Editorial Miscellany. 237 



of oxer Union, for instance. (We beg the publishers' pardon 

 for the liberty we are taking. ) Written by silly love 

 cracked spinsters, egotistical young men who parade them- 

 selves a la Byron, and misanthropical old men, whose hearts 

 are withered with scorning their fellows, and who consider them- 

 selves isolated oases amid the mortal wi-eck by which they are 

 surrounded. 



It is the viscid effervescings of such ephemeral brains, that ob- 

 structs the road to refined and pure reading. The romantic dis- 

 tortions of these parapatetic literary nondescripts, render unsav- 

 ory the unvarnished every day recital. The appetite is cloyed, 

 satiated to repletion, and the very look of a useful or scientific 

 work suggests a desert like aridity. In consequence, we require 

 more education, that a purer taste may result ; so wishing a /ta^ppy 

 new year to one and all, we close the subject for the present. 



A Word about our Enterprise. — The readers of the Horticultural 

 Review will readily perceive that we are putting forth the most 

 strenuous effort to give them an elegant and useful serial. The 

 present number is a pretty fair criterion of what it will be for the 

 year 1856. Xo expense will be spared in the department of il- 

 lustrations or the printed matter to make it worthy of their ac- 

 ceptance. Much surprise is expressed that we give so much for the 

 price ; in answer we would reply that in order to do this profita- 

 bly, requires a large subscription list. The present expense of get- 

 ting out the Review, is about $600 each number, beyond the receipts ; 

 but if we may argue from tlie rapid increase of our circulation, 

 this extra expenditure wnll not be demanded in three months from 

 the present writing. We are not avaricious of profit, and have 

 therefore determined to expend in the Review a large portion of 

 surplus that may accrue, in improving, beautifying and enlarging 

 it, to meet the wants of all. We feel much encouraged by the 

 encomiums which have been lavishly bestowed by those capable of 

 discriminating, and, therefore, whose opinions we hold in special 

 regard. Besides the voluntary approval of the press through- 

 out the United States, we have received much by private letters 

 from eminent horticulturists. As an evidence of the estimation in 

 which the " Review " is held, we subjoin a portion of a letter 

 received from the Hox. Marshall P. Wilder, President of the 

 United States Agricultural Society. " The general appearance of 



