"7 14- Retrospective Criticism. 



•with tea, even if a quantity could be procured for the purpose; but this 

 plant is kept chiefly for ornament, and consecjuently is too scarce and too 

 dear. Its flowers are occasionally put among tea, but then it is only with 

 very small quantities of tea intended for presents. There is no such 

 plant as the San Cha Yii. Mr. Main appears to have mixed the names of 

 two plants. The San Cha is the single red-flowered Camellia japonica; the 

 Yew Cha is the Camellia oleifera Loureiro, a single white-flowered kind of 

 Camellia, from the seeds of M'liich, much of the oil used at Canton is ex- 

 pressed ; but the leaves of these plants are too thick and harsh to be 

 mixed with tea without immediate detection. The silvery leaves, which 

 Mr. Main supposes to be those of Azalea indica, are, in reality, the early 

 shoots of the tea-plant ; the leaves of Azalea are too scarce, and would be 

 too dear, for mixing with tea. 



Mr. Main^s Observations upon Chinese Scenery, 8fc. (Vol. II. p. 135.) re- 

 quire some corrections. The view (fig. .38.) could not have been seen in 

 the neighbourhood of Canton.* The (Piiackcan) Epidendrum fuscatum 

 would now be thought dear at one dollar per plant. The Pyrus does not 

 come under the generic name Cha. The Chinese divide the Linnaean 

 genus I the eatable varieties fall in with the plums, under the generic term 

 Le; while Pjrus japonica [Cydoniajaponica] and [Pyrusj spectabilis unite 

 with Hypericum monogynum under (what may be called) the generic term 

 Hoey tang. — J. Reeves. Clapham, Oct. 28. 1833. 



Additional notes in relation to the history of the tea plant will be found 

 in Vol. VIII. p. 89. 490. — J. D. 



Mr. Mt(nro's Suggestion (p. 551.) for the Formation of a Sylvan Society 

 I am much pleased with„and I agree with him in almost all he says on the 

 subject. I seldom pass by other people's woods or plantations but my 

 fingers itch to thin, and weed, and prune out. In short, as Mr. Munro 

 has truly said, " the greater propoition of our woods, from neglect or 

 mismanagement, look as if they belonged to nobod}'." 



The Oak Trees ivhich turn away their Heads from the South-iuest (p. 548.), 

 described by Mr. (JIarke, are by no means peculiar to his part of the 

 country [Poole, Dorsetshire]. Years ago, I was much struck with the 

 same thing in the Isle of Wight, and have often said, that, were I ignorant 

 of the points of the compass, I could immediately discover them by looking 

 at an oak tree. Even in Warwickshire, in exposed situations, the oak 

 trees show their aversion to the south-west, by turning away their heads 

 from that quarter. — W. T. Bree. Allesley Rectory, near Coventry, War- 

 ivickshire, Oct. 19. 1833. 



Air. Alitnro^s Mode of training the Oak Tree for Naval Pzirj)oses. — Sir, 

 Yom* valuable correspondent, Mr. Munro, certainly deserves high com- 

 mendation for the enthusiastic love of country displayed in the preamble 

 of his communication " on training the oak tree, so as to produce curved 

 timber for use in the construction of ships " (p. 557.) ; but, as far as I can 

 see into the system Mr. Munro has adopted, 1 think that his zeal has 

 rather surpassed his good sense. Had Mr. Munro remained two or three 

 years longer in the place where he began to conduct his experiments, I am 

 afraid he would have found the results verj' different from what he anti- 

 cipated. In giving his paper an attentive perusal, the following (what I 

 conceived) imperfections in his plan occurred to me, and, if I am wrong in 

 my conclusions, I beg that Mr. Munro, or anj^ of your able correspondents, 

 will be so good as set me right. 



* Mr. Main is not responsible for these views. We had them copied from 

 a well-known French work, entitled Reciieil des Jardins Chinois. — Cond. 



