418 Calls at Gardens and JS\rseries. 



the North American plants, and attended particularly to their cul- 

 tivation, in England, could furnish your pages with some very 

 valuable hints on the successful treatment of these unwilling 

 guests of our gardens, though hardy inhabitants of our meadows 

 and woods. Such information is much needed, and would be 

 greatly promotive of an increased and national taste for our finer 

 native plants, and the appreciation of their charms as well in the 

 flower border as in their native localities. — /. L. R. 



Art. VII. Calls at Gardens and Nurseries. 



Amateur Garden of Mr. S. Walker, Hoxhury. — October. We have 

 been much pleased with a visit to Mr. Walker's garden ; although so 

 late in the season that the uncommonly early and severe frosts had de- 

 stroyed the beauty of a larger part of the plants, still we found several 

 pretty things to admire, Mr. Walker is noted as having produced 

 some of the finest pansies that have ever been seen in the country; he 

 is — as indeed who should not be — a great lover of these plants, and al- 

 lows them a good share of his attention and care. He has imported 

 many plants, and his seedlings^ from seed of his own raising, have, many 

 of them, surpassed in beauty some of the parents ; much praise is due 

 to Mr. Walker for his continued zeal and perseverance, in endeavoring 

 to raise this beautiful plant to the place where it certainly belongs — 

 among the florist's flowers — and we presume that he will dispose of du- 

 plicates to amateurs who are in want of some of his most brilliant kinds, 

 or will exchange with other growers of this flower, who have succeed- 

 ed in producing such as are worthy of a name. Some of Mr. Walker's 

 best are Othello, — a very large flower ,fine form, possessing all the pro- 

 perties of a good pansy, and of a deep rich purple color — and Village 

 Maid. We found, at this late season, a bed of seedlings, with many 

 flowers expanded, of considerable elegance, although they were not 

 thought sufficiently so to deserve names. 



Of pinks our readers are already aware that Mr. Walker has a fine 

 collection, which he has only got together at much labor and expense. 

 The plants are doing very well, and look vigorous and healthy ; they 

 are much easier grown than carnations, and we hope soon to see fine 

 collections abounding in our gardens. Mr. Walker's article on the pink, 

 at page 329 of the present volume, will give all necessary information re- 

 garding their cultivation. The double white rocket flourishes with the 

 greatest luxuriance here, while the purple can scarcely be kept alive; 

 we can only attribute this to the soil of the garden, which is a strong 

 moist loam; from this same cause, that lovely plant, Gentitma acaiilis, 

 of which there is a small one in this collection, is growing well, and has 

 spread over nearly a square foot of soil. We may therefore anticipate 

 a sight of the flowers in the coming spring. Colchicum autumnale we 

 found in full bloom: this is, to the garden, in the autumn months of Oc- 

 tober and November, what the Sanguinaria canadensis is in the spring 

 months of April and May — extremely showy, — and both of them should 

 be found in every flower border. 



