Domestic Notices .- — England. 145 



The Horticultural Society here is progressing rapidly. An efficiency has 

 been given to it, which it never before possessed, since the election of Horace 

 Binney, Esq., to the presidency, a gentleman of fine cultivated talent and high 

 forensic attainments, which have placed him at the head of his profession, so 

 that few or none are superior to him in the country. Since the report of 

 last year's exhibition, we have had an accession of two amateurs and two 

 practical men, in erecting stoves and green-houses in this city. Dr. Wood, 

 professor of materia medica in the Pennsylvania University, is making a col- 

 lection of tropical medical plants, as well as native, which will be of great 

 advantage to the student. His houses are fast filling up ; besides, he has 

 some fine camellias, lemons, orange trees, &c. The other amateur, General 

 Robert Patterson, has a noble range of green-houses filled with many fine 

 exotics, especially the orange and lemon trees, he having purchased many of 

 the trees of the late Henry Pratt, Esq., of Lemon Hill, who had the best col- 

 lection in this country, or, perhaps, in any other. The practical men are Messrs. 

 M'Kenzie and Buchanan, who have put up some fine houses. They are very 

 industrious, and deserve the confidence of the public, from their strict in- 

 tegrity and attention to business. Their collection of exotics is fine, and in- 

 creasing fast. 



On visiting John B. Smith, Esq., I had a fine treat in seeing so many 

 tropical plants in flower ; they have all been raised from seed since 1836, he 

 having sold off all his former collection ; viz. the Cliisia alba, Moringa ptery- 

 gosperma, Brugmansz'a prolifera vel Weymam'a, Camerark latifolia, Law- 

 sonia ineVmis, Brexia integrifolia and B. serratifolia, Jsclepias gigantea, Hura 

 crepitans, Cerbera Thevefaa, Jacquim'a rascifolia, and some plants of Carica 

 Papaya in fruit, which are about 8 ft. high, with stems from 6 in. to 8 in. in cir- 

 cumference. They have been in fine fruit all summer. I saw, besides, ten 

 different kinds of Dracae v na, five Zamias, and one of them unnamed, a very 

 large plant of the Latdnia borbonica, and a Corypha umbraculifera, ElaeMs 

 guineensis, Thrinax parviflora, Cocos aculeata, Areca montana, Caryota urens, 

 Anacardium occidentale, and a great many plants of Adansonz'a digitata. In 

 one of your late Numbers, you mention the Brugmansia Weymam'a as some- 

 thing new. It may be so to you, but it has been here in flower since 1830, and 

 Mr. Smith called it B. prolifera, and claims his name as having the priority : 

 he got the seed from St. Domingo, as a new Datura. It has flowered freely 

 with him ever since he raised it, and is now common here. Mr. Smith has 

 also a new Datura in flower, from seed received from South America ; it has 

 a large white flower, which is axillary. Mr. Smith has many other new plants 

 from seed, which have not yet flowered. His collection, indeed, is much the 

 best, as that of an amateur, in this country. He has been very successful in 

 raising tropical plants from seed ; and he has also raised some very superior 

 seedling camellias. 



Epigce y a repens. I see it mentioned, in one of your last year's Numbers, 

 that Mr. Thompson of the MileEnd Nursery had raised a variety of the Epigae^a 

 repens with pink flowers. Are you aware that that is the colour in general 

 in the natural state, a white variety being very uncommon ? — X. Y. 



We shall be particularly obliged to this correspondent, if he will let us hear 

 from him frequently. Mr. R. had not called with the root, at the time (Feb. 12.) 

 this letter was sent to the printer. — Cond. 



Art. III. Domestic Notices. 

 ENGLAND. 



The new Range of Glass now erecting in the Horticultural Society's Garden. 



— [The following is an extract from the Botanical Register for February.] 



All who are interested in the cultivation of exotic plants will be glad to learn 



Vol. XV. — No. 108. l 



