572 Summat'i/ Vie'w of the Progress of Gardening, 



resource in districts where, and seasons when, currants, and the 

 other fruits commonly used for these purposes, are scarce. 

 Three new agricultural plants have been brought into notice in 

 the course of the year : the Polygonum tinctorium, a native of 

 China, which affords an excellent dye ; Peganum Hdrmala^ a 

 native of Tartary, which affords a dye of a red colour, equally 

 adapted for silk, wool, cotton, and linen, and capable of pro- 

 ducing every shade from rose to crimson ; and the Madia sativa, 

 the seeds of which afford an oil said to be fit for every purpose 

 to which that of olives is now applied. 



Gay-den Literature. — In some of the garden periodicals, 

 during the past year, there has been a decided improvement. 

 The Botanical Register adds to its descriptive and geographical 

 notices of the new species which it figures, remarks on culture, 

 propagation, &c. ; and each number contains a monthly register 

 of new plants, which have come to the knowledge of the editor; 

 but which have not yet flowered, or which he has not yet found 

 time to figure. Paxton's Magazine of Botany \s much improved, 

 both in the colouring of the plates and in the letterpress ; and it 

 is no longer disfigured with bad designs of flower-gardens and 

 tasteless garden ornaments. There is still, however, a considerable 

 degree of inferiority in the plates of this work, when compared 

 with those of the Floral Cabinet ; but, considering that so much 

 has already been done, we trust the editor will not rest satisfied 

 till-he reaches the highest degree of perfection. The Floral 

 Cabinet, during the past year, has contained some papers on the 

 subject of garden culture ; most of them by Mr. Cameron, and 

 of a very superior description. The Botanist continues to be 

 got up with the same care and neatness which distinguished 

 its first numbers. In order to tempt purchasers, the small 

 edition contains, every now and then, a leaf of a glossary, by 

 Professor Henslow; and the larger edition, a leaf of an intro- 

 duction to botany, it is presumed by the same scientific author. 

 Those excellent works, Sowerby's English Botany, and Baxter's 

 British Flowering Plants, continue their course; and as both are 

 now not far from completion, they will soon form standard 

 works of unrivalled excellence, and, we may add, cheapness . 

 We cannot too strongly recommend these publications. Of the 

 garden books which have been published in the course of 

 the year, we may point to our own Arboretum, as being one of 

 the most important. It is gratifying to us to find that it has 

 been well received by all our more eminent public critics. It 

 was first kindly hailed by Dr. Lindley, in the Botanical Register, 

 when we began to publish it in 1835; and, subsequently, most 

 favourably noticed by him in the Athenceimi for September, 

 1838. It has been reviewed at length, and in a manner most 

 gratifying to our feelings, in the Qjiarterly Review, the Qjiarterly 



