General Notices. 647 



we recommend all apprentices and journeymen gardeners, who are in good 

 health, and can wrap themselves well up, to travel in third class trains. A 

 young nurseryman who has been through great part of France, Germany, and 

 Belgium, and who belongs to Russia, has lately passed 6 or 8 months in 

 England. He has been all over the country, and also in Ireland and Scotland]; 

 he speaks and writes four different languages, is an excellent draftsman, and a 

 scientific botanist. He was supported by his family, who are wealthy ; but he 

 never, either on the Continent or in this country, travelled otherwise than by 

 a third class train. He observed to us, that when he jumped out of one of 

 these trains, well wrapped up in his cloak, he was the same man as if he had 

 come out of a carriage of the first class, with this difference, that he had a 

 good deal more money in his pocket. On mentioning this to a gentleman at 

 Southampton worth at least 30,000/., he told us he did exactly tiie same thing 

 when none of his family were travelling with him. — Cond. 



To dry moist ^?V.— Chloride of calcium has so great an affinity for water 

 that it absorbs it completely from any confined atmosphere, rendering it 

 quickly and perfectly dry. For closets or rooms thoroughly air-tight, contain- 

 ing books, papers, or dried specimens of plants, this substance must be ex- 

 tremely useful in the winter time, when the windows cannot be opened, and 

 where, perhaps, there are no fireplaces. It may also be useful in vineries, 

 where late crops of grapes are kept hanging on the trees. — Cond. 



Wooden Houses, of every kind, from the summer-house to houses for curates 

 and rectors, of from four to ten rooms each, we observe by the advertise- 

 ments, are manufactured by our friend Peter Thompson. They are con- 

 structed of Payne's anti-combustic wood, and sold either for home use or 

 exportation, and at incredibly low prices. Mr. Thompson has published a 

 small book of such buildings, with their prices, from which a choice may be 

 made ; and it will be borne in mind that houses are exported dutyfree. — 

 Co7id. 



The "Ride" and the " Reason." — Home Tooke, when at Eton, was one 

 day asked by the master the reason why a certain verb governed a particular 

 case ? He answered, " I don't know." " That is impossible," said the 

 master, " I know^you are not ignorant, but obstinate." Home, however, per- 

 sisted, and the master flogged. After the punishment, the master quoted the 

 rule of grammar which bore on the subject, and Home instantly replied, " j 

 know that very well ; but you did not ask me for the ride, you demanded the 

 reason." Gardeners will do well constantly to bear in mind the difference 

 here pointed out. A principle ought always to be the foundation of a rule, 

 which is nothing more than a precept taken from the principle ; and appli- 

 cable, not universally, but only to a certain number of cases. A principle is 

 of universal application. — Cond. 



Approaching Similarifi/ of Manners all over the World. — A writer in the 

 Edinburgh Review for Feb. 1843., p. 14+., laments the influence of railroads in 

 assimilating the social and domestic character of our provincial towns to that 

 of the capital. There is no originality in the country, he says ; no escape from 

 the eternal repetition of men and things. " Fifty years ago the manners in 

 London differed essentially from those in country towns, and those again from 

 each other," and so on. In our opinion, it is the coming glory of mil- 

 roads, that they will equalise social and domestic character, as far as climate, 

 government, and other physical and geographical circumstances will permit, all 

 over the world, till at last we have only one prevailing living language, one 

 system of weights and measures, and many other inestimable blessings. — 

 Cond. 



A covered Garden in Paris, heated by a new and ingenious method, is pro- 

 posed to be established. Cafes, shops, libraries, ball-rooms, restaurants, baths, 

 and a theatre, are to surround it. Twenty-five millions of francs, to be raised 

 by a company, is the sum to be called for. {Scotsman, Aug. 2G. I84'3.) 



Grafting and Budding the Rhododendron. — The rhododendron, in the 

 autumn, will bud as freely as the rose, and graft in the open air as easily as 



