316 



General Notices. 



branch, has, this year, in addition to these eccentricities, produced small 

 solitary axillary purple flowers in that part of the tree which has retained the 

 original hybrid character. Some of the seedlings from the yellow branch 

 have flowered, and are natural yellow laburnums. One from the small purple 

 branch at SpofForth has rounder leaves than Cytisus purpiireus, but has not 

 yet flowered. I regret the loss of one seedling from the yellow branch, which 

 showed a purple tint on the young wood, and would probably have manifested 

 some diversity in the colour of its flowers. The habits of this plant are not 

 those of a seminal mule ; and I entertain little doubt of the correctness of my 

 surmise, that it was produced by the cooperation of the cellular tissue of the 

 two species in forming the bud on the suture where the bark had been in- 

 serted in budding. — W. Herbert. May 18. 1843. 



Johnston'' s improved portable Garden Engine {Jig. 

 76.) is formed on exactly the same principle as that 

 of Mr. Read, figured in our Volume for 1837, p. 459. 

 The principal diiference is, that Mr. Johnston occupies 

 two cylinders with what Mr. Read includes in one. 

 The following is the description sent us by Mr. John- 

 ston. On raising the handle a, the water passes up 

 the lower tube, opening the valve b, and filling the tube 

 c. Depressing the handle closes the valve b, and opens 

 the valve d ; the water passing up the tubes e and f, 

 and compressing the air in the outer tube /, when it 

 continues up the tube e to the joint g, through 

 which it passes out at the jet, with or without the 

 rose h ; the joint being movable up or down. On 

 the handle being raised again, the valve d closes, and 

 the valve b opens for the water to fill the tube c. At 

 the same time that the tube c is fiUing, the air com- 

 pressed in the tube / is expanding, and forcing the re- 

 maining water in the tubes e and /to flow out of the 

 jet. This process being repeated at each stroke of the 

 pump, causes a perpetual stream, which may be 

 thrown out GO ft. The conducting tube k screws off 

 at i, rendering the instrument extremely portable. The 

 instrument itself is very handsome, and well adapted 

 for lady gardeners. — Cond. 



Cicer ariethmm L. — I send you some seeds of Cicer 

 arietinum collected at Athens in 1842. It is an excel- 

 lent vegetable, and remarkable when growing for the 

 whole plant being covered with a secretion of oxalic 

 acid in a liquid state. I never saw it in crystals, as 

 stated in the Penny Magazine. — W. C. T. May 

 13. 1843. 



Imjorovements in Garden Pots. — In a valuable arti- 

 cle on this subject in Paxton's Magazine of Botany for March, the glazing of 

 pots is objected to as assimilating them to culinary utensils, and as interfering 

 with the pictorial effect of vegetation, for which a dead or dull quiet surface is 

 justly said to be much more appropriate than a shining one. " In reference, how- 

 ever, to the health of the plants, experience is most decidedly in favour of the 

 hardest pots. The less porous the material, the less likely is it to become 

 sodden or saturated with water, or to carry off" moisture with too great rapidity 

 in the burning heat of summer. Soft thick pots that are imperfectly baked 

 are universally discarded by good cultivators, and those which are hardest and 

 thinnest preferred. Pots or tubs of slate are found, likewise, to be excellent 

 receptacles for most plants ; and hence we discern nothing but that which 

 is fitted for proving beneficial to plants in the idea of glazed pots ; but, as 

 their hardness and closeness may almost be realised without the glazing, we 

 deprecate their use on account of the appearance." (p, 42.) 



The author after noticing Mr. Brown's hollow-sided pots, which he thinks 



Fig. 76. Section of John- 

 ston's improved portable 

 Garden- Engine. 



