Retrospective Criticism. 363 



Vitis rotundifdlia. In light rich soils, 

 riparia. The same. 

 Alluv. s. aestivalis. A vine, climbing the loftiest trees of the American 



forest, and reaching their very summit ; in very rich lands, 

 generally a free friable loam. 

 Alluv. s. cordifolia. In rich light soils, but generally on the banks of 



rivers. 

 Zabrusca. In the very richest soils, in deep river swamps. 

 Yucca gloriosa. In light sandy soils, 

 filamentosa. In poor pine lands. 



The abridgement of the above communication was published in December, 

 1828, while we were in Germany, and we cannot now ascertain whether 

 we abridged it ourselves, or committed it to another for that purpose. We 

 regret that it has been so imperfectly done, and take this earliest opportu- 

 nity of remedying the evil. Whatever errors we commit we are at all times 

 ready to correct, and never feel more obliged, either to friends or enemies, 

 than when they point them out. — Cond. 



The Pots in which Mr. Knight groius his Pines. — I beg to ask Mr* Pearson, 

 what kind of pot Mr. Knight uses for his pines ? (Vol. V. p. 718.) When 

 I visited Downton Castle, eight or nine years ago, I found them growing in 

 pots about 13 in. deep, by 17 in. diameter at the top; the plants, strong and 

 healthy, as I expected to find them, and I am surprised Mr. Pearson did not 

 expect to find them so too, after all the noise which he must have heard 

 about them. The next time I visited Downton, little more than two years 

 after, I found a very different kind of pot ; a friend with me observed that 

 they looked like chimney-pots. I think they must have been near 2 ft. deep, 

 and about 1 ft. wide. The plants were very fine ; but not in any way 

 resembling the American aloe in habit. I am now curious to know what 

 size and shaped pot the president has finally determined on. I was sorry to 

 see the peach trees at Downton so much infested with the red spider, and 

 the fruit dropping off before ripe on that account. This and other things 

 plainly spoke the want of a gardener. The cherries were fine; but I have 

 seen far better fruit of pines at Mawley Hall in Salop and other places, 

 grown, at much less expense and trouble, on the regular heat of a tan bed. 

 Mr. Boughton of Worcester never pretended to be a pine-grower; but 

 Mr. Knight is like the rest of us, and has his hobby. — W. March 1830. 



Treatment of the Peach Tree; in reply to Mr. Housman. — Sir, I perceive 

 in the last Number of your Gardener's Magazine you have caused to be 

 published an illiberal and a senseless letter, ridiculing my paper on the peach 

 tree, which letter I consider to be no better than a mass of absurdity from 

 end to end. I therefore call upon you to publish the following reflections 

 in your forthcoming Number, that you may prevent inexperienced and pre- 

 sumptuous persons from making fools of themselves, and misleading the 

 credulous. Mr. Housman is a very young gardener, he has had no expe- 

 rience in his profession, and is the last writer in the whole Magazine who- 

 could be prepared to say that any practice of mine could be right or wrong. 

 What he has hitherto written shows that his opinion is not entitled to the 

 least confidence. In his observations on my paper, he has betrayed the 

 utmost ignorance of his profession, both practical and philosophical ; and 

 no man but himself could have so perverted my meaning, — that I meant to 

 say that a tree growing as a standand in Malta bore any resemblance to 

 another in England trained on a wall. I repeat what I before stated, that 

 a shoot 1, 2, or 3 in. long was as capable of producing as large, if not 

 larger, fruit, with much more certainty than another that extends as many 

 feet ; and I do boldly assert that fruit situated in proximity of exuberant wood 

 is impoverished in its growth. So unfortunate has he been in attributing 

 ruinous consequences to my practice, that I have now peach trees under 



