and of Rural Improvement generally i during 1837. 541 



ing acquainted with the plants of his native country, will be 

 alike gratified and instructed by the second volume of Watson's 

 Botanisfs Guide,and Francis's British Ferns. The first volume 

 of the Flora of Jamaica^ by Dr. Macfadyen, supplies a botanical 

 desideratum, and abounds in information both for the botanist 

 and the gardener. (See p. 590.) 



The most valuable foreign work for gardeners and farmers 

 which has appeared in the course of the year is KoUar's History 

 of Insects^ which, as will be seen by our Literary Notices, will 

 very shortly appear in an English dress. The First Part of the 

 Transactions of the Hort. Soc. of Frankfort has been published 

 in the course of the year ; and the Annales de la Societe d' Hor- 

 ticulture de Paris continues to be enriched with the very valu- 

 able papers of M. Poiteau, M. Loiseleur Deslongchamps, M. 

 O. Le Clerc, and others. The Annales de Flore et de Pomone, 

 now in its fifth year, continues to appear monthly, and to 

 exhibit figures and descriptions of the plants considered the 

 most rare or beautiful in the neighbourhood of Paris. The 

 number for November contains a description of the double 

 rhododendron, already referred to. The establishment of a 

 gardening newspaper has been already noticed. The most 

 valuable agricultural periodical in Britain is the Quart. Jour, 

 of Agr., published along with the Prize Essays and Transactions 

 of the Highland and Agricidtural Society of Scotland. In the 

 number of that work for March, 1837, there is an article, 

 " Studies in the Science and Practice of Agriculture, as connected 

 with Physics," of which we had intended to give some account in 

 the present Volume ; but want of room obliges us to defer it. In 

 meantime, we strongly recommend this publication, which is now 

 reduced from 65. to 5s. a number, to all our agricultural readers. 



RURAL AND DOMESTIC IMPROVEMENT GENERALLY. 



Ifi Agriculture, the principal circumstance suitable for being 

 noticed in this work, is another trial of Heathcoat's steam 

 plough, at the exhibition held by the Highland Society of 

 Scotland at Dumfries. An account of a previous trial will be 

 found in the Highl. Soc. Trans, vol. xii. p. 72. ; and in our 

 Vol. XII. From the newspaper reports, the general opinion 

 does not seem to have been much in its favour ; as there seems 

 to be an immense waste of capital and of power attendant on 

 the stationary engines. It has always appeared to us that it 

 would have been much better to endeavour to invent a machine 

 suitable for ploughing ordinary soil, than for turning over the 

 surface of peat bogs. But the time does not seem to have 

 arrived for estimating the value of an efficient substitute for the 

 plough, to be impelled by steam ; when it does, the offer of a 

 reward of from 1000/. to 5000/. will soon call it forth. The 

 number of new and improved varieties of grain, grasses, roots. 



