64 Calls at Gardens and JVurseries. 



Art. VIII. Calls at Gardens and JVurseries. 



We resume our calls at the various gardens in the vicinity, believing 

 our accounts of them to be among the most interesting portions of our 

 Magazine. From the numl)er of communications with which we have 

 lately been so kindly favored, we have been obliged to exclude this arti- 

 cle, that our correspondents might be accommodated. We hope, how- 

 ever, from time to time, to have the opportunity of keeping our readers 

 informed of every thing new relating to horticuitare or floriculture. 



Brookline, Seat of the Hon. T. H. Perkins. — Jan. 20. We were unfor- 

 tunate in calling when Mr. Cowan, the gardener, was not at home. A 

 young lad, however, who has been for some time under his direction, and 

 to whom the keys of the houses, as well as their care, are oftentimes en- 

 trusted, and who has acquired much knowledge in relation to forcing 

 and gardening generally, showed us through the different departments, 

 and was very apt iu answering any questions we asked in relation to the 

 plants. In the green-house, the plants have not yet begun to flower very 

 profusely, aud consequently we found not so much worthy of note. 

 Owing to the intense cold during the month of December, and the dull, 

 cloudy, wet weather which has prevailed nearly up to this date, during 

 this month, the plants, at all places we have visited, have made but little 

 growth, and show but few flower buds. Among the camellias here, 

 we found in bloom, in addition to the double striped, Lady Hume's 

 blush, myrtle-leaved, pompone-flowered, Greville's red and double 

 white, the latter having expanded over fifty blossoms, CWveiuna, Rossi, 

 Elphinstonia, Egertonia, gloriosa, compacta, punctata, rosa sinensis, 

 Pi'esst, and one or two others, the names of which we could not ascer- 

 tain, and which were new to us. C. j. CliveiVm« is a beautiful variety : 

 the flower fully expanded would measure at least five inches across: the 

 color is similar to Woodsi, as is also the form, with this difference, that 

 it is not so cup-shaped; the petals are few, but very large : some of the 

 smaller ones in the centre are faintly striped with white: punctata is in 

 flower, for the first time here; we think it inferior to eclipsis; the flower 

 on Elphinstonia was a coral red, without a blotch of white: Rossi is a 

 splendid kind. The fine plant of Enkianthus quinqueflora, in this col- 

 lection only, is now in full bloom, and a more charmingly beautiful dis- 

 play we have never been gratified with: the end of every shoot, twelve 

 in number, is terminated with an umbel of its pendulous, bell-shaped, 

 waxlike flowers. We were surprised to notice, in Loudon's Magazine for 

 October, that it had never flowered but once in the vicinity of London: 

 even the Messrs. Loddiges, from whose unrivalled collection this plant 

 was purchased, have not yet been successful in blooming it. Stre- 

 litzta augusta does not yet show buds. The new flowered sage, .Salvia 

 involucrata, was in bloom, as also fulgens and splendens; Antholyza 

 cethiopica was displaying a spike of its pretty orange and red blossoms. 

 Sparmannia africana, and ./Jcacia longifolia, were beginning to open their 

 buds. We noticed that Mr. Cowan raises his ericas in the centre of the 

 pots, as recommended by that excellent cultivator, Mr. McNab, in his 

 treatise on Cape heaths. Notwithstanding the opinion of some intelli- 

 gent gardeners, that heaths cannot be grown with success in our climate, 

 we never saw any look more flourishingly. 



Under the stage, Mr. Cowan has cut fine mushrooms all the winter: 

 he had a bed built up, which he sowed with spawn, early in the fall: 

 the crop has been very large, and he continues to cut several every 

 week. We wonder that they are not more grown. Their cultivation is 

 very simple, and easily within the means of any one who has a dry cel- 

 lar or shed, where the frost does not penetrate. The spawn can be 



