the allowances you claim as a gardener's right, be obliged to go to market for his vegetables, as he could not possibly keep a head-gardener, much less assistants. An officer, who has lost his limbs and health in the service of his country, does not possess the same advantages. A. B. C.

We are always glad to know the feelings of our readers, in order to shape our course accordingly; because, in order that the Gardener's Magazine may do good, it is necessary, in the first place, that it should sell. If A. B. C. should ever happen to look into any of our future Numbers, we hope he will find them more to his mind.

Cond.

Conduct of Head-Gardeners towards Journeymen.—Sir, In your Magazine (Vol. IV. p. 210.), I observe J. D. P. attempting to set your readers right concerning the remarks of G. R. G. in a former Number; and in endeavouring to do so, J. D. P. has omitted much information which he might very well have stated. He says, that in the several gradations through which he has passed, he has never seen instruction withheld from the assiduous workman, through the disregard, or unwillingness of the master.

In my experience, I have too often seen much partiality exhibited in the conduct of head-gardeners towards the men under their charge. In Scotland this practice prevails very much. In an extensive garden I have known the gardener have no less than four apprentices at a time, who have paid him five or six pounds each, as a premium, for two years, expecting to have an opportunity in that time of obtaining a practical knowledge of the different parts of their profession; but who, at the expiration of the two years, have found themselves very much deceived: and being obliged to make room for a fresh stock of apprentices (to fill the gardener's pocket), they obtain the name of journeymen, although they have their business still to learn ; and on that account they generally fail to give satisfaction to their next employer, who will give the most particular part of the work to those whom he thinks most competent to do it. I know very well that there are some people (gardeners as well as others), who soon become too wise to be taught; but I can affirm that there are many tractable young men, who can with propriety lay the blame of their deficiency in knowledge to a want of care in their master, who generally has a foreman, to whom he commits the care of the principal parts of the various departments, the younger men being employed in the more laborious parts. Now, Sir, as you have already told us, that knowledge to the gardener is money as well as knowledge, and, as it is generally understood, that when a journeyman engages with a master, he expects to have an opportunity to improve himself, therefore he who withholds that opportunity from any young gardener, commits a crime equal to that of defrauding him of his wages.

There are several men, who, when they become masters, seem entirely to forget that they were once journeymen, and who keep up such a reserved distance between themselves and their men, that the latter have not the assurance to ask for the necessary information, requisite to enable them to execute their work in a proper manner. I would advise that a great part of such a barrier be broken down, so that a free and unembarrassed communication may always exist between masters and their men.

J. D. P. concludes with a very wholesome advice to those who wish to learn; but still his strain is too exculpatory with regard to the masters, as it is well known that there are many who are far deficient in their duty to their men. Should you deem these few remarks worth inserting in your very useful work, you will much oblige your humble servant, - Neutral.

Neglect of Practical Gardeners by the Provincial Horticultural Societies. -Sir, as the season is fast approaching, when you will have to record in your valuable miscellany, the progress of the Provincial and Horticultural Societies, you, who are always ready to assist in improving the welfare and conduct of gardeners, will permit me to observe that many of these societies have fallen into a very great mistake, by not inserting the names of gar

deners when they make the reports of the prizes awarded. By this means the gardener is in a great measure deprived of his merit. It is well known that gardeners are, for the most part, the cultivators of the rare productions brought for inspection into the rooms of the society. If the gardeners have not a share of praise given to them at these times, I am afraid they will slacken their exertions in cultivation. If ever this take place, then a falling off of those societies will be the result. It also discourages the young gardener, and prevents him from exerting himself to obtain that praise that would be due to him. In the next place, should a gardener change his situation, his practical character is already known; it remains no longer within the hands of a few individuals, but becomes general, a circumstance which would remove many inconveniences attending gardeners out of situations. Much more might be done to make these few observations useful towards encouraging gardeners to become spirited members of these societies, but finding myself unable to enter into general argument, I humbly submit the above for your consideration, and remain yours, &c. -James Rollins. Dingle Bank, Jan. 3. 1829.

Our correspondent has hit upon the true value of Horticultural Societies to practical gardeners, which is, to make their professional merits publicly known, and thus to put it beyond the power of individuals of any description, whether verbally or by what are called written characters, to subtract from the precise degree of practical excellence which they may have attained; and thus, perhaps, prevent them from obtaining such places as they are capable of filling. A practical gardener, who has written some papers in any of the Transactions of the different Horticultural Societies of the country or in the Gardener's Magazine, and who has exhibited in competition at public meetings, fruits and vegetables, and received prizes for them, may be said to have established for himself, before the gardening world, a professional character as unquestionable as the specific character of a known plant. The facts, that is the papers written and the fruits exhibited, being recorded in the Gardener's Magazine, this character becomes known to all the brethren, and especially to the nurserymen, who, if they thought it worth while, might easily keep a list of such gardeners, with short specific professional characters as under:

JAMES GREEN. Prof. Char. Author of papers on turnips, peaches, and ferns, in Caledon. Trans., vol. i. and ii.; on pompions, in Lond. Hort. Trans., vol. iv.; on celery, endive, laying out a garden, and the Carolina poplar, in Gard. Mag., vols. ii., iii,, and iv., in which also the essence of his other papers are given. Exhibited.

At Dundee, broccoli and auriculas (Gard. Mag., vol. iii.); at Perth, sugar-loaf cabbages, peaches, and a Hortus siccus (Gard. Mag vol. iii.); at Edinburgh, grapes, pines, and melons (Gard. Mag., vol. iv.) In all, two medals, two books, one snuffbox, one knife, one foot-rule, and four times thanks recorded.

The moral character of a gardener is a different thing from his professional character; though it is quite impossible for any man to keep up a regular succession of crops of vegetables and fruits for a family without being of sober, attentive, and reflective habits. If to these, the ordinary duties of a gardener, the cares of forcing are added, and he is successful, such is the vigilance required for this part of the profession, that it is almost impossible that the operator should be otherwise than sober and attentive. However, in keeping what may be called the specific character of gardeners, nurserymen might add their moral and biographical character, thus:

JAMES GREEN.-Prof. Char. As above.

Moral and Biog. Char. Born in Dundee, 5 ft. 10 in. high, healthy and vigorous, 45 years of age, 15 years married, three children; apprentice at Red Hill; two years in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, head-gardener in

four places in different parts of the country, with a good character for sobriety, integrity, and industry from his last place.

If every gardener will write his own specific character in the above manner, he will see what he wants to render it complete; because the first step towards supplying a defect, is to know and feel that it exists. Gardeners also who know different masters, might make out their specific characters, and by these exercises learn to know others as well as themselves. —Cond. The Balm of Gilead Firs in Kinmell Park. - Sir, A correspondent in Vol. IV. p. 363., says that in Kinmell Park, Denbighshire, are Balm of Gilead Firs, of 84 ft. in height, and 10 ft. in circumference at the base. If this is correct, they are the most rare and curious vegetable productions in this kingdom. Every Balm of Gilead Fir that I ever yet saw, or before heard of, planted in Britain, when it has attained a fifth or a fourth of that height, becomes stunted, and dies. Has not your correspondent mistaken the species? and are not the firs in question Silver Firs? These not unfrequently attain the size and bulk mentioned by your correspondent, and even à much greater size.

The two species of firs being considerably alike in leaf, it is not uncommon to confuse them. An easy mark of distinction is this: the leading bud of the Silver Fir is covered with a coat of hard dry resin, which does not soil the fingers; the leading bud of the Balm of Gilead Fir is covered with a brilliantly clear liquid resin, which very difficultly dries, and adheres to the fingers when touched. There is also a difference in the smell, which it is easier to recognise than to describe. Probably some other of your correspondents may be able to determine this fact with accuracy. I am, Sir, &c. Causidicus. Nov. 9. 1828. Origin of the Otaheite Pine. Sir, In No. viii. of the Pomological Magazine, the Anson, or Otaheite, Pine is stated to have been raised from seed at Shugborough, which is incorrect. It was not raised from seed in this country, but was introduced by the late Birt, Esq., of Colton Hall, near Rugeley, from the Island of St. Croix, in the West Indies. Some plants soon found their way to Shugborough, and were probably fruited there in great perfection, whence arose the erroneous idea of its having been raised from seed there. I am yours, &c.—C. F. W. Drayton, Oct. 25. 1828. The Pomological Magazine. — My housewife, finding that we had more gooseberries than we could consume, lately proposed to me to make some British wine with them, to which I assented; and she desired me to get her some book in which I should find a recipe for making it. Remembering to have seen advertised a Pomological Magazine, I immediately concluded that, in this work, the name of which (being compounded of roμa (põma) drink, and Xoyog (logos), reason or method) does, according to all grammar and Greek, import to contain the science and theory of drinks, I should find information on the manufacture and ingredients of all wines and fermented liquors: but, to my disappointment, when I came to buy it, I found only figures of four or five fruits, and some description of them, but not a word of the means of making them into drink; and, worse, it appears as if the editor meant to go on publishing plates and descriptions of four or five varieties or species of fruits in every Number, for an almost interminable series; so that I and my housekeeper shall be dead before the name will become appropriate, and before the author will begin to treat of the method of brewing the wines from these fruits. It appears to me, that it would be much more useful if the editor, now that he has given a plate and description of one or more varieties of several species of fruit, as apples, pears, peaches, gooseberries, and strawberries, would next give us a few chapters on the manner of converting them into drink; and, when he has fully treated thereon, he may add the descriptions and plates of other varieties of fruits, and, if they require any difference in the brewing process, he may mention it as he goes on with the fruits. I

ought, however, to add, that my apothecary's apprentice insists that pomum, being Latin for an apple, the editor of this work meant by " pomology," the science of apple trees. Now, he might as well contend that it means a log of apple tree; it would not be more barbarous to tinker an English and a Latin word into one name, than it would be to try to solder Latin and Greek together; and, though there was one Knoop, a German, about the middle of the last century, who made a book about fruit trees, and called it Pomology, yet that affords no reason to believe that any Englishman, especially a scholar, would do the same; for it is well known, that

"The Germans in Greek

Are greatly to seek :
All? All but one Herman,

And he is a 'German.'"

And, least of all, would any gentleman who has the command of such fine engravings, and fine colouring, and fine letter-press, and fine paper, as decorate the Pomological Magazine, have committed such a solecism. I am therefore confident that the apothecary's apprentice is wrong. While we were debating the matter, in came the apothecary himself, an old Scotsman, who, after having heard our dispute, rapped his mull, and having taken a pinch from it, shrugged his shoulders, and pronounced us both wrong; 66 for," says he, "the word denotes the science of nicely fitting these wooden covers," showing us his mull: " the word is derived from wpa ( pōma), operculum, a cover, and Xoyos (logos), the reason or method; and the treatise on the fruits is only illustrative of, and introductory to, a treatise on the woods of the same trees that are proper for making mulls. And ye will soon find, in the Magazine, a dissertation on the qualities of the timber of the different fruit trees for the turner's use; but not a word of the manner of making cider or wines." I am, therefore, completely at a loss what the title of the work means; but, as you live in London, perhaps you may know the editor, and, if you have an opportunity, may ask him whether any instructions for brewing from English fruits are soon to come out, or whether he really thinks that, because a hybrid Amaryllis is a beautiful object, a cross between a Greek and a Latin root will improve our language. Let him try a cross between a Swedish turnip and a rape, and see whether it is an improvement An old poet has given us a gardener's illustration in support of my doctrine :

"Non est quod multa loquamur:

Nil intra est oleam, nil extra est in nuce, duri.”

I, am, Sir, your humble servant, — Verjuice. Derivation of the Word Monilifera.-Sir, Mr. Fraser, or his commentator (Vol. IV. p. 217.), is inaccurate in supposing that Pópulus monilífera means literally, one-bearing," although the "shoots may be "twigless;" the word "monilífera" means necklace-bearing, or "bracelet-bearing;" so called from its beautiful, long, linear, crimson catkins, which appear suitable to form bracelets or necklaces. I believe the application was given by Linnæus, who was too correct a scholar, and had too good a taste, to botch up a word half Greek and half Latin, like a cauliflower bastardised by a savoy, as some gardeners and botanists nowadays do. But both the component parts of this name, fero, to bear, and monile, a bracelet or necklace, or similar ornament for the person (on the etymology

"

"No necessity for many words: There is nothing hard inside of an olive, nor outside of a nut.' A proverb against those who deny what is manifestly true, or assert what is manifestly false.

of which word commentators are not agreed, but it was ancient Latin, and not derived from μovoc (monos), one, nor imported from Greece), are of the same genuine stock. - Verjuice. October, 1828.

Mr. Knight's Improvements in the Construction of Hot-beds.-Sir, In vol. vii. part ii. art. 32. of the Horticultural Transactions, is a communication by the learned president of the Society, giving an account of the improvements in the construction of hot-beds. I have often observed that many inventions and discoveries are, in these days of knowledge, detailed as new and original, which have been long known and practised by scientific men in former times. In a book published two hundred years ago, in black letter, called Alexis's Secrets, is a clear and detailed account of the manner of increasing the mulberry tree, by cuttings of the great arms and limbs of the old tree, and planting them in rows, in beds, as we do asparagus. I could mention twenty instances of inventions and discoveries in horticulture and planting, which were known and adopted by our ancestors, and which have been republished in Transactions and Magazines, with all the freshness of a new discovery. But I have met with nothing so original as Mr. Knight's abovementioned communication, and which trespasses so much on modern times, and on the fame of former philosophers. I beg to refer the reader to a paper of Dr. Stephen Hales, published in 1757, in vol. xxvii. of the Gentleman's Magazine, p. 165. He will there read "A rational and easy Method to purify Air, and regulate its Heat in Melon-Frames and hot Green-houses;" and he will wonder that Mr. Knight did not communicate the whole of the valuable paper, instead of an extract. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

- F. R. S.

We have not the least doubt the omission was an inadvertence on the part of Mr. Knight, or the editor of the Transactions. Such inadvertencies are quite unavoidable, both in the Transactions of Societies, and in Magazines and Journals; but the great advantage the latter have over the former is, that corrections and discussions on all points are freely admitted. In this way, error and false doctrine, if promulgated in one Magazine, is corrected or counteracted in that which follows; and the reader will generally be found to have benefited by the discussion; but, in the Transactions of a Society, discussion is not permitted (See Dr. Thomson's paper, in our First Volume, p. 20., which was originally sent to the Hort. Soc., and rejected), and errors or mistaken views remain to lead astray, as long as such Transactions are read. The Transactions of the Horticultural Society have, however, one advantage in this respect, viz. that, from their high price, they are not likely to be read by practical men; and, therefore, if it were possible that such a thing as an error should creep into them, it would do little harm. - Cond.

Plagiarism by the Author of the Article signed " A Blooming Bulb." - In your Gardener's Magazine for October, you have given the cultivation of Amaryllis by " A Blooming Bulb." If you will look to my accounts of the treatment of them in the Botanical Cultivator, and the First Number of your Magazine, you will perceive the greater part to be taken from them. The mode of raising them, and shifting them, as they advance in growth, into larger pots, is fully described there, likewise their being kept on a gentle hot-bed; but with plunging them, if the bed be hot or moist, I entirely disagree, as it would be apt to melt or rot their fleshy roots. The use of horsedung in the soil will certainly have the same effect, if fresh; but, if allowed to rot for two or three years, and then to be dried, it might do very well for lightening the soil, and would answer as a substitute for peat or other light mould. Your correspondent also mentions Mr. Colville as having raised three or four hundred hybrids of them. If he had said ten thousand, he would have been nearer the truth. I sowed the seeds and potted them off myself, and I have frequently seen several hundreds in flower at his nursery at once, some of them producing the most splendid flowers imagin