252 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[August, 



was taken here because neither " palm " nor wil- 

 low was to be had. 



Belgium Honors Horticulturists. — The Jour- 

 nal of Horticulture says : In no country in Eu- 

 rope are the representatives of horticulture held 

 in such honor as they are in Belgium. It is not 

 on some solitary occasion only that they have 

 experienced tliis, but whenever there is an op- 

 portunity offered for their assembling together 

 they meet with a recognition whicli they receive 

 nowhere else. 



On this occasion no sooner had the represen- 

 tatives of the different nationalities arrived in 

 Brussels than a warm reception was accorded 

 to them by the Burgomaster at the Hotel de 

 Ville ; but the greatest honor was reserved for 

 the opening day of the Exhibition, when the 

 delegates from the different governments and so- 

 cieties, members of the jury, and some of the 

 leading exhibitors, were invited to a banquet by 

 the King and Queen at the royal palace. Noth- 

 ing could be moi'e kind than the reception their 

 Majesties gave their guests, with each of whom 

 they entered freely into conversation ; and to the 

 British representatives the banquet had an ad- 

 ditional intere.st from the whole of the service, 

 which was solid silver, being the wedding pres- 

 ent to the Princess Charlotte by her father George 

 IV. on her marriage with Prince Leopold of 

 Saxe-Coburg, afterwards King of the Belgians. 

 Every plate was marked with the royal arms of 

 Great Britain. What gave especial importance 

 to this occasion was that their Majesties re- 

 mained in Brussels for the event, and departed 

 for Germany late at night after the entertainment 

 was over — an act of courtesy and condescension 

 such as horticulturists are not familiar with at 

 home. 



Tickets for the opera were provided for all the 

 guests who after the banquet were disposed to 

 avail themselves of them. Another banquet 

 was given by the Soci6te Royale de Flore on the 

 evening of the Ist of May, and numerous other 

 attactions were offered, leaving nothing to 

 be desired to render the visit of foreigners agree- 

 able and memorable. 



FoRSYTHiA SPLENDEXS. — Prof S. B. Buckley 

 desires us to say that the name as above given in 

 his Texas geological report is a misprint for 

 Fouquiera splendens, as we supposed. 



Proceedings of the New Jersey Horticul- 

 tural Society, 1876.— Prof. Thurber ia President, 

 and a large list of well-known horticultural 



names make up the officers. This is the report 

 of 4he first annual meeting, and much good work 

 appears to have been done. The President's ad- 

 dress will bear reading over several times. Sel- 

 dom is an " annual address " given with so much 

 food for thought. Then there are highly in- 

 structive essays from W. Parry, on Raspberry 

 Culture ; the Huckleberry, by C. W. Idell, espe- 

 cially interesting because as yet this is not among 

 cultivated fruits ; the Geranium, by P. Hender- 

 son ; Hybrid Strawberries, by E. W. Durand; 

 Horticultural Entomology, by A. S. Fuller ; Glad- 

 iolas, by Geo. Such; Promising New Fruits, by 

 E. Allen ; Keeping Pears, by W. H. Goldsmith ; 

 Hedges and Screens, by S. W. Thompson. All 

 articles that are really Horticultural, and valuable. 



Minnesota State Horticultural Society. — 

 Proceedings for 1876, from Charles Y. Lacy, 

 Secretary. 



We have always had an idea that for genuine 

 gardening Minnesota was destined to become in 

 time the best State of the Union, and delight in 

 watching her progress in this direction. A great 

 deal of this report is taken up with fruit culture 

 foi»market and for profit, which it is quite right 

 and proper should be considered ; but there is 

 quite enough of the finer matters to show that 

 the Minnesotians fully understaTid that man is 

 not to live by bread alone. 



Botany of California. — By W. H. Brewer, 

 Sereno Watson, and Asa Gray. — We briefly noted 

 the appearance of this in our last. The work is 

 now before us, and we take occasion to say that 

 only for the liberality of a few gentlemen of San 

 Francisco, botanists and horticulturists would 

 still be without any work of reference to the 

 flora from this interesting part of the world. 

 AVhat we have hitherto learned of the flora of 

 California has had to be gathered from numer- 

 ous tracts or memoirs scattered through the pro- 

 ceedings of various scientific societies, or the 

 reports of various government exploring expedi- 

 tions; and even this information was often in- 

 accurate and incomplete. During 18G(>-'64, in the 

 progress of the Whitney geological survey, Dr. 

 W H. Brewer took charge of and mostly made 

 the botanical collections, and since that time ad- 

 ditional collections have been made bj' Dr. Bo- 

 lander, Dr. Cooper, Mr. Lemmon and others, and 

 the hard work of getting this material ready for 

 the press was undertaken by the three eminent 

 botanists whose names are given above. 



Unfortunately the Legislature of California 

 refused any further appropriations to the survey 



