Liverpool Botanic Garden. AS 



a neighborhood too smoky, it was removed to a greater dis- 

 tance. The Curator is Mr. Shepherd. 



The Garden is entered by a handsome gateway and lodge. 

 The surface is quite flat, and the whole is surrounded by a 

 high wall. It is laid out so as to conceal the breadth and 

 extent of the ground as much as possible, and the plantations 

 of trees are so disposed as to aid in producing this effect. An 

 outer walk skirts the garden, near the wall ; and on each 

 side of this walk are beds of shrubs and plants on the turf. 

 The wall is used for the more tender plants, which require 

 such a situation to bring them to perfection. None of the 

 largest plants have been set out over eight years ; they do 

 not make the show of older places, but they were in perfect 

 health, and for so short a period, they have attained a good 

 size. The principal clumps were filled with rhododendrons 

 of various kinds, which do remarkably well ; the climate, 

 from its humidity, seems to suit them, and most of the 

 plants were clothed with branches from the base to the top. 

 R. altaclerense we saw six feet high ; how fine must be its 

 numerous clusters of splendid rosy blossoms ! From the time 

 we entered this garden, where we first saw the rhododen- 

 drons in abundance, until we returned home, we were con- 

 stantly impressed with the importance which this shrub is 

 destined to hold in our gardens. Although a native of our 

 woods and forests, it is scarcely known out of its native hab- 

 itats ; yet abroad we see it the first ornament of the garden. 

 By hybridization, and the production of an immense number 

 of seedlings, during the last fifteen years, it has been increas- 

 ed in splendor, until it now almost equals its tender, but gor- 

 geous Eastern sisters. How long shall our gardens be defi- 

 cient in this great ornament 7 If our efforts can avail any- 

 thing, it shall not be at a very remote period ; henceforth we 

 shall not omit every favorable opportunity to urge attention to 

 this family, and through the medium of seedlings, we trust 

 the efforts of both amateurs and nurserymen will not be un- 

 availing in the production and dissemination of superior har- 

 dy varieties. 



Andromeda floribunda ; Pernettia mucronata, Calluna vul- 

 garis alba, and some other plants, composed many of the 

 groups ; but it is hardly to be expected that either of these 



