The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-11 00:00:00

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

_.._ .
(From the Hampshire Telegraph.)
PORTSMOUTH, SEPT. 9.—The Pearl, 18, Corn. Lord
Clarence Paget, sailed on Sunday last for the West India
station.

Captain Drake superseded Captain Brace in the com-
mand of the Donegal, 78, at Plymouth, on Thursday.
Rear-Admiral Sir John Ommanney will hoist his flag in her
to-day, but will strike it again on leave till the ship is ready
for sea : she will come to Spithead previous to her depar-
ture for Lisbon.

The Favorite, 18, Commander Walter Croker, was corn-
missiond at Plymouth on Monday.

The Thunder, surveying vessel, was commissioned to-day
to complete the survey in the West Indies, on which she
was employed prior to her being paid off at this port, about
four months since.

The Prince Rogent transport sailed yesterday for Cork,
to carry troops thence to the Mediterranean.
The Gipsy cutter sailed on Monday to Plynsouth, whi-
ther the Pluto steam-vessel from Woolwich proceeded yes-
terday.
The Rattlesnake, 28, was at Sydney on the Bth of April.
The Victor, 18, was at Sydney on the 7th of May ; the
Blonde, 46, was at Valparaiso on the Ist of June, at which
time neither the Stag nor Rover had arrived there, but
were hourly expected.
The Lynx brig, and Pincher schooner, were paid off at
Sheerness on the Ist inst.

The freetraders Lady Flora, Ford, for Madras, and
Triumph, Green, for Bombay, sailed on Thursday.
At Spithead—Wellesley.
In Harbour—Britannia, Victory, Melville, Edinburgh,
Excellent, President, Pique, Royal George, Alligator,
Hyacinth, Raven cutter, Parmelia and Arab transports.
The reserve companies of the 59th Regiment doing duty
in this garrison will be relieved on Thursday next by the
depot of the 89th Regiment, from Londonderry.
The savings arising from abolishing the situations of Ge-
nerals and Colonels of the Royal Marines, hitherto held by
naval men, is to be distributed two-thirds of it among old
officers as rewards for good and meritorious services. Rear-
Admiral Sir J. A. Gordon has bee❑ awarded 3001. per an-
num, and Captains John Ascough, S. H. Inglefield, Charles
Napier, and Francis Mason, each 1501. per annum.
APPOINTMENTS.—Commander Henry Puget and Lieut.
Kenney, of the Edinburgh to the Hercules ; Lieut. B.
Allen (to command) and Lieut. B. Jeffery to the Thun-
derer, surveying vessel ; Mr. Thomas Kerigan, Purser, to
the Pique, vice Mr. Mr Wm. Brown, to the Melville ; Mr.
O'Maley, to the Excellent, in the room of Mr. Maddock,
appointed Secretary to Rear-Admiral Ross; Lieut. W.
T. Eyre and J. Sankey ; M. J. Tucker, Acting Master and
Pilot, and Mr. J. Russell, Purser to the Tyne ; Mr. Gli-
don, Purser ; Messrs. H. L. Purdon, Parkhurst, and C.
F. Hellyer, Mates ; and Mr. Maddock, Midshipman to the
President ; Mr. Charles Carter, Mate, and' Mr. F. C. Her-
bert, Midshipman, to the Britannia ; Mr. John Branch,
Mate, Wellesley ; Mr. Nelson Budd, volunteer first class,
and Mr. J. W. Hall, Second Master, Pique ; Mr. J. R.
Reid, Surgeon, Hyacinth ; Mr. T. Wilson, Mate, Excel-
lent , Mr. W. King, Second Master, from the Pique, to
the Melville ; Mr. Richard Pinnix, Second Master, to the
Raven ; Mr. G. C. Tycrs, Schoolmaster, to the Edin-
burgh ; Mr. George Samuel Singer, to be Clerk of the Py-
hides ; Mr. John Compton is confirmed to the rank of
Gunner of the Thunderer ; Mr. E. Back, Clerk of the
Blonde, has exchanged to the Basilisk ; Mr. R. B. Cundy,
Boatswain, to Devonport Ordinary ; Mr. William Huit,
Boatswain, and Mr. Wm. Ellis, Carpenter, to Tyne ; Mr.
Robert Roberts. Carpenter, to Melville, as a fourth rate,
vice Mr. Geo. Chirgwin, to Devonport Ordinary ; Mr. S.
Hoare, Carpenter, to President ; Mr. J. Sutton, Carpenter,
to Pique, vice Hoar, to President.

In High-street, Marylebone, is an old public-house,
considerably lower than the rest, which exhibits a beauti-
fully painted, but ill-used, sign of the " Rose and Crown."
It is one of the " old school," and has an ornamented
frame attached to it. Publicans formerly went to great
prices for a good painting as a sign, and the first artists
were employed to execute them. Mr. Cotton, Mr. Lamb
(well known in the last century), and even Mr. Fane, one
of the founders of the Royal Academy, and first professor
of perspective in that institution, were sign-painters.
Attempts are now making to extend the cultivation
of the cranberry, so as to furnish a certain and regular sup-
ply to the London markets. It is said that 20/. or 801.
worth of the berries are sold by the poor people each mar-
ket-day, for five or six weeks together, in the town of
Longtown, on the borders of Cumberland. There is one
strong argument in. favour of their cultivation, which is
that they will grow with little trouble in places and on soils
where few other useful plants will thrive. They also pos-
sess the advantage of withstanding carriage to a distance
from the spot where they are reared. The American cran-
berry is more productive than the English, but has not so
good a flavour.
Broadstairs now boasts of the presence of two emi-
nent literary characters, Wordsworth and Rogers.

The Dover Cattle steamer, of Dover, Captain
Luckhurst, was compelled, on Wednesday last, to land her
passengers at Margate, the machinery having become de-
fective. We are happy to add that no lives were lost, al-
though the company on board were very much alarmed.
MR. SPENCER'S TRAVELS IN CIRCASSIA,
Came TARTARY, &c.--The Miles, speaking of this inte-
resting work, says, " Mr. Spencer has penetrated into a
country quite unknown even to English travellers, described
only by Dr. Clarke on hearsay, and by Pallas and Klap-
roth, envoys of the Russian Government, with evident in-
justice and party spirit. Mr. Spencer's journey com-
menced at Vienna, from which city he went direct down the
Danube to Pest, and thence to Constantinople. After a
stay in that capital, a steamer carried him to Odessa ; where
he found the Russian Gcvernor-General, Count Alorrongon,
with whom he made the circuit of the Russian settlements
and forts on the coasts of Cherson, the Crimea, and Cir-
cassia. The author then proceeded to Simpheropol, and
across the Crimean Steppes northward to Perecop ; from
Perecop back to Odessa, and thence through Bessarabia
and Moldavia, to Galatz on the Danube, where he found
a steam-boat, which carried him to Varna. From Varna
the Crescent, English steamer, carried him across the Black
Sea South-east to Trebizond, where, in a Turkish smuggling
or pirate vessel, carrying forbidden salt and gunpowder to
the rebels, he escaped the Russian cruisers, which gave
chase to the vessel, and landed at Pchad, in Circassia."
NEW TRAVELS IN AFRICA : A STEAM VOY-
Afit or THE NlGER.—Messrs. Laird and Oldfield's nar-
rative of the last expedition into Central Africa, observes
the Glasgow Constitutional, will be perused with deep in-
terest by all who have considered the subject of our com-
merce with Africa, or who desire to ameliorate the condi-
tion of their fellow-creatures. It is also full of instruction
to such as may wish to follow in the same field of enter-
prise, who will doubtless profit by the experience of their
predecessors, and avoid the errors—many and palpable—
committed by them. The mere desultory reader, satiated
with " Voyages on the Rhine," " Excursions up the Da-
nubs," or " Men and Manners in America," will find some-
thing here more highly seasoned, even if it be only with
" Malagetta" or " Guinea Pepper," to awaken his languid
appetite. The merchant, desirous of a new field of
enterprise and profit, will learn the importance of our trade
with Africa, and ohserve how it may be carried on with
advantage. Independent of the picture of Negro man-
ners, life, and character presented by the general narrative,
we have in Mr. Laird's portion of the work, the remarks of
by far the shrewdest and most informed mind that has yet
surveyed the interior of Africa.

M. MENDELLSOHN BARTHOLDY.—The presence
of this celebrated musician in the metropolis has excited
much interest in the musical circles ; and it having been
understood that he would perform on the organ at the ca-
thedral of St. Paul after the conclusion of the evening ser-
vice yesterday, a great number of the profession attended.
By a new arrangement between the dean and chapter and
the subordinate members of the college, the barriers placed
to prevent the public from viewing the monuments have
been removed, and the whole of the interior is now acces-
sible during the hours of service. This alteration has given
an impulse to the attendance on the services ; and yester-
day afternoon the nave, transepts, choir, and aisles were
crowded. M. Mendelssohn extemporised with great ability,
and afterwards performed some difficult compositions by
Sebastian Bach.
Mr. Smith's system at Southam, Warwickshire, for
the tuition of bovs in agriculture, cannot be termed a school,
beiig merely four roods of land divided into 12 gardens,
occupied by boys from 10 to 16 years of age, in the culti-
vation of garden vegetables—peas, carrots, parsnips, cab-
bages, kidney beans, celery, &c., only one•fourth is allowed
to be cultivated for potatoes. The boys pay all prices, from
6d. to Is. per month according to the size. The rent of the
whole amounts to 41. 17s. per annum ; the 17s. is ex-
pended in a rent-dinner monthly, when the boss bring the
rent, which his little tenants have hitherto done to an hour.
"If I were rich enough," says Mr. Smith, " I should be
happier in having 500 such tenants than as many renting
"200 acres each. It is a glorious sight to see all the little
gardens so clean and full of stuff. I would challenge the
land for cleanliness and produce against any acre of ground
in the country. The moral advantages too have been very
great ; and if it could be copied and extended, all tenden-
cies to idleness, drunkenness, theft, and dissipation, might
be greatly lessened."

BOTANIC SOCIETY OF LONDON.

THE “ VICTORIA REGINA."

At the ordinary meeting of the Society ,held Friday even"
ing at 11, John-street, Adelphi, J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S.,
the President, in the Chair, after the donations of books'
and many hundred specimens of plants had been announced,
the Secretary read a communication from Mr. Robert
Schomburgk, Cor. Mem. of the Geographical Soc. Lend',
&c., dated New Amsterdam, Berbice, May 11, 1837, en
a new genus, allied to the water lily, named " Victoria Re-
gina," by permission of her Majesty. The communication
was accompanied by magnificent drawings of the plant, one
half the natural size, which may be seen at the rooms of the
society at any of the nights of meeting.
The following account is extracted from Mr. &hold-
burgk's paper :—" It was on the Ist of January, this year,
while contending with the difficulties nature opposed id
different forms to our progress up the river Berbice
(in British Guiana), that we arrived at a point where
the river expanded and formed a currentless basin.
Some object on the southern extremity of this basin
attracted my attention ; it was impossible to form am
idea what it could be, and, animating the crew to in-
crease the rate of paddling, shortly afterwards we were or
posite the object which had raised my curiosity. A vege-
table wonder! All calamities were forgotten. I felt as a
botanist, and felt myself rewarded. A gigantic leaf, from
five to six feet in diameter, salver-shaped, with a broad rim
of a light green above, and a vivid crimson below, resting,
upon the water. Quite in character with the wonderful
leaf was the luxuriant flower, consisting of many hundred
petals, passing in alternate tints from pure white to rose
and pink. The smooth water was covered with them, and
I rowed from one to another, and observed always swim'
thing new to admire. The leaf on its surface is of a bright
green, in form almost orbiculate, with this exception, oppo-
site its axis, where it is slightly bent in : its diameter
measured from five to six feet. Around the margin el"
tended a rim, about three to five inches high ; on the
inside light green, like the surface of the leaf ; on
the outside like the leaf's lower part, of a bright
crimson. The stem of the flower is an inch thick near the
calyx, and is studded with sharp elastic prickles about thre,e
quarters of an inch in length. The calyx is four-leaved, each
upwards of seven inches in length, and three in breadth at
the base ; they are thick, white inside, reddish-brown an",,
prickly outside. The diameter of the calyx is 12 to 1°
inches : on it rests the magnificent flower, which, when full);
developed, covers completely the calyx, with its hundred
petals. When it first opens it is white, with pink in the
middle, which spreads over the whole flower the more it ad-
vances in age, and it is generally found the next day of
pink colour. As if to enhance its beauty, it is swe'it.
scented. Like others of its tribe, it possesses a fleshy disk'
and petals and stamens pass gradually into each other, and
many petaloid leaves may be observed, which have vestiges
of an anther. We met them hereafter frequently, and the
higher we advanced the more gigantic they became. We
mea,ured a leaf which was six feet five inches in diameter
its rim five and a half inches high, and the flower across 15
inches. The flower is much injured by a beetle, Thrincids
species, which destroys completely the inner part. \‘' e
have counted from 20 to 30 in one flower."
Another paper on a new species of Loranthus, also d-
companied by a highly-finished drawing, named by Mc
r'
Schomburgk, Lorantisus Smythii, in honour of Lady Jall'efl
Carmichael Smith, a great admirer of botany, was also read,
and created much interest.
The thanks of the Society having been ordered to be re-
turned to Mr. Schomburgk for his kind assistance, he was
unanimously elected a foreign member.
The President, previous to adjourning the meeting, beggtdd
.
to impress upon the members the necessity of speedily stile ing in such duplicates of plants to the Herbarium aso
could spare in order that the general distribution f the
society's duplicates might take place in the months of Pc"
cember and January next.
The meeting was then adjourned until Thursday, the 7th
of October next.