THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN S COMPANION.— July 8, 1850. 
302 
to affect the special collections of ornamental shrubs and 
trees which every possessor of a garden is desirous of 
bringing together in as Inrge a number as possible. 
If the glory of our English guldens consists in the rich 
verdure of their lawns—and there can be no doubt that 
much of their attraction is due to that particular feature— 
too much care cannot be bestowed upon them. Wherever 
space will allow, large and open lawns are far preferable to 
| minute and intricate ones. If the latter predominate, the 
character of the garden will be dark, damp, and gloomy, 
i especially as the shrubberies increase in height. This 
circumstance is not sufficiently attended to in designing 
and planting new places; the consequence is, that a few 
years after they are completed, and when the general 
features of the grounds should be assuming their proper 
character, the shrubs and trees have become too large for 
their l’espe.ctive positions, gloominess prevails, and a modi¬ 
fication of the original plan has to be effected. A distin¬ 
guishing feature in the labours of the landscape-gardener, 
and one which, if fully understood and appreciated by him, 
! gives to his profession the character of a liberal art, is the 
power of prejudging future effects from present causes. In 
J being able to exercise this faculty promptly and effectively 
| rests much of his success. But while it is not in his power 
to exercise unlimited sway over the materials which he em¬ 
ploys, he can, at least, select such as shall best realise his 
views; and he will, at the same time, be careful to choose 
such combinations as shall soonest attain, and the longest 
preserve them in their integrity when once realised. 
The over-progressing power of vegetation, while it enables 
the landscape-gardener to create a living picture, is, at the 
same time, his great antagonist, for it realises but to 
destroy. This power can only be successfully combatted by 
a careful and frequent superintendence as the wished for 
effects become realised. But, as it rarely falls to the lot of 
the designer of any place to superintend the full develop¬ 
ment of his views, much must not be hoped for in that 
respect. 
While the several lawns into which a garden may be 
broken up arc to appear in themselves more or less de¬ 
tached, they must afford ready means of passing from one 
to the other. A sufficient degree of isolation and seclusion 
can readily be obtained without the former existing in reality. 
The observations previously made with reference to con¬ 
finement and restraint in walks bounded by continuous lines 
of shrubberies are equally applicable to lawns.— George 
Lovell, Landscape-gardener, Bag shot. 
(To be continued.) 
SEEDS OF PICE A NOBILIS. 
Please inform your correspondent “ G. A.” to be careful 
1 how he sacrifices his seeds of Picea itobilis. A plant here 
bore a cone last year, the seeds from which were, by many 
j who should be considered good judges, thought almost 
| useless. I sowed them, and have from them forty-eight fine 
healthy young plants, now making a second growth; and but 
for my impatience, I should have had more, for some few 
damped off, from causes well understood by practical men. 
I I was prepared for this, and my object is attained. 
I give my name for your satisfaction.—W. B. 
[A very trustworthy gardener.—E d. C. G.] 
■ 
NEW BOOKS. 
Dallas's Animal Kingdom.* —We have long felt the want 
of a text-book of the Natural History of the Animal King¬ 
dom, and it has been a matter of surprise with us that a 
J subject which is so popular with all classes and all ages 
should have been so long overlooked, and the requirements 
of the rising generation so long disregarded. Of “ Intro- 
| ductions” and “Conversations” there have been several, 
and of “ Alphabets ” and “ Catechisms" not a few, devoted 
to various departments of Natural History; but beyond 
* A Natural History of the Animal Kingdom; being a Systematic 
amt Popular Description of the Habits, Structure, and Classification of 
Animals according to their Organization. By \V. S. Dallas, F.L.S. 
London : Houlston and Stoneman, and Orr and Co. 
! these simple, elementary, and often too popularly-written 
works, we are not aware of any systematically arranged, and 
produced in a cheap and portable form, to which the student . 
could refer for carrying him forward in the study of a 
] complete oourse of the Natural History of the Animal 
1 Kingdom. It is, therefore, with much pleasure that we 
' hail this work by Mr. Dallas, who has thus rendered good 
service to the community. While it is written in a clear and 
; popular style, it is, at the same time, strictly scientific— 
science divested of its technicalities and conventionalisms,and 
made so plain as that any one who can read may learn. 
Unlike the arrangement of Cuvier, which begins with the : 
highest orders of animals and descends to the lowest, Air. 
j Dallas has adopted that which begins with the lowest, and 
rises to the highest forms of organisation—a system which j 
now finds favour with most modern naturalists. He arranges 
j the subject in five great divisions:—I. Protozoa ; II. Ra- ! 
diata; III. Articulata; IV. Mollusca ; V. Vertebrata; i 
and, as an example of the way in which the subjects are 
treated, wo shall quote his remarks on the Protozoa, or 
that division which includes the lowest forms of animal 
; life. 
“ Division I.— Protozoa. 
“ General Characters. —This first division of the animal 
kingdom includes a number of creatures of a very low type 
of organisation, which appear almost to occupy a sort of 
neutral ground between animals and vegetables. 
“ The bodies of these animals consist either of a simple 
elementary cell, with its contents, or of an aggregation of 
several of these cells; each, however, still appearing to 
retain its independent existence. They are generally of 
very minute size, and only to be observed by the microscope, j 
“ It is in vain to seek in these creatures for any internal ! 
organs. They are entirely destitute of nervous and vas- 1 
cular systems; and the highest form of alimentary appa¬ 
ratus which is to be found in them consists only of a mouth 
and a short oesophagus. In many of them, however, no trace 
of any alimentary canal is to be discerned, and these either 
live by imbibing fluids through their outer surface, or by 
the amalgamation of solid substances with the gelatinous 
mass of which they are composed. The gelatinous matter, 
which has been termed sarcode by M. Dujardin, frequently 
has vacant spaces like small bladders in various parts of its 
substance; these appear and disappear according to cir¬ 
cumstances or the will of the animal. They have, never¬ 
theless, been mistaken by Ehrenberg and other observers 
for so many stomachs, although no one has ever attempted j 
to prove the existence of an intestinal canal uniting them. 
“ Almost all these creatures live in water; a few only 
inhabit the intestines of other animals. They generally J 
present the appearance of a transparent gelatinous cell, in | 
the midst of which a moro or less distinct nucleus is to be ] 
observed. In addition to this nucleus, one or more clear j 
pulsating spaces may be distinguished in the interior of the 
cells. These appear, in some degree, to effect a sort of cir 
culalion of the soft substance of the body, and may, there¬ 
fore, be regarded as the first shadowing forth of a circula¬ 
tory system. Many of them approach very closely in their 
structure to the germs given off by some of the lowest • 
forms of aquatic plants, which, singularly enough, possess 1 
quite sufficient locomotive power to enable them to pass for 1 
animals, when the observer is unable to trace their develop¬ 
ment; indeed, many of them have been described as be¬ 
longing to the present group. It is very probable, in fact, 
that a groat number of the creatures still included in this 
division by naturalists will provo, on further investigation, 
to be vegetable organisms. 
“ The reproduction of these animals is generally effected by 
the division of the substance of the creature itself. In some 
instances, two of them combined to form a single cell, which 1 
afterwards splits up to allow the escape of a number of 
young cells. The division always commences in the nucleus 
above mentioned. 
“ Some Protozoa are. also propagated by the division of 
their substance in a different manner. A small bud shoots 
out from some portion of the body, which gradually becomes 
developed until it resembles its parent, when it is usually 
cast off' to shift for itself. 
“ Many of these animals, simple as they may appeal - , have 
yet the faculty of producing a shelly covering, for the support 
