34 Report on rare or select Articles 



begun in the potting-shed, and the plants are afterwards nursed 

 in the propagating house. I sow and strike, in a great measure, 

 every thing of consequence with some charcoal amongst the earth ; 

 some plants are struck wholly in charcoal, and I sow seeds in 

 the same way. 



Bicton Gardens^ Oct. 8. 1842. 



Akt. IV. Report on rare or select Articles in certain British Nur- 

 series and private Gardens. Drawn up from personal inspection, 

 or from communications received. By the Conductor. 



Being desirous of producing an Annual Report on the acces- 

 sions of trees and shrubs made to the British arboretum, we 

 advertised on the wrapper of the Gardener's Magazine, and in 

 the Gardening Newspapers, in November last, inviting nur- 

 serymen, curators of botanic gardens, and gardeners having 

 the care of private collections, to send us notices of what they 

 had new, rare, or remarkable. We received a number of 

 letters, which, with notes taken by ourselves in Somersetshire, 

 Devonshire, Hertfordshire, &c., we have incorporated into the 

 present paper. Our readers will find some things new, or that 

 appear to be so, and a number of articles of comparative rarity, 

 or otherwise of interest. To determine what is really new, we 

 ought either to see plants during the summer, or receive speci- 

 mens of them in autumn, which we trust we shall do next 

 autumn ; or, what would be best of all, every person thinking 

 he has any new tree or shrub ought to send a plant to the 

 Horticultural Society's Garden, where it will be compared with 

 what is already there, and its merits reported on. In the mean- 

 time, the Report now submitted to our readers will, we trust, 

 be of use both to collectors and nurserymen, and encourage 

 both to be more copious in their communications in Septem- 

 ber next, for the Report which we intend to draw up for 

 1843. 



There are those, and we are among the number, who dislike 

 excessively the addition of trifling varieties to trees and shrubs, 

 or other plants. Nurserymen are much too prone to introduce 

 such varieties, and we object to them, not only on account of 

 their insignificance, but also because they tend to draw the 

 attention away from new species. How easy would it be to 

 introduce hundreds of varieties of the common oak, Turkey 

 oak, holm oak, or common thorn ! At the same time we ac- 

 knowledge that almost all the most valuable culinary and agri- 

 cultural plants, and most of the finest flowers, are varieties of 

 the species to which they belong ; and that truly distinct varie- 



