636 Viem of the Progress of Gardening, 



In South America gardening seems to be comparatively sta- 

 tionary, but not so the botanists who are travelHng or re- 

 siding in that country. The latter have sent home many fine 

 plants, several of which are sufficiently hardy to stand the open 

 air with us. It is deeply to be regretted that some exertions are 

 not made to procure the cones of the different species of pine 

 which Dr. Coulter and others have discovered in South America 

 and Mexico, in situations which leave little doubt of their being 

 sufficiently hardy to grow in the open air in this country. There 

 is a public garden at Rio Janeiro, in which the tea shrub, and 

 some other Chinese and Indian plants, have been tried ; and some 

 years ago the botanic garden established at Buenos Ayres was 

 still in existence : but we have heard nothing of either of these 

 gardens lately; or of that of Caraccas, so frequently referred to 

 by our indefatigable correspondent Dr. Hamilton. The warmer 

 parts of South America are rich in Orchideae ; and various new 

 species of these plants have lately been collected and sent to 

 England, during two journeys made in the country, by Mr. 

 Henchman, botanical collector for Mr. Low of the Clapton Nur- 

 sery. Mr. Henchman's communications respecting South Ame- 

 rica will be found in various parts of the present volume, and 

 also in that for the next year ; and the papers of our corre- 

 spondent Mr. Mathews, on the same subject, are partly in this 

 Magazine, and partly in the Magazine of Natural History. Our 

 last letter from Mr. Mathews, which will appear in the Maga- 

 zine of Natural History for January, 1836, left him at Lamas, in 

 the interior of Peru, a country the hills and mountains of which 

 are covered with forests which have never been penetrated by 

 Europeans. Mr. Mathews, at the time he wrote, had not 

 advanced farther than a few yards from the margin of the river 

 up which he ascended with a canoe to the town of Lamas ; but, 

 even in that limited range, he had discovered several new animals 

 and plants. Dr. Lindley, in the Botanical Register for the pre- 

 sent year, speaking of the collections of dried plants sent home 

 by Mr. Mathews, says that he found mong them a larger 

 number of very beautiful species than he ever had the good for- 

 tune to meet with in any other collection that he had examined 

 of similar extent. (See p. 523.) We could wish that Mr. 

 Mathews, who is an independent collector, v.ere so supported by 

 the nurserymen, or by the wealthy gardening amateurs, of this 

 country, as to enable him to send home living plants and seeds. 



Australia. — This immense country, embracing as it does a 

 great variety of climate, is capable of growing the vegetables and 

 fruits of every other country, more especially those of Southern 

 Europe. In the colony founded on the north coast, at Melville 

 Island, in 1824', in lat. 11°, the pine-apple, the mango, the 

 cocoa nut, the melon, the lemon, and all the fruits of the East 



