FOREIGN AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



conviction of its profit in one man's brain instead of fifty men's, as it must be with us. 

 And finally, it may be that for some few, there is sustained by it a local home, a family 

 nucleus, more permanently than it can be with us. 



" But there is everything to be said against it too, that there is against an aristocratical 

 government and society, for the customs of primogeniture and entail, are in fact the basis 

 of aristocracy. And between an aristocratical government and society, with all its digni- 

 ties and amenities, and refinements, and a democracy, with all its dangers and annoyan- 

 ces, and humiliations, I do not believe that any man that has had fair observation of our 

 two countries, and who is not utterly faithless in God and man, a thorough coward, or whose 

 judgment is not shamefully warped by prejudice, habit, or selfishness, can hesitate a mo- 

 ment. I think that few Englishmen, few even of the English nobility, and no English 

 statesman, would advise us to return to their system. I think that most of them would 

 be sorry to believe that England herself would fail of being a democratic nation a hundred 

 years hence." 



A little more personal contact with the class who hold the feudal tenure, would proba- 

 bly have convinced Mr. 0. that " to possess power and not abuse it," is, as Burke said, 

 the greatest human virtue. High minded and truly noble as many of the English aristoc- 

 racy are, it is, naturally, not easy for them to acknowledge the superiority of democracy 

 to a constitutional monarchy and aristocracy, which in their eyes have made England the 

 greatest nation. But, in the mean time, the world does not stand still, and the England 

 of nineteen hundred, will not be the England of to-day. But as the greatness of England 

 is in her moderation and common sense, we feel sure that she will gain more by that gradu- 

 al change which all classes there admirably accommodate themselves to, than by those re- 

 volutionary spasms that agitate her neighbors across the channel, and subject them to the 

 pity of the rest of mankind. 



And now, having given our readers a taste of the quality of Mr. Olmsted's book, we 

 feel certain they will be inclined to walk and talk it out with our American farmer. 



/nrfign writ MhnWmnm IJntim 



Ornamental Trees of Panama. — The most 

 famous of all the ornamental plants is the 

 Couronpita odoratissima. Seem., combining a 

 most delicious fragrance with a splendid flower. 

 In the Morro, a forest near the village of Rio 

 Jesus, are four of these trees, which are con- 

 sidered by the inhabitants as the only ones that 

 exist in the country, and tlie greatest curiosi- 

 ties Veraguas can boast; and, indeed, I myself 

 have never observed them in any other locality. 

 They form a group, and are vernacularly termed 

 Palos de Paraiso (i.e., Paradise trees,) or Gra- 

 nadillos, deriving the former name from tlicir 

 beauty , and the latter from the close resemblance 

 which their flowers bear in shape and size to 

 those of Granadilla (Passiflora quadrangularis, 

 Linn.) The trees are from 60 to 80 feet high, 

 and up to an elevation of 20 feet, where the 

 branches diverge, their stems are thickly cover- 

 d with little sprouts, bearing, from February 

 May, blossoms, the odor of which is of so 

 ;htful and penetrating a nature, that in a 



favorable breeze it may be perceived at nearly 

 a mile's distance. The flowers are 1^ to 2 inches 

 in diameter, and their petals are of a beautiful 

 flesh color with yellow stripes, contrasting 

 charmingly with the golden stamens of the 

 centre. The people of Veragiias, whose apathy 

 is not easily roused by the beauties of Nature, 

 often repair to these trees during their flowering 

 season, in order to behold the bright tints of the 

 blossoms, and enjoy the delicious perfume which 

 they e.xhale. Hooker's Journal of Botany. 



Acer circinatum. — This is a most beautiful 

 hardy deciduous tree from Oregon, with purple 

 and white flowers, and leaves rich crimson in 

 the autumn. It was introduced by the Horti- 

 cultural Society. There is probably no hardy 

 tree in this country more eminently beautiful 

 than this, if tree it can be called, for it seems 

 rather a bush. In the spring, when its 1 

 unfold, they are preceded by long crimson 

 scales, from two to four to each twig; the leaves 



