276 Domestic Notices. — England. 



folio-sized, splendid and beautifully coloured plates of camellias, prize car- 

 nations, pinks, auriculas, ranunculuses, dahlias, &c. (Vol. III. p. 69.) The 

 high windows are shaded with landscape cloth blinds, and the walls above the 

 shelves and drawers are ornamented with elegant scenery from the Alps of 

 Switzerland, done on French hanging paper. As you enter into the front 

 doors, it has the most imposing appearance of any thing of the kind I ever 

 saw, either in America or Europe. In front of the shop, to the height of the 

 bottom of the second story windows, is a green-house, 85 ft. long, and 18 ft. 

 wide. Through this you pass into the shop. This green-house is 'ouilt on the 

 most approved plan, and contains now about 5000 plants. Between the green- 

 house and the street is a bed about 80 ft. by 25 ft., which, in the season, is 

 filled with the handsomest Dutch hyacinths, tulips, &c. The whole is en- 

 closed with a neat iron railing and two gates, where passengers are invited 

 to walk in and look around, and only required to shut the gate behind them. 

 It is a fact, which I have heard the Messrs. Thorburn often mention, and 

 which says much for the good conduct of the inhabitants, and the taste 

 they begin to have for these beautiful works of nature, that neither by 

 night nor day have they known any of the flowers or fruits on their pre- 

 mises to be taken away or in any way injured, although the oranges and 

 lemons hang within 4 ft. of the railing fronting the streets, and may be 

 easily reached by a hook or scape-net. The railing is only 4i ft. high, and 

 they keep neither man nor dog to watch by night. Their whole establish- 

 ment occupies 85 ft. by 90 ft. (Observe, it is in the heart of the city.) The 

 ground behind the shop is appropriated to hot-beds and plant-pits, and was 

 formerly the burying ground of the Meeting, but has been very little used 

 for that purpose for twenty years past. The Friends wishing it to be 

 occupied as it is, sold it for a very moderate price to Messrs. Thorburn's, 

 20,000 dollars, I have heard. Before giving possession, the whole ground 

 was trenched to the depth of 7 ft., and all the bones removed to a neat 

 cemetery prepared for the purpose out of town. As the spot I have been 

 describing, and the owners, are known to some of your readers, I have no 

 doubt but they will be glad to hear of them. Mersrs. Thorburn have 

 done more to place gardening on a respectable footing, than any other two 

 men in America. — Hortulanus. New York, July 16. 1827. 



The Cinchona, Epidendron, and a variety of other plants of Brazil, have 

 lately been introdviced into French Guiana. (^Bicl. Un.) 



ASIA. 



The Chayd root of Ceylon is the Oldenlandia umbellata of Linnaeus, and 

 IS used for dying red, orange, and purple. Although this root grows on 

 the opposite coast and on the island of Ramissarum, that which grows in 

 the province of Jaffna and in the island of Manar is reckoned the finest. 

 It gives rise, in Jaffna and in the island of Manar, to a caste whose sole 

 occupation is to dig for chaya root. {Sir A. Johnston in Trans, of Royal 

 Asiatic Society, vol. i, p. 545.) 



The Tea Shrub has been naturalised in Java with complete success, so that, 

 sooner or later, the Chinese monopoly will come to an end, and with that 

 end, probably, the empire will break in pieces. {Brussels Paper.) 



Art. II. Domestic Notices* 

 ENGLAND. 



The Ha7'dy Morton Peach was raised here from a stone of a fruit which 

 was gathered by me in the garden of J. Morton, Esq., Rehoboth, near Dublin 



