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Calls at the Nurseries 



Buchanan, jun., pointed out a number of the more interesting species of 

 trees and shrubs, which, though we noted theui down on the spot, we have 

 not space here to enumerate. 



Lewisham Nursery, Wilniot and Co. — A great many garden seeds are 

 grown in this nursery, and the present has been rather a successful year, 

 with the exception of peas, and, to a certain extent, of onions and lettuce. 

 We saw a curious and striking instance of the importance of keeping the 

 ^rassica family a good distance apart while in bloom. The imperial winter 

 broccoli was in flowei, not far from early York cabbage. There being only 

 one plant of the former, and the seed being much wanted, the plant was 

 covered with gauze to keep off the bees. The seed was kept apart and 

 sown last spring, and the progeny consisted of the imperial winter broccoli 

 very distinct ; a cabbage strongly resembling the sugar-loaf, and bearing no 

 marks of its other parent ; with hybrids partaking in various degrees both 

 of cabbage and broccoli. Mr. Chaundy informed us that some years ago he 

 planted, in one group, red and white cabbage, savoys, borecoles, cauliflowers, 

 and broccoli ; that he saved the seeds and sowed them, and that the pro- 

 duce consisted of many curious hybrids ; some entirely like one of the 

 parents, others blending the qualities of different parents, and a number 

 displaying the qualities of their parents in distinct parts ; such as a cabbage 

 one half red, and the other green, &c. But the most remarkable cii'cum- 

 stance was, that, while all the other cabbages and borecoles in the nursery 

 were destroyed by a severe winter, these hybrids were little injured, and 

 supplied the kitchens of the two families when there was no other cabbage 

 vegetable to be had in the nursery. Most of the popular trees and shrubs 

 are to be had in this nursery, in large quantities, and well grown ; all the 

 finer sorts of apples, pears, cherries, plums, &c., by the hundred ; quanti- 

 ties of such fine shrubs as ^'rbutus ylndrachne serratifolia, now covered 

 with flowers, Wistaria Consequa?i«, and Chimonanthus fragrans {fig. 126.), 

 a shrub which we cannot too often bring before 

 our readers, on account of the abundance and 

 powerfully refreshing fragrance of its blossoms, 

 and that, too, in the open air during three of the 

 dullest months in the year, viz. December, January, 

 and Februar}'. We believe it will grow quite 

 well in London, and we would therefore recom- 

 mend it to be planted against every house that 

 has a garden, however small. How it happens 

 not to be cultivated in pots and tubs, for setting 

 in halls and staircases, so as to perfume the 

 whole house, we cannot tell : perhaps because 

 its flowers, though so fragrant, are not showy, 

 and, while they are expanded, the plant is gene- 

 rally without leaves, i^osa indica fragrans and 

 i?. indica alba, now blooming freely, are very 

 desirable varieties, especially for keeping in pots, and turning out in spring, 

 to be treated as herbaceous plants. Ipomoe^a coccinea, the plants being 

 sticked like peas, has ripened seeds in the open garden ; a circumstance 

 which has not occurred before, in this nursery, for the last twelve or four- 

 teen years. At Tooting we found it carefully trained against a wall (p. GS'i.), 

 for the same purpose. Among the handsome specimens in this nursery 

 are y/'rbutus ^ndrachne serratifolia and Schubertza disticha pendula. 



New Cross Nursery and Bedford Conservatories, Messrs. Connack, Son, 

 and Sinclair. — This firm also deals largely in seeds, and this year has been 

 successful in acquiring an excellent stock. At the Scotch Agricultural 

 Show at Inverness last summer, Messrs. Cormack and Co. had a person 

 exhibiting specimens of the grass seeds and others used in agriculture. 

 Their nursery, like most others, is full of stock, the shoots well ripened, 



