608 Horticultural Register. 



of raising a forest, that we were instructed to pursue every means we could 

 think of, by cats, dogs, oivls, poison, traps, &c. We were, rather than not 

 accompHsh our object, to cut up all the grass by the roots ; no expense 

 was to be an obstacle, even if the cost should be more than the enclosing, 

 paling, and planting; so anxious was His Lordship for the success of the 

 undertaking.' — ' Operations were immediately commenced with traps 

 and baits of various kinds, with poison, with dogs and cats; but all to no 

 purpose. At length, a person hit upon a simple and, eventually, a very 

 efficacious mode. Having, in digging a hole in the ground some time 

 previous, observed that some mice, which happened to fall in, could not 

 get out again, the idea of forming similar holes was suggested : he tried 

 it accordingly, and found it to answer.' 



" In short, holes about two feet long and ten inches broad at the top, 

 and somewhat larger every way at the bottom, were made at twenty yards 

 apart, over about 3200 acres of plantation ; persons went round early in 

 the morning, to destroy such mice as might be found in the holes. ' In 

 this way, besides what the owls, hawks, magpies, and weasels took out of 

 the holes (and several of these depredators lost their lives in attempting 

 to seize their prey), 30,000 mice were paid for by government ; nor were 

 they extirpated until they had destroyed, in four enclosures, amounting 

 only to 1700 acres, the astonishing number of 200,000 five year old oaks, 

 together with an immense number of acorns and young seedlings.' 



" ' It is said by naturaHsts,' observes Mr. Billington, ' that the beaver will 

 fell trees with his teeth, but I have never seen an account of mice felling 

 oak trees ; yet I have seen many trees 7 or 8 ft. high, and an inch and a 

 half in diameter, cut down by them. When examining for the thick part 

 of the root, below where it was bitten off, I could never find any part of 

 it left, so that it is very probable it was eaten by them. 1 have by me 

 several trees, so cut down, for the inspection of any person who may be 

 desirous of witnessing, with his own eyes, the v/onderful powers of so 

 diminutive a creature as the mouse in felling trees.' " 



Part IV. Revieius and Extracts. These are chiefly from the Gardens 

 and Menagerie of the Zoological Society, and from our Magazine of Na- 

 tural History. 



Part V. Miscellaneous Intelligence, on Natural History, Horticulture, 

 and Rural Affairs.^' This part contains a Catalogue of Plants flowering in 

 the principal Nurseries around London, in August; and a variety of ex- 

 tracts" from books and nev/spapers ; concluding with a Horticultural 

 Calendar for August. We observe that the botanic names in this list are 

 not accentuated * ; for the sake of the young gardener, this ought to be 

 done in every case ; and we should say, not only accentuated, but their 

 derivations indicated in the manner adopted in our Magazines, and in the 

 Hortus Britannicus. Neither are the names in the Natural History de- 

 partment accentuated, nor their derivations given, which, considering for 



* The names taken from the botanical periodicals are accentuated, but not 

 always correctly. No. 1. being a first attempt, we pass to No. 2.; and 

 in this we find errors far too numerous for individual notice. For instance, 

 in the space of six lines, in p. 77., occur, Berberis Glumacea (glumacea). 

 Erica Plumosa (plumosa). Erica Seratifolia (Erica serratifolia), and Ane- 

 mone Acutipetala (acutipetala) ; affording an exemplification of false 

 accentuation, false spelling, and false capitaling, any thing but creditable 

 to a work purporting to be published for the guidance of practical gar- 

 deners. We hope that future Numbers will exhibit gi-eater accuracy in 

 these matters ; and for the accentual marks, indispensable to perfection 

 as we deem them, it would be better to omit them altogether than to 

 place them incorrectly. 



