General Notices. 195 



less than that, in their " haste and unskilfulness," they have converted the 

 fairest races of the vegetable world into unhealthy, mongrel, and debased 

 varieties j and that calceolarias are already sinking in estimation in con- 

 sequence of the ruin they have brought on them by hybridisation. We were 

 previously awai'e that calceolarias do not hold the same place now as formerly 

 in the estimation of some, with whom pounds, shillings, and pence weigh 

 heavier in the balance than either beauty or deformity. But the calceolaria 

 is not altogether the point at issue ; Dr. Lindley only makes use of it as the 

 peg on which to hang his charge against us of converting the " fairest races " 

 into mongrel and debased^forms. To this charge we should at once plead 

 guilty, promising in future to adhere more strictly to " wild and genuine '* 

 forms, and to " abandon a pursuit which has as yet led to few results which 

 good taste can approve;" but we have the evidence of our senses, and that of 

 the horticultural world, coupled with Dr. Lindley's previous opinions, to 

 bring against this charge. We may at once advert to a few instances, ex 

 pluribus, of Dr. Lindley's previous opinions on cross-breeding and its results. 

 Who said, " The power which man has over nature holds out to us prospects 

 of the most gratifying kind, in regard to the future gayness of our gardens ? " 

 Who asserted that " improvements of the most remarkable kind are yearly 

 occurring in consequence of hybridisation ? " and that " hybrid productions 

 are undoubted cases of improvements resulting from skill ? " Who said, 

 " The industry and skill of modern gardeners have been creating intermixtures 

 which greatly add to the beauty of the flower-garden ? " And who even went 

 as far as to say, " The constant dropping of water will not more surely wear 

 away the hardest stone, than will the reason of man in time compel all nature 

 to become subservient to his wants and wishes?" Who, indeed, but Dr. 

 Lindley ? And yet he now turns round,°at the eleventh hour, and proclaims to 

 all the world that gardeners, through their ignorance, have brought ruin on 

 the " fairest races of the vegetable world." The doctor ought at least to have 

 been impartial in this charge. It is well known that gardeners are not alone 

 guilty of these acts. The late Earl of Carnarvon converted some of the 

 " fairest races " into mongrel and debased varieties : witness iJhododendron 

 alta-clerense, and Azalea thyrsiflora, &c. The present Earl of Mount Norris 

 brought ruin on the Paeonia Moutan. Mr. Knight, Dr. van Mons, and 

 others, have done more injury among our best fruits than gardeners ; to say 

 nothing of that king of hybridisers the Rev. and Hon. William Herbert, who 

 has, perhaps, brought more ruin on the " fairest races," than all the gardeners 

 put together. Dr. Lindley- says, if we must have hybridising, let us have it 

 by those rules by which alone it is possible to arrive at a really desirable 

 result : but Dr. Lindley knows, or ought to know, that the power which pre- 

 scribed the exact limits to which certain genera can change their natures, has 

 given unbounded limits to others, which set at defiance the best rules of the 

 most consummate philosophy, and, in their progressive stations to a " de- 

 sirable result," thousands must necessarily be discarded. Here lies the whole 

 secret. If we trace the history of our best fruits and vegetables (to say 

 nothing of the tulip, the dahlia, &c.), we shall find the same effects following 

 the same causes, ever since the discovery of the sexual system in plants. With 

 these facts staring us in the face, are we to give up a practice by which we 

 are sure of ultimate success, because certain " races " are falling into disrepute 

 with those who cannot take a comprehensive view of the subject ? Certainly 

 not. Dr. Lindley, with the candour of the true man of science, renounced some 

 of his former opinions on conviction of their untenableness ; and, that he may 

 reconsider his opinions respecting cross-breeding in the vegetable world, these 

 facts are, with the utmost respect, submitted to his notice. — D. B, March 

 1835. 



We have to apologise to our correspondent for the long delay of this paper, 

 which has been in type nearly a year. We shall be happy to receive the 

 other articles proffered by him. — Cond. 



Heating Stoves by Steam not a new Invention. — The following extract is 



