. Devonshire. 635 



Melons : 1, Coronation, Mr. Verney ■ 2. Canteloup, W. Bbthwayt, Esq. — Culinary Vegetables. 

 Cauliflowers : 1. Mr. Maynard ; '2. Mr. Sealey. l J eas : 1. Mr. Cambauld ; 2. W. P. Taunton, 

 Esq. Beans : 1. Long-pod, Mr. Seaiey ; 2. Long-pod, Mrs. Cartwright. 



Superior Merit. Lemons and Oranges, W. P. Jillard, Esq. Apples, Mr. John Beard. Ra- 

 nunculuses, Mr. Tiler. Cockscombs, Rev. Mr. Richards. Potatoes, Mrs. L. Gregory. Cucum- 

 bers, Mr. Maule. Carrots, Mr. Maynard. 



The Censors were, Messrs. Fedden, Masey, Rootsey, and Lee. (Bristol Mirror, June 26.) 



DEVONSHIRE. 



Smith Devon and East Cornwall Botanical and Horticultural Society. — July 21. 

 The Second Exhibition of Botanical and Horticultural produce took place in the Town- Hall, 

 Devonpurt. The chair being taken by G. Strode, Esq , of Newham Park ; the Secretary, 

 W. Hamilton, Esq. M.D., addressed the assembly at considerable length. We select the following 

 passages : — 



" Permit me to call your attention for an instant to a matter of equal interest to the horticul- 

 turist and the agriculturist, the study of aeromancy, or the art of regulating the operations 

 of horticulture and husbandry by the phenomena of nature ; a branch of useful study recom- 

 mended to your notice by no less an authority than that of the immortal Linnanis himself. The 

 inadequacy of almost every instrument hitherto devised for predicting the changes of the weather, 

 and furnishing a practical guide to the labours of the garden, has been long and universally admit- 

 ted. The information, however, which we vainly seek from those costly toys of the philosopher, 

 Nature furnishes, as Linnsus long since pointed out, in her most common productions, at no 

 other cost than that of observation. The opening of the buds, and the expansion of the leaves of 

 trees, afford an unerring calendar for regulating our various operations, far more useful than the 

 directions of Abererombie or of Mawe, and adapted to every possible variation of climate, of 

 season, or of latitude. If our crops prove unproductive, and barren harvests mock the hopes of 

 the farmer, the cause is to be sought in our neglect of the instructive calendar which Nature 

 herself offers for our acceptance, not only without price, but beyond price; and regukiting the 

 Bowing of our crops by the artificial divisions of the year, rather than by those natural indica- 

 tions which alone mark with precision the arrival of the appropriate season. 

 li ," The leather, which I hold in my hand, has been tanned with a substance which I hope 

 before long to see among the most productive of our imports, and superseding, in a great degree, 

 the costly and ruinous culture of the cane in our West Indian Islands. The introduction of a 

 substitute for bark in tanning may be viewed, perhaps, with alarm, as interfering with our own 

 domestic interests ; but this fear will vanish when I tell you, as the registers of the customs will 

 attest, that upwards of three. fourths of the bark consumed by the tanner are of foreign growth, 

 and purchased, not with the manufactures but the gold of Britain ; while the importation of 

 divirtivi from our colonies will enable the planter to take a large portion of our manufactures in 

 exchange, and, by adding to the resources of the master, augment the comforts of the servant. 

 Of the superiority of this substance, not only as a substitute for the bark of the Continent, 

 but also for the galls of Aleppo, and, indeed, for every other astringent substance hitherto 

 known, except catechu, I have in my possession the most ample, and the most convincing 

 evidence, furnished not by one individual, but by every person to whom I have had an oppor- 

 tunity of submitting it : and I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to express my obligations to 

 Mr. Prideaux, and Mr. Tanner, of Plymouth, whose scientific experiments afforded me the first 

 demonstrative evidence of its enormous value, and whose important report has been more than 

 corroborated by the extensive experiments made at my request by Mr. Rootsey of Bristol, as 

 well as at Sandwich, and in the Island of Jamaica. 



" Among other productions of Mr. Pontey's stove, which now claim your regard, I beg to call 

 your attention particularly to a noble plant of the family of the pine-apple, whose magnificent 

 flowering stem produced the fibre from which the cord before you, beautiful in its texture, and 

 powerful in its strength, has been manufactured through the liberal zeal of your excellent presi- 

 dent, Commissioner Ross. This plant, which is abundant in the province of Carthagena, and 

 will, I hope, before long, be extensively cultivated in our West Indian Islands, is known by the 

 name of pita : and is thus spoken of by the late learned prior, Don Jose Ignacio de Pomba, the 

 friend of the great and lamented Mutis, and the natural historian of the province of Carthagena, 

 in his work On the Productions of the Province of Carthagena : — ' We have also the pita in abund- 

 ance in various parts of this province, but it has not been applied to any useful purpose hitherto. 

 Among all the fibrous plants of the Old Continent which are known, none has a more tenacious 

 fibre, nor one that is more capable of resisting the action of acids and humidity. It is superior 

 to flax, to hemp, and to the esparto (of Spain), in durability and strength ; and should be actively 

 cultivated, spun, wove, and applied to all the uses to which the former are applied. Paper manu- 

 factured from this fibre would be superior in texture and quality, at least for printing, to that 

 made from flax ; and, perhaps, like that manufactured from silk or cotton, would not he subject 

 to the depredations of worms and other insects, so destructive in this country (Carthagena), which 

 would be a most important discovery for the preservation of books and documents of every 

 description.' 



" Should the specimen now before you disappoint your expectations, and appear to fall short of 

 the praise bestowed upon it by the prior, it should be brought to mind under what disadvantages 

 it labours ; coming from a people sunk in sloth and ignorance, and deficient in the requisite 

 knowledge of the proper time for cutting, and the proper method of preparing it. Under more 

 favourable circumstances, and more judicious treatment, it will, I feel assured, fully realise the 

 promises of the prior, and prove as superior to hemp in the strength and durability of its fibre, as 

 it exceeds it in length and beauty. The importance of transferring our dependence for so 

 important a portion of our marine stores, as the material for fabricating the cordage and sail- 

 cloth of our navy, from the shores of the Baltic to our possessions in the West Indies, is too 

 obvious, both in a commercial and political point of view, to call for demonstration. 



" One plant more demands your notice, from its highly important qualities; and this is the 

 celebrated guaco plant, now before you: one of the most powerful antidotes to animal poisons 

 which have yet been discovered, as well as one of the most valuable remedies in some of the 

 most cruel and dangerous maladies which afflict our nature. From recent experiments we have 

 reason to hope that we shall find in it a sure and effectual remedy for that dreadful and hitherto 

 incurable complaint which follows the bite of a rabid animal ; while in gout, in rheumatism, in 

 toothache, in fevers, and a multitude of other complaints, it has proved itself a sovereign 

 remedy. But I shall not ask you to rely solely on my assertion, but support it by an extract 



