No. 199.] 489 



More will be heard from our interesting traveller. By the last 

 mail from India, we learn that in July last, be was encamped still in 

 the mountains of Sikkim, which were then covered with an admirable 

 vegetation ; the rain was incessant, provisions scarce and dear in 

 consequence of the difficulty of communication with inhabited places, 

 all the bridges had been carried away by torrents, and the road to 

 Darjeeling cut off at many points by the waters, so that Darjeeling 

 could only be reached by a long circuitous journey. In spite of all 

 this, Mr. Hooker was in excellent health, and he was increasing his 

 collection every day. He has already collected thirty new species of 

 the Rhododendrons J many of which, he says, are still more beautiful 

 than any now known to botanists or gardeners. These plants never 

 flower except in the rainy season, and then the mountains are almost 

 inaccessible to travellers. These mountains seem to be the head- 

 quarters of the Rhododendrons of all Asia. Besides these. Hooker 

 has found a magnificent rose of a brilliant scarlet color, and as large 

 as a man's hand. The next pa(?ket will bring an immense number of 

 remarkable plants. 



By the same mail we have received news from Mr. Fortune, that 

 the British East India Company has sent him to China to procure all 

 the varieties of the tea plant. That he has purchased largely of the 

 plants which the company intend to place in cultivation in the North 

 Western provinces, in order to make tea on a great scale. 



Extracts from Revue Horticole. 



Manure for Grape Vines. — Mr. Persoz has recently given some 

 valuable instruction in the manuring of grapes vines. He finds on ex- 

 periment, that some of the elements grow the wood of the vine surely 

 and perfectly, while others grow the grapes. 



He places a compost of pulverized bones, clippings of skins, leather, 

 shoemakers and tanners scraps, horn, old shoes, blood and a portion of 

 gypsum (plaster of Paris), upon each square metre, (some ten square 

 feet) of the trench, in which the vines are planted. This composition 

 is to grow the wood of the vine. When that is well grown, he then 

 supplies at the roots the salts of potash, in order to make the vines 

 bear grapes. He spreads on the surface of the trench, at a distance 



