Foreign Notices : — Italy. 193 



that we have our white truffles (Tuber griseum Pers.), which are more fragrant, 

 have more flavour, and are therefore more in request at the tables of our 

 gastronomes, than the common truffles ; yet there were several gentlemen here 

 who expended considerable sums in procuring the soil from those places, where 

 they are gathered in abundance every year ; but this also failed. 



Wistaria sinensis. Here, in Monza, in the garden of my friend Sig. Gaspar 

 Porta, a scientific amateur of botany, I saw last year, for the first time, pods 

 (baccelli) of the Wistaria chine"nsis. They ripened perfectly towards the 

 middle of last November. I am told that at Milan also, in the garden of Count 

 Lorenzo Taverna, and in the garden at Desio, in 1837, they bore pods ; but 

 the seeds had not been fecundated. I have reason to believe, therefore, that 

 this plant at Monza is the first that has produced perfect seed in Italy ; as I 

 have been informed that at Florence they have hitherto only produced flowers. 

 The plant which produced them here grows in an isolated situation, but shel- 

 tered from the north winds, in a loam ; and was planted in spring, 1831, when 

 it was not more than 0"30 metres high. Every year it makes shoots (cacciate) 

 of 4*25 metres ; its trunk is 0*30 metres in circumference. In this garden, in a 

 flourishing state of health, there are, besides a Magnoh'a glauca, 3 - 60 metres 

 high, a Magnoh'a conspicua of the same height, several Magnolia grandiflorae, 

 Quercus aquatica, Piiotinia serrulata, Lagerstrce v mzo: indica, Cedrus Libani, 

 CunninghamJa lanceolata, &c. 



My brother, agent for the estates of His Royal and Imperial Highness our 

 Viceroy at Pojana, in the Venetian provinces, writes to me that last year he 

 cultivated, during summer, the batata (Ipomce v a Batatas) in the open air, and 

 that the plants produced tubers as large as the head of a child two months 

 old ; that they flowered abundantly, and that he hopes next year that they 

 will produce, and even ripen, seed. The yam (iguame, Dioscorea sativa) had 

 also flower-buds, which were just going to open, when the hoar frosts set in, 

 which were earlier than usual that year, the plants were therefore prevented 

 flowering. This is certainly the first time that the batata, grown in the open 

 air, has produced flowers in the Lombardo- Venetian territories. The great 

 difficulty in cultivating this bindweed (vilucchio) is the preservation of the 

 tubers in winter. But my brother informs me that he preserves them ex- 

 tremely well, by laying them in strata in a box or basket, among husks of corn 

 well dried, and the basket or box hung to the ceiling (soffitto) of the kitchen, 

 not on the top of the stove (cappa del cammino). 



I see, by the Gardener's Magazine, that you frequently receive seeds of 

 Nelumbium from India, from the celebrated Dr. Wallich. You would greatly 

 oblige me, if you get any more, if you would have the goodness to send me 

 some. I have a great love for those sorts of plants. I have only Nelumbium 

 luteum. 



My august master, the viceroy, to whom I showed the figures in your 

 Arboretum et Fruticetum of the cones of the Picea nobilis and P. bracteata, 

 was delighted with them, and desired me to beg of you to tell me where in 

 England they are to be had. Do me the favour to let me know what they 

 cost also. [Any nurseryman who may have plants or seeds of these species 

 will oblige us by writing direct to Signor Manetti, at Monza, near Milan.] 



The winter this year has been tolerably mild ; from the middle of December 

 to the end of January, we have had fair weather. The sun shone brightly, a 

 rare thing in the Milanese, in which fogs are prevalent ; and the temperature 

 never fell lower than 5° under zero of Reaumur, and that only one or two 

 nights. But at the end of January, after a slight snow, which was not thicker 

 on the ground than a decimetre [3'93 in.], the air became so cold that the tem- 

 perature on the night of the 2d and 3d of February fell to 10| o below zero ; 

 and at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the 3d to 5° below zero. After that day, 

 however, the air became warmer, so that in the night of the 6th current the 

 thermometer marked its lowest depression a above zero ; and on the 7th 5° 

 above zero. We have now in flower Veronica agrestis, iamium purpureum, 

 .dlsine media, Capsella bursa pastoris [7'hlaspi b. p. L.] Fiola odorata, &c. 

 Erophila vulgaris [Draba verna L.] was in full flower at Natale. — G. Manetti. 



