MISCELLANEOUS IXTELLIOENCK. 143 



A third untruth is stated, where he savs " Now if the eyes of the cuttings are 

 CDT oi'T it does not invariably follow that the root will not push again ;" 

 does His Lordship moan the pushing of a shoot or shoots. If he means the 

 old tuber will push fibres I agree with him; but if the contrary, I deny the 

 correctness of his statement. And now a word or two, as to the eyes or good 

 roots. His Lordship says, "when the eyes cankered away, or were eaten 

 out by insects, 'as wire-worms, &c.' wet gets into the hollows thus made," 

 most astonishing, noTS out what the insects or canker had eaten out before. 

 I really have not been accustomed to read such logic as this, unless His 

 Lordship has given his remarks with a view of exhibiting to the public how 

 many untruths he could pen in the shortest space, upon a subject of Floricul- 

 ture ; I am really at a loss to know why he penned such a piece of rubbish. 

 If His Lordship will give me his address, or inform me where 1 could leave a 

 parcel for him, I would with much pleasure give him a small volume pub- 

 lished by an eminent Divine, on truth. Veritas. 

 Reyenl-strect, Glasgoic, July 4//(, 1833. 



REMARKS. 



On thk Ranunculcs. — The failure of Ranunculuses this season near Lon- 

 don, and the difficulty of bloomin.i,' them well in light soils, has induced me to 

 nieution a plan, which I am informed by a French gentleman he has seen in 

 successful practice in the neighbourhood of Paris. The tubers are planted in 

 deep pots lilled with very rich compost. These pots are placed in large pans 

 sunk iu the ground and kept constantly supplied with water. Another plan 

 ha.s suggested itself to me, but which I have not yet tried — namely, to dig the 

 earth out of a bed two or three feet deep, and brick the bottom and sides; fill 

 up this pit with prepared compost, and keep it constantly supplied with water. 

 Clay would probably answer as well as bricks, and be less expensive. Pro- 

 bably you will give your opinion on the above plan. 



Snowdrop. 



I suppose when each of your purchasers who happen to be afflicted with 

 the " Cacoelhes Scribendi," shall have delivered their opinions respecting 

 your Book, and when each one of these volunteer critics shall have received 

 the just measure of praise or blame, which may seem due to his letter in the 

 opinion of certain other critical sages — I suppose then, it will not be too much 

 to expect, that the space so unworthily occupied by these controversialists 

 will be devoted to the legitimate purposes of the work, and that your little 

 Magazine may be allowed to keep " the even tenor of its way," undisturbed 

 by the dissentions of those goose-quill warriors, who choose '' to run their 

 fierce encounters" in your pages. When this shall be the case, and the little 

 work goes on increasing in popular favour, as it cannot fail to do, I trust it 

 will be strung enough to shake oil' certain Cockney incumbrances which stick 

 like barnacles to a ship's bottom, rendering the trim vessel marvellous un- 

 sightly, and prodigiously impeding her sailing (i. e. sale). Really, I cannot 

 help hinting to those self satisfied luminaries, who, under absurd nick-names, 

 bestow their tediousness upon us, recording their own achievements, aud pro- 

 voking the record of others equally valuable; those daring experimentalists, 

 who propose to irrigate from milk pots and certain other domestic vases, the 

 unhappy plants that, growing probably in similar vessels, adurn theirwindow- 

 sills; — I must hint to those gentlemen the propriety of al)Staining from ap- 

 propriating your pages to the publication of such imjiortuiit manipulations; 

 but let them not be lost to the world : — no, no; publish a volume of'' Transac- 

 tion.-.," devoted to registering the " three years' experience" of these friends 

 of yourt; but pray uiuke it (piite "optional" with your readers whether to 

 purehauu it or not. — If you publish this letter, (and if you do not, 1 shall 

 think myself "a very illuHed gentleman,") you can .if course protest against 

 my sentimentH being taken for yours; and, expressing your gratitude to, and 

 atli-etion for, the whole race of Crocuses, Snowdrops and Daffidowudillies, 

 (who, infinitely superior to their namesakes in the garden, arc in bloom every 

 month,) lay the blame of insi-rling this incendiary letter ujjon your negligent 

 printer— Very truly yours, VVm. (Jifforu. 



\ilJuhj, 1X33. 



