128 CRITICAL NOTICES OP NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



experienced the Arab's hospitality and the Samaritan's compassion : and if 

 ever this humble volume should reach a comer of the kingdom so remote as 

 Durness, it is a pleasure to me to reflect that its minister will find the last 

 sentiment recorded here is that of gratitude to him and his, for their gener- 

 ous treatment of a weary stranger." — p. 310. 



The volume is adorned with several highly creditable sketches of 

 Highland scenery, &c., apparently from drawings by the author, 

 lithographed by the well-known artists, Messrs. Day and Haghe. 

 We should not be surprised or displeased to find that our notice of 

 Mr. Lesingham Smith's Journal of a Ramble in Scotland has caus- 

 ed some of our readers to make themselves further acquainted with 

 its contents, by a perusal of the whole book. 



Journal of a Horticultural Tour through Germany, Belgium, 

 and part of France, in the Autumn of 1835 ; to which is added 

 a Catalogue of the Cactece in the gardens of Woburn Abbey. 

 By James Forbes, A.L.S., &c. London : Ridgway & Sons. 

 1837. 8vo., pp. 164. 



" The continental gardens and botanical collections having been rarely 

 visited by the British gardener, his Grace the Duke of Bedford, with his 

 usual anxiety for the promotion of useful knowledge, very liberally and 

 kindly pro])osed, in the autumn of 1835, that 1 should undertake a horticul- 

 tural'tour through several parts of Germany, Belgium, and France, with a 

 view of inspecting the different collections and productions cultivated in 

 some of the most celebrated horticultural establishments in these countries." 

 — Preface, p. v. 



Mr. Forbes accordingly travelled, took his notes, and published 

 them ; and as the author is an intelligent man, and evidently tells us 

 his real opinion of what he saw, his observations are both readable and 

 useful. We are, moreover, glad that our author has not considered 

 it beneath his dignity to make a few remarks occasionally on paint- 

 ings, statues, &c., which proves him to be possessed of a mind both 

 more enlarged and more cultivated than the majority of even head 

 gardenei s. Without further noticing the contents of this volume, we 

 shall extract the following conclusions, at which the author has ar- 

 rived on the objects of his tour. 



" Upon the whole, in regard to the general state of Horticulture in the 

 countries which I visited, the following conclusion must be drawn : — The 

 plants in the hot-houses are in most of the establishments kept in excellent 

 order and in a healthy state ; the SuccuIentcB also appeared to be much more 

 extensively cullivatea than they have hitherto been in England. But the 

 general order and neatness of the grounds (with only a very few exceptions) 

 were but little attended to. Nor did the gardeners appear to me to well 

 understand the forcing of fruits, except in one or two places in France ; nei- 

 ther did I perceive that nicety in the training of fruit trees that is thought 

 indispensable in England. Vegetables are, however, in large establishments, 

 more extensively grown ; but there certainly did not appear to be such a 

 general spirit for horticultural improvment as is prevailing in this country. 

 At no period was gardening pursued with greater spirit in England than at 



