108 General J^otices. 



is greater by accident than by design. This variety is very beautiful, 

 and a great addition to the others. 



Diosma ciliara was full of its capitate heads of blossoms. Babiuna 

 undulata, a pretty species with pale, lilac colored blossoms, was flower- 

 ing. Camelh'a ja])6nica var. compacta had two fine flowers open; 

 this is a neat little variety, — several common kinds were also in bloom. 

 Mr. Learhe possesses quite a number of excellent geraniums, and the 

 show will be very handsome in April and May. 



MISCELLANEOUS LNTELLIGENCE. 



Art. L General Notices. 



The Yellow Rose in Italy. — I remember, in one of your early Maga- 

 zines, a correspondent inquiring the name of a yellow rose that blooms 

 and grows freely in Italy. I received a letter from a friend at Como, 

 a short time since, in which he says that nothing can be more superb 

 than the yellow roses in that neighborhood. At Genoa, Florence, and 

 other places, there are also large trees of J?6sa sulphurea (the common 

 yellow rose,) covered with their brilliant yellow flowers, hanging like 

 golden balls from the branches, in shape like our cabbage roses, and 

 perfectly formed. How much it is to be regretted that our climate will 

 not allow us to grow this rose in such perfection! I also ascertained 

 from my friend in Italy the curious fact, that the yellow and copper 

 Austrian roses (Rosa lutea and var.,) though both gi'owing wild in the 

 mountains near Como, never bear a single seed-vessel. — (Gard. Mag.) 



Mosses, lichens and insects, which are prejudicial to fruit trees, may 

 be destroyed by a simple solution of quick-lime, any time between the 

 fall and opening of the leaf, applied with a watering-pot or gardener's 

 syringe. It does its oflice, and withal promotes the growth of the tree. 

 ~(T. Bishop, in Cal. Hort. Tr.) 



Sap of Plants. — Knight teaches, that the sap of plants ascends through 

 the white wood, and descends down the bark, depositing the matter of 

 the new wood in its descent, but without becoming changed into it. 

 That the matter absorbed from the soil and the air is converted into 

 the true sap or blood of the plant loholly in the leaves, from which it is 

 discharged into the bark; and that such portions of it as arc not ex- 

 pended in the generation of new wood and bark, join, during the spring 

 and autumn, the ascending current in the wood, into which it passes by 

 the medullary processes. As the autumn approaches, however, and 

 the ascending sap is no longer expended in generating new leaves and 

 blossoms, or young shoots, that fluid concentrates in a concrete state in 

 the sap wood of the tree, as in the tuber of the potato, and the bulb 

 of a tulip, and joints of the grasses, whence it is washed out in the 

 spring, to form a new layer of bark and wood, to form leaves, and 

 feed the blossoms and fruit. — {Cal. Hort. Soc.) 



Jin Improvement in Tanning. — The tanning process is likely to be 

 greatly cheapened and expedited, by a recent improvement patented by 

 jVfessrs, BeTls^ of Virginia. The improvement consists in freeing the 



