1 



n 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 871 Vf 



Peacli and Apricot trees of an extraordinary size for plants whose roots were cramped in wooden 

 boxes. Willows, too, were there of many kinds, clipped into round heads, and a Poplar which 

 M. Masson, whose botany is more rusty than his gardening, calls Populus Blagovroney. 



The reporter speaks in high terms of the excellence and variety of Muscovite vegetables, the 

 size and beauty of which he says did honor to the skill of the Russian market gardeners, who do 

 not suffer by comparison with those of Paris. He was particularly struck with the white and 

 black Pvadishes from the Caucasus, some of which are a fall yard long, and unknown in Europe. 



Among the cereal grains there was a most interesting variety ; and it was curious to compare 

 the tiny" Wheat of Archangel with the magnificent Corn from Bessarabia. The oleaginous 

 plants included one called Navet de Derbend, the seeds of which yield an extraordinary quantity 

 of oil. Among textile plants were exhibited a perennial Hemp, and a wild Siberian Flax. 



The forest-tree exhibition was one of high interest. Everything was there which the P.ussian 

 territory grows, even the trees of Caucasus, sent, as M. Masson slily hints, by the military Gov- 

 ernor of that unconquered country. Each tree seems to have been exhibited in the following 

 manner:—!, its seeds; 2, its timber, carefully polished to bring out what 'carpenters call the 

 figure ; and 3, a dried branch in flower and fruit. Some similar plan was adopted with all the 

 plants belonging to rural economy. 



Among miscellaneous matters we find recorded great roots, more than three feet long, of the 

 Statice tatarica, used by Tartarian tanners under the name of Kierme, and containing 22 per cent- 

 of its weight of pure tannin ; all sorts of objects manufactured out of bark, rushes and straw, 

 among which figured straw head-dresses, and straw boots with leather soles, said to wear very 

 well ; ai^d finally preserved fruits, fermented liquors, specimens of earth, both arable and fit for 

 pottery or other purposes, textile materials, wool, and silk, the latter in great abundance and of 

 great beauty. 



Such is said to have been the great exhibition at Moscow in 1853, from which we English 

 should borrow some useful hints. It is evident that tinsel was not there allowed to displace the 

 more precious metals. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 





CoiniEMORATivE Trees.— In England there yet exists trees that point back to the manners of 

 our ancestors— such as the Gospel Oaks, under whose shade our fore-fathers were accustomed to 

 assemble to hear sermons ; in the same manner as at a later date our markets and other crosses 

 were the cites selected for religious instruction to the assembled crov.-d. It was at Paul's Cross 

 that one of the brightest ornaments of our church had nearly lost his life by the exposure to ram 

 and wind, and having recovered from his illness, in the gratitude of his heart oft'ered to do any- 

 thing which his careful nurse and landlady demanded of him, in return for her unwearied atten- 

 tion. She said "marry my daughter," and the divine obeyed the mandate. This anecdote is 

 merely introduced to show at how recent a date preaching in the open air was common m Eng- 

 land, and as we may suppose that in country places the practice of preaching under trees might 

 have continued long after it had been discontinued in towns, there seems every probability that 

 those venerable remains, joying in the distinction of Gospel Oaks, were in the lusty vigour of 

 their manhood, so to speak, the identical trees selected, and thus traditionally confirming a curi- 

 ous phase of our history. Heme's Oak, that thousands as well as myself have made a pilgrimage 

 to see, as is well known, is not the veritable one (it is a pity to know it), but the one that was up- 

 rooted ill George III.'s time in all probability was that tree of some ghostly legend in the time of 

 our Shakespeare, and wiiich, owing to the merry wives' conceit, had preserved its identity almost 

 to our own times. Nor can we forget the Mulberry planted by the bard's own hands ; and it 

 takes a vast effort to forgive its ruthless destroyer. How much pure gratification has he depriv- 

 ed not Englishmen alone of, but the cultivated and refined of all nations. The circumstances al- 

 luded to are of national interest ; but how many thousand commemmorative trees exist that are 

 of family notoriety only ? and to such most deeply intei'csting. A knoll upon an estate, where I 

 have recently been employed, is called "Bunker's Hill ;' and upon comparing the age of the Elm 

 trees, with the date of the engagement, I find a very near approach to years and annual laye" "*■ 

 woody accumulation. I will give one more instance of a family nature that I was connc 



