Review of Loudon's Gardener''s Magazine. 263 



REVIEWS. 



Art. I. The Gardencrh Magazine and Register of Rural 

 and Domestic Improvement. Conducted by J. C. Loudon, 

 F. L. S., H. S., &c. In Monthly 8vo Numbers ; I*. Qd. 

 each. No. LXXIII, for April. 



Art. I, " Some account of the Gardens and state of Gar- 

 dening in Yorkshire." The author of this paper makes the fol- 

 lowing excellent remarks, in relation to the importance of garden- 

 ers frequently visiting gardens in the neighborhood in which they 

 reside, in order to acquire information : they are no less appli- 

 cable to every amateur, especially those who sometimes imagine 

 they excel in some peculiar department : — 



" Few gardens are so poor that they will not repay the trouble of a 

 visit, by supplying some useful hint, or improved practice, to an acute 

 observer ; or making him acquainted with a new or superior variety of 

 fruit, flower, or vegetable ; or bringing under his notice one or other of 

 the remarkable variations so often produced on plants by the difference 

 of soil and situation ; or, what is, perhaps, of equal importance to a 

 gardener of the present day, by exhil)iting something either advisable to 

 follow, or necessary to avoid, in the higher department of his art, land- 

 scape-gardening. 



" The gardener who is confined within his own walls, whether by the 

 illiberality of his employer or his own apathy, generally overrates his 

 own horticultural skill 5 and, instead of ' growing wiser as he grows 

 older,' becomes bigotted in his erroneous notions, and prejudiced against 

 any deviation from the beaten track which he has s(? long followed. It 

 is to freedom of intercourse that we are chiefly indebted for the vast ex- 

 tension of knowledge in the last century ; compared with which, its 

 most rapid progress in former ages appears only a snail's pace. In gar- 

 dening, especially, the modern improvements must, in a great measure, 

 be attributed to this cause, acting through the media of horticultural 

 societies and books. But, in the practical part of the art, seeing, and 

 reflecting upon what we see, are better than reading, and reflecting 

 upon what we read ; therefore, so far as it can be done without neglect 

 of duty, a gardener ought to visit, with a view of acquiring knowledge, 

 all the gardens accessible to him. I do not wish, however, to under- 

 value the advantages of reading ; without it, a gardener must necessa- 

 rily remain far in the rear of the spirit of the age ; and, in the choice 

 of subjects, it is my opinion, that descriptions of, and critical remarks 

 upon, places, such as those occasionally given in this Magazine, are 

 quite as instructive to a learner, as a detailed method of cultivating a 

 particular kind of flower or vegetable." 



The following description of a peach house is given, which, it 

 is stated, so far as economy of space is concerned, is very supe- 

 rior : — 



"Length, thirty-two feet; width, sixteen feet; height at the back, 

 twelve feet ; height at the front, four feet six inches. The upright 



