Domestic Notices: — England, Scotland. 649 



The bread, it is said, will keep two centuries without the slightest alteration, if 

 required. If this should really be the case, it will, of course, supersede in a 

 great measure the troublesome modes of preserving wheat in sieves, and other 

 underground excavations, now practised on the Continent, and indeed, together 

 with rice, in most parts of the world. {Standard.) The Arab in Egypt 

 generally buries his rice to conceal it from his enemies ; often, as St. John 

 informs us, in the floor of his miserable mud hut. — Cond. 



Verbenas and Petunias. — After seeing all about London, and collecting 

 nearly fifty varieties of the verbena, I reduced them to twelve sorts, and three 

 or four of these are for neutral beds ; that is, beds with no decided colour. 

 Petunias must be dealt with in the same manner. (D. Beaton, in Gard. Cliron. 

 1843, p. 592.) 



Best time for eating Pears. — No pear, if gathered and eaten when fully ripe 

 on the tree,_is so good as when gathered as soon as it has attained its full 

 size, and laid by in a dry place until it is ripe. (J. Hayward, in Gard. Gaz. 

 1843, p. 153.) 



Manuring Vines. — We find several gardeners throughout the country, who 

 have read Liebig's work, manuring their vines with the summer's prunings 

 chopped small, and slightly dug in immediately. Of course the plan will 

 succeed where very slight crops are to be taken, but not otherwise. — Cond. 



Art. II. Domestic Notices. 



ENGLAND. 



The Naming of the Trees and Shrubs iii Kensington Gardens has had, as was 

 anticipated, a beneficial effect upon the public mind, in awakening a spirit of 

 enquiry, and exciting a taste for botanical and horticultural pursuits ; so much 

 so, that gentlemen go direct from these gardens to the nurseries, with their 

 lists made out from their own inspection. {Gard. Chron., 1843, p. 695.) 



Paitloivnia imperidlis has flowered in the greenhouse of Mrs, Wray of Oak- 

 field near Cheltenham. The flowers are deliciously sweet, and are produced 

 freely on very young plants, if forced for that purpose. The conditions to be 

 attended to are, to keep the plants under-potted, to force them slowly in a 

 cool stove, early vinery, or forcing-house, beginning early in the spring. By 

 midsummer they will have finished their growth, have begun to show their 

 flower-buds, and to cast their leaves ; they will then require less water, and 

 in six weeks or two months the flowers will begin to expand, and the plants, 

 of course, will be brought into the conservatory, where they will take up little 

 room, as they may be set anywhere, only leaving their heads of flowers free 

 above other plants which surround them. Might not the Catalpa syringce^oYiSL 

 be treated like Paulownea for the sake of its large trumpet-hke flowers, which 

 are produced in abundance in the neighbourhood of London and farther 

 south, but are seldom to be met with in colder parts of the country? {Gard. 

 Chron., 1843, p. 698.) 



American Aloe. — There is a fine specimen of this rarely flowering exotic on 

 the lawn at Charlton House, near this town [Wantage]. The flower stem 

 has already attained the height of 16 ft., with 25 lateral branches, and nearly 

 4000 blossom buds. It is hoped that when this beautiful plant is fully in 

 flower the public may be admitted to see it. {Jackson's Oxford Journal, Sept. 

 16. 1843.) 



SCOTLAND. 



Sir Walter Scott's Monument. — It is well known that a number of situations 

 have been from time to time pointed out as proper sites for this monument. 



