Miller's Gardener's Dictionary. 685 



a quarter of an inch ; indeed, an eighth of an inch would be 

 nearer the most successful practice. 



The worst part of the book is the plates, and they may 

 really be described as execrable, particularly Plate III., which 

 professes to contain portraits of a larch, a silver fir, a cedar, 

 and a Norway spruce fii\ The choice of the specimens is 

 faulty, inasmuch as they represent the forms that have been 

 taken by particular individuals of great age, instead of the 

 general form of the species about middle age. The execution 

 is so bad, that, without the assistance of the names, we defy 

 any one to tell what tree is meant to be represented, with the 

 exception of the cedar, which might be guessed at. The 

 branches of the larch are made to resemble ostrich feathers ; 

 and the silver fir is drawn with five leaders ! It would be much 

 better for the purchaser if the plates were altogether omitted, 

 and the same expense which is now incurred in producing 

 them laid out in increasing and improving the letter-press. 



The botanical doings in the book are, through haste or 

 ignorance, crude enough, and are devoid of that definitiveness, 

 careful accuracy, and clearness, which botanical readers of the 

 present day expect. We do not recommend a dictionary of 

 any art or science, for reasons given in the preface to the 

 fii'st edition of our Encyc. of Gard., but, where that form is 

 adopted, v/e expect to find the subjects well treated of 

 where their letter places them. This is not the case in many 

 instances. To take an example or two : — Abronia umbellata. 

 Although generic and specific characters are professedly given, 

 both are omitted in this. We are told that it is " a small 

 but very beautiful and elegant perennial evergreen herbaceous 

 plant, producing flowers surrounded by an involucrum of a 

 charming rose colour." This last clause does not state its own 

 meaning; which is, that the flowers, of a charming rose colour, 

 are surrounded by an involucrum. In the description of 

 A^brus precatorius, we have only two hints that the plant 

 bears leaves at all, and not a syllable is said of their form, 

 markings, degree of persistence, &c., and, above all, of 

 their extreme sweetness when chewed ; nor is the fact hinted, 

 that the plant's trivial name of " wild liquorice" is derived 

 from the sweetness of the leaves and roots. In the description 

 of Acacia cornigera, the following sentence is necessarily per- 

 fect nonsense ; although a person who knows the plant, as 

 many of our gardening friends do, may guess its meaning. 

 " The leaves and flowers are small, yellow, and void of scent, 

 in a close cylindrical spike, and a inch and a half long." 1 he 

 man who let such a sentence pass could not have an accurate 

 guess, not to sayknowledge,of the form of the objects described. 



