- Domestic Notices : • — England, 43 



and on the sides still in the rough. The only perfect parts appeared to be the 

 lawn and garden ; indeed, the garden was in a very forward state eleven years 

 ago. It occurred to me, that it was the introduction of the stonework that 

 made this place so striking; aided, perhaps, by the great descent from the 

 house to the water. 



You are anxious to be informed of the difference between a villa in the 

 neighbourhood of Sydney and one at Camberwell or Peckham ; particularly as 

 to the laying out of tlie gardens, and the kinds of shrubs and flowers. There 

 is not, to the best of my recollection, any great difference. The laying out is 

 similar ; the difference in the flowers, &c., consists in the presence of large 

 luxuriant masses of geraniums [pelargoniums] and roses ; and the shrubs are 

 mostly such as have been allowed to remain in the ground since it was in a 

 wild state, mostly casuarinas and banksias. Occasionally the young gums 

 (Eucalypti) are left, and make a pleasant variety in the tree way. There is 

 not much of the cottage style introduced for our villas ; they are mostly 

 square houses of two stories. This, I believe, is the most economical form of 

 construction, and consequently adopted by our great folks. 



The droughts to which we are so continually subject render abortive all 

 attempts at maintaining a garden in the English style ; and point out to me, 

 that stonework, and terraces, and large shady trees, the characteristics of 

 Hindostanee gardens, are more suited to our climate than English lawns and 

 flower-beds. You seem to be labouring under an impression that we are 

 much warmer here than is the fact. Doubtless, when the colony commenced, 

 and before there were any clearings to admit the winds, it was very hot : but 

 the climate has now changed; considerable refrigeration has resulted from the 

 clearings, and now we have fires for six months in the year. I have a fire- 

 place for coals in every room of the house I now reside in in Sydney. The 

 increased refrigeration does not appear to have any effect upon the droughts, 

 which are occasioned by our position, and by the absence of any high moun- 

 tains. Further to the*north, where you would expect more heat and less 

 moisture, they have more rain, and intense frosts on the high lands. In my 

 opinion, neither the Port Philip country nor Australia Fehx will by and by 

 be thought half so much of as our northern districts. There is more rain, 

 more elevation, more variety, in a geological point of view, not only in compo- 

 sition but in construction, and all the productions of the tropics may be grown 

 in the neighbourhood of wheat and barley ; whilst the elevation of the interior 

 affords ample grazing tracts for sheep, which are not so subject to disease as 

 they are in the south, in consequence of the excessive droughts and cold, and 

 occasionally excessive rains. To the north, a river has been latterly explored 

 at Shoal Bay. This proves to be the largest river, or, rather, salt-water inlet, 

 in the whole colony ; being a mile wide for eighty miles up, and deep water, 

 with a magnificent country. We expect that all the wool from Liverpool 

 Plains and that country will now be shipped from this river. — John Thompson, 



Art. III. Domestic Notices. 

 ENGLAND. 



A Subscription Botanic Garden at Bath may now be considered as fairly 

 established ; our correspondent Mr. W. H. Baxter, the son of Mr. Baxter of 

 the Oxford Botanic Garden, author of that excellent work British Flowering 

 Plants, being appointed curator. — Cond. 



Bury St. Edmunds Botanical Library. — A library being indippensable to a 

 botanic garden professing to cultivate the more rare and beautiful plants of 

 recent introduction, and the present mode of publishing periodicals being too 

 expensive and voluminous for individuals, it is proposed to devote a room in 

 the garden {accessible to subscribers only, at 3*. per annum, payable to the 

 curator) for the reception of works already in possession of the superintend- 

 ant; and to enable him, should a sufficient number of subscribers be obtained, 

 to furnish additional means of practical information, by introducing all the 

 standard publications, — H. T. Nov. 4. 1839. 



