Queries and Answers. 577 



disposed to rank the tale among Lewis's Tales of Wonder; and to class it 

 with the fable of English apple seeds producing, when sown within the tropics, 

 guava shrubs in place of apple trees ; or the wonderful history of the vege- 

 table fly given by Attwood in his History of Dominica, and gravely copied 

 from that work by the credulous Edwards into his History of the British West 

 Indies, which, for the amusement of your readers, I shall transcribe ; as Att- 

 wood's work (a volume containing, notwithstanding his credulity in this 

 respect, much correct and useful information) is little known. " The 

 vegetable fly is a remarkable insect. It is of the appearance and size of a 

 small cockchafer, and buries itself in the ground, where it dies, and from its 

 body springs up a small plant, which resembles a coffee tree plant, only its 

 leaves are smaller. The plant which springs from this insect is often over- 

 looked, from the supposition people have of its being no other than a coffee 

 plant ; but on examining it properly, the difference is easily distinguished, 

 from the head, body, and feet of the insect appearing at the root as perfect 

 as when alive." (Attwood's History of Dominica, p. 69. Lond. 1791.) Mis- 

 trusting, however, my own recollections, impaired by an absence of nearly 

 twenty years, I shall mention the subject in my next letter to Dr. Bancroft, 

 and communicate his answer to you, for the information of your correspondent. 

 As to the fact of the vast varieties of mango to be found in the West Indies, 

 I can speak with confidence, nor can it be a matter of any surprise to those 

 acquainted with the rude state of horticulture, or rather of no horticulture, 

 which prevails in all the English islands ; and which extends, as far as my 

 recollection goes, to the Danish and Haytian territories I visited. The French 

 planters form in some degree an honourable exception to the general rule ; 

 and their gardens exhibit something like traces of culture; but still no arti- 

 ficial methods are adopted of improving the varieties of fruit, or perpetuating 

 those improved varieties which Nature in her caprices constantly and sponta- 

 neously offers for acceptance. Even the pine apple, the mammee apple, the 

 sugar apple, and the custard apple, multis cum aliis, which might, no doubt, be 

 much improved, grow wild and neglected; and the guava, alike delicious for 

 its fruit and for its jelly, is planted, like our brambles, only by the roadsides 

 and in the hedges. The cashew apple, which by a simple and easy process 

 affords abundance of the most palatable and wholesome wine, is equally neg- 

 lected ; for hitherto rum and sugar, and sugar and rum, have absorbed every 

 thought, and exclusively called forth every exertion. May we hope that the 

 reformed system, which has at last happily commenced, will bring with it better 

 things ; awaken the planters, so long slumbering on the verge of ruin, to 

 a sense of their true interests ; and convert the West Indian Islands, from a 

 fatal millstone about the neck of Great Britain, into what a bountiful Provi- 

 dence designed they should be, a terrestrial paradise, and a source of benefit 

 to the parent state. This is a consummation I have incessantly laboured to 

 effect, by calling the attention of those most interested to the true capabilities 

 of those mismanaged and comparatively unproductive regions ; but acting at 

 a distance, and by such agency only as chance throws in my way, it can hardly 

 be a matter of surprise that my unaided labours have been in a great degree 

 abortive. I have, however, the satisfaction to believe that the foundation 

 stone of rational improvement has been laid ; and that the completion of the 

 superstructure, though perhaps tardy, will be certain. — W. Hamilton. 15. 

 Oxford Place, Plymouth, Sept. 16. 1834. 



Loudon's Seedling Grape. — In your account of what has been lately done 

 in the Caledonian Horticultural Society's garden at Edinburgh, there appears 

 Mr. Barnet's report of certain grapes which he has had under culture. Among 

 others he mentions "Loudon's Seedling;" of which it is stated that "it readily 

 produces a second crop." Pray be so good as ask our friend Barnet, from 

 what part of the vine the second crop is produced. — J. M. 6. Union Row, 

 Chelsea, Aug. 23. 1834. 



What is the best Method of preserving Celery through the Winter? — I shall 

 be greatly obliged by this information, that article being in daily demand in 

 the family with whom I live. — A Subscriber, Doncaster, Aug. 4. 1 Bo 1. 



