Retrospective Criticism. 



235 



whether correctly I 

 cannot say) affords 

 food to the cater- 

 pillar of the poplar 

 hawk moth, the puss 

 moth (Vinula), the 

 kitten moth (Furcu- 

 la), the pebble pro- 

 minent moth (Zic- 

 zac), and the choco- 

 late-tip moth, seve- 

 ral of which are not 

 common. 



Last winter during 

 the snow I found the 

 mice destructive to 

 my holly bushes, by 

 nibbling off the bark 

 from the branches 

 which were near the 

 ground. I could not 

 think why it was 

 that so many of the 

 branches died and 

 turned brown, till I 

 examined further, and found all the bark gnawed off about the level of 

 the surface of the snow. Rats, also, I have found, at various times, to 

 commit depredations on my young oaks in a plantation near a brook 

 and small pond. They gnaw the tree off just below the ground; some- 

 times nearly as level as if it had been cut with a saw. Young trees 

 nearly as thick as my wrist have been served in this way; and I have 

 been quite astonished how the rats could cut them through so com- 

 pletely, and could not at first tell whether it were done for meat or malice. 

 The fact is, the rat begins his operations under ground among the soft 

 and tender roots, and eats upwards as far as he finds the wood soft 

 enough for his purpose, which is just below the surface : the consequence 

 is, that the tree so served will often remain erect, and appear to the eye as 

 if nothing had happened to it ; but of course it throws out no leaves in the 

 spring, and, on taking hold of it, you find it loose and ready to come up 

 with a touch. I send you a specimen of a rat-gnawed oak; a small one 

 [nearly an inch in diameter at the point about the collar, where the rats 

 had l«ft off], and the only one I now have by me. — W. T. B. AUesley 

 Rectory, near Coventry, Feb. 1. 1831. 



Art. V. Retrospective Criticism. 



Erratum. — V. 121. Art. VII. line 1. for "last Number (Vol. VI.)," 

 read " Alag. Xnt. Hist., vol. iii." 



Pliyswlogical Botany. — Sir, With your permission I would willingly 

 advance a few remarks in answer to the criticism of the two A. S.es on 

 the above subject* (Vol. VII. p. 120.) I can by no means admit that 

 I have promulgated this theory under "mistaken notions:" daily and 



<)f these skewers at Mr. Charlwood's by the 1st of April next, where they 

 may be obtained by the public at moderate prices, and where all who are 

 disposed to collect them may send them for sale ; taking care, however, to 

 have permission from the owners of hedges, or of thorn faggots. — Cond. 



