3 1 2 Domestic Notices : — IJnglmid^ 



A Fine-Fruit Company has been projected by some gentlemen at Burton 

 upon Trent. Coals and glass are very cheap there, and an experienced 

 gardener in the neighbourhood says he can produce forced grapes at the rate 

 of 3rf. per lb., which may be sent to London by the railroad in quantities, not 

 less than 50 lb., at a halfpenny per lb. We have often thought that something 

 of this kind attempted in the neighbourhood of Lisbon, and to include the 

 finer culinary vegetables, and winter flowers, as well as fruits, might succeed. 

 — Cond. 



Artificial Flowers and ivliole Plants have been very successfullj' made of 

 feathers by Mrs. Randolph, 2. Bridge Street, Westminster, who has produced 

 roses, carnations, camellias, chrysanthemums, and many others, almost equal 

 to nature, and not only single flowers, but whole plants with leaves, buds, and 

 flowers in all stages. The fairer part of creation, no doubt, will properly ap- 

 preciate this elegant invention of Mrs. Randolph's, more especially if it were 

 possible to infuse a little odour peculiar to the different species into the 

 flowers. The prince of poets says that " woman unadorned is adorned the 

 most," yet I cannot help thinking, however, that flowers are nature's own 

 ornaments, and therefore will tend to heighten effect by their judicious use. 

 By this invention ladies may be supplied with a summer bouquet for a ball at 

 Christmas, which even an experienced eye would fail at a little distance to 

 detect. At a meeting of the Horticultural Society on May 5., Mrs. Randolph 

 exhibited some very beautiful specimens of her invention ; among them I 

 noticed whole plants of roses, particularly the sanguine China rose, chrysan- 

 themums, camellias, and myrtles, in all of which she had been eminently suc- 

 cessful. The carnations, the pinks, the wallflowers, and many other cut 

 flowers were very beautifully executed, and with remarkable truth, both in 

 form and colour. I have seen many beautiful imitations of flowers in wax 

 and other substances, ;but they all have a certain stiffness which at once de- 

 stroys the simplicity of nature, and shows you, too evidently, that they are 

 mere imitations, but in Mrs. Randolph's feather flowers no such disagreeable 

 efiect is produced. — W. A. M. May, 1840. 



A new Hedge-Fruner. — ■ In these days of new inventions, I would beg to 

 put in my claim for a new hedge-pruner, which I have, after three years' trial, 

 found to make a very heavy process an uncommonly light one. I can with 

 the greatest ease prune one side of hawthorn hedge 180 yards long and 6 ft. 

 high, in the short space of forty minutes ; and the cost of the whole ap- 

 paratus will not exceed half the price of a pair of good scissors. If any of 

 your numerous and intelligent readers or correspondents express a wish to 

 have one, I shall send 3'ou every information respecting it, without any " con- 

 sideration" whatever. — James Wrigtit. Watfield, March 28. 1840. 



A new Variety of Peach has been raised from a kernel of the Catharine, im- 

 pregnated by the violette hative, by John Friend, Esq., of Birchington, in the 

 Isle of Thanet. A paper on this valuable new variety, by Alderman Masters 

 of Canterbury, was read at the meeting of the Horticultural Society, Novem- 

 ber 3. 1839, by which it appears to be a clingstone, with pale-coloured flesh, 

 " very juicy, perfectly melting, and of a delicious flavour. It ripens somewhat 

 irregularly dui'ing October, and has even remained good till November ; thus 

 lengthening the period during which fruit of the finest quality may be produced 

 upon the open wall," It is Mr. Masters's intention to propagate this variety 

 extensively, so that we trust it will soon become general in fruit gardens. (See 

 Proceedings of tJie Hart. Soc. of London, vol.i. p. 114.) 



Naked Barley, or Barley-Wlieat ; i/ordeum distichum Metzger, Europce- 

 ische Cerealien, p. 49. t. 1 1. ; i/ordeum niidum Ttiaer ; Orge a deux ranges nu, 

 French; nackte Gerste, German ;\s strongly recommended by a retired medical 

 gentleman farming his own estate near Newbury, Berkshire, as returning a 

 greater profit than the variety of barley in general cultivation ; and as it ap- 

 pears to us an excellent barley for cottage gardens, we insert what are stated 

 to be its advantages. These are, — 



