Hetrospective Criticism, 761 



followed both when this contact was made at the bottom of 

 some spikes, as well as when made at the top of others. 



This plant, so prized an ornament of the hardy garden, it is 

 to be regretted, after it has been transplanted rarely acquires its 

 former health and vigour till two or three years have passed. 

 This declension may be prevented by transplanting the plant 

 as soon as its leaves turn yellow (at the end of August, or early 

 in September), and by observing to not needlessly divide, 

 fracture, or mangle any of its thick, deep-striking, somewhat 

 woody roots. Fraxinella is meant to express that the leaves 

 of this plant resemble those of the ash (i^raxinus), and this 

 they do sufficiently to render the term fraxinella, little ash, 

 not inappropriate. — J, Z). 



The Custard Apple (Anona) (Vol. I. p. 439.) is said to be " in- 

 digenous to the Caribbee Islands, to grow in Africa and Mala- 

 bar, and to have also succeeded in the Island of Madeira." It is, 

 however, a native of India, and is found wild, in vast abundance, 

 on the rocky granite hills and tracts of the southern parts. In 

 the Hydrabad territories, its fruit has, in seasons of famine, 

 afforded sustenance to the inhabitants ; and, therefore, the 

 government of that country prohibits its being cut down for 

 firewood. — A Subscriber, Vale of Alford, Sept, 28. 1832. 



Sir John Byerley's Theory of verifying Dates hy Calculations 

 on the Precession of the Equinoxes. — Sir, It appears to me that 

 your correspondent. Sir John Byerley (p. 174.) entertains too 

 exalted an opinion of the accuracy of our early ecclesiastical 

 architects, by presuming that they laid out the longitudinal 

 line of the churches to be constructed due east and west with 

 astronomic precision. There is a paragraph in the Antiquarian 

 Repertory, vol. i. p. 72., said to have been penned by Captain 

 Silas Taylor, author of the History of Harwich and Dover 

 Court, passing under the name of Dale's Harwich, which 

 states that " in the days of yore, when a church was to be 

 built, they watched and prayed on the vigil of the dedication ; 

 and took that part of the horizon where the sun arose fro?n the 

 east, which makes that variation, so that few stand true, ex- 

 cept those built between the two equinoxes." In order to 

 prove this, I measured, with a magnetic needle enclosed in a 

 square box, twenty-four of the churches in Norwich, applying 

 the compass to different parts of the same building, and taking 

 the medium result; and I found, that, so far as regards Taylor's 

 theory, not one of those I measured agreed with the sun- 

 rising of the day of the saint to whom it was dedicated. I 

 can assure Sir John that those measured vary in their lines 

 of longitude 45 degrees ; the greatest deviation from the 



