Retrospective Criticism. 191 



bers were cut, cultivated in this way, from 18 in. to 2 ft. in length ; and a 

 constant supply, &c." If Mr. Niven is behind the pine-growers of the day, he 

 has, at least, precedence of the cucumber-growers. What a pity that some of 

 the recent writers on the cucumber had not been able to give a case or two 

 like Mr. Niven's, it would have made their works sell, surely ! Mr. Niven does 

 not say at what time of the year the seeds were sown. Will he have the 

 goodness to state at what time he could cut by sowing on the 1st of November, 

 December, January, and February, respectively ? We shall then see the value 

 of the plan. Then, " A summer crop of melons may also be obtained with 

 equal ease in the same way." Did Mr. Niven ever try it ? I trow not ; or 

 he would not have said it was easy of accomplishment. In speaking of the 

 musas, I have shown that their leaves will over-reach the space allotted to 

 them in Mr. Niven's plan, so that, in fact, there is no room to grow cucumbers 

 or melons. 



With regard to Mr. Niven's pipe-heated vine border, I may just state that I 

 agree in all that " Catius" has said on the subject : a dry arid air under a vine 

 border is ridiculous. 



The forcing of strawberries then follows. If Mr. Niven has a pit to set the 

 fruit in before he brings them into the stove he may succeed, if not, he will fail. 



For forcing shrubs, the front and back kerbs of the pine-pit are set apart. A 

 few may be set on the front kerb ; there is no room on the back. — W. Hutchin- 

 son. February 9. 1842. 



The Difference in apparent Magnitude between the Rising and Setting Sun. — 

 In p. 100. it is said that, " The sun when rising and setting appears larger, 

 because it can be compared with the smaller terrestrial objects." I conceive 

 that it appears larger when setting, from the diminished light that it emits, 

 compared to what it does when it is more vertical ; just as the embers of any 

 consuming substance appear larger and deeper coloured after the flame that 

 was emitted from it has become extinct, &c. May not the sun, when at its 

 height, be compared with the aerial objects, as birds, clouds, &c, of small dimen- 

 sions, as well as when it is setting ? — T. Torbron. Feb. 12. 1842. 



The Banana or Plantain, (p. 42.) — Amongst the various communications 

 tending to promote that grand object which we all have at heart, none seem 

 better calculated for effecting it than the publishing of accounts of visits to 

 gardens, when such accounts are given in a correct form; since by means of 

 such communications proprietors of similar situations and their gardeners 

 are often reminded of what fruits, flowers, or vegetables they might have, 

 but do not possess. In p. 42. is such a communication taken from the Ayr 

 Observer, the greater part of which is good, but it contains a few blemishes 

 which, I think, you, in your editorial capacity, might with propriety have cor- 

 rected ; and first, as to the banana or plantain (Musa paradisiaca). The 

 plantain only is meant ; as the banana is the Mus« sapientum, which grows to 

 the height of 40 ft., and has the merit of producing a much finer-flavoured, 

 although not more useful, fruit. Both the M. paradisiaca and the M. sapien- 

 tum, as well as the M. Cavendish^', as described a little further on, form a 

 beautiful curve with their flower spikes ; and their spikes hang down, not by 

 the weight of the fruit, but by their own natural propensity, as will appear 

 evident to every one, when it is known that the spikes tend quite as much to 

 a downward direction before the fruit is formed, or the first flower has opened, 

 as after the fruit is mature. What are called two-rowed branches of fruit are 

 in the West Indies called hands, from their finger-like appearance. 



The Carica Papaya is one of those plants that I feel much interest in. In 

 the present communication the writer, I think, must be wrong in supposing 

 that there are two species at Williamsfield, as we have raised both kinds from 

 the fruit of the female plant, that is, the one which bears at the axil of the 

 leaf upon short axillary peduncles ; and also from the fruit of the male plant, 

 that is, the plant which at the axil of the leaf produces a panicle of male flowers 

 on a footstalk of from 4 in. to 7 and 8 inches long, with occasionally a female 



