A London Mend writes us, that " a party of French swindlers opened in the spring a bazaar of extraordinary seeds, near Regent Street, where great interest was excited by a display of colored drawings of large scarlet and crimson pansies which, they declared, had gained the prizes at the great French exposition 1 They had, also, drawings of currants as large as grapes, and raspberries as big as plums, of which I was near obtaining plants to send you, when I was warned of the whole being a take in 1" Scarlet and red pansies! would be a novelty, indeed. - Mr. Brandegee, Secretary of the Brooklyn Horticultural Society, confirms the report of the excellence of the April exhibition, given in our last, and adds, that there were six blooms from seedling camellias, of Mr. Becar's raising, all very good, and one magnificent, which he has called Downing, The stock of this plant will shortly be offered for sale, and it is the intention of the owner to apply the proceeds in some way to keep fresh the memory of that lover of flowers, the fruit of whose labors we are now enjoying. The Azalea " Beauty of Europe," was exhibited for the first time in this country. This Society is one of the most spirited in America. - Flea powder is an article of considerable commerce in Persia, Caucasia, etc.

It is made from the red pyrethrum, Pyrethrum carneum, a bright green, tufted thing, with rose-colored flower heads, and leaves not unlike chamomile. It is largely cultivated in Southern Russia, where it is dried to the amount of five-and-thirty tons. How many bushels of fleas this will destroy is not stated. It also kills flies, gnats, and lice, and the maggots which breed in the wounds of domestic animals; for winged creatures, it is mixed with anything they like. It is figured in the 1,080th plate of the Botanical Magazine, The powder is called Pire-oti, and was very important to the English and French officers in the Turkish barracks. Possibly, this might prove a remedy for the cur-culio. - Boydell's traction steam-engine, an English invention, is pronounced "a great success." It ascends a declivity of one in three, walks on a common road, with a heavy load behind it, backs, advances, or stops, instantaneously, and its impress is scarcely perceptible where a horse's foot left a deep impression in a turnip field. This success is owing to the endless and wide railway attached to the circumference of the wheels, which gives a fulcrum for the lever, and a bearing sufficiently wide to carry a great weight on soft ground.

We shall doubtless hear more of this soon. - In drying plants for preservation, each specimen should be placed between a sheet of brown or blotting-paper, and between each filled sheet several empty ones should be placed: for the first day or two, the pressure should be only Just sufficient to prevent the leaves and flowers from shrivelling. When the papers are damp, the plants should be placed in dry ones, increasing the pressure after every shift till the specimens are perfectly dry. - The prizes to be given at the three London Crystal Palace Shows, this season, exceed, in the aggregate, eleven thousand dollars. The lists embrace a wide extent of subjects, and provision is made to encourage the humbler class of visitors. - Roses pegged down to the ground make superb beds. The Red Geant de Batailles, mixed with the White Aimee Vibert, forms one of the best mixtures. Devoniensis makes a noble bed on dry, warm soil, as does Souvenir de Malmaison and Mrs. Bosanquet. - A good friend writes us, " That was a capital article on the treatment of Evergreens in May. It is just the way I treated mine at my old country-seat in Europe, though a lighter soil made it leas necessary to dig the radii, but a supply of ashes and rotten leaves was plentifully dug in.

I have followed one root of a Scotch pine, for thirty-eight feet, till it came up under the highway, where, most probably, its spongioles were gathering all the benefit of passing cattle, horses, etc, to carry those materials to the general store. And as for pruning, this can be effected, by gradual processes, to a great extent, even to the pruning of Norway firs with shears, any time during the summer. These hedges look very thick and green, but are not so long lived as Thuja hedges, although stronger and impassable for cattle; but I prefer the Thuja occidentalis closely shaved till a hedge of eight or ten years is not over eight inches thick, and as well filled as one can wish." - A correspondent, in New Jersey, says: " I find my wife, as well as myself, devours the Horticulturist, Strange that it should do us so much good, who have only a plum-tree in the bricks, and a bed of horseradish! The latter we pull up every Sunday morning, grate a bit off the lower end, and replant it to grow again 1 so as to have a taste from our own garden.

This you may set down as an evidence of the advantages of root-pruning, or of cutting off the tap root!" We hardly know whether this would prove anything except great economy, or, possibly, the advantage of saving at the tap, and drawing on the spile (spoil). - Another, in the editorial line, says: "Your gossip is capital; that for May was so spicy, that I ground it over into a splendid editorial leader /" What an excellent newspaper he must publish, and how profitable to be thus able to drive tandem! - Another correspondent says, he attempted to tell the story of Mr. Rivers' dwarf cherry-trees, only one foot high, bearing a quart of fruit, when a listener put him to the blush, by assuring him, a neighbor of his had a cherry-tree, in full bearing, which he carried about in his snuff-box! If true, these might be sent under cover by mail to Mr. Rivers, as a specimen of American improvement of races! - Philadelphia is the great centre of camellia propagation. We have nurseries which enumerate forty thousands of these beautiful plants, and from here they spread to all parts of the Union, and even foreign parts. - Recent experiments, as stated in the Mark Lane Express, go to show, that common salt is a valuable addition to all applications of guano.