422 J\*otes made during a Visit to JVeio York^ «^c. 



Pepper, who is so well able, would follow INIr. Perry's ex- 

 ample, and build a palm-house. How grand would be the 

 appearance of the Latdnia and the Panddnus in a lofty and 

 well built structure. 



In the green-house, Mr. Chalmers showed us a seedling 

 cactus, very similar to speciosissima, and an echinocactus 

 with white spines of the most delicate texture, and so thick as 

 to give it the appearance of being coated with white. All 

 the cactuses are grown exceedingly strong: the Cereus trian- 

 gularis is used for a stock upon which to graft all the weaker 

 growing sorts. Witsenia corymbosa we saw here in flower; 

 and a large plant of the beautiful £!uph6rb/rt Jacquinff/?ora 

 was over four feet high, and clothed with healthy foliage from 

 top to bottom. 



J\^ursery of JMessrs. Ritchie ^ Dick, Kensington. — This 

 establishment is about a mile from Chestnut street, on North 

 Third street. It occupies four or five acres of ground, which 

 are well filled with a collection of fruit and ornamental trees. 

 The range of glass consists of a span-roofed house for ca- 

 mellias, about fifty feet long by twenty wide, and a hot-house 

 and propagating house, each about forty feet in length. There 

 is also a long, low, detached house for camellias, rhododen- 

 drons, azaleas, and other hardy green-house plants, about one 

 hundred feet long. In addition to these, Messrs. Ritchie & 

 Dick were about putting up a rose-house, upwards of eighty 

 feet in length. 



It was so late in the afternoon when we visited the place, 

 that it would be doing injustice to Messrs. Ritchie & Dick's 

 collection to attempt to give a detailed account of it: our 

 notes must only be considered as merely an introduction of 

 what we hope we may have the opportunity to olFer at another 

 time. 



The camellia-house was very well filled with a good stock 

 of young and vigorous plants: indeed, we have rarely seen a 

 collection, taken together, better grown. The method of 

 propagation adopted here is the French, that is, indejiendent 

 grafting, by which new kinds are very rapidly increased, and 

 consequently sold at such fair prices that they may soon come 

 into the hands of the amateur. In an article which we shall 

 prepare in the course of our next volume, on the cultivation 

 of the camellia, we shall explain the different methods of pro- 

 pagation, and accompany these explanations with engravings. 



