and Siihiirhan Gardens. SBT 



Itave stood the winter without protection, and are sending up vigorous 

 shoots. We should not be surprised at the whole of this family proving 

 hardy. Mr. Knight has lately made an extensive importation of azaleas, 

 rare sorts, and large admirably grown plants, from the Netherlands. As we 

 stated on a former occasion (Vol. VI. p. 379.), no one need hesitate in 

 purchasing large plants of the i^riceee, because their hairlike roots readily 

 admit of their being taken up with balls. 



One of Mr. Knight's practices, with respect to peach and nectarine trees, 

 deserves to be mentioned for the imitation of all nurserjmen. All those 

 trained trees that have not been sold are taken up about the first week in 

 March, and pruned both in their top and roots. The latter are placed on a 

 flat surface of richly manured soil within 4 in. of the upper level of the 

 common surface, and covered with no more than 4 in. of earth. The roots 

 before covering are as carefully spread out in the fan manner as the top is 

 in training. The advantage of this mode is, that the influence of the sun 

 is earlier felt by the roots, and the sap of the tree sooner put in motion ; 

 while, at the same time, from the roots not being deep in the soil, so as to 

 procure abundance of moisture in the midst of summer, their growth is 

 sooner checked, and the wood better ripened before winter. It is evident 

 that such trees must not only take up and remove with a greater number of 

 roots than those treated in the usual manner, but that they must also come 

 much sooner into a bearing state. Mr. Knight has a great many rare spe- 

 cies and varieties of new trees and shrubs, and he is one of those nursery- 

 men to whom we look for cultivating collections to illustrate the natural 

 orders. We shall conclude these desultory remarks with the name of a 

 truly desirable and rare tree, beautiful from its deep green pendent shoots 

 in winter and pinnated foliage in summer, Sophora japonica var. pendula. 



Apr'd 13. The iihododendron arboreum is in full bloom, and the colour 

 brilliant be3'ond description. As the plant is half-hardy, and may be kept 

 in a cold pit, it ought to be in every collection. Wistan'a, near it, is mag- 

 nificently laden with large purple pea blossoms hanging like bunches of trans- 

 parent grapes, 



London to Goldworth, Siirrei/. — April 3. A row of sycamores, planted 

 along a brook at Brook Green, vary so much in the forwardness of their 

 budding, that, while some are almost in a dormant state, one or two 

 have actually leaves expanded ; the same as to horsechestnuts, which 

 we observed afterwards ; affording striking proofs of the individuality of 

 plants raised from seed, as contradistinguished to the sameness of those 

 raised from cuttings, layers, or in any mode by which the bud is substituted 

 for the egg or seminal embryo. In various cases, such as those of planting 

 for shelter, or near a house or garden, it might be well worth while to 

 select from the seedlings of different nurseries the earliest varieties of the 

 kinds of trees to be planted. There are no trees that differ more in their 

 periods of foliation than the oak and the hawthorn ; and it might certainly be 

 desirable, under extraordinary circumstances, to have oak woods and hedges 

 green a fortnight before the usual time. The oak, the beech, and the 

 hornbeam are trees which differ very much in their periods of dropping 

 their foliage ; and, on the same principle, when they are intended for 

 hedges or shelter, seedlings might be chosen from the nurseries in which 

 the leaves appeared most persistent. A small larch, at Turnham Green, 

 has taken so completely the character of a shrubbed cedar of Lebanon, 

 tliat, being now in its first foliage, it is difficult, at a distance, to distinguish 

 it from that tree. Here and there, along this road, appears an unfinished 

 house, reminding one of bankruptcy and the Court of Chancery. Abun- 

 dance of public-houses, and signs advertising an ordinary on Sunday, 

 which suggest ideas of holiday enjoyment. A neat newly built villa at 

 Turnham Green, so placed at an angle as to look along the road towards 

 London, instead of across it, to fields and gardens ; probably the seat of 



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