638 Progress of Gardening during 1835. 



geologist, not only in itself, but on account of the greater num- 

 ber of its productions which will stand the open air in this 

 country, or, at all events, which will stand against a conservatory 

 wall, or with very little protection. One of the most interesting 

 articles, in a gardening and botanical point of view, that ever 

 was written on this colony, will be found in the present volume, 

 p. 338., by Mr. Thomas Backhouse of York. Another com- 

 munication, by the same writer (p. 570.), gives the dimensions of 

 some of the full-grown trees, which are indeed most extraordi- 

 nary. There is a government garden at Hobart Town, under 

 the care of our correspondent Mr. Davidson ; and here, as in 

 the neighbourhood of Sydney, the citizens are beginning to 

 build villas, and to lay out pleasure-grounds around them in the 

 English manner. The latest accounts which we have had from 

 this quarter relate to the European honey bee. The native bee 

 is without a sting, and is not much larger than a common house- 

 fly : it produces abundance of honey and wax, but has not yet 

 been subjected to cultivation ; and, from its small size, and its 

 habit of building on very high trees, probably never will be so. 

 The European bee has been more than once introduced into 

 Sydney, but without success ; the swarms having always left the 

 hives for the woods. A hive was carried to Van Diemen's Land, 

 in the autumn of the year 1830, by Dr. T. B. Wilson*, at the 

 suggestion of his friend Mr. Robert Gunter of Earl's Court, 

 and brought from London in a wire case. It arrived in safety, 

 and the bees swarmed several times the first year ; and in the 

 True Colonist (a Hobart Town newspaper) of Feb. 14. 1835, 

 now before us, it is stated that a hive, descended from Dr. Wil- 

 son's, belonging to a gentleman in the neighbourhood of Hobart 

 Town, had already swarmed eighteen times I Some curious 

 details on this subject will be found in our succeeding volume. 

 The inhabitants of Hobart Town and its neighbourhood, in 

 testimony of their gratitude to Dr. Wilson for the invaluable 

 service he had rendered them, presented him with a silver snuff- 

 box; on which occasion the doctor announced his intention of 

 bringing out, in his next voyage, the salmon and trout, for which 

 the rivers in Van Diemen's Land are considered to be admirably 

 adapted. These are the deeds which should, and which will, 

 commemorate the name of a man to the latest posterity. 



* Dr. Wilson is the author of the following very interesting work, published 

 in November 1835: — Narrative of a Voyage round the World j coQipre- 

 hending an Account of the Wreck of the Ship " Governor Ready," in Torres 

 Straits ; a Description of the British Settlements on the Coasts of New Hol- 

 land, more particularly Raffles Bay, Melville Island, Swan River, and King 

 George's Sound; also the Manners and Customs of the Aboriginal Tribes: 

 with an Appendix, containing Remai-ks on Transportation, the Treatment of 

 Convicts diiring the Voyage, and Advice to Persons intending to emigrate lo 

 the Australian Colonies. London, 1835. Svo, 349 pages. 



