and Suburban Gardens. 355 



great many hybrid seedlings between this and the hardy rhododendrons, and 

 finds a number of them endure the winter in the open air without any pro- 

 tection. None of these have yet come into flower ; which is something to 

 look forward to. Among the plants in this conservatory worthy of notice at 

 the present time are : — Lady Hume's and Middlemist's Blush Camellias, 

 very large plants, finely covered with flowers ; and a standard of C. Sasdn- 

 qita rosea plena, 3 ft. or 6 ft. high. This species, being a very fine bloomer, is 

 well calculated for naked-stemmed standards, which, after the plants have 

 attained a certain size, must form striking objects. Magn6h'« fuscjita, 14 ft. 

 high, which has ripened seeds from which Mr. Knight has raised young 

 plants. Wistan'a Consequtuzff, trained perpendicularly, and the side shoots 

 tied drooping during summer, by which means they become covered with 

 blossom buds. The practice affords an excellent hint to gardeners, not 

 only with regard to this plant, but to various others that it may be wished 

 to cover with bloom. Illicium parviflorum, from 3 to 6 in. high, with two 

 or three blooms on each, fully expanded; Azalea Indica, and indica phoe- 

 nicea, handsome plants in bloom ; Hovea Cels?, with its beautiful deep blue 

 pea blossoms ; a number of acacias and other Australian plants coming into 

 flower, and Banksia ericifolia going out. The whole are in the greatest health, 

 beauty, and order. In the hot-house Mr. Knight finds that the orchideous 

 epiphytes do much better in iSphagnum than in i?ryum or any other kind of 

 terrestrial moss. The georginas are here producing shoots, which, as soon 

 as they get from 4 in. to 6 in. long, ai'e slipt off" and struck as cuttings ; 

 Mr. Knight, like Mr. Wood of Deepdene, preferring this mode to planting 

 the roots. The same thing might, no doubt, be practised with potatoes, 

 sweet potatoes, 3ams, and other tuber- producing plants; but, unless the 

 soil were rich, and the culture good, it would be attended with loss of 

 time, the tuber containing a supply of noimshment for the infant plant 

 being not always to be readily obtained by art. In the orangery Mr. 

 Knight is trying a curious experiment with camellias and other plants, by 

 inverting them, enveloping the pots in moss, and forming with clay a basin 

 on then- bottoms to introduce water by the hole through which that ele- 

 ment generally escapes. Several camellias set down on the floor of the 

 house have pushed an inch, while others, suspended in an inverted position 

 from ashelf near the roof, and consequently in a warmer atmosphere, have 

 remained stationary. Retardation, therefore, is one effect of inverting 

 plants ; but Mr. Knight's object is, if possible, to throw some light on the 

 rise and descent of the sap. For the same object he barked the stems 

 of a number of standard pear trees in the open air last May or June. Some 

 of them had died, but most of them lived, forming a callosity in the usual 

 manner, depending from the bark at the upper edge of the wound. In one 

 or two cases, where the soft wood under the bark had not been very cleanly 

 scraped off", a thin coating of bark had formed over the greater part of the 

 disbarked stem. Such a tree will probably recover, but the others are cer- 

 tain of dying in a year or two ; in the meantune, however, bearing large 

 crops of fruit. 



On a shelf at the top of the back wall of the orangery, which is, in fact, 

 the sanctum of the Exotic Nursery, are the principal part of the plants 

 raised from the Australian seeds brought home by Mr. Baxter, and also the 

 stools of Telopea speciosissima and the plants of Cephalotus foHicularis. 

 The whole are in excellent health, and promise various novelties : one of 

 these will be a new Kenned/ff. The banksias and dryandras are beautiful 

 little plants, and quite the gems of the sanctum. The plant of the terres- 

 trial mistletoe (Loninthus terrestris, Lon'mthese), brought home by Mr. 

 Baxter, unfortunately appears to be dead. 



In one of the propagating houses is a number of plants of Magnob'a 

 citriodora, a hybrid of which Mr. Knight is the sole possessor, and which 

 he has not yet exposed for sale. It is considered a most valuable acqui- 



A A 2 



