518 jRetrospective Criticism. 



viewer's gratuitous condemnation; and yet my thanks are due for qualifying 

 his severity by " damning with faint praise " a few grains of useful information 

 which may be gleaned from the book. Still I cannot help feeling that my 

 humble name has somehow or other been the cause of a descent of elaborated 

 gall into my reviewer's ink ; for the very next book reviewed, written by the 

 same hand and pen, but anonymous, is spoken as highly of as the other is 

 condemned ! For this good turn I have of course to offer, on my own and 

 publisher's behalf, our united thanks. 



If my reviewer be a disciple of the Knightian school, and especially if he 

 has avowed himself as such in public conversation, or as an expositor of 

 vegetable phenomena, he certainly has some cause to complain of my repre- 

 sentations, if they convey to his friends or his pupils any show of feasibility 

 or of truth. Be this, however, as it may, it cannot be expected that practical 

 men will suppress their own convictions, merely out of deference to those who 

 happen to be seated in the high places of botanical society. — J. Main. June 

 20. 1840. 



Art. V. Retrospective Criticism. 



Erratum. — Page 264. line 14. for " King Pippin," read Kerry Pippin. 



Mr. Main's Theory of Vegetable Developement. (p. 325.) — Mr. Lymburn's 

 rejoinder is too candid and intellectual to be passed over or treated with 

 silence. A very short reply, however, is only required, as it appears that 

 different opinions are held merely from our lack of terms, or by the use of 

 those which are undefined. There is always difficulty in explaining, or even 

 conceiving infinity, whether of numbers or space. We can no more compre- 

 hend how infinite numbers can be contained in finite space, than we can 

 measure immensity itself. But we usually judge of those things we do 

 not know, by those we do know ; and being assured no plant can originate 

 itself; so neither can we conceive that any part of a plant can acquire identity 

 without a preexisting rudiment. 



In answer to Mr. Lymburn's last question, I have to reply, that a dicoty- 

 ledonous stem is composed of four physical constituents ; namely, the pith, 

 the wood, and the bark : these three, being destitute of vitality after they are 

 formed, produce neither buds nor roots ; the other constituent lies between the 

 wood and bark, that is, between the alburnum and liber, and is the vital mem- 

 brame whence all buds and roots proceed. This living membrane is hardly vi- 

 sible during winter, being thin and colourless ; but gradually becomes visible in 

 summer, and changes to perfect timber in the autumn. Surely there can be no 

 incomprehensibility about a fact like this, of which any one may be convinced 

 by simple examination at the different seasons. — J. Main. July 14. 1840. 



An Attempt to build in Lincoln's Inn Fields. — I trouble you with this at the 

 instance of our good friend Mr. Ingpen. It seems there is a sacrilegious at- 

 tempt about to be made to rob the city of London of one half of one of her 

 finest squares, namely, Lincoln's Inn Fields, by an interested set of Legal 

 Vandals, who wish to seize on this breathing-place for their new projected 

 courts of law. The present courts in Westminster cost the country 100,000/., 

 which are to be demoUshed, or rendered useless, merely because many lawyers, 

 and one or two of the judges, find it rather inconvenient to attend in West- 

 minster; though they forget how inconvenient the new site would be to the 

 crown lawyers who must attend the houses of parliament. Now, Sir, as you 

 have always been an advocate for opening, rather than shutting up the few 

 breathing-places so sparingly left in the city, pray do interpose with your pen 

 to prevent, or render odious, such a wanton seizure of the very breath of heaven, 

 and which is the undoubted pi-operty of the citizens. The beautiful trees 

 which stand in the way of the new pile of bricks and mortar, must be sacri- 

 ficed without mercy, lest they should rufHe the dead wigs of the selfish gowns- 

 men ! — J. Main. 3. Ehn Terrace, Fidham Road, Aug. 13. 1840. 



Occurrences like that contemplated point out the necessity of what we have 



