114 MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



productions to manufactures, as, for instance, specimens of cotton from the 

 raw material up to its formation into cloth. The rooms for instruction will 

 afford facilities for students to draw plants from the living objects, and it will 

 include a convenient lecture hall, in which courses will be given similar to 

 those which are so popular at the Jardiu des Plantes at Paris, and the Royal 

 Dublin Society's gardens at Glasnevin. From this edifice a raised viaduct 

 promenade, over-looking a considerable portion of the gardens, will lead to 

 a domed conservatory in the centre of the gardens. This conservatory will 

 be on a very large scale, so as to emulate some of the foreign houses, and to 

 give every facility for the growth of the more magnificent tropical plants. 

 Descending from the conservatory to the right of the grand promenade, we 

 come to a garden laid out in the Dutch style, with a fountain in centre, and 

 canals. Beyond this will be a rosary, consisting of a circular lawn, sur- 

 rounded by arch trellis work and borders, for the growth of every variety of 

 this queen of flowers. From this we enter the Italian garden, laid out with 

 statues, fountains, and raised terraces, at one end of which will be a conser- 

 vatory and at the other a casino. Having passed under the promenade, we 

 reach the medico-botanical garden, adjoining the central conservatory, and 

 surrounded by hot-houses, stoves, &c. We are now at the head of the lake, 

 which will extend for about a quarter of a mile, interspersed with islands 

 and winding amid varied scenery. Here will be cultivated aquatic plants, 

 and theie will also be provided a salt-water basin for marine alga:. At the 

 head of the lake will be an artificial rock for the cultivation of rock-plants, 

 and which will con'ain a large reservoir to supply the several fountains and 

 hydraulic works. The borders of the lake, will, if possible, be so arranged 

 as to display representations of natural geological sections, which may be 

 made equally productive of interest and delight. 



Between the lake and central conservatory will be an extensive lawn, 

 upon which ornamental shrubs and parterres of flowers will be displayed in 

 the modern English style. In its special department will be a garden de- 

 voted, like that at Glasgow, to the cultivation of plants used in manufactures; 

 and the dyer may here see the material of his tints, or the weaver the cotton 

 from which his cloth is spun. In proper situations wiil be the American or 

 bog- earth grounds; a ground shaded by trees and containing stumps and 

 roots of trees, tunnels and caves for the growth of mosses, ferns, fungi, and 

 other cellulares. Around the whole ground is to be a walk with wide bor- 

 ders for the arrangement of plants in scientific order. By the sides of the 

 walks raised receptacles may be placed, so as to bring some of the more 

 delicate bog earth plants nearer the eye. 



An experimental garden may be rendered an important and interesfing 

 object, whether devoted to agriculture or manufactures. Professor Daubeny 

 lias devoted a portion of the limited space of the garden at Oxford to a series 

 of experiments on the powers of agricultural plants, by which he endeavours 

 to ascertain how long a plant will continue in constant cultivation before it 

 exhausts the soil, and when one plant has exhausted the soil, what other will 

 grow in its place. The rotation of crops, the subject of this examination, ia 

 one of the most important principles of modern agriculture, and one which 

 greatly demands enlightened study. 



By these several departments every facility will be given for the study of 

 botany to whatever class of student may be desirous of availing himself of 

 it ; and one of the most important objects, the application of botanical pro- 

 ductions to arts and manufactures, is particularly provided for. As far as 

 means will permit, exertions will be made to promote the cultivation of such 

 plants as may be most useful for these purposes, and to extend them in our 

 own country and our colonies; and even if the society should do nothing 

 locally, they have it in their power to further these objects, by giving prizes, 

 as is done by the Society of Arts. To give every inducement for its local 

 study, public botanical exhibitions will be opened periodically, in which an 

 important feature will be introduced, by giving prizes for any new applica- 

 tion of plants to manufactures, and for the best delineation of them, or 



