466 Foicign Notices: — Denmark. 



are not yet known or describeJ ; 2clly, a methodical arrangement of coleop- 

 terous insects, founded upon the metamorphosis of the structure of the larvae 

 and chrysalides ; 3dl y, instructions, based on a knowledge of the metamor- 

 phoses, for preventing the too great increase of these noxious insects. How 

 much has been proved, by experience, with respect to the utility of a circular 

 incision, in form of a ring, made in the bark of trees, for the purpose of aug- 

 mentiu" their fertility '? How far can this manner of augmenting the produce 

 of fruits be explained, conformably to the actual state of vegetable physiology ; 

 and what rules does this explanation furnish for effecting the process, without 

 endan<Tering the trees, or running the risk of losing them ? What is the nature 

 of chlurophi/lle {phyllocliloye, diromule) in vegetables ? What is its form and 

 composition ; and in what character docs it differ from other vegetable matters ? 

 Is it different according to the kind of plant ; and what constitutes this dif- 

 ference '? What are the circumstances by which, during vegetation, it is pro- 

 duced, or changed, or modified, in plants ? 



The prize for each of these questions is a gold medal, value 130 florins, and 

 a gratuity of 150 florins, when the answer shall be deemed worthy of it. The 

 answers, written in Dutch, French, English, Latin, or German, are to be 

 addressed to M. Van Marum, the secretary to the Academy. {UE'cho du 

 Monde Savant, July 13. 1837.) 



DENMARK. 



M. Petersen, gardener to the King of Denmark at Rosenburg, who made 

 a tour through England, and part of Scotland, in the year 1831, was in this 

 country during great part of the mouth of July last, and has returned home 

 through France, Belgium, and Germany. M. Petersen having spent five or six 

 years in this country, before he was appointed court gardener to his sove- 

 reign, not only acquired a thorough knowledge of all the newest gardening 

 practices in the neighbourhood of London, but such a knowledge of the English 

 language as enables hiin, while in his native country, to keep pace with the 

 progress of improvement in England by means of English books. When M. 

 Petersen returned to Denmark in the year 1827 (see Gard. Mag., Vol. HL 

 p. 3-46. ; and Vol. IV. p. 274), gardening was in such a backward state, that an 

 inhabitant of Britain now hardly credits the facts stated by M. Petersen, at that 

 time, in the Gardener s Magazine ; viz. that tart rhubarb was not known there as 

 a culinary vegetable ; that not a single |)ine-apple had been ripened on the 3d of 

 September, 1827, but some were expected to be ready by about the middle of that 

 month. The first melon was cut on August 30., and the first grapes only a few 

 days sooner; mushrooms and bea-kale were not at all cultivated; most of the 

 New Holland plants were unknown, even in the botanic gardens; and the only 

 new North American annual grown there at that time was the Calliopsis 

 tinctoria. Such was the state of gardening of Denmark in the year 1827. In 

 the course of 10 years, things have been entirely changed. Every culinary 

 vegetable grown in English gardens is now produced in the royal kitchen- 

 "ardens at Copenhagen ; many of the best varieties of hardy fruit trees have 

 been not only introduced in the royal gardens, but even propagated in the 

 public nurseries ; almost all the fine herbaceous plants, annuals, and perennials, 

 sent home by Douglas, have been introduced, and some of them are beginning 

 to appear in" the gardens of merchants. Pine-apples are cut in the royal 

 gardens every month in the year ; and some of them of such a size (M. 

 Petersen being a discijilc of the late Mr. Shenan, and keeping his plants, as all 

 plants without buds ought to be kept, in a continually growing state), that 

 we are afraid to state the weight; and, finally, a horticultural society has 

 been established at Copenhagen. All this has been effected through the 

 agency of M. Petersen, than whom we do not know a single individual, in any 

 country, who (without the advantages of birth, rank, or fortune, and simply 

 on account of his holding a public situation, ami being a lover of his country, 

 and enthusiastically attached to gardening) has effected so very remarkable a 

 change in so short a time. The greatest reward which such a man as M. 



