SS8 General Besults of a Gcf^-denzng Tour : — 



habitat, which has a tendencv. vrherever it occurs, to enconrage 

 the same phmts. 



Steliaria ^aminea is found almost every mile, with the 

 exertion of some parts of the Peak, from Bavswater to Man- 

 chester. The common trees on the London clay are oaks 

 and elms : beech abounds in masses, on the chalk : ash on 

 the red sandstone, especiallv on the drier and richer soils ; 

 the wch ehii is found on the shady side of limestone hilk in 

 Derbvshire and Staffordshire : on the dry parts of such hffls, 

 and especially in Dove Xkale, the Pyrus ^^ria abounds ; seai, 

 in the m: :s. the yevr. 



We sh:. ::ie respecting native Inrds and insects : the 



singmg birds everywhere were of the thni^ &iDily, and of 

 the lark and the linnet kind : in the milder parts, as iar as 

 Kidderminster, the niirhtingale was heard : the plover and 

 cornrail were also heard near Kidderminster. House spar- 

 rows, like the house fly and the cabbage bntterfly, were found 

 evervwhere near human habitations. 



The weather from the 24th of April to this 24th of June 

 has heen chiefly dry : and nntil the last three weeks, the 

 wind has been in the east. About the 7th of May a se- 

 vere frost iniured the blossoms and young shoots of both 

 native and foreign plants and trees, over the whole tract in- 

 cluded in our tour. The American shrubs were the most 

 severely hurt ; their young shoots and their expanded blossom 

 buds being entirely cut ofil Even the incipient shoots of the 

 ash tree ■were blackened, and hundreds of acres of larch and 

 spruce firs in the extensive plantations round Heath House, 

 Alton Towers. 1 11am. and other places, were rendered quite 

 brown, and still continue so. The Scotch pine had not com- 

 menced growing, and therefore escaped- Seedlings of every 

 kind in the nurseries, the blossoms of fruit trees and straw- 

 berries in the market-gardens, and in private gardens even 

 the wall trees, have all suffered in a degree only equalled 

 bv two or three seasons within the remembrance of the oldest 

 trardeners. The only similar injury sustained in our remem- 

 brance was in the spring of 161 S- The potatoes in the flelds 

 were cut down by the frost ; but they have since sprung up 

 again, and their 2y»T>earanMu together with that of the com 

 crops, is nov , • promising. 



Having thu- _-.___; indicated the mode of generafiEang the 

 natural historr psrt of a gardening tour, we shall nest 

 attempt to nfeneralise the gardening information obtained, 

 VTanging our remaite under the heads of Palace and Man- 

 BJnn K^idences. Villas. Cottan-e Gardens. Town Gardens, 

 Pdfalic Gardens.. Nurseries, and Market Gardens. As belong- 



