THE MIXED FLOWER GARDEN. 
‘ the finest fruits in the world,’ in those localities in which they are supposed to attain their highest 
perfection,—the Pine Apple in Guayaquil, the Chirimoya on the slopes of the Andes, and the Mangos- 
teen in the Indian Archipelago. Perplexing as must always he the office of a Paris, when on either 
side such high claims are advanced, yet, I think we may, in this case, without offence to the advocates 
of the other, assign ‘ the apple ’ to the chirimoya. Its taste surpasses that of all other fruits, and 
Hsenke was quite right when calling it a master-piece of nature.”— Hooker's Journal of Botany. 
At the Edinburgh Botanical Society’s Meeting, last May, Dr. Murchison exhibited some curious 
specimens of Extract of Tea, prepared in the form of lozenges by the Chinese. These lozenges were 
of various forms, and had impressed upon them mottoes in Chinese characters, and the figures of 
different insects, musical instruments, and other objects. They had been brought from Pekin in the 
year 1812, and were stated to be used by the Chinese when travelling; when introduced into the 
mouth, they were said to dissolve slowly, preventing thirst, and proving very refreshing. Though it 
was forty years since they had been brought from China, they still retained a very perceptible flavour 
of Tea. Dr. Murchison presented the specimens to the Museum of Economic Botany, at the Eoyal 
Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. 
The Taban (. Isonanda Gutta , Hooker), formerly so plentiful in Singapore, has long since been 
extinct. It must ever be an object of regret, that on the first introduction of the Taban Gum, its 
proper name was not promulgated. Now, everybody in Europe and America, speaks of Gutta Percha, 
when, in fact, all the time, they mean the Gutta Taban. The exportation of the indigenous Gutta 
Taban, from Singapore, commenced in 1844, but as early as 1847 all, or at least, most of the trees had 
been exterminated. That at present shipped from the place is brought in coasting vessels from the 
different ports of Borneo, Sumatra, the Malayan Peninsula, and Jahore Archipelago. The difference 
existing in its appearance and property is owing to the intermixture of Gutta Percha, Jeletong, Gegrek, 
Litchu, and other inferior Guttas, in order to increase the weight. Though far from extinct in the 
Indian Archipelag'o, Gutta Taban will every year be more difficult to obtain, as the coast region is 
pretty well cleared, and a long transport from the interior must, by augmenting the labour, increase 
the price of the article. The quantity of solid Gutta obtained from each tree varies from five to twenty 
catties, so that taking the average of ten catties, which is a tolerably liberal one, it will require the 
destruction of ten trees to produce one picul. Now the quantity exported from Singapore to 
Europe, from January, 1845, to the middle of 1847, amounted to 6918 piculs, to obtain which 69,180 
trees must have been sacrificed. How much better it would be to adopt the method of tapping the 
tree, practised by the Burmese in obtaining the Caoutchouc, than to continue the present process of 
extermination.— Seeman in Hooker's Journal of Botany. 
THE MIXED ELOWEE GAEDEN. 
t T is much to be regretted that the rage for novelty often leads to the neglect of plants which, from 
having been in the country many years, and a variety of other causes, are partially gone out of re¬ 
pute, and are only met with here and there, where the rage for massing has not excluded the mixed 
flower garden. The beauty of some of these neglected plants is in no way inferior, and often superior, 
to such as have only novelty to recommend them. No place of any pretension should be without a 
mixed flower border; and as there are few places in which it would be desirable to keep up a collec¬ 
tion of plants without regard to their intrinsic merits for beauty and adaptibility for decorative pur¬ 
poses, therefore a selection of good things would be infinitely preferable. I propose to offer to the 
amateur readers of the Garden Companion a few remarks on a selection of plants adapted for produ¬ 
cing very good effects in a mixed arrangement; which arrangement, in my estimation, contains many 
charms ; and although I am equally alive to the grandeur of the effects produced by an harmonious 
arrangement of colours in large masses, as exemplified in the bedding system, yet I can quite as well 
appreciate the intrinsic charms of individual plants in a mixed arrangement. If, too, I may judge from 
the expressions of admiration, and the particular inquiries of many persons, particularly ladies, with 
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