* Calls at Gardens and J^hrseries. 65 



placed in boxes, or upon beds made on purpose; either way, they will 

 produce sufficient for a small family. 



The grape-house, next to the green-house, heated by A. M. Perkins's 

 system of small inch pipes, Mr. Cowan began to force the first of the 

 month: some of the eyes are just breaking: nothing can surpass this 

 method for early forcing ; the heat is completely at command. It 

 can also be left with as much safety through the night as the system of 

 large pipes. It is now much adopted in houses about London. The 

 small house in the garden, from which the fiist fruit was cut last season, 

 was also in about as forward a state as this. 



In the forcing ground, but little has yet been done; some dung beds 

 are being made, for the purpose of planting cucumbers, &c. The pita 

 have not yet any thins planted in them. 



Belmont Place, Water town, J. P. Gushing, Esq. — Jan. 21. We 

 were here also unfortunate in finding Mr. Haggerston, the gardener, 

 confined to his bed by sickness. We are happy, however, in being able 

 to state that he is much better, and will probably be able to attend to his 

 duties in the course of two or three weeks. We walked through the 

 range of houses, and noted down what we thought interesting, but j)re- 

 sume many fine things escaped our observation, which he would have 

 pointed out to us. In the green-house, E'pacris paludosa, purpuracens 

 and grandiflora were in full bloom: they are all excjuisite plants. E. 

 paludosa is, we suspect, flowering for the first time here. Corrfe'a pui- 

 chella, two or three plants of, beautifully in bloom; »/i'rbutus .^ndrachne 

 is coming into flower; nearly every shoot is terminated with an umbel 

 of its delicate white tubulous blossoms; it is a fine green-house shrub: 

 Metrosideros floribunda, Pittdsporum undulatuni, the large Acacia lo- 

 phantha, and Azalea /edifolia, were finely in flower: jErica arborea and 

 speciosa (.''), with some other species, were in beautiful bloom. A vari- 

 ety of camellia is in flower, which goes under the name of cordifolia (.''); 

 it is somewhat similar to the double stri|)ed, but much more beautiful; 

 we have never seen any thing of the kind in other collections, neither 

 do we find the name in any catalogue; the flowers of the double white, 

 &c., had been mostly cut. The schizanthuses, with the exception of a 

 plant or two, have not yet begun to show their flowers; S. dilfiisus, 

 Hookeri, and retiisus, of which there are several plants, are growing 

 finely. An abundance of several species of O'xalis are displaying their 

 pretty blossoms ; and pots of mignonette perfume the house. — The 

 grape-house, between the green-house and stove, Mr. Haggerston 

 intends to plant with the larger specitnens of rhododendrons, camellias, 

 &c., and one of the former had already been planted by his direction: 

 preparations were also making to set out another fine specimen of the 

 same, and a large white camellia. The object is to make a conservato- 

 ry. The grapes, after they have produced this year's crop, will be 

 taken out, and probably their place supplied with some kinds of orna- 

 mental climbers. We much approve of this: nothing, in our opinion, 

 takes away so much from the beauty of a fine plant, as to see it elevated 

 upon a stage, where its flowers can scarcely be seen, and where the 

 elegance of the foliage cannot be viewed. We hope this plan will be 

 more adopted. In the stoves the plants are in a very flourishing condi- 

 tion, and several rare species will be in flower in a few weeks. Euphor- 

 bia PoinsettM is now displaying its magnificent, showy, and vivid scarlet 

 bracteses, some of which are nearly twenty inches in diameter: on one 

 plant, we counted seven shoots, all of which were terminated with 

 bracteses and blossoms. A pot of orchideous plants, containing several 

 pseudo-bulbs, which we took to be a species of Bletm, had thrown up 

 five or six spikes of beautiful purplish flowers. Combretum purpureum 

 is growing very vigorously, and will, in the course of a few weeks, have 



VOL. II. NO. II. 9 



