and of Bural Improvement genei-aUy, during 1836. 619 



plants, this Miisa has not yet been much cultivated ; but the 

 reader will find in p. 316. the high anticipations that have been 

 formed of it by Mr. Paxton, who, in a letter to us dated Nov. 8,, 

 informs us that after nine months' trial he has no reason to sup- 

 pose that his most sanguine expectations will not be realised. 

 We are not aware of any remarkable culinary vegetable having 

 lately attracted attention, though some new modes of managing 

 those in general cultivation will be found treated of by different 

 correspondents. The articles on cropping kitchen-gardens, on 

 the management of fruit trees, and on fruit tree borders, by Mr. 

 Errington; those on the cultivation of the pine and vine, by Mr. 

 Forsyth ; that on the cultivation of chicory, by Dr. Lippold ; 

 and various others, will be found highly instructive to the prac- 

 tical gardener. The quinoa can scarcely be considered as having 

 answered as a spinach plant ; but it ripens abundance of seeds, 

 which may, perhaps, form a useful substitute for rice or millet. 

 In our notices of the provincial societies, it will be seen that Sir 

 Charles Lemon is cultivating the quinoa on a large scale. Few 

 experiments have been made during the past year with the O'xalis 

 crenata. 



STATISTICS OF GARDENING. 



Botanical Collectors. — We are happy to find that the Horti- 

 cultural Society, after a pause of several years, has revived a 

 practice which has been attended with so much success ; viz. 

 that of sending out botanical collectors. In October last, M. 

 Theodore Hartweg, the son of the late M. Hartweg, director of 

 the Botanic Garden at Carlsruhe, sailed from Liverpool for 

 Vera Cruz; whence he will proceed to Mexico^ and remain there 

 three or four years, collecting specimens, and other objects of 

 natural history, all of which will be sent home to the Horticul- 

 tui'al Society. From the Kew Gardens, a collector was sent out 

 to South America during last year. Mr. Knight of the Exotic 

 Nursery, King's Road, has also a collector in that part of the 

 world, chiefly in search of Orchideae ; andMr. Low of the Clapton 

 Nursery lately had our correspondent Mr. Henchman as a col- 

 lector in Demerara, and still has Mr. Anderson as a resident 

 collector in Australia. The Earl of Mount Norris, we have 

 elsewhere stated, has sent out a gardener to collect in New Zea- 

 land ; and Mr. Bateman, who obtained so many new Orchideae 

 through Mr. Colley, has, we believe, sent out another collector 

 in pursuit of the same objects. We are surprised that no col- 

 lectors are sent out to California, and to other parts visited by 

 Douglas ; where, as stated in our biographical notice of that 

 indefatigable botanist, it is known that there exist many plants, not 

 yet introduced, of which he sent home specimens, but could not 

 procure seeds ; or, having procured them, was unfortunate enough 



z z 4; 



