234 Retrospective Criticism. 



Art. III. Retrospective Criticism. 



Errata. — In our last number, p. 170, fourteen lines from the bot- 

 tom of the page, for "Dr. Bole" read "D. Boll." The error escap- 

 ed our notice until too late for correction. 



Pennsylvania Horticultural Socielij, Si-c. Errors corrected. — A few 

 errors have inadvertently crept recently into your useful Magazine 

 of Horticulture, which you will have the goodness to correct. 



An "Amateur" correspondent, in a communication to the April 

 number, p. 152, in relation to the Pennsylvania Horticultural Soci- 

 ety, which has had an existence of some fourteen years, calls it "the 

 new Horticultural Society." 



Under Floricultural Intelligence, in the last number, after the de- 

 scriptions of the new camellias exhibited before the Pennsylvania 

 Horticultural Society, as taken from the published Report by the 

 Society, is this paragraph — "This plant was raised by Mr. Peter 

 Raabe, an amateur, we believe," &c., which does not occur in the 

 Report; it states that Messrs. Chalmers and Raabe are joint owners. 

 You remark that tlie descriptions are furnished by the Committee on 

 Flowers, of which you believe Mr. Buist is chairman. Descriptions 

 are not furnished by committees, neither is Mr. Buist chairman of 

 the Coamiittee on Plants and Flowers, but Thomas C. Percival, Esq. 

 — Yours, t-S'C., An Old Member, Philadelphia, May, 1842. 



Fisher Professorship of Natural History in Harvard University, 

 (p. 175.) — In our last number, in noticing the recent appointment of 

 Dr. Gray to the Fisher Professorship of ISfatural History in Harvard 

 University, we expressed our hope that it would be the means of 

 awakening an interest in botanical studies, which had been almost 

 or quite given up since the resignation of Mr. Nuttall as curator. 

 Our remarks were intended to api)ly wholly to what had been done 

 by the University, in keeping up the character of the Botanic Gar- 

 den connected with the institution; and we regret that we uninten- 

 tionally did injustice to our friend. Dr. T. M. Harris, the librarian 

 of the college, by whose exertions botanical studies have been kept 

 up, and a class formed for the study of natural history, particularly 

 botany. Dr. Harris, in connection with our correspondent, E. Tuck 

 erman, Jr., Esq., has discovered several new plants in the vicinity of 

 Boston, and found others whose nearest localities in Bigelow's Florida 

 Bostonknsis, are in New Hampshire and the remoter parts of this 

 State. One of Dr. Harris's papers, enumerating some of the plants, 

 appeared in our Vol. VH., (p. 245.) 



Dr. Harris, in addition to his arduous duties as librarian, which, 

 one would suppose, are sufficient to occupy all his time, has deliver 

 ed weekly lectures to a class of botanical students, and has always 

 had, when to be procured, the specimens before him, freshly gath- 

 ered from the woods and meadows. But the interest which he has 

 taken in botanical studies has been more from his love of botany 

 than from any desire of the Institution to cultivate this branch of 

 natural science. 



We gladly make this correction, as Dr. Harris is a gentleman 



