122 Notes and Recollections of a Tour. 



house, the grounds are judiciously planted, with some of the 

 more choice trees and shrubs, which we could not specially 

 note down. Our haste requiring us to give the Messrs. Dick- 

 sons an early call, we were politely invited to take breakfast, 

 after which, we, incompany with Mr. Francis Dickson, walked 

 through nearly every part of the premises, notwithstanding the 

 cold and heavy rain, which made the travelling any thing 

 but agreeable. 



Messrs. Dickson have devoted great attention to hardy her- 

 baceous plants, and have gathered together, after a series of 

 years, one of the best collections in the country. Some years 

 since, their Catalogue contained an unusual number of cam- 

 panulas, phloxes, &c. Mr. F. Dickson being a good botanist, 

 he has devoted much time to a selection of the most orna- 

 mental kinds. The beds had many of them just been reset. 

 The American plant department contains two or three acres, 

 especially prepared for the purpose ; the ground selected is in 

 the form of a parallelogram, hedged in on all sides, and de- 

 scending to the centre, in order to retain the moistnre ; liere, 

 planted out in beds, were thousands of fine rhododendrons, 

 kalmias, azaleas, andromedas, &c. A splendid plant of 

 /Rhododendron campanulatum, which has stood out upwards 

 of seventeen years, was seven feet Jiigh^ and nearly the same 

 broad, and we counted upon it upwards oi four hundred buds. 

 What a superb display, with its four or five thousand snowy 

 corols, when in full bloom ! Near this, was another small 

 piece, also hedged in, where large quantities of the new and 

 rare kinds of pines are grown. We here saw Deodar cedars, 

 of all sizes, fiom six inches high, to upwards of six feet, all 

 in pots, and suitable for transplanting at any time and season 

 with safety. The cedar of Lebanon is also grown here in 

 large quantities. 



In the ornamental tree department, Messrs. Dickson have 

 many fine things, and especially a good stock of the rarer 

 weeping trees, which are now so much sought after as stand- 

 ards for planting on lawns and in pleasure grounds. We 

 noted down here, fine weeping ashes, elms, oaks, laburnums, 

 hornbeams, beeches, limes, poplars, &c. Also, the 7"ilia ma- 

 crophylla, or large-leaved lime, very showy from its broad 

 and ample foliage ; tlie cut-leaved lime; the Trish cut- leaved 



