298 Foreign Notices : — Iceland, India. 



Martin, the other the wife of M. RiJderbjelre." (Ilamburgher Neue Zeilun", 

 April 5. 1839.; 



ICELAND. 



Horticulture about the End of the Eighteenth Century. — The potato had been 

 cultivated upwards of fifty years, and a " medal of merit " had been bestowed 

 on M. Haldorsen, who introduced it, by the king of Denmark. The culinary 

 vegetables which succeed the best between latitudes 65° and 66° are the 

 following : — Curled German greens, white field cabbage, red field cabbage, 

 turnip-rooted cabbage, savojs, broccoli, and cauliflowers, which, however, 

 seldom get sufficiently advanced before winter to show flower. Turnips, 

 radishes, and horseradish, which grows vigorously. Black mustard, which grows 

 to the height of 10 ft., and is used for covering summer-houses. The onion 

 and the garlick, and also lettuce, parsley, &c, succeed to a certain extent. 

 It is rare, however, that any description of corn ripens ; and the poorer part 

 of the inhabitants content themselves with collecting, from the sandy wastes, 

 the under-ground shoots of Jrundo arenaria L., which they dry, and grind into 

 a sort of meal ; though it requires forty horse-loads of the plant to produce 

 4| cubic feet of meal. — Journey of MM. Olafsen and Povelsen in Iceland, as 

 quoted in Annates d'Hort. de Paris, vol. xix. p. 91. 



INDIA. 



The Botanical Gardens of Calcutta. — I could wish to furnish your readers, 

 through the medium of your instructive journal, with a brief description of 

 these delightful gardens. They are kept in excellent order. The walks are 

 long and well arranged for promenading in, being shaded on both sides by 

 aspiring and spreading groups of palms, cedars, banyans, bignonias, mangoes, 

 and other Oriental timber. The flowers, profusely disposed in all directions, 

 seem to vie with each other in beauty and variety, whilst the groves of orange, 

 citron, and lemon trees, when in full blossom, impart an odour of fragrant 

 richness to the surrounding atmosphere. The varied family of the spice 

 shrubs, comprehending the cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and " cajeputah," com- 

 bine to aromatise the air, and numerous " ZVochili" (hummingbirds), some of 

 them as minute as butterflies, arrayed in iridescent plumage, are to be seen 

 hovering over the sunny smiles of the opening flowers ; the dark groves, all 

 the while, breathing forth sweet and welcome music from the feathered songs- 

 ters, which, concealed in their shady retreats, " while away the livelong day," 

 in vocal revelry. Here and there, buried amid the luxuriant foliage of 

 aloes and cactuses, is to be detected a grotesque cool-looking villa, the 

 residence of some one of the curators or superintendents of these extensive 

 and interesting grounds, which gentlemen are at all times agreeably disposed 

 to accompany visitors around the premises, and to point out to them the 

 more rare and choice productions, which help to constitute this botanical con- 

 servatory. At the extremities of the walks are erected elegant temples, in 

 some of which are carefully situated the busts of those who, in their day, have 

 contributed their means, time, and attention towards improving this hor- 

 ticultural establishment. This Elysium (for such a classic appellation is by 

 no means unappropriate to it) is intersected by four streams, over which are 

 thrown several elegantly constructed bridges on a modern principle. On the 

 banks, bowers and grottoes have been tastefully disposed, mantled with 

 creepers, which, encircling the giant boughs of the lofty trees that impend over 

 them, are encumbered with fairy flowers of every hue, whilst here and there 

 the visitor, amid a wilderness of cinnamon trees, steals a glimpse of the river 

 Hoogly, with its little skiffs flitting with their butterfly sails up and down the 

 stream, his ears catching at intervals the distant song of the merry boatmen, as 

 their paddles sport uniformly upon the spangled wave. These gardens have 

 for some years past been under the immediate superintendence of Doctor 

 Wallich, who has spent much of his time in bringing his charge to the state of 

 perfection at which these grounds have at length arrived. In his arduous 



