14 Notes and Recollections of a Tour. 



by the time they acquire a sufficient size for sale, are fur- 

 nished with a ball of earth, so compact and full of fibres, 

 that a plant may be transplanted when in bloom without 

 causing any injury to the flowers. It is well known, that all 

 the Ericaceae have very fine hairy roots, and are difficult of 

 cultivation, when young, if not planted in a loose heath or 

 peat soil ; but when once they have acquired a good size, 

 they may be removed to a stiff loam, where they thrive with 

 almost undiminished vigor. Rhododendrons or azaleas, taken 

 from the woods, where they spring up indigenous, on the 

 contrary, are "so difficult to make grow, that with us it is 

 scarcely ever attempted ; and it is not only considered safer, 

 but indeed cheaper, in the end, to import the plants, than to 

 procure them from their native habitats. But why should 

 not our nurserymen raise seedhngs themselves? What ob- 

 stacle is there in the way 7 We answer, none ; the attempt 

 has only to be made, and success must be the result ; seeds 

 can be procured by the bushel, and soil can be procured 

 naturally or artificially, with little or no trouble ; there is 

 then no reason why these beautiful native plants, the pride 

 of the English flower-garden should not be procured as 

 abundantly as abroad. Another plant too, but little known, 

 though a native, is cultivated in immense quantities in Eng- 

 land : this is the Mahonia aquifolium of Nuttall, seeds of 

 which were brought from the Rocky Mountains, by Lewis & 

 Clark, and plants were first .sent to England in 1824, at Jive 

 guineas each. Yet so great has been the demand, that 

 Messrs. Waterer sold, in the year 1844, upwards of 500,000 

 plants of diflferent sizes. Its rich evergreen holly-like foliage, 

 and its clusters of brilliant yellow flowers, render it one of 

 the most ornamental shrubs. 



Kalmia latifolia is cultivated by thousands; and we saw 

 hundreds of beds of it of all sizes, from the young seedlings to 

 plants four feet high. Every body admires this elegant shrub ; 

 yet we see it neglected, and we fill our gardens with shrubs 

 so far inferior that they scarcely deserve the room. Culti- 

 vated in the way that it is at the Knap Hill Nursery, the 

 plants remove with large balls of earth, and with so much 

 facility, that, transplanted in the fall or spring, they flower 

 abundantly the succeeHin? summer. Resides K. latifolia, 



