Hardy Maize. — Ji/ietim aicstrlacum^ 693 



gay in the months of November and December as the Chinese 

 rose has now made them during the months of spring and 

 summer [and, indeed, autumn may be added.] — Edward 

 Mudge, F.R.S. L.S. t5r., President of the Vale of Evesham 

 Horticidtiiral Society, 



A hardy Variety of Maize. — Fourteen years ago, one Mr. 

 Bradbury, an eminent botanist, called upon me. He was 

 then just returned from his travels in North America, where 

 he had been collecting plants. He had travelled a consider- 

 able way up the Missouri, and, when upon that river, he 

 heard of a variety of maize cultivated near the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, which, he said, he was sure, by the account he received 

 of it, would ripen even in the Highlands of Scotland. As he 

 intended to go again to the western parts of America, he said 

 he would endeavour to get a sample of the seed, and send it 

 to England. A considerable time after this I heard that he 

 had died at St. Louis, soon after his return to America: of 

 course, nothing has been heard of the corn. Now, as there 

 are often considerable sums of money spent to procure, 

 and naturalise to the English climate, foreign plants which 

 neither are, nor will be, equal to the maize in point of real 

 value, I think it would be well worth the attention of some 

 Agricultural or Horticultural Society, or of some private in- 

 dividual who could afford to bestow suflficient trouble and 

 expense, to obtain a variety which would ripen in every part 

 of Britain where other grain would. Any one who has 

 friends in the western parts of North America might, perhaps, 

 obtain some seeds of the variety mentioned by Mr. Bradbury, 

 — M. Rothxoell, Farmer and NurserymaJi, Spout Bank, Lanca* 

 shire, March 29. 1832. 



Rheum anstriacum was figured some few years back in 

 Sweet's Flower-Garden. In consequence of its being strongly 

 recommended in that work, I was induced to get a plant ; but 

 having some scruples as to the effect it might produce, if used 

 in tarts, I have abstained from using its leafstalks until this 

 year. I find it, in point of flavour, very superior to any 

 rhubarb I ever tasted, having a very strong and pleasant acid; 

 scarcely, if at all, inferior to the unripe gooseberry, and pro- 

 ducing no unpleasant effects ; in fact, in this last respect, I 

 perceive no difference between it and the rhubarb usually 

 grown for tarts. I am therefore desirous, through the medium 

 of your Magazine, to recommend the cultivation of it very 

 strongly to those persons who generally supply the markets; 

 as 1 have very little doubt it only requires to be known to 

 become in considerable request. Perhaps the greatest ob- 

 stacle to its being cultivated for general consumption is the 



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