FOREIGN NOTICES. 



these rt'presout upwards of tnelvo hundred species. On the above occasion, there were 

 2S0 lots, and Mr. J. C. Stevens, tlie auctioneer selected to distribute them, obtained for 

 them £717, but, as only about 260 lots were sold, they averaged but little less than X"3 per 

 lot. We have only space to mention such as realized the highest prices. Onciditnn Lan- 

 ceanum, £d. Dcndrohlum. Farmer!, £8 5s. 7>. drnsijlnrum, £8. yErides Lnrpentew, £9. V. 

 teres, £10. Oncidluin purpuratum (new), £8. Vanda suficis, £10 10s. yEridis odoratuin 

 mari Ilium, £[) 10s. yE. quingutvulnerum, £10. Ctcohjne panduratn, £11. yEridcs nobile, £21. 

 yE. Schroderii, £ld lO.*. SaccoUdiiuni umjiulacium, £15 ; and ^'(lnda Battmanii, £A'i Is. — 

 Cott(t<jc Gardener. 



I'laxtixg. — The late Sir "Watkin Williams Wjnn planted, from 1815 to 1820, upon 

 mountainous lands in the vicinity of Llangollen, situated from 1,200 to 1,400 feet above the 

 level of the sea, 80,000 oaks, 63,000 Spanish chestnuts, 102,000 spruce firs, 110,000 Scotch 

 firs, 90,000 larches, 30,000 wych elms, 35,000 mountain elms, 80,000 asli, and 40,000 syca- 

 mores. 



Cheap Vaknisii for Wood and Iron Work. — I send you a good receipt for a very useful 

 black vaniish for wood and iron work, and which needs no boiling and risk of burning. It 

 is — one gallon of coal tar, half a pint of spirits of turpentine, two ounces of oil of vitriol, 

 stirred and laid on like paint. — C. G. G. 



Dog-Breaking. — A third edition of Colonel Hutchinson's capital book on Dog-Dreaking 

 (small 8vo., Murray, pp. 328) is before us. The present edition contains new matter con- 

 cerning settlers and pointers, Spanish retrievers and bloodhounds, and conveys some useful 

 liints about game. The wood-cuts, of which there is a profusion, are worthy of the letter- 

 I)ress, which is saying a great deal. 



Force of Growth in Plants. — The following inquiries and answers from the London Gar- 

 deners' Chronicle, will be interesting to many of our readers, and satisfactory to those who 

 do not inquire : What is " vital force ?" Will you, or some one of your readers, explain 

 the modus operandi by which it is believed, by physiologists, the young plant gets through 

 the surface of the ground ? Is it due to the effect of a mechanical force in the plant, acting 

 with a continuous yet infinitely slow motion, or, in other words, a mere slow thrust? [Yes.] 

 Or is there any chemical action upon the surrounding soil by which the soil is caused to 

 expand, and so a passage is opened through it for the prisoner ready to escape ? Tlie mar- 

 vellous phenomenon of a young mushroom bursting through the hard surface of the ground, 

 without any breaking or bruising of its outer skin, has long puzzled your constant reader, 

 A Bumpkin, Ross. [Its cells multiply and expand irresistibly under the influence of vital 

 force.] 



Keeping late Grapes is an interesting subject to those who at one season have a super- 

 abundance. We find the following rational suggestions in a late London journal ; though 

 they do not differ essentially from former recommendations in this periodical, they are 

 practical and important, and just now seasonable : — 



" There is one point respecting the mode by which Mr. Sandars keeps his late grapes which 

 deserves special notice. The grapes, when ripe, are not permitted to remain on the vines ; 

 Mr. S. considering that when once the fruit is ripe, it can be better and more economically 

 preserved, when cut and kept in a suitable room, than by letting them remain on the vines. 

 His practice is, therefore, with the last hoiises of Muscats, &c. — say towards the middl 

 December — to cut the fruit with the wood attached to the bunch ; the cut end of the 



