528 Foreign Notices : — North America. 



of carriages. Hence, wherever wooden pavement is adopted in gardening, 

 the gardener cannot be too rigid with the carpenter, in requiring from him the 

 utmost exactness in the length and in the form of the blocks ; and with the 

 bricklayer or mason, in requiring the bottom, on which the blocks are to be 

 set, to be made perfectly smooth and firm ; not with mere sand or soil, but 

 with brickwork or masonry ; or, what is best of all, with a bed of concrete, 

 12 in. or 18 in. in thickness. Wooden paving is the best of all flooring for 

 summer-houses and covered garden seats, on account of its being so much 

 warmer for the feet than stone, brick, or any description of earthy material. 

 — Cond. 



Art. II. Foreign Notices. 



NORTH AMERICA. 



New YORK, May, 1839. — I send you a catalogue of my dahlias, by which 

 you will see that we are as enthusiastic admirers of that flower in Ame- 

 rica, as you are in Europe. I dispose of about 4000 plants annually, many 

 of which cost me from five to seven guineas each. Can you tell me anything 

 respecting Dr. Wallich ? I sent two years since, to Calcutta, two cases 

 of American garden seeds, ordered by him and paid for in advance, for the 

 purpose of trying how the vegetable seed of America would answer in 

 Hindostan. The collection included every variety of cabbage, turnip, pea, 

 bean, kidneybean, beet, onion, &c, of American growth, put in above 200 

 papers, so that they might be distributed far and wide. The result might 

 have been interesting ; as I have an idea, that no seeds of vegetables raised 

 in Europe, can be as likely to answer well in India as ours; the climate here 

 being, in summer, of an East Indian temperature. I still hope that the doctor 

 will favour the public with the result of the experiment. — George Thorburn. 



New Haven, Connecticut, United States, Yale College, June 17. 1839. — 

 In perusing your Encyclopedia of Gardening, I have noticed a few things 

 in it relative to American gardening which, in another edition, would be 

 better altered; more particularly in your account of the New Haven 

 Burying Ground, drawn from Stewart's over-coloured narrative, which 

 would convey far too exalted a notion of the good taste and high keep- 

 in<r of the grounds ; while, if I remember, no mention is made of Mount Au- 

 burn, near Boston, which may, in truth, be called the Pere la Chaise of 

 the world, except the quotation from the North American Review, 1831. 

 The nine years since that time have entirely altered its character, as 

 far as the hand of man can improve the unalterable features of nature. 

 By the judicious selection of elegant and appropriate designs, suited to 

 the sad character of their destination, and executed in the imperishable 

 and unequalled granite of Quincy, an air of antiquity and venerableness 

 has already been gained, far greater than the short period of its existence 

 would at first seem to admit ; while the skilful hand of an attentive gardener 

 keeps all the walks in high order, and makes beauty spring and flowers bloom 

 among the abodes of mortal decay. 



1 doubt if the high state of horticulture, in some departments of fruit- 

 forcing, is as well understood in England as it exists in and about Boston 

 and Philadelphia. Col. P. H. Perkins, a gentleman of fortune in Boston, 

 has grape and peach houses full 1500 feet in length, heated by fire flues 

 chiefly (the hot-water apparatus of Perkins not having worked well), and 

 there are at this moment not less than five tons of grapes hanging from his 

 rafters, in every stage of advancement; and with it is connected all necessary 

 glass for forwarding cucumbers and melons at all seasons. One of his grape- 

 houses is contrived differently from any which is described in the Encyclo- 

 paedia, being calculated to produce two crops from different vines, at different 

 seasons of the year ; one being now ready for the table, and the other to follow 



