Queries and Suggestions. 4<69 



variety, does any peculiarity in the soil destroy or neutralize the noxious qualities of 

 the plant ? The * Ipe' is eaten in a crude state with perfect safety ; when 

 boiled, it eats something like yam ; I consider it also inferior to the potatoe, in 

 every respect, excepting size. (I except it in its prepared state as cassada. ) It is 

 in general repute, especially among the prorer classes ; in the city of S. Paulo, 

 and other towns of that captaincy, it is carried about the streets ready boiled and 

 hot, twice a-day. It may surprise G. S to be thus told that two such distinct 

 species as those, belonging to Dioscorea and Jatropha, sometimes pass under 

 the same vernacular denominations, but it is true, and may arise from the casual 

 introduction of the indigenous plant of one district to that of another, when a 

 known vulgar name is frequently adapted to the new introduction. From the 

 above observations, I trust you will (at least in this instance) rebut the charge 

 of G. S. of collectors abroad, " not attending to the uses and application of 

 plants." The uses of the plants, as far as known by observation or enquiry, is 

 always marked on the lists of the collections, and are generally forwarded to the 

 cultivators, who are the really guilty in swelling catalogues, and to whose remarks 

 some botanical writers too readily give way, and adopt many hybrids, while they 

 expel legitimate species, and cause a continual confusion among the nicer links 

 in the grand chain of nature, which would otherwise, from modern research, 

 become more complete every day — but generations must pass before the whole 

 can, if ever, be elucidated. " Yours, &c. &c. 



"J. B." 



Art. VIII. — Queries and Suggestions. 



" Sir, — If the three underwritten brief suggestions are worthy of your accept- 

 ance, or if they will be the means of inducing any person to effect something of 

 the same kind, they are at your service. 



" I am, Sir," your constant reader, 



" June, 1826." " S. Felton." 



" 1. Would it be desirable to have A Catalogue Raisonnee of Books on Horticul~ 

 ture, English and foreign ? The first series of the English catalogue to be 

 brought down to the demise of Henry VIII. ; the second to that of Charles II. ; 

 the third to that of George II ; the fourth to that of George III. 



" Nearly fifty years ago I saw, in the libraries at Caen and Rouen, several Anglo- 

 Norman MSS. on the cultivation of cider, and on general agriculture, and very 

 possibly there may be some concerning horticulture. Many libraries on the 

 Continent, no doubt, will throw light on this subject, particularly those of 

 Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, and Holland. 



" 2. A curious work might be formed by giving copies of some of those plates 

 which adorn many old books which contain descriptions of some of our old English 

 gardens, belonging to our ancient religious houses, or to the mansions of our old 

 nobility and gentry. Some of these plates are by admirable (foreign) engravers. 

 They might be classed under each county, and brought down to the demise of 

 George II. 



" Ray dedicates his Flora to Lady Gerrard, of Gerrard's Bromley, in Stafford- 

 shire. Plot gives a plate of this mansion, and part of its garden. See also the 

 garden in Vertue's fine whole-length print of Sir P. Sydney. Perhaps there 

 may be somewhere a plate of Sir W. Raleigh's garden at Shirburne, in Dorset- 

 shire. We have this account of bis house : " A most fyne house, beautified with 

 orchardes, gardens, and groves'of such varietie and delyghte, that whether you 

 consider the goodnesse of the soyle, the pleasauntnesse of the seate, and other 

 delycacies belonging to it, it is unparalleled by any in these partes." 



" What information, on this head, might have been gleaned from the late Sir W. 

 Temple, or from Kent, or from even him who has immortalized Kent, from 

 Mr. Pope himself, whose chief delight was in his own garden, or from Mr. Evelyn, 



