MISCELLANEOUS. 
319 
crop. The white ant, too, attacks the stems, and 
is best destroyed or checked by washing the roots 
with lime-water, yellow arsenic, or tobacco water. 
The ornamental shrubs are Oleander, Bougainvillea, 
Tabernamontana, Ruellia, two species; Lantanas, 
Passifloras, of sixteen species; and Verbenas, Ixoras, 
Dracaenas, Durantas, Quisqualis, Pergularias, and 
Convolvuli, Hiptage, Plumbago, eleven kinds of 
Roses, Jatropha, various Euphorbias, Crotons and 
Poincettia, Abutilon, and other Hibisci, Cassia 
Fistula, Jasminum, Lagerstroemia, Buddlea, Clero- 
dendrons, and such like. Of what we should 
call hardy perennials, annuals and bulbs, I saw 
Maurandia, Lophospermum, and Thunbergias, fine 
Petunias, Sweet William, Mignonette, Pelargo- 
niums, Pentas Carnea, several Aristolochias, 
Escholtzia, Lupines, Clarkia, Schizanthus, Balsams, 
Violets, Clematis, Cannae, Strelitzea, and various 
Marantaceae, numerous Amaryllideae and Lilies, 
Erysima, Iberis, Stocks and Wallflowers ; Clero- 
dendron, Nyctanthes, &fid many species of Vitex. 
These form the bulk of the garden ; many of them 
being the same as we have at home, others 
replacing our Fuchsias, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, 
Andromedas, and such like natives of equally damp 
or temperate climates, to which the scorching sun 
at one season, or the periodical rains of the other 
are inimical. 
Numerous Cerealia and the varieties of Cotton, 
Sugar-cane, &c., all thrive extremely well; so do 
many of our English vegetables. The Cabbages 
are sadly hurt by the green caterpillars of a white 
Pontia ; and so are Peas, Beans, &c. Strawberries 
are now but in flower, and Raspberries, Currants, 
and Gooseberries will not grow at all. 
The seed-room, a well-lighted and boarded 
apartment, measuring forty-six feet by twenty-four, 
is a model of what the arrangement of such build- 
ings should be in this climate. The seeds are all 
deposited in dry bottles, carefully labelled, and 
hung in rows round the apartment to the walls ; 
and for cleanliness and excellence of kind they 
would bear comparison with the best seedsman’s 
drawers in London. Of English garden-vegetables, 
and varieties of the Indian Cerealia, and Legumin- 
ous plants, Indian corn, Millet, Rice, &c., the 
collections for distribution were excellent ; and I 
am promised samples of all these for Kew by my 
liberal friend Major Napleton, as well as other 
economic products of the district. 
Altogether the Bhaugulpore Gardens are ex- 
tremely good, and considering (which it is difficult 
to do) that they are not five years old, they reflect 
the greatest credit on the energy and perseverance 
of Major Napleton. The grounds are under the 
immediate superintendence of Mr. Ross, a gardener 
of some skill and knowledge, who was once attached 
to the Calcutta Botanic Gardens. In most respects 
the establishment is a model of what such institu- 
tions ought to be in India ; not only of real prac- 
tical value, in affording a good and cheap supply 
of the best culinary and other vegetables that the 
climate can produce, but as showing to what 
department such efforts are best directed. They 
diffuse a taste for the most healthy employments, 
and offer an elegant resource for the many unoc- 
cupied hours which the Englishman in India finds 
upon his hands. They are also schools of garden- 
ing ; and a simple inspection of what has been 
done at Bhaugulpore is a long and valuable lesson 
to any person about to establish a private garden 
of his own. 
I omitted to mention that the manufacture of 
economic produce is not neglected. Excellent 
coffee is grown ; and arrow-root, equal to the best 
West Indian, is prepared at Is. 6d. per bottle of 
twenty-four ounces, — about a fourth of the price of 
that article in Calcutta. Another very interesting 
garden, though of course on a less pretending 
scale is a private one belonging to Mr. Pontet, an 
enthusiastic horticulturist, who has established 
many valuable plants from the Rajmahal hills in 
his grounds. He has also a good collection of 
minerals from the same hills, and is remarkably 
well informed on many points of their Natural 
History. A Himalayan Blackberry (Raspberry it 
is called here) was succeeding very well with him, 
by inclosing every fruiting raceme in a tin box, 
within which they ripened. As, however, I hope 
to return and visit the Rajmahals, possibly with 
Major Napleton and Mr. Pontet for my companions, 
I shall be able, at a future time, to give you more 
information about them. — Dr. Hooker in Jour. 
Botany. 
