General Notices. 263 



Art. IV. Literary Notices. 



The Flora Domestica, or History of Medicinal Plants indige- 

 nous to Great Britain, illustrated by numerous coloured plates, 

 by Benjamin H. Barton, F.L.S., will be published in parts. 

 Part I. to appear on May 2. The work will contain a correct 

 description of all the medicinal plants growing wild in the woods 

 and fields of this country, and such as are cultivated, and easy 

 of access in our gardens. The history of each plant will com- 

 prise its botanical and popular character ; its poisonous qualities, 

 if any ; the uses to which it has been applied in medicine, the 

 arts, and in rural and domestic economy ; the mode of appro- 

 priating its active principle, with the proper doses, &c. 



Illustrations^ nscith a 2'opographical and Descriptive Accoiint, of 

 Cassiobury Park, Hertfordshire, the seat of the Earl of Essex, by 

 John Britton, F.S.A. &c., is about to be published by subscrip- 

 tion. Cassiobury is interesting in an antiquarian point of view ; 

 and also on account of its noble Gothic mansion, its beautiful 

 garden scenery, and its very picturesque lodges and cottages; 

 erected, for the most part, from the designs of the present earl. 

 Mr. Britton's work will consist of about 40 pages of letterpress 

 in folio ; and, at least, 30 embellishments by Turner, Alex- 

 ander, Hearne, Elridge, and Pugin. The publication will be 

 limited to 150 copies ; 20 of which will have the plates coloured, 

 price 6 guineas each ; and the others will be 3 guineas each. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Method of preserving Plants during a long Voyage. — The following letter 

 was communicated to Messrs. G. C. and R. W. Fox, and Co., by Capt. R. 

 Gillies, of the ship Hibernia : — 



In accordance with your wishes, I have much pleasure in describing to you 

 the mode in which the plants brought by me from Calcutta were put up. 

 The plants were all intended for the green-house in England, and, I presume, 

 were of a delicate kind. Each plant was in a box, 6 in. square, by 1 ft. in 

 depth, filled to the top with a kind of clay ; and, no doubt, well saturated 

 with water, previously to being put into the large outer box, which contained 

 eight of these small ones. 



The large box was constructed in the usual way ; that is, a glazed roof 

 about 2 ft. high, the glass strong enough to resist the fall of a small rope, or 

 other light body. It was hermetically closed with the common Chunam * of 

 the country, and was never opened during a voyage of five months. When 

 we arrived in England, the plants were all in beautiful health, and had grown 

 to the full height of the case, the leaves pressing against the glass. 



In dry weather, I always observed moisture within the glass, which was 



* A sort of lime, used in India as a cement for plastering houses, &c. 



