General Notices. 227 



method bearing wood has been produced nearly double the strength of 

 that of the latter. In budding-, the following is the method I pursued: 

 The old vines were cut down in the autumn of 1842. They were laid in 

 March, 1843 ; as soon as they had made shoots a few inches long, two 

 were selected on each vine, and all the others were taken off. These 

 were tied in, and laterals were regularly pinched off them until May. 

 The young shoots were then about two thirds up the rafters, and nearly 

 full grown in thickness at the base, but not ripened or turned brown. At 

 that period, the buds taken from young shoots, with leaves not larger than 

 two inclies in diameter, were put on ; the wood was left in the buds ; they 

 were inserted in the usual way, and tied firmly with a piece of matting. 

 In the course of ten days or a fortnight they were united, the matting was 

 undone, and the shoots were cut down to the buds ; all shoots below the 

 buds were taken off as they made their appearance. After this was done 

 they grew away very strong and rapidly. Some of the buds showed 

 fruit, but this was pinched ofi". The leaves attached to the buds never 

 flagged.— (M 1844, p. 54.) 



Mode of ascertaining the Quality of Seeds. — Such seeds as do not natur- 

 ally require a very long time to germinate, are sometimes readily exam- 

 ined, as regards their goodness, by being placed in hot dung. The fol- 

 lowing particulars of the mode indicated by General Ygonet, is recorded 

 in the Rtvue Horticole. A pinch of seed is sown in a pan, which is 

 plunged in fermenting horse-dung, the seed being covered with nearly 

 half an inch of soil, and over this rather more than half an inch of dung. 

 [Id. 1844, p. 55.) 



Charcoal. — Last year I potted two standard hydrangeas in 16-sized pots, 

 (7 inches broad,) with two thirds turfy loam and one third sifted char- 

 coal ; the drainage, which Avas three inches deep, I formed of coarse 

 pieces of charcoal. When the plants bloomed, I found the color of the 

 flowers to be a beautiful bright blue, and so they continued to flower the 

 whole of the season. Every plant seems to delight in charcoal ; since I 

 have laid charcoal merely on the surface of the mould, round the stems of 

 many of my large orange and lemon trees, the alteration has been very strik- 

 ing ; the foliage assuming a dark rich hue, and the plants being altogether 

 most luxuriant. It is my opinion that large beds of blue hydrangeas 

 might easily be obtained by the above treatment. — [Id. 1844, j). 69.) 



Climate and Vegetation of Upper California. — It was late in the autumn 

 of 1837, when an expedition of the Rio Sacramento penetrated from San 

 Francisco some distance into the interior. The country exhibited a vast 

 plain, rich, in a deep soil, and subject to periodical submersion. Occa- 

 sional clumps of fine oaks and planes imparted an appearance of park 

 land. They were already shedding their leaves ; a small grape was very 

 abundant on the banks, and sometimes we obtained a dessert from the 

 fruit of a Juglans. We had scarcely returned, when a storm covered the 

 maritime range of hills with snow : and this set the final seal on the 

 year's vegetation. On quitting the coast for the interior, we exchanged 

 the evergreen oaks for deciduous species. The latter grow to fine trees, 

 with wood of great specific gravity. But the natives have a very pernicious 

 practice of lighting their fires at the bases, and as they naturally select the 

 largest, it was really a sorrowful sight to behold numbers of the finest 

 trees thus prematurely and wantonly destroyed. And it is not a country 

 where wood is superabundant ; for no sooner is the Oregon crossed, than 



