HORTICULTnUAL SOCIETY, AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 
seem improbable, and therefore tliat the plant may be regarded 
as a native of New Granada. I would remark, liowever, tliat 
the Peruvian invasion and complete possession of Quito toolv 
place before l.")25, the year of the death of the Inca Huayna 
Capac. The southern provinces of Quito even fell under the 
dominion of Tupac Inca Yupanqui at the conclusion of the fif- 
teentli century' [Pfescott, Conquest of Pent, vol. i., p. 332). In 
tile unfortunately still very obscure history of the first intro- 
duction of the potato into Europe, the merit of its introduction 
is still very generally attributed to Sir Jolin Hawkins, who is 
supposed to have received it from Santa Fi5 in .15G3 or 156."). It 
appears more certain that Su- Walter Raleigh planted the first 
pot<itoes on Ills Irish estate near Y'ough.il, from whence they 
were taken to Lancashire. Before the conqxiista, the plantain 
{Musa), which, since the arrival of the Spaniards, has been cul- 
tivated in all the warm parts of New Grenada, was only found, 
as Col. Acosta believes, at Choco." 
For the present we must defer the eontinuation of 
our pleasant task. We shall, however, hereafter, enter 
into some of the questions touched on ia the essay on 
the "Physiognomy of Plants." 
HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Jan. 1.5. — Owing to the severity of the weather, hut 
few subjects were submitted for exhibition. The only 
plants shoAvn, were a Chorozema and an Orchid ; the 
former, fi-oni Messrs. E. G. Henderson, of Wellington 
Road, St. John's Wood ; the latter — a small species of 
Odontoglossum — from Messrs. Jackson, of Kingston. 
Messrs. Henderson's Chorozema is a distinct and neat- 
looking species, of slender habit, with leaves something 
lilie those of C. ilicifolia, and clear yellow blossoms ; it 
was called C. flava, and when well grown, will prove 
an acquisition. 
Of fruit, three remarkably fine baskets of West" s St. 
Peter's grape, with two splendidly preserved bunches 
of tibe Muscal of Alexandria, were sent by Mr. Davis, 
of Oak HUl, East Barnet, for which a certificate of 
merit was awarded. We have rarely seen grapes in 
January in a finer state of preservation. From Messrs. 
Paul and Son, of Cheshtmt, were a coUeetion of fifty 
varieties of apples, some of them in fine condition ; 
among which, Fearns Pippin, Couil; pendu Plat, Wel- 
lington. Bess Pool, and Small's Admirable, a vei-y 
handsome apple, were the most remarkable. The same 
gentleman also contiibuted a collection of ten kinds of 
pears, several of them -ndth old faces, bearing new 
names. We should notice the fruit more ia detail, if 
the means of speaking positively in the matter was 
afforded us ; but we wish to guard ourselves agaiast 
recommending fruit from external appearances only. 
Of misceUaneoiis articles, two kinds of label, for 
naming plants, were exhibited. One of these — a novelty 
— was made of Gutta percha, with a kind of " metalized" 
surface, the names being in relief. Two forms of this 
label were produced, — one an oblong tablet, intended to 
be used with a stalk to thrust into the soil ; the other 
crescent-shaped for suspension. In the samples pro- 
duced the names were not sufiieiently distinct ; but in 
this respect, they may admit of improvement. They 
were invented by Mr. Little, of LarkhaU, near Bath, 
and wore conimimicated by Mrs. Loudon. 
The other Icind was a zinc label with prepared doth 
writing on, this being covered by a slip of glass ; 
were sent by Mr. Morrell of Fleet Sti'eet, London. 
NOTICES. 
PrimavalVegetation. * — The olive-leaf which the dove 
brought to Noah established at least three important 
facts, and indicated a few more. It showed most con- 
clusively that there was di-y land, that there were olive 
trees, and that the climate of the smToimding regions 
whatever change it might have undergone, was stUl 
favoittable to the development of vegetable life ; And, 
farther, it might be very safely inferred from it that, if 
olive ti'ees had survived, other trees and jilants must 
have smwived also ; and that the dark muddy promi- 
nences roimd which the ebbing currents were fast 
sweeping to lower levels, would soon present, as in anti- 
diluviau times, theii' coverings of cheerful gTcen. The 
olive leaf spoke not of merely a partial, but of a general 
vegetation. Now the coniferous lignite of the lower old 
red sandstone we find charged, like the olive leaf, with 
a various and singularly interesting evidence. It is 
something to know that, in the times of the Coccosteus 
and Asterolcpis, there existed dry land, and that that 
land wore, as at after periods, its soft, gay mantle of 
green. It is something also to know, that the verdant 
tint was not owing to a profuse development of the mere 
immatmities of the vegetable kingdom — crisp, slow- 
growing lichens, or watery spare-propagated firagi that 
shoot up to their full size in a night — nor even to an 
abimdance of the more highly organized families of the 
liver- worts, and the mosses. These may have abounded 
then, as now ; though we have not a shadow of evidence 
that they did. But while we have no proof whatever 
of their existence, we have conclusive proof that there 
existed orders and families of a rank far above them. 
On the dry land of the lower old red sandstone, on 
which, according to the theory of Adolphe Brongniai't, 
nothing higher than a lichen or a moss eotild have been 
expected, the ship-carpenter might have hopefully taken 
axe in baud, to explore the woods for some such stately 
pine as the one described by Milton : — 
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 
Of some gi'eat admiral." 
Different Berries in the same Bunch of Grapes. — In the 
autumn of 1846, I found, near- Mersberg, bunches of 
grapes bearing, at the same time, on one side, white 
Burgundy, and on the other red Eiilander, or even red 
Eiilander and black Biu-gundy ; the berries, therefore, 
were dilferent in colour, size, and flavour. The cause 
of this phenomenon was, that the three kinds of gTape 
in question were planted side by side in continuous rows, 
so that the poUen might easily be carried from the 
flowers of one to the stigmas of the others. Among 
other circimistances which warrant this explanation is 
the fact, that sometimes half, sometimes a third, or 
even a quarter, of the berries of a bunch belonged to 
the diflisrent sorts, and that these occiured on that side 
of it next the plant of that kind. — 31. Jack, in TJw Flora. 
[The same thing we haveseenat StradsettPark, Norfolk, 
A seedling vine raised there produces both black and 
white gTapes on the same bun ; but they are worthless. 
It is, therefore, very doubtful whether the ti'ansmission 
of poleu had anything to do with the change of colour.] 
* Miller's Foot-i>Hnts of the Creator. 
