Notices — North America. 



205 



working them, and improving their agriculture, they would soon make up 

 for the revenue they have lost beyond the seas. The China breed of silk- 

 worms has also, we understand, been recently introduced into Spain, by a 

 lady of title. {Morn. Chron. Dec. 14. 1825.) 



Prickly Pear and Cochineal. In December last, two members of the 

 Economical Society of Cadiz, went to Madrid, and presented to the king a 

 treatise just published on the cultivation of the prickly pear, and growth of 

 cochineal; the subject at present being much in vogue in Catalonia and 

 Andalusia. They also presented several caskets of cochineal, which the 

 society had been able to acclimate and propagate. (Neiuspapers.) 

 NORTH AMERICA. 



Planting in North America. A work has recently been published by M. 

 Michaux, son of the celebrated botanist of that name, in which he de- 

 plores the destruction of the forests of Massachusetts, and predicts, as 

 writers of the same class do in England, a dearth of wood in that part 

 of the United States, if planting is not immediately commenced, and assi- 

 duously pursued. 



Mineral Potatoe. The editor of the Darien (Georgia) paper says, " Mr. 

 Reuben King, last week very politely presented us with a mineral potatoe, 

 erythrina erecta, or Cherokee root, the first, it is presumed, ever found 

 in this part of Georgia. It weighed seven pounds, two ounces and a half. 

 It appears to be a species of the sweet potatoe, but has rather a bitter 

 taste ; hogs eat it with avidity. It is probable that, if cultivated, it would 

 be a valuable article for fattening hogs." 



Descriptive Notice of Waltham House, in the state of Massachusetts, the 

 property of Theodore Lyman, Esquire, communicated, together with an 

 elegant drawing, by Dr. Hosack, president of the Horticultural Society of 

 New York. 



This residence is situated in a very flourishing country, about nine 

 miles from Boston. The grounds round the house consist of a lawn of 

 a mile in length in front, upon which there are many fine oaks, English 

 and American elms, Linden and other valuable forest trees. A deep and 

 clear stream of water, varying in breadth, runs the whole length of the 

 lawn, and afterwards falls into Charles river. There is an extensive park 

 containing about forty deer, principally of the Bengal breed ; to the left 

 and rear of the house is the kitchen garden, grapery, greenhouse, hot- 

 house, wall for fruit, &c. 



Horticultural Society of New York. This society proposes to form a 

 garden from ten to twenty acres, devoted to horticulture and botany, but 

 more particularly to the culture of fruit-trees. They propose also to have 

 a hall for public lectures, a library, a botanical cabinet, and a professor 

 of botany and horticulture. {Americ. Journ. of Sciences and Arts, Aug. 

 1824.) 



