NOVEMBER. 261 



MISCELLANIES ABOUT CAPE HEATHS. 



"Well," remarked an amateur friend a few days since, at the close 

 of a visit to a somewhat extensive horticultural establishment, " I 

 am delighted with what I have seen. The stoves contained many re- 

 markably beautiful plants : the Orchids were gorgeous, their richness 

 of perfume still seems to mingle with the atmosphere ; the conserva- 

 tories and greenhouses were exhibitions to create admiration in every 

 lover of horticulture ; but," added he, with a playful slap on the 

 shoulder, " the Heath-house, mj' dear friend, is the house for me. I 

 think I never saw so interesting an assemblage of plants. The colours 

 of their blossoms are so various, and their shapes so endless and so 

 chaste. What a combination of classic forms might not an ingenious 

 artist invent from a study of their beautiful tubular and vase-like 

 corollas ! And independent of their blossoms, they are interesting 

 plants. The colour and character of their foliage must attract and 

 interest. In fact, they realise the description which a lady in my 

 hearing once gave them, they are ' plants to love.' Were it not for 

 the proverbial difficulty experienced in their cultivation, I certainly 

 should devote my little greenhouse to a small collection of them." 



I assured him that the difficulty was only apparent and not real ; 

 and by way of exemplification, I gave him, as we walked back to the 

 station, a brief lecture on the principle and practice of Heath-culture. 

 In the evening, while recalling the events of the day, it occurred to 

 me that the substance of our discourse might not be unacceptable 

 to some of the numerous readers of the Florist ; I therefore beg to 

 place the same at your service. 



When an error has once taken firm hold of the mind, it becomes 

 a matter of no mean difficulty in its possessor to divest himself of the 

 prejudices to which such an error gives birth, even after he has be- 

 come convinced that the tenets which he formerly held were exxo- 

 neous. Thus has it been with the culture of Heaths. Although, by 

 the means of horticultural publications, m.uch of the (hitherto con- 

 sidered) real difficulty has been shewn to be only apparent, the idea 

 of difficulty still lingers amongst those who of all others would be 

 glad to divest themselves of it, the amateurs. I hope on the present 

 occasion to be of service to them. 



It should be borne in mind as an indispensable preliminary, that 

 the Heath, being excessively fine-rooted, and its branches peculiarly 

 "hard-wooded," demands more than ordinary attention; and that 

 to place it in a miscellaneous collection of greenhouse plants, to "share 

 and share alike," can only terminate in the production of a miserable 

 specimen, with the consequent disappointment to its possessor, whose 

 ideas of what it should have been probably were derived from seeing 

 the same species at a metropolitan exhibition, or in the collection of 

 a good grower of the genus. 



Indispensable adjuncts in successful Heath-culture are, that they 

 shall have abundance of light, free circulation of air around every 

 plant, plenty of pot-room, a fibrous heath-soil, in which no trace of 



