Washington, D. C. 83 



some of the beautiful ferns which form part of the immense 

 kerbarm?n, collected by Messrs. Pickering, Breckenridge 

 and Rich, — but no arrangement of the collection has yet 

 been made, though Mr. Rich has long been at work, and 

 the specimens were piled up in the sheets just as they were 

 dried. We trust that measures will be taken by the Insti- 

 tute, to have all the specimens properly pat up in good 

 paper, ticketed and arranged according to the Jussieuian or 

 Natural system, and a complete and correct list of the entire 

 collection published. 



Linncean Hill, Nursery of Mr. Joshua Pierce. — At the 

 time of our previous visit to Mr. Pierce's nursery, we did not 

 find him at home ; we were more fortunate this time, and 

 had the pleasure of walking through the grounds with Mr. 

 Pierce. 



The nursery department has been much improved since 

 1841, and we found a great number of trees under cultiva- 

 tion. The first object which Mr. Pierce pointed out to us, 

 was a quarter of apple trees, grafted on the roots, as has 

 been recommended in a previous volume (VI. p. 249), they 

 were the third year from the graft, and were from seven to 

 ten feet high, and proportionally stout and strong: straight 

 from the ground up, without any one being able to delect 

 but what they were seedlings, so clean were the stems. 

 Another lot near by, had been grafted only two years, and 

 were from six to eight feet high ; but sufficiently large for 

 transplanting successfully. After seeing the good results of 

 this mode of grafting, we must commend it to the attention 

 of amateurs as well as nurserymen. The trees are certainly 

 handsomer than ordinary grafted trees, leaving out the 

 saving in labor, by performing the operation in February 

 and March, when no out-door work can be done. 



Mr. Pierce neglects his greenhouses, giving his attention 

 to the nursery ; yet he is always at work raising new seed- 

 lings. We saw great quantities of camellias, of all sizes, 

 from seedlings of last year up to blooming plants. Mr. 

 Pierce has already raised two varieties, which are said to 

 be very beautiful : Camell/a var. Pierceu is described as a 

 pure white, and Gen. Wayne, red ; a third, we believe, is 

 called Dick Johnson, also a good flower, but not equal to 

 the first two. Mr. Pierce has also succeeded in raising some 

 very good varieties of the rubifolia rose. 



The Chinese double purple azalea has proved quite hardy 



