Domestic Notices : — Scotland. 43 



any extent, although it is frequently to be met with. It is considered one of 

 the most useful fruits in the world, and is cultivated in all those countries to 

 which it is found adapted. A very desirable variety or species of Miisa was 

 introduced from the Mauritius into England a few years ago, and was named 

 Miisr/ Cavendishw, the specific name being bestowed on it in honour of that 

 munificent encourager of horticulture, the Duke of Devonshire. From its 

 dwarfish mode of growth, it was expected that it would soon come into general 

 cultivation, and the anticipations then formed are being more and more fully 

 realised every day. The following are the dimensions and details of the largest 

 plant at present bearing fruit at William field : — It grows in a large pot ; the 

 circumference of the stem at 1 ft. from the ground is 2 ft. ; from the surface of 

 the ground to the commencement of the spike of fruit is 4 ft ; the spike itself 

 is 4 ft. long ; but, in place of growing erect, it forms a curve, and the weight of 

 the fruit causes the spike to hang down. The height of the plant itself is about 

 5 ft. : 2 ft. only of the spike are covered with fruit ; the remainder is occupied 

 with abortive produce, and towards the tip with red-coloured imbricated leaves, 

 called spathes in botanical language. The large and superb leaves, the nodding 

 spike loaded with fruit and tipped with red, give the plant an interesting and 

 peculiar appearance. There are nine two-rowed branches of fruit, amounting 

 to 136 in all. The weight of these may be about 40 lb. ; as the produce of 

 another plant which fruited lately was 125, weighing 35 lb. The fruit is tri- 

 angular, yellow when ripe, soft, and of a peculiarly luscious flavour, supe- 

 rior to that of the old banana. Indeed, the Musa CavendfsliM is much more 

 calculated for general cultivation. The proprietress has lately erected a house 

 for the cultivation of this species, and there are in it at present ten or twelve 

 plants. 



Carica Papaya, or the papaw tree, is a native of India and South Ame- 

 rica. Here is a fine plant of this species, about 20 ft. high. It is nine or ten 

 years old ; but having reached the glass of the house where it grew, it was cut 

 down at 6 ft. from the ground about 1836. It has fruited three times since. 

 There are this year sixteen fruit on it, of a melon shape, each weighing \\ lb., 

 or thereabouts. The papaw tree is one of those plants which have male 

 flowers growing on one plant, and female flowers upon another. The female 

 plant alone was at Williamfield. It often flowered, and promised to fruit; but 

 the fruit never swelled, or approached maturity. About 1836 some seeds were 

 received from India. These have fortunately produced several male plants, 

 one of which came into flower in 1839. Being placed in close proximity to 

 the female, so that the flowers might intermingle, the female produced ripe 

 fruit that year for the first time, and has continued to do so ever since. 

 There seem to be two species of the papaw at Williamfield : in one the 

 flowers are sessile in the axils of the leaves, while in the other they are 

 produced in axillary panicles or clusters. 



The fruit of the papaw is eaten with pepper and sugar, and when half- 

 grown, if properly pickled, is little inferior to the pickled mango of the East 

 Indies. The acrid milky juice of this plant, when rubbed over the flesh of 

 newly killed animals, is said to render it very tender in a short time ; and even 

 if the meat be hung up on the tree for a certain period, the same effect will be 

 produced. 



There are here also several fine plants of the coffee tree, raised from seed 

 ripened at Williamfield. They are very handsome plants, clothed with 

 branches regularly from the root upwards. One plant is b\ ft. high, has 

 fruited for the first time this season, and has 168 fruit on it. The lower or 

 older branches alone bear fruit. 



There is also a fine plant of Bambusa arundinacea, or bamboo cane of the 

 East Indies, which is interesting from the great rapidity of its growth, one of 

 its branches having grown 13 ft. in forty days, or 4 in. a day. 



Many more plants might be particularised, such as the passion-flower 

 (Passifldra edulis), one plant of which produces 800 fruit each season. There 

 is also a fine plant of the Indian-rubber tree, 20 ft. high. The camellias in the 



