28 Calls at Gardens and JVurseries. 



great beauty about it, but we should be glad to know its origin. Seve- 

 ral flowers of the double striped were expanded, but they looked so 

 different from those that we have in bloom in our garden, that, were it 

 not for the general familiar appearance of the plants, we should have 

 called them some other kind: scarcely a spot of white was to be seen in 

 some of the flowers, and the red was much paler than usual. There is 

 here quite a collection of ixias, tritonias, gladioluses, &c.j and a fine 

 display may be anticipated in March and April. 



Seat of Col. T. H. Perkins, at Brookline, — Dec. Wth. As usual, 

 this place is in excellent order. In the graperies the pruning of the vines 

 is just commenced: the wood is exceedingly large this year. The 

 peacheries have not been pruned. In the small pit in the garden, where 

 the grapes were cut this year, in April, Mr. Cowan has already began 

 to force the vines, and some of the buds are now bursting : he calculates 

 now upon cutting fruit in Mai-ch. The fires were not put in until the 

 first of the month, and the forcing must have been pretty rapid to have 

 advanced so far. already. The grapery, heated on Perkins's system, 

 which was forced in succession to this pit last winter, will be brought 

 forward with the others the ensuing spring. 



We found very few plants in bloom. Some camellias were just be- 

 ginning to expand. C. var. gloriosa here, is the same as C. var. gloria 

 belgica in our collection: like many others, it possesses butlittle 

 beauty, and can scarcely be considered as worth growing. Acacia lon- 

 giflora, several plants of, and A. verticillata, are full of buds, and will 

 soon be lovely and conspicuous objects. Sparrmani'a afi'icana is an or- 

 namental green-house plant, which should be in every collection. En- 

 kianthus quinqueflora will flower again in the spring: this plant is said 

 to be easily propagated by cuttings ; Mr. Cowan layed some of the 

 shoots into pots last spring, but they showed no signs of rooting late in 

 the fall, and the pots were removed: it is undoubtedly slow of propa- 

 gation, which will prevent its being common for some time. Mr. Cow- 

 an's seedling camellias, which we have before mentioned, have made a 

 vigorous growth, and some of them show flower-buds; from the ap- 

 pearance of the foliage some good sorts may be looked for. This fine 

 tribe seeds freely, if the flowers are impregnated, and a great number 

 of plants have already been raised in the vicinity of Boston. We may 

 look forward to the time when as beautiful varieties will be produced 

 here as have been raised by Mr. Floy and others in New York. We 

 would advise those who have plants of the single red or warratah to be 

 particular and impregnate the flowers with some of the finer kinds; the 

 plants come forward slowly, but if a few seeds are sown every j'ear, 

 after those of the first sowing begin to floAver, there will be a continual 

 succession. 



We took a walk round into the forcing ground, to see the foundation 

 of two new forcing-houses which had just been laid. The length of 

 the two will be upwards of one hundred feet: the back wall will not be 

 very high, and the width of the houses will not be more than ten feet. 

 Mr. Cowan has planned out what he thinks will be an important im- 

 provement, in the construction of these, for the forcing of vines. It has 

 always been a great objection to hot-houses, stoves, &c., that, from the 

 high temperature at which they ai'c kept the year round, vines could not 

 be cultivated in them; and, consequently, where these alone exist, a 

 grapery has to be erected. In Mr. Cowan's plan, this objection is done 

 away with. The front wall is built on arches: at the distance of a foot 

 from the inner side of the wall another one is built; the vines are plant- 

 ed outside, as usual; and when it is desired to give them a period of re- 

 pose or rest, they are laid down in the cavity between the two walls; 

 a piank coping or shelf is laid over this cavity, which can be removed 



