344 HISTORY OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN. 
ground about the plants must never be left without being stirred 
over as soon as it gets a little dry; the practice is equally good, 
either in regard of old or of young evergreens. 
I consider it unnecessary to mention any other evergreens than 
those I have already named, because they all require nearly similar 
treatment. Rhododendrons and Kalmias, however, may be lifted 
with perfect safety in autumn, winter, or spring, in wet weather or 
d 
There is but one reason why these evergreens are not more 
generally cultivated, namely, the expense in the way they a 
usually managed. Many, I am-convinced, would not object to the 
expense of the plants themselves, but the difficulty and expense, 
n curin i 
from a considerable distance, it becomes very expensive. In many 
places, pit sand and vegetable mould, that is, the earth produced 
even rotted hot-bed dung, or a mixture of vegetable mould an 
rotted hot-bed dung, with sand, will answer equally well, and can 
often be got in abundance, where peat earth is scarce and 
expensive. 
In good, fresh, hazelly loam, without any mixture whatever, 
khododendrons, Kalmias, &c., wil ow and thrive perfectly. 
Indeed, if I may judge from the soil which adheres to the roots of 
imported American plants of these kinds, this is the kind of soil in 
which many of them are found naturally to grow at home. Many 
of them are also found in extremely thin strata of vegetable mould, 
over a subsoil of nearly pure sand. I never saw such peat earth, 
in which they are usually raised in this country, about the 
roots of —— American plants. As ] never have seen” 
ur im 
h, haz ? 
Unfortunately, however, it is often as difficult to gms this 
kind i itai 
peat earth. : 
I, therefore, subjoin a statement of the proportions in which I 
recommend the substances I have spoken of to be mixed as 4 
compost, in which to plant the delightful evergreens of which I am 
treating, and which every person, fond of horticulture, or “ arbort- 
