some amusing episodes. If, however, we have no affecting tales, we find many useful moral admonitions; and the whole concludes with the following reflections:

'ON THE LAST DAY OF THE YEAR.

• The various year is closed, and every scene,
Now vanished, floats in memory's dreams alone.
Mere unsubstantial forms! shadows of shade!
Where are the circling months? the joyous days?
The rapturous hours? the golden moments, where?
All filed! and fled to bloom, alas, no more!
To-morrow's dawn shall light another train
Of airy glories on their fleeting way:

This the last night. Last night! ah, awful sound!
Dread awful word;-the last. Like death it chills,
And palsies every tongue that sounds its name.
Sad sound! how sad to him, whose trembling hand
Counts the slow lingering pulse of dying friend,
Or sees light setting in a parent's eye!
How sad to her, who with distracting kiss
Catches the parting sigh, ere yet it quit
A suffering infant's darling form, the flower,
The opening flower of pure and hallowed love!
How sad to him, who takes a final leave
Upon the bed of death, of her, whom late
He clasped with ardent hope, a blooming bride!
And oh heart-rending sound, the last, last year
When lovers part, each still to leave behind
The better half of severed souls, while far
The convex world's immeasurable seas

And high ridg'd mountains, each fond wish divide ;
And oh! how dreadful sounds the sad last hour
Of fleeting breath to him, who in the womb.
Of prison darkness, long condemned to die,
Hears the hoarse bell, with awful summons, call
His fainting soul to vast eternity!

But far more awful is that dreadful day,

The last, last day of judgment; when the race
Of trembling mortals all shall stand before

The throne of justice and avenging power,

And peopled graves shall pour their countless throngs,
Countless as atoms, to the dreadful test,-

And seas their dead, as numerous as their sands.'

The volume is dedicated to Dr. Hughes, Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's: but, as each book is distinctly inscribed to some particular friend, it is difficult to ascertain what portion of the work is included in the dedication to Dr. Hughes. Nothing is left for him besides the title-page, and a few notes ad calcem.

ART.

ART. X. The Planter's Kalendar; or the Nurseryman's and Forester's Guide, in the Operations of the Nursery, the Forest, and the Grove. By the late Walter Nicol, Author of the Gardener's Kalendar, &c. Edited and completed by Edward Sang, Nurseryman, at Kirkcaldy. 8vo. pp. 600. 15s. Boards, Constable, Edinburgh; Longman and Co., London.

To an island like Great Britain, of which the protection and prosperity must depend on the extent of its marine, the growth of timber is a prime consideration, and ought to be regarded as a very important branch of agriculture. It should not, therefore, be taken for granted, as it seems to be at present, that all our wastes should be appropriated to the formation of corn-fields and meadows. Experience has taught us that the system of inclosing has added in no sensible degree to our quantity of bread-corn, and the public have not benefited, as they expected, from the greediness of appropriation : since the means of improving waste-lands are not increased by the mere inclosure of them; and the farmer, who has only a certain quantity of manure at command, obtains as much grain from a hundred acres kept in good heart, as from double the quantity that is only half cultivated. It is beyond a doubt that large portions of many wastes, which have been turned up with the plough, and sown,would have been more judiciously treated if they had been dibbled with acorns; and, had the necessities of the empire been duly regarded, every bill for inclosing wastelands of a certain extent should have contained a clause for the appropriation of a given number of acres to forest-plantation.

Mr. Sang, the editor, or more properly the author of this work, for he appears to have re-written the whole, very justly remarks in the introduction that the great attention paid to agricultural improvements has likewise proved very favourable to the increase of planting; it having been clearly perceived, that, by subdividing extended tracts of country, by means of screen-plantations, (generally denominated stripes or belts,) and by trees in masses of various shapes and dimensions, the interests of husbandry must be very much promoted by the protection thus afforded to the corn-lands; and when the rearing of stock became a matter of the utmost importance, the sheltering of their pastures could not be overlooked."

By this view of the subject, it is proved that, in certain bleak situations, the interest of the agriculturist requires him to plant; and we would also invite his attention to the fact that he often mistakes this interest when he grubs up coppices and wood-lands for the purpose of making them arable. The late Lord Melville, in his letter to Mr. Percival, (a long extract from which is given by Mr.Sang,) mentions two points of prime consideration;

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"The first is, to take the most effectual measures to husband and preserve, for the use of the Royal Navy, as much of the timber now remaining in the kingdom as you possibly can. The second is, to begin, without delay, to provide, within the kingdom, the means of supplying the future wants of the Navy, when the timber now growing shall be exhausted." Lord Glenbervie, the present surveyor of His Majesty's Woods and Forests, appears to have been acting on this latter suggestion, if we may judge by the numerous inclosures which he has made and is making in the Royal Forests: but, while we applaud the patriotic measures which he is pursuing on a large scale, we venture to ask him whether his object could not be accomplished by a less expensive mode of inclosure; and whether he does not sacrifice too many forest-trees for the purpose of making tall wooden fences, when his infant-woods might be secured by high embankments surmounted by slight chevaux de frize fences, and planted internally with white thorn or quick? It is wise to prepare embryo-forests; it is wise also not to fell more growing timber than is absolutely necessary for their protection.

Mr. Sang is of opinion that the present quantity of growing timber in England may in fifty years' time be equal to all our wants, excepting for the purposes of large ship-building. Of this last description of timber, the quantity is rapidly diminishing; of which a stronger proof cannot be adduced than the hint which the late Lord Melville gave to Government on the value of the teak-wood in India, and on the propriety of building ships of war from that wood in that country.

So far we have been induced to advert to the subject of planting in a national view: but we must now descend to a more humble consideration of the matter, and glance at details of practice in the raising, &c. of trees, whether in a less or greater number. Mr. Sang is a professed nurseryman, residing at Kirkcaldy in Scotland; and, though he has made all possible -use of the notes or memoranda of Mr. Nicol, who had performed -extensive tours in England, it may be presumed that the practice often recommended by him is rather calculated for the northern climate in which he lives than for the more southern counties: yet it is proper to insert the remark which is offered by him to obviate this objection; viz. I have constantly kept in view the possibility of the book being consulted by English or Irish planters or improvers; and I flatter myself that, if it be, they will have no cause to repent.' As far as general directions -are concerned, they probably will not: but Mr. Sang is not well versed in southern provincial terms, and cannot detail the varieties which depend on climate. We smiled at the fears

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which he expresses on the score of having too freely revealed the secrets of the nursery-business, lest, peradventure, his bre thren should be offended at his having drawn back the curtain from before the mystery of planting; and particularly for hav ing recommended to gentlemen the formation of private nurseries. He needs not alarm himself on this head, since he has been anticipated by all the landscape-gardeners and creators of the picturesque. When it is in contemplation to overshadow extensive tracts with forests, it would not answer in any point of view to have recourse to the professional nurseryman. To gentlemen, moreover, who reside during a great part of the year on estates which are at a distance from a populous neighbourhood, the sending for plants to a public nursery is very inconvenient; so that the steward, or head-gardener, generally advises a nursery to be made in some private spot which can be well spared for the purpose; to which recourse can be had whenever the land-owner himself, or the person to whom he intrusts the management of his grounds, is bent on playing the part of the landscape-gardener.-In the section on the situations and soils for a nursery, some profitable advice is offered; and the following suggestion merits the regard of those gentlemen who are providing for future plantations:

For a nursery in the above view, no place, certainly, can be more eligible, than a field which may also be occupied as a kitchengarden. If, for instance, three acres were required for the purposes of nursery, and one or two acres were also required for extra kitchenground, or for green crops for cattle-feeding, it would be proper to enclose five or six acres, less or more, according to circumstances; by which means, two important objects might be attained; viz. land of a good quality, and fine tilth, for the raising of seedlings; and an opportunity of effectually changing crops at pleasure.'

After having specified the situations proper for forest and grove-plantations, as well as for woods and coppices, and described the soils best adapted to the different kinds of foresttrees, Mr. Sang considers in detail the several trees which are 'fitted for the formation of forests, woods, and groves pointing out, as he proceeds, their properties and uses. He does not enumerate the Acacia, nor the Tulip-tree, or Lyric-dendron, (so named from the lyre-shape of its leaves,) which latter promises "to become a very valuable tree: but he notices the Plane, both Oriental and Occidental; though the accidents to which the latter is liable in our climate must destroy our confidence in it as a permanent inhabitant of our forests:

• Platanus orientalis, and P. occidentalis.

• Both of these species, with their varieties, are fine ornamental trees. In their native places, the former in the East, and the latter

in North America, they grow to an amazing size. The Eastern Plane, with its varieties, (called the Spanish, and the maple-leaved,) are more esteemed than the American kind, their leaves being larger and more elegantly formed. The general outline of the tree, however, differs but little.

These have hitherto been considered merely as ornamental trees in this country, having been chiefly confined to the decoration of grounds, and even but seldom planted in the park. The disastrous effects of frost on the largest American planes in England, those in Richmond Park, at Kew, at Sion House, at Stowe, at Pain's-hill, and several other places, has alarmed proprietors of this fine tree. It is evidently less hardy than the Asiatic plane; because, in many instances, we have observed trees of both species standing near each other; the Eastern kind being nothing injured by the effects of the frost in 1809, while the trees of the Western kind were either entirely killed, or so much injured that their recovery was despaired of. It is very singular, that of this species, the larger trees only were killed, Trees of from twenty to twenty-five feet in height, were little hurt ; and smaller ones nothing at all; at least in every instance that came under our observation. We did not observe or hear of a single Oriental plane being injured in any part of the country.

The timber of the Plane, so far as it is known in this kingdom, is said very much to resemble that of the sycamore.'

The fact of the destruction of large plane-trees of the occidental kind is worthy of record; and it is difficult to account for the fatal effects of a particular frost on trees which had lived uninjured through 60 or 80 preceding winters, some of them remarkably severe.

To the enumeration of deciduous and ever-green-trees, is added a short chapter on the value of timber, which may be said to finish the first part of the work.

We are next presented with the Kalendar, properly so called; in which the planter's business is arranged for every month in the year, and which cannot fail to be practically useful. As this part occupies more than 400 pages, the reader may conclude that Mr. Sang offers very minute directions in every branch of the planting-art. Indeed, he is so minute that we cannot, without occupying more room than we can spare, specify the various particulars into which his subject is ramified. All the report necessary for us to make is that, as the hints here given are the result of much experience, and are methodi

In the neighbourhood of London, in particular, in June 1809, a severe frost fell, which caused the above disaster. The trees were just breaking leaf; the foliage was killed; they pushed late in the season; an early autumn-frost again destroyed their feeble shoots: their juices therefore stagnated. The trees made an effort to push in 1810; but, failing, finally languished, and died.'

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