Foreign Notices. 85 



Dr. Fischer, who has the charge of the establishment, occupies, at pre- 

 sent, a small wooden dwelling within the garden ; handsome and commo- 

 dious habitations are to be built for him and for the two chief gardeners, 

 one of whom is a Dane, and the other a Frenchman. Two secretaries are 

 employed, one a French Gentleman, M. Fleury, who lately visited this 

 country with Dr. Fischer, the other a Russian, and also an excellent bo- 

 tanic painter, a native of Germany, who has already executed some very 

 beautiful drawings of new and rare plants. There is scarcely a garden in 

 Europe, which will not, if it has not already, contribute to stock this su- 

 perb establishment. The collection is, even now, very great. 100,000 

 roubles were appropriated for the purchase of plants at the commencement ; 

 and 68,000 roubles annually for the ordinary expenses. During the last year, 

 which, as we have seen, was the first of the commencement of the institu- 

 tion, no less than 14,000 packages of seeds were sown in 60,000 pots. Dr. 

 Fischer paid a hasty visit to England and Scotland in last autumn, and 

 collected so great a number of living plants (above 4000), that he engaged 

 Mr. Goldie of the Monkwood Nursery, near Ayr, to take charge of them 

 during the voyage, and to assist in the transplantation. This was success- 

 ful, and on Mr. Goldie's quitting St. Petersburgh in October, the whole 

 collection was in a most thriving condition. Edin. Journ. of Science, 1824, 

 No. 6., p. 356. 358. 



SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 



Don Mariano La Gasca, professor of botany at Madrid, has promised 

 to furnish us with ample information on the gardening of Spain, for our 

 next Number. 



INDIA. 



Substitutes for Hemp. The palm Saguerus Rumphii has fibres which 

 may serve for ropes and cables of any size. The late Dr. Roxburgh 

 planted 100,000 of them in the botanic garden at Calcutta. At the end of 

 six or seven years this may be cut down, the fibres of the trunk converted 

 into ropes ; the sap into palm wine, or toddy ; and the pith into sago. 

 Crotalaria juncea is used in several parts of India to make ropes, and 

 delivered in London it comes much cheaper than Indian hemp. The 

 common hemp Cannabis sativa is not cultivated in India for cordage or 

 the weaver, but only in a small quantity, on account of the narcotic qua- 

 lities of the leaves of the male, and the flowers of the female. Robinia 

 cannabina is one of the best vegetables of India for producing fibres fit 

 for cables and ropes. Corchorus Olitorius is cultivated for the same pur- 

 pose. The Agave Americana, Aletris nervosa, Abroma augusta, Hi- 

 biscus Manihot, a species of Bauhinia, another of Sterculia, may all be 

 employed for the same purpose ; but Crotalaria juncea is most generally 

 us^d on the coast of Malabar, and all the countries of the East. — 

 Technic. Repos. Oct. 1824. 



CHINA. 



Hatching of Fish. The Chinese have a method of hatching the spawn 

 of fish, and thus protecting it from those accidents which generally destroy 

 a large portion of it. The fishermen collect with care from the margin and 

 surface of water, all those gelatinous masses which contain the spawn of 

 fish, and after they have found a sufficient quantity, they fill with it the 

 shell of a fresh hen's egg which they have previously emptied, stop up the 

 hole, and put it under a sitting fowl. At the expiration of a certain 

 number of days, they break the shell in water warmed by the sun. The 

 young fry are presently hatched, and are kept in pure freshwater till they 

 are large enough to be thrown into the pond with the old fish. The sale 



