General Jfotices. 349 



grapes, of which Mr. McLennan has a heavy crop, for the age of the 

 vines; some of the clusters were very heavy, and the Avhole were well 

 colored and well flavored. They certainly do credit to his good man- 

 agement. We tasted of a kind called the Muscadine, which appear- 

 ed to be different from the sweet water: it was exceedingly rich and 

 sweet. 



In the garden the dahlias are here the main flowers, and they were 

 doing well; the collection does not embrace very many of the rare sorts, 

 but mostly the good ones of the older varieties, such as the Countess 

 of Liverjiool, Dennisi, &c. &c. A row of Gladiolus natalensis was 

 very showy, with from two to four spikes of flowers to each bulb. Sev- 

 eral plants of that new and superbly rich annual, the Calliopsis tincto- 

 ria var. atrosanguiuea, were the most attractive things in the border — 

 glistening, in the sun, like precious gems; it is truly one of the greatest 

 acquisitions that has been made to our annuals. Many other pretty 

 heriiaceous plants were in flower, but we had no time to notice them 

 particularly. The garden looked neat and clean. 



J\lr. Sweetser's Garden. — The principal show now is the dahlias, 

 which are conu'ng on in all their splendor. A magnificent yellow one of 

 this year is the Golden Sovereign. Napoleon (puce,) and Duke of 

 Bedford (purple,) are also brilliant self colored ones. Before the close 

 of the dahlia season we shall notice several of the best which have 

 come out this year. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Value of Specific Characters. — M. Wiegmann, in a letter addressed 

 to the conductor of the botanical periodical called the Flora, communi- 

 cates some observations which he has made on this subject. The results 

 which he obtained are not at all favorable to the opinion of those authors 

 who elevate to the rank of a species slight differences in form, com- 

 monly produced by the influence of the climate or the locality. Some 

 genera, of which many species are cultivated in gardens, such as Ve- 

 ronica, F^erbascum, i^elpliinium, Thalictrum, &c., contain many spe- 

 cies of which the native country is unknown. Certainly, however, the 

 change which culture produces, and the numerous hybrids, to the pro- 

 duction of which botanic gardens are so favorable, from the proximity 

 of the species of a genus, may easily explain the origin of some hun- 

 dreds of species in our catalogues. 



In 1833, the author saw a plant of .^'llium Cepa bearing a bulb in the 

 place of seeds. In the following spring he planted the bulb; and his 

 astonishment was great when he saw, shortly after, springing up in his 

 garden, .^'llium proliferum of Schrader and Sprengel, with a naked, 

 flexible, weak stem, a proliferous umbel, and barren flowers on long 

 footstalks. M. Wiegmami cites the numerous forms of /Vis obtained 

 by M. Berg; and the multiplicity of calceolarias, and other ornamental 

 plants, as examples of these j)seudo-s|)('cies. 



To this we may add the fact stated by M. Soyer-Willemet, (^Bon Cul- 



