2 12 Foreign Notices. - — South America. 



Can you give an accurate description of the cherry called u Four to the 

 Pound, or Quatre a la Livre ? " Are the statements we have seen of its 

 great size, &c. merely imaginary ? [By antiphrasis.] 



Crinum Iqngifolium, formerly Amaryllis longifolia is here perfectly hardy, 

 and withstands our severe winters without protection. We set the bulbs 

 about six inches below the surface of the earth, measuring from the upper 

 end. This buib appears to be naturally an aquatic, and flourishes most 

 when planted in a pond or reservoir. 



The haunts Camphora, or Camphor tree, also withstood, in Georgia, the 

 last severe winter, as I have been informed by Thomas Young, Esq., of that 

 state, who mentions that he considers it " as hardy as the iaurus sassa- 

 fras." Mr. Young is a gentleman of most liberal and enlightened senti- 

 ments, and amuses himself with naturalising in his splendid garden the 

 rarest plants of warm climates. I am, dear Sir, yours, &c. — William Prince. 



Nutmeg Tree. (p. 67.) — In the plantations of this tree in Trinidad it is 

 found that, when raised from seed, not more than one female tree is found 

 among thirty or fifty. The practice is, therefore, to inarch females on the 

 males, or to raise young female trees from layers. It is found that female 

 trees sometimes produce male flowers; and a male tree, which produced 

 only male flowers in 1824, in 1826 produced wholly female flowers. In 

 1825, the first flowers that one of the female trees produced were all male. 

 (Lockhart in Jameson's Jour., Sept. 1827.) — We suspect it will be found 

 that metamorphoses of this kind take place much more frequently than is 

 generally imagined. Every gardener must have observed that young mul- 

 berry trees from layers sometimes produce only male blossoms for the first 

 few years ; and we think we have observed the same thing in the holly, 

 dogwood, and even the peach. 



Sugar. — I am convinced, says a writer in the American Mechanic's Ma~ 

 gazine, that the time will come when sugar will be obtained from plants not 

 at present cultivated for that purpose, and capable of being raised in places 

 where they cannot now be raised. I noticed swarms of flies on the ifolcus 

 Sorghum, that had been recently cut down ; on twisting a handful of the 

 culms, a table-spoonful of remarkably sweet juice was obtained. 



Coloured Cotton. — At the Annual Cattle Show of South Carolina, a 

 letter was read from Mr. J. W. Watson, dated at Guayaquil, accompanying 

 a quantity of cotton seed of a new kind, the production of Peru. The 

 cotton is naturally of a light brown colour. The plant is a perennial, grows 

 to the height of a peach tree, and is expected to thrive in the United 

 States. This is probably the nankeen cotton of China. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



Palo de Vaca, or Cow Tree of the Caraccas. (p. 93.) — A phial of the milk 

 of this tree, together with a few leaves and a portion of the root, has been 

 sent to A. B. Lambert, Esq. by Mr. David Lockhart, curator of the botanic 

 garden in Trinidad. The milk is obtained by making a spiral incision into 

 the bark of a tree which attains very large dimensions. The one from which 

 Mr. Lockhart obtained the milk was one hundred feet from the root to the 

 first branches, and stood about fifty miles east of La Guayra, in the Caraccas. 

 Mr. Lockhart drank a pint of the milk, and found it taste like cream, with 

 an agreeable smell. He procured some young trees, and is now endeavour- 

 ing to increase them in Trinidad. Mr. Don found the milk sent to 

 Mr. Lambert to have the appearance of sour cream, and to be by no means 

 disagreeable. The tree he considers as evidently related either to .Ficus or 

 Brosimum. 



The Pods of the Ccssalpinia corihria, known by the common names of 

 Dividivi, or Libidibi, are used by the inhabitants of Curacoa and Carthagena, 

 and other places within the tropics, for tanning hides; and might be advan- 



