Domestic Notices : — Ireland. 495 



a "strict watch over office-bearers, frequently auditing the books, and the 

 cultivation of unanimity and good feeling. 



Annat Garden, June 14. — . . I had a very pleasant jaunt to the Lothians 



I found there, as at home, generally speaking, the same effects 



following the same causes. Apples a scanty crop, the result of a preceding 

 wet autumn, producing imperfectly ripened wood, and a weak blossom, 

 which was cut off by a severe frost in the beginning of April, and 8th May ; 

 late flowering varieties setting rather better, but apple trees, in general, 

 exhibiting lassitude, from over-exertion last season. At Lufness, Arniston 

 Hall, and Preston Hall, pears on walls abundant, and many of the new 

 varieties from France in full-bearing. Apricots and plums fair crops. At 

 Arniston Hall saw the original John Monteith's pear tree standing side by 

 side with one of the largest and oldest yew trees in Scotland, noticed in 

 some Scottish statistical works. The stem measures at 4 ft. above the 

 ground, 17 ft. J hi. in circumference, and the branches cover a circumference 

 of 180 ft. The pear tree, of which I may hereafter send a drawing, is sup- 

 posed to have stood three centuries, and, tradition says, was named after a 

 gardener who lived at that place, and raised it from seed. Mr. Pearson, 

 the very intelligent gardener now at Arniston Hall, informed us that he 

 had ripened some fruit of this variety on a wall, but found it dry, meally, 

 and every way inferior to the fruit grown on the standard, except in size. 

 A Turkey apricot tree at this place covers 63 ft. of an east wall, 16 ft. in 

 height, bears regular crops, and ripens about a week later than the same 

 variety on a south aspect. Vegetation, by the flowering of herbaceous 

 plants, seemed to be in the same stage of forwardness in the Lothians as 

 in the early districts of Perthshire. Much of the corn crops in the Lothians 

 are drilled; but oats have suffered severely this season by what is there 

 called the " tulip root," a disease, the cause of which is not hitherto pro- 

 perly understood. Lucern is cultivated near Musselburgh, and, from some 

 recently sown there, it would appear the practice deserves extension. The 

 woods at Arniston furnish a fine lounge to the botanist. Mr. Mathieson 

 [an old friend of ours ?], gardener at that place, who to his other professional 

 qualifications adds a considerable knowledge of plants, pointed out the 

 habitat of the parasite the Lathrse^a squamaria. The Impatiens noli me 

 tangere was growing profusely in the woods near the garden, and Mr. 

 Mathieson thinks it a native. There are several rare plants cultivated in 

 the hot-house and garden at Arniston. The flower grounds on both sides 

 of the river Esk are in excellent keeping, and possess an interest which, 

 without water, could not be easily imparted. — A. Gorrie. 



The Wheat Fly. — The wheat is in the ear, and in general is looking 

 well, but we are very anxious just now about its fate with reference to the 

 fly. I found, upon examining my father's wheat the other evening, that the 

 insect was in existence. I found dozens of them busily at work depositing 

 their eggs among the soft chaff of the young ear. We are anxious that the 

 present cold weather should continue for another ten days, to prevent the 

 eggs from hatching, until the wheat be sufficiently hardened, and beyond 

 the state which affords nourishment to the maggot. Another year or two 

 of the wheat-fly will make two-thirds of the farmers here bankrupts. Yours 

 truly. — P. Bell. Mid Lioch, Auchter House, June 24. 1830. 



IRELAND. 



Belfast Horticultural Society. — The Society's first Show of flowers, 

 fruits, &c, took place on June 5. The judges on the occasion were, the 

 Marquess of Donegall, Sir Robert Bateson, Bart., John Agnew, Esq., John 

 Montgomery, Esq., Mr. L. Farrell, and Mr. T. Drummond. 

 '■ Flowers. Geraniums, Mi*. S. Millikin, gardener to Sir Robert Bateson, 

 Belvoir. Six Geraniums : 1. Mr. A. Anderson; 2. Mr. S. Millikin. Bou- 

 quet, Mr. J. Scott, Mr. A. Dixon, and Mr. J. Gamble, gardener to James 



