136 Southern Horticultural Trip. 



large magnolia-trees, some of which, we were told, are sixty or seventy 

 feet in height. The orange-trees, although much injured in their foliage by 

 the severe weather of December, were putting forth their new wood. At 

 Jacksonville we called on our old friend Solon Robinson, who has built a 

 fine house, and retired here to rest on the laurels of a long and active life. 

 We made a visit to the nurseries of Col. Hardee, a true representative of 

 Southern chivalr}' and patriotism. The colonel, in the space of three years, 

 with the help of three colored men, built his house, and cleared thirty acres of 

 land, and has much of it already planted with trees and vines. He showed 

 us quince-trees a year old from cuttings which were four feet, and grape- 

 vines of the same age fifteen feet, in length. To provide against the inju- 

 rious effects of hot summer suns, he has adopted the plan of planting 

 a grape-vine with a peach-tree for its trellis, which he calls the green 

 trellis. 



Jan. 25, at Fruitlands, four miles from Augusta, we visited the nur- 

 sery of our good friend Prosper J. Barckmans, Esq., whose house is reached 

 through a beautiful avenue of young magnolias, in front of which was 

 planted profusely the Q-x^^ ]&%'=,2cci\va& {Gardenia flori:la): and, while dining 

 at his bountifully-spread board, we saw on the lawn an Acacia dealbata, 

 two years old, stem four inches in diameter, fourteen feet in height, and 

 spreading twelve feet; also a large American aloe {Agaue Americana), and 

 a Deodar cedar six years old, fifteen feet high. 



We were shown many fine trees of extraordinary growth, and among 

 them Liboccdrus dccnrrens, six years old, fifteen feet high, stem ten inches 

 in diameter; several new magnolias, one of which, Magnolia grandijlora, van 

 gloriosa, bears a flower fifteen inches in diameter. Magnolia fiiscata proves 

 hardy. We were shown a fine young cork -oak {Qu:rcus suber). which is 

 perfectly hardy here ; but at Atlanta we found it had proved tender in the 

 garden of Richard Peters, Esq. Other plants noted were Cistus algamen- 

 sis ; Agave Americana, growing on the lawn; Gardenia radicans ; pampas- 

 grass, a clump of which has produced two hundred flower-stalks ; Ligustrum 

 Calijornica and L. Amourensis ; Pyrus J^aponica, which, at the time of our 

 visit, was just coming into bloom; Centaureas, \\\\\ch. are perfectly hardy 

 here ; and a yellow Banksian rose four inches in diameter in the stem. 



In the fruit department, Mr. Barckmans finds the Beurrc Giffard one of 

 the best early pears, ripening May 20. The Bartlett is the best pear: it 



