Horticultural Society's Garden. c 2\5 



of the society to publish it themselves. The pine plants in this house, 

 chiefly Queen's and Envilles, were equal, if not superior, to any in the 

 neighbourhood of London, and do the highest credit to Mr. Monro, the 

 head gardener. The only pines we have seen which we consider on a par 

 with them, are those of Mr. Plimley at Kensington, and Mr. Shannon at 

 Gunnersbury ; but which o? the three are the most meritorious, having 

 seen them at different periods, it is out of our power to determine. On a 

 hot-bed we observed a number of pots of peas for transplanting, which had 

 six or eight leaves each; on this subject we request our readers' attention 

 to the mode described by Mr. Bishop, at the end of his paper on his own 

 pea. 



In a back shed heated by a flue and denominated the mushroom-house, 

 are several beds of mushrooms raised in Oldacre's manner, also pots of 

 rhubarb and succory, being forced and blanched at the same time. 



In the kitchen garden and orchard, most of the fruit trees and shrubs have 

 received their winter pruning, and the operation on the whole seemed to 

 have been performed on just principles. The characteristic, in every 

 description of tree, seemed to be that of cutting in or shortening, with a view 

 to produce fruit bearing spurs, and young wood to be given away as grafts. 

 Some might be disposed to question whether this mode of cutting has not 

 been too indiscriminately applied. It is certain, for instance, that some 

 sorts of pears, as the vergoulese and some varieties of colmar, bear fully as 

 well on the preceding year's wood as on spurs ; and that every sort of 

 apple will not bear cutting in so well as the codlings. But we merely 

 throw out this hint as a caution in the application of what we consider an 

 excellent practice. The pear trees trained en-quenouille are certainly 

 superior to any thing of the kind to be seen in this country ; and it must be 

 of importance to a cultivator to have ocular demonstration that he can 

 form a fruit tree into a cone of a foot and half in diameter at the base, and 

 of any height, and have it covered with fruit from top to bottom. The pear 

 and apple are particularly calculated for this mode of training; the 

 advantages of which are a saving of room, greater fruitfulness, the regular 

 exposure of all the fruit to the light and air, and consequently high flavor. 

 From the small space occupied by each tree, a great variety of sorts may be 

 introduced in a small garden, and that without impeding the herbaceous 

 crops beneath. In flower borders and shrubberies they are very ornamental, 

 and also as single objects on lawns. This department of the garden has for 

 two or three years past been under the management of Mr. Barnet, the 

 young man who has so ably described the different sorts of strawberries in a 

 recent part of the transactions, and does him the highest credit. We 

 understand he has just been appointed to the situation of head gardener to 

 Caledonian Horticultural Society, and though we are glad of this for his 

 sake, and think the Caledonian Society have made a judicious choice, yet 

 we cannot help regretting it on the part of the society here; for we consider 

 it will be very difficult to obtain a person so well qualified for describing 

 the hardy fruits as he would have been, after operating two or three years 

 longer among them. To do this properly, comparing one fruit with 

 another is but one part of the business, and that on which we fear much 

 less reliance is to be placed than is generally imagined. The blossoms of 

 fruit-trees vary as much as the fruits, more especially those of the apple and 

 the peach ; the leaves also differ, especially in the apple ; and the buds, the 

 young shoots, the mode of growth, and size, habit, and form of the tree, 

 have all something peculiar in each particular variety. For this reason we 

 think that whoever is to make out a catalogue and settle the nomenclature 

 of the hardy fruits of the country, ought to have been among them and 

 devoted to them, for a series of years together. 



In the flower garden we observed a spring-flowering variety of colchicum 

 expanded, crocus susianus, vernus, and striatus, with those beautiful plants 



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