458 CruicTcshanle's Practical Planter. 



passage, and next, in that guise, to condemn it, is a very 

 different thing. 



Chap. I. treats of the " Various Kinds of Trees, whose Culture 

 is described." It commences with the Scotch pine ; the re- 

 marks on which, we cannot help observing, are much more like 

 those of a professional bookmaker than of a practical planter. 

 As a proof, we give the following concluding sentence : — 

 " If it be true that the fir we now generally cultivate is, in 

 reality, of a spurious and inferior breed, whether originating 

 in Canada or at home, no time should be lost in exterminating 

 it from our nurseries." The Article of the principal nursery- 

 man at Aberdeen, in a former Number (Vol. IV. p. 315.), we 

 thought, had set this strange story of Sir Walter Scott, in the 

 Quarterly Review, at rest for ever. It is there shown that the 

 whole is a mistake : no Scotch pine-seeds are, or ever were, 

 imported from Canada, where the tree is unknown ; and that 

 the quality of Scotch pine timber depends on the nature of 

 the soil on which it grows. The author is equally unsatis- 

 factory in his remarks on what the Quarterly Review says 

 respecting the two species of oak supposed to be in cultiva- 

 tion. The Quarterly reviewer considers the Quercus i?6bur 

 and sessiliflora as two distinct species ; whereas, the latter 

 name is merely a synonyme of Sir James Smith's, in English 

 Botany, to distinguish it from Q. pedunculata. The latter is 

 supposed to produce timber much inferior to the former ; but 

 we believe this to be a mistake, and that the quality of the tim- 

 ber depends much more on the quality of the soil than on the 

 species or variety. The Q. pedunculata produces much larger 

 acorns than the other ; and for that reason, as a correspondent 

 in the Gardener's Magazine has shown, is more frequently 

 sown by nurserymen ; but we do not think it has been clearly 

 proved that the timber of the one is naturally, and, without 

 reference to soil and situation, better than the other. We 

 never heard of, or saw, a natural oak forest in which they 

 were not mixed together, and in which individuals might not 

 be found containing the peduncles of different lengths, and 

 even sessile; which induces us to believe the two supposed 

 species to be varieties. This is also the opinion of some Ger- 

 man gardeners and foresters with whom we have conversed 

 on the subject ; for example, M. Hartweg of the grand-ducal 

 garden at Carlsruhe. 



Chap. II. On the Nursery, and sowing the Seeds of Trees, 

 might, if we were disposed to be severe, be quoted as contra- 

 dictory to preceding remarks on what he calls the forcing sys- 

 tem. For example : — 



" In selecting a spot for a nursery, it* we cannot find one containing all 



