Domestic Notices : — England. 381 



water to pass the sucker while ejecting its contents. This was so frequently 

 my case, and that also after having the syringe more than once newly packed, 

 that I felt resolved on adopting, if possible, some means of preventing it. The 

 first means applied after depriving the sucker of the whole of its packing, 

 was simply by replacing it with a strip of sponge, cut to fill the space allowed 

 for the packing,, where it was secured by a single tie of thin copper wire. 

 This, upon trial, I found to answer its purpose so well that I have applied no 

 other remedy, and, from its cheapness and simplicity, I think it worth record- 

 ing. I have now used a syringe so packed daily for about five months, free 

 from the unpleasantness above mentioned. — W. H. B. Oxford, June 3. 1842. 



Art. II. Domestic Notices. 



ENGLAND. 



The Exhibition at the Horticultural Society's Garden, on May 14th, was 

 attended by upwards of 5,500 persons, including the queen, and 13,582 

 persons were present on June 11th ; by far the greatest number that has 

 attended these exhibitions at one time. We enter into no details, because 

 these are given in the gardening newspapers, to which we refer once for all 

 for whatever relates to the meetings of societies, either metropolitan or pro- 

 vincial. In general, we intend in future to omit the publication of all matters 

 of a temporary nature, or that derive their chief interest from being imme- 

 diately made known, and confine ourselves to matters of solid and permanent 

 interest, the publication of which a week sooner or later is of no consequence. 

 Of whatever is new and of a permanent nature, in the gardening newspapers, or 

 in any other gardening publication, we shall transfer the essence to the paces 

 of the Gardener's Magazine, sooner or later. 



The Fountains in St. James's Park, and in Kensington Gardens. — In the 

 Gardener's Chronicle of June 18., a writer who signs himself Ortolano has, 

 with true artistical feeling, assigned the reason why a fountain now bein°- 

 erected in St. James's Park is objectionable; and we notice the subject, 

 because his reasons apply with equal force to a fountain which has been 

 recently set up in the river (as it is called) in Kensington Gardens. The 

 water and scenery in that part of Kensington Gardens where this fountain is 

 placed is in a style of what may be termed commonplace nature ; but the 

 fountain, which is placed in the middle of the river, consists of a series of cir- 

 cular cast-iron basins, arranged on a vertical axis one above another, exactly 

 like an old-fashioned dumb waiter. The cast-iron axis rises abruptly from the 

 water ; and the whole, which may be 10 or 12 feet high, is painted white. 

 Any thing less in accordance with the surrounding scenery it is difficult to 

 imagine. We have often, when passing this fountain, asked ourselves whether 

 it be possible that Lord Lincoln, and the other Commissioners of Woods and 

 Forests, can approve of it : and, if they do not approve of it, how it happens 

 that such a hideous object, or indeed any object intended to be ornamental, 

 could be put up without their knowledge and approbation. If this fountain 

 had risen out of a base of rockwork it would have been less hideous, but still 

 liable to the objection of being altogether incongruous to the scene in which 

 it is placed. A single bold jet from a mass of rock in such a scene we hold 

 to be admissible, but by no means either a jet or a drooping fountain from 

 sculpture or regular architecture. The most appropriate fountain which could 

 be introduced in this part of the water in Kensington Gardens is what we 

 suggested in our Volume for 1841 (p. 331.), viz., huge masses of rock in 

 the form of a source, placed where the mock bridge now stands, from which 

 the water might trickle down in streamlets. We say this kind of fountain 

 would have been the most appropriate ; because, being at the upper end or 

 commencement of the river, or rather lake, it would have indicated how it 

 was supplied, while no violence would have been done to the character of the 



