388 Domestic JS^otices. 



eyes of the stock above the fruit of the graft, which attracts the sap 

 necessary for facilitating the union.* 



Grafting of Pine-trees — In coming to Fontainbleau, I not only want- 

 ed to see iny old friends and the gardens, but I was anxious to judge 

 what progress had been made in the forest by the plantation of resinous 

 evergreens, and to view the grafts, on a grand scale, of the laricio pine, 

 executed on the sylvestris pinus, commenced by M. Larminat, the Con- 

 servator of the Forest, and continued by M. Bois-d'Hiver, his succes- 

 sor. It was in 1823 that M. Larminat conceived the happy idea of exe- 

 cuting the grafting of the trees on a great scale, by means of the her- 

 baceous graft, or Tshudy's, its inventor, or at least he who brought it 

 into use, for this graft was already known in the sixteenth century, ac- 

 cording to Francis of Neufchatel. The first sowing was a mixture of 

 the pinus sylvestris, and the maritime pine on the rock of Avon, which 

 is nearest the palace. When the success of this experiment had been 

 tried, many others were made, sometimes separately, and at others mix- 

 ed together. The sowing is generally made by scattering the seed,t 

 though nurseries are also established from which they can plant out. 

 Some American pines are seen there, but it is rather as an object of 

 experiment, than for the sake of multiplying them. According to the 

 plan now pursued, the poetic and romantic situations of the forest of 

 Fontainbleau will disappear under the dark and enduring masses of ver- 

 dure which are springing up in every direction. Its rocks, which con- 

 tain in their interior such crystals as can scarcely be found in any other 

 part of the world, will soon disappear under the layer of vegetable earth, 

 constantly produced by the fall and decomposition of the leaves of the 

 pine, which has already nearly concealed them by its dark and silent fo- 

 liage. This is no hyperbolical picture. It. is the simple, slow, gradual, 

 but certain course of nature. 



Art. III. Domestic Notices. 



Effects of the late umrm and dry xveather. — The great dryness and 

 heat of the last two months, have changed my garden to an Arabian des- 

 ert. It lays very high, and is much exposed on all sides, to the heat 

 and wind. The dahlias have suffered, notwithstanding the greatest care 

 I could possibly give them, very much from insects and the heat. I 

 have had no flowers yet, and despair of having a good show of blooms 

 this season. The garden being nearly devoid of flowers, and the grass 

 fruit entirelj'^ up, the appearance is melancholy to the greatest degree. 

 — Yours, J. IV. Paulsen, Brooklyn, N. J., Sept. 1st, 1838. 



* This graft, acknowledged to be the best, the easiest, and the most certain, is known 

 in some establishments under the name of llie triangular graft. It is excellent for the 

 camellia, rhododendron, clethra, and ala^ica. 



t At first the ground was cleared and prepared before they planted the pines; this me- 

 thod cost one Innidred and twenty-live francs (5/.) an acre, and abonl half vas found to 

 fail. Afterwards M. Larminat thought nf a means of getting the seed sown for nothing 

 in unencumbered places, and for a tritlc in moi-e difficult spots. The plan was this: the 

 seed is flung on the healh, and the jioor of Foniainhlcau are then permitted to take away 

 the healh, on condition that titcy tear it up by tlie roots. 



