Retrospective Criticism. 159 



Whittington Stoheferry. — Nov. 19. My neighbour Mr. John Bush, of Stow, 

 has given me the quantity sent herewith of this wheat. The sample is not so 

 fine as it often has appeared ; but Bush assures me you may rely on its being 

 the genuine stock. The same observations I made anent the Hickling wheat 

 apply with equal force to this variety. It is impossible to know from the 

 stock how the produce may turn out. Of one thing only can we be certain, — 

 that, be the quality what it may, the stock will be pure; and I am one of those 

 who, if I can but be sure of the stock, care very little what the quality of the 

 seed may be. My agricultural training, from my youth up, has led me to en- 

 tertain these notions. My father sowed about 100 acres of wheat annually ; 

 and invariably made it a practice to use his most shrivelled and mildewed grain : 

 no matter how thin it might be in the sample, it would do for seed. The only dif- 

 ference he made was (especially in the beginning of the wheat sowing) a trifling 

 reduction in the quantity sown per acre, in consequence of the smallness of the 

 seed. I beg your pardon for this digression, and the rather so, as these doc- 

 trines may to you be " damnable and heretical ; " but they appeared to me 

 necessary to explain the fact of the wheat sent being so unlike the golden 

 drop as it is often found in our markets. One thing I ought to state, in recom- 

 mendation of the wheat ; Mr. Bush so highly approved of what he grew that 

 year, that he has sown nothing else this year ! And here endeth my lecture on 

 seed. — Samuel Taylor. 



Yicia villosa. — This is an excellent and prolific tare, which was found by 

 Mr. Gorrie among a sample of Russian wheat. It should be sown in October, 

 or early in the spring. The seeds which we received of it from Mr. Gorrie have 

 been distributed to the same parties as the wheat. — Cond. 



List of Melon and Gourd Seeds, receivedfrom Sr. Manetti of Monza, 



Melone grosso (long, and of excellent quality) ; M. grosso (long, and of a 

 pyramidal shape) ; M. moscatello (middling); M. moscateilo (green and round); 

 M. ovale (green); Bariri; M. zucohinno (excellent); M. arancini; M. Pa- 

 lermitano ; M. Parmigianino (early) ; M. olandese ; M. di Spagna (excel- 

 lent) ; M. ungarese (large and netted) ; Zucche marine. 



Some of the melon seeds in the above list we have given to one gentleman, 

 an amateur cultivator of melons ; and we will give some of the remaining 

 seeds to any person who will engage to devote a light to each kind, and to send 

 us one of the fruit when ripe. 



We have occupied so large a space with the above lists of seeds, as well to 

 evince our gratitude to the friends who have sent them, as for the sake of re- 

 cording the varieties of so valuable a grain as wheat, and of indicating that 

 seeds of all the kinds we have enumerated may be procured from Mr. Lawson 

 of Edinburgh, and M. Vilmorin of Paris. 



Art. II. Retrospective Criticism. 



Erratum. Page 98., line 9. from the bottom, for " the house," read " water." 

 Mr. Mearns's Method of coiling Vines. (Vol. XI. p. 603.) — An anxiety to avoid 

 unprofitable discussion alone prevents mefrom criticising Mr, Marnock's remarks 

 in detail. In answer to the only question which he asks, I scarcely think it ne- 

 cessary to inform him of that with which he must be perfectly conversant ; namely, 

 that there is, in my opinion, a great difference in the principles of action of two 

 distinct parties, when one party, possessing grounds for distrust, calls for 

 proofs of the truth of a published statement of success, while the other party, 

 without giving so much as a reason for what has been asserted, finds fault be- 

 cause proofs did not accompany the statement that impugns it ; and there is a 

 still greater difference when one party offers to give proofs to repletion as 

 soon as they may be demanded, while the other party, after proofs of a speci- 

 fied nature have been required, returns only reiterated asseveration for proof, 

 and empty declanmtion for argument. Mr. Marnock plainly asserts that Mr. 



N 2 



