298 



with the hybridist in the selection of parents, according to Mr. Cole's 

 experience, should be — 1st. Family alliance; 2. Constitutional affi- 

 nity — that is, choosing two plants with organic similarity of growth, 

 whether bulbous, herbaceous, ligneous, annual or otherwise. Where 

 such distinctive differences exist, though the family alliance is un- 

 doubted, no cross has hitherto been produced." Campanula coro- 

 nata, a beautiful hardy species, with a coloured calyx, arranged in 

 the form of a star. Dr. Morren appears to consider it nothing more 

 than a variety of C. persicaefolia of Linneus. Francisca confertiflora 

 of a former number is refert^ed by Sir VV. Hooker to Brunsfelsia caly- 

 cina of Bentham. 



' Trichopilia marginata,' being the description, history, &c., of a 

 new orchid from New Granada, introduced by Mr. Linden, and first 

 flowered in this country by Mr. Schroder, of Stratford. 



' The Chemistry of Soils and Manures ; by Dr. Voelcker. — On the 

 formation of soils — chemical causes ; on the formation of soils — me- 

 chanical causes.' 



' Theory and Practice of Pruning ; by Mr. H. Bailey. — The Peach.' 



' The Rose Garden ; by Mr. G. Glenny, F.H.S.' 



' Notes, cultural, critical and suggestive:' — 'Thermic scale of cul- 

 tivation.' 



' Degeneration of Fruits.' " In North America there are neither 

 apple, pear, nor peach-trees, of the same sorts as our own, that have 

 not been introduced there. The Europeans, some three hundred 

 years ago, took over the seeds of these trees; but so far from yielding 

 what they yield us, they produced, at least in Virginia, as a first gene- 

 ration, trees with wild and austere fruit, and it was not eatable by 

 those accustomed to better things at home. The second generation, 

 sprung from the first American seeds, was not so bad as the first. 

 Each generation was better than its predecessor, but their fruit is still 

 inferior to our own ; and what is very curious, the best of theirs differs 

 from ours in taste and essence. These facts, collected by M. Poiteau 

 in Virginia forty-five years ago, show what modifications can be pro- 

 duced by a succession of generations in plants derived from the same 

 seed. If it be objected that the seeds of the fruit-trees originally 

 sent to Virginia did not in this country produce such good fruit as 

 they do at present, still the great fact remains, that the seeds when 

 sown in Virginia yielded something different from what they then 

 yielded in Europe. We see, then, how the new conditions in which 

 fruit trees were placed in North America gave rise to two principal 

 results : 1. By depriving this fruit of the quality it had acquired by 



