Meirospective Criticism. 315 



Removing large Fruit Trees (Vol. III. p. 354.), even in summer, by pud- 

 dling the soil, is particularly described in Bradley's Four Elements, 2d 

 edit. 8vo, 1735, ''p. 124., as being first used by Mr. Secretary Johnstoun, of 

 Twickenham. — Superjkial. Brixton Villa, Jan. 



Mulberry Trees (yo\. III. p. 355.) — The white mulberry, for feeding silk- 

 worms, is recommended by the author of the Farmer's Assistant, Albany, 

 1814, to be raised in hedges, on the authority of a M. de la Bigarre. — Id. 



Van Oosteji's Dutch Gardener (Vol. III. p. 380.) is certainly a compiled 

 book. The whole of the first part on fruit trees, the plates, and the 

 descriptions, are copied from the Art of Pruning Fruit Trees, a translation 

 from the French, and published in London in 1685. Van Oosten was pub- 

 lished in 1703. I mention this to show how little faith is to be placed in 

 such a book. — Id. 



Toads do not eat Slugs. — The opinion of Rusticus in Urbe is not correct, 

 when he thinks toads live on slugs. When I came here, there was a large 

 toad in my early cucumber frame, and 1 encouraged him, in hopes he would 

 clean it of these worms ; but in this I was greatly mistaken, for they have 

 since destroyed many sorts of young seedling plants, but the woodlice are 

 rarely to be seen near his abode. — G. M. Atherstone Gardens. 



The Scotch Pine and the Quarterly Review. — A correspondent, an emi- 

 nent nurseryman in the north, observes : — "I was much amused with the 

 Quarterly's spurious Canadian Scotch Pine, which, he says, we Scotch nur- 

 serymen now cultivate for the genuine variety; but we are not obliged to 

 take the ipse dixit of the Quarterly himself for an assertion of this nature. 

 W^hen he knows so accurately the time of its introduction, might he not 

 also have favoured us with its introducer's name, and told us the place 

 where it was first cultivated. I fear this would have puzzled him, since I 

 am quite certain we are not indebted to America for any variety of the 

 Scotch pine, unless you choose to continue to call the Tartarian (Lambert's 

 P. Banksiawa), one; which, you know, is still a very rare sort in this coun- 

 try, though Don, in his paper to the Caledonian Horticultural Society, 

 thought he found it growing in the woods about Forfar ! But the Tarta- 

 rian, as Mr. Lambert remarks, may be readily distinguished by its crooked 

 cone. 



" In noticing this strange story of the Quarterly, I see he has mixed up 

 with it a very old one, which, I thought, had long been forgotten ; namely, 

 that we have two varieties of the Scotch pine, a red and a white. This idea, 

 however, never, gained any ground among scientific people, nor have any 

 attempts been yet made by its best supporters, to define these two varieties 

 in any other way than by the richness and colour of their timber, after the 

 trees have arrived at a full state of maturity ; a strange idea, indeed, on 

 which to found specific distinction ! Yet it is this very idea, * a new toot 

 on an old horn,' which the Quarterly wishes to revive, and which, it would 

 appear, has excited in your mind so much alarm for the poor Scotch nur- 

 serymen. Your feelings, my dear Sir, are creditable to you, and deserve 

 our best thanks. But to return. He dresses his story up, and, very pro- 

 perly, into a new one of his own; for nothing but novelties will, nowadays, 

 please. He even goes so far as to assert that his red variety can only be 

 found in the native forests of the Highlands : but, with all due respect to 

 the writer, this is not correct ; for we have three natural forests of consi- 

 derable extent in this county, namely, Mar, Invercauld, and Glentanner, 

 and, in all of them, the Quarterly's red and white varieties may be found, 

 varying only according to the nature of soil on which they happen to grow. 

 I have always asked the advocates of this opinion, if they ever found their 

 red variety growing on any other soil than a hazelly loam ; and it may be 

 here remarked that this description of soil, though of a very light and 

 sandy nature, seems to be the best of all for bringing fir timber to its 

 greatest degree of perfection. I might say much more relating to our 



