704- Summary View of the Progress of Gardening, 



Handsomely done up in boards and lettered, 5s. Published also in weekly 

 numbers, Price 2d. each. 



We have often recommended the Mirror to our readers, and the present 

 work bears a close resemblance to it in plan, but in execution it is greatly 

 superior. The engravings are of a superior kind, and they are printed in the 

 first style of excellence on Dickenson's paper. In a word, when we state that 

 the work is issued from the press of Whitehead and Co., the printers of the 

 most beautiful of the publications of Charles Knight, its excellence may be 

 considered as undoubted. We strongly recommend the Literary World, and 

 also the Year-Book of Facts, by the same editor, reviewed in p. 179., to every 

 young gardener, and to every one who wishes to give a cheap and elegant 

 present, either to a young or old gardener. 



The Child's Book of Zoology, or Gleanings from Natural History. By James 

 H. Fennel. Square 12mo, pp. 230, numerous wood-engravings. London, 

 1839. 



Mr. Fennel is advantageously known as the writer of the articles on insects 

 in the Gardener's Gazette ; and he has here produced a very suitable book for 

 being put into the hands of children, who have just learned to read. We 

 agree with Mr. Fennel in having " always been an advocate for Natural His- 

 tory being included in the early education of all children, for to high and low 

 it may be equally useful." (Pref, p. vi.) 



ANNUAL SUMMARY. 



A Summary View of the Progress of Gardening, and of Rural Im- 

 provement generally, in Britain, during the Year 1839 ; 'with some 

 Notices relative to the State of both in Foreign Countries. By the 

 Conductor. 



Horticulture and climate are so intimately connected, that, 

 in reviewing the past year, the weather during that period claims 

 our first attention. For various reasons it will be most conve- 

 nient in future to begin and end our gardening year with No- 

 vember and October, instead of January and December. The 

 period in question, which has just past, viewed as a whole, may 

 be characterised as sunless and moist ; and, though cold, not so 

 much so as to prevent vegetation from being more than usually 

 vigorous. At the moment when we send this to press, various 

 kinds of shrubs are still growing, and those which had long 

 since ripened their wood, such as lilacs, the ribes tribe, loni- 

 ceras, &c, are bursting their buds. A correspondent, a scientific 

 meteorologist, who pays particular attention to climate and 

 weather relatively to vegetation, has kindly sent us the following 

 retrospective view of the gardening year 1838-9. 



Weather of 1838-9. — "November was a very wet month, 

 the amount of rain being upwards of 3 J inches, as registered at 

 the garden of the Horticultural Society ; the mean temperature 

 was about 42'5°. Strong gales of wind were more prevalent than 

 is usually experienced in this proverbially dull month. On the 

 night of the 28th, the wind assumed the character of a hurri- 

 cane ; the 29th was still boisterous, with heavy rain, and much 



