Foreign Notices : — Itah/. 267 



them. I send you a new number of the Horticulteur Beige, and recommend 

 to you an article, by M. Moren of Liege, on the artificial fecundation of the 

 Orchideae tribe, and which I would recommend to you to translate. Our new 

 building for the exhibition of plants will be open for the winter exhibition of 

 18.37 ; and it will be well worth any gardener's coming over to see it. I believe 

 there will be a kind of fete on the occasion, and a large banquet given. Our 

 last winter exhibition was very respectable in forced plants, though some 

 camellias figured under false names ; a plan which both foreign and English 

 gardeners ought to be ashamed of practising. Foreigners are very apt to play 

 sad tricks with the names of camellias, dahlias, and roses ; so much so, in- 

 deed, that I scarcely ever purchase any of these three classes of plants unless 

 in flower. A hint in your Magazine might, perhaps, make the foreigners 

 ashamed of these tricks, and would serve as a lesson to the English gardener. 

 — J. M. B. 



All my different. Varieties of Indian, Bengal, and Noisette Roses, budded upon 

 the -ffosa canina and J?6sa Smithii, or the common blue Noisette, have stood 

 the winter, uncovered, very well ; the points only of the branches being a 

 little scorched by frost ; whereas those on their own bottoms have, for the 

 most part, been killed down to their roots. Ribes speciosum has stood very 

 well uncovered. The winter has been very trying for open ground plants, 

 not one day being like the other. Eleven degrees and a half below the freezing 

 point of Reaumur was the lowest degree of cold, with very iitile snow ; but 

 during the most severe weather the flavour of the Brussels sprouts was much 

 improved. Green-house plants here have suffered severely. Many gardeners, 

 being deceived by the mild appearance of the night, have found, to theu* cost, 

 two or three degrees (Reaumur) of cold in their houses before morning. In 

 short, I never, in this country, have observed so changeable a winter as the 

 present ; and vegetation is at least three weeks backwarder than it was last 

 winter. — Id. 



ITALY. 



Monza, November 25. 1835. — I do not know what pleasure people can 

 find in deceiving others, and in propagating falsehoods ; but it is certain that 



there are such beings in existence, and 1 fear your correspondent Mr. 



may be one of them, as he has had the folly to declare that he saw the fruit of 

 the salisburia in the Botanic Garden at Pavia, where it has never flowered, 

 and where it does not appear that there is even a female plant. I consider 

 the contradiction of this false assertion of such importance, that I transmit to 

 you,enclosed, an answer which I received from Signor Pratesi, a gardener, and 

 good botanist, belonging to that establishment ; and whom your correspondent 

 must have seen, if he really visited the Botanic Garden at Pavia. I do not 

 think that there is a female plant in this garden, because, when I was there a 

 short time ago, I do not remember it ; and, certainly, if it were there, Signor 

 Pratesi must have been aware of it, and would have mentioned the circum- 

 stance in his answer. Professor Giuseppi Moretti would also have mentioned 

 it in the Return Paper which I sent him from you, begging him earnestly to 

 fill it up as soon as possible. 



Now we are on the subject of deception, I must tell you that you have been 

 very incorrectly informed respecting this royal garden. In your valuable En- 

 cyclopcBdia of Gardening, p. 19., 1st edition, you say, that " Every thing is in 

 as good order as the parsimony of the present viceroy permits." This is an 

 injustice which this best of princes does not deserve ; and you may suppose 

 so, when I assure you that the gardens at Monza are not kept up for himselti but 

 for the government ; and that the sum spent annually for their support (I speak 

 of the gardens only) is now never under 35,000 Austrian francs ; while under 

 the former government only 19,000 Italian francs were expended. 



For two years past I have had the pleasure of the acquaintance of a coun- 

 tryman of yours, who lives near the Lake of Como, Signor Conte George 

 Compton, to whom Lorabardy is indebted for the introduction of many beau- 



