824 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
Jantjabt 28 . 
Mexican empire as its most probable fatherland, and that it 
was carried to Europe and to Asia very early after the 
conquest of that territory. It was known to Clusius at 
Vienna, in 1594. Rumphius tells us that it was introduced 
into Amboyna, in 1094, from Batavia, were it was very 
common, meaning probably in gardens there. He also 
tells us that the Italian ones were the most esteemed in 
India. Yet in Italy tuberoses were still very scarce in the 
beginning of the eighteenth century. 
The Jessamine (Jasminum officinale), a native of East 
India, now as it were naturalised in some parts of Italy, is 
believed to have passed from East India into Arabia, thence 
into Egypt, and lastly, in the middle ages, into Italy. It 
appears to have been unknown to the ancient Greeks 
and Romans, for the references made to it by some com¬ 
mentators are evidently erroneous. The first mention of it 
in Italy is in a poem by Rueellai, written about 1524, 
where it is spoken of as a new flower unknown to the 
ancients. 
Matthioli, about 1559, also tells us it had not been long 
imported into Italy, although it was then already common in 
every garden. The Jasminum grandiflorum , a mere variety 
of the common one and very abundant in India in the wild 
state, was imported from Spain in the sixteenth century, 
and the Mugherino or Sambak (Jasminum Sambak), direct 
from Goa in the seventeenth. 
Carnations (Dianthus caryophyllus) are first recorded as 
having been cultivated by King Rene of Anjou and Provence, | 
at Aix, in the thirteenth century, but whether there raised j 
or imported from more southern climates does not appear. 
The wild type is common in Southern Europe, but with 
flowers of such very reduced dimensions that we must j 
presume a period of several ages requisite to produce those | 
splendid varieties now in cultivation. 
In the latter half of the sixteenth or in the early years 
of the seventeenth century, a considerable number of 
South American plants were introduced into Italian gardens ' 
either direct from Brazil, Mexico, or Peru, or through the 
Spaniards. Among those which speedily became generally 
cultivated, we may mention the Sunflower (Helianthus 
annuus), from Mexico or Peru ; the Nasturtium (Tropmolum 
majus), the Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis Jalapa), and the : 
Quamoclit), (Ipomoca Quamoclit), from Peru ; and the i 
Passion-flower (Passiflora cserulea), from Brazil. Dahlias, 
from Mexico, and Fuchsias from Peru, were not imported 
till the close of the eighteenth century. The east Indian 
Chrysanthemums, the Japanese Hydrangeas, and the Cape 
Pelargoniums, all well-established in Italian gardens, were 
brought there from England or France at the close of the 
last or the commencement of the present century. 
Having thus passed in review the long list of plants 
generally cultivated in Tuscany, whose history is investigated ! 
by Professor Targioni-Tozzetti, it remains for us to express 
our regret that our limited space has prevented our entering 1 
into numerous interesting details, for which we must refer 
to the work itself, as well as for the authorities upon which t 
they are founded, which are carefully given on every 
occasion. They show a vast amount of patient research, 
and supply a body of facts and references which it will be ! 
necessary for every one to consult who interests himself in 1 
this branch of botanical history and geography. We must i 
also express our obligations to the several botanists recently 
returned from long and active explorations of Northern 
and AVestern India, whose important observations and 
enlightened views have materially assisted us in the investi¬ 
gation of the wild types of cultivated species of real or 
supposed Asiatic origin. 
HOW LONDON IS SUPPLIED AVITH MEAT, 
POULTRY, VEGETABLES, AND MILK. 
(Continued from page .‘110.) 
Mr. Giblett, the noted butcher, late of Bond Street, 
calculates that the amount of meat brought by the railways 
into Newgate is three times that supplied by the London 
carcase butchers, who annually send 52,000 oxen, 156,000 
sheep, 10,400 calves, and 10,400 pigs. Taking this estimate, 
and applying it also to the Leadenhall market, we shall 
have at 
Beasts. 
Sheep. 
Calves, 
Pigs. 
Newgate, meat .... 
Leadenhall, ditto . . . 
156,000 
5,200 
468,000 
42,600 
31,200 
31,200 
Live stock brought to "i 
London.J 
161,200 
322,188 
509,600 
1,630,793 
31,200 
101,776 
31,200 
127,852 
Total supply of live stock 1 
and meat to London . l 
483,388 
2,140,393 
132,976 
159,052 
This we are convinced is still below the truth, for we have 
not included the country-killed meat sold at Farringdon and 
AVhitechapel markets.* The total value of this enormous 
supply of ilesh cannot be much less than fourteen millions 
annually. 
These figures demonstrate that the falling off of sheep 
sold at Smithfield is solely because they now come to town 
in the form of mutton. It is sent to a much greater extent 
than beef, in consequence of its arriving in finer condition, 
being more easily carried, and better worth the cost of 
conveyance on account of the larger proportion of prime 
joints. Indeed, the entire carcase of the oxen is never 
sent, since the coarse boiling pieces would have to pay the 
same carriage as the picked “roastings.” Newgate, be it 
remembered, is eminently a AVest End market, and fully 
two-thirds of its meat find its way to that quarter of the 
town. Accordingly, most of the beef “pitched” here consists 
of sirloins and ribs; and in addition to whole carcases of 
sheep, there are numerous separate legs and saddles of 
mutton. This accounts for a fact that has puzzled many, 
namely, how London manages to get such myriads of chops. 
Go into any part of the metropolis and look into the windows 
of the thousand eating-houses and coffee-shops tn the great 
thoroughfares, and in every one of them there is the in¬ 
variable blue dish with half-a-dozen juicy, well-trimmed 
chops, crowned with a sprig of parsley. To justify such a 
number, either four fold the supply of sheep must come to 
London that we have any account of, or, in lieu of the 
ordinary number of vertebra}, they must possess as many as 
the great boa. When the prodigious store of saddles which 
the country spares the town have once been seen the 
wonder ceases. “ Sometimes I cut one hundred saddles 
into chops to supply the eating houses," says Mr. Banister, 
of Threadneedle Street. 
The weather preserves a most delicate balance between 
Newgate and Smithfield. AVinter is the busy time at the 
former market, when meat can be carried any distance 
without fear of taint. As soon as summer sets in Smithfield 
takes its turn ; for butchers then prefer to purchase live¬ 
stock, in order that they may kill them the exact moment 
they are required. Sometimes as many as 1200 beasts and 
from 12,000 to 15,000 sheep are slaughtered in hot weather 
on a Friday night in the neighbourhood of Smithfield for 
Saturday’s market. Every precaution is taken on the rail¬ 
ways to keep the meat sweet. The Eastern Counties 
Company provide “ peds,” or cloths cut to the shape of the 
carcase or joint, for the use of their customers, and some¬ 
times it is conveyed from the north in boxes. AVlien, in 
spite of care, it turns out to be tainted, the salesman to 
whom it is consigned calls the officer of the market, by whom 
it is forthwith sent to Cow Cross, and there burnt in the 
nacker’s yard. According, however, to a competent witness, 
Mr. Harper, bad meat in any quantity can be disposed of 
in the metropolis to butchers living in low neighbuurhoods, 
who impose it upon the poor at night. “ There is one shop, 
I believe," he says, “ doing TOOO per week in diseased meat. 
This firm has a large foreign trade. The trade in diseased 
meat is very alarming, and anything in the shape of flesh 
can be sold at about Id. per lb. or Sd.per stone.” 
* There is, we confess, some little discrepancy between this estimate 
of the country-killed meat at Newgate, and the known quantity brought 
in by railway, as most assuredly 101,200 oxen, 509, Goo sbeep, and 62,400 
calves and pigs far outweigh the 36.487 tons of meat brought by the 
different lines, even “ sinking ” the offal. Hut so assured is Mr. Giblett, 
and the Smithfield Commissioners with him, that he is under the mark, 
that we give credit to his estimate, and take it for granted that much 
country-killed meat must come to market by other conveyance than the 
railway. 
