422 



NOTES AND ILLUSTEATIONS. 



This, no doubt, is a very favourable state of component parts ; altbough 

 we might liave expected a greater proportion of decomposing vegetable 

 matter, and perhaps of carbonate of lime. Considerable depth may be 

 supposed to exist above the substratum, which it is surprising that 

 Pontey should have omitted to mention. In as far as the growth of 

 timber is concerned, any account may be considered as very imperfect 

 without a specification of it. 



Note II. Page 131. 



The ancients, although they knew little of the history and properties, 

 and still less of the anatomy and internal structure of plants, were yet 

 sufficiently conversant with arboriculture as an art of practice, and 

 particularly, they removed large trees with as great success as any of 

 our planters of the present day. Accordingly, we find that many of the 

 best rules and maxims in our books on planting are taken from their 

 writings. A more judicious one there cannot be than that here men- 

 tioned in the text, namely, always to give to a transplanted tree a soil 

 better than what it had before removal. Columella says, Prudentis 

 coloni est, ex deteriori terra potius inmeliorem, qudm ex meliore in deteri- 

 orem, transfer re. — De Re Rust. lib. iii. 5. Pliny delivers the same 

 maxim, but seems to consider similarity of soil as more important to be 

 studied even than superiority for the new site ; in which, however, he 

 is not borne out by experience. Ante omnia, in similem transferri 

 terrain, aut meliorem oportet : nec e tepidis aut prcBcocihus, in frigidos 

 aut serotinos situs, ut neque ex his in illos. — Hist. Natur. lib. xvii. ii. 

 See also Theophrast, Ilept ^urwy 'icrTopias. lib. ii. 7. 



Note III. Page 140. 



Were I called upon to name the person to whom the farmer, in most 

 districts of Scotland, and in many of England, is under the greatest 

 obligations, I should certainly name the late Lord Meadowbank. The 

 arboriculturist in both countries must also rank him among his best 

 benefactors. In ancient times, such a person might very possibly have 

 been deified ; at all events, a statue would have been erected to the 

 memory of the man, who instructed his countrymen in the art of at 

 once doubling and tripling the whole mass of their farm manure, by a very 

 simple and certain process. In modern days, likewise, we erect statues, 

 but it is not for achievements of this useful species. 



It is now more than twenty years since Lord Meadowbank com- 

 municated his discovery to the public, in a small pamphlet, entitled 



