4, 1 6 Catalogue of Works on Gardening. 



are many varieties designated as species, and many species repeated under 

 different names. We say unavoidably, because what can any one do, who is 

 collecting from all parts of the world, but plant the plants they receive, 

 and place the names to them which have been received with them. In the 

 meantime, the plants with these names are propagated and sold, and thus the 

 greatest confusion is introduced in collections. Again we say that this con- 

 fusion is unavoidable for a time. It might have been removed in a great 

 measure by the Horticultural Society, and it is now beginning to be so ; but it 

 will require some time to reform the nomenclature of provincial collections. 

 In the mean while gardeners and others, seeing plants so much alike with 

 different names, puzzle themselves seeking for distinctions which do not exist ; 

 and often fixing on those which belong merely to the individual instead of to 

 the species, the erroneous name is perpetuated, and the mind of the gar- 

 dener or botanist is unsatisfied. 



The o-enus Crataegus is one of the few that we were able to settle in the 

 Arboretum almost entirely to our satisfaction ; and as in it we have given 

 the lists of the names applied to the plants in the Catalogue of Messrs. 

 Loddi^es, edit. 1836, quoted above, and leaves and fruit of all the species of 

 the natural size, those who possess our Arboretum will find little difficulty in 

 applying the true names to each kind. Of upwards of ninety names applied 

 to the plants of Crataegus in Messrs. Loddiges's arboretum, there are only 

 nineteen which we found correct, as indicated in the lists quoted above, and 

 we have subsequently to the publication of these lists, in 1837, seen no reason 

 to alter our opinion in a single instance. We might apply similar remarks to 

 the other o-enera, of which there are numerous alleged species in catalogues. 



To return to the Catalogue of the Birmingham Botanic Garden, we have to 

 add, that it bears marks of having been done with very great care, many 

 synonymes being quoted, and the authorities for every name given. We also 

 observe that the specific names are generally literally translated, though not 

 always, as in the case of Gleditschia triacanthos, which is made the honey 

 locust. The page of the Catalogue being very broad, nearly liin. more so 

 than our HortusBritannicus, the derivations of the generic names might have 

 been given. 



We make these remarks, confident that we have right on our side, and also 

 that they will be taken in good part by those for whom they are intended. 

 We could not have avoided making them, because the Catalogue being pub- 

 lished subsequently to that part of our Arboretum which treats of the trees 

 and shrubs mentioned in it, it became necessary to compare the two, and, had 

 we assented to the application of the names which we find in the Catalogue, 

 it mi'dit have been supposed that we felt ourselves to be in the wrong. We 

 have°another object in view in making these remarks. In the Birmingham 

 Botanic Garden there is generally allowed to be the best collection of hardy 

 herbaceous plants in Great Britain ; and, as a catalogue of these will doubtless 

 be published by the same party, we are anxious that they should thoroughly 

 reform the species and varieties. To do this would be to render a very great 

 service to practical botanists and gardeners, and to have rendered such a 

 service will be no small honour to the Birmingham Botanic Garden. 



Art. II. Catalogue of Works on Gardening, Agriculture, Botany, 

 Rural Architecture, fyc, lately published, with some Account of those 

 considered the more interesting. 



SECOND additional Supplement to Loudon's Hortus Britannicus : including all the 

 Plants introduced into Britain, all the newly discovered British Species, all the 

 Kinds originated in British Gardens, up to' March, 1839; with a new general 

 Index to the whole Work, including all the Supplements. Prepared under the 

 direction of J. C. Loudon, by W. H. Baxter ; and revised by George Don, 



