Pruning and staking all kinds of trees should now be attended to. A little attention to this will add greatly to their form and appearance.

Grafted trees should be looked after, and the clay and matting removed, if the ties are girdling the stems.

Thinning the fruit is an important object, when young trees have set too large a quantity.

FLOWER DEPARTMENT.

Camellias should now be removed from the greenhouse or conservatory, into a half shady situation, and be properly arranged and placed upon boards, so that the worms cannot enter the pots. See that they are regularly syringed.

Pelargoniums will be past their beauty the latter part of the month, when they should be removed to the open air, and their branches headed in and cuttings put in, if a young stock is wanted.

Ericas should be removed to frames facing the north, or plunged out into the open ground in a half shady situation.

Diosmas, epacrises, &c. may receive the same treatment as the ericas. Oxalises, Sparaxis, Ixias, &c., done blooming, should be placed in a dry place, and the pots placed on their sides.

Japan Lilies will begin to flower this month; let them be neatly staked up, and be liberally watered, and occasionally syringed.

Fuchsius will now be in full flower, and should be occasionally watered with a weak solution of guano.

Roses wanted for flowering in beds or clumps, should be turned out immediately. Those wanted for blooming in the autumn should be plunged in the ground in a sheltered place, and the soil mulched with litter. Where a young stock is wanted, they may now be propagated from cuttings.

Achimenes and Gloxinias will now be great ornaments of the greenhouse, and a good stock should always be on hand for this purpose. Repot such as require it, and bring on a fresh lot for late blooming.

Cyclamens may now be turned out into the open ground, selecting a half shady place.

Napolitan violets may now be increased, by dividing the roots and making new plantations.

Hyacinths and tulips may be taken up the latter part of the month.

Azaleas, removed from the house, should be placed in a half shady aspect, and plunged in tan or the open ground.

Daphnes may still be propagated from cuttings.

Ipoma a Learii should now be turned out into the open border, and trained up to stakes at least eight feet high. It will form a complete pyramid of bloom in August.

Heliotropes may be propagated for a stock for winter flowering.

Greenhouse plants of all kinds may now be removed to the open air; and a great number of kinds do much better if they are plunged out into the border, especially Abutilons, Alloysias, Euphorbias, Salvias, and scarlet Geraniums.

OF

HORTICULTURE.

JULY, 1847.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

ART. I. List of Tropical Plants which may be acclimated in the Southern States. By DR. A. MITCHELL: in a Letter to Hon. H. A. S. DEARBORN. Communicated by Gen. Dearborn.

DEAR SIR,-Yours of the 18th was duly received, and its contents, as usual, perused with pleasure. I will here remark, that, agreeably to your wishes, and in observance of the rules of punctuality, I had previously requested Dr. Henry Bacon, of St. Mary's, Geo., to give me a full history of the mode of culture of the Arrow Root in that region. And as this matter is connected exclusively with our present desires to show the success in the acclimation of tropical plants, in our country, it becomes necessary to show the difference in the mode of culture and soils, comparably with that of the West India Islands. As you well know that a competent knowledge of the physical causes which affect the growth and nutrition of plants points out the more obvious means of insuring success, when I receive from Dr. B. the communication on this subject, a full detail shall be immediately enclosed to you.

It is my opinion, that all plants, however opposite the zones in which they exist, can be transplanted and acclimated with success, if the natural order of those plants can be specified and detected as an inhabitant, indigenously growing in the respective and opposite latitudes, where there are existing proofs of such facts.

We will here subjoin a list of those plants that can be cultivated with success in Florida, and gradually introduced; some of them, I am well aware, have been cultivated to a

certain extent in our country; but a new mode of chemical process, and knowledge of facts connected with scientific inquiries may revive them with more purity, and render them. a lucrative article of commercial exports. Such observations would more properly include the indigo plant; likewise the madder plant (Rùbia tinctòrium); the Turkish poppy, (Papàver somniferum); saffron plant, (Cròcus sativus); olive tree, (Olea europæ`a); tea plant, (Thèa viridis); coffee plant, (Coffea arábica); sago plant, (Cycas revoluta); black pepper, (Piper nigrum); nutmeg, (Myristica officinalis); Mahogany tree, (Swietenia Mahagoni); the banana and plantain, (Mùsa paradisiaca, and M. sapiéntum); papaw tree (Cárica papàya); Mammee tree, (Mámmea americàna); date palm, cocoa-nut tree; likewise the Teak-tree (Tectòna grándis) which could be introduced and rendered valuable. The sugar cane (Arúndo saccharifera) is gradually improving in the amount of saccharine matter contained in its annual cuttings, and, since its introduction and cultivation in the southern portion of our country, its joints have become more extensively filled with the saccharine juice, and it will not be long before it will yield equal to that cultivated in the West India islands, constitutionally adapting itself to regions farther north. I am, dear sir, respectfully yours, AUGUSTUS MITCHELL.

Portland, Maine, June, 1847.

Our thanks are again due to General Dearborn for the communication of Dr. Mitchell's paper. The subject is one of deep interest to our agriculturists, and the suggestions of Dr. Mitchell, that the plants of the opposite zones can be cultivated with success in the southern portion of the country, are undoubtedly correct. It only wants some zealous cultivators to feel an interest in the matter to make a full trial of the kinds he names. The lamented Dr. Perrine, who labored so long in this great object, had just begun to see some of the fruits of his many years devotion to it, when the Florida war commenced its long continuation delayed and frustrated his plans, and he finally fell a victim to the ferocity of the savages, who then spread over that part of the territory. Now that there is every opportunity open to prosecute the work, we hope Dr. Mitchell may find friends who will assist him in carrying out his suggestions.-Ed.

ART. II. A Way to keep a Record of the Place of every Tree in an Orchard,-with or without Labels. By M. W. PHILIPS, Edwards, Miss.

I QUOTE the first part of the above sentence from page 156, as used in the heading of an article on this subject, and 1 might state an advertisement, offering a farm for sale.

I herewith give you my plan, and, thinking it so simple, I would not have thought of telling any one how, but for the article alluded to.

My peach orchards I designate as "Griffiths" or "S. W. orchard," Downing's," or "East orchard," and "The orchard." The first contains 25 rows, of 16 trees each; the second, 28 rows, of 16 trees each; the third not complete.

I begin at a farm road leading south, and number the first orchard as row No. 1 West, No. 2 E., No. 1 W., &c: trees in each row, Nos. 1, 2, 3, &c., going north to south-all of which rows are laid off with a compass.

I have a book in which I keep registered the names of trees, with all the necessary information; an example I give from my East orchard.

EAST. Row No. 1.

No.

Variety. Bloom.

1.

Leaf.

Color. Ripens. Quality. Snow. Small, White. Reniform g. (Fruit not ripened here yet.) I am examining every tree I get, as to bloom and leaf, without regarding any description from books: I note it: after I have thus a history of all my fruit trees, I will erase every name that does not come up to description; and if a fruit is worthy of a name, that comes to me under a wrong one, and I find it differs, I will name it, for future examination. My apple orchard contains 575 trees, and rather too large for plotting. My pear orchard now numbers 165; and I have some 1200 peach trees. I could not strike out any simpler plan than mine. My peach book is more extended than any other, because the peach is our own fruit, and I am desirous of paying the closest attention to it. My pear book will note color of wood; any peculiarities in leaf; growth, shape, size, color, ripening, and quality, of fruit, if for table or dessert. But it will be years before my pears will tell.

If the 80 or 90 trees add so much to the value of Mr. H.'s farm, how shall I cipher up the worth of mine? I have not told you any thing of my plums, cherries, figs, quinces, walnuts, peccans, &c., &c. I can only say, in the way of slipping in an advertisement, that, if any one will give me his price per acre, I will throw in some 5000 buds and grafts of all sorts of fruit, together with a few Berkshires, grade Durhams and Devons, Saxons and Southdowns, Bantams, Bremen, Polands, with horses and mules, to help along, and my corn fodder and tools thrown in.

As to labels, I think I mentioned, some time since, that I had tried cedar and zinc. I have now a little more experience with them. I split the cedar about one eighth of an inch thick, three to four inches long, and about two wide. I put them into my pocket; and, whilst at leisure in the field attending to my hands, or in the shade, I smooth them with my pocket knife, and cut them into some fanciful form. I then write, with a lead pencil, the name, No. of row, and No. of tree in the row with a sharp-pointed implement I scratch this in, then follow with my pencil. I have some of these over one year old, and the wood has blackened so much, by stain of trees, &c., that the name is not intelligible; others, that I gave a coating to of linseed oil, and then one of copal varnish, are as clean, bright, and neat, as the day they were placed on the tree.

My zinc labels, with the preparation your correspondent gave me, are rusty already, except where I gave a coating of warnish: these are bright and plain; and so are the labels that were written on with a lead pencil; and to this period of time, I would as lief have the lead pencil, as both do best with the varnish, and the lead better than the preparation—if no varnish be used.

I have now 1000 zinc plates, and a lot of copper wire, cut for the purpose of labelling my trees, and only wait for the idle time of summer. I wish to learn the name of every tree I have, and can only do so by having the name and the tree in my mind at the same time: and, the labor being my own, it is my loss.

May 10, 1847.