the garden have, from the time of its foundation, been frequently consulted by the government in every branch relating to the science of botany, and these consultations have occupied much of their precious time.

The garden of Madrid was in open correspondence with the principal gardens of Europe and America, excepting England, where their only correspondent was Aylmer Bourke Lambert, Esq., to whom they were in the habit of sending annually some thousands of seeds, and who, in his turn, sent considerable numbers of those which were asked of him. The garden made great acquisitions by the annual collections sent from the island of Cuba by their corresponding member Don Mariano Espinosa, to whom the government, in consequence, assigned 400l. sterling a year, from 1805; by those sent from Mexico by Don Vicente Cervantes; and by those sent by the different members and amateurs throughout the Peninsula. It is in consequence of this that the greatest part of the plants of Cuba, Mexico, and South America, reared in the botanical gardens of Europe for the last forty years, were communicated to them through the botanical garden of Madrid; such are, among many others, the cobea, stevias, many and very beautiful salviæ, mimosæ, solanaceæ, malvaceæ, compositifloræ, gramineæ, onagrariæ, and leguminosa.

The schools of this establishment have been always very well attended, both by students and hearers; the establishment itself enjoyed great reputation in the nation; its professors having diffused much valuable information, not only in the way above hinted, but by the numerous and estimable writings which, during the seventy-one years it existed, have been published, and which amount to more than eighty volumes, including translations. It is to this establishment that the information, not only in botanical matters, but in those of agriculture, and the taste introduced into Spain for the other branches of natural sciences, is owing.

The garden of Madrid furnishes the public gratis with all the medicinal plants which it possesses, and with great quantities of seeds of umbrageous trees, ornamental plants, as well as those of pasturage, and other useful ones, both in husbandry and pharmacy; so that three men are continually employed in preparing boxes of seeds to send as presents to private individuals, and to foreign gardens in the way of exchange.

Such is, briefly, the state in which the botanical garden of Madrid was in 1823, when the liberty of Spain was overturned, and with it the hope of seeing established the botanical gardens decreed by the Cortes in 1821, in their regulations for public instruction, in which a garden was ordered to be

erected in every capital of a province throughout the Spanish monarchy; six others in as many schools of the medical sciences, and three great rural establishments, or practical schools of agriculture, in Spain, and various others in the Canaries, Cuba, and other parts of the Spanish ultra-marine possessions. The hope of seeing the results of so many voyages made for promoting natural history, at so extraordinary an expense, by the Spanish government, published, has also vanished. A fugitive and a proscript from my native country from the moment liberty perished there, and deprived of the power of communicating with those unprejudiced individuals who alone could inform me of the truth, I am totally ignorant how matters stand there. However, through persons worthy of credit lately arrived from Spain, I am informed that the School of Agriculture has been closed, because its professor Arias, who was at the head of it, was declared impurifiable; that in 1824 the School of Botany remained closed, that in 1825 it opened only in the month of July; that during the period of the two last years the cultivation of the garden has been greatly neglected, as the labourers were not paid; that the librarian, Don Simon de Roxas Clemente, has been banished from Madrid in consequence of his having been a deputy of the Cortes in the years 1820 and 1821; that several of the oldest and most skilful gardeners of the establishment have been dismissed from it, in consequence of having belonged to the National Militia of Madrid, and having followed the constitutional government to Cadiz; and, lastly, that in the summer of 1825 the said librarian was recalled.

(To be continued.)

ART. II. Notices of three New Keeping Pears. By JOHN BRADDICK, Esq. F.H.S.

Dear Sir,

It was my intention to have sent you some fine specimens of new keeping pears to be noticed in the next number of the Gardener's Magazine; but I am greatly disappointed, owing to the room in which I am at present constrained to keep my fruit not being proof against rats and mice. The only sorts which those vermin have left me I now send you, as follows: Surpasse St. Germain; the large brown and green pear (fig.45. a, full size). [An excellent fruit, the best of the three. Con.]

Grande Bretagne Dorée; the middle-sized yellow pear (fig. 45. b, full size). [An excellent fruit, with a peculiar terebinthinate flavour.- Con.]

Prince de Printems; the small green pear (fig. 45. c, full size). [Sugary and melting, but eaten rather too soon to judge fully of its merits.- Con.]

45

Buds of these pears were given to me, about seven years ago, by Mr. Louis Stoffells of Malines. The fruit has been exhibited at meetings of the H. S. Those now sent to you grew against a N.W. wall at my cottage, Thames Ditton. If you find either of these pears worth notice, mention it in your next number. Very respectfully, I am,

Boughton Mount, Maidstone, 8th April.

My dear Sir, &c.

JOHN BRADDICK.

ART. III. Dalhousie Castle & Gardens; the Botany of the Neighbourhood, and various Remarks. By Mr. JOSEPH ARCHIBALD, C.M. H.S., upwards of Nineteen Years Gardener there.

Dear Sir,

I HAVE taken the liberty of sending you a few observations, made during my residence at Dalhousie Castle. If you consider them deserving a place in your excellent miscellany, the "Gardener's Magazine," it will be very gratifying to me to have contributed in the least possible way to the usefulness of such an interesting work.

Dalhousie Castle, one of the seats of the Right Honourable the Earl of Dalhousie, is situated about eight miles south-east from Edinburgh; two miles from Dalkeith, and the like distance from Lasswade. It is a very ancient structure, the date of its erection not being, I believe, correctly known. A large addition, and considerable alterations, were made ten years ago, and it is intended to commence the building of a new front to the north, this summer. It is delightfully situated on the north bank of the South Esk, the scenery is very romantic and varied, the rocky banks of the river being adorned with natural oak, &c. The principal approach from the north was laid out, about twenty years ago, by the late Mr. Walter Nicol; a great improvement in it is proposed at the main entrance, by bringing the carriage-road over a small brook, and through part of a plantation. It is also intended to extend the approach from the south, to about one-fourth of a mile to the southward, as soon as the public road can be removed to the westward. By this means, a very fine bridge of three arches will be included in the pleasure-grounds.

Since I entered his lordship's service in 1807, nearly two hundred acres have been planted; partly in belts, for shelter on the high grounds; but the greater part for ornament, and cover for game. Some of the banks of plantation near the Castle, planted about thirty years ago, are now being converted into oak coppices.

Vol. I. No. 3.

T

I now beg to give you a short description of the garden and hot-houses, which were the design of Mr. John Hay, garden architect, Edinburgh, in 1806. The garden (fig.46.) is on the north side of the river, about one fourth of a mile east from the Castle, and contains nearly four acres. The plan is certainly very different from, and in effect far surpasses the ordinary mode of enclosing gardens by straight. walls, in the form of squares or parallelograms; the wall here, which is fifteen feet in height, having been built in a curved and winding direction, to suit the adjacent ground. The situation has been much admired by every person of taste who has visited it: one particular beauty consists in the natural fence on the south side, being perpendicular, rugged rocks, to the depth of from 30 to 40 feet to the bed of the river, with a walk along the top. The range of glazed houses is 203 feet in length, consisting of a green-house in the centre 36 feet, two vineries 77 feet, and two peach-houses 45 feet each; with an excellent room on a level with the top of the greenhouse stage, where are deposited some beautiful specimens of natural history, and a few useful books on botany, gardening, agriculture, &c.

The details of the garden exhibit

rican plants.

c) Melon ground.

(d) Gardener's house.

(e) Greenhouse.