272 General Notices. — Foreign Notices. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



A COMMUNICATION by means of Steam between India and England. — I hail 

 with anxious impatience the establishment of this mode of communication, 

 by means of which, seeds and plants will have a chance of surviving the 

 transmission, beyond any thing they nr>w possess, even under the most atten- 

 tive treatment and greatest solicitude for their preservation. From my own 

 personal experience, as well as from that of hundreds of others, 1 know that 

 it is the second crossing of the equator which forms the most formidable ob- 

 stacle in the way of prosperously conveying such objects as plants ; but if the 

 period of the voyage can be shortened to within little more than two months, 

 safety, whether the line be crossed twice or not, will be almost certain. — 

 N. Walilch. Botanic Garden, Calcutta, Nov. 22. 1833. [See IX. 83. for 

 an abstract of Dr. Wallich's excellent precautions, advice, and practice, on 

 transporting living plants from India. In the Scotsman of May 3. it is stated 

 that the steam communication with India, by means of the Red Sea, has com- 

 menced; the Hugh Lindsay steamer having left Bombay, Feb. 1., and reached 

 Suez, March 4.; a distance of 3400 miles in about a month. There is a 

 regular steam packet between Falmouth and Malta, which makes the voyage 

 in sixteen days, and all that is wanting is another steam packet between Malta 

 and Alexandria, and this would bring the whole voyage from Bombay to 

 London within two months.] 



The Many-stemmed Mulberry (ilforus multicaulis) is said to be greatly su- 

 perior to all the other species and varieties in the number of leaves which it 

 produces, as well as in the quantity of nutriment which these leaves contain. 

 Plants may be obtained from M. Guerin, at Honfleur, near Havre, and from 

 M. Soulange-Bodin, at Fromont, near Paris. (L' Agronome, vol. i. p. 187.) 



The fragrant-flowered Variety of Cyclamen persicum. ( 187, 188.) — I may say 

 that we have now a small plant of this variety, with about a dozen flowers, 

 which completely scents a large room. It is possible, however, that Mr. Turner 

 (188.) is right with regard to his plant, for I have some idea that the persicum 

 which we had some years since had no scent, and that I purchased the parent 

 of the present plant on account of its perfume. — F. L. S. May 2. 1834. 



If F. L. S.'s idea, that the flowers of the parent of his present plant were 

 also fragrant, be accurate, we learn from it that the fragrance of the flower 

 is, in this variety, hereditary. — J. D. 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 

 GERMANY. 



The Gardens of General Vandamme at Cassel are celebrated. The general 

 halted one day at the castle of Prince Piickler-Muskau, in Silesia, and talked 

 a great deal to him about his house and gardens. " Among other things, he 

 stated that the whole garden was surrounded with iron railings of different 

 patterns, all of which he had taken out of German churches ; and that his 

 cellar was not badly filled with wine, also out of German convents." Curi- 

 ously enough, the prince was afterwards of a party that took Cassel. " 1 had 

 then," says he, " an opportunity of satisfying my curiosity about Vandamme's 

 pleasure-grounds. I found all exactly as he had told me, but suffered no re- 

 prisals to be made upon him ; only I had one old wine cask, on which was 

 written, in great letters, Aus dem Kloster Molk, brought out of the cellar into. 

 daylight, and divided it among my men." (For. Quart. Review, May, 1834, 

 p. 392.) 



