Botanic Garden at Oxford. Ill 



solid of brick ; each step is 9 in. wide, and the thickness of a brick 

 higher than the one below it. The pots are thus kept cool, the 

 worms are prevented from entering them, and the plants are 

 presented advantageously to the eye. There is a considerable 

 collection of willows, and a surprising number of new plants, 

 considering that none are purchased, and that there is but little 

 to exchange with other botanic gardens for them. Some of the 

 newest articles have been contributed by our good friend, Mr. 

 Cameron of the Birmingham Garden. Near the entrance gate 

 is what is believed to be the oldest and largest Christ's thorn 

 (Paliiirus aculeatus) in England : it is about 20 ft. high, and would 

 extend wider were it not surrounded by other plants. It is now 

 beautifully in bloom, a circumstance which adds greatly to its 

 value as an ornamental shrub, there being very few of these which 

 flower in August. There is an ^ristolochia here, the leaves of 

 which always produce a portion of green leaf on the under side, 

 slightly attached in the middle, and showing a surface like that 

 of the upper side. Whether this is a disease, or a peculiarity of 

 growth, Mr. Baxter has been unable to ascertain. There are 

 numerous fine plants of Yucca gloriosa in one part of the garden; 

 and Mr. Baxter finds that suckers of this species require 12 years' 

 growth before they come into flower, and that afterwards they 

 flower every 4 or 5 years. He had five yuccas in flower at once, 

 a year or two ago, some of them having flower stems 15 ft. high. 

 The two principal compartments of the garden are devoted to 

 herbaceous plants ; the one to British and the other to European 

 and American species : the arrangement in both cases is Linnaean. 

 So badly are the flues in the hot-houses constructed, that Mr. 

 Baxter informed us it required a whole afternoon's attendance to 

 the fire to generate any sensible heat. In the central green-house 

 there is no flue at all, but a small iron stove against the back wall 

 behind the stage ; and, what will amuse gardeners who have not 

 seen the contrivances of the same kind on the Continent, there is a 

 small iron four-wheeled waggon, which, in severe weather, is filled 

 with burning charcoal, and drawn backwards and forwards along 

 the front path by the gardener. There can be little doubt but that 

 Bobart, who was a German, and the first gardener here, imported 

 this waggon from his own country. In the library and museum, 

 Mr. Baxter pointed out to us the herbariums ofGerarde,Dillenius, 

 Morrison, and other old and eminent botanists; the first two 

 volumes of Rudbeck's Campi Elysii, folio, full of wood en- 

 gravings of plants of all countries, very scarce ; this being the only 

 copy of the first volume in England. There are only three copies 

 of this volume, and six of the second, in the world: all the rest, 

 with the whole of the copies of the remaining ten volumes of the 

 work, were destroyed by fire; and grief for their loss is supposed to 

 have occasioned Rudbeck's death. Every young gardener knows 



