150 Foreign Notices ; —Belgium, Italy,, 



from, those of some varieties of Quercus /'lex. Only the male 

 plant has yet been introduced; and its flowers are in catkins 

 9 in. long, numerous, gracefully pendant, and altogether very 

 ornamental. The plant is very hardy, grows rapidly, flowers 

 freely, and is easily propagated. In value as an evergreen and 

 winter-flowering shrub, it may rank with the arbutus and the 

 laurustinus ; no small compliment. Botanically, also, it is very 

 interesting, as it forms a link between the orders Cupuliferae 

 and Coniferse, Rihes glutinosum, H. wzalvaceum, R. speciosum, 

 and the dark variety of R. sanguineum, Escal Ionia rubra and 

 E. montevidensis (already recommended, p. 30.), (Spirae^a arise- 

 folia, i?ubus nutkanus, Benthamz'a fragifera, Duvaua latifolia, 

 and Pyrus sinensis (now in flower), are also, though some of 

 them have been long in the gardens, deserving of every com- 

 mendation. 



Collectors of the genus Plnus will not forget that almost all 

 the species may be propagated by cuttings of the young wood in 

 pure sand, treated like those of Erico.. There is a species of 

 Deoddra at Hopetoun House, exceedingly rare, if not quite 

 unique, which we should like much to see so propagated. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Foreign Notices. 

 BELGIUM. 



Planting in the District of Liege. — The ground to be planted was at least 

 1200 ft. above the level of the sea, and was perfectly heath-clad. With a 

 kind of mattock, or rather a clumsy adze, having an open cleft in the middle, 

 and each side well sharpened, a labourer was cutting up slices of the sod of a 

 foot and a half long, and ten inches broad. He worked the adze as a carpenter 

 would. These slices he dexterously rolled up with his instrument in a conical 

 shape, and placed them upright, the heath and grass side being innermost. I 

 thought, on looking over his work, that the operation was tedious ; but, on 

 returning next day, I found that he had got over more work than I expected 

 he could have done. I pioposed to him the paring spade of the Irish and 

 Scotch Highlander, but he said that such an instrument would not cut off a 

 slice sufficiently long, which was essentially necessary, that the heath might 

 rot effectually during the winter. The ground to be planted was thus left 

 bare of all vegetation. In the spring the young oaks are thickly planted by 

 pitting ; and when the rolls of heath sod are sufficiently rotten, they are beaten 

 down in autumn, to nourish the plants. I consider this the perfection of heath 

 planting; and the cost of paring off the sod, rolling it up, and setting it up, 

 cannot exceed 20^. an acre. For larch plantations I think it unnecessary, 

 but it is the most likely way to succeed with oaks. After visiting the oak 

 woods of the districts of Liege, of the forests of the Ardennes, of Nassau, 

 and of Juliers and Berg, I am satisfied that the oak tree can adapt itself to 

 more varieties of soil, and site, and climate, than any other tree I could name. 

 (^A Spectator in the Netherlands, in Derbyshire Courier. Sent by J. B., Jan. 

 1833.) 



ITALY. 



Naples, .Tan. 9. — Severe indisposition has prevented my going in person 

 to Caserta to forward your wishes ; and some difficulty, or rather delay, 



