328 HISTORY OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 
not ae so readily to concede; 
1 
and there are, | am convinced, many other practical men who are 
more than his equal in a “ace le edge of that branch of the art. Bu 
leaving the decision of this matter to competent and disinterested 
judges, there are many things in regard to which Sir Henry 
science might have been_ better ea than in a 
d, 
Henry’s testimony against t them, I will dare to say, still possess 
a tolerable reputation all over the three kingdoms. With my 
admitted ignorance of science, I flatter myself I have set gre! 
altogether an inattentive observer of the operations of nature, some 
of which, when I could discover their rationale have been useful to 
me. But there are not a ew, the causes of which are to me wholly 
nknown, which, if rightly explained (and a proper application of 
science might, pe chaps, effect this s), would afford aaah gratification 
to the inquiring minds of ignorant gardeners and might be of great 
I shall h 
wer for myself, and I paen I may say also for my brethren 
information which Sir Henry’s science maya S 
n walking through the Botanic Garden (not having been a 
: only guess that such things may also ie seen there), 
Allanton, I can 
. occasionally come to two evergreens of the same species, of equa 
e, planted out within the same hour, treated precisely in the same 
nner, growing in the same soil, and whi ch, in fact, had never 
been ten feet removed from each other, since, as cuttings, they were 
severed from the same bush, and I ‘observe a one of them is 
nearly ee the size of the ‘other, and yet both appear equally 
healthy. Now, how this happens, I admit aut to be profoundly 
ignorant. 
I also frequently observe in the Botanic Garden two neighbouring 
evergreens of the same species, which have arrived at the same age, 
under similar ee in the one, every leaf is entire, green, 
and healthy ; while e half of every leaf o a other is brown, 
withered, broken, ay gta. why, I do not kno 
In the same walk of the garden I have seen Be evergreens, both 
exotic and natives of a warmer climate than ours, from the same 
thermometer falls a few des ees below the freezing point. e 
ee ae . sharp frost of some 1¢ duration, I find another 
peeps in the operations of nature within the ground, which 
makes me feel, and I here readily acknowledge, am Secs caon Two 
exotic evergreens, of different species, close beside each other, and 
