Catalogue of Works on Gardening, fyc. 377 



of the atmosphere is rapidly to permeate each other's bulks, and become 

 equally diffused ; and on this principle, and from his experience with the 

 plant-cases, he concludes that the noxious gases, in all ordinary cases, have 

 little or no influence in deteriorating the atmosphere either for plants or 

 animals. 



Imitation of the natural Conditions of Plants in closely glazed Cases. — A fern 

 and a grass, which came up accidentally in a wide-mouthed glass bottle with 

 a lid, first gave Mr. Ward the idea of growing plants in closely glazed cases. 

 He had often tried ineffectually to grow ferns on rockwork in the yard at the 

 back of his house, and he could not but be struck with one coming up and 

 growing so well in a bottle. He asked himself seriously what were the 

 conditions necessary for its growth. " To this the answer was, Istly, an 

 atmosphere free from soot (this I well knew from previous experience) ; 

 2dly, light ; 3dly, heat ; 4thly, moisture ; and lastly, change of air. It was 

 quite evident that the plants could obtain light and heat as well in the bottle 

 as out of it ; and that the lid which retained the moisture likewise excluded 

 the soot. The only remaining condition to be fulfilled was the change of 

 air ; and how was this to be effected ?" (p. 26.) The answer is, by the law 

 of the diffusion of gaseous bodies, alluded to in the preceding paragraph ; 

 the crevices in the glass case admitting of the exit and entrance of air, but not 

 of the entrance of fuliginous matter. This is the whole secret of the growth 

 of plants in glass cases. 



The consideration of the remaining chapters we must defer till a future 

 Number; in the meantime we can assure our readers that these dry facts 

 which we have quoted, though they are calculated to give a complete idea of 

 the theory of the art of growing plants in glass cases, yet by no means 

 exemplify the beautiful manner, accompanied by apt illustrations, in which it 

 has been developed by Mr. Ward. 



Sir Uvedale Price on the Picturesque : with an Essay on the Origin of Taste, 

 and much original Matter, by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Bart ; and Sixty 

 Illustrations, designed and draivn on the Wood by Montagu Stanley, 

 R. S. A. 8vo, pp. 586. Edinburgh and London, 1842. 

 The value of the essays on the picturesque by Sir Uvedale Price is known 

 to every one in this country, who has the least pretension to taste in land- 

 scape or in landscape architecture, and therefore nothing requires to be said 

 on that part of the volume before us. We reverence the memory of Sir 

 Uvedale Price, whom we had the pleasure of knowing personally, both as an 

 author and as a man ; for the liberality of his sentiments, and his benevolence, 

 were of a character as elevated and decided as his taste. Of the notes of Sir 

 Thomas Dick Lauder, we have given specimens at length in p. 342. and 

 p. 360. The only part of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's editorial labours that we 

 disapprove of is the introductory essay " On the Origin of Taste," in which 

 every thing is referred to the principle of the association of ideas. We 

 readily admit that the greater number of the emotions of taste, and all the 

 more exalted emotions, are heightened by this principle ; but we think that 

 there are many of the pleasures of taste that are altogether independent of 

 association, and, at all events, that many emotions do not originate in it. 



There are certain combinations of colours and sounds which, according to 

 the constitution of our nature, are disagreeable, and others which are agree- 

 able. Now, either this point is conceded to us or it is not. If it be not 

 denied, then the association of ideas cannot be said to be the origin of taste 

 in music and painting. Mankind in general are less susceptible of eeling what 

 is agreeable and what is disagreeable in combinations of lines and forms : but 

 many individuals are sensible of the difference between forms and lines of dif- 

 ferent kinds naturally ; and others, such as painters and architects of taste, 

 by cultivation. Now, if this point also be conceded to us, it can no longer 

 be said that the association of ideas is the origin of taste in matters relating 



