"74 Culture of Cape Heaths. 



Many of them, doubtless, possess reservoirs similar to those above 

 dei^cribed ; and any one, who would go to the expense of covering 

 one of these with a suitable glazed house, might form an unrival- 

 led collection of stove aquatics. The moisture of atmosphere 

 induced by the exhalation from the water would be peculiarly 

 congenial to the growth of ferns, which might be placed on 

 artificial rocks round the basin. Many of the hardier epiphytes 

 could be suspended in various parts, and the house further 

 adorned by some of the most showy species of Passiflora, a genus 

 delighting to grow in the neighbourhood of water. Let us hope 

 that the above imperfect experiments, and sketch of what might 

 be done, may be worked out on a large scale, by some of your 

 readers w ho are possessed of greater facilities for so doing. 

 Clapham Road, Nov. 4. 1836. W. C, jun. 



Art. XI. On the Ctiliure of Cape Heaths. By R. Glendinning, 

 Gardener to Lord llolle. 



The -Erica, among exotics, has always been one of our first 

 favourites, and most deservedly so, on account of its compara- 

 tive hardiness and frequently successful propagation, as well as 

 from the numberless variety of colours, of forms, and of habits, 

 which are embodied in the genus. 



It is a general complaint about London, and which, also, I 

 believe, prevails among the many in the country who are for- 

 tunate in cultivating and flowering small plants, that, with all 

 their eflForts and attention, they have not completely succeeded 

 in growing large specimens. 



Mr. M'Nab, as far as I know, was the first to direct the pub- 

 lic attention to a pretty successful plan of preserving the Cape 

 heaths, with the luxuriance of youth, to a good old age. The 

 noble specimens which 1 saw at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden 

 do more than entitle Mr. M'Nab's Treatise to be read : indeed, 

 in Devonshire, it has been variously acted upon, and with con- 

 siderable success ; but most conspicuously so by Lucombe and 

 Pince of the Exeter Nurserv, who grow ail the rarest kinds in 

 wonderful luxuriance. Lidependently, however, of the success 

 which has attended Mr. M'Nab's mode^ I have been informed 

 by cultivators of these plants, both in this county and in the 

 vicinity of London, that, after having flattered themselves of the 

 entirety of this system, when some of the more choice and deli- 

 cate kinds were in the apparent zenith of health, they have sud- 

 denly gone off", and this, too, after years of prosperous culture. 

 Those with whom I have conversed regarding this unexpected 

 and signal failure concurred in attributing it to the completely 

 desiccated condition in which a great portion of the under part 



