FOREIGN NOTICES. 



189 



Ihcir high-roofed stable. But notwithstanding the 

 efforts of the projectors to imitate the natural 

 haunts of the animated race, the garden is to me 

 a dull place. 



One hint obtained here may be useful in Ame- 

 rica; the donkey is employed to drag the rollers 

 over the gravel walks — he is too light to make 

 more impression on the gravel than the roller will 

 obliterate. This useful little animal is employed 

 in Europe in various ways to great advantage ; his 

 introduction into the general field of labor is one 

 of the things we have yet to learn. His appetite 

 is easily satisfied, requiring less than a large dog; 

 his labor, even as a burden carrier, would well re- 

 pay his importation; he pulls well in a small cart, 

 and in this is most useful in cities to carry market- 

 ing. He would take the whole produce of a small 

 kitchen garden as well as a horse, while his cost 

 and maintenance would be a very trifle. To the 

 poor man, he would prove in America, an admira- 

 ble help, not dainty as to the quality or quantity 

 of his food. — Smithes Jaunt across the Water- 



Pere le Chaise Cemetery. — The cemetery of 

 P(re le Chaise greatly disappoints me. It is large, 

 and has a very fine view of Paris from its heights; 

 but nearly the whole place is dirty or neglected. 

 The monuments are mostly of yellow stone, very 

 much out of taste, extremely numerous, often bad- 

 ly constructed and tumbling about, while weeds 

 disfigure many — many others. The mass of the 

 monuments may be said to be little chapels, with 

 a grated door, an altar inside, candlesticks, and a 

 chair or two; while the wreathes of immortelles, 

 artificial flowers, vases, flower-pots, old china, or 

 gew-gaws, are pictures of distorted grief. In one 

 or two instances, a bust was dressed up in immor- 

 telles, uith ear-rings ; the flowers and face too 

 made by time as black as a negro-s. When there 

 is no chapel, a painted half circle of tin runs 

 across from one iron railing to the other, to pro- 

 tect the wreaths from w^et; and here and there are 

 sometimes dozens of these wreaths strung up, 

 some being made of whalebone frizzled, in the 

 manner of the British lawyers' wigs, and the rest 

 of flowers. Very queer vases, with flowers, are 

 sometimes seen. Occasionally a good rosebush or 

 honeysuckle overruns a little plot, shaded perhaps, 

 on each side by chapels. Some of the monuments 

 are lofty and costly; among the latter are those of 

 Casimir Perrier, and some of Bonaparte's marshals. 

 Ney has no name on liis grave, that privilege hav- 

 ing been denied to the family of a proscribed man; 

 but some one has scraped the little word in the 

 paint of the railing, with a pin; it has more cele- 

 brity, and is more visited than the most costly in- 

 scriptions. A road winds about the cemetery, 

 paved with square stones. It is much used, and is 

 very dusty. Interments of persons of all sizes, 

 ages, and degrees, from the little infant of poor pa- 

 rents, carried on a shabby bier to the place for 

 those who cannot or will not pay for the ground 

 in perpetuity, to the sohlicr whose grave they 

 were firing over, or the nobleman attended by a 

 host of followers, may be seen going on at the 

 same moment. The funerals arc extremely nume- 

 rous every day, but no statistics were to be obtain- 



ed. Altogether the aspect of the place was that 

 of a city of the dead, not that of a rural cemetery. 

 I have seen no rural cemetery in Europe that will 

 compare with the best at home for beauty of sce- 

 nery, careful keeping, or planting. The two best 

 in England are very inferior in these important 

 respects; I mean the St. James's at Liverpool, and 

 Kensall Green, near London. — Smithes Jaunt across 

 the Water. 



Achimenes pedunculata. — Beautiful as this 

 family of plants is, none of them seems to outvie 

 this variety. In habit it is robust and stately, giv- 

 ing it an especial claim to attention. I manage it 

 as follows : — After flowering, and when the foliage 

 has begun to decay, water is withheld, and tlie 

 plants are kept in a dry situation, out of the reach 

 of frost. About the middle of January, the old 

 soil is shaken from them, and they are planted in 

 pans well drained, in a mixture of charcoal broken 

 to the size of a nut, turfy peat, and burnt turf well 

 mixed with silver sand. The pans are filled to 

 within about an inch of the top, the tubers are 

 laid regularly on, and the pans filled up. They 

 are then placed in a warm situation in a vinery 

 near the glass, where in a short time the plants 

 make their appearance : they are then transplanted 

 singly into small pots, and as soon as the roots ap- 

 pear on the outside of the ball, they are repotted 

 three into a well drained 6-inch pot. As soon as 

 the second pair of leaves unfold, the top is pinched 

 off, and this operation is continued till the plants 

 form quite a bush ; the syringe is drawn over them 

 every fine evening. About the middle of May, 

 they are removed to the green-house, when they 

 soon show flower. By following this system no 

 sticks are required. This is the best of all the 

 species for the drawing-room; several plants that 

 have been in the room for the last three weeks, 

 have not lost a leaf; and they are studded with 

 a profusion of lovely orange flowers. — E.S. in 

 Gardener's Chronicle. 



Healthy Potatoes produced from diseased 

 SETS. — On taking up the crop last autumn, a con- 

 siderable quantity of the worst tubers, (%vhich, 

 though so much affected as to be easily perforated 

 with the finger, were yet sprouting at one end,) 

 were planted immediately. Others, to all appear- 

 ance even worse than these, were thrown together 

 in a heap to rot. During the winter they sprouted, 

 and in January many of these were also planted. 

 Strange to say, the produce from these roots is the 

 best crop in the field — indeed, an excellent crop, 

 and of good quality; and it is required now to dig 

 as large a portion of ground in any other part of 

 the field to find a basket of good potatoes, as in 

 the part where these diseased tubers were planted 

 to find a basket of bad ones. Lime rubbish from 

 old walls was laid in the bottom of the trench, on 

 which was placed some old thatch, and the pota- 

 toes planted thereon, and covered with earth so 

 that they lay as dry as possible. — Constant Reader, 

 in Gard. Chron. 



Potato Disease in North of Ireland. — Be- 

 tween the 12th and 20th of August,! traversed the 



