124 Notes and Recollections of a Tour 



department in as good condition as could be expected at 

 the season of the year when the plants are just being re- 

 moved to the houses for the winter. 



Nursery of Ritchie and Dick, Kensington. — We unfor- 

 tunately did not find either of the proprietors at home. 

 Mr. Ritchie was absent on a tour to the south, and Mr. 

 Dick had just left for the city. We walked through 

 the grounds and greenhouses, but from the confusion at- 

 tending the removal at this season of the year we did not 

 find much to note down. Great quantities of roses yet re- 

 mained in the open ground, but the cool nights had 

 checked the growth of the plants so that we saw no very 

 good specimens. Messrs. Ritchie and Dick have consid- 

 erably extended their collection since 1S41, Two or three 

 houses, some with and some without heat, have been 

 erected, principally for the wintering of roses and camellias 

 the two classes of plants to which they give the most at- 

 tention. Thousands of young stocks of camellias were 

 coming on, and large quantities had just been worked by 

 the new mode of grafting now so generally adopted. 



Not having the means of ascertaining the new roses 

 lately added to their collection, we were in hopes to have 

 had leisure to call again, but our limited time would not 

 allow us to do so on our present visit. 



Mr. Pepper'' s City Garden we found as usual, under the 

 care of Mr. Chalmers, Jr. in the highest state of keeping. 

 The camellia house, where the plants are kept all summer, 

 was as fresh as if the plants had had all the shade and air 

 of a country garden. Mr. Chalmers is a most excellent 

 cultivator of the camellia, and we must give him the credit 

 of having the healthiest and most vigorous looking camel- 

 lias of any we saw during our visit ; taking the quantity 

 of buds into consideration even excelling Mr. Becar's of 

 Brooklyn, N. Y. His compost is a rich loam with little 

 peat and sand, and he pots a plant whenever it needs it, 

 no matter at what season ; all the main shoots are tied up 

 to neat stakes, and the knife is used freely to bring into 

 shape every plant. 



The Palms in the hothouses were in admirable condition 

 considering the limited room their rapidly increasing size 

 allows them; in a year or two more it will be impossible to 

 crowd them into their present location. The Cacti, of 

 which Mr. Pepper has some of the largest specimens in the 



