384 



MRS. LOUDON'S LADIES' FLOWER GARDEN. 



China, as drawings and screens brought 

 here from that country, very often contain 

 representations of it. The fruit is so much 

 compressed at both ends, that it looks as if 

 it had been forcibly flattened, till the pulp 

 became crowded to either side, and only 

 left a mere covering of the skin over 

 the stone, at either end. Its diameter 

 through the flattened part, is only about 

 three-fourths of an inch, while across the 

 broadest way, it is nearly three inches. 

 The skin .is slightly downy, pale yellow, 

 mottled with red on the sunny side. The 

 stone is quite small, flattened and rough. 

 In flavor, it is said to be that of a good 

 melting peach, with a slight noyau or nec- 

 tarine taste. It is stated in a late number 

 of the London Horticultural Magazine, that 

 this variety has recently been received from 

 Java, by Mr. Kirke, the English nursery- 

 man, who has propagated and sold it, as the 

 Java Peach. It had no doubt, adds this pe- 



riodical, been carried there from China. 

 We learn that the Flat Peach of China, 

 is, in a mild climate, nearly evergreen. In 

 England, " against a wall in the Horticultu- 

 ral Society's garden, it keeps growing 

 throughout the winter, when the weather is 

 not too severe." {Arb. JBrittanicum.) To 

 this, Mr. Thompson has added, that it may be 

 forced and ripened in pots, earlier, and with 

 greater facility, than any other variety. 



All the Chinese Peaches, will, no doubt, 

 prove perfectly hardy here ; and we look 

 for some decided acquisitions, in varieties 

 that may be had from that country. The 

 Pekin winter is almost precisely ours, and 

 plants from that part of China need no ac- 

 climating here. We hope our China mer- 

 chants will at least order home seeds of all 

 the different kinds of peaches. The new 

 varieties they may produce, will be of far 

 more value to us, than to Europeans, since 

 this fruit thrives so well here. 



REVIEW. 



The L.iV^DiEs' Flower Garden of Ornamental 

 Perennials. By Mrs. Loudon. London, 1844, 

 AtO; 2 vols., with many colored plates. 

 The Ladies' Flower Garden of Ornamental 

 Annuals. By the same. London, 1842, 1 vol., 

 4to., pp. 27 z, with many colored plates. 

 A couple of beautiful quartos from the 

 London press, which we cordially commend 

 to all lovers of flowers. They are richly 

 stored with portraits, drawn and colored to 

 the life, of all the best treasures that Flora 

 has in her gay parterres of annuals and pe- 

 rennials. 



The cultivation of these two classes of 

 flowers is, for the most part, so easy and 

 simple, that many of our fair readers are 

 tempted to engage in it, both for recreation 

 and out of the pure love which all refined 



natures must instinctively have for these 

 brightest and loveliest of earth's wonders — 

 many indeed for whom the orchard, the 

 kitchen garden, or the farm, have no espe- 

 cial attractions. 



How gladly would we lend our little aid 

 to promote, more generally, afnong our 

 countrywomen, this pure, wholesome, and 

 refreshing taste. This taste, which leads 

 them into the open air, under bright and 

 healthful skies— this labor, not severe, but 

 gently exciting, which gives to exercise a 

 meaning, and a pleasure, which no forced 

 walks or obligatory calisthenics ever have 

 or can have. Would that we could wage a 

 successful war against perpetual siitchenj, 

 and, like the loadstone mountain in the 



