176 New Turf-Racer and Verge-Cutter. 



is only 365., which is scarcely more than the price of one number 

 of Mr. Bateman's Orchidacece of Mexico. The first number of the 

 second volume, which appeared on the 1st of March, contains 

 Sceversm montana, Cosmos diversifolius, Bigonm incarnata, and 

 Barkerm elegans. 



The Botanist (Whittaker and Co. Is. 6d.). This work is 

 very beautifully got up. The plates are well engraved on steel, 

 and very carefully coloured : indeed, perhaps more so than any 

 work of its class, except the Floral Cabitiet : it is also next to 

 that work in cheapness. The small paper-copy, at Is. 6d., is, 

 indeed, uncommonly cheap ; but some of the plates, from an 

 injudicious economy, are arbitrarily cut into the required square, 

 without much regard to beauty of design. To mark a recent 

 example, I refer to two plates in No. 14. ; first, Cypripedium 

 insigne, which, besides being cut into a square in an ugly man- 

 ner, is badly executed ; and (Solanum lanatum, which, although 

 very good in other respects, is spoiled by this squaring system. 

 The last number contains Anthocercis viscosa, Ferbena Tweed- 

 idna, Pimelea lanata, and Sparaxis pendula. 



The Bolajiic Garde?i (Whittaker and Co. \s. 6d.). This still 

 continues to be a very neat little work ; but the reduction of the 

 subjects to hall!, a third, and sometimes a fourth, of their natural 

 size destroys the effect, and prevents the plates, in many in* 

 stances, from conveying any idea of the originals. It is, how- 

 ever, a very pretty little work, and, for its price, very good. 

 The last number contains Tropae^olum tuberosum, O'robus pisi- 

 formis, Nemophila insignis, and Deutzfa scabra. 



There are many other periodical botanical publications, which 

 meet, in different ways, the demands that have called them into 

 existence, and are creditably conducted and brought out ; but they 

 are not such as call for notice in an article where my only object 

 has been to trace the progress, and note the present state, of pic- 

 torial embellishment, as applied to botanical works. 



London, March, 1838. 



Art. III. A neto Turf-Racer and Verge-Cutter. By Edward Bell, 

 Landscape-Gardener. 



In the course of an extensive practice, in which I have had 

 occasion to have cut and relaid a great quantity of turf, I have 

 invariably found the old turf-racer totally inadequate, where the 

 surface was at all hilly or uneven. I was therefore led to con- 

 trive the one shown in 7%. 28., which, I trust, will be found to 

 cut alike well on every variety of surface where such an imple- 

 ment is required. 



Its advantages are, first, that it cannot be pressed into the 

 ground, the broad and circular-formed part (a), that is pressed 



