59—1846.] 
THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE, 
855 
Tf this group is really formed of a number of trees | 
planted close together in a square, as the Turks often | 
do round a fountain, their intimate union at the bottom | 
is very remarkable, and one can hardly conceive that 
they can have sprung from one trunk, which must in that 
ease have been 40 feet in diameter. No. 4 is now fast 
decaying, and the hollow in it is so large that a gentle- 
man of our party rode into it, and turned his horse 
ground in it ; the others are still in tolerable vigour. 
e 
The Cypresses give a very peculiar character to the 
burial grounds, where they form dense groves, and to 
many gardens, where they are mixed with other trees. 
They are generally the erect variety, and of great 
beauty. One in the Seraglio gardens, of great height 
and perfect symmetry, had a stem of 15 feet cireumfer- 
ence 5 feet from the ground. There is also a good 
many of the spreading Cypress, evidently a mere 
variety, and a few intermediate forms, but none equal- 
ling the erect one in beauty. The only Pines I have 
seen are the Stone Pine, and those apparently all 
planted. The Ash is probably indigenous, and is a 
very handsome variety (1) of F. excelsior, with a more 
slender ana graceful foliage than our common northern 
form, and appears to retain its leaves very late, The 
form of its leaflets and fruits are, however, much nearer 
to our F. excelsior than to the F. oxyearpa of the 
south of France and of the south coast of Crimea, The 
common Oak about Constantinople (where it is, how- 
ever becoming scarce) and especially about Seutari and 
along the Asiatie shore of the Bosphorus, is a ver, 
beautiful variety of Q. pedunculata,with graceful slender 
branches, having a great tendency to hang or weep, as 
our gardeners term it, together with adwarf prickly 
evergreen species, probably Q. coccifera, though with a 
darker foliage than is usual in the south of France. A 
few miles to the north of Constantinople we meet with 
a good deal of a cut-leaved Oak, of which I only found 
old Acorns, but I have little doubt of its being a variety 
of Q. Cerris. It is generally so much cut as to be re- 
duced to a bush, but even in the forest of Belgrade, 
where it is less molested, it forms but a poor tree. This 
forest, about 18 miles from Pera, at the foot of the ex- 
tremity of the Balkan, from the form of the hills and 
the richness of the vegetation, even at this dry season, is 
celebrated. among the beautiful spots of the neighbour- 
hood ; and though there is nothing in it to compare to 
the Bosphorus, yet it abounds in rich forest scenery. 
It consists almost entirely of Oak, Chestnut, and Horn- 
beam.* The Oak, besides a few Q. Cerris, is the 
Q. sessiliflora, but varying so much in the form of the 
leaf, the length of the leaf-stalk, the colour of the foliage, 
and the mode of growth of the tree, that I could not 
believe that there were not several species, till on the 
comparison of a great number of trees I could find no 
definite limits to any one form. The Hornbeam is the 
Carpinus Ostrya, not the C. orientalis, which I had 
gathered at Trieste on the one side, and in South 
Crimea on the other, The Terebinth trees are not 
uncommon close about C inople, a ti 
ow to a considerable size. ‘They have now lost their 
fruit, and almost all their leaves, but appear to me to 
belong to the same species as the Crimean Pistacia 
mutica, not to the shrubby P. terebinthus of the south 
Take the following examples: Tigrina, p. 150, for 
Tigridia ; Lianas, p. s e. &e., for Lianes; 
Boemehrire, p: 141, for Boehmeria ; Hacker, p. 136, 
for Hakee; Psidrum, p. 138, for Psidium; and 
a thousand more; to which we should have added 
the word Isochimenal, for Jsochimal as it is always 
written in English, if both words were not per- 
haps ill constructed, and if the former were not 
sanetioned by Meyen. And then what can we say of 
an Editora Secretary of the Ray Society ! who after 
perpetrating these offences cannot see that when the 
author compared the climbing plants of Europe with 
those of the tropics, he must have inadvertently written 
Lonicera Xylosteum, for L. Periclymenum. Does the 
Editor not know that L. Xylosteum is.not a climber ? 
Passing by these matters, which, as we have-said, are 
discreditable to the Ray Society and its Editor, we must 
add a word respecting the work itself. Prof. Meyen 
of Humboldt has fallen : and this is quite true, however 
ungainly he wore it, or however much it was patehed 
and torn, Humboldt, we repeat, is the only man who 
has been able, from his manifold acquirements and his 
lmirable power of g lising, to deal with a subject 
the beauty and importance of which are only excelled 
by its difficulty. Humboldt saw the value of Botanical 
Geography in its high applications ; he perceived that 
if it were possible to show that the forms of vegetation 
depend upon cosmic forces, upon heat, moisture, 
atmospheric pressure, soil, &c., and that if any rules 
could be obtained which would serve to connect the one 
with the other, that would be indeed a noble branch of 
science. He made the attempt, with wretched mate- 
rials, and he sueceeded— so far as to induce 
others to pursue the same train of inquiry. But 
how have they pursued it? Not by a skilful ap- 
plication of well ascertained facts to rational 
theory ; not by building a plausible theory out of the 
rough materials around them ; not by any one process 
of g lization or binati On the contrary, 
some have limited themselves to the details of a pro- 
vinee ; others have been contented with collecting facts, 
or what are called facts, and throwing them pell mell 
into a bag out of which those may fish them who 
have a mind to it. Writings of this class form 
a very valuable ore no doubi—to those who have 
patience to roast it and reduce it—but are only shape- 
less stones to the mass of the world. Meyen is 
an exception; he had great personal experience 
in the facts of Geographieal Botany, and he had a 
good turn for generalization, but he wanted accuracy, 
and he was crotchety. Nevertheless his book is the 
only one since Humboldt's early essay, in which a con- 
sistent and intelligible account of the whole subject is to 
be found, Are there no new labourers in this ground? is 
there no highly educated patient German capable of 
giving consistency to the flashes of his great country- 
man? If not, we despair of any further progress being 
made in a very eurious department of science, in which 
it is almost vain to expect that any of the restless 
struggling throng of Englishmen should give himself 
the time to distinguish himself, 
Bordeaux, its wines and the Claret country. 
By C. Cocks, B.L. 8vo. Longmans. 
Tu most important part of this book is what relates to 
the Bordelais wines, and that is chiefly compiled from 
Franck's valuable * Traité des vins du Medoc.” The 
critical reader who wishes to understand the quality of 
claret, will of course refer to the original ; others may 
be satisfied with the account given by the English 
author. Buyers of claret may also find additional in- 
formation as to the vintages since 1834, when M. 
ranck's account closed. ‘The substance of this infor- 
mation is that the only good years have been 1841 and 
1844, all the others having produced .bad or inferior 
wines. 
New Garden Plants. 
CaoaYNE ocHmackA. Ochre-spotted Coelogyne. 
Stove Epiphyte.  (Orchids.*) Mishmee Hills. 
From T. Brockelhurst, Esq., of the Fence, near 
62. 
of France. 
Mebielvs, 
Ouilines of the Geography of Plants. By F.J. F. 
eyen. Translated by Margaret Johnson for the 
Ray Society. London, 8vo. 
We thank the Ray Society for this addition to the lite- 
rature of Botany ; we thank the fair translatress (is 
there such a word?) for the way in which she has per- 
formed her task; but we do not thank the Editor for 
the supervision he has given to the work as it passed 
through the press, for it is full of misprints which would 
have been disereditable to even the “ Reader” in a 
printing-office, who is not expected to understand 
technicalities, if there had not been a scientific (?) 
editor specially charged with the duty of looking 
to details. As it is the misprints are disgraceful. 
* Murray’s “ Handbook for the East,” in speaking of this 
forest, says, ** These (the Beeches), with Birches, Oaks, Plane- 
trees are never touched by the axe, whereas in a great part o! 
the forest there are few that are not mutilated by the most 
wanton lopping and hacking, E 
Macclesfield. Its pure white flowers, with bright 
orange yellow blotches on the lip, are very pretty ; and 
they are, moreover, extremely sweet-scented. Like 
most of such plants, it may either be grown in a pot, 
or fixed upon a block of wood, and suspended from the 
rafters of the house. ‘The chief point to be attended to 
is to rest it judiciously, by keeping it cool and dry, 
after the growth is completed for the season. It is 
multiplied in the usual manner, by dividing the pseudo- 
bulbs.— Botanical Register. 
63. Canycotome spinosa, Spiny Calycotome. Hardy 
(Leguminous plants,*) South of Europe 
and Barbary. 
A pretty shrub, capable of withstanding the ordinary 
winters in the open border, but injured by severe ones. 
It grows freely in any dry loamy soil, and flowers in 
is i seed, and is two years 
may be said to be the best person on whom the mantl& 
and varieties) in the best order, and arranged after 
C. Sprengel’s Systema vegetabilium, with an exact _ 
catalogue written by himself. It comprises unique 
duplicates of the herbarium of John Reynold Forster, 
the companion of Captain Cook (of .800 species), the 
rich presents of the East India Company, and almost * 
all the collections of travelling botanists which were 
sold in.the first third of this century. The price is 
2002., as we learn from his son, Dr. Anthony Sprengel, 
of Halle, in Prussia. 
The Tein-ching, or Chinese Indigo.— When in the 
north of China my attention was directed to a plant 
largely cultivated by the inhabitants for the sake of its 
blue dye. In the southern provinces a considerable 
quantity of indigo (Indigofera) is cultivated and manu- 
factured, besides a large portion which is.annually im- 
ported from Manilla and the Straits. In the north, 
however, the plant which we call indigo is never met 
with—owing, I suppose, to the coldness of the winters 
—but its place is supplied by this Isatis indigotica, or 
the “ Tein-ching,” as it is called by the Chinese. Inmet 
with it in the Nanking cotton district, a few miles west 
from Shanghae, where it is considered a plant.of great 
importance, and covers a large tract of country. itis 
| grown iu rows, a few inches apart, and at a distance 
| looks like a field of young Turnip or Cabbage plants. 
In June, 1844, when I was in that country, the plants 
were from 6 inches to 1 foot in height, and being cone 
sidered in perfection the natives were busily employed 
in cutting them and removing them to the manufactory. 
One of these places which L inspected was close on the 
banks of the canal, and was placed there for the conve- 
| nience of the farmers, who brought their leaves in boats 
from the surrounding country, as well as to be near the 
water, a large quantity of which was requisite in the 
manufacture. It consisted of a number of round tanks, 
which are built for the purpose of steeping the leaves. 
The leaves are thrown into the tanks and covered with 
water, and, after remaining for a certain length of time, 
the juice is drawn off into other tanks, where I believe 
it is mixed with lime. The colour of the liquid at first 
is a kind of greenish blue, but after being well stirred 
up and exposed to the air it becomes much darker and 
very like the well-known indigo of commerce. 1 sup- 
pose it is thickened afterwards by evaporation in some 
way, but that part of the process did not come under 
| my observation. I am very much inclined to believe 
that this is the dye used to colour the green teas which 
are manufactured in the north of China for the English 
and American markets ; this, however, is only conjec- 
ture. The plant has a half-shrubby stem covered with 
a fine bloom. Its root-leaves are oval-lanceolate, on 
long stalks, sharp pointed, slightly toothed, and some- 
what fleshy ; those on the upper part of the stem, near 
the flowers, are linear. The stem is decumbent, a foot 
| and a half long, and divided at its extremity into several 
| drooping racemes about 6 inches long ; on its sides it 
bears here and there small clusters of leaves like those 
\of the root. Flowers very small, yellow.  Silieles 
black, quite smooth, 6 lines long by 2 wide in the 
broadest part, oblong, obtuse at each end, a little con- 
tracted below the middle, with a thin edge and a single 
median line.— Fortune, in Journal of the Horticultural 
Society. 
Oregon Mammillarias, their Natural Habits —The 
one from the Platte-plains is small in size, somewhat 
Pear shaped, with very dense and closely radiating 
spines, which cross each other ; the flowers likewise 
small, rose coloured, It was first discovered by Dr. 
Mersh, of Luxemburgh, in the suite of SirWm. Stewart; 
so I noted it down in my journal as M. Mershii. A 
third species of Mammillaria I found on the Oregon 
plains, while searching for a Mel t Of this I 
brought dry specimens to London, and Mr. Scheer, at 
Kew, has already raised several from seeds. The above 
mentioned Melocactus was gathered by Chief-factor 
Macdonald, at Fort Colville, but the exact habitat was 
forgotten ; the one specimen found was afterwards in 
possession of Dr. Tolmie on the lower Columbia. From 
the information I could gather at FortWalla-Walla, the 
true habitat of this Cactus is at the * Priests’ Rapid,” 
on a rocky island in the Columbia river, about sixty 
miles above Fort Walla-Walla. A cireumstanee seems 
to me to deserve some notice respecting the above three 
Mammillarie ; they become buried by sand and dust 
at the approach of winter so as to be hardly visible ; 
even in the summer months they scarcely show more 
than one third above ground. This seems, indeed, a 
provision of Nature to protect these tender succulents 
against the intense cold of so high a latitude and alti- 
tude. Such is not the case with M. simplex and wivi- 
para,which remain firm above the hard gravelly surface, 
or granite rock. There is, however, a great difference 
in the seasons, which is in favour of the latter two,while 
the former are yet covered with deep snow, these are 
already vegetating (May), and about the middle of June 
the pulpy fruit is already coloured, on the growth of 
the same spring ; so that the plant has the whole long 
summer to harden its texture for the very severe winter. 
before the plants bloom, which is in May.—Botanical Those in the higher altitudes are scarcely in bloom 
Register. t 
Miscellaneous. 
(beginning of September), when snow-storms have 
already set in, therefore the fruit has not time to ripen 
the same year, and the fructification is, so to say, bien- 
nial, or on the growth of last year. Among the Opuntize 
Dr. Sprengel's Herbarium,—We understand that the | i4 the fragilis, Nutt, the lowest and not seldom covered 
heirs of this celebrated botanist are desirous of selling | with sand, but it also occurs on firm soils, though a 
his herbarium. It is represented to consist of 21,800 prostrate species ; the same is the case with O. vulgaris, 
species (without reckoning the numerous sub-species | on the granite rocks in the neighbourhood of NewYork, 
* See Lindley's “ Vegetable Kingdom” for an explanation of 
these terms, 
and in the sandy Oak-barrens of northern Illinois, near 
Beards-Town ; O. Missurica remains erect and quite 
