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NOTICES OF BOTANICAL PUBLICATIONS. 
smooth, of a dark colour, and apparently much healthier looking. Now 
if moss be really injurious to trees, I should recommend this as an 
excellent remedy ; but it is a subject upon which I have doubts, as 
the moss begins to grow as the winter approaches, when the strength 
of the soil is not required, and I believe it partially dies in summer. 
Perhaps it may be useful to defend against frost, as I believe it is more 
common to fast-growing trees, which must be more liable to be hurt by 
frost than slower growing trees, or trees of more solid substance. I 
believe moss is, strictly speaking, a parasitical plant, which is generally 
considered rather injurious , and I believe the reason is, it is supposed 
to deprive of air the tree upon which it grows. Now supposing it to 
begin to grow as the winter approaches, which I believe it does, do 
you think it does injury ? as I cannot conceive that much air is required 
to a tree in a torpid state, as is the case with most trees in the winter. 
You may possibly not have seen trees in such a state as I mean. My 
trees were completely covered with a kind of moss (I believe that is the 
proper term), very like velvet in appearance, which, I should think, 
would partially close the pores of the bark against air, and if it did not 
die off in summer, I should say would kill the tree in a year or two, as 
I believe a free circulation of air is as requisite to a vegetable as to an 
animal. The question I wish you to honour with your attention is, 
whether you think moss is injurious or not, and whether applying such 
a remedy as I have named is not wasted, as I must here state the 
crops of berries were not very fine, but the apple trees bore very well. 
One instance I must mention of a small tree ripening upwards of one 
hundred apples; this tree is very young. If you think moss is injuri¬ 
ous I should strongly recommend the above recipe, which I applied at 
the end of February, and which fell off about April, together with the 
moss, not failing in any instance in leaving the trees free from all moss 
and rough bark. Leaving this to your consideration, and to people 
more capable of deciding on the question than myself, I remain your 
obedient servant, 
Derby, 1 5th Oct. J. G. B. 
NOTICES OF BOTANICAL PUBLICATIONS. 
Edwards’s Botanical Register, continued by Dr. Lindley 
The November number contains :—• 
1. Cereus triangularis. Triangular torch-thistle, a native of 
Mexico and the West India Islands. It was called Cactus triangularis 
by Linnaeus, but changed to Cereus by De Candolle and Haworth. The 
