Knap Hill Nursery. 15 



there is a fine stock of K. glauca and glauca stricta and 

 glauca superba — the two latter new and beautiful. 



What surprised us here were the rhododendrons, maxi- 

 mum, and catawbiense, with their hybrids, cultivated as 

 standards, with clean str?ight stems, three feet high, and 

 compact heads, three or four feet in diameter, with almost 

 every shoot covered with flower buds. Long beds of these 

 standards covered nearly an acre, and we only regretted that 

 we could not have the good fortune to see them, as well, in 

 deed, as the whole collection, in full flower. R. campanulatum, 

 Noblea7i?f;/i, nivaticum, G\evmy a inim seedling catawbienses, 

 c. bicolor, c. splendens, c. aucubasfolia, and many others, 

 were full of buds. R. ponticum, Mr. Waterer's foreman 

 informed us, was hardier than maximum ; this surprised us, 

 but we hope experiments may prove it to be true, as the ponti- 

 cum is one of the freest flowerers of the whole family. 



The azaleas were very numerous, and the beds presented 

 one compact mass of foliage, so well grown and compact 

 were the plants. A great many varieties of quite dwarf 

 habit are cultivated, among which the following are some of 

 the best : nudiflora rubra, sulphurea, double blush, prsecox, 

 colorata, and aurantia major. Some of the most choice 

 seedhngs were myrtifolium, triumphans, plumosa, pontica 

 princeps, pontica transparens, pontica grandiflora ; these, 

 however, are only a few of the great number enumerated in 

 Mr. Waterer's catalogue, more than half of which are seed- 

 hngs produced at Knap Hill. The established vareties of 

 azaleas are cultivated by layering from old well rooted stocks ; 

 but many of the rhododendrons are grafted or inarched. 

 The beds for the plants are about six feet wide, and contain 

 about four rows, fifteen inches apart. 



Besides the American plants, Mr. Waterer cultivates a 

 miscellaneous collection of forest trees, shrubs, fruit trees, 

 roses, &c. and also many of the rare pinuses. We saw here 

 some most i)eautiful specimens of the weeping beech, the 

 branches drooping quite to the ground. The Cedrus Deo- 

 dara and cedar of Lebanon, particularly the latter, are grown 

 in large quantities. The whole stock of a new Thuja, called 

 aurea, was yet in the hands of Mr. Waterer. The arbor 

 vitae, both here and at Bagshot, is extensively used for hedges 



