General Notices. 291 



it was taken as a part of the evidence in favour of the opinion that he was her 

 son. If we consider all mental qualities whatever as the result of organisa- 

 tion, the importance of selection in breeding will be obvious ; for, assuredly, if 

 the taste, good or bad, can be perpetuated from father to son, the habits, good 

 or bad, may be perpetuated also. Our attention has been directed to this 

 subject by a Report made to government on the State of Crime in Scotland. 

 The author of that Report, Mr. Hill, says, " crime appears to be not only 

 hereditary to a considerable extent, but also in some degree to belong to 

 particular occupations." Carters he finds more addicted to stealing than any 

 other class ; and colliers and fishermen, though addicted to drunkenness and 

 to committing assaults, are for the most part honest. On this part of Mr. 

 Hill's Report the enlightened and philosophic editor of the Scotsman ob- 

 serves, " Mr. Hill notes the fact, which could scarcely escape so careful an 

 observer : that in many cases crime appears hereditary. He might, however, 

 have gone farther than he does on this subject. Our belief is, that when the 

 son of a criminal walks in his father's footsteps, the effect is not so frequently, 

 as he imagines, the simple consequence of bad example and neglected educa- 

 tion, but very often of a disposition to crime which the child receives from the 

 parent with the elements of its existence. In a sound system of penal 

 legislation, the truth or falsehood of this principle is of much importance. 

 If some men are born with an irresistible propensity to cheating, thieving, or 

 acts of violence, they ought to be regarded as moral patients, like idiots and 

 lunatics, and subjected to a very different discipline to what is applicable to 

 individuals whom an accidental combination of unfavourable circumstances 

 have seduced into crime." (Scotsman, April 21. 1838.) A reference to these 

 observations may to some of our readers appear to have little connexion with 

 gardening ; and we readily admit the want of direct relation between these 

 statements and any thing that takes place in breeding plants. If, however, we 

 can strongly impress on the mind of the young gardener, the fact of like pro- 

 ducing like, not only in form, temperament, and disposition, but even in 

 morals, and in shades of opinion, and in taste, in the human species; we think 

 we shall not only do him good, in the character of parent, should he ever 

 become one, but render him far more particular than most gardeners now are, 

 in the selection of plants for producing seeds, whether of flowers or of culi- 

 nary vegetables, and in selecting blossoms of fruit trees for cross-fecundating 

 other blossoms. — Con d. 



The Necessity of Selection of Plants. — If the vast number of plants which 

 are constantly being introduced to this country were to be subjected to the 

 test of well founded and established criteria, and cultivated only when pos- 

 sessed of real and sterling merit, we imagine that many, which are now 

 allowed a place in our collections solely on account of their novelty, would 

 speedily be discarded, and their place supplied with older, but more truly 

 ornamental and valuable species. (Paxtoii's Mag. Bot., Aug. 1838, p. 145.) 



Cemeteries. — The first principle of a cemetery, beyond its being made safe 

 and wholesome, is that it should be cheerful in its aspect. For the sake of the 

 dead, this is right, that their memories may be as welcome as possible to sur- 

 vivors ; for the sake of the living, that superstition may be obviated, and that 

 death may be brought into the most familiar connexion with life that the 

 religion and philosophy of the times will allow ; that at least no hindrance 

 to this may be interposed by the outward preparations for death. (Miss 

 Martineau.) 



An economical Pit for forcing Dahlias, fyc, may be made by building a dry 

 cellar, of from 4 ft. to 6 ft, in depth, under an ordinary pit : the floor of the 

 pit over the cellar may be of large slates, or thin flag-stones placed on iron or 

 wooden joists. On this floor a layer, 9 in. thick, of sawdust, sand, ashes, 

 or rotten tan, may be placed, as a medium in which to plunge the pots of 

 dahlias, &c, to be forced. The heat is supposed to be produced by fresh stable 

 dung thrown into the cellar. {Cameron in Flor. Cabinet, vol. ii.) No pit of 

 this kind ought to be attempted except in very dry soil, and we should say 



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