Literary and General Notices. 57 



Art. IV. Literary Notices. 



Sweet's British Flower-Garden is proposed to be merged into 

 the Botanical Register ; and this latter work is to contain the im- 

 provements indicated in the following notice : — 



" The great and constantly increasing importation of new and curious plants 

 into this country renders it necessary for the proprietors of the Botanical 

 Register to make an exertion to keep pace with the spirit of the times ; and 

 finding, on the one hand, the present limited number of descriptions in each 

 Number (eight) by no means sufficiently extensive for a record of the rare and 

 beautiful plants submitted to their notice; and, on the other hand, feeling 

 anxious to diminish rather than increase the expense of the work. Dr. Lindley 

 has suggested the plan of increasing the number of descriptions as much as 

 possible ; and, instead of giving a figure to every description, as formerly, to 

 figure such only as force themselves upon the attention of the botanist or 

 amateur, either by their surpassing beauty, or some rare and curious quality ; 

 adding, also, a sufficient quantity of letterpress to embrace, under the title of 

 Botanical and Horticultural News, a monthly register of the most rare and 

 interesting matter relating to those subjects. It is also proposed, in all cases, 

 to give precise directions for the cultivation of the plants that may be intro- 

 duced into the work. This arrangement cannot but add greatly to the labour 

 of Dr. Lindley; who, nevertheless, anxious to promote the extension of scien- 

 tific knowledge, will not allow any personal consideration to stand in the way 

 of so desirable an end. In the confident hope of the increased patronao-e of 

 the botanical public to the plan, the proprietors have determined to reduce the 

 price of all future Numbers, beginning with January 1., to 3^. 6c?., instead of 

 4s.; which will render the Botanical Register the cheapest, as it is the most 

 beautiful, of all the botanical periodicals ; and eventually^constitute it the com- 

 pletes! and most authentic illustrated catalogue of plants in the whole world." 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General Notices. 



Joyce's new Mode of Heating. — Mr. Joyce, a commercial gardener at Cam- 

 berwell, has recently made one of the most extraordinary inventions for pro- 

 ducing heat which have ever been given to the public. We question if any 

 thing so remarkable has occurred, in a practical point of view, since the inven- 

 tion of gunpowder. Whether Mr. Joyce's stove will be so economical as to 

 be adapted for general use, is a question that can only be satisfactorily de- 

 termined by experience.; but in the mean time it promises to be so; and 

 while it may be employed to heat churches, and all kinds of public and private 

 buildings, ships, and the inside of carriages, Mi*. Joyce thinks that the poorest 

 cottager will find more comfort and economy in its use than in the common 

 open fireplace. The invention not being, at the time we write, fully secured 

 by patent, the details cannot be here given ; but the result is, that heat is pro- 

 duced by an apparatus of very limited magnitude, and that it may be raised to 

 any temperature that can be required, short of red heat, by combustion without 

 the production of smoke. To most of our readers this will seem impossible ; 

 but the fact was placed beyond a doubt yesterday (Dec. 5.), when one of Mr. 

 Joyce's stoves, in action, was exhibited at a meeting of the Horticultural So- 

 "cietyin Regent Street, and examined by a great number of persons. The 

 form of the stove in which the heat is generated is that of an upright cylinder 

 from the conical apex of which a heated current of air escapes, and which 

 current can be regulated at pleasure, or altogether stopped : but the chief 

 source of heat is the radiation from the sides. Of course, the heat so generated 

 may either be allowed to escape directly into the surrounding atmosphere, or be 

 coBveyed away in air-tubes, or by means of hot-water pipes, to a distance, or to 



