212 JVbto on J^iirseries and Private Gardens, 



hope that the same destroying power which has prevailed within 

 a few years will be arrested by some change of taste, and that 

 individuals may, at least during their lifetime, see the results of 

 their early labors. 



J\^ursery of the Messrs. Landreth. — This establishment is now 

 owned and carried on by Mr. Thomas Landreth, the old firm of 

 D. & C. Landreth having been dissolved. We have not seen 

 it since the fall of 1831; but some remarks will be found in vol. 

 I. p. 201, which we made from recollection of our visit at that 

 time. 



The collection of green and hot-house plants is not very ex- 

 tensive, it being confined in three middling sized structures, and 

 does not afford the same interest to the amateur as either Mr. 

 Smith's or Mr. Buist's. It however contains some fine speci- 

 mens. Here is by far the largest and strongest plant of the 

 true ilhododendron arboreum in the country: it is upwards of 

 eight feet high, handsomely branched, and covered with healthy 

 foliage, and, at this time, showing the seed pods of upwards of 

 ticenty-five umbels of flowers. What a superb display it must 

 have presented! Some of the flowers were impregnated, and it 

 is expected a number of seedlings will be raised from the seed. 

 This plant must be very old; it was, when we saw it, six years 

 ago, at least five feet high. We have never seen a plant since 

 in any other nursery or private establishment, which we have vi- 

 sited, of any size; and what we have observed were small, un- 

 healthy looking ones, with sunburnt foliage and slender shoots. 

 We certainly think our cultivators do not understand its manage- 

 ment: something there must be wrong, or it would flourish better. 

 What peculiar management Mr. Landreth's has had w^e are not 

 aware; but we hope to receive from him some account of this 

 plant. 



The exotic department, we expect, is not so rich, according 

 to the present advantages of procuring plants, as it has been 

 in years past; but the nursery business is kept up with the same 

 vigor and correctness. The stock of camellias is not large, and 

 does not number above forty or fifty varieties. Camellirt japon- 

 ica var. Landrethn is now considerably esteemed, and the stock 

 of plants somewhat reduced. There is a good stock of Cor- 

 rse^a speciosa, and w'e observed one large frame filled with seed- 

 ling magnolias. 



The earliness of the season prevented us from making here, 

 or at any of the places we have noticed, any remarks upon the 

 plants of the open garden. But we observed that the large Osage 

 orange, (Madura aurantiaca,) here, has not had the last year's 

 shoots winter killed in the least; there is, we think, no doubt 

 of its perfect hardiness even in the latitude of New York or 

 Boston. As regards its utility as a hedge plant, there are various 



