Notes and Gleanings. 



247 



Bertolonia jnargaritacea (Flore des Serres, t. 1697). — Melastomaceoe. A 

 charming dwarf stove perennial, with broad ovate five-nerved leaves, of a dark 

 shaded olive-green above, spotted in lines with white pearly spots, and of a 

 bright red beneath. The flowers are pale rose. 



Iberidella rotundifolia (Round-Leaved Iberidella, Bot. Mag., t. 5749). — A 

 lovely little rock-plant, native of shingly, calcareous soils in the Alps of Europe, 



IBEIMUHLLA ROTUNDIFOLIA. 



at elevations of six thousand to nine thousand feet. The leaves are slightly glau- 

 cous in hue ; the flowers pale lilac, with yellow eye. 



Abies tmmidica (Flore des Serres, t. 1717-18). — Coniferae. A fine, hardy ever- 

 green tree from Algeria, remarkable for its pyramidal habit and silvery leaves. 

 It grows from fifty to sixty feet or more in height, witli a trunk about sixteen inches 

 diameter, and forms a compact conical mass, composed of numerous branches, 

 thickly furnished with dark-green leaves, silvery on the under surface. — Floral 

 World. 



The railway from Brussels to Louvain is bounded on each side by a hedge 

 of fruit-trees, consisting of pears and apples trained espalier-wise. Loss by 

 theft is not feared, though, everywhere in the country, fruit is more or less left to 

 the public honor to protect. 



A deposit of sulphate of ammonia exists in enormous quantities in certain 

 lagoons in Tuscany, which, it is believed, may be made of great value as a fer- 

 tilizer. 



Sulphate of iron, or green copperas, is often recommended as a disinfect- 

 ing material for cesspools, &c. ; but, though it will remove bad odors, the com- 

 pounds which it forms are insoluble in water, and therefore of no value as 

 manures. 



Some berries of pyracantha affected with fungus were introduced into England 

 from Russia, and every plant raised from those berries was afterwards found to 

 be affected with fundus. 



