314 



JOUKMAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEB. 



[ October 23, 1873. 



sized — not at all large for Pines, and yet not so small as some 

 tliat I have met with, where the merit of growing Pines in 

 small pots was more considered than growing them well. Here 

 they were of fair average size, evidently well filled with i-oots, 

 and plunged in a tan bed with, I believe, hot-water pipes under- 

 neath. The house was span-roofed, or rather a sort of half- 

 span on the north side. Other varieties were also grown, the 

 best kind (for there arc evidently two) of Smooth-leaved Cay- 

 enne being well represented, as were also Queen and Charlotte 

 liothschild, and all alike good. In one of the corners of a bed 

 was a box of seedUngs not larger than small cuttings of Ver- 

 benas or other plants, and I could see that stems of old eut- 

 down'favourites were also utilised with a view to induce them 

 to produce suckers, but the process is not so rapid a one as 

 that by which many other plants are multiplied ; nevertheless, 

 where it is necessary to propagate extensively a valuable variety 

 like the Lambton SeedUng, every means ought to be adopted, 

 although robust suckers from plants that have borne good 



fruit are undoubtedly the best — i.e., they soonest produce good 

 fruit again. 



Before taking leave of the Pine houses I may remark that 

 the whole of the plants bore the impress of the most robust 

 health, and exhibited no sign of scale. All were in pots plunged 

 in heating material, or otherwise supplied with bottom heat. 

 A very wise plan was here adopted, which in all cases ought 

 to be followed where Pines are grown, and that is to isolate 

 the pineries from the houses containing stove or greenhouse 

 plants. A glass partition, however close-fitting, is not enough 

 to shut out scale or mealy bug where there is a chance of its 

 reaching such tempting food, and there are comparatively few 

 estabUshments exempt from these pests if any great number 

 of exotic plants are cultivated. It appears to be almost im- 

 possible to keep some plants free from these unwelcome in- 

 truders. At Linton we make it a rule to raise seedling plants 

 only in one Pine house, and when it is necessary to remove 

 them elsewhere they are never returned to it. 



lami:ton castle roR»'iN(j houses and kitchen garden. 



Veil accompaniment to the other fruits sent to the table of 

 the noble proprietor two small houses were devoted to fruits 

 not often cultivated for such a purpose, although not unknown 

 perhaps a century ago, and occasionally met with fifty years 

 ago — namely, two kinds of Passiflora, one being P. edulis, and 

 the other what Mr. Hunter called P. quadrangularis (Grana- 

 dilla), or P. alata. The fruits of the two species hear Uttle 

 resemblance to each other, for those of the first are not larger 

 than a full-sized Plum and purple, whOe those of the second 

 are like a fair-sized Jlelon and yellow. It would be difficult 

 to find two houses presenting better crops of fruit of any kind. 

 The plants were trained immediately under the glass, and the 

 fruit hung down as thickly as in a well-managed Cucumber 

 house, looking rich and good. More novel, because more 

 rare, in another house was the YaniUa fruiting in tolerable 

 abundance, but to the ordinary looker-on it seemed less in- 

 viting than the Passifloras. Bananas there were, of course, in 

 plenty. 



In a place where tender fruits are cultivated with so much 

 care and success, hardy ones are not likely to be neglected. 

 Peaches and Nectarines were abundant, but the crops in the 

 earliest houses had been gathered long before my visit. I 

 noticed some very useful-looking Plums on trees in pots in an 



Orchard house, but the healthiest trees, and those that had 

 borne or were carrying the best crop of fruit, had been planted 

 out, and were trained in the bush fashion, as it was de- 

 monstrated years ago that trees in pots seldom finish-off their 

 fruit well, so that it is only as objects of novelty that they 

 are much cultivated in places where fruit in large quantities 

 is grown in the ordinary way. Here, however, the crop was 

 promising both on trees in pots and those planted out. 



I will here notice the fruit room which I was shown into, and 

 an excellent roomy place it was, differing from the too-common 

 backshed makeshifts so often met with ; in fact, with the 

 exception of one I had previously seen at Knowsley (Lord 

 Derby's), it was the most complete in its way I had ever 

 known. There were tiers of shelves round the outside, with a 

 broad one in the centre having drawers for putting away some 

 of the choicer specimens, while an ample path was carried all 

 round, and light and ventilation were alike at command. 

 This house occupied a position behind the upper tier of glass 

 structures, and adjoining it were some other offices and neces- 

 sary accompaniments to a large place. 



The flower garden, like the other features noticed above, 

 was in the immediate neighbourhood of the kitchen garden, 

 for owing to the character and position of the mansion it 



