4>66 Queries and Answers'. 



Larch Bark for Tanning, (p. 290.) — Having been absent from home when 

 the June number of your Magazine arrived, I never saw Mr. Bree's enquiries, 

 addressed to myself, until this day, or I should have noticed them earlier. I 

 I have never found any difficulty in disposing of the larch bark in this neigh- 

 bourhood ; but the tanners will only give half the price of oak bark, or there- 

 abouts ; whereas I have been informed that the fair proportion, with refer- 

 ence to the tannin contained in a given weight of each, would be two thirds 

 for larch bark. Larch of upwards of twenty years' growth pays for stripping, 

 even at the present low price of 3/. a ton. For some years past, 1 have 

 always received 3/. 10s. — Charles Lawrence. Cirencester, July 11. 1834. 



The Tula Plant is said to be used for hedges in the neighbourhood of 

 Buenos Ayres, and to make excellent ones. What is its scientific name ? 

 Has it been introduced into Britain ; and what is known about it in this 

 country 2—J.S, P. Jan. 1 834. 



This appears to be the Coulteria horrida of Kunth, a stove shrub, intro- 

 duced from Carthagena in 1824. It belongs to the natural order of Legumi- 

 nosae, suborder Caesalpin^, and tribe Cassiese. (See Hort. Brit., p. 167.) As 

 to its becoming a hedge plant in Britain, it is quite out of the question. — 

 Cond. 



The Shaddock and the Mango. — The shaddock contains generally thirty- 

 two seeds, two of which only will reproduce shaddocks ; and these two it is 

 impossible to distinguish. The rest will yield, some sweet oranges, others 

 bitter ones, others, again, forbidden fruit, and, in short, all the varieties of the 

 orange : but, until the trees actually are in bearing, no one can guess what the 

 fruit is likely to prove ; and even then the seeds which produce shaddocks, 

 although taken from a tree remarkable for the excellence of its fruit, will fre- 

 quently yield only such as are scarcely eatable. So, also, the varieties of the 

 mango are infinite; the fruit of no two trees resembling each other; and the 

 seeds of the very finest mango (although sown and cultivated with the utmost 

 care) seldom affording anything at all like the parent stock. (Leivis's Journal, 

 as quoted in the Lit. Gaz., March 1. 1834, p. 151.) Can any of your readers 

 (Dr. Hamilton of Plymouth, for instance) inform me to what extent the 

 assertions above, respecting the shaddock, are true ? If the seeds of a shad- 

 dock will not only produce shaddocks, but oranges and lemons, the fact will 

 be as wonderful as the primula of the Rev. Mr. Herbert, which produced, 

 from one seed-pod, auriculas, polyanthuses, cowslips, and primroses. — James 

 Roberts. York, March 5. 1834. 



Balsams. — The balsams exhibited at the horticultural fete, July 5., and 

 noticed p. 411., being profusely covered with bloom, and yet weak in their 

 stems and branches, we wrote to Mr. Mills to ask the cause, when he sent us 

 the following answer : — The balsams exhibited were grown under frames 

 with melons, and were thus drawn up weak. They were, when too large to 

 remain with the melon plants, removed into a pit that had become vacant, in 

 which there was a little bottom heat, but not sufficient to keep them growing 

 as fast as they had been growing in the melon frame, by which means a great 

 check was given to them. They then became infested with the green fly, 

 which would have destroyed them, had I not given them a strong fumigation 

 with tobacco. These two checks, you perceive, were the cause of the flowers 

 being in disproportion to the strength of the plants. This kind of balsam, 

 when well grown, is, I think, the most beautiful of the balsam tribe. — George 

 Mills. Gunnersbury Park, July 13. 1834. 



Cabbage Tree of Lapland. — Can any of your readers inform me where I 

 could procure seeds of this plant, which is said to be more hardy than the 

 ruta baga, and to grow to the height of four or five feet ? My intention is to 

 use it as winter food for sheep, on land to which I cannot afford a sufficient 

 supply of manure to grow turnips, — John Brown. Cotswold, Gloucestershire, 

 Dec, 1833. 



