382 Retrospective Criticism. 



vidends, and to the lamentable depreciation of the stocks themselves. Now, 

 had he built the college himself, he might have enjoyed the pleasure of seeing 

 it filled by the intended objects of his generosity ; but his sole delight was to 

 add to his immense wealth. His legatees or heirs could not moreover have 

 interfered with his design, whereas they have commenced a suit in chancery 

 against the corporation, on the ground tiiat it could not legally be the heir of 

 the deceased. — /. M. Philadelphia, Feb. 5. 1841. 



Plants adapted fur a Conservative Wall. — Perhaps you will allow me to set 

 your correspondent T. B. (p. 334.) right, with respect to the list of plants 

 furnished by me for a conservative wall. In the first place, he says " I turned 

 with avidity to Mr. Scott's list, but only to find that such a one as your cor- 

 respondent Mr. Kent (p. 43.) requires has still to be written." This may be 

 true ; but I did not write expressly for Mr. Kent, but in accordance with a 

 wish expressed by the conductor, a month before Mr. Kent's wishes appeared, 

 and which T. B. might have done also : or, if he did not choose to do that, he 

 might have furnished Mr. Kent with one of a more select description ; as 

 the chief end I had in view was, to record all the species which 1 knew from 

 experience could be cultivated with success against such a wall as that at 

 Chatsworth, for which T. B. has such a longing. Why did he not wish at 

 once for the great wall of China ? He would, at least, have had room, soil, 

 and situation at command, and I the pleasure of seeing my enumeration 

 flourish without the necessity of being crowded upon the short space of seven 

 miles. As to the merits of a selection, that is just as it may happen to please, 

 for the same things do not please every body : " Qui pretend contenter tout 

 le monde et son pere ?" If T. B. will come out of iiis mask (for I hate to 

 see a candle under a bushel, or wisdom in disguise, they have a look sus- 

 picious), and communicate with me, I will endeavour to form, under his more 

 critical acumen, a list that may meet the wishes of Mr. Kent : but I must 

 beg to decline any further communication wath T. B. incog., lest he should 

 turn out to be like Byron's Junius, "really, truly, nobody at all." 



Now, with respect to lUicium floridanum, and Cotoneaster microphylla and 

 rotundifolia, whatever T. B. may have found them, as regards hardiness, in 

 his particular locality, I have nothing to do but merely observe en passant 

 that I have seen all three killed to the ground by frost ; as also Erica aus- 

 tralis and Salvia aiirea last winter in the open border ; and KerW« japonica fl. 

 pleno much damaged by having its branches killed back above three fourths 

 of their length : consequently they are introduced in the list as requiring slight 

 protection, such as a projecting coping similar to that at Chiswick, where, by 

 the by, there is one of the finest specimens of Cotoneaster microphylla trained 

 against the wall that I have ever seen. As to Berberis and Mahonw, they are 

 introduced as fine plants adapted for a wall without protection, and are marked 

 as such with a dagger (f ). Bignonia capreolata, I allow, is quite hardy, and a 

 most desirable ornament to a wall ; it is marked in my list as requiring slight 

 protection, which, at least, cannot do it any harm. I have only a few words 

 more to say to T. B. as to his being able " in a few years" to furnish a list from 

 experience, if he had the Chatsworth wall. I make no doubt but that he wants 

 the wall, and is likely to want it, as I presume the Duke of Devonshire con- 

 siders Mr. Paxton competent to make the best use of it ; although Mr. Kent 

 and T, B. would infer that it is but indifferently clothed : but this is Mr. 

 Paxton's affair, not mine. As to the inference that my list is not from ex- 

 perience, all I can say for that is, that I have then thrown away my labour, 

 and many an hour stolen from sleep, to cater for the materials, and have been 

 sixteen yciU's doing what T. B. would have done better in a few. However, 

 I did my best to present your readers with a bill of fare, which may serve some 

 of them to glean from until T. B. provides them with one deduced wholly 

 from experience, and which, of course, will throw into tiie shade the un- 

 meritorious production of — John Scott. Loiver Tooting, June 5. 1841. 



