editor's table. 



to the imipose, liaving one light glazed with rough plate, one with corrugated, one British 

 slicct, and one with crown glass. During the five years, a variety of plants have been 

 grown in this frame, including strawberries ; and no perceptible diflference could ever bo 

 detected, either in the growth of the plants, the color of the flowers, or flavor of the straw- 

 berries. We may therefore infer that, as regards cultivation, no great amount of diff"erence 

 exists between the descriptions of glass mentioned ; while, to suit particular purposes, one 

 sort may be substituted for another, without causing any detriment to the vegetation they 



cover. In Gloxinias, a great improvement has taken place of late, especially in the 



upright-growing kinds, of which Fifeana is the type ; they now have varieties vriih a pink 

 ring round the inside of the throat ; white, with a blue belt ; lilac, with a white tube, and 



a dark violet purple, &c. A real acquisition to the garden is the Clematis langrinosa 



pallida, with great, round flowers, quite eight inches in diameter, pale blue in color, and 



full and broad in the petal. It is quite hardy. Save the haulm of your asparagus in a 



dry loft, as a shading next season for young-planted celery in the trench. Nothing can 



equal it for the purpose. Mr. Rivers brought to the London Pomological Society, lately, 



a bunch of an early and nearly hardy black French grape, the Muscat de Sarbelle, very black 

 in color, of the Frontignan flavor and habit. Also a dish of his plum. Early Prolific, No. 2. 

 This is well known as a useful and very productive variety. Mr. Rivers mentioned that it 

 is loaded with fruit this year, but is the only one producing a crop out of about three hun- 

 dred varieties in his nursery. Mr. Underliill brought specimens of his Sir Harry Straw- 

 berry in fine condition ; the berries were large, firm, and well colored, and the flavor of Haut- 

 bois. It was pronounced a first-rate fruit. A two year old plant was produced with its 

 fifth crop of fruit, ripe and ripening ; it had been forced last year, fruited again early in 

 autumn, and afterwards prepared for early forcing ; it produced its first ci"op this year in 

 January, and being planted out in the usual way bore its second crop in June, and again as 

 exhibited. These matters were mentioned to draw attention to the prolific tendency it dis- 

 played, and to suggest the desirability of endeavoring to originate and perpetuate a race of 

 strawberries having this desirable property in a greater degree than those we at present 

 possess. We have a suspicion, from inspection of some fruit here, that it will not prove as 



large as in England. The Standhouder Cauliflower is said to be much superior to the 



Walcheren for a summer crop and autumn use. Straw for covering glass structures has 



proved so efficient, probably from its being hollow, and confining in its interior a quantity of 

 air ; a slow conductor of heat, it seems desirable that it should be manufactured so as to 



preserve, in a great measure, its tubular form, and have a neat appearance. A tree onion 



is now cultivated, that is a curious freak of nature. Instead of producing seeds, there is, 



on the top of the stem, a bunch of small onions, which are excellent for pickling. Dancer's 



Prolific White Gooseberry was exhibited lately, in pots, in London, taken from an orchard 

 house, in oi'der to prove that, contrary to the opinion of many, gooseberries will set and 

 ripen under glass. At the same time was shown a collection of beans, among which Mackie's 

 Monarch, alias Songster's Wonderful, elicited much remark from the length of the pods, which 

 were very plentiful on the stalk, and each pod was nine and ten inches in length, and con- 

 tained five beans. Marshall's Dwarf Prolific was also much admired. Dr. Lindsay has 



published a popular history of British lichens, from which we make the following extract : 

 " When we consider that many species have a texture which, by readily imbibing and 

 eagerly retaining moisture, renders them, in a sense, independent of all climatal changes, 

 enabling them equally to brave polar cold and tropical heat ; many not only cling with such 

 tenacity as to be inseparable from, but even corrode or disintegrate the hardest and barest 

 rocks, even pure quartz ; the most ample provision has been made by the great Author of 

 all for their reproduction or multiplication, in spite of the most adverse external circum 

 stances, and under conditions fatal to all higher vegetation, both by the multiplici 



