Calls at Gardens and J^urseries. 27 



remarks with the hope that the riunous effects of such a policy may be 

 constantly impressed upon the minds of all those who have not reflect- 

 ed upon the subject. 



In the green-house the plants look vigorous and healthy. The col- 

 lection does not include many very rare plants, but abounds with such 

 as are in demand and are constantly wanting, as geraniums, myrtles, 

 oleanders, roses, &c. &c. The stock of these is very large. Of three 

 or four of the more common kinds of cereuses, there is also a conside- 

 rable number of plants. There are a few camellias, including some 

 good sorts, and one very fine plant of the double white. We observed 

 a great many acacias, which Mr. Mason raised from seeds, the past 

 summer, which he received from the Massachusetts Horticultnral So- 

 ciety, and which were some of the number presented by the Baron Von 

 Ludwig. But very few plants were in flower, excepting some roses, sal- 

 vias, heliotropes, &c: and, among these, .;2cacia suaveolens, with its deli- 

 cate blossoms, was the most conspicuous: several double white camel- 

 lias were expanded, and one or two other varieties. Quite a number 

 of bouquets are cut here during the winter, and just at the jjresent time 

 the plants had been tolerably well dipt. 



Broomley Vale, Roxburij, Hon. John Loioell, — Dec. 19th. We have 

 not visited this place since August, 18.35. The jilants are in very good 

 order, and the houses, which are altogether too small for such a valua- 

 ble collection, are crammed to overflowing. We hope Mr. Lowell will 

 be induced to erect a more commodious house for many of the finer 

 specimens. Certainly the large and beautiful shaped orange and lemon 

 trees here, the best by far in the vicinity of Boston, are deserving of a 

 place by themselves ; they show now to but little advantage; but Mr. 

 Lowell cares less for display than many amateurs who possess inferior 

 <;ollections. 



In the stove, we found the pine plants in bloom and in fruit. We 

 were astonished when Mr. Lowell's gardener informed us that several 

 "fruit had been cut during the past year. The young fruit showing now 

 will not be very large, as the pit in which the plants are growing has 

 but little bottom heat, and at this late season they rarely swell up to a 

 good size. This most excellent of all fruits is about to be raised in 

 considerable quantity at Belmont Place, and, we hope, in greater num- 

 ber here. Among the plants were Poincifma pulcherrima, or flower 

 •of Barbadoes, which, when we were here last, was a little plant not 

 more than two feet or so in height : it has now attained the size of a 

 large shrub, and is four or five feet high. We hope it will be made to 

 produce flowers another season. The branches of the coffee tree were 

 bending down under the great weight of the berries: it is a most orna- 

 mental shrub. Pancratium speciosum was throwing up what we took 

 for a flower spike. The Ficus elasticaand some other plants have had 

 their tops cut off" on account of reaching to the glass! Some of the 

 finest specimens of Cereus speciosissimus are here that we have ever 

 observed, and one plant covers several square feet of the back wall. A 

 small plant of the Pandanus spiralis we noticed among the rest. 



In the green-house the orange and lemon trees are almost breaking 

 down with the quantity of fruit: we have no doubt but that some bushels 

 might be gathered from ten or twelve plants. Among the rest is the 

 Citrus decumana, with the same fruit upon it which it was Iwaring when 

 exhibited at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's exhibition at the 

 Odeon, in September, 1835. Ardisia acuminata was in fine flower. A 

 few camellias have expanded. C. reticulata was showing two buds, 

 which will be in bloom in the course of a tew weeks. A variety with a 

 red flower, something in the way of coccinea, was in bloom; but we do 

 not know that we have ever seen any thing just like it : there is no 



