ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 369 



all these things and a good many more. If any other 

 angels have hovered about us than angelic flowers, we make 

 an especial request to them not, hereafter, to be so shy 

 about it. Our natural eye wOuld delight to behold in 

 veritable substance all the flower-spirits which our ideality 

 spies lurking in our garden-blossoms. 



HORTICULTURAL CURIOSITIES. 



MR. HOVEY, editor of the magazine which bears his name, 

 had occasion during the year 1844 to visit Europe, for pro 

 fessional objects; &quot;not the least was that of giving some 

 account of the condition of gardening in that country, from 

 whose works, whose practice, and experience, our own cul 

 tivators have derived so much knowledge.&quot; 



We cull from the several numbers already published in 

 his magazine, the most interesting facts. 



RHODODENDRONS. Speaking of the Liverpool botanical 

 gardens, he says : 



&quot; The principal clumps were filled with rhododendrons of 

 various kinds, which do remarkably well ; the climate, from 

 its humidity, seems to suit them, and most of the plants 

 were clothed with branches from the base to the top. R. 

 altaclerense we saw six feet high; how fine must be its 

 numerous clusters of splendid rosy blossoms! From the 

 time we entered this garden, where we first saw the rhodo 

 dendrons in abundance, until we returned home, we were 

 constantly impressed with the importance which this shrub 

 is destined to hold in our gardens. Although a native of 

 our woods and forests, it is scarcely known out of our native 

 habitats; yet abroad we see it the first ornament of the 

 garden. By hybridization, and the production of an 

 immense number of seedlings, during the last fifteen years, 

 it has been increased in splendor, until it now almost equal a 



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