Height. 



Length of branch 



21 palms - 



4i palms 



52 



5 



90 



8 



52 



2f 



50 



H 



40 



H 



24 



2 



20 



H 



55 



9 



North America. 151 



encountered in their fulfilment, has occurred from the persons I applied to. 

 In fact, I do not consider the statement below as entirely satisfactory, or, 

 perhaps, perfectly correct ; but I prefer transmitting it to you without farther 

 delay : and, as soon as I am enabled to examine the matter in person, I will 

 write to you again. The following is the list as I received it : the first column 

 of figures indicates the height ; the second, the length of the longest branch, 

 from the stem : — 



Camelh'fl! japonica 

 Magnolia grandiflora 

 Eucalyptus robusta 

 Callistemon lophanthus 

 Acacia heterophylla 

 Acacia Julibrissin 

 Melaleuca ericifolia 

 Melaleuca 7«ypericif61ia 

 Cinnamomum Cdmphora 



The measures are given in the standard of this country ; that is, in palms, 

 each of which is 10^ in. English. Instead of accurately ascertaining the entire 

 circumference occupied by the branches (which I had pointed out), the length 

 of the largest has been given ; which does not furnish, of course, an exact 

 i-esult, but only an approximate notion. They have mentioned no banksias, 

 though I had ; so I conclude they have none of any size. It is some time 

 back since I have visited the English garden at Caserta (having been esta- 

 blished here many years) ; and, at that period, the Camelh'a, and the camphor 

 laurels (of which there are several), appeared to me the most remarkable 

 exotics, as to size, I ever beheld in Europe. 



I possess two gardens : one of which, in the immediate vicinity of this 

 capital, I planted myself in the year 1819; another I purchased two years 

 back, which is much more extensive, and laid out in the English fashion. The 

 situation of this last is farther from the sea; and, from its elevation in a moun- 

 tainous district, exposed to a much cooler temperature, has some very re- 

 markable plants, and answers much better for all the New Holland shrubs 

 and varieties of pines than the other : though the pelargoniums, orange trees, 

 myrtles, &c., require more shelter than they do in Naples ; as there are fre- 

 quent frosts during the whole winter, and the snow sometimes lies for a few 

 days on the ground, though to no considerable depth. 



To return to the object of your researches. You will, probably, be pleased 

 to learn that one of the GraeiFers is still head gardener. As soon as I learned 

 this, I sent him information that it was for you that I had required the size 

 and particulars of the plants ; so that, should you be inclined to write to him, 

 I have no doubt he will readily give you all the desired instructions in a more 

 direct manner. At present, no one can enter the garden without an express 

 permission from the king ; which (as I could not go myself) was one of the 

 obstacles I met with. I believe that the Camelh'« japonica has been placed 

 there more recently than the other trees mentioned in the list : I should think, 

 in the time of the French. 



The quickest-growing plants in this soil and climate are, undoubtedly, the 

 Eucalyptus family, and the Jcacia lophantha. The former reaches, in very few 

 years, to 80 ft. and 90 ft. ; when it generally is destroyed by a high wind, which 

 breaks it off, at the lower part of the trunk, a foot or two from the ground. — 

 R. K. C. 



NORTH AMERICA. 



Boston, Dec. S. 18.34, — We have just received the first ten Numbers of 

 your new edition of the EncyclopcBdia of Gardening, and have glanced through 

 them. "We very hastily read that part of your work which relates to the his- 

 tory of gardening in North America. We observe a mistake in regard to the 

 extent of " Boston Common : " you say it is 70 acres in extent. It is but 



M 4 



