Retrospective Criticism. 275 



stands near toa large pear tree, over which it ran, year before last, cov- 

 ering the whole tree, and almost destroying it. A great many young 

 and strong plants have been taken from it, and its yearly growth is still 

 so luxuriant as to overrun all objects within its reach. It has flowered 

 beautifully for several years, and, the past spring, was covered with 

 hundreds of its delightful, large, bluish lilac, clusters of blossoms. The 

 garden of Mr. Panton is surrounded by high buildings, as indeed are 

 ail city gardens, when the owner of a mansion has the good fortune to 

 possess one, and the severity of the cold, during winter, has less effect in 

 a thickly inhabited city like New York, than in the adjacent country. At 

 Mr. Hogg's, up town, he protects his in a cold house, or frame, but we 

 have no hesitation in saying it would stand the winter in his garden as 

 well as in Mr. Panton's, particularly as it has now acquired a good 

 size; and we have but little doubt but that strong plants, if grown in 

 pots, in the green-house, and turned out into a south border, and train- 

 ed close to a wall or fence, would flourish well in the countrj-. It 

 possesses splendor enough to repay all the care that may be bestowed 

 upon a plant. — Cond. 



Large 3Iagnbl[a. glauca. — There is now growing, in the fine garden 

 of T. Magoun, Jr. Esq., of Medford, a shrub of this species, which 

 has attained the heiirht of twelve or fifteen feet, and thirty or forty in 

 circumference: it has produced, this season, upwards of five hundred 

 blossoms, a great number of which are now in full beauty. The tree 

 has been planted upwards of twenty-five years, and the base of the 

 trunk is a foot through. It was planted by Mr. William E. Carter, now 

 of the Botanic Garden, Cambridge, when he was gardener to Mr. 

 Ward, who then owned the place. It must be one of the noblest spe- 

 cimens in the country out of its native localit}-. — Id. 



Art. IV. Retrospective Criticism. 



Seedling Roses. — Sir, — In the number of your Magazine for June, 

 page 217, Mr. Boll, of New York, writes as follows: — " I observe in 

 your number for April, page 136, an article on raising roses from seed, 

 by Mr. Russell. Is not jour correspondent mistaken in saying it re- 

 quires two years for the seeds to vegetate.? [This is an error. It 

 should read one year, instead of tico: the mistake occurred in the 

 translation of the communication, and escaped our notice until too 

 late for alteration. — Cond.] I can assure you that I have planted 

 them in the month of February, and, fifteen weeks thereafter, have 

 had a plant from the same in bloom. This rose is now in our estab- 

 lishment, under the name of the Pretty American." Mr. Editor, that 

 Mr. Boll has been so fortunate as to raise the abovementioned rose, 

 and to have had the unspeakable pleasure of beholding its flowers 

 in the time by him specified, I have no reason to doubt; but I must 

 acknowledge, that it appears to me to be a very remarkable instance, 

 and such an one, perhaps, as Mr. Boll himself never saw or heard of 

 before: Mr. Boll further adds, " with particular care the seeds of roses 

 can all be made to vegetate in about four months. But particular care 

 is necessary, atid the peculiar cautions requisite I will give you in a fu- 



