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make a good cup or two-and twisted tea | destroying the form of the victim, at last or old-man's eyebrows.

As a pendant to the dairy-plants the lightgiving ones may be adduced. In the first place we have candle-wicks from China, made of the pith of a plant, as well as our own rushlight wicks, the pith of Juncus effusus, of which a curious twisted variety is to be seen in the little Froggery in the centre of the hardy Fernery between the Temple of Aolus and the Museum. Then there are seeds of the Croton sebifera or Chinese tallow plant, with candles manufactured therefrom; candles made from the acorns of an oak of New Grenada, from the Myrica segregata of New Grenada, from the wax of Myrica parvifolia, and of Myrica macrocarpa.

converts it into a mummy. A similar slaughter of larvæ is performed in Van Diemen's land by a representative fungus, the Sphæria Gunnii; and another carries on the same work in China, Sphæria Sinensiswhile the S. entomorhiza tries it even in these parts, so far removed from cannibalism. Living wasps have been taken in the West Indies with a fungus growing from their bodies. Still animal-feeders are not common among plants-unless we include those orchids which a cockney visitor to the Gardens asserted to live entirely on hair.

The Museum not only communicates positive truth, but aids in the dissipation of vulgar error. Thus, it clears the poor darnel, Lolium arvense, from an unjust imputation.

Those who are fond of observing extreme" Darnel," says the Museum through Proplants will find plenty in some shape. The Museum has in a dried state the Rhododendron nivale-the most alpine shrub in the world-brought by Dr. Hooker from an elevation upon Kinchin Jonga, equal to 17,500 feet above the ocean level. And the Garden has the most southern tree, the evergreen beech, Fagus betuloides, from Tierra del Fuego. That it is a real tree is evidenced by the fact that Captain King made large boats that would hold several men from one trunk, which happened to grow in a sheltered valley; while on the exposed heights of Hermit Island the same species is so dwarfish and stunted, and the branches so densely compacted, like other plants in similar situations (see the undetermined alsinaceous plant from Thibet in the Museum)that the traveller is able literally to walk upon the tops of them! For such plants in the south of England the summer's heat is more to be feared than the winter's wet or cold. They droop and are overpowered, like the white bears in the Regent's Park, under the rays of our oppressive sun.

Herbivorous animals are well known, and are supposed to fall in conveniently with the natural order of things; but we are here informed that there exist-in revenge-carnivorous vegetables. On the mantel-shelf stood, and may still stand, a glass case containing the perfect insect and larva of the creature, a Hawk moth, Hepialus virescens, which is preyed on by the Caterpillar Fungus, Sphæria Robertsii. The caterpillar buries itself in the earth to undergo transformation into the perfect insect; while it is lying dormant there, the fungus inserts a root into the nape of its neck, feeds and flourishes on the animal matter, and, without

fessor Henslow, "is generally reputed to be noxious, and is added to beer (or something else under that name) to increase its intoxicating properties. But De Candolle considers its ill report to be a popular fallacy, and says it is used by the French peasantry for bread in times of scarcity." Grains of the calumniated grass are shown, looking not unlike grains of rye, whence its name of rye-grass; and Edward Salmon, laborer, of Hitcham, Suffolk, sends half a loaf (proverbially better than none) of Darnel bread, exhibited at his Horticultural Show-(we suppose the bold fellow dared to eat the other half)—in appearance better than many a loaf of ryebread which we have seen used as the common food of man and beast, but never had the heroism to taste. It is true, however, that the darnel, like rye, is apt to be attacked by the ergot; and persons eating rye-bread made from flour mixed with ergot are sometimes paralyzed. The ergot itself affords a useful but dangerous drug, and of uncertain efficacy. Some able practitioners have no faith in it for good.

Some light is also thrown on certain little quackeries, of not profound ingenuity. If dyspeptic patients were told that their sufferings would be relieved by a simple farinaceous diet, they might choose to be skeptically scornful; but if they are recommended, by advertisement, to breakfast on something with a sonorous Latin name, who can resist the recipe? "There is," says the Museum, "a plant called Ervum Lens-in plain vernacular, lentil-the meal or flour of the seeds was first recommended for use as Ervalenta, in conjunction with Mélasse de la CochinChina, or common treacle! It met with a great sale at three times its value, until ex

plained by Dr. Pereira. This led to another | bamboo; the bark on one side is raised in name being given to it, Revalenta Arabica, four strips, answering to strings-a bridge from the Revalenta Estates!!!—the seeds at each end gives the requisite tension-a being much used in Egypt and Arabia. sounding hole is cut in the middle-and the That again was explained by the same phar- thing is done. A native performer might maceutist, and it now meets with a ready produce effects that would charm native ears; sale, by vendors whose powers of face are but we may believe it was not this instrunot equal to their predecessors, as lentil ment with which Orpheus led the brutes. meal, or flour of lentils." The same shelf displays bottles of lentils of various growth, and also bottles of Revalenta Arabica, Ervalenta, lentil powder, and patent flour of lentils, for comparison with the purchased packets at hand as witnesses. The permission of this disclosure is rather a cruel piece of demonstration on the part of the Director. If a man has genius enough to make his fortune by a rebus or an anagram, it is unkind not to let him do so. We should take it unfriendly to be in any way hindered in the accumulation of a plum from the rapid sale of muffins and crumpets at a high premium, after we had given them a run by the application of grandiose titles.

The cases containing specimens of injury to timber by insects, and from bad pruning, must be inspected to have their importance appreciated; while the cases of flax and its products are equally interesting to the ladies, who, while they are familiar with the "Irish," will be pleased and surprised by the colored velvets manufactured from the same fibre. There are many beautiful models in wax in various parts of this room-but fruits, flowers, gourds, &c., in spirits show us the real thing. There is the Jack, or Jaca, the * largest known edible fruit-and a portion of the wonderful Rafflesia Arnoldi, the largest known flower.

The series of Papers, from the untaught productions of the hornet and the wasp, followed by those prepared from various barks, will be completed by our highly-finished stationery of the present day, as soon as arrangements for its reception can be made. But as to barks, there is no knowing to what > purposes they may not be turned. In the gallery are natural sacks, formed of the bark of the Sack-tree, Lepurandra saccidora, with a section of the tree left at one end to form the bottom. Another bark, that of Bertholletia excelsa, serves at Pará for caulking ships. Several barks are employed as cigartubes, or as envelopes for cigars-layers of that of one tree, called in Brazil Cascarilla, are cut into lengths of five or six inches, folded the thickness of a tobacco-pipe, up and are then ready for use in that capacity. A late importation is a rude sort of guitar from Paraná. It consists of a single joint of

It is here too we may behold what our daily food consists of. Pause over these three potatoes modelled faithfully in wax. How Cobbett would have gloried had he lived to see it demonstrated that a pound of this vegetable contains nearly 12 ounces of water, and only 6 pennyweights, 9 grains, and 6 tenths of a grain, of nutritive matter! To him Professor Henslow would have been a second Daniel. We should like to see the chemist put them together again, and make three honest potatoes of these ingredients.

The Reverend Professor's various services to the Museum are warmly eulogized in the "Guide" (p. 49). He has, however, lately received a more flattering tribute than even this. A party of his parishioners, up for their Exhibition treat, were brought to Kew, and in conducting them through the houses a sort of clinical lecture on the contents was given. A gentleman, who caught a few sentences, begged permission to join the visitors, and listen to the delightful explanations. All concluded, he advanced to the showman, and in token of his great satisfaction offered him a shilling. Modest refusals, and hints that it was as much as his place was worth, were answered by an off-hand, "Oh, take it! take it!" We beg to charge Mr. Henslow with want of presence of mind in not taking it. Had such a chance been ours, we would have received it thankfully, got it double-gilt in the best style, and then displayed it as our professorial medal-a sincere testimonial.

The national value at this time attained by Kew must be at once admitted by whoever peruses the Director's last Report. The document is so full of matter that we have a difficulty in abridging it. The principal points, at least, shall be selected-though for our own reasons not exactly in the order in which Sir William Hooker, for his, found it expedient to arrange them.

"The Garden is especially intended to be the means of introducing new, rare, and useful plants, and dispersing them through our own and other and persons trading in exotic plants. Perhaps at countries, and to give an impulse to nurseries no period has there been so great a stimulus given to this introduction of new, rare, but more espe

cially useful plants, as during the last ten years; | lation among people capable of forethought and the Royal Gardens of Kew have contributed and common sense! The reign of Victoria largely on this head, partly by means of collectors will be chronicled as the era of a mutual dissent out from thence, but still more by the exten- tribution of the vegetable productions of the sive correspondence of the Director with intelliwhole world, through the agency of Kew. gent persons in all parts of the globe, aided, as such communication has been, by the public and It is in consequence of her Majesty's considprivate services of individuals and companies, erate liberality in ceding such a large addimore than can be enumerated, in conveying our tional extent of ground, that the establishcollections to and from the East and to and from ment has been able to raise itself into this the West free of expense. influential position-to be a metropolis of plants. But we must quote further. Sir William Hooker gives particulars of what has been done.

"It were impossible here to notice a tithe of the rare, or useful, or ornamental plants which these Gardens have imported and distributed. A few of those quite recently received may be mentioned -such as the Tussack grass from the Falkland Islands, proved to be already of the highest con- "Our books of the Garden show that we have sequence to the West of England, Scotland, and sent abroad, mainly to our own territories, between Ireland, particularly to the Orkneys and He- January, 1847, and December, 1850, living rooted brides, and analogous climates; the Pará grass, plants, in glazed Wardian cases, as follows:-To (introduced by Earl Grey,) now transmitted to Ascension Island, 330 plants (mostly trees and various tropical and sub-tropical colonies; the shrubs calculated to bear exposure to the sea-breezes deciduous and evergreen beeches of Tierra del and the most powerful winds, and the success of Fuego; the lace bark-tree of Jamaica; the jute these has been beyond all expectation, affording of India; the Chinese grass, as it is called, which shelter and protection where none could be obtained affords the best material for calico, and which has before); Bombay, 160; Borneo, 16; Calcutta, latterly been cultivated in the British territories 211; Cape of Good Hope, 60; Cape De Verdes, abroad; the African teak, long celebrated in ship- 20; Ceylon, 136; Constantinople, 90; Demebuilding, yet till now unknown to science; the best rara, 57; Falkland Islands, 118; Florence, 28; caoutchouc (Siphonia elastica); the cow-tree of Grey Town, Mosquito, 30; Hong Kong, 108; JaSouth America; the double cocoa-nut, (Lodoiceamaica, 124; Lima, 33; Mauritius, 36; Port Natal, Sechellarum,) that rarest of all palms; the Iluon pine, from Van Diemen's Land--which proves hardy--[and is among the most beautiful of conifers]; the Cinchona bark (through Mr. Pentland); a hardy palm from China, &c. &c. The Victoria regia, introduced through our means, is perhaps one of the most remarkable plants ever reared in Europe; and the number of new and extraordinarily beautiful Rhododendrons sent to us by Dr. Hooker from India, has excited the astonishment of botanists both at home and abroad. In the eastern extremity of the Himalaya-at elevations varying from 6,000 to 18,000 feet above the level of the sea-this traveller has detected, and in most cases drawn and described on the spot, no less than thirty-seven kinds, the majority of which are quite new. Twenty-two of these have already been reared at the Royal Gardens.

"We are sure that there is not a respectable nurseryman in the kingdom who has not profited by the riches of Kew, and is not willing to make presents to us in return. In such hands, the plants become commercial objects, multiplied, sold, and dispersed with a rapidity that few are aware of. It was not long after the introduction of the beautiful Clarkia pulchella from North-west America into England, that a naturalist found it cultivated in the windows of the rooms at Hammerfest, (the open air being too cold for it,) in 73° north. The seeds had passed from England to Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. It graced, says the traveller, the residence of our host, and I observed this delicate and singularly shaped flower in many cottages of very inferior description near the North Cape."--Report for 1850.

Here is matter for reflection and congratu

29; New Zealand, 57; Pará, 33; Port Philip, 33; St. Domingo, 34; Sierra Leone, 71; Sydney, 392; South Australia, 76; Trinidad, 215; NorthWest Africa, 65; West Australia, 46; Van Diemen's Land, 60; Valparaiso 34: total 2722, dispatched in 64 glazed cases, besides four cases of Pará grass. N. B.—From nearly all the abovementioned colonies or countries, very rich and val uable returns have been sent either to the Garden or the Museum, or both.”

The agency of Kew in interchanging the plants of tropical climates is not the less important because the process is little perceived at home; but that much good still remains to be performed by this agency may be understood from the fact that till 1784 the mango had not been introduced to Jamaica, and the acquisition then happened more by accident than by design. The fruit is now largely cultivated there in upwards of forty varieties, which are known not by names, but by numbers, as in Haller's nomenclature, or rather lists, the finest fruit being No. 11. And even after various introductions have taken place, a central halfway house for tropical plants still continues necessary. The Jamaica ginger-plant, originally a native of the East, is found so superior to others, that Oriental cultivators are anxious to be re-stocked from the improved offspring of their own grounds. The value of colonial botanic gardens here becomes ap

parent; but they are the provincials, and f Kew the head-quarters. Dr. Lindley had wisely directed attention to the importance of this point:

“There are (said he) many gardens in the British colonies and dependencies, as Calcutta, Bombay, Saharanpore [in the Mauritius], at Sydney and Trinidad, costing many thousands a year. Their utility is much diminished by the want of some system under which they can all be regulated and controlled. There is no unity of purpose among them; their objects are unsettled, their powers wasted, from not receiving a proper direction; they afford no aid to each other, and it is to be feared but little to the countries where they are established; and yet they are capable of conferring very important benefits upon commerce and of conducing essentially to colonial prosperity.

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"The mass of this great accession of visitors comes, no doubt, for pleasure, or health and relaxation; but many come for the avowed purpose of horticultural or botanical study; many for draw"A national botanic garden would be the cening botanical subjects, for sketching trees to be tre around which all these lesser establishments introduced into landscapes, and copying novel or should be arranged; they should all be placed striking vegetable productions; others for modelunder the control of the chief of that garden, act-ling flowers and making designs for manufactured ing with him and through him with each other, reporting constantly their proceedings, explaining their wants, receiving supplies, and aiding the mother country in everything useful in the vegetable kingdom. Medicine, commerce, agriculture, horticulture, and many valuable branches of manufacture, would derive considerable advantage from the establishment of such a system."

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The number of packets of seeds received at the
Gardens it would be difficult to state. From Dr.
Hooker alone, chiefly from Himalaya and North-
Eastern Bengal, we have had 1532 packets
within the last two years.

"A part of the Royal Gardens, comprising about 200 acres, consisting of wood and extensive lawns and walks, usually known as PleasureGround, and till lately occupied as game-cover by the King of Hanover, has been planted systematically and ornamentally with a great variety of such trees and shrubs as will bear the open air. Already in the short space of two years, it is, perhaps, the most complete collection contained in any single arboretum. The fullest catalogue of hardy trees and shrubs was published by Loudon in 1842. included of presumed

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goods. The several schools of drawing and of design in London derive great advantage from this collection, and on making application they are supplied with such specimens as can be spared at their own rooms. Various objects in the New Palm House, the Orchidaceous House, the Fernery, and, above all, that noble aquatic plant, the Victoria regia, have been eminently attractive to artists; and the number of engravings, and drawings, and models of them has been very great.* Every facility is given by the director and curator, and it has been suggested that one or two rooms might be advantageously appropriated to those Who come for the express purpose of copying plants. Numerous schools, especially charityschools, are in the habit of frequenting these gardens, and they can hardly fail to gain some instruction from their visits."

By the close of September, 1851, the number of visitors had reached the sum total of 308,000! On the whole, then--looking at the data before us, and making every allowance for the influx of strangers in consequence of the Hyde Park Exhibition-we cannot take the present certain aggregate at less than 200,000 annually;-nor have we the least doubt that a large increase is to be calculated upon. The annual grant to Kew is 7000l., out of which are paid many humble but necessary expenses, such as taking down trees, &c. &c. Now 200,000 visitors, at ninepence a head, would produce 75007. per annum. Therefore-throwing aside all that may truly be called ignorant clamor and delusive hope about the chance of making such

* Let us call attention particularly to the splen didly illustrated work on the Victoria Regia, dedicated to the Duchess of Northumberland, by Sir W. Hooker himself.

institutions self-supporting*-if the nation | presents every individual who visits the Gardens with a ticket costing somewhat less than ninepence, it gets into the bargain gratuitously all the honorable advantage and horticultural precedence which the afore-quoted passages demonstrate to be its right.

A curiosity arises to know how these students in the garden comport themselves. The regulations are given in Sir W. Hooker's "Guide:"

"1. Smoking, or eating and drinking, or the carrying of provisions of any kind into the Gardens, is strictly forbidden.

"2. No packages or parcels can be admitted. Ladies, who may feel incommoded by their cloaks, umbrellas, &c., can deposit them in the cloakroom, near the head of the first walk."

John Bull and his family, absent from home, require a constant supply of little "snacks," however hearty and recent the last meal may have been. We once saw an old lady in a stage-coach pull out her pocket-pistol, and her cake-basket, exclaiming, with a triumphant flourish, "I've travelled twenty miles without tasting!" And so at Kew, the hungry tourists, just landed from the Boat or discharged from the Bus, buy as many pottles of strawberries or gooseberries as they can carry in addition to their other provender, which is confidently brought for the purpose of being devoured under the first spreading tree in the Royal Gardens which has smooth turf and a seat beneath it. But-the janitors are as iron as the gates, and as stony as the gate posts, and the fruitvenders never drop a hint of the fact. Just outside the paradise grows a very unpleasant tree, and "beneath fit umbrage" sits a faithful guardian, who, for the small fee of two-pence, "takes charge" of any parcel that may inconvenience its owner till his final exit. A curious little pile of votive offerings to the Dryads is sometimes to be seen at the foot of this envious horse-chesnut, from the

neat basket which might convey flowers and cuttings out, as well as comestibles in, to the cuttings out, as well as comestibles in, to the paper bag of oranges, the pottles of fruit, and large uncouth packages of what the

natural philosopher, on strict analysis, must pronounce to be hunches of bread and cheese. It might be said, in apology for this tyranny, that the gardeners have plenty to do, without the daily sweeping up of orange-peel, plum-stones, nut-shells, pieces of paper, gooseberry-husks, and ginger-beer corks; and that if people are famished and fainting, there are plenty of taverns and tea-gardens within a bow-shot of the gates. But the plea will not avail. The ruling powers are exceedingly unfeeling thus to stop the supplies. As housemaids would say, "Missis is very particular."

bly can be admitted, nor children too young to "3. No person attired otherwise than respectatake care of themselves, unless a parent or suitable guardian be with them; the police have strict orders to remove such, as also persons guilty of any kind of impropriety.

4. It is by no means forbidden to walk upon the lawns; still it is requested that preference be given to the gravel-paths, and especially that the kind of footway, for nothing renders them more lawn edges parallel to the walks be not made a unsightly.

5. It is requested that visitors will abstain from touching the plants and flowers: a contrary practice can only lead to the suspicion, perhaps unfounded, that their object is to abstract a flower or a cutting, which, when detected, must be followed by disgraceful expulsion."

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member of a liberal profession pockets part If, near the same date, a of a fern, denies it, is searched, and has to

yield the chattel;-if women, in elegant they ought to respect sacredly; a low attire, can pluck flowers which they know opinion must be formed of the moral sense

of such amateurs. It is clear that total ab

* "It is to be lamented that the gardens of the stinence is the only rule compatible with the great towns, such as Liverpool, Glasgow, Hull, very existence of the gardens. A luxuriant Manchester, Birmingham, &c. &c., reared by volun- plant, as the Coral Tree, Erythrina_lauritary subscriptions, are many of them nearly in a folia, may have on it two or three hundred state of bankruptcy for want of the continued encour-tempting blossoms at once. agement of the inhabitants: Belfast, however, standIf I take only ing out in striking contrast, from the spirited charone, it cannot be missed." But you are one acter of its population, and the peculiar tact and of a party of four or five thousand; and if talent of the present curator."-Report. others are as anxious for a specimen of the

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