Lindlei/s Principles of Horticulture. 703 



The last chapter is a political one ; and, indeed, through- 

 out the book proofs abound that our author is not one 

 of those who devote themselves to a subject without caring 

 for its ultimate issues and relations ; consequently his habit of 

 mind propels him to those political considerations which the 

 subject, " our marine," naturally induces : benefiting man 

 universally is the spirit of the author's political faith. 



Two hundred and twenty-two pages are occupied by " No- 

 tices of authors relative to timber," in which strictures are 

 presented on the following works : — Monteath's Forester's 

 Guide ; Nicol's Planter's Calendar ; Billington On Planting ; 

 Forsyth On Fruit and Forest Trees; Mr. Withers's writings; 

 Steuart's Planter's Guide ; Sir Walter Scott's critique, and 

 Cruickshank's Practical Planter. The author's opinions on 

 the opinions and practices of these writers must avail the 

 patient investigator of arboriculture, and those who delight 

 in the comparison of divers and diverse opinions. This part 

 of the book is one which has been, or will be, read with con- 

 siderable interest by the authors of the above works and 

 their partisans. An appendix of 29 pages concludes the 

 book, and receives some parenthetical evolutions of certain 

 extraneous points which the author struck upon in prosecuting 

 the thesis of his book. This may be truly termed, in a double 

 sense, an extraordinary part of the book. One of the subjects 

 discussed in this appendix is the puzzling one, of the origin 

 of species and varieties ; and if the author has hereon origin- 

 ated no original views (and of this we are far from certain), 

 he has certainly exhibited his own in an original manner. His 

 whole book is written in a vigorous, cheerful, pleasing tone; 

 and although his combinations of ideas are sometimes start- 

 lingly odd, and his expression of them neither simple nor 

 lucid, for want of practice in writing, he has produced a book 

 which we should be sorry should be absent from our library. 

 We had thought of presenting an abstract of the author's 

 prescriptions for pruning trees intended for the production of 

 plank ; but, on second thought, we shall omit them, and refer 

 the reader for them to the book of the author himself. 



Lindley, John, F. R. S. &c., Professor of Botany in the Uni- 

 versity of London, and Assistant-Secretary to the Horti- 

 cultural Society of London : An Outline of the first 

 Principles of Horticulture. 12mo, 72 pages. 1832. 2s. 



This is a valuable compendium of horticultural maxims. 

 It may be called the gardener's " Book of Proverbs." We 

 entirely agree with the professor, in what he states, in his well 

 written preface, that such elementary works " tend essentially 

 to the advancement of horticulture, if the physiological prin- 



