FOREIGN NOTICES. 



335 



"In the cemetery of the hospital at Annaberg, in 

 Saxony, is a very old lime tree, with enormous 

 branches. The planter of this tree, who is buried 

 under its sliade, left a sum of money to have a ser- 

 mon preached every Trinity Sunday under it. The 

 tree is of enormous size, and is said, when young, 

 to have been planted with its head downwards, 

 and roots upwards. 



" In Prussia, near Konigsberg, are two large 

 lime trees growing closely together on a grassy 

 bank. The legend is, that beneath these trees are 

 buried, a bride who died on her wedding day, and 

 her husband, wlio did not long survive her loss, 

 both lying in one grave. This tree is a favorite 

 trysting-place for lovers. In the churcliyard at 

 Seidlitz, in Bohemia, are some old lime trees, the 

 leaves of which are hooded ; and the peasants affirm 

 that they have been so ever since some monks 

 from a neighboring convent were hanged on the 

 trees. Loudon's Arboretum Brittanicum, p. 2539. 



Russia, Odessa, October 6, 1846. — Since our ar- 

 rival here, we have made a ten days' excursion to 

 the south coast of the Crimea, so celebrated in this 

 country as the "Italy of Russia." Landing from 

 the steamboat at Yalta in the centre of the most 

 beautiful part, we proceeded first to the westward, 

 visiting Prince Woronzovv's gardens at Aloupta, 

 and along the new post road, crossed the ridge to 

 Baidar Balaclava and Sevastopol, thence eastward 

 behind the mountains through Bagtchisarai to 

 Sympheropol, then turning southwards round the 

 Tchatir-Dagh, came down upon the coast again at 

 Aloushta, and back to Yalta, passing the govern- 

 micnt botanic garden at Nikita; a tour of about 180 

 miles through all the different varieties of soil, 

 aspect, and climate of south Cr. nea, except per- 

 haps that farther to the eastward the valleys are 

 said to be rather more open. The mountains 

 which border the south coast form a narrow ridge 

 of bold rocks, rising to the height of 2000, 3000 

 and 4000 feet, or in some places to above 4700,* 

 mostly calcareous, but often also schistous or por- 

 phyrjtic, with a very steep slope towards the sea, 

 and sinking rather more gradually to the north, 

 first into roclfy wastes, like the garrigues of the 

 south of France, but soon passing into steppes, like 

 those of the main land. All this country behind 

 the mountains is cold, barren, and uninteresting, 

 either in an agricultural or horticultural point of 

 view, however rich some parts may be to the 

 geologist. The Tartar inhabitants, though a fine 

 race of men, i)icluresfiue in their dress, healthy in 

 their looks, with many really handsome women; 

 yet in idleness, ignorance, and filthiness of habits 

 and habitations, are to the Little Russians what 

 these are to the true Russian mujiks. If the Rus- 

 sians possess those qualities in a |)0sitive degree, 

 the Little Russians enjoy them in the comparative, 

 but Wic Crim Tartars in the superlative degree. 

 Such at least is the report of them we universally 

 heard, and we could not but believe it, whether 

 we saw the townspeople sitting on their shop- 



* The Bubouon, very near the sea, has been siscerlained 

 by Engelhardt and Parrot to be 7b7 faihonis, or 4722 feet, but 

 the works I have liad with me do not tell me what feel ; 

 probably Russian, which are nearly the same as English. 



boards cross-legged, or squatting smoking their 

 pipes in the Tartar capital of Bagtchiserai; or the 

 country people lazily crawling to the Sympheropol 

 market in their rude oxen carts, in the construc- 

 tion of which no iron is used, and of which the 

 wheels are never greased, or beating out the corn 

 for the days gruel with a wooden kind of club. 

 In the great works carrying on for the dockyard 

 and arsenal at Sevastopol, when the soldiers who 

 worked at them were wanted for the Caucasus, 

 and the completion given out by contract, the con- 

 tractors found it hopeless attempting to employ the 

 Tartars of the country as laborers, and imported a 

 large body of Little Russians. With such a pop- 

 ulation, and nothing in the Crimea north of the 

 mountains to induce proprietors to fix their resi- 

 dence there, it will probably be very long ere the 

 rich soil of these steppes will be made really pro- 

 ductive. In the market at Sj^mpheropol, which is 

 a very large one, the quantity of Water Melons, 

 much as I had heard of them, exceeded what I could 

 have imagined. Very fine ones were selling at Id. 

 and lid. a piece, and excellent Melons at about 

 the same price; Grapes, notwithstanding the prox- 

 imity of the south coast vineyards, few and not 

 good; Cabbages the principal vegetable. One pe- 

 culiarity in the market was the enormous quantity 

 of cart wheels in pairs, with their axels. We had 

 passed the day before, long trains of them, a pair 

 of oxen drawing each a little waggon, in which 

 sat, or rather lay, the driver, and each cart drag- 

 ging after it from four to ten pair of wheels, rude- 

 ly attached with wooden poles and pegs. No iron 

 enters into the construction of either wheels or 

 carts, the parts all being connected by wooden 

 pegs, the tire not of one piece, as in the greater 

 part of Russia, but of about half a dozen felloes, 

 neither accurately shaped nor well put together, 

 so that few wheels are in exact circle, and, alto- 

 gether, lines of 20 or 30, or more, of these carts, 

 with 100 to 150 pair of wheels, all squeaking on 

 their ungreased axels, had a most singular effect. 

 Thej- come mostly from Kokkoz, a village in the 

 wooded part of the mountains, said to contain 300 

 wheelwrights, who make above 18,000 wheels per 

 annum, and in the whole village is but one black- 

 smith's forge. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Leschenaultia arcuata. Drooping Leschc- 

 naultia. — Half-shrubby Greenhouse-plant. Swan 

 River. 



A singular and truly handsome species, exceed- 

 ingly different from every other known one, hav- 

 ing copious, sprcatling, dccurved brandies, with 

 innumerable branchlcts, almost every one of which 

 is terminated with a large red-purjile and yellow 

 flower: Raised b}' Messrs. Lucombe, Pince, and 

 Co., of Exeter. The flowers have a gooii deal the 

 appearance of those of the large shrubby Pol5-galse 



of South Africa. Flowers in August Botanical 



Magazine. 



Russian Grain As we approach Odessa, the 



▼icinity of this great corn-mart is strongly indi- 

 cated by the increasing numbers of the long lines 

 of corn waggons on tlie various roads. Small, 

 rudely-constructcdjlight waggons upon low vyheels, 



