1879.] NOTES FROM THE PAPERS. 503 



in a collection of dwarf wall-plants. A dry, well-drained soil is essen- 

 tial to its wellbeing, and a slight covering during the severest of the 

 winter will in most cases save it from damage. 



C. Corbariensis (The Corbieres Cist us). — A distinct-looking dwarf 

 evergreen, seldom exceeding 3 feet in height. Found wild over a 

 large area in Spain and the south of France, especially on the moun- 

 tains of Corbieres, from whence it is reported as having been sent to 

 this country in 1656. The leaves are of an ovate form, distinctly 

 acuminate, wrinkled on both sides ; the margins fringed, of a deep- 

 green colour, and very glutinous. The flowers appear in May and 

 June, generally in remarkable profusion. They are pure white, the 

 margins of the petals tinged with delicate rose. This is one of the 

 hardiest, as well as the most ornamental, of the genus. It is of very 

 free growth, and well worthy of a prominent place among neat, dwarf, 

 wall evergreens. Hugh Fraser. 



NOTES FROM THE PAPERS. 



Writing in one of the magazines lately, Mr Anthony Trollope says the most 

 difficult thing that a man has to do is to think. There are many, he tells us, 

 who can never bring themselves really to think at all, but do whatever think- 

 ing is done by them in a chance fashion, with no effort, using the faculty which 

 the Lord has given, because they, as it were, cannot help themselves. To 

 think is essential, all will agree, continues this pleasant writer, and that it is 

 difficult most will acknowledge who have tried it. This passage might be 

 studied with advantage by some writers of the horticultural press. No one 

 will deny, we think, that the contributions sent to the gardening papers by the 

 practical section of the fraternity are, for the most part, sound and prac- 

 tical, as well as conscientiously written ; but neither can it be denied that 

 some horticultural writers belong to that class which Anthony Trollope says 

 never bring themselves to think at all, or else think in a chance fashion only. 

 AVhen such writers confine themselves to a relation of their practice and its 

 results, they do not err so seriously ; it is when they begin to speculate on the 

 causes of things that their lamentable incapacity and unreasoning dogmatism 

 appear. There is no harm in a writer stating his opinions, of course, and he 

 may be excused for being positive in these when he is certain of -what he 

 writes ; but censure, and, it may be added, pity, only can be extended to a 

 man who, on the strength of his own insufferable conceit and ignorance, 

 attempts to ride rough-shod over his neighbours in matters of practice and 

 opinion. We sometimes laugh at the foibles and conceits of scientific men and 

 savants, but, judged by their public speeches and writings, it must be con- 

 fessed that they are, as a rule, both logical and honest in all that they do, — 

 and that much cannot be said for some writers on horticultural topics. Such 

 men as Darwin, Owen, Huxley, and others, and, we are glad to say, plenty of 

 good horticulturists, exhibit a praiseworthy consistency and honesty in their 

 writings and investigations that might well be imitated by horticultural and 

 arboricultural scribes of doubtful calibre and reputation, whose vanity leads 



