358 Queries and Answers. 



sufficiently strong to examine the grasses, for 1 have always found them 

 very difficult to examine by a small magnifying-glass ; and I believe that 

 there are a great many young gardeners, like myself, who have been pre- 

 vented from enquiring into that valuable family of plants for want of proper 

 instruments, and likewise deterred from getting them for want of being 

 able to give a proper direction to some of their fellow-servants to get them 

 in London, as they are seldom to be met with in the country." 



One of the most complete botanical microscopes is that recommended 

 by Dr. Hooker, of Glasgow, and sold by Jones, 50, Lower Holborn, London, 

 at 5/. ; and with dissecting knives, 51. An improved botanical, or universal 

 pocket microscope, sold by Jones, and by Bancks, 441, Strand, and others, 

 costs 1/. 8s. A triple botanical magnifier, such as is used by practical bo- 

 tanists about London, and which we should think well adapted for our 

 correspondent, is sold by Bancks for gs. 6d., and a double magnifier for 

 6s. 6d. 



Hely Dutton, Esq., landscape gardener in Ireland, and author of some 

 clever county survevs of that kingdom, writes, " I dare say you have seen 

 Pontey's late work Pray, is his frontispiece a specimen of English taste 

 in water-works? If so, we are all groping in the dark." — Mount Bellew, 

 Castle Blakeney, May 15, 1829. 



Mr. Dan. Stock observes, " The bee orchis (Ophrys apifera) and the fly 

 orchis (O. muscifera) are favourite plants of mine, and although I have fre- 

 quently met with them, brought them home, and planted them both in pots 

 and in the open ground, they have never again made their appearance, which, 

 notwithstanding the opinion of many gardeners, must have been because 

 they Were not treated properly. I shall therefore be much obliged to you, 

 or some of your correspondents, to inform me, through your Magazine, the 

 mode of treatment most proper for preserving the above plants, and others 

 of the same tribe; and particularly, whether in taking them from their na- 

 tive habitations, the mould ought or not to be cleared from the roots." — 

 Bungay, Suffolk, 29th April, 1826. 



G. S. writes, " It will be obliging if you, or any of your readers, give 

 some information regarding a root called cava, in Brazil. In the first vo- 

 lume of the Edinburgh Gazette, (a work of six volumes) p. 597., there is the 

 following observation. 



" ' Esculent plants grow in Brazil in great profusion and variety. A 

 bulbous root called the cara, which grows to the size of about 5 inches dia- 

 meter, is in great request ; it is equal to the best potatoes, and even more 

 farinaceous.' 



" In your Number for January, p. 87., you mention the prangos, hay-plant, 

 which is cultivated in Thibet, but the introduction of which into this coun- 

 try had failed, in consequence of the seeds having lost their vegetative 

 power. I have seen it stated somewhere, that seeds put up in different 

 parcels, and packed in raw sugar, retained their freshness for a great length 

 of time, and were not subject to mould or insects, (No ! see p. 555.) As we 

 procure raw sugar from the East, rare seeds, put up in casks of sugar, would 

 retain moisture and freshness for a year, and come to this country fit for 

 depositing in the soil. It is much to be lamented, that naturalists and 

 botanists do not attend to the rule of Horace, regarding the utile cum dulce, 

 for they seem anxious, when they go to distant countries, to collect as many 

 varieties and species as possible, and to extend or fill up the classes, genera, 

 &c. &c, but we receive little or no information as to the uses and appli- 

 cation of plants to the arts and sciences, or to domestic economy. 



" Various grasses, I am convinced, might be introduced into cultivation in 

 this country from distant climates. When on this subject, \ may observe, 

 that in Botany Bay, and Van Dieman's Land, the pastures are described to 

 be remarkably open, and the grases do not there form a compact sward. 

 As a remedy for this open state, white clover and the natural grasses should 



