443 



PART II. 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society. 

 Vol. IV. Part II. 8vo, 10 plates. IO5. Sd. 



This half volume contains no fewer than 54 different com- 

 munications, " written either by distinguished amateur horti- 

 culturists, or by practical gardeners of great experience." 

 Materials for another half volume are ready to be sent to 

 press, provided the sale of that now published " will indemnify 

 the expense of paper, printing, and engraving." " All members 

 are, therefore, earnestly I'equested to promote this object, by 

 procuring their own copies without delay." In order not to 

 interfere with the sale of the work, we shall defer giving the 

 essence of it for two or three Numbers. Its essence, however, 

 we shall not omit to give in due time, as we give that of every 

 new gardening publication, for the sake of poor gardeners ; 

 but the rich in the profession, if there are any, and amateurs 

 may very well afford to purchase the volume, which is so re- 

 markably cheap, that it is difficult to conceive how it can pay. 

 There is an excellent paper by that veteran horticulturist and 

 eminent man, Mr. John Hay, planner of gardens, Edinburgh, 

 which is absolutely worth the money. It is an account of a 

 mode of producing a steady and uniform bottom heat in pine- 

 apple or melon pits, or in stoves for exotic plants, by means 

 of steam introduced into a close chamber filled with water- 

 worn stones. Pine-plants in pots are placed in a bed of sand 

 or ashes over the chamber; or the chamber is filled with 

 proper soil, and the plants planted in it as in the open ground, 

 as practised by Mr. Lang at Nymphenburg. (p. 424.) 



19. On the raising oj" Mushrooms, and on the forcing of Rhubarb 

 Stalks in the open Air. By Mr. James Stuart, Gardener to Sir 

 John Hope, Baronet, at Pinkie House, Musselburgh. 



Mushrooms. — Against the back wall of a shed form the 

 base of the bed 3 ft. wide of rubbish, to keep it dry ; cover it 

 with dung from a cattle shed, 5 in. tliick next the wall, sloping 

 to one inch in front ; in a week or ten days, cover with 4 in. 



