Domestic Notices : — Scotland. 521 



not touch them. The haulm was very long and strong, and all the sheaves 

 were bound with it. The practice here is either to bind with straw, or to take 

 three stalks of beans. In the latter case, the beans growing on those stalks 

 are lost and wasted. 



Now, Sir, I am ready to furnish you or Mr. Brown with a specimen of the 

 peas ; and if, on inspection, they appear to be what he enquires after, I should 

 with pleasure send you all I have ; keeping only a sufficient quantity for sowing 

 next year. 



I am no farmer now, but I think the pea would not answer to cultivate as a 

 crop; as, on account of the length of the haulm, I should think it would rot, 

 and the peas also, if it had not some support to raise it above the ground, 

 which, when planted with the beans, my peas had ; for they laid hold of the 

 bean-stalks, and passed from one stalk to another, and thereby were kept fi"om 

 the ground. — A Gentleman residing in Bcrhshire. August 21. 1837. 



[We have since received about a quart of the peas referred to by our corre- 

 spondent, and those who wish to try them may apply by letter, post paid, to 

 Mr. Chariwood, seedsman, London ; Mr. Lawson, Edinburgh ; or M. Vilmorin, 

 Paris ; to whom we have sent equal portions of the seeds. — Cond.] 



Cowdnxa plicdta. — Tliis beautiful new shrub, mentioned p. 452. is, we un- 

 derstand from Mi\ Blair, extremely difficult to propagate, and by no means 

 likely to become common for many years. 



Agave americdna. — We understand that the fine specimen of this magnificent 

 exotic in the ladies' flower-garden at Clowance, tlie seat of Sir John St. Aubyn, 

 Bart., is now in a state of blossoming, and upwards of 200 of the flowers are 

 expanded ; and so richly are these blossoms supplied with honey, that it actually 

 drops from them. From the vast number of flower buds, there is no doubt but 

 this most curious and interesting flower will continue in bloom for the space of 

 five or six weeks. No fewer than 1360 persons have already seen and admired 

 this most beautiful plant, and we have every reason to believe many hundreds 

 more will be added to the number. (IVest Briton, October 6. 1837.) 



SCOTLAND. 



A Gardener'' s Lodge, in a first-rate place, in Scotland, when I was a young 

 man, was more like a school than a lodge. In the evening, the young gardeners 

 would study (principally from books), by their own exertions, grammar, arith- 

 metic, geometry, trigonometry, land-surveying, mapping, mensuration, horti- 

 culture, botany, garden architecture, and geography. It was customary for 

 the head or principal gardener to attend in the lodge for an hour or two in 

 the evening, to teach the apprentices and junior men. Thus, their time in the 

 evenings was spent in study, until they obtained good situations. (S/iejj/ierd's 

 Lectures on Landscajje-Gardening in Australia ; 8vo. Sydney, 1836.) 



Heating by Hot Water at Alli/re, near Forres, in Elginshire. — The Shots 

 Iron Company are at present fitting up four hot-houses, each between 40 ft. 

 and 30 ft. long, with hot-water apparatus, for me ; and all my neighbours are 

 following my example. The steady heat, and the cleanliness and comfort, of 

 the hot-water apparatus will induce many here to erect hot-houses who never 

 thought of doing so before; ami will thus give a great stimulus to the forcing 

 and exotic departments of gardening in this part of the island. — C. L. L\ B. 

 Forres, Nov. 12. 1836. 



Ne IV Seedling Potato. — Owing to the partial failure of the potato crop for 

 several years past, it became an object of importance to try experiments with 

 the view of restoring the constitutional vigour of that valuable esculent. Last 

 year, Mr. Arthur, gardener at North Berwick Lodge, noticing a field of thriving 

 potatoes, of sorts, in his neighbourhood, bestowed considerable pains in 

 crossing the strongest and most approved varieties in the field, and afterwards 

 carefully collected the seed. The seed thus collected was sown early this 

 season ; and the plants produced were in due season transferred to new ground, 

 on which potatoes had never before been grown. The crop, which covers more 

 than a quarter of an acre, has tlie most promising appearance, the stems being 



