garden of the Horticultural Society, a plant of Cycnòches produced from the opposite sides of the same stem two racemes: those of one raceme were the well-known fragrant flowers of Cycnoches Loddigèsii; and of the other, the scentless flowers of the new C. cucullata." (Bot. Reg., April.)

The circumstance of three kinds of flowers, so distinct as to have been considered by botanists as belonging to three different genera, being found upon one flower spike, is so very singular, that it ought to produce the greatest caution among speciesmakers; even in constituting species in those orders and tribes of hardy, herbaceous, and ligneous plants, with which every one is comparatively familiar. We recommend such of our readers as take an interest in matters of this kind, to study the article in the Botanical Register, along with the beautiful coloured plate which accompanies it.

REVIEWS.

ART. I. Botanical Periodicals.

1. Sowerby's English Botany; small edition, published in numbers, price 2s. each, every alternate Saturday. Nos. 165. and 166. have just appeared.

2. Baxter's British Flowering Plants; in 8vo numbers, 1s. plain, and 2s. coloured. No. 57. appeared April 1.

OUR last notice of these works was in Vol. XI. p. 593. and 594.; and we take blame to ourselves for not having, before this time, repeated our very strong recommendation of them to the public. They are both executed in the most superior manner, both as regards letterpress and engravings; and they are both sold at a price so low, that nothing but a very extensive sale can remunerate their authors. Gardeners and others, who can at all afford it, ought to take in the one work or the other; for either will be of the greatest use to them, as long as they live and have any taste for plants; and if, at any time, they should wish to dispose of such a work, they will be able to do so for almost as much as it cost them. We refer to what we have said on this

subject in our eleventh volume.

ART. II. An Analysis of the British Ferns and their Allies, with Copperplate Engravings of every Species and Variety. By George W. Francis, Author of a "Catalogue of British Flowering Plants and Ferns." 8vo, 68 pages, and 6 plates. London. Price 4s. To the young gardener, who wishes to acquire a knowledge of British ferns, this work may safely be recommended, for its

accuracy, and for its cheapness. The engravings, which, as the titlepage expresses, exhibit every species and variety, are executed with extraordinary accuracy and beauty, by the author himself, from specimens in his possession. The following remarks on the soil, geography, and culture of ferns will interest every gardener:

Geography. The distribution of the ferns in Britain offers nothing peculiar. They abound chiefly in the more woody and moist countries, are rarely found growing upon chalk, nor, except two species, near the sea: some affect the highest mountainous situations, others only swampy valleys. Our larger species luxuriate on the banks of ditches, in shady lanes; while the smaller and more filmy kinds are generally found in situations diametrically opposite to these, as on ruins, old walls, &c. As the latter stations cannot be natural to any plants whatever, we are bound to look for their real habitats in situations similar to these artificial ones, as on rocks and lofty banks; and here we find all our delicate species furnished with very long roots, to run into the interstices of the crags. Moisture and shade are equally necessary to all the fern tribe; they grow, therefore, for the most part in northern aspects, and on damp porous stones.

"Soil and Culture. The soil which appears to agree best with the ferns is a mixture of leaf mould or bog earth, and sandy loam. There is some difficulty in transplanting them with success, and they are very impatient of the knife; so much so, that the common brakes may be entirely eradicated by cutting down the fronds as they arise for three or four years in succession. The species of Polypodium, Cistopteris, Scolopendrium, Blechnum, Pteris, and most of the genus Aspidium and Asplenium, when once established in a garden, thrive well in the borders or on rockwork. Their place of growth must not be too exposed; yet few plants suffer more from a contaminated atmosphere than this tribe. Cryptogramma crispa, Grammitis Ceterach, Aspidium Lonchitis, Asplenium lanceolatum, marinum, viride and septentrionale, seem to languish for their native freedom. They require the shelter of a frame or green-house to compensate for the purity of the air of their lofty or exposed homes.

"Ferns are easily propagated from the spores, nothing more being necessary than putting into a garden pot some stones or broken rubbish to within two inches of the top, covering these with an inch in depth of very finely sifted sandy loam, and then sowing the spores upon it, covering the whole with a flat piece of glass, and placing it in a green-house.

"Virtues. The uses of the ferns are not very conspicuous. Their bitter principle renders them unpalatable to all creatures. Neither men nor brutes

employ any species as an article of food, unless driven by the necessity of hunger; and even the little insects that infest the herbaria refuse to prey upon them. They are not, however, wholly useless either in medicine or the arts. Their nauseous taste renders them efficacious in expelling intestinal worms: some of them have been used as a substitute for hops in brewing, and with better success than most other plants, on account of the tannin and gallic acid they contain precipitating the feculent matter in the wort. The same constituent principle renders them also serviceable in preparing kid and other light leathers; and they yield much comparatively pure potass when burnt. The dried fronds of the common brakes are valuable to pack fruit in, and, as they retain moisture less, are much better than straw to shield garden plants from frost. Except for these uses, the British ferns have been little employed, unless, indeed, for those purposes to which most plants, when dry, are available; namely, for thatch, for fodder, and for fuel."

ART. III. Illustrations and Descriptions of the Plants which compose the Natural Order Camelliece, and of the Varieties of Camellia japonica cultivated in the Gardens of Great Britain. The Drawings by Alfred Chandler; the Descriptions by William Beattie Booth, A.L.S. Folio, Vol. II. Part I. London.

THE Concluding part of vol. i. of this splendid work was noticed in our Vol. VIII. p. 211.; and, in introducing the first number of vol. ii., we have only to observe that the plates and the letterpress are of the same superior description as before. The colouring of the plates is so exquisitely beautiful, that it is superior to anything of the kind we have previously seen. We particularly admire the plate of Caméllia japónica Ġilèsii, in the present number. It is a picture which every cultivator of the camellia might delight to frame, to decorate the walls of his library. The drawings are all by Alfred Chandler, and the colouring is executed under his superintendence; the engraver is E. S. Weddell, the artist who was employed on Mr. Lambert's splendid work, the genus Pinus. The varieties figured in the present number are as follows: -41. Camellia japónica Colvillii Swt. Br. Fl.-Gard.; Arb. Brit., p. 388. "A very fine variety, although, in our opinion, it scarcely deserves the high character given to it by Sweet." (p. 41.)-42. C.j. Bealeii Palmer in Chand. Introduced by John Reeves, Esq., of Clapham, in 1831. The original plant came from Japan to Macao, in China, in 1828, and was exchanged for Chinese plants with Thomas Beale, Esq., by whom it was increased, and in compliment to whom it was named by Mr. Palmer. Mr. Beale has been upwards of forty years in China, and has been indefatigable in collecting rare and beautiful plants, and sending them to England. The leaves of C. j. Bealèii resemble those of Rawes's variegated waratah, Arb. Brit., p. 387. The flowers are showy, though. not very double; and they are about 4 in. in diameter. They are of a fine clear red, and composed of four or five rows of nearly equal-sized petals. The outer ones, 1 in. or 14 in. broad, being cupped and curved at the edges, resemble so many small redcoloured shells, and give a feature which is of itself sufficient to characterise this variety.-43. C. j. Gilèsii Chand. Raised in 1826, from seed of the waratah, by Mr. William Giles, gardener to John Dodson, Esq., of Clapham, after whom it is named. The plant is weaker and more pendulous than the parent; but it grows freely, and is not so liable to lose its buds as some of the other kinds. The leaves are large, ovate-oblong, and pointed; but not flat and thick, like those of the waratah.

The flowers, though liable to vary, are, when well striped, remarkably showy; being of a fine dark red colour, with the white very clear and distinct, and from 4 in. to 5 in. in diameter. Sometimes, like the flowers of the double-striped, they come

entirely of a deep red, without any white; but their most usual character is to have nearly as much white as red." 44. C. j. Párksii Trans. Hort. Soc., vol. vii.; Arb. Brit., p. 386. "We consider it a very handsome and well-marked variety, and the only one we are acquainted with, besides the myrtle-leaved, which is distinguished for fragrance as well as beauty."

ART. IV. A Catalogue of Herbaceous Plants cultivated and sold by John Cree, Addlestone Nursery, Chertsey, Surrey; with numerous Synonymes, and References to Figures in the leading Botanical Periodicals; and also a select List of Fruit Trees, with Descriptions. Small 8vo, 94 pages. Price 3s.

AN excellent little pocket catalogue, rendered valuable by the authorities being given to all the names; by the addition of the synonymes, with their authorities; and by reference to the figures contained in the English botanical periodicals. Letters are also placed after each species, indicating those which prefer heath soil, require protection from frost, are suitable for rockwork, &c. There is a list of ferns, of aquatic perennials, of bulbs, Orchideæ, &c.; and the fruit lists are arranged in tables, with brief descriptions. On the whole, this is a very desirable catalogue; and it will be found very useful for those having private collections, which they wish either to have named or numbered with scientific accuracy. The naming of plants, in a private collection, adds very greatly to the enjoyment which they afford, both to the possessor and his visiters; and there are very few cultivators in the neighbourhood of London so competent to undertake this task as Mr. Cree. We wish, indeed, it were customary to call in the aid of practical botanists, like Mr. Cree, to name not only herbaceous plants, but ornamental trees and shrubs, and fruit trees, in every garden in which its proprietor took an interest.

ART. V. Catalogue of Works on Gardening, Agriculture, Botany, Rural Architecture, &c., lately published, with some Account of those considered the more interesting.

RELIEF for Agricultural Distress: a Locomotive Plough and Harrow; with proffered Advice to all Landlords, Tenants, and Labourers. By George Whitley, Esq., Inventor and Patentee of the Steam-Plough. Pamph. 8vo, 24 pages. London.

Price 1s. 6d.

THIS may truly be called a catchpenny pamphlet: there is no evidence in it that the author is either an inventor or a patentee

of a steam-plough; and, in short, the tract is altogether contemptible.

Observations on the present State and future Prospects of Agriculture, illustrative of the Advantages of an Experimental Farm, being à fuller Developement of the Author's Views, first made public in a Communication addressed to the Highland Society of Scotland. By George Lewis, Tenant in Boglillie, near Kirkaldy. 8vo, 123 pages. Price 2s. 6d.

This work has been reviewed in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, in which the reviewer draws a comparison between an experimental garden and an experimental farm, and arrives at the conclusion that, if an experimental farm were conducted on the same principles as an experimental garden, the same results might be confidently anticipated. We have no great faith in either, as far as respects the conducting of experiments, or originating new practices; but we think both calculated to be useful, by exhibiting, collected in one place, what may be called the materials of the respective arts: for example, masses of the different kinds of soils, specimens of all the different kinds of plants, of the different breeds of animals, and models or examples of the different kinds of implements, machines, and buildings. The exhibition of the different kinds of plants and animals, however, would be the chief good; because machines, buildings, &c., might be exhibited in models. As to teaching the practice of farming to young men, there seems to be no reason for deviating from the common practice, in gardening, carpentry, and other arts; and the science, or principles of the art, can never be better (that is, more usefully) obtained than from books. Young men may be drilled into rules, but principles can only be obtained through the exercise of reason. Such is our opinion, formed after having seen two or three experimental gardens, including the Paris garden, which, under Thouin, was the first in the world; and all the principal experimental farms, colleges of agriculture, &c., in France, Germany, and Italy. Nevertheless, good will arise from discussing the subject; and Mr. Lewis deserves the best thanks of the agricultural public for having brought it forward in so respectable a shape. The farmers of Scotland, till within a very recent period, have paid very little attention to either the physiological or chemical principles of their art.

ART. VI. Literary Notices.

THE Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala. By James Bateman, Esq. To be completed in ten parts, elephant folio. Price 17. 11s. 6d. each, or 157. 15s. the entire work.