FOREIGN AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



veined puce and silver; Model of Perfection, 

 white with chocolate ground ; Coinniander-in- 

 chief, remarkable for immensely long spikes of 

 flowers towering nine feet high; the Queen, a 

 delicate blush; Aurantia, salmon-color; Pul- 

 chella, roseate; Pallida, lilac; Magnum Bonum, 

 a rich glossy maroon; Snowball, purest white; 

 Black Prince, sable black ; Formosa, dark claret, 

 with palmated leaves; Mulberry Superb; Deli- 

 cata; Atro-sanguinca. Mr. C. has exhibited 

 this season at Chiswick some of his beauties, 

 grown especially in pots for that occasion ; also 

 at the Royal Agricultural meeting at Norwich, 

 where he was awarded a prize for his Seedling 

 Comet, and ar prize for the collection; and at 

 the South London Floricultural meeting in the 

 Surrey Zoological Gardens he obtained a medal. 

 A visit to these superb and elegant flowers would 

 be highly gratifying to every lover of Kature in 

 her gay and brilliant forms. — Beck's Florist. 



Cold Spring tn England. — UptothelSth 

 of this Month, March, there had been for many 

 years no spring so late and cold as this. In these 

 respects it was even more striking than that of 

 1845. Continually frosty nights, little sun, no 

 material rise of the thermometer during the day ; 

 from the.se causes, the temperature of the earth, 

 which is a better indicator of weather than that 

 of the air, was actually lower than it had been 

 within any period during which registers to 

 which we have access, have been kept. It is 

 true, indeed, that in March, 1845, the earth, 2 

 feet below the surfiice, was on one occasion as 

 low as 36 degrees, and that in this year thegeo- 

 therniometer had not fallen lower ; but the mean 

 of the month, at 2 feet underground, was up to 

 that time, lower than in 1845, by more than 

 half a degree. The following return proves 

 this. 



The temperature of the earth in the garden 

 of the Horticultural Society, for the first 18 

 days of March, has been as under — 



Mean of March. 2 feet. 



18.38 41.46 



18:39 41.93 



1840 41.71 



1844 42.24 



1845 38.78 



1846 45.55 



1847 41.03 



1848 43.72 



1849 43.70 



1850 42.33 



General av'ge. 41.74 



Mill, of March,. 2 feet. 



18.38 38 5 



1839 39 



1840 .39 



1844 40 



1815 36 



1846 44 



1S47 38 



1648 42. .50 



1849 42. .50 



18,50 40 



nee the 18th the sun has gained some 

 th, and the temperature of the air by day 



has not been lower than 47 degrees, while on the 

 22d and 24th, it rose to 66 degrees. Still vege- 

 tation is almost torpid ; buds are swelling very 

 slowly, and the early blossoms have for the most 

 part, a shrunken, half-starved aspect. The con- 

 tinued low tcmpei'ature at night, fluctuating be- 

 tween 25 and 28 degrees, explains this; for so 

 little effect has the sun yet produced, that at 

 the piescnt moment the earth 2 feel under 

 ground, has not gained more than 42 degrees, 

 and this maximum still remains less than the 

 mean of 1844, 1846, 1848, 1849, and 1850.— 

 London Gard. Chron. 



Macaroni and Veemiceili. — In writing 

 from Naples, Mr. Weed takes the following no- 

 tice of the manufacture and use of macaroni 

 and vermicelli in Italy: 



Italy, you know, abounds in macaroni and 

 vermicelli. The making and eating of these ar- 

 ticles enter into the occupations and appetites 

 of every city, town and village. It is used in 

 many forms of which we have no knowledge. 

 It enters into all their soups and pastry, and in- 

 to many of their meat dishes. And, though I 

 started with many prejudices, I must say that 

 these dishes are invariably good. 



I^'aples boasts of making the finest macaroni in 

 Italy. I visited a small town at the foot of Ve- 

 suvius yesterday, where thousands of bu.shels 

 of wheat were being made into macaroni. The 

 wheat is first subjected to a kiln-drying process, 

 being spread on tiled roofs which are heated 

 gently from fires within and from the sun with- 

 out. It is afterwards ground coarsely, mixed 

 with water and kneaded into paste, which is 

 subjected to action by pounders somewhat re- 

 sembling those used in driving piles. The paste 

 is then forced through machinery which gives it 

 its foriu and name, some coming out macaroni 

 and some vermicelli, each taking, however, 

 many varieties of form, some long and thin like 

 paper, some like ribbons, some in balls, and 

 others like beans, peas, and even as small as 

 mustard seed. 



At Genoa, from which place I think we get 

 most of our macaroni, saffron is put into the 

 paste, which gives it its yellow tinge. Here it 

 is nearer the color of bread. Not only the 

 Italians, but all who visit Italy, become very 

 fond of this description of food. The impres- 

 sion which I think prevails in America, that 

 macaroni and vermicelli manufacturers are not 

 particularly clean, is erroneous. There is no 

 good ground of objection to this food on that 

 account. 



Rice Paper. — The plant from which the 

 Chinese Rice-paper is made, has long Iteen un- 

 known, and many conjectures have been hazard- 

 ed regarding it. There can be nodoubt that the 

 paper is composed of cellular tissue, and is pre- 

 pared from the plant without any process of 

 maceration. In the East Indies it would ap- 

 pear that a kind of Rice-paper is procured from 

 the stem of JEschynoinene paludosa, and it is 

 probable that many plants with abundant pith 



