Edinburgh Botanic Garden. 205 



ceeded any thing we had supposed could be made from the 

 diminutive specimens usually cultivated. The plant we have 

 named was branched from the pot to the top, and measured 

 eight feet broad and eight feet high ! with hundreds of lateral 

 branches; and at the least enumeration, which we made 

 from counting one branch, more than a hundred thousand 

 blossoms, gathered into compact spikes, so dense as to form 

 clusters a foot in diameter ! and this plant was only four 

 years old. Truly, Mr. McNab has well earned the reputation 

 of being the best heath cultivator in Scotland. But this was 

 only one of the many plants which filled the house ; a greater 

 portion, however, were spring flowering sorts, and of course 

 not in bloom ; smaller plants of E. Macnabidwa, retorta and 

 retorta major, were splendid. These fine specimens are only 

 obtained by constant shifting from one pot to another, until 

 they are at last placed in tubs made especially for the 

 purpose. Most cultivators have a dread of giving a heath 

 a large pot ; but, like other plants, it will only thrive well 

 where its roots can extend themselves in search of food: 

 these large shifts must be cautiously and judiciously made, 

 and with good drainage, the results will be as great as with 

 other plants. Luculia gratissima, a plant which is scarcely 

 known in our collections, but which is remarkable for the 

 odor of its blossoms, was upwards of six feet high. Tacson/a 

 pinnatistipula, was here rambling in profusion over a trellis 

 on the roof; and from a pod of seed, which Mr. McNab gave 

 us, we have now plants two feet high ; it is a most beautiful 

 species. 



In the hothouse, iVepenthes distillatoria was displaying a 

 quantity of its pitcher-like appendages, and Musa Caven- 

 disliij was ripening its fruit. A small house for cactuses and 

 another for young heaths, were full of healthy plants. 



The grounds are most admirably arranged and planted, 

 and kept with a neatness nowhere surpassed. On the lawn, 

 in front of the range of houses, are two fine specimens of 

 Araucaria, a Cedrus Deodara^ and Pinus Lambertid;ia, ten 

 feet high. Groups of i?rica Banksea purpurea, and rupes- 

 tris were planted out in the open ground, and finely in bloom. 

 Rhododendrons and kalmias were planted in masses on turf, 

 and the effect of the whole was highly beautiful. Other 



