432 Domestic Notices : — Scotland. 



on. We hope we shall soon hear of nurserymen, and other members of the 

 gardening profession, giving lectures on the sciences more immediately con- 

 nected with the art of culture ; and farmers' sons, we have no doubt, will soon 

 become ambitious of cooperating in pursuits so much more elevating than 

 many which formerly used to be indulged in as relaxations. The library of 

 the Watt Institution contains a great number of volumes, to which we have 

 added Vol. I. of the Architectural Magazine. 



Acacia affhiis {dealhdta Lk.). — This is the nursery-garden name for a very 

 ornamental mimosa from Van Diemen's Land, which is now found to be 

 capable of withstanding our ordinary winters in Scotland. It seems to be a 

 variety of Jcacia moUissima of Willdenow, which Link regarded as z. species, 

 and called dealbata, but which De Candolle, in his Prodromus, marks as 

 "Priori (mollissimae) nimis ff^ras." Hence, probably, has arisen the above 

 name. For its foliage alone, this mimosa is highly desirable ; its finely divided 

 and beautifully bipinnate leaves giving it an air of light and graceful elegance. 

 Its numerous bunches of yellow flowers, resembling little balls, add greatly to its 

 value ; for these flowers are fragrant, and they expand at a season (February 

 and March) when flowers are most wanted. Some seeds of this tree were 

 received by Mr. Neill, from his relations in Van Diemen's Land, in 1823, and 

 raised in his garden at Canonmills. The plants having, in the course of two 

 or three years, become too rampant for the green-house, one was placed 

 against the south wall of his dwelling-house j and another was planted on a 

 rockwork as a standard shrub. In 1832, the tree trained against the house 

 was about 14 ft. high, and it produced a few blossoms in the spring of that 

 year. In each succeeding season it has been clothed with flowers from the 

 middle of February till the middle of April; and it is now about 20 ft. high. 

 The individual planted on the rockwork has remained rather stunted ; but it 

 has never suffered materially from the frost, though repeatedly exposed to a 

 cold of 25° Fahr. In March last (1835), this standard showed a sprinkling 

 of flowers for the first time. A much finer standard specimen exists in the 

 rich and noble lawn in front of the splendid suite of hot-houses in the Royal 

 Botanic Garden of Edinburgh, This specimen is luxuriant, perhaps 15 ft. or 

 16 ft. high ; and it is now (April) adorned with its flowers for the first time. 

 This species of acacia has been cultivated against the north wall of the same 

 admirable garden, along with many other rare Australian and tropical Ameri- 

 can trees, and has there flowered for two or three seasons past. In the Ex- 

 perimental Garden, Inverleith, there is, near to the superintendant's lodge, a 

 very pretty standard acacia of the same species, about 12 ft. or 14 ft. high, 

 but which has not yet yielded flowers. In Mi-. Urquhart's nursery-garden at 

 Dundee, there was, some years ago, a large plant of the same kind j it was 

 situate near to, but not trained against, a wall, and had not then produced 

 flowers. Upon the whole, we may safely conclude that the very handsome 

 and elegant Jcacia dealbata may be added to the list of our hardy ornamental 

 shrubs or smaller trees. A remarkable peculiarity remains to be noticed : 

 while the delicate foliage is not materially injured by the cold of our winter, 

 the bark of the stem is liable to split, or become cracked, in the time of hard 

 frost, especially for a few feet above the ground ; and then disease and death 

 are extremely apt to ensue. The preventive is simple, consisting merely in 

 tying some straw around the stem in the end of November, and removing it 

 when the severity of winter has passed. — P. Neill. Canonmills^ May 9. 1835. 



Fsidiutn Cattleyhnum. — In the vinery a', the Experimental Garden, a small 

 tree of the Psidium Catiieydnum, or Cb'.ia Guava, has ripened its fruit freely 

 for two years past. The fruit is round, about the size of a small plum, of a 

 fine claret colour ; the pulp is soft, only a little firmer than that of a straw- 

 berry, and of a delightful subacid flavour. Mr. John Robison, secretary of 

 the Royal Society of Edinburgh, who had tasted the fruit in India, declared 

 the Experimental Garden specimens to be nowise inferior in quality. These 

 home-grown guavas were found to make most desirable preserves. — P. iV". 

 Edinburgh, June, 1835. 



