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NOTICES OF AUTHORS. 



demand there for Scots plants to the seeds being thus 

 buried in place of being sown, and states that they 

 should only be covered one-fourth of an inch, as is the 

 practice in Aberdeenshire. He also reprehends the 

 author of the Encyclopaedia of Gardening, on account 

 of some directions which this author has given, to 

 form, by forcing, a fine friable soil, suitable for the 

 delicate seeds of trees, where this does not previously 

 exist. Now, we should consider that the difference of 

 climate between the neighbourhood of London and 

 Aberdeen would require a difference of cover nearly 

 equal to this ; and that forcing a friable earth for 

 seed-beds was absolutely necessary, in the very adhe- 

 sive clays around London, and so general in the 

 more recent formations of the south and middle of 

 England, although superfluous in the north of Scot- 

 land, where sandy or light soil is sufficiently abun- 

 dant. Seeds, under a moist cloudy atmosphere, will 

 vegetate without cover at all ; but in situations where 

 the air is arid in spring, with much sunshine, a cover- 

 ing of some depth is necessary, and that covering, 

 where the rudiments of the plant spring out weak 

 and delicate, is required to be soft and friable, a good 

 absorber and retainer of moisture, and not disposed 

 to run together with rain, or crack with drought. 

 Mr Cruickshank gives an account of our different 



