Foreign Notices : — North America. 483 



plants; 7400 olive plants, 1161 varieties of fruit trees, a plantation of sugar 

 canes, and plants of the indigo, cotton, and New Zealand flax, as well as a 

 great number of trees and shrubs of South America and India. (Printing 

 Machine, iii. 327.) 



NORTH AMEBICA. 



Columbus, Ohio, March 1. 1833. — The gentlemen in New York to whom 

 you gave me letters had, when I arrived there, all gone into the interior, on 

 account of the yellow fever, except Mr. Michael Floy, who kindly pro- 

 cured me a situation as gardener to Arthur Tappan, Esq., a wealthy citizen of 

 New York, who has a country residence at New Haven in Connecticut. I 

 was immediately sent thither, and remained there till November last, when I 

 started for this city ; having previously made arrangements with the gentleman 

 with whom I am now connected, to assist him in the management of a nursery 

 that he had recently started, and which, I think, bids fair to pay us well for our 

 time and trouble ; first, because we have nothing of the kind to oppose us within 

 several hundred miles; and, secondly, because we are situated in a state the 

 most fertile, perhaps, of any in the Union, and which is frequently styled " the 

 Queen of the West." The soil, as far as I have seen, is, for the most part, a 

 rich loam, with here and there patches of a black alluvial description; and the 

 whole is, upon an average, at least 2 ft. deep. . . . Though no great botanist or 

 zoologist, I think I could collect some specimens both of plants and animals, 

 more especially of birds, that would be interesting to naturalists in Europe, 

 and of some benefit to myself, as well as to my native country. . . . Gardening 

 is a good business in naost cities, and good gardeners are very much in re- 

 quest : I do not mean such as make " forcing " their hobby ; for at present but 

 little of that is wanted in this country. The kind of gardener required is one 

 who understands the management of a kitchen-garden, orchard, or fruit-garden, 

 flower-garden, and green-house ; but in the course of a few years there will be 

 openings for the complete practical gardener. ... I have sent you an account of 

 the state of the weather for the last two months [it will be found in the Mag, 

 Nat. Hist, for June], by which you will see the extreme severity of our last 

 winter; Fahrenheit's thermometer having been several times below zero. 

 Our address is Lazell and Hartwell, Columbus, Franklin Countj^, Ohio, 

 United States. — George E, Hartwell. 



Our correspondent asks for seeds of ivy, holly, laurel, butcher's broom, 

 privet, furze, broom, and laurustinus. 



Philadelphia, May 18. 1833. — I send you, by this opportunity, some very 

 large hickory nuts from the county of Alleghany. I purchased them in the 

 Pittsburgh market, last September, while on a geographical tour ; and some 

 soft-shelled hickory nuts. The former will serve to add to your economical 

 cabinet : the latter are sent to taste. Before they become rancid by age, they 

 are truly delicious. The bark of the tree, in the course of the year, separates 

 in large layers; and, as these do not always fall off, they give the body of the 

 tree a rough look, and hence it is sometimes called " shag-bark hickory." In 

 New York, the tree is called nut-wood, or kiskitawmus : whence the latter 

 name is derived, I cannot sa}-. [The shag-bark hickory is given in Sweet's 

 Hortus Britannicus, ed, 1830, as the Carya alba Nuttall, Juglans compressa 

 Willdenow ^\ 



I wish you had enquired of the Duke of Wellington's gardener in what 

 manner the Washington sweet chestnuts were sent to him. What could I do 

 more than I did, sending them immersed in tallow, after picking them from 

 under the tree, and taking some from the tree ? If I live another year, I will 

 have a young chestnut tree engrafted with the Washington tree, and send it to 

 you in the autumn, unless you tell me that the risk {via Liverpool) will be too 

 great to render the experiment advisable. I shall think nothing of the 

 trouble. [Sound nuts, immersed in tallow, will do quite well : those sent by 

 our correspondent, on two different occasions, bore evidence of having been 

 attacked by insects before they were put into the tallow.] 



