S6 Ptof. Schultes on the 



of England, where the winters are never so severe as to check 

 vegetation for any long period, nor the summers so scorching 

 as to burn up the tender roots ; while the frequent fogs and 

 constantly damp state of ilie atmosphere morning and evening- 

 are highly favourable to verdure. Were the lawns in our country 

 to be mown so often and so close, they would infallibly be soon 

 burnt up. The opulent Englishman is so partial to a garden, 

 that if his house should chance to have a northern exposure 

 where not a ray of sun can reach, he will yet plant it with 

 evergreen shrubs, as the Ilex ,- and with such flowers as are 

 found capable of enduring such an aspect. It is the general 

 taste that prevails for plants, to which the number of nursery- 

 gvounds, and the astonishingly active business that they carry 

 on, are owing. The success of so many marchands des plantes 

 continually encourages their increase; and I am told that not 

 a year passes without the establishment of some new institu- 

 tion of this kind. On the way to Hammersmith to see Ken- 

 nedy and Lee's Nursery, we met the propiietors of two others. 

 Gray and Sons, and Malcolm and Co. at Kensington. The 

 house of Lee and Kennedy, so well known with us on the con- 

 tinent, has lately experienced great changes. Mr. Kennedy 

 has withdrawn from the concern, and is gone to Amiens in 

 France ; and the old Lee died about two months ago. At 

 present, the sons carry on the management of this large nur- 

 sery, which they themselves say contains one hundred acres, 

 and requires the labour of from one hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred workmen. Although this estimate seems to me enor- 

 mously large, yet thus much is certain, that it is one of the 

 greatest nurseries in London, and carries on an extensive trade 

 both at home and abroad. The more common kinds of plants 

 seem to be chiefly cultivated hei'e ; although there are three 

 hundred species oi Erica, and half of every day is allotted to 

 the management of Camellias. The stoves are of the usual 

 kind : there is no pond for the convenient watering of the 

 plants ; nor have the proprietors published a new Catalogue. 



Mr. Colville, on the road to Chelsea, certainly has the rarer 

 kinds of plants in his collection. Messrs. Mackay and Co., 

 Eraser, &c. have also gardens in this neighbourhood. We 

 hei'e became acquainted with Mr. Sweet, whose publications 

 on the Gera7iia and Horttis Suhirbanus are well known. Many 

 unknown and rare vegetables from all parts of the world, par- 

 ticularly Nepaul, New Holland, and New Zealand, and the 

 tolerably well explored Cape of Good Hope, exist in Mr. Col- 

 ville's Nursery: but the establishment of this kind, which be- 

 longs to Mr. Conrad Loddiges, appeared to us the largest and 

 finest in England. It would be hard to say whether its great 



extent, 



