General Mticcs. 429 



viewed us a complete failure, which it unquestionably would in the case 

 of those who only had a liniited nunibcr of pots ; and therefore the 

 sooner tiio matter is set at rest the better, as I know tliat the system has 

 not only been a source of trouble to gardeners, but also, in some cases, 

 of unpleasantness between them and their employers." 



It has always been our opinion that plants raised from 

 eyes, and fruited the second season (page 37), would much 

 better repay the gardener for his attention than the coiled 

 system ; we doul)t if the latter will ever be practised at all, 

 tudess for the mere purpose of experiment. The questions 

 of Mr. Fish are such as Mr. Mearns can answer, and thus 

 throw more information upon the subject. 



Just after the above conununication w ent to press, the conductor re- 

 ceived one from Mr. Mearns, accompanii;d with some of theeoiled vines: 

 in the former, he states that he has "eoilers of last season in pots and 

 boxes, with from three bunches to thirty-six on each vine, and of the 

 large and tine kinds. I have eoilers of this season with from three to 

 twelve bunches on each, and tine wood for next season's bearing. One 

 white Frontignan has nineteen fine bunches upon it, and was a rootless 

 branches six weeks ago. I have at this time sixty pots of grapes in ac- 

 tion, with three hundred and fifty bunches u])on them ; many nearly ripe, 

 and liner, of the sorts, than I ever saw upon vines in a border. 1 have 

 about thirty pots to bring into action, from last spring's eoilers ; and, as 

 these are all my best shoots, I believe that they will produce me between 

 five hundred and six hundred bunches of very fine grapes." 



" This," the conductor observes, " is quite a ditierent question from 

 that of the practicability of getting fruit from a coiled vine the first sea- 

 son, which was the chief point insisted upon in Mr. Mearns's former 

 communication." — (p. 60.) 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



American Magnolias in China. — In reply to a query, p. 325, I am able 

 to say that Mr. Beale has, in his garden at Macao, a tree of Magno- 

 ]iu grandiiiora, which, when I saw it last, in 1830, must have been twen- 

 ty feet high. From the tree Mr. Beale has struck ofl' several branches 

 by the Chinese mode of abscission, and distributed the young plants to 

 some of the Chinese merchants at Canton, and to some of the inhabitants 

 of Macao. He has done the same, also, with a smaller tree, which, from 

 the very ferrugineous ajipearance of the under side of the leaf", I think 

 was MagnoliVi g. elHjJtica. Besides those, he had received from America, 

 Magnoh'rt glaiica, and a fourth variety, which, if I remember right, was 

 M. auriculata. The two latter i)lants had then been but lately received ; 

 but, as they were in good health, I have no doubt they have also been 

 propagated and distributed, and now are as well as the two former, es- 

 tablished in China. — J. Meeves: Loudoji's Gard. Mag. for Aug. 



The Discovery of the Tea Shrub in India. — Botanic Garden, Calcutta, 

 Feb. 16, 1835. 1 do myself the pleasure to send you, enclosed, a copy of 

 a j)aper on the extraordinary discovery which has been made, or rather 

 confirmed, of late, of the true and identical China tea shrub growing 



