Doyle's Flower- Garden, Sfc. 271 



pose that it contains some curious and interesting matter. There are remarks 

 on promoting the comforts of cottagers, on the O'xalis crenata, on collecting 

 manures, &c, &c. Dr. Hamilton does not think, with us, that the tubers of 

 the O'xalis crenata are produced by the checking of the underground stolones 

 from the decline of temperature late in autumn. " This," he says, " would 

 be a very philosophic mode of accounting for the formation of these tubers, 

 were it not that the plant is a native of a region to the south of the line, little 

 elevated above the ocean, within the tropics, and where the lowest tempera- 

 ture does not descend farther, according^ to Humboldt, than 55° 4' of Fahren- 

 heit ; and this at a season the reverse oT that at which the tubers begin^to 

 appear with us. October, in Peru, corresponds with the vernal month of 

 April on the north of the line; at which time the circulation of the sap is in 

 full vigour, and the temperature cf the year increasing, instead of diminishing : 

 hence, unless we assume that the plant has altered its habits since its intro- 

 duction into this climate, we must ascribe the late formation of the tubers to 

 some other cause than the reduction of temperature checking the prolongation 

 of the stolones, and causing an accumulation of sap in their extremities." p. 43. 



The Flower-Garden, or Monthly Calendar of Practical Directions for the Cul- 

 ture of Flowers. By Martin Doyle, Author of" Hints to Small Farmers," 

 " Practical Gardening," &c. 12mo, 170 pages. Dublin, 1834. 



The aim of this work, like that of all those in which Mr. Doyle is engaged, 

 is excellent ; and though we do not think it calculated to be so useful as his 

 Practical Gardening, still it will serve to spread a taste for flowers. The 

 objection we have to the work is, that tender articles, florists' flowers, and 

 plants that require extraordinary care, are not sufficiently marked out from 

 those that require only ordinary care. Something, we think, should have 

 been done to point out the beauty of wild flowers, and to mark out such of 

 them as are known to be capable of great improvement by cultivation, and 

 cross fecundation. It is of importance to impress on the mind of every 

 man who has a garden or a field to cultivate, that nature gives only the rude 

 materials, the sloe and the crab, and that it is for man to render them sub- 

 servient to his purpose, to form plums and apples from them, by cultivation ; 

 and that cross fecundation is, next to abundance and concentration of nourish- 

 ment, one of the most important points of culture. 



The First Report of the Oxford Botanical and Natural History Society, esta- 

 blished August 30. 1831 ; with the Rules of the Society, a List of Members, 

 and a Catalogue of the Books in the Society's Library. Pamphlet, 8vo, 20 

 pages. Oxford, 1832. 



The object of this Society is to promote the study of natural history in 

 general ; and more particularly botany and horticulture. This object it will 

 endeavour to accomplish, 1st, by reading original communications, or extracts 

 from useful and interesting works on these subjects ; 2dly, by occasional lec- 

 tures ; 3dly, by the purchase of periodical and other books relating to these 

 departments of knowledge ; and 4thly, by the formation of a library, herba- 

 rium, &c, for the use of the members. 



Donations of books, drawings, prints, specimens, &c, connected with natural 

 history, from those who may wish to promote the object of the Society, will 

 always be acceptable. 



The rules are twenty-seven, the catalogue includes seventy distinct works, 

 and the lists of presentations are considerable. Ten different periodicals are 

 taken in. The terms of subscription are 10s. on entrance, and Is. a month after- 

 wards. Persons residing at a distance from Oxford do not receive books till 

 they have been two months in the possession of the Society. 



It appears from this pamphlet, that when we stated on the authority of Mr. 

 Humphreys (109.), that the establishment of a garden library for the use of 

 the Oxford gardeners was first proposed by him, we were in error. Possibly 

 we may have misunderstood Mr. Humphreys. 



