Domestic Notices : — Scotland. 601 



The chief contributors of the exotics were Mr. M'Nab of the botanic 

 garden, Professor Dunbar, Mi*. Cunningham of Comely Bank, Mr. Patrick 

 Neill, Messrs. Dickson and Sons, Hanover Street, and Mr. Wauchope of 

 Edmonstone. Messrs. Peacock of Leith Walk nursery furnished nosegays 

 for the company, in each of which there was either a moss, a crimson, or a 

 blush rose. These gentlemen also exhibited fifty-nine different varieties of 

 pinks, amongst which were several seedlings of great beauty, raised by them- 

 selves. (Edinburgh Observer, July 13.) 



Edinburgh Vegetable Market. — Aug. 7. There was a very large display 

 of garden produce in the market this morning • and there was a grand turn 

 out of the citizens. Grapes, peaches, nectarines, and currants sold rapidly. 

 Red and white currants sold at 6d. and Id., and black currants Is. and Is. 2d. 

 a basket. There was a great supply of potatoes ; and two sorts, that have 

 been rapidly rising in the estimation of horticulturists during the last five 

 years, namely, the Liverpool Don, and the Bath Kidney, sold at 6d. to 8d. 

 a peck. Excellent Black Hamburgh Grapes were sold at Is. 9d. a lb. 

 Gooseberries from 3s. to 5s. a gallon. On the whole, both the sale and 

 prices exceeded the expectations of the gardeners. (Scotsman, Aug. 7.) 



C Cottage, near Glasgow, Oct. 6. 1829. — Sir, We are, thanks 



to good food, abundant exercise, and keen appetites, in good health and 

 spirits, and we continue to like our little retreat here as well as when we first 

 came to it two years ago • for, although the effect of novelty is gone, we have 

 always some thing in progress to keep up an interest. Indeed my flower- 

 garden is an unceasing source of enjoyment, as well as employment to me. 

 I remember, before I left London, wishing I could manage to spend my 

 days in my garden. You hinted, rationally enough, a doubt whether in that 

 event the interest which I then felt and anticipated would not leave me. 

 Now I can say, after a trial of three years, it has not • and I have no fears 

 that it ever will. The beauty of gardening is, that, independently of present 

 gratification, there is always something to do, something to project, and 

 something to look forward to, to keep up a sufficient degree of excitement, 

 without too much anxiety. I wish you were here to see what a pretty place 

 I have, and how busy I am ■ never, when the weather enables me to be 

 out of doors, without a rake or a trowel in my hand, and happier, I guess, 

 than George the Fourth in his gorgeous palace at Windsor. I fear, how- 

 ever, with all my zeal for this art, I have not much talent for making dis- 

 coveries or observations. 



I noticed, last winter, that one of my double primroses, flowering out 

 of season, produced single flowers. They were what florists call pin-eyed, 

 the pistil being visible at the mouth of the tube ; and, on tearing the tube 

 open, the anthers were found perfectly formed and ranged round the 

 bottom. Early in the spring some of the flowers on the same plant were 

 semi-double • and on examining the interior of their tubes, such of the 

 anthers as had not been transformed into perfect petals were found at 

 the bottom in the form of small tiny leaflets. Farther in the season, 

 when vegetation was more vigorous, the flowers were perfectly double, 

 and no anthers in any form were to be found in the tube • a proof, I con- 

 ceive (if any were necessary), of the correctness of the generally received 

 opinion, that in double flowers the anthers have been converted into petals. 

 Among my coloured single primroses I have some whose first flowers in 

 the season are regular primroses ; but those produced later, say about the 

 beginning of summer, are furnished with a scale like polyanthuses. 



Mrs. W. had a present made her of a beautiful pet goldfinch, which, after 

 moulting, two years ago, became altogether of a dingy black colour, not 

 a red, or a yellow, or a white feather to be seen ; and so it continued for a 

 twelvemonth. Reflecting on the cause of this metamorphosis, I could 

 think of no peculiarity in the habits of the bird, except that it lived almost 

 entirely on hemp seed ; and, to try if this had any effect in changing his 



