Q54! Queries a?id Answers, — Ohiiuary. 



producing the results we are considering, I have little doubt that they consist 

 principally in the porous and perfectly permeable nature of it. The heat and 

 moisture are consequently present and passing through, without any satura- 

 tion, or stagnation, or induration taking place. There may be something in 

 the vegetative powers of it, but I imagine this to be the true cause of the 

 superiority over any other material as yet known for propagation. Many of 

 the plants on which it has succeeded are known to be the most difficult to 

 strike. There is another valuable article (see Gard. Mag. for June, p. 302.) 

 from M. Lucas, on the raising of seeds in snow. I have no doubt that this 

 is a grand secret or marvel gained from nature, by the discovery of one of her 

 own modes of operation. It is exactly analogous to the methods followed by 

 nature in the High Alps ; and there is no doubt the gentians, and other 

 seeds of difficult growth, might easily be made to germinate by it. M. Lucas 

 recommends sand to cover the young plants on their first appearance ; but it 

 is doubtful whether fine tan would not answer a better purpose. {S. E.W., 

 Carlton ; in Gard. Chron. for August 21. 1841, p. 459.) 



Daphne Cneorum and D. DauphinW. — You do not, I think, sufficiently re- 

 commend to your readers the beautiful Z)aphne Cneorum or the Z>aphne 

 Dauphimi. I am told some persons find the former difficult to manage. We 

 have no trouble with it. We keep laying it year after year, and so increase 

 our stock while we preserve it in vigour. — T. W. Banks, near Barmlei/, 

 June, 1837. 



Art. V. Queries and Ansvoers. 



Mr. PjrkYNS, the Author of "Monastic Remains" and of " Designs for Laying out 

 Grounds." — This gentleman, about the year 1800, began a work in folio, which 

 contained designs for villas, including the details of the house as well as of the 

 grounds. Only three or four numbers of the work were published, and it has 

 now become very scarce. We know of only one copy in London, but the 

 late ambassador Liston of Milburn Tower, near Edinburgh, who was intimate 

 with Mr. Parkyns, possessed a copy in 1804, and this copy must doubtless 

 have gone the way of the ambassador's other books. What became of these 

 books we have been unable to ascertain ; but, if any reader can inform us, 

 or put us in the way of borrowing or purchasing the work of Mr. Parkyns 

 alluded to, we shall be very much obliged to him. — Cond. 



Art. VI. Obituary. 



Augustus Pyramus DeCandolle died at Geneva on the 9th of Sep- 

 tember last. An individual of higher attainments as a botanist, or more 

 respected as a man, did not exist. 



Prince Butera, a Hanoverian officer, who married a Sicilian princess, and 

 took her name, died recently. He was remarkably fond of horticulture, and 

 introduced many German practices into Sicily, among others the culture of 

 asparagus. 



END OF THE SEVENTEENTH VOLUME. 



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