310 Foreie^n JSTotices. 



to' 



of the Royal Cornwall Polytechjiic Society, Falmouth, 1835. 8vo. 2s. 

 Qd.— Gard. Mas;.) 



The House Fly. — At the Entomological Society, on Monday, a paper 

 by Lieut. Col. Sykes was read, on excluding the house-fly. The mode 

 adopted was a net made of different-colored meshes, of about three 

 quarters of an inch square, and which, when placed against a window, 

 was found quite effectual in excluding the visits of these troublesome in- 

 sects from the outside of the room. The same experiment was tried 

 with meshes made of the finest black thread, one and a quarter inch 

 square, which proved to be equally effectual. The approach of wasps 

 was also prevented by the above mode, very few finding their way within 

 the boumlary. This was accounted for by an optical illusion in the eyes 

 of the insect, of the highly magnifying power of vision, and the small 

 focal length. 



Now that netting can be procured at the low price of 2?. Is. 3d. for 

 thirty-tliree square yards, gardeners might try whether, by covering a 

 hot-house with such a net, they could not excbide both birds and wasps. 

 They might also apply it over standard cherry trees, and over various 

 kinds of newly sown seeds ; and, lastly, they might place it before the 

 windows of their own cottages, to exclude the common house fly.' — (^'j.) 



Water-proof Strands of Bast, for tying Trees, and Water-proof 

 Bast Mats. — In our Second Vohime, p. 192, a mode of i-endering ties 

 of bast water-proof is mentioned by Dr. Van Mons ; and, while recom- 

 mending a trial of metallic ties, it is but fair that Ave should remind our 

 readers of this very simple mode of increasing the durability of bast. 

 To make bast ties water-proof, it is only necessary to wet them first 

 with a solution of soap, and next with a solution of alum. A neutral 

 compound is formed from the soap and the alum, joined to the albumen 

 of the wood of which the bast is composed, which is insoluble in water. 

 It has often occurred to us, that, if common matting could be woven in 

 Russia, with the weft of pack-thread, and the woof of strands of bast, 

 mats would then throw off the rain nearly as well as canvass; and the 

 whole might be tanned, or rendered water-proof by Dr. Van Mons's 

 process. Perhaps our friend at Cronstadt might be able to induce some 

 of the Russian mat manufacturers to try this process. — {lb-) 



Chenopodium Quinoa. — This plant is cultivated in the warmer parts 

 of North America, and extensively in Chili and Peru, its leaves being 

 eaten as spinach or sorrel, and its seeds as rice. It is also used in the 

 preparation of a kind of beer. Dombey, on his return from Peru, en- 

 deavored to introduce the plant as a culinary vegetable into France, but 

 without success. From a dried specimen of the plant grown in England 

 last year, and exhibited at a meeting of the Linnsean Society, by A. B. 

 Lambert, Esq., V. P. L. S., it appeared, in habit, very like the strong- 

 growing British chenop odiums, but we should think the seeds are far 

 too small to be ever equal in value to any of our cereals; and certainly 

 inferior to the white beet as a substitute for spinach. — (Paxton's Mag.) 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 

 ENGLAND. 



Camellia Show at the London Horticultural Society^s Garden. — Ex- 

 hibited for Prizes. Chinese camellias : Camellia japdnica striped, C. 



