148 
ing from the necks of swans; the beauty 
ef design, the elegant voluptuousness of 
the Bacchantes, and dancing nymphs, are 
beyond all praise, they are truly beauty 
personified. I must not forget a statue of 
a Venus, which is naked to the waist, 
and covered with drapery from the waist 
downward. This statue was found in the 
maritime baths of Claudius, at Ostia. 
To you, who are not offended at truth, 
even though it rebels against received opi- 
nion, I, who fear not the souna of great 
names, say, that I have seen a Venus, by 
Nollekens, superior in beauty to this, 
which is. colossal, and rather clumsy in 
the extremities; however, I shall not of- 
‘fend the most fastidious admirer of anci- 
eut art, and perhaps better strike the ba- 
lance of merit due to this figure, when I 
assert, that 1t iscertainly the clumsiest of 
all ancient Venuses, and very inferior m 
grace to that called “de Medicis.” This 
is the figure at which the respectable ve- 
teran in literature, Mr. Cumberland, (in 
the tenth number of Mr. Prince Hoare’s 
_ “ Artist,” a periodical paper, of which I 
shall ever regret the conclusion,) has, le- 
velled the shafts of his satire in the fol- 
lowing laughable passage. ‘“ The living 
arts (says he, to his friend Hoare) are 
‘the proper objects of your contemplation: 
in the mean time, the nation has erected 
a noble gallery in the British Museum, 
wherein to deposit the bones and skele- 
tons of the dead arts, collected by Mr. 
Townley, and purchased from the public 
purse Injustice to my country, [ will 
suppose that they are stuck up there for 
the patriotic purpose of convincing the 
spectators, that it is high time to dismiss 
their prejudices, and that it is nothing less 
than necromancy, and art magic, that 
should induce them to prefer old lamps to 
new: in short, if any gentleman wants a 
Venus for bis saloon, he may go to the 
shop of Mr. Nollekens, and not envy 
(look at the statue and mark the expres- 
sion) the long-sided lady of Mr. Town- 
ley, though the state has built a palace 
for her reception.” J shall leave you to 
Jaugh at my quotation, and continue my 
admiration of such works of ancient art, 
as deserve it, in spite of all contemners of 
its beauties, who certes are ali Goths, id 
ést for differing from me. Your’s,&c. M, 
EE 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, | 
N the autemn of 1807, I gathered some 
seeds from a full-grown oak, several 
of which I immediaiely suspended at 
* aifferent distances from the bottom of a 
Vegetation ef the Oak Plant in Water. 
[March 1, 
_ pint decanter, wherein I had put about 
two ounces of Thames water, and placed 
it during the whole winter over the firé- 
place, in the same temperature as hya~ 
cinths are commonly kept. Before the 
month of March was expired, they all 
shewed symptoms of vegetation, with the 
exception of one acorn, which I had pur- 
posely placed in the water, which nearly 
covered it; this was the first seed to 
swell and burst, but the last that made a 
shoot. The tap root of the most forward 
seed, was about two inches long, when it 
reached the water, into which it did not 
directly enter, but grew a short distance 
on the surface, then immersed in the 
water to the bottom of the decanter, rose ~ 
again to the surface, then down again ; 
on its touching the side, it continued to 
do so, making more than a circle round in 
search of earth, sometimes rising a little 
from the bottom. 
In April, the germ protruded from the 
seed, and in a few days the plant’ 
emerged, continuing to increase until it 
produced the foliage and tree in complete 
health, and apparent vigour; one of which 
T studiously prevented the tap-root from. 
entering the water, which caused the 
decay of the tap-root, but exhibited innu- 
merable lateral shoots, making a wonder- 
ful struggle to Jive; and the plant actually 
existed purely in the vapour, and che- 
rished entirely by it. The seed that was 
dropped in the water, zrew exactly at 
the same time as some I had set in 
earth, and occasionally examined as to 
their progress, and did not seem has- 
tened in their vegetation like those in’the 
vapour, which may arise from the dif- 
ference of their temperatures. In June, 
I put the decanter into the open air, still 
keeping the ground-stopper in, although 
some atmospheric air communicated, as 
the wire that suspended them, though 
very fine, prevented the stopper from 
being close. The water becoming black, 
foul, and turbid, I changed it once dus 
ting the summer. Each plant made its 
Michaelmas shoot, and threw out leaves, 
and in September the leaves turned off; 
as in common, and the buds are now set 
for the spring: to burst them, I purpose 
separating them, and placing them in 
good glasses ; the acorn is still firmly at- 
tached to each plant. Although some 
few vegetables have been raised without 
‘the medium of earth, I do not know that 
a tree has ever before been produced 
thus. 
ligneous substance, which if burned be- 
comes an alkali, capable , by galvanic des 
composition, 
> 
As the mutation of water into — 
ee 
