General Notices, 



Foreign Notices. 



611 



confess that we have learned more from it, than we have done 

 from all the other books on the vine that we have read put to- 

 gether. We recommend every practical gardener to get the 

 book immediately, lest his master or mistress, or some of his ap- 

 prentices or journeymen, get it before him. If they do, there 

 are not many vine growers who might not have some rather hard 

 questions put to them on Mr. Hoare's authority. — Cond. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Scientific Fecundation. — Bradley, speaking of this subject, says that, on the 

 first opening of his tuhps, he took out all the anthers of the stamens before 

 the farina was ready to be scattered ; and thus, to use his own expression, 

 castrated the tulips, preparatory to impregnating the stigmas with the farina of 

 other tulips. In like manner, he says, the blossoms of any other plant may 

 be castrated, and cross-fecundated. (iVew Improvement of Planting and Gar- 

 dening, Philosophical and Practical, p. 14, 15.) It is generally considered that 

 this practice of cross-fecundation is quite new, and was first employed by Mr. 

 Knight ; but a careful perusal of the works of Bradley and Agricola will show 

 that scarcely anything new has been produced, during the present century', that 

 was not known and practised in the preceding one, perhaps earlier. — Cond. 



A simple Instrument for indicating the Changes of the Weather. — I send you 

 an account of a barometer, which, as far as I have yet been able to judge, 

 appears very correctly to indicate the changes of the weather. It consists of 

 a long-necked bottle reversed in a jar of, water ; the bottom 100 



of which being covered with quicksilver, the water will rise 

 or fall in the neck of the bottle according to the changes of 

 the weather. The annexed sketch {Jig- 100.) will, perhaps, 

 enable you better to understand the above description : — 

 a, empty bottle; b, jar filled with water to d; c, index 

 marked upon the neck of the bottle, in which the water rises 

 and falls; e, quicksilver sufficient to cover the bottom of the 

 jar. Barometers upon this construction are made by Mr. Nay- 

 lor. Glass Manufacturer, Vere Street, Oxford Street. I need 

 hardly state that they act by the pressure of the atmosphere 

 upon the surface of the water, which, as the pressure varies, 

 causes the water to vary in its height in the tube; but, as the 

 volume of air in the inverted vessel will also be acted on by 

 the temperature of the atmosphere, barometers of this kind 

 cannot be so accurate as the common mercurial barometers. — W.L.G. 

 London, September 23. 1835. 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 



FRANCE. 



Jardin de Fromont. — We understand, from a gentleman who has lately 

 visited this establishment, that it is at present in a very flourishing condition ; 

 and that, considered as a manufactory of plants of the more rare and valuable 



3c 3 



