Domestic Nbtices. — Ireland. 



355 



that kind of beauty which is called picturesque ; in short, we should like to 

 see an attempt in a popular form, to enable general readers to classify and 

 give the proper names to different kinds of beauty and deformity ; being 

 convinced that till an individual can refer every object that comes before 

 him to its proper place in the scale of intellectual expression, (if we may 

 so speak,) he has little chance of arriving at truth in matters of taste. 

 Every object considered at any time, or in any age or country, beautiful or 

 otherwise, will be found so in reference to particular states of the mind, 

 country, and social improvement ; consequently, with reference to these 

 states, there must be a great many different kinds and degrees of beauty. 

 Now, to be able to class these, and assign the proper rank to each, is to have 

 arrived at just criticism in matters of taste. Another improvement which 

 we would suggest for a popular journal, is the devotion of a department to 

 queries and answers. Mr. Brande's Journal professes to be adapted for the 

 " highest classes," and if he could by such a department in his new series, 

 lead them into that species of intercommunication, which has been so suc- 

 cessfully done by the editor of the 

 Mechanic's Magazine, he would con- 

 fer a great additional interest on his 

 work, and perhaps render it as useful 

 among the highest classes, as the Me- 

 chanic's Magazine is among mechanics 

 and general readers. — Since the above 

 was printed, another number of Dr. 

 Brewster's journal is advertised : all 

 we have room to say is, that it is as 

 deserving of encouragement as Prof. 

 Jamieson's, and by many considered 

 the most interesting of the two. God 

 save them all ! 



The Aracdcha (fig. 86.), is in ex- 

 cellent health in the Glasgow Botanic 

 Garden, and was exposed to all wea- 

 thers for four months during last sum- 

 mer. One plant of it was brought originally from Bogota, via Trinidad, 

 several years back, and some others from Jamaica fourteen months ago. — 

 (S.M.,Feb. 28.1827.) 



IRELAND. 



The Bostrichus piniperdus. — A beetle, {fig. 87.), 

 17 ***■/ wn i cn m i ts larva state destroys the young 

 shoots of the pine and fir tribe, is making 

 havoc on the plantations in some parts of 

 Ireland. The eggs are hatched under the old 

 bark, and in the month of May, when pines and firs make 

 their young shoots, the larva or grub inserts itself into 

 their base, nearly at where the new growth proceed from 

 the old wood, ( fig. 88. a,) and works upwards, till it finds 

 its way out at the extremity, b. The Scotch pine is 

 much more obnoxious to this insect than the spruce fir, 

 and as it attacks the leading shoots in common with the 

 others, if the trees survive, they are seldom worth much 

 as timber. But the trees frequently die, and as in that 

 state they offer a very favourable nidus for the eggs of a 

 future breed of larva, it is considered advisable to cut 

 down and remove them. This is all that has hitherto 

 been attempted as a mitigation or check to this spreading 

 evil. — {lr. Farm. Jour. Dec. 23. 1826.) 



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