Retrospective Criticism. 499 



superior to that work. The plates of Curtis's Magazine, as now published, 

 may be held up as the most correct and beautiful portraits of plants that 

 have ever been published at the price : and every one acquainted . with 

 botanical subjects fully appreciates the talents which Dr. Hooker shows in 

 the description. I make no apology for qualifying the praise which you 

 have given the Register, for I feel a double right — the right of truth, and 

 that of an original and constant subscriber to the work. I am, Sir. &c. — 

 K. July, 1830. 



Lime-water. — Sir, A correspondent, J. M. of Brighton, speaks of having 

 used very strong lime-water for destroying the gooseberry caterpillar without 

 effect,, and a note is added by yourself, doubting the failure of lime-water, 

 if made sufficiently strong. There is, in fact, no such thing as strong lime- 

 water : put as much lime and as little water together as you please, and 

 even use boiling water for the purpose, and you will find only one grain of 

 of lime dissolved in about 500 of water. Lime is not, like sugar or salt, 

 soluble in almost any proportion in water, but very sparingly so, and you 

 can never get a strong solution of it to use clear. You may make milk or 

 cream of lime, by mixing it with water, but it is then mechanically suspended, 

 and not chemically dissolved, and therefore not to be called lime-water. 

 This cream of lime is a useful application to the stems and branches of 

 trees, if used in spring, by destroying the eggs of A'phides, and other insects, 

 which are deposited about the leaf and blossom buds. Mr. Norris, of Nor- 

 wood, near Brentford, who has extensive plantations of gooseberries, finds 

 no remedy so effectual for getting rid of the caterpillars as the fingers and 

 thumbs of women and boys, applied diligently and daily, while any remain 

 on the trees. Yours. — Win. Siowe. Buckingham, May 30. 1830. 

 , Our correspondent is perfectly correct in theory ; nevertheless, we know 

 from experience that lime-water can be supersaturated to a certain degree, 

 for a short time, without rendering it muddy. — Cond. 



Mr. Gowen's notion of Hybrids (Vol. I. p. 70.). — Except in a very few 

 instances, plants in then - native climate seldom produce any thing but a fac- 

 simile of the parent, more true indeed than man himself, who, like plants 

 cultivated for experiment, enjoys all that art and nature can afford, thereby 

 weakening or strengthening the parts so as to produce the present discord- 

 ance of features that pervades even a single family .^Jno, Newman, Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Mauritius, March 12. 1830. 



Finlay son's Harrow and Withe's Brake. — Sir, I am compelled to agree 

 with Mr. Wilkie (Vol. V. p. 655.) that his brake " has a nearer resemblance 

 to Finlayson's harrow than to any other implement of the kind." This is 

 a candid admission of Mr. Wilkie ; for, in truth, he has ingrafted Finlayson's 

 regulator on it, used his wheels, and inserted his tines : the tines, it is true, 

 are placed in a triangular manner, like the old Ayrshire brake of the last 

 century, I now come to Mr. Wilkie's claim of originality of the tine for his 

 late father : this is a charge of a more serious nature, and requires to be 

 refuted. It is now about 40 years since the Hon. Admiral Keith Stewart 

 began to cultivate lands in the parish of Muirkirk ; and, after going through 

 the different processes of draining, lining, ploughing, &c, he finished by 

 harrowing. " These harrow-slices were, in the next place, torn and worn 

 to pieces, by drawing across them a ponderous brake, having tines in the 

 form of a coulter." (British Farmer, p. 89.) This, I conceive, will be con- 

 sidered as most unquestionable proof of the existence of coulter-tines before 

 those of Wilkie. But, what is more, this brake had the form of an " iso- 

 sceles triangle" too; and had tines exactly like c, in fig. 141. Vol, V,, 

 claimed by Mr. Wilkie. Again, the tine claimed by Mr. Wilkie, a drawing 

 of which he furnished for the Farmer's Magazine for 1821, is not similar 

 to Finlayson's, or that claimed for his father, in your Magazine ; but merely 

 a duck leg and footed tine, like Weir's cultivator (represented in the Encyclo- 

 paedia of Agriculture), or the Norfolk grubber, both of which have been in 



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