154 Foreign Notices. — North America. 



each visit has been more interesting than that which preceded it. I have 

 uniformly spoken in exalted terms of the success which had followed your 

 exertions ; and without intending extravagant praise or unfair comparisons, 

 have said, I believed it was, upon the whole, tlie most extensive and valu- 

 able collection of the kind in the United States ; and such is my opinion 

 still, as far as I have been able to collect information. I have ever consi- 

 dered your statements to be true, and am surprised to find that any person 

 calls them in question. I avail myself of the present occasion to tender 

 you, once more, the expression of my good feeling toward yourself, and of 

 my earnest wishes for the prosperity of your noble plantation. — (Signed) 

 Samuel L. Mitcliill. 



Copy of a Letter from Doctor Felix Pascalis, President of the New York 

 Branch of the Linnean Society of Paris, to Messrs. William and William 

 Robert Prince, Proprietors of the Linnean Garden at Flushing, Corre- 

 sponding Members of the Linnean Society of Paris, &c. Dated New 

 York, March 1. 1828. 



Gentlemen, I have read the whole of page 348. Vol. IIL of the London 

 Gardener's Magazine, and I am glad to find that the slanderous criticism of 

 your botanic establishment in it, cannot be very successful in imparting 

 serious impressions against )'our useful labours and prospects, and much 

 less among your friends. It is more indicative of a bad humour vexing 

 your rivals and competitors, than of any deficiency they would wish to 

 reproach you of. The writer argues in the case, at best, from an error or 

 mistake on his part, seemingly qualifying their own nurseries or garden by 

 the number of acres in their deed of property, without designating the age 

 or duration in existence of all matters appertaining to their establishment, 

 while yours is the work of three generations of the same family, all in 

 operation, and without the least vacant ground, not even in your last pur- 

 chase and addition. As for the gross insinuation of your printed catalogues 

 belying your collection, which is so often visited by learned botanists, it 

 does not deserve refutation, and must recoil upon those who have proffered 

 it. Your enemies do not, perhaps, know that, however extensive all the 

 departments of your garden are, the requisite means of knowledge and 

 practical skill, and of expensive labour, are always in readiness there, with 

 a systematic method and order which I have frequently observed and 

 admired. 



It is no time now to wish you success, but only its continuation, with 

 health and domestic blessings, in which sentiments I remain respectfully, 

 Gentlemen, your humble and obedient servant. —(Signed) Felix Pascalis, 

 President of the Linnean Branch Society of Paris, 



Messrs. Thorburn^s Defence of Mr. Prince. — Sir, We observed in your 

 Gardener's Magazine (Vol. III. p. 348.) what we would call a very unwarrant- 

 able attack on William Prince's nursery at Flushing. We can tell you at 

 once, that it is nothing but envy " amangKadgers." We have not one cent of 

 interest in any nursery in the world, though we deal more or less with most 

 of the nurserymen around Philadelphia, New York, and Long Island, and 

 wish them all prosperity alike ; but we cannot believe any of the Philadel- 

 phia nurserymen would write in the style of the communication alluded to. 

 In the course of our business, we have been in company with most of the 

 nursery and seedsmen within a thousand miles of us, but never before 

 heard any of them dispute the fact, that Prince's collection and nursery is 

 the best and most extensive in America. There may be nurseries growing 

 where a hundred acres of land are enclosed, and, perhaps, not one thou- 

 sand trees within the enclosure. We have known a nursery of forty or 

 more acres, but the greater part of it was occupied in the raising of escu- 

 lents. It is not uncommon in this extensive country, to see a township of 



