Retrospective Cr-iticism. 277 



into the drains ; the upward currents would carry off the vapour constantly- 

 rising from the cisterns. Mr, Rogers might do the same thing in his new 

 pit. The only difficulty arising from such an arrangement would be when 

 dry air was wanted for ripening fruit, but that might be easily overcome. 



Speaking of vapour puts me in mind of the steamer I recommended for 

 steaming-houses in summer, when the fires were not at work, and for using 

 tobacco vapour instead of tobacco smoke. 1 am glad W. (p. 228.) approves 

 of it. I only wish he had given the weight of his full name to his communi- 

 cation. 



Mr. Shewin is now getting one of these steamers ready for us, and I shall 

 soon test its operations, and report accordingly ; meantime, I will only add 

 that steam being nowadays so fashionable, it would be worth wiiile to have 

 one of these steamers, if it v^ere only for being so far in the fashion of the 

 day. Every one says he likes travelling by steam ; for my part I do not like 

 sailing, or rather paddling, by steam, it helps the king o' a' diseases, sea-sick- 

 ness. Six weeks after my last trip to Inverness I was on London Bridge, and, 

 seeing th^ tide coming up, I turned sea-sick at the sight of it, and I was 

 obliged to run out of the way. I hope it will be just so with the green fly 

 and other insects ; after they get a trip or two of my steamer, the very sight 

 of it will make them leave the house. But laying this aside, no one, I think, 

 will deny that a volume of dense vapour will be more congenial to plants in 

 a summer's evening, than syringing them overhead with cold water to chill 

 them down for the night. When the superiority of this system is once un- 

 derstood by cultivators, syringing will only be resorted to for clearing the 

 foliage now and then. 



The best gardeners are, generally speaking, the greatest advocates of the 

 syringe ; yet they all know it has its disadvantages, for unless in the hands of 

 a very trusty workman, the syringe often does more harm than good, by 

 giving equal quantities of water to the more tender plants with the stronger 

 kinds, and thus soddening the pots of the weaker party to the eminent danger 

 of their existence; just as a young tyro in the watering wtiy would give every 

 pot he would come to an equal quantity of water. 



Now, for using tobacco by this steamer. What is the simplest mode of 

 getting the strength fiut of common or home-grown tobacco by means of 

 water ? or, or speak technically, How is the narcotic principle to be extracted 

 from tobacco leaves ? There is an account somewhere in this Maeazine 

 where tobacco liquor was used with the syringe, after adding five gallons of 

 clean water to one gallon of the liquor, or some such proportion. In usin" 

 this liquor, it must be first strained, to keep the sediment from cloggino- or 

 otherwise injuring the steamer. As tobacco liquor is so cheap, perhaps it 

 will be found cheaper than growing tobacco for this purpose. — D. Beaton. 

 Kingshiiri/, April, 1840. 



Vinus Pinsapo and P. cephalonica. — Perhaps it may be interesting to such 

 of your readers as are not already aware of the fact, to learn that these two 

 species are as diiferent from each other as any two species of a genus need be. 

 Tiie seedlings of these species produced only their seed leaves in most places 

 round London last year ; their seed leaves were so much alike that fears 

 were entertained of their being only one and the same thing; but now that 

 they have made some growth, they assume two distinct characters, the Ce- 

 phalonian fir belonging to the section Picea, and the Pinsapo to that of J^bies. 

 — D. B. Kingsbury, April, 1840. 



Mr. Lyvihurn on the Potato. — Mr. Lymburn's excellent paper on the 

 potato (p. 210.) puts me in mind of a notice I have intended to send to 

 you, for many years past, on the same subject. When I was " turned " 

 fifteen years of age, I used to go to grouse-shooting in the Highlands, for 

 several successive seasons, in the suite of the present Lord Lovat. When 

 our vegetables " run short," we used to buy potatoes from a shepherd 

 near whose hut we used to pitch our tents. These potatoes were grown 

 every season on the same piece of ground. The last season I was there 



