532 Retrospective Criticism. 



and exhaust the air. After remaining there two minutes, they should be 

 taken out, and gently brushed, when they will be found perfectly plump 

 and clear-skinned. — A. K. 



Damp may he prevented from exuding from the Walls of Apartments, by 

 first drying them thoroughly, and then saturating them with fatty matter of 

 any kind. "^ One part linseed oil, boiled with one tenth of its weight of 

 litharo-e, and two parts of resin, if applied in successive coats, will, after the 

 fifth ttme, form a varnish on the wall, so hard and compact, as to be imper- 

 meable by moisture. {Jour. R. Inst., No. xliii.) 



The Seeds of Grajies have been discovered to be an excellent substitute 

 for coffee. When pressed, they first produce a quantity of oil, and after- 

 wards, when boiled, furnish liquid very similar to that produced from coffee. 

 The practice has become very general throughout Germany. {Mechanic's 

 Magazine.) 



Art. VII. Retrospective Criticism. 



Influence of transmitted Pollen. — Mr. Knight's remarks on this subject 

 are curious, and account for a circumstance which once happened to my- 

 self: for, having jjlanted Scarlet-flesh and Green-coated Spanish melons in 

 the same frame, the fruit of the latter was much changed; some worthless, 

 and one very excellent. — Superficial. 



Red and White Varieties of the Scotch Pine. — I beg leave to make a few 

 observations on the subject of your correspondent J. R.'s critique (p. 515.), 

 on the opinion of the (Quarterly about there being red and white varieties 

 of the Scotch pine. 



Whether there is a Canadian Scotch pine, or that Don found it in the 

 woods near Forfar, or that the true red is only found in the Highlands of 

 Scotland, are questionable matters which I cannot solve. Certain it is, we 

 have two very distinct kinds of Scotch pine in England. Having been long 

 a planter, and, in course, a constant observer of the habit of these trees, I 

 have been long aware that two varieties, or rather, I should say, one variety 

 of the common species existed, l^hese I have unconsciously sowed, and 

 transplanted together upon the same spots, soils, and aspects, without know- 

 ing one from the other. At the end of ten or twelve years, however, their 

 different characters became visible, but which I only attributed to some in- 

 cidental circumstance affecting the constitutions of the individuals, and never 

 suspected that the peculiarity noticed was that of a permanent variety. 

 Neither am I cei'tain even now that this is the case ,• as I never tried whe- 

 ther seedlings from each would come, and continue true to the character 

 of their progenitors. 



The more common is the more regularly formed; stem erect, seldom 

 divided ; branches rising first obliquely upward, gradually becoming hori- 

 zontal, and at last drooping ; the whole top forming a very regular cone ; 

 bark rough, divided perpendicularly into numerous fissures, and, when old, 

 very rugged on the lower part. This is the character of a single tree of the 

 common sort, after fifty or sixty years' growth. The other, which I con- 

 sider to be a variety, has a much smoother bark in all stages of its growth ; 

 the stem often divided near the ground ; the head formed of large arms ; 

 one or other of them (not that nearest the centre, as in the former) often 

 taking the lead laterally, thereby giving the head much irregularity of out- 

 line and a form not at all conical. 



When the two kinds are planted singly, they may be distinguished from 

 each other as far off as they can be seen ; and, in close planting, though 



