122 Notes aiid Recollections of a Tour. 



varium, and (Genista ramosus, the three latter most de- 

 sirable greenhouse plants, not often seen in collections. 

 Mr. Biiist also has a good collection of cinerarias, a tribe of 

 plants now attracting great attention among the English 

 florists, and deservedly too, for there are but few plants 

 which add more to the gayety of the greenhouse than the 

 varied shades of their star shaped blossoms, abundantly 

 produced throughout March, April and May; we must re- 

 commend to amateur cultivators the production of seed- 

 lings in order to obtain new varieties. The general collec- 

 tion of plants had not yet been arranged for the winter, 

 and we found it a work of more time than we had to spare, 

 to note down many of the more interesting objects. 



In the greenhouse at the nursery at Moyamensing, we 

 noticed immense quantities of seedling camellias, which, 

 if one plant in one hundred produces a flower worthy of 

 preservation, will furnish our collections with a great num- 

 ber of new varieties. Mr. Buist has already raised two 

 very superior kinds, Martha and Prattii ; the former a re- 

 markable white, and the latter a beautiful rose colored, one. 

 We believe we noticed Mr. Buist' s method of growing his 

 camellias in our last account of his garden ; which was 

 to keep them in shallow pits, just deep enough to admit 

 the plants ; in this way they keep better than in the open air, 

 do not require near so much care, are easily shaded from the 

 hot sun, and their foliage acquires a deep green and healthy 

 hue. In gardens of limited extent and where there is little 

 or no shade, we would recommend the same mode of sum- 

 mer protection from our scorching sun and drying winds. 



Mr. Buist showed us in the open garden, a patch of the 

 Prairie strawberry mentioned by Mr. Longworth in our 

 volume for 1842, (VIII. p. 40.) It has a large and vigorous 

 looking leaf but it has not yet fruited, and its merits are 

 yet unknown. Our seedling strawberry Mr. Buist con- 

 siders the finest variety he has ever cultivated ; he shoM'ed 

 us a seedling raised from it which, though a very good 

 sort, was wholly unlike the parent in size and beauty ; 

 this is at least the third instance where we have known 

 seedlings raised from it, which have turned out to be small 

 and almost worthless varieties ; this fact shows conclusively 

 its hybrid origin. The demand for plants of our seedling 

 has been so great that but few, if any, really fine fruit have 

 been obtained here \ the present season we hope our Phila- 



