6 THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[Jory 6, 1895, 
history i in this country, receiving the like infor- 
e most eminent persons in almost 
The most noteworthy of Collinson’s ocorre- 
spondents were Cadwallader Colden, of New 
York, and Benjamin Franklin, of Philadelphia. 
The latter. communica his first essays on 
electricity to Collinson, in a series of letters, 
which were afterwards published,* and which 
will be found in the collected editions of Frank- 
lin’s works, In 1730 a subscription library was 
set on foot at Philadelphia, and Collinson not 
only encouraged the movement by making 
several very valuable presents to it, and by pro- 
curing others from his friends, but he voluntarily 
undertook t i 
of books— 
satisfaction for over thirty years. 
time he transmitted to the directors or committee 
of the library, accounts of every new European 
improvement in agriculture and the arts, and 
every philosophical discovery, among whioh, in 
1745, he sent over an account of the new German 
experiments in electricity, together with a glass 
tube, aud some directions for using it, 
À few months ago a very important series of 
long and interesting letters from Colden to Col- 
linson, and a few from Franklin also, came into 
the market at Sotheby's, and realised very high 
prices. A few extracts from these letters will be 
valuable for future reference, although botanical 
matters formed but one of the many subjeots 
dealt with in these epistles, 
Writing to Peter Collinson from New Haven, 
of good Mrs. Collinson,” 
not," he soi “offer to comfort you by argu- 
ments drawn from philosophy or religion, such 
will readil 
lamented occasion. P. C. had few feelings but 
for himself, the same principle that led him to 
deprive his son of his birthright, when that son 
lay in the agonies of death, and knew not what 
he put his hand to, supported P. C. in the loss 
t woman in a manner that did no 
honour. to his feelings, his gratitude, or his 
Ho far the charge made in the 
onymous annotation to this letter is true, it is 
now now imponsible to зау; but unsupported evidence 
of this kind is not of serious value, 
view “a chamber са with long leather 
pipes, such as I am told are likewise used to water 
gardens, about £5, if from experience they 
are found to answer end for which they are 
ber tm x and lb, weight of red Clover 
anoth 
kei me кдйшы. paragraph: —“ In some of 
acer d SENE LITTER 
* These letters were published in Др parts, under the 
and n Lon 
lectricity, in 
ION К 1754, Collinson nail; acting as editor of 
your former you informed that you had the true 
Scammony from Alyayso growing in your garden, 
am confident it will agree well with this climate. 
should be glad of some of the seed to be sent so as 
sow it next spring, and some of the seed of the 
true Hellebore. Dr. Whytte in his last letter in- 
forms me that the Colchicum autumnale, or Meadow 
Saffron, is found to be an extraordinary Dacrelia, 
and effectual in Dropsies. I wish to have it, as I 
think it is not a native of this count 
Only two letters appear to have been T 
bi — 
enthusiastic naturalist; these — been printed by 
Dawson Turner in his iterary and 
Scientific Correspondence of Rickard | Richardson, 1835, 
Neither appears to be in Collinson’s handwriting, 
and were probably dictated by him to a secretary. 
The earlier of these is dated August 12, 1742, and 
deals chiefly with the death of Lord Petre, but it 
contains several horticultaral items, which will be 
9. 1.—PETER COLLINSON. 
(From Nichols Literary реет ) 
read now with interest, example, he says, 
“the Laurus ind n EI is —— to be sold; 
the seeds of it aN. sent to . Brewer, fresh, but 
have not come up.” And again, * Mr. Gordon 
: brought two 
three years ago, a present, palire China, to ae wife, 
rgreen, and is housed with the eru 
grows more n arts of 
China and Japan, about the latitude of forty degrees 
north.” According to Miller, the Tea-tree was 
imported into England before 1768, which is, there- 
fore an error. 
Four years later, April 4, 1746, Collinson 
favoured Ri chardson with another of those ъс 
gossiping lettera which are now such valuable contri- 
butions to the history — gardening. — aboat 
decline in stove p. 
consequent on th 
death of Lord Petre, proved unfounded, for Ap tess 
иаа 
Petre appears to have thoroughly entered red into th 
spirit of their culture. He describes the great 
house of Lord Petre as the most extr 
sight in the world.“ 
one with th 
house with their scent," He does not tell mp 
size of the great stove, but the lesser one measured 
60 feet long and 20 wide, and “ is full of a vast variety - 
of all species of Mader exotica,” W, 
о be continued.) 
PARASITES. 
Ar а seasonable time towards the end of last year 
(Gardeners’ Chronicle, December, 1894, pp, 745- Pr 
contributed а few notes this journal on 
ies 
and Lorant thus, having, at a previous meeting of the 
ts parasitical on the stems an 
pate plants, in illustration of these 
peculiarities, A prominent feature i int that e exhibition, 
consiated of specimens of Australian Loranths and 
some of the plants on which they prey, exhibited to 
demonstrate the striking resemblance in the fi 
of the parasite and that of the host, In some instances 
the resemblances are so close that a superficial ex- 
amination is insufficient to detect 
of the parasite when not in 
biological significance of this phenomenon bas 
п interpreted in the sense of advantage to the 
parasite, though apparently without any very good 
g on this subject, Mr. ү | 
Tarner, F.L.S , Botanist to the Department of 1 
culture, Sydney, has a very interesting article in the 
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New 
Wales (vol. ix., pp. 557 to 
shrubs affected b 
), on exotic trees and’ 
›у Australian Loranths and Visame = 
that have become hosts for native paraaites ; yet T , 
a small number of the latter have been observed to 1 
attach the 
stralian specimens recorded #4 
parasitic on Non (Ratacex), Exocarpus (Sau- 
talaces), and Baloghia (Euphorbiaceg). In the 
wich Islands it is common on Acaci 
mimics or resembles, if the reader would rather, the 
native 
common on some species of Eucalyptus, Santalum, 
Acacia, 2 It, and L. celastroides, between them, 
have been observed growing on twenty-six exotic 
trees and bride belonging to thirteen natural ordeff« 
Among the trees and shrubs on which they prey 
may name the Talip, Orange, ans Pear, ; 
E 
Pi live, Eim, P. 
nut, Oak, and Willow—a tro, dion variety 
