658 Foreign Notices : — N'ot'th America. 



many of our green-house plants growing freely and in great perfection in 

 the open air. Among them we may observe the sugar-cane, the papyrus, 

 and the banana ; and the botanist will also be gratified by meeting with 

 many Sicilian plants, which are hardly to be seen elsewhere. The casino 

 was designed by M. du Fourny, whom I have alread}' mentioned to you at 

 Paris; the general form is good, but the details do not please me. The 

 metopes (for the order is Doric) are ornamented with different fruits. The 

 idea is ingenious, but it ought to have exhibited the various modes of 

 fructification, especially such as tend to elucidate the different families of 

 plants. In the present instance, thej' have neither been well chosen nor 

 well executed. (^Wood's Letters of an Architect, p. 341.) 



Hedges in Sicily. — About Monreale the aloe is very abundant, and I 

 once counted ninety-eight flowering stems in one view. It is employed as 

 a fence, but it is not a good one ; for though excellent for one or two 

 years before flowering, yet, as the old plant dies immediately afterwards, 

 two or three years elapse before the offsets are sufficiently advanced to 

 supply its place effectually. I sometimes, also, see the cactus employed as 

 a fence ; but, after some time, the lower part loses its prickles, and men 

 and animals may creep through. {Ibid., p. 354.) 



NORTH AMERICA. 



Growth and Manufacture of Silk. — During 1828, six thousand copies 

 of a compilation on the growth and manufacture of silks were published 

 by order of the House of Representatives in congress. This compilation 

 contains an abridgment of all that is relative to its introduction into 

 America. Dr. Mease, of Piiiladelphia, has also translated Count Hazzi's 

 Lehrhuch des Seidenbaues fur Deutschland, and published it with plates. 

 {Neiu York Farmer and Hort. Rep., Oct. 1828.) 



The Maize was the finest I had seen, having stalks 14 ft. in height, abun- 

 dantly furnished with ears of grain (helotes), in which, I was informed, a 

 minute and very venomous snake is sometimes secreted. Here the delicious 

 cherimoyer flourishes in a wild state ; roses are absolutely weeds. Among 

 some neglected peach trees I saw an orange tree covered with fruit. {Lyon^s 

 Mexico.) 



Gooseberry in Albany. — The gooseberry has not been extensively culti- 

 vated among us, and our assortment is but indifferent. The fruit is very 

 liable to be blighted by mildew ere it is half formed, and we know no 

 remedy for the evil. {Communicated to Mr. Saul from a Correspondent at 

 Albany, Nov.';. 1828.) 



Sugar made from the Water-Melon. — It has been discovered in the state 

 of South Carolina, that a very fine quality of sugar may be extracted from 

 the water-melon, which grows in great perfection there. The landlord of 

 a public-house has shown that all the sugar used in his house during the 

 preceding twelve months, and which had passed as the finest cane, had 

 been obtained from water-melons of his own raising. (iVcw^^j., Jan. 1829.) 



General Education. — The New England states and New- York have 

 made the most liberal provision for the instruction of the people. It 

 appears from a note in Mr. Cooper's book, that there were in the last- 

 mentioned state in 1825, without including 656 schools from which no 

 returns were made, 7773 common schools, which were supported wholly, 

 or in part, by the public, and attended by 425,000 scholars. Besides the 

 means afforded for the lowest elements of education, the state of New- 

 York has a fund which has contributed largely to classical schools, and 

 endowments to no inconsiderable extent have been made to colleges. 

 Other ()rovinces have been eqvially munificent; and congress, in autiioris- 

 ing the admission of new states into the union, has made to them distinct 



