CULTURE OF AQUATICS AND NATIVE PLANTS. 



knowledge, been tasted this year by some of the best judges in our Atlantic cities — judges 

 familiar with the same grade of Avines on the Rhine — who rate the Ohio wines very high, 

 both for flavor and boqait. The Ohio will soon become as famous for light wines, as the 

 Rhine. 



We have no reason, as yet, to disagree with Mr. Webster (for we presume, from having 

 heard this remark before, that our correspondent refers to that gentleman) respecting the ne- 

 cessity of a different soil and climate from ours, in this portion of the Union, for the produc- 

 tion of good dry wines of the same grade as Madeiras and Sherries. But we understand 

 from good authority, that California not only possesses these requisites, but has actually 

 begun to produce excellent wines of this character. Ed. 



NOTES ON THE CULTURE OF AQUATICS AND NATIVE PLANTS. 



BY DR. ]MUNSON, NEAV-IIAVEN, CT. 



Dear Sir — For the gratification of such of your readers as may have a taste for the 

 cultivation of aquatic plants, and have not an appropriate situation for their culture, I 

 would subjoin for the Horticulturist, (should you think it worth a place there,) a plan 

 for growing them on a small scale; and give j'ou a description of an aquarium in the gar- 

 den of J. L. CoMSTOCK, M. D., of Hartford, Ct. 



It consists of a cheaply constructed box, made of thick pine boards, roughly put to- 

 gether, about sixteen feet long, fifteen inches wide, and twenty deep, open at the top only, 

 having partitions and spaces proportioned to the room allotted to each plant, or parcel of 

 plants, the divisions being from one to two feet apart. These spaces are filled nearly full of 

 soil appropriate to the plants, and the water is supplied generally in sufficient abundance 

 from a roof, by rains, through a trough leading to them, all excess running off. 



In this the Doctor had quite an interesting group of wildings, which have luxuriated 

 in their native vigor, apparently unconscious of any inferiority to some of their exotic 

 neighbors. 



Among them I noticed the white Water Lily, (^NymphcBa odorata.) The Pitcher plant, 

 (^Sarracenia purpurea.') The Cardinal ilower, (^Lobelia cardinaUs ,") Vacdnium oceycoc- 

 cus, j^corus calamus, Typha latifulia, Chelonc glabra, Caltha palustris, &c., &c. In 

 the vicinity, the Doctor had introduced, and had growing in perfection, many other inte- 

 resting native flowering plants and trees. The following are some noticed by me: 



Lygodium palmatum, Habinaria grandiflora, Jlrctostaphxjlos uva ursi, beautifully 

 flourishing, Aster cyaneus, Asarum canadense, Osmunda regalis. Several species Cor- 

 nus. Viburnum, Salix, and Rhododendron. Also jI ristolochia sipho, from the Cats- 

 kill mountains, a most luxuriant climber. Leptinthus gramineus; beside species of the 

 Yucca, Epilobium, Thalictrum, Sedum, Clethra, Liutris, Ludwigia, Staphylea, Eaony- 

 mus, Equ'situm, Viola, &c., and Solidago odora, very flourishing. This latter species is 

 Avorth cultivating for its fragrance. It is rare about New-Haven, and I know of but one 

 localit}' of its growth here. It is diflicult to detach a root from the parent stock, but I 

 find on trial it grows well from slips placed in a hot-bed. 



Now while on this subject it may be worth while to ask why are not more of our own 



flowering plants and shrubs cultivated among us; they grow more vigorously 



foreign species, and there are many of them which feAV of our own people ever 



