MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE, EDITED BY C. M. HOVEY. Published in monthly octavo numbers.-At $3 per year in advance. THE THIRD VOLUME of the New Series of the Magazine, (13th of the entire work,) commenced January 1, 1847. It will be the object of the Magazine to continue to record all the discoveries and improvements in the art of Gardening-progressive as it must be-and to disseminate widely all new or improved modes of cultivation. In POMOLOGY, the same descriptions and engravings of fruitsand brief notices of all new or little known varieties, as they are yearly introduced-will form its PRINCIPAL and attractive feature. In this department the Editor will have the assistance of the most experienced Pomologists in New England. Already a larger number of NEW FRUITS have been described in the Magazine, than in any other work extant. The entire experience of the late Mr. Manning, extending over a space of quarter of a century, will be found in the several volumes. The very large and extensive collection of pears and other fruits in New England affords facilities for descriptions of fruits unequalled in other sections of the country. But we need not recapitulate all the various subjects which have filled the pages of the Magazine, as a reference to any volume will be the best evidence of what has been accomplished. Neither will our readers wish us to make any new promises of what we intend to offer in the coming volume. Already have we added many pages to the present one; and we may here say, that the number will be increased hereafter, so as to enable us to better accommodate our many and kind correspondents, in every part of the country. Our FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE, we are happy to state, has been extended, and our facilities for obtaining the earliest information of new fruits, flowers, and trees, greatly increased. LANDSCAPE GARDENING AND ARBORICULTURE will continue to receive particular attention; and notices and descriptions of select trees and shrubs, for the guidance of gentlemen forming suburban residences, will be occasionally given, as well as engravings of some of the more rare kinds. In RURAL ARCHITECTURE we shall offer designs of select villas, specimens of which have appeared in previous volumes. An IMPORTANT FEATURE has been added to the Miscellaneous Department, by which a page or two in each number will be devoted to correspondents and readers who may be desirous of asking any questions relative to any department of Gardening. The MONTHLY CALENDAR OF HORTICULTURAL OPERATIONS will also be more full and complete. The first number of the New Volume was issued on the first of January, 1847. It will be printed in the same superior style, on the finest paper, and will be embellished by an increased number of engravings, forming a volume of nearly 600 pages, at $3 a year in advance. CONTENTS. ART. II. Mr. Knight's Seedling Pears. By the Editor, 150 ART. III. A Way to keep a Record of the Place of every Tree in an Orchard, by which Labels are dispensed with. By T. S. Humrickhouse, Coshocton, Ohio, . ART. I. A Report on the Trees and Shrubs growing nat- urally in the Forests of Massachusetts: published agree- ably to an order of the Legislature. By the Commis- sioners on the Zoological and Botanical Survey of the State. 1 Vol. 8vo. pp. 547. Boston, Dutton & Went- THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. APRIL, 1847, ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. ART. I. Horticulture of the Past, as compared with the Present. By T. S. HUMRICKHOUSE, Coshocton, Ohio. Ar this remote distance of time, it is very difficult for us to estimate justly what proficiency the Antients may have had in Horticulture. Evelyn did not rate it very high. In a letter to Mr. Wotton, he says:-" Concerning the gardening and husbandry of the Antients, which is your inquirie (especially of the first), that it had certainly nothing approaching the elegancy of the present age, Rapinus (whom I send you) will abundantly satisfy you. The discourse you will find at the end of Hortorum, lib. 4. capp. 6, 7. What they called their gardens were only spacious plots of ground planted with platans and other shady trees in walkes, and built about with porticos, xisti, and noble ranges of pillars, adorned with statues, fountaines, piscariæ, aviaries, &c. But for the flowery parterre, beds of tulips, carnations, auricula, tuberose, jonquills, ranunculus, and other of our rare coronaries, we hear nothing of, nor that they had such store and variety of rare exoticks, orangeries, myrtils, and other curious greens; nor do I believe they had their orchards in such perfection, nor by far our furniture for the kitchen. Pliny, indeed, enumerates a world of vulgar plants and olitories, but they fall infinitely short of our physic gardens, books, and herbals, every day augmented by our sedulous botanists, and brought to us from all quarters of the world. And as for their husbandry and more rural skill, of which the same author has written so many books in his Natural History, especially lib. 17, 18, &c., you'll soon be judge what it was. They took great care, indeed, of their vines and olives, stercorations, ingraftings, and were diligent in observing seasons, the course of the stars, &c., and doubtless were very industrious; but when you shall have read over Cato, Varro, Columella, Paladio, with the Greek Geoponicks, I do not think you will have cause to prefer them before the modern agriculture, so exceedingly of late improved, for which you may consult and compare our old Tusser, Markham, the Maison Rustic, Hartlib, Walter Blith, the Philosophical Transactions, and other books, which you know better than myself." If all this might well be said by Evelyn in his day, with how much more propriety now, by us in ours; and with how much greater justice might we not also include his catalogue of the then Moderns. If we examine, however, more critically his remarks, so as to take in the whole scope of the premises he lays down, may we not doubt if his be not too severe a judgment? In what consists the mighty difference? Evelyn goes into particulars; and it cannot be doubted that, of many things, now the rarest and most admired ornaments of our gardens, and the most exquisite delicacies upon our tables, they were entirely destitute; of others, they possessed not the same nor the abundance of excellent varieties that we do: but our author is careful further to note, that "they took great care indeed of their vines and olives, stercorations, ingraftings, and were diligent," &c. : and Solomon, had he consulted him, would have refuted much that he advances about gardens; and Virgil, had he borne him in mind, would have put to flight much more in reference to horticultural skill. Having mentioned Solomon, however familiar he may be to most readers, I must be indulged in one quotation from him —but one, out of many beautiful passages that occur in his Song. "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let |