568 Catalogue of Works on Gardening, $c. 



cut of each species, and numerous vignettes. Parts II. to XL, forming one 

 vol. 8vo. London, 1842. 



We noticed the first part of this work in our Volume for 1841, p. 624., and 

 the remaining parts, making in all eleven, are now before us. On the work, as 

 a whole, we can bestow unqualified commendation, both in respect to the letter- 

 press and the engravings. To give the reader an idea of its contents we make 

 the following quotation from the preface : — 



" Most 'of these treatises [on trees] are restricted in their design, and are 

 confined to certain departments of dendrology, and operations connected with 

 the general culture and management of forest trees, and do not enter upon 

 the particular history, or any detailed account, of individual species. Of this 

 description are the works of Pontey, Menteith, Niehol, Sang, Billington, and 

 various others, in all of which the operations of planting, thinning, pruning, 

 and nursery culture, constitute the permanent features, leaving the history of 

 the species to which the above-mentioned operations are meant to refer but 

 slightly touched upon, or forming a very secondary portion of their contents. 

 " The classic ' Sylva' of Evelyn, and the valuable ' Arboretum et Fruti- 

 cetum Britannicum' of Loudon, are, however, works to which the present 

 volume approaches nearer in the general outline of its plan ; but as the 

 former was written upwards of a century and a half ago, and at a time when 

 several trees, now naturalised and extensively cultivated in Britain, were" but 

 little known or recently introduced ; and as the latter embraces a much wider 

 field of investigation, besides being voluminous in size and costly in price, and 

 consequently in a great measure confined to the libraries of the opulent, it did 

 not appear to the author that he was trenching upon ground, either so fully 

 occupied or exhausted previously, as to render another work (connected as it 

 is with a subject of such importance as the growth and management of British 

 timber,) altogether unnecessary and uncalled for. 



" In speaking of the various important operations connected with the 

 management of timber, the author may remark that he does so with the 

 experience of nearly forty years, during which period he has not only been a 

 planter to some extent, but has also devoted much time and attention to the 

 culture of his trees; his observations, therefore, may be considered the result 

 of practical and oft-renewed investigation, conducted, so far as he was able, 

 in accordance with the principles of vegetable physiology. It will not, there- 

 fore, much surprise his readers, that he should differ from Pontey and his 

 followers, in regard to the pruning of forest trees, seeing that the denuding 

 system of that writer is directly opposed to such principles, and that, so far 

 from contributing to promote a more rapid increase or a greater deposition of 

 the woody fibre, it tends, on the contrary, to check materially the growth and 

 vigour of the tree to which it is applied. Even the system of shortening in, or 

 curtailment of the lateral branches, a mode of pruning now very generally 

 adopted, though far preferable to the other, and when judiciously used fre- 

 quently of decided advantage, may easily be carried to excess, as the author 

 has seen in repeated instances. In short, it is seldom that trees planted in 

 mass, or within a short distance of each other, require aid or assistance from 

 the pruning knife, or are even benefited by the abscission of their lateral 

 branches — -the difficulty, on the contrary, is to induce trees so situated to 

 retain these necessary and efficient members in requisite numbers, and for a 

 sufficient length of time to insure a healthy and vigorous growth and a rapid 

 deposition of the woody fibre. One of the most efficient modes of producing 

 such an effect is, the timely application of another important operation, viz. 

 that of thinning, the advantage of which, when properly administered, the 

 author has endeavoured to impres3 upon his readers in various parts of his 

 work. 



" With respect to the planting of forest trees, he would briefly remark that 

 he is not an advocate for the trenching of the ground previously to that opera- 

 tion, being convinced, from personal observation and experience, that no 



