348 



DOMESTIC NOTICES. 



mental. Yet I, foi- one of that party, believe a 

 nation that i.s advancing like ours, should by all 

 means have a large garden, grounds, hot-houses, 

 conservatories, &c., in Washington city. But 

 without the nation's lielp, it seems to me, that 

 New- York city alone, can by contribution, cdlect 

 enough to try and establish a real public park, 

 and keep the grounds in magnificent order. I am 

 sure that the citizens of Philadelphia, with even 

 the improvements they have, can estimate what 

 they might enjoy if the thing was carried out, as 

 in German public parks and gardens. Well do I 

 remember, years gone by, when youth and the 

 world were both brighter, strolling through one 

 of the public squares in Philadelphia, the finest 

 still in the Union, and enjoying to the utmost the 

 varied beauty — the hundreds of human beings who 

 found recreation and health there, as well as the 

 varied and beautiful trees. Old and infirm as I 

 am, I would give more to be seated on one of 

 those seats, where I could see the nurse, with a 

 sweet cherub in her arms ; the youth with his 

 hoop and stick; the fair young maiden, with her 

 bright and elastic step — all made happier and 

 better for this breath of rural life in the midst of 

 brick houses. I say I would give more to hear 

 and see such a sight, than Ole Bull, Hertz, or 

 all the flddle-strings in the world. Our creator, 

 in painting the beautiful in such an attractive 

 garb, certainly intended we should enjoy it. And 

 why should citizens of our towns and cities, not 

 have this enjoyment. Upon my life, I believe 

 handsome public grounds, with music, would 

 have the happiest influence in allaying riots 

 and debauchery, crime and secret vices. The 

 workman must have recreation. The rich had 

 better give it than to pay for prisons and peni- 

 tentiaries. I place it on the score of economy 

 alone ; and I put the question to every man. Do 

 you know of your own knowledge where the New 

 England man, that was raised in one of those 

 neat and orderly and tasteful villages, ever cost 

 the town to which he removed, or the country 

 tJiat he made his home, one dime, either as a sup- 

 port needed by drunkenness or laziness, or for 

 prison or jail fees? I have noted that those born 

 and raised in one of those sweet villages, was too 

 proud to remain poor, or to do a mean act. I 

 am sincerely yours. ^Mississippi Reader. 



Roses IN Mississippi. — My Noisette Lamarque 

 roses have now single stems or trunks of one inch 

 and a half diameter, supported by stakes, at from 

 6 to 12 feet from the ground. I suffer them to 

 throw off branches which are now covered with 

 large snow-ball-like clusters — sometimes 30 or 40 

 roses in a cluster. The Chromatella, (or Cloth 

 of Gold.) I train in the same way. On a.Gloire de 

 France, I counted to-day, 40 perfectly formed buds 

 and roses in one cluster — such a crown as Flora 

 herself might have been proud of. Yours, ji. H. 

 Peck, M. D. Port Gibson, Miss. Oct. 7, 1848. 



Orchidaceous Plants. — Sir: As plant cul- 

 ture is now engaging the attention of horticultu- 

 rists so much in this country, as well as in Eu- 

 rope, that we scarcely meet a number of our hor- 

 ticultural periodicals without a lengthened arti- 

 cle on some favorite family or tribe, may I be 

 permitted to call the attention of your read- 

 ers to the fanciful and admirable, (but in this 

 country, much neglected,) order Orchidacaea, an 

 order with which, for beauty, curiosity, and fra- 

 grance, not one in the vegetable kingdom can 

 vie. The majority of its species present the most 

 pleasing variety of any vegetable production; the 

 great variety of their colors, the delicacy and 

 elegance of their forms, the duration of their 

 flowering season, and the singularity of their ap- 

 pearance, would, I think, be sufficient recom- 

 mendation to inspire the most careless observer 

 with a zeal for their cultivation. Besides, the 

 simplicity of their treatment, no longer requiring 

 from us any of those various carefully mixed soils 

 necessary for other plants, but a block of wood, 

 and a high damp atmosphere, such as they breathe 

 in their native habitats, would be a farther induce- 

 ment for introducing them in our gardens. There 

 is no country in which they so abound as the 

 Mexican and Brazilian forests, which are now 

 quite accessible to us, and yet, strange to say, 

 they are almost unknown to American plant 

 cultivators, except by name, whilst they often 

 crowd their stoves with many worthless European 

 species, and leave these charming children of na- 

 ture unobserved to diffuse their fragrance to the 

 balmy breezes of their native forests. 



Their culture is as simple as their forms are 

 unbounded., They require little more than a 

 suitable house, where a high temperature can be 

 maintained, and like many pet-plants, a peculiar 

 treatment. In this country, under a bright sun, 

 they would be more easily cultivated than in 

 Britain, where they are an object of considerable 

 emulation among amateurs, but not to the extent 

 they desei-ve. What, indeed, can be compared 

 for beauty to those superb iae/ias and Cattleyas, 

 what so admirable as those elegant Stanhopeas, 

 what so graceful as those Odontoglossums and 

 Oncidiums that adorn the collossal trees of the 

 Mexican and Brazilian forests, or the beautiful 

 Sobr alias, with their elegant grass-like foliage, 

 and rich crimson flowers. These are strictly air- 

 plants. Their terrestrial associates are no way 

 inferior to their epiphytal neighbors. What Indian 

 productions so magnificent as those unrivalled 

 Vandes and derides; what so delicate and beau- 

 tiful as those Dendrobiums , and that gem of the 

 Manilla forests, the Indian Moth-plant, Phalae- 

 nopsis amabilis, with its flowers of the purest 

 white, and extremely singular lips; nor do I hesi- 

 tate to say that if the readers of the Horticultu- 

 rist had a knowledge of their peculiarities, they 

 would, with me, consider them the most exqui- 

 sitely curious and beautiful of nature's produc- 

 tions. Rich in every shade or variety of color, 



