210 Foreign Notices. — North America. 



degree. The Committee urge upon the members of the Society the great 

 importance of using every possible means to increase and enrich the library 

 of the institution, yet in its infancy, which is so important to the promotion 

 of the objects of the Society. 



" Upon a general review of the past season, the Committee congratulate 

 the Society that a spirit of improvement, generally, has appeared in the 

 exhibitions ; and the Society seems to be advancing harmoniously, to the 

 benefit of the public in general, by a diffusion of horticultural knowledge, 

 and the increasing of the comforts of civilised life. 



" The Society offers premiums, for the year 1827, for all the essential 

 articles of the flower and kitchen gardens, and discretionary premiums for 

 all rare and superior fruit or vegetables, presented to them." 



IAnnean Botanic Garden near New York, July 15. 1827. — N. Carrington, 

 Esq., of St. Thomas's parish, Island of Barbadoes, informs me that, by 

 impregnating the blossom of a lime with the pollen of a lemon, he had 

 lemons on his lime tree within a few inches of the limes. In my garden, 

 the dwarf chestnut, or chinquapin, has been impregnated with the large 

 French chestnut, and a tree produced which does not exceed twelve or 

 fourteen feet in height, and begins to bear fruit when not above two or 

 three feet high. It is twenty years since this variety of chestnut was origi- 

 nated, and it has become very popular in this country. The Juglans cine- 

 rea has been impregnated with the Juglans regia, or common walnut, but 

 the result has not been attended with any horticultural advantage. A fine 

 new variety of Diospyros virginica has recently been presented to me by 

 General Forman of Maryland, which is in fine eating before frost, and which 

 he describes as being more like a rich preserve than any thing else. The 

 common sort, you know, is very much like a sloe. General Forman is one 

 of those venerable and highly cultivated military patriarchs, who are only 

 to be found in this country ; he is surrounded by every enjoyment which 

 property can afford, and spends his time in cultivating his farm, and in 

 reading and other intellectual amusements. I have solicited him to become 

 a contributor to your Magazine. 



The cultivation of American forest trees seems now to occupy a good 

 deal of attention in Europe, and I will therefore next introduce some 

 observations on that subject. The yellow locust, Robinia pseudacacia, is 

 the finest timber tree of the northern and middle states ; it is to the north 

 what the live oak, Quercus virens, is to the south, and what the teak is 

 to India ; but another timber tree seems to be less known to you, which, 

 although its merits are of a different character, still is scarcely less impor- 

 tant, I allude to the Magnolia acuminata. Who that has been familiar 

 with the six diminutive species of Magnolia which have been brought from 

 China, could imagine that one of its congeners towered among the mighty 

 lords of the forests of the Alleghany ? Who that has viewed the pigmies 

 of this genus, seldom large enough to form a walking-cane, but would dwell 

 with amazement on the sight of this tree, forming a regular cone often to 

 the height of a hundred feet, rising amid the wilds of nature, and clad in 

 the greatest luxuriance of foliage and of flowers ? The effect of this tree in 

 woodland scenery, I am convinced, has been overlooked in Europe ; here it 

 claims the lofty Tilia, the Liriodendron, and the mightiest oaks as its com- 

 peers. As timber it is applied to all the uses of the Liriodendron and the 

 TiWa, being sawed into thin boards for all the lighter parts of cabinet-work : 

 these boards are frequently two and a half feet in width. Another use is 

 for the purpose of making wooden bowls, which are of all sizes, from a few 

 inches to three feet in diameter. Its growth is very rapid, and it will even 

 keep pace with the Tilia europse'a, or lime tree of Europe. I have often 

 wondered that those persons who make use of the Chinese dwarf species of 

 the Magnolia to decorate their gardens and lawns, should not use this species 



