tanic Gardens of Oxford and Dublin; at White 
Knights, Croome, Eaton Hall, and some other resi- 
dences of note. It is not necessarily grown as a tree 
of magnitude, for by the same rule as we cultivate 
Apple and Pear trees — others of the genus Pyrus, 
and keep them to any size desired, so may we restrict 
the growth, and retain the ornamental character, of 
the Pyrus spectabilis. As it is a native of China, 
it is, in some degree probable, that the Chinese 
themselves, may have practised their ability in dwarf- 
ing this tree, a practice in which they are known to 
excel. But their excellence, if such term be here 
admissible, amounts only to trifling and childish- 
ness, as was forcibly stated, a few years ago, by Mr. 
Main, in a communication to Loudon’s Gardener’s 
Magazine, he says “the visitor finds nothing inter- 
esting in their style of gardening ; no scope of orna- 
mental disposition ; no rational design ; the whole 
being an incongruous combination of unnatural asso- 
ciations. In one place a piece of craggy rock (real 
or artificial) is seen jutting out from amongst a tuft 
of the most delicate garden flowers ; fantastic bridges 
without water ; unsightly excavations without char- 
acter or beauty ; the whole being only a repetition 
of petty attempts at variety, on no greater a scale 
than the patchwork of a citizen's court-yard ; where 
may be seen a pile of ragged stones placed in a cor- 
ner; on this dwarf trees and flowers are planted ; 
and in order to produce the resemblance of a grove 
of pines in miniature, they plant the common Equi- 
setum, (horse-tail) for the purpose.” Here we may 
leave our readers to draw their own conclusions on 
the grandeur of Chinese gardening. 
