604 Forbes's Hortus Wohurnensis. 



on planting the peach-house ; pruning, &c.j of the peach 

 tree ; forcing the peach tree. The same considerations 

 relative to the management of the vine ; culture, propagation, 

 and management of the fig tree ; of pine-apple plants, melons, 

 and cucumbers. On forcing the cherry, strawberry, rhubarb, 

 the potato, asparagus, and the sea-kale. 



These transcripts of titles, &c., will fully indicate the scope 

 and contents of the book ; and it remains only for us to give 

 our opinion on its merits both in respect to design and exe- 

 cution. We regret to say that we do not approve of either, 

 and we shall give our reasons for this judgment. 



The work consists of three parts; the catalogue, the de- 

 scription of the plates, and the treatises on culture. The 

 catalogue (which Mr. Forbes appears to set most value on, 

 and which occupies more than half the volume) is in the 

 manner of Galpine's Compeiidium, with this difference, that, in 

 the latter work, the generic characters are all placed toge- 

 ther, whereas, in that of Mr. Forbes, they are distributed 

 among the characters of the species. Now, whatever may be 

 the merits of this plan, we cannot conceive the utility of 

 applying it to a local catalogue. As a general catalogue, the 

 Hortus Wohurnensis can have no pretensions. Or, supposing 

 the plan of this catalogue a desirable one, why should the 

 purchaser of it be obliged to pay for, and carry along with it, 

 in the same volume, upwards of 200 pages of descriptive or 

 didactic letterpress, accompanied by numerous folding plates? 

 A catalogue is a volume which the gardener is supposed to 

 have in continual use, and therefore it should never be 

 encumbered with extraneous matters. All that we could wish 

 to say as to the execution of this catalogue may be inferred 

 by any tyro in botany, by comparing the generic and spe- 

 cific characters in the eight lines quoted from it (p. 602.). 

 If this be not satisfactory, we shall explain what we allude 

 to, in detail, in a future Number- 

 To the descriptive part of the work we shall offer no 

 objections, except that we do not see any advantage in 

 having the plates larger than the size of an octavo page; 

 while there is this manifest objection to a larger size, that it 

 increases the bulk and price of the work. 



With respect to the treatises, we have perused them with 

 attention, and confess that w^e cannot see the propriety of 

 connecting them either with the catalogue of plants, or the 

 description of the plans. If the modes of culture at Woburn, 

 and their results, had been minutely and accurately given ; 

 for example, if it had been stated when each house in each 

 year was begun to be forced, what heat was kept up at dif- 



