S6 



Domestic Noliccs : — Ejiisland. 



50 



to tlie rains of autumn and the 



C. f. grandiflorus (Arb. Brit., p. 938.; ani\Ji<rs. 30, 31.) are now coming beau- 

 tifully into flower, against the conservative wall, with no other protection 

 than the projecting coping of reed hurdles. 

 C. f. grandiflorus (^fig. 31.), though less fra- 

 grant, is decidedly more ornamental than 

 the other, from the large size and deep 

 yellow of its flowers. It is quite delightful 

 to behold such a display of fine blossom at 

 this season of the year. It is only neces- 

 sary to see these plants in order to desire 

 to purchase them ; and they will grow in 

 any court-3 ard or town ganlen, provided 

 they are trained to the south side of a 

 wall or house. liibes sangulneum, owing 

 mildness of that season having swelled the buds, is coming into flower; 

 and the male catkins of ^^'Inus incana are fully expanded, while those of 

 Garry« elliptica are nearly so. The advanced state of the flower buds of 

 Cratae^gus Aronia and C. mauroccana confirm us in our 

 conjecture that these two kinds of thorn are only varieties 

 of the sam e species. We are happy to learn that there 

 has been an unusually large number of applications for 

 scions of C'ratiE^gus this season; so we hope that the 

 species of this most beautiful and very hardy genus ol low 

 trees will soon be extensively distributed in Britain. 

 Considerable alterations are making in the garden, the 

 object of which is to distribute the arboretum over a 

 more extensive space, in order that each individual tree 

 may display something like its natural size and shape. This 

 is, to a certain extent, in conformity with what we have 

 suggested in various volumes of this Magazine ; but more especially in Vol. V. 

 p. 346., and Vol. VI. p. 250. As it is impossible (at least, so it appears to us) that 

 the Societj', with their present garden, can ever do justice to the whole of the 

 British timber trees, since the elms and poplars would alone, to do them jus- 

 tice, occupy the whole garden, we would suggest the idea of their confining 

 themselves to trees and shrubs which are chiefly cultivated for ornamental 

 purposes. Indeed, we think we have been informed that they are doing this. 

 The forest trees can be taken up by an arboricultural society, and, doubtless, 

 will be so in due time. 



T/ie Botany of Battersea Fields. — At a recent meeting of the Botanical 

 Society of London, held at their rooms, No. 11. John Street, Adelphi, a 

 commvmication was read by the curator, Daniel Cooper, Esq., author of 

 Botanical Rambles wilhin Thirty Miles of London, " On the Distribution of the 

 Localities of wild Plants in Battersea Fields," accompanied with apian, or map, 

 of that locality (scale, 2 ft. to the mile), in which the localities of the plants 

 were accurately shown. To this gentleman practical botanists are indebted 

 for this novel idea; for, if they wish to see the locality of au}' particular plant, 

 they have only to refer to the plan, in which all the meadows, pastures, 

 ditches, &c., are delineated, with the plants written in the situations where 

 they have been found. Mr. Cooper stated that Battersea Fields have been 

 for years past famous for the supjjly of specimens they have yielded to the 

 naturalist, more particularly the l)otanist. He divided this locality into six 

 districts ; the meadows and pastures, cultivated fields, osier grounds, Batter- 

 sea Common, <!v:c. &c. ; and under the head of each he mentioned those plants 

 which were of rare occurrence. Of the profusion of wild plants found in 

 this locality Mr. Cooper made the following remarks: — " Of the 104- natural 

 orders of British flowering plants mentioned in Dr. Lindley's first edition of 

 his Synopsis, Gl are found in this locality ; of the 503 genera, 214 are here 

 distributed ; lastly, out of the 1500 estimated species of British flowering 

 plants, 406 are here dispersed. Thus, in this piece of ground, which measures 



