Retrospective Criticism. 237 



in the Bot. Mag. for Sept. 1829, and, overlooking the above note, he gives 

 its habitat in Canada. I certainly think a person who has been in the 

 habit of collecting plants, when he lights on a new or rare one, will not 

 be apt to forget its habitat ; and, when he falls in with a similar situation 

 in the country, he will very naturally look there for the same plant ; but, 

 from what I have seen of Canada, from Quebec to Lake Huron, I think 

 I may assert that there is no situation likely to be congenial to the growth 

 of that plant. The Siieversirt triflora is figured in the Bot. Mag. for Oct. 

 1828 : the White Mountains are given for its habitat ; this I found near the 

 village of Belleville, on the Bay of Quinte, Upper Canada, in a meadow, 

 the only place in which I ever met with it ; it was growing in company 

 with Zigadenus giaberrimus, and Houst6n/« purpurea. In the following 

 month of the same year the Sieversia Peckw is figured; it is not men- 

 tioned where I found it : but as Dr. Hooker had received specimens 

 from America gathered on the White Mountains, he thinks the plants at 

 Comely Bank are probably fi-om the same place : in this he is correct ; 

 I found it there in great abundance. 



In the Gardener's Magazine, Vol. VII. p. 102., Professor Graham, in an 

 extract from Jameson^ s Journal, mentions the new or rare plants that have 

 flowered at Edinburgh last year; amongst which is i?hododendron lap- 

 ponicum, which he says was brought by me from Canada : this I also 

 found on the White Mountains, but only one solitant- plant. It may be 

 plentifiil in some places, but I had very little opportunity of examining 

 the mountains, being on them only a part of a day in autimin (Sept. 1. 

 1826), during wet weather, long after the flowering season of any of the 

 plants that I brought thence, I am, &;c. — T. Blair. Stamford Hill, 

 Feb. 12. 1831. 



Sweet's "Florist's Guide" and our Reports of the " Provincial HorticuUural 

 Societies." — Sir, I beg to say that I fiilly concur with " An Amateur," 

 in the last Number of the Gardener's ^lagazine (Vol. VI. p. 722.), in 

 regretting Mr. Sweet's intended discontinuance of his Florisfs Guide. At a 

 time when so many botanical publications meet with ample encouragement, 

 I think it is rather discreditable to the florists in general that they do not 

 give nwre encouragement to a work so much calculated to difliise a taste 

 for the cultivation of florist's flowers ; but I trust it is not owing to the 

 " trickery of florists," as your correspondent insinuates. I cannot help 

 thinking better of the great majority of my brother florists. 



I must also, at the same time, give my humble but decided opinion 

 against the occupation of nearly sLxteen pages of the last and a consider- 

 able part of the preceding Numbers of the Gardener's Magazine with details 

 of prizes obtained at different exhibitions of flowers, truit. Sec. ; whilst 

 there is a book, the Florist's Gazette, annually published at Manchester, 

 exclusively for the purpose of gi^ing an account of the different flower 

 shows held in this kingdom, and of w hich I send you a copy. These pases, 

 I consider, ought to contain subjects more interesting to the generality of 

 the readers of the Magazine ; whilst those who feel particularly interested 

 in flower shows will be at liberty to purchase the Florist's Gazette ; to 

 the publishers of w hich all accounts of such shows should be forwarded, 

 thus rendering that work stUl more complete. 



As you request information respecting nurseries for the forthcoming 

 supplement to the EncyclopcBdia of Gardening, I take the liberty of noticing 

 our o%vn, of no recent establishment, as it has been carried on in these 

 and other grounds by our family for more than half a century. Though 

 it may be thought something like ostentation in me, to say that it contains 

 the best collection of plants of any nursery in the county of Stafford, in 

 which it is situate, or in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, or in this 

 part of the kingdom ; yet, nevertheless, that this is the fact, no one, I 

 think, will deny. Indeed, we have nearly as good a general collection 



