Domestic Notices. — England. 351 



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a century ago. Being very prolific, the nursery-gardeners found it easy to 

 raise it in immense quantities ; and thus, though a mean-looking tree, and 

 producing wood of little comparative value, it has superseded the natural 

 plant of the country, and is called, par excellence, the Scotch Fir." (p. 580.) 



Mr. David Don, the librarian of the Linnean Society, whose late father, 

 the celebrated botanist of Forfar, paid great attention to the different va- 

 rieties of Scotch Pine, and wrote on the subject in the Transactions of the 

 Highland Society of Scotland, knows nothing of what is asserted by the 

 reviewer. We have written to Sir Walter Scott, and to Mr. Reid of Aber- 

 deen, who raises more Scotch pines from seed than any man in Scotland, 

 but this must necessarily go to press before we can receive an answer from 

 either of these gentlemen. 



Law of Succession in Timber Trees. — That which I would observe to 

 you from the wood at Wooton, is that where goodly oaks grew, and were 

 cut down by my grandfather almost a hundred years since, is now alto- 

 gether beech; and where my brother has extirpated the beech, there rises 

 birch. Under the beech spring up innumerable hollies, which, growing 

 thick and close together in one of the woods next the meadow, is a viretum 

 all the year long, which is a very beautiful sight when the leaves of the 

 taller trees are fallen. (Letter from John Evelyn, Esq., to John Aubrey, Esq., 

 in Aubrey's Surrey, vol. i.) 



. The Cow Cabbage, Urassica oleracea var. arborhcens. — I enclose a few 

 seeds of an arborescent cabbage, introduced from La Vendee by the cele- 

 brated Comte de Puysaye, which promises to be an important acquisition 

 to agriculture. I have seen it growing in the garden of my friend Admiral 

 Brooting here to the height of 8 ft. In La Vendee, I am told, it attains an 

 altitude of from 12 to 16, or even more feet. Being a native of a warmer 

 climate, it should be planted in a warm and sheltered situation ; sixty plants 

 are said to afford sufficient provender for one cow for a year, and as the 

 side shoots only are to be used, it lasts four years without fresh planting. A 

 square of 60 ft. will contain 256 plants, 4 ft. apart, or sixteen more than four 

 cows require for a year's provender, without the aid of other food. I shall 

 be glad to hear the report of its success from those to whom you may com- 

 municate the seed. — W. Hamilton. Oxford Place, Plymouth, Oct. 12. 



The number of seeds were about three dozen, six of which we have sent 

 to John Thomas Brookes, Esq., of Flitwick House, near Ampthill (p. 246.) ; 

 six to John Braddick, Esq., of Boughton Mount, near Maidstone ; six to 

 Mr. Thompson, of Welbeck gardens ; six to Mr. Bisset, of Methven Castle 

 gardens ; six to Mr. Gorrie, of Annat gardens ; and six to Mr. Barnet, of 

 the Caledonian Horticultural Society's garden, Edinburgh ; and we shall be 

 glad to learn the success which these cultivators may have in raising plants, 

 and their opinion as to their utility in agriculture. — Cond. 



Large Cabbage. — Mr. Robert Lane, of Mottram St. Andrew, near 

 Macclesfield, sowed an onion bed in March last : among the seed was a 

 stray cabbage seed of the Scotch kind ; without being hoed, or any care 

 taken of it, it grew to an enormous size, and being cut in October, was 

 found to be of the extraordinary weight of 25 lbs. (Macclesfield Herald.) 



Immense Cabbage. — Mr. James Elliott, of Saltash, has cut from his gar- 

 den a cabbage, which measured 5 ft. in circumference, and weighed 60 lbs. 

 When growing, it occupied 1 5 ft. of ground. (Plymouth Journal.) 



A Swedish Turnip was pulled in October last, by Mr. Whillington, of 

 Send, in the county of Surrey, which measured more than one yard in cir- 

 cumference, and weighed 21 lbs. It was sown in July. The same gentle- 

 man had also, on the 26th of October, some strawberries in blossom in the 

 open air, and some nearly ripe. (London Packet.) 



Potatoes. — Several sent to the editor of the Scotsman, weighed from 10 

 to 12 lbs. each ; one plant in the garden of Mr. T. Cartwright, of Clifton, 



