Retrospective Criticism. 733 



matters that I have some little knowledge of; but I must say that this 

 gentleman is shouting before he is fairly out of the wood. From his own 

 observations, I am certain he is no practical planter ; but, should I be 

 mistaken on that point, I must say that his ideas are very weak on the 

 subject : but to fancy that he had superseded Sir H. Steuart in trans- 

 planting, plainly tells me that he knows nothing about Sir Henry's method 

 of removing large trees. If he were to attempt to remove such trees as 

 Sir Henry Steuart has removed, or as we have removed here, upon the 

 principle he proposes, he would tear this part of his book to pieces, and 

 regret that he ever sent forth such erroneous opinions. If the king his 

 master were to send him as many guards as would repel a regiment of 

 French cuirassiers, should he place them three deep round such trees as 

 "we have planted, their united strength could not lift one out of the pit, 

 with his bars, hooks, and poles. All the credit that I can give him for 

 his scheme is, to use it for the removal of a few small shrubs in a pleasure 

 ground. This gentleman should have waited for the year 1835, before he 

 had put his hand to paper on the subject : let him then give his candid 

 opinion, and, I ^believe, he will then refrain from boasting of his having 

 superseded Sir Henry Steuart." 



J. M. speaks of some alterations which his friend has made in the 

 machinery recommended by Sir Henry Steuart. From the circumstance 

 of J. M.'s friend being a practical man, the alterations may be valuable, and 

 we shall be glad to be made acquainted with them. — J. D. 



~Lathyrus grandiflorus. (p. 50.) — G. C.'s practice of artificially promot- 

 ing the impregnation of the germens of this plant is ingenious and useful ; 

 but, although I have this year applied the experiment repeatedl}', and also 

 cross-impregnated flowers of L. grandiflorus with the pollen of the white 

 and blue flowered varieties of L. sativus, I have altogether obtained but 

 three or four seeds. I had previously flowered several seedlings of 

 L. grandiflorus, but these all strictly resembled the original species. Six 

 years ago, I planted a plant of L. grandiflorus near to a handsome spruce 

 fir, around which the roots of the iathyrus occupy the soil, and its shoots 

 and blossoms are annually blended with the branches of the fir into a conical 

 mass, surmounted by the spiry top of the fir, and producing a most pleasing 

 effect ; the Xathyrus having climbed, by means of its tendrils, to the height 

 often feet. — Wm. Godsall. Hereford, Sept. 29. 1832. 



Mr. Pearson on the Cultivation of the Fig, in reply to Mr. Smith, (p. 489.) 

 — Sir, I observe (p. 489.) a most unjust attack on me in regard to the 

 culture of the fig, by one who calls himself John Smith, journeyman 

 gardener : and, truly, I think, he is a journeyman in more respects than 

 one j nay, even an apprentice. Permit me, then, to say a few words in 

 answer to this journeyman near Hexham, or some other place. He sets 

 out by endeavouring to make me the author of the epithets " sluggish and 

 ignorant," as applied to gardeners : now, it is unfortunate for him that he 

 should have left school before he was taught the use of inverted commas, 

 and also that of reading with attention and understanding; for I deny 

 being the author of these epithets in my treatise on figs; but, to set him 

 right, he may read my paper over again, and then refer to the Spectacle de 

 la Nature, translated from the original French, by Kelly, Ballamy, and 

 Sparrow, vol. ii. p. 145., and there he will meet with the word sluggish, 

 which I quoted. His laundry phrase of washing without soap is only 

 what he " thinks;" therefore it gives me no concern whatever. He says, 

 my " method of pruning is simple enough." True, it is; and so is every 

 other branch of the science when once it is learned : but let me tell 

 John Smith, that every " cabbage gardener" has not yet learned to prune 

 a fig tree ; and, for any information which he has given, they may still 

 remain in ignorance. He says, he would prune fig trees in April, after his 



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