224 Foreign Notices : — Itali^. 



The Leaves of Orange Trees, or other evergreens, will strike root and pro- 

 duce perfect plants, if they are well watered and kept in the shade, as mj self 

 and Mr. Thomas Fairchild of Hogsden, with some others, have experienced. 

 {Bradley's Works of Nature, 1721, p. 41.) 



(yitriis nohilis. — The clove, or mandarin, orange I find well worth culture 

 for its fruit for the dessert. One tree here has produced nearly three dozen 

 fine fruit ; and I have no doubt that a well-established tree would produce 

 five or six dozen annually. To insure success, the scion should be in a torpid 

 state ; that is, the tree from which it is taken should have finished its spring 

 growth, or not have begun it ; and the stock should be in a growing state. — 

 W. Brown. Merevale Hall Gardens, Warwickshire, Jan. 1840. 



Preserving Dahlia Roots. — There is always a difficulty among dahlia-growers 

 in preserving the roots through the winter ; not so much on account of frost, 

 as moisture. Mine of last autumn were carefully taken up, and, as I imagine, 

 thoroughly dried, and laid on shelves in a room from which all cold and 

 moisture were excluded by one of Arnott's smaller-sized stoves. They were 

 bedded in malt cooms or chives [the withered roots and germs which drop off 

 when turning the malt], which I was induced to make trial of in the absence of 

 sufficiency of sawdust at the time of storing. On examining them a few days 

 ago, the chives were found moist, mouldy, and heated, to the manifest injury, and 

 indeed partial destruction, of the roots. Of course, they were immediately un- 

 packed ; all the malt chives removed ; such roots as had been destroyed were 

 thrown aside, and the remainder returned to the shelves on which they were be- 

 fore laid, but without any covering. So far as present appearances go, they are 

 safe. I am told that the moisture would not have appeared but for the warmth 

 of the room. Certain it is, that the fermentation arising from the malt chives, 

 let it originate how it may, must be injurious to the vegetative powers of the 

 plant. Whether the same thing would have happened with dry sawdust, I do 

 not know. — S. Taylor. Whittington, Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, Jan. 10. 1840. 



A' rabis purpurea is peculiar to the sides of Mount Olympus in Bithynia, and 

 has never been heard of elsewhere. Mr. Fellows found it growing on rocks, 

 with a beautiful flower, looking like a kind of dwarf stock ; and, being much 

 pleased with it, he made a drawing, on showing which at the Linnaean So- 

 ciety he procured its name. (Journal in Asia 3Iitior, p. 119.) Such a plant as 

 thisj in a flower-garden, will be interesting to the classical reader, as raising 

 associations of a favourite country. — Cond. 



Salvia patens should now be taken from its winter retreat ; and, if it has not 

 been cut down before, that operation should now be performed, and the plant 

 brought near the light, and where it may receive the advantage of 45° or 50° 

 temperature, and plenty of air. The nature of this plant is to break from 

 dormant buds underneath the soil, and near the collar, when the roots emerge. 

 After it has become strong, the old soil should be displaced as much as can be 

 effected without injury to the roots, and the plant repotted in good turfy loam 

 and rotten dung, in the proportion of one of dung and three of loam. By 

 doing so successively as it requires it, in the course of the summer it will 

 become a magnificent object. A plant we had here in the preceding year was 

 truly so, and the dehght of every one who saw it; measuring 5ft. high, and 

 extending in the same proportion, and covered with a great profusion of its 

 rich azure blooms. — John Duncan. Henbury, March 11. 1840. 



Art. II. Foreis^n Notices. 



ITALY. 



Po'puLUsfastigidta at Pavia. — It was about 1833, that from pure ignorance 

 an object of the greatest curiosity in the history of Lombardy was destroyed. 



