Metrospective Criticism: 493 



so, or else he would not speak so much about his gratitude and generosit_y. 

 Your Constant Reader goes on all the while (and, indeed, it happens to 

 be the only ground upon which he could manufacture a criticism) con- 

 fidently assuming that I knew of Mr. Stewart's decease, and took advan- 

 tage of this circumstance to asperse his character. He cannot, however, 

 know this to be true; and his thus writing about what he knows not to be 

 fact, condemns him to his face as not an honest lover of truth and justice. 

 Your Constant Reader may assure himself that, if I had known of the 

 demise of Mr. Stewart, I should have so modified my language, as would 

 have prevented him, or any of his kin, from putting themselves to the 

 expense and trouble of a criticism calculated to produce so trifling an 

 effect ; but, being entirely ignorant of this event, and some hundred miles 

 distant from Valleyfield at the time of writing the paper in question, my 

 only motive was that of endeavouring to prevent others from practising 

 his schemes, knowing they would terminate in disappointment. I am con- 

 sequently exempt from the foul charges of ingratitude, &c., which j'our 

 Constant Reader has so generously and gratuitously heaped upon me ; 

 and these must recoil upon his own head as their originater, until he shall 

 prove my paper untrue : then he may criticise with some reason, but not 

 till then. Your Constant Reader further says, that for five years past Mr. 

 Stewart has raised excellent pines. This I do not deny ; this 1 never 

 denied : but I deny that he ever raised pines, like those mentioned by your 

 Constant Reader, in the manner given forth in the Horticultural Trans- 

 actions. In conclusion, I have only to say, that I leave you and your 

 readers to judge whether the line of conduct I have pursued, or that pre- 

 scribed by your Constant Reader, would tend most to the advancement of 

 the interests of horticulture or those of its operatives. I am. Sir, yours, 

 &c. — An Enemy to Deceit. Feb. 21. 1833. 



R. Jeffries and Son'' s Rebutment of the Insinuations of Air. Laundy (p. 368.), 

 on the Correctness and Authenticity of Air. Smith's List of the raider of their 

 Plants, inserted in p. 102. — Sir, We feel ourselves called upon to reply to 

 thb criticisms of Mr. H. Laundy, inserted in p. 368., upon the list of the 

 rarer of the plants cultivated by us, and inserted by you in p. 102. It is 

 our opinion, opposed to that of Mr. Laundy, that such lists do deserve a 

 place in your pages, upon the ground of " public usefulness." We should, 

 and we have no doubt that many others would, like to see such lists in- 

 troduced more frequently than they have been ; for we, your subscribers, 

 should then know where to apply when we wanted any particular plant or 

 plants ; but, as the case has been, we have, when gentlemen, their gar- 

 deners, or brother nurserymen, may have wanted some new or rare plants, 

 sometimes been under the necessity of making application to different 

 nurseries before our object could be attained, and this at an outlay, for 

 the postage of letters and for other expenses, frequently equal in amount 

 to the price of the plant sought for. Surely the removal of such an evil 

 would be of "public usefulness." As to whether such lists are sent by the 

 parties possessing the plants, or bj' a visiter, we cannot conceive that it can 

 make any material difference, provided they are in every respect correct j 

 but, judging from the suspicious insinuations of Mr. Laundy, it appears to 

 us that he doubts both the correctness and the authenticity of that list. 

 We beg leave, however, to inform him, that it contained a correct state- 

 ment, and that there is not a plant named therein but such as was at that 

 time in our possession ; and although some of them were rare and difficult 

 to be procured, and consequently our stock of them might not be very 

 great, still, by any person of common understanding it must have been sup- 

 posed that we should in a short time be able to supply our friends with 

 them. As to the authenticity of the list in question, we most positively 

 affirm that it was truly given ; that it was wholly the production of Mr. 



