Domestic Notices : — England. 10 1 



shoots. Quercus rugosa Willd. (Arb. Brit., p. 1941.), a species of which 

 various worked plants have lately been imported from the Continent, and 

 are to be obtained in different nurseries, — Cond. 



Folding Swine among Oaks, — A paragraph having gone the round of the 

 newspapers on this subject, we applied to the Duke of Portland to ascertain 

 how far it was true. His Grace states in answer, that thirty swine were 

 folded under some oaks thirty years old which did not grow well, and fatted 

 under their cover. The effect of their manure, His Grace inforais us, will 

 probably not be seen for a year or two ; but the same process having been 

 applied some years before under similar circumstances, was found to have a 

 very good effect. — Scott Portland. Welbeck, Jan. 8. 1840. 



A Wreath of Flowers formed from dried Specimens was shown us some 

 months ago by Mrs. Bateman of Litchurch Villa, Derby; a lady remarkably 

 fond of flowers, and possessing much skill and taste in drying them and dis- 

 playing them on paper. Mrs. Bateman uses no extraordinary means of drying, 

 but takes care to gather the flowers when they are perfectly free from exterior 

 moisture, and to place them immediately between the leaves of a book, where 

 they soon dry, retaining their colours. The next process in forming a wreath 

 is to make a selection of leaves and forms, so as to combine in one wreath 

 as great a variety of forms and colours as possible, without any apparent 

 incongruity of either ; and in this part of the process Mrs. Bateman excels, 

 displaying a degree of taste which one only expects to find in a practised 

 artist or decorator. One of the wreaths was exhibited at a meeting of the 

 Horticultural Societj', Jan. 20,, and was much admired. — Co7id. 



The Bokhara Clover. — The penny post is a great and glorious measure ; 

 and one, the advantages of which will not and cannot be appreciated until the 

 people have become fully acquainted with the mode of working it. Tn a 

 gardening point of view, consider the immense privilege thus conferred on us 

 amateurs, as well as professionalists, by the establishment of the principle of 

 weight, which enables us to interchange small packets of seeds, and even 

 small roots and slips of plants. The Bokhara clover, for instance, you were 

 kind enough to send me last year, of which I have saved a few seeds ; and 

 which I shall be equally ready to distribute (so far as they will go) as I was 

 to receive, to any one disposed to make trial of it. I agree, in the main, with 

 all that Mr. Gorrie has said of it, and believe it to be a valuable addition to 

 our green crops for cutting and stall feeding; a conclusion, I admit, I was 

 very slow to come to, because I knew, from experience, that the melilot tribe 

 in general is by no means relished by cattle. It has every appearance of a 

 perennial, and the roots are stronger and thicker than those of lucerne. The 

 weight per acre, too, must, I should imagine, far exceed that of a crop of 

 lucerne ; but time alone can determine its real value. I have taken up and 

 transplanted my little patch of roots, some of which I have given to a neigh- 

 ■bour, who was struck with its appearance last autumn. — S. Taylor. Whit- 

 tington, Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, Jan. 10. 1840. 



Yucca gloribsa in the garden of Sir R. E. Eden, Bart., Windlestone Castle, 

 near Durham, last autumn produced a flower stem 14 ft. 6 in. high, on which 

 673 flowers expanded in the course of three weeks. ( York Herald, as quoted 

 in Morn. Chron., Jan. 9. 1840.) 



Berries of Black Hamburg Grapes, measuring 4 in. in circumference, have 

 •lately been grown by Thomas Clarke, jun., in a metallic house erected by his 

 father, the eminent hot-house builder of Birmingham. — T. C, jun. Birming- 

 ,ham, Dec. 6. 1839. 



The Knepp Castle Kidney Potato. — This is a large potato of the kidney kind, 

 very mealy, and superior in flavour to any kidney which we have before tasted. 

 The taste of the farina, and also its pure white, come near those of the West 

 India yam. The eyes of the tubers are remarkably full, in consequence of 

 which very little waste is made in paring them before boiling. The sample 

 was sent us by Sir C. M. Burrell, Bart., M.P., in whose garden at Knepp 

 iCastle, near Horsham, Sussex, they have been grown for twenty years, ^Afithout 



