180 Retrospective Criticism. 



I am sorry to have unintentionally given you offence; but, in truth, if I had 

 acknowledged my obligations to specific works, I must have quoted, not only 

 your Magazine, but also the Transactions of the Horticultural Society., and 

 other journals, which, for brevity's sake, I included under the appellation of 

 English publications. I confess, however, that none of these works furnished 

 me with so many explanations and observations relating to the before-named 

 object as your valuable Gardener's Magazine; for the communication ot 

 which, in particular, I therefore return you my warmest thanks. Since 1 sent 

 you my tract, I have made a much more extensive application of hot water, as 

 a method of heating, in the large green-house at Nymphenburg, and with 

 equal success. I refer for your opinion to a brief account which I have given 

 of it in the Landwirthschaft/ichen Wochenblatte for 1832, No. 33., together 

 with the illustrating engravings. [We shall translate the article, and give it, 

 accompanied by engravings, in a future Number.] With respect to the plan of 

 the boiler, the account may be of some interest to the English reader, as I do 

 not remember to have seen one of similar form mentioned, either in your 

 Magazine or in any other English journal. — Sckell, Munich. July, 1833. 



Mr. Anderson' 's Paper on the Drooping Ash, published in the Berlin Horticultural 

 Transactions, and translated by us in the Gardener's Magazine. (IX. 596.) 

 — Mr. Anderson, on reading his paper re-Englished by us, and finding it did 

 not convey the sentiments contained in his original communication sent to 

 Berlin, naturally enough concluded that we had mistranslated his paper, in 

 transferring it from the Berlin Transactions to our pages. In this, however, he 

 was decidedly mistaken ; and the error must have arisen in the translation of 

 his original paper from the English into German. In confirmation of this 

 view, we give the following extract from vol. vi. of the Berlin Transactions, 

 p. 313., in which it will be seen that M. Borchmeyer is contending against 

 the supposed opinion of Mr. Anderson, that the weeping ash is a distinct 

 species : — " M. Borchmeyer of Darfeld communicated his experience 

 respecting the drooping ash, and more particularly relating to the opinion of 

 M. Fintelmann, that the drooping ash should be considered a different species 

 from the common ash, as the plants raised from its seeds retain the property 

 of drooping. This opinion M. Fintelmann communicated to the Society at a 

 meeting held December 4.1825. Against this, M. Borchmeyer stated, at a 

 meeting held August 9. 1829, that, amongst 1000 seedlings, raised from seeds 

 produced by the drooping ash, some of which were from 6 ft. to 7 ft. high, not 

 •one showed the least inclination to droop, nor any other mark by which it 

 could be distinguished from the common ash. 



The Variegated Acer (A. Pseudo-Platanus) and the Purple Beech. M. 

 Borchmeyer also stated his experience respecting these trees ; which is, that a 

 few seedlings out of a great many resemble the parents, while the rest assume 

 the common form. These two statements, made from experience, show the 

 correctness of the prevalent idea that the varieties mentioned of the ash, acer, 

 and beech have no claim to be considered species ; and this is the opinion 

 which Mr. Anderson maintained in his paper. — Cond. 



Mr. Munrd's Method of training the Oak, fyc, for Timber for Naval Pur- 

 poses, (p. 76.) — We have received a long reply to Mr. Munro, but we really 

 do not think we could publish it with sufficient profit to our readers. We 

 will print the essence of it, however, if the writer will bring it into a quarter 

 of a page. — Id. 



'Culture of Tulips and Ranunculuses. — Sir, In the preface to the fifth edition 

 of your valuable Encyclopaedia of Gardening you earnestly request the assist- 

 tance of every reader willing to correct an error or supply a deficiency ; you 

 will, therefore, I trust, pardon th£ following details of part of the culture of' 

 tulips and ranunculuses. 



As to tulips, I observe that you recommend rotten dung and mould, about a 

 foot thick, and not above two or three inches from the base of the bulbs. The 

 florists around me avoid dung in any shape or modification ; for bulbs, planted 

 even in a frc sh soil, quite free from dung, are sure the first year to have far too 



