Retrospective Criticism. 107 



The statement is, that a Mr. Puckett in the employ of Mrs. E. Lewis, 

 had some seed given him which was found in a paper of tea ; and he 

 sowed them in a box and the plants grew and matured seed in the fall,{!) 

 these were sown in the following spring and cultivated with success. A 

 trial of the tea was made, and its flavor very much resembled the foreign 

 tea. By comparing the pods, leaves and stalks with cuts or plates of the 

 China tea plants, found in Encyclopedias and Gazetteers, a striking simi- 

 larity was perceived. Such is the account as is now given to show that 

 the statement is a true one, and no hoax. 



A few years ago (Vol. II. p. 390,) we had occasion to notice a similar 

 absurdity in relation to the tea plant. A person in Marietta, Ohio, stated 

 he had succeeded in introducing the genuine tea plant of China. By the 

 favor of a friend we were presented with a few seeds, which explained 

 the whole matter. The tea plant turned out to be some weed, and no 

 more like the true tea plant, than the thistle is like the oak. Similar we 

 doubt not will prove the South Carolina tea plant. Such statements 

 show the importance of some botanical knowledge to all cultivators. 

 The true tea plant is an evergreen shrub, growing to the height of 5 or 6 

 feet ; and does not perfect its seed in the short space of 6 months. We 

 trust no one will be hoaxed sufficiently, by the true statement, to spend 

 their time in cultivating the South Carolina tea. — Ed. 



Art. II. Retrospective Criticism. 



Errata. Page 19, the heading to Art. Ill, should have the word " no- 

 tice " inserted after the word some, in the 2d line. Page 22, in the note 

 at bottom of page " near Newton, near Boston," should read " Newton 

 near Boston." Page 27, 13 lines from the bottom, for " Phoiiin," read 

 "Thoiiin." 



Gardening in the vicinilij of Flushing, L. I. (p. 19.) Dear Sir, — We 

 have been not a little amused at an article in your last number signed 

 " A Subscriber," and dated " iVeiy Fo/V.-," professing to comment upon 

 the nurseries and greenhouses located in this town, which the writer 

 kindly admits to be " still a place of some note for its several nurseries." 

 Would it not be adviseable Sir, that you should suggest the discontinu- 

 ance of the practice of inserting anonymous communications, and insist 

 that every writer should father his own productions, as thereby the public 

 would be enabled to judge of the " quo animo " attendant on every com- 

 munication. 



It is somewhat singular that the writer of the article in question, which 

 is dated " New York,'" should be, as we understand, a dealer in green- 

 house plants in another city ; but it may not be equally surprising that 

 the writer should have commented in rather contemptuous terms on the 

 greenhouses where plants are cultivated for sale, and should have alone 

 indulged in applause on that one which happens to be a purchaser. 



That greenhouse had not then existed above ninety days, and the lists 

 of plants enumerated and extolled were those which . had but just previ- 

 ously been registered in the bills of purchase alluded to, and no doubt 



