226 General Notices. 



charding, by M. C. Fintelmann ; 4. Floriculture, by F. ir. 

 Buche, commercial flor/ r 5. Forcing, byM. Nietner; and, 

 6. Landscape- Gardening, o_y M. Lenne. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Value of Specific Characters. — M. Wiegmann, in a letter addressed to the 

 conductor of the botanical periodical called the Flora, communicates some 

 observations which he has made on this subject. The results which he 

 obtained are not at all favourable to the opinion of those authors who elevate 

 to the rank of a species slight differences in form, commonly produced by the 

 influence of the climate or the locality. Some genera, of which many species 

 are cultivated in gardens, such as Veronica, Ferbascum, ZJelphinium, Thalfc- 

 trum, &c., contain many species of which the native country is unknown. 

 Certainly, however, the change which culture produces, and the numerous 

 hybrids to the production of which botanic gardens are so favourable, from 

 the proximity of the species of a genus, may easily explain the origin of some 

 hundreds of species in our catalogues. 



In 1833, the author saw a plant of /4'llium Cepa bearing a bulb in the place 

 of seeds. In the following spring he planted the bulb ; and his astonishment 

 was great when he saw, shortly after, springing up in his garden J'liium proli- 

 ferum of Schraderand Sprengel, with anaked, flexible, weak stem, a proliferous 

 umbel, and barren flowers on long footstalks. M. Wiegmann cites the nume- 

 rous forms of Pns obtained by M. Berg ; and the multiplicity of calceolarias, 

 and other ornamental plants, as examples of these pseudo-species. 



To this we may add the fact stated by M. Soyer-Willemet {Bon Cultivateur, 

 Dec. 1833), that various forms were obtained from the seeds of Fuchsia 

 globosa. 



M. Wiegmann, in noticing the results obtained by M. Koch from the cul- 

 tivation of seeds of Taraxacum palustre (which results are communicated in 

 Ann. des Scien. Nat.,n. p. 119.), informs us that similar experiments made by 

 him in 1828 furnished the same results ; but that he was unwilling to publish 

 them, fearing lest his observations should have been incorrectly made. The 

 seeds of ilfyosotis sylvatica Ehr. were sown by the author in the same locality, 

 and produced five different sorts ; and those of Vei-onica agr^stis gave birth to 

 six different sorts. It is to be regretted that the author has not pointed out 

 the names of the species thus obtained ; for, in the case of ilfyosotis at least, 

 this appears to us of considerable importance. He thinks that the numerous 

 species of 7?ubus of Weihe have been produced in the same manner. (Flora, 

 1833, p. 106, as quoted in the Annates des Scien. Nat., 2 s., tom. v. p. 377.) 



Conservatory. — The following article on this subject is from the Penny 

 CyclopcBdia, vol. vii., just published, and bears internal evidence of being written 

 by Dr. Lindley. To the scientific gardener, it will lead to very interesting and 

 useful reflections ; though to the mere practical man it will be, to use the 

 concluding expression of the article, " only a waste of words." " The names 

 given to the garden buildings employed for preserving plants in an artificial 

 climate are applied with so little precision, that it is almost a matter of in- 

 difference which to select for the purpose of explaining the principles that 

 ought to be observed in the construction and management of such houses. 

 We shall therefore reserve for the article Green-house what we have to say 

 upon that head, and briefly dismiss the others as their names occur. In 

 illustration of this remark, we may observe that the term conservatory, which, 

 as its meaning shows was originally intended for buildings in which plants 

 were preserved during winter .has come to be used, firstly, for glass houses, in 



