sary, two or tliree miles being (juite far enougli to send your liorse to be sliod, or to send for 

 doctor or waslierwoiuan, and half the distance would be better, if there was no prospect of 

 the extension of the village limits. Ihit the common diameter of idle boy's rambles is a 

 mile out of the village, and to be beyond that is very necessary, if you care for plums or 

 apples." There is philosophy and common sense in this and much of tliose letters. — By- 

 way of London ! we learn that the Mormons have founded a Horticultural Society, W. Wood- 

 ruff, President ; the first meeting was opened with prayer ; peaches were the only objects of 

 exhibition, by two ladies, whose husbands were absent preaching their gospel ; we are told, 

 " the whole appearance of the stand was sufficient to excite tlie epicurean taste of the most 

 refined, and was a feast never before equalled in these vast mountain regions. The people 

 seem very ignorant of horticulture. — Is it not a curious circumstance, that we rarely or never 

 hear even the name of the greatest living botanist in Europe ? It is Robert Brown, a retiring 

 gentleman, residing in London. " Humboldt," said Sir 11. H. Inglis, at a meeting of the 

 British Association, " desci'ibed him as le premier botaniste de V Europe, accurate, sagacious, 

 arid profound, and whose knowledge is only equalled by his modesty. May I add," he 

 continued, " the expression of e\ery one's wish that he would deposit more of his knowledge 

 in print ?" Mr. Brown, when a young man, accompanied Captain Flinders in his voyage to 

 New South Wales, and, on his return, published an account of the botany of that region. 

 Sir Joseph Banks, seeing his extraordinary aptitude for science, made him his librarian and 

 curator of his botanical collection, which is now in the British Museum ; he left him a house 

 to live in, but nothing to keep it, and he has enjoyed since a moderate income from the 

 Museum, where he has a light employment, and must be now more than eighty years old. 

 A greater authority in botany than Humboldt, De Candolle, said of him : Facile princeps 

 Botanicorum. — A French physician has lately propounded a theory on the effect of color on 

 health. Observations for many years show that workers who occupied rooms thoroughly 

 lighted and ventilated, were more healthy than those in rooms lighted with small windows, 

 and from one side only. In two adjoining rooms, equally well ventilated, one set of work- 

 men were healthy and cheerful, and the other melancholy, and often unable to work. The 

 cheerful workers were in a room wholly whitewashed, and the melancholy men occupied a 

 room colored with yellow ochre, which on being well whitened, the men recovered, and were 

 cheerful and healthy. It was found in extensive practice, that whenever occupiers of yellow 

 or buff-colored rooms could be induced to whitewash them, a corresponding improvement in 

 health and si>irits resulted. This is most important for schools, asylums, and hospitals, as 

 well as manufacturers' rooms. — The French Exposition, last year, was visited by four 

 million and a half of people ; the Great Exhibition in London, in 1851, numbered over six 

 millions ; 40,000 English visited the French, but only 27,000 came to London from France. 

 — The eccentric Lord Holland used to give his horses a weekly concert in a covered gallery, 

 specially erected for the purpose. He maintained that it cheered their hearts, and improved 

 their temper, and an eye-witness says that they seemed to be greatly delighted therewith; 

 — George Don, the editor of Don's Miller's Gardeners' Dictionary, a work of celebrity and 

 usefulness, died in February last, at the age of fifty-eight ; he was the last of a well-known 

 family of botanists. He travelled as collector of the London Horticultural Society, in Brazil, 

 the West Indies, and Sierra Leone, and added largely to their collections. — Petunias, so 

 peculiarly adapted to our warm and dry climate, improve little less rapidly than the ver- 

 bena ; striped and mottled varieties are not now very uncommon. The English advertise a 

 new Double White. The following is from a London paper: "Petonia Imperial, Two plants 

 of this novelty in the petunia way, have been in flower for the last three weeks. Tlie blooms 

 measure considerably over two inches across, and are quite as double as those of any first- 



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