Vol. VIII.— Nn. 47, 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



371 



nessed this exhibition, that the means of equalhng 

 it in richness and variety are not to be found else- 

 where on this continent. It could not be pro- 

 longed beyond the second day, owing to the injury 

 which many of the specimens might receive from 

 the peculiar exposure, the fading of the boquets, 

 and the want of further leisure by those gentlemen 

 who superintended or otherwise officiated. — Par- 

 ticular credit is due to the professional florist, and 

 the owners of the botanic ganlens, wiiosc zeal for 

 the interests of botany and horticulture protnpted 

 them to make sacrifices, by no means inconsider- 

 able, of convenience, time, and money. — That 

 zeal, we confess, seems to carry with it its own re- 

 ward, in the beauty, delicacy and value of the pro- 

 ducts to which it refers. We have often felt in- 

 clined to envy a musical composer of genius, in 

 his moments of happy authorship, and when he 

 hears his work well performed ; — thus, too, we 

 deem enviable the sensations of a practical botanist 

 and florist, contemplating the objects of his skill and 

 care, especially when the bright and curious variety 

 happen to be arrayed and admired as they were 

 yesterday in the Masonic Hall. The names of the 

 liberal contributors of plants, flowers, fruit or escu- 

 lent vegetables, to this exhibition, are Messrs M' 

 Arren, D' Arras, Smith, Parker, Hibbert, Pierpont, 

 Pepper, Chauiiccy, Clapier, Carr, D. and C. Land- 

 reth, Maiipay, Longstreth, Pratt, Coxe. 



We cite the following articles of the collection 

 merely as specimens of what was most useful, 

 rare, or recherche. 



Dragon's-blood tree ; date palm ; arrow root ; tea ; 

 coffee, in flower and fruit ; cinnamon ; pepper ; banana ; 

 sugar cane ; pliormium tenax (New Zealand flax) aifords 

 the strongest vegetable fibre known ; mahogany ; man- 

 go ; ficus elastica (affords tlic gum elastic, and is remarli- 

 able for the beauty of foliage) ; the cork tree; olive; 

 species of encalyptus, melaleuca, leptospermum, metro- 

 aideros, banUsia, from New Holland ; numerous species 

 of aloe, crassula, mesembryanthemum ; the casuarina of 

 the South Sea Islands ; calceolarias and the gloxinia 

 from the Andes ; the strelitzia, phylicas, ericas, and the 

 singular testudinaria, from the Cape of Good Hope ; a 

 great variety of cacti, among which those recently sent 

 from Mexico, by Mr Poinsett, are very interesting. 

 Plants of our own country conspicuous — yuccas, mag- 

 nolia macrophylla, chamcerops, palmetto, and hystrix, 

 azaleas, stevvartia, dioncea. &c, styrax. Among tropical 

 plants the beautiful pandanus odoratissimus, justicias, 

 pothos lanccolalus, melastoma trinerva, carolinea prin- 

 ceps, correa alba, cookia punctata, ixora coccinea, laurus 

 persea, maranta zebrina, myrtus tomento.sa, and pimento, 

 begonias, hedychium, thunbergia, ficus vestita, and ben- 

 glalensis, pavetta, mimosas, &c. 



The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society have, 

 on this occasion, accomplished not only the end of 

 making known the treasures, taste, and liberality^ 

 which exist in this city and its vicinity, in their de- 

 partment, but that of an accession of colleagues 

 anxious to minister directly to their laudable pur- 

 poses. Indeed, we know not how men of ade- 

 quate means could resist the temptation of becom- 

 ing associates, when they saw so brilliant an earn- 

 est of the manifold good to be achieved. The 

 friends or patrons of pure morals and refined feel- 

 ing, do not all, perhaps, heed the degree in which 

 mei-its of the kind would be promoted by the dif- 

 fusion of a taste for botany, and generally by a 

 wide-spread fondness for the pursuits and ob ects 

 of horticulture. In contributing in any mode to 

 those effects, we should regard ourselves as acting 

 in the identical and proper direction of aid emu- 

 lously lent to Bible, Tract, Education, or other so- 

 cieties of religious benevolence. We therefcre 

 wish, on every ground, that the motto of the Penn- 

 sylvania institution may truly be — Florescet quoti- 



die inagis, or in other words of Cicero, g-ca/ia, avc- 

 toritate, benejiciis in urbejloret. 



We should not forget to add to this rapid and 

 imperfect notice of the exhibition, that, though 

 thousands of persons visited it and remained more 

 or less time in the Hall, and the crowd was great 

 in the evening, no one of the articles, — not a stem 

 nor a floweret, — suffered the l(;ast injury from any 

 hand or any attrition. This circumstance is only 

 one of a nnndicr of exam])les which we could 

 cite, of the spirit and habit of order which mark 

 the population of Philadelphia. — National Gazette. 



The Augusta Courier states that there are 3000 

 people in the Cherokee Territory, searching for 

 gold ; that if one party finds a large spot, it must 

 keep it by its strength. At night parties collect 

 by a pine-knot fire, over a bottle of whiskey, and 

 play cards for the earnings of the day. The coun- 

 try presents a shocking scene of drunkenness, 

 fighting, and gambling. 



Wc hope no gold mines will ever be found in 

 New England. Her wealth is derived from the 

 soil, by a slower but surer process than gold n)ines 

 afford — the plough. From her soil, diversified 

 by hill and valley, ventilated by bracing and 

 healthy breezes, fertilized by the kind influence of 

 Heaven, and quickened by industry, tillage will 

 derive gold ; and ' the gold of that land is good,' 

 where the farmer is industrious and persevering. 

 Gazing at the full cared corn, the ample hay-cock, 

 and matured orchard, the rural enthusiast may 

 e.TcIaim, in the oriental language — ' There is bdel- 

 lium and the onyx ston^,' the sources of our 

 wealth and splendor. 



The extent to which porter hretcing is carried in 

 London, may be conceived by the dreadful acci- 

 dent which happened at the brew houses of Mr 

 Penry Meux, in the parish of St Giles. In the 

 month of October 1814, one of the large porter 

 vEts by some accident burst, when, from its enor- 

 nnus bulk, the porter rushed With such an impetu- 

 ous current, that the adjoining streets resembled 

 ri\ers that had burst their banks, and the surround- 

 ing houses were so ipstantly filled with this liquor 

 thit the inhabitants who had no means of escape 

 wtre drowned as they sat at breakfast. The vat 

 was nearly 100 feet in circumference, 36 feet over, 

 2-2J feet in height, and contained 35.56 barrels, or 

 128,016 gallons, and caused the death of eight per- 

 sons by its bursting. 



It is generally a custom with brewers to give 

 enterfaintnents in these immense vats when first 

 built, and before being used ; large parties are often 

 entertained in them with a dinner or a ball ; and it 

 has a curious effect to look down on the party thus 

 situated, which gives the idea of the Lilliputians 

 having possessed themselves of the casks of the 

 people of Brobdignag. 



to Apollo, in his temple at Delphos. They uSed 

 al.so to cut the leaves in preference to lettuce, and 

 observed the method of laying a small weiglit on 

 the plant, to make it cabbage. The seed, says Pliny, 

 has a strange and wonderful property above tlie 

 rest, for it will not all come uj) in oiie year, but 

 some in the first, others in the second, ajid the rest 

 in the third year. 



Spruce Beer. — To make spruce Beer, take 16 

 gallon.s of water, and boil half of it : let the other 

 half be put cold into a barrel, anrl upon this pour 

 boiling water ; then add 16 lbs. of treacle or mo- 

 lasses, with a few table spdonfuls of the essence, 

 stirring the whole well together; add half a pint 

 of yeast, and keep it in a temperate heat, with the 

 bung-hole open for two days, till the fermentation 

 has abated. — Then bottle it, and it will be fit for 

 use in ten days or a fortnight. 



Superstition. — The old Romans sowed the seeds 

 of Sweet Basil with maledictions and ill words, 

 believing that the more it was cursed, the better 

 it would prosper ; and when they wished for a 

 crop they trod it doton with their feet, and jirayed to 

 their gods that it might not vegetate. 



Large White Kidney Beans, sliced and stewed 

 in milk, form a frequent and nutritious dish at the 

 farm houses in Flanders. 



Beefs. — The Greeks held this root in great es- 

 teem, and it was their custom to offer it, on silver, 



To remove spots or stains on linen. — The fumes 

 of brimstone are useful in removing s|)ots or stains 

 in linen, &c : thus, if a red rose be held in the 

 fumes of a brimstone match, the color will soon 

 begin to change, and, at length the flower will be- 

 come white. By the same process, fruit-stains or 

 iron-moulds may be removed from linen or cotton 

 cloths, if the .spots be previously moistened with 

 water. 



There is a kind of grape, which grows sponta- 

 neously in many parts of New England, called 

 Frost-gnipe, from the circumstance of its never 

 coming to maturity till ripened by the frosts of 

 autumn. Frost, also, not only converts mucilage 



into starch, but starch into saccharine matter. 



Thus the frcuiing of potatoes gives them a sweet 

 and sugary t.iste, probably by converting the starch 

 which they contain into sugar. 



[Ed. M E. Farmer.] 



Cleanliness promotes the Health of Trees. The 



following is taken from London Mechanics' Regis- 

 ter, of 1825 and from the result of the experi- 

 ment, we infer that cleanliness is as salutary to 

 vegetables as to animals, and that trees may be pre- 

 served by it from insects and the minute parasites 

 which exhaust the juices of the plant, and thereby 

 retard its growth. 



' Experiment. — Two young beech trees, jilanted 

 at the same time, in the same soil, at a small dis- 

 tance from each other, and equally healthy, were 

 accurately measured ; and, as soon as the buds 

 began to swell, in the spring, the whole trunk of 

 one of them was cleansed of its moss and dirt, by 

 means of a brush and soft water. Afterwards it 

 was washed with a brush and wet flannel twice or 

 thrice every week, till about the middle of sum- 

 mer. In autumn, they were again measured, and 

 the increase of the washed tree was found to ex- 

 ceed the other, nearly in the proportion of two to 

 one.' 



Asparagus is said to promote appetite but affords 

 little nourishment. Dr James recommends it to 

 be eaten at the beginning of dinner, when he tells 

 us, it is grateful to the stomach. If eaten before 

 dinner, it refreshes and opens the liver spleen, and 

 kidneys, and puts the body in an agreeable state. 

 Asparagus is considered to be of admirable service 

 to those afflicted with the gravel, or who are scor- 

 butic or dropsical. It is also of singular efficacy 

 m disorders of the eyes ; but is hurtful to such ae 

 labor under the gout, or have weak stomachs. 



