220 



■Calls at the Nurseries. 



have become very limited, and as we have heard, it is intended to give 

 them up altogether. The Caledonian Horticultural Society, on the other 

 hand, appeared to some to deal too much in the theoretical speculations of 

 amateurs ; and as it is chiefly composed of the latter, and its business con- 

 ducted by men of science, it has failed to act as a centre of attraction and 

 intercourse to the operatives of the profession. For these reasons, real or 

 imaginary, the new society has been formed, and consists entirely of pro- 

 fessional men. They meet once a month, and endeavour to profit by 

 conversation. As the members are still few, the revenue of the society 

 is small, but sufficient for the number of prizes which it is found necessary 

 to give. The society collects its experience in the form of notes, and 

 this, along with other discoveries or inventions of the members, it contem- 

 plates publishing as memoirs. 



Popular Botanical Lectures, for all classes, including ladies and family 

 parties, are advertized to be delivered by Professor Graham ; and similar 

 lectures on chemistry, by Professor Hope ; a gratifying proof of the 

 increasing popularity of these sciences in Edinburgh. 



Art. VII. Calls at the Nurseries, and other Suburban Gardens. 



Lee's Nursery, Feb. 16. —The demand for trees and plants seems to be 



as brisk as it has been for several years 

 past. The late frosts seem to have 

 done little injury; a number of plants 

 against Mr. Lee's house are stillmatted 

 up, but, as we before mentioned, a 

 double white Camellia as a bush, and 

 a single red one so imperfectly, as 

 to be almost a bush, have escaped 

 ^without any protection whatever. 

 >Araucaria lanceolata, without pro- 

 tection, has been nearly killed; but 

 nothing has suffered in the green- 

 houses, or conservatories. In one of 

 the stoves are some of the finest 

 bread-fruit plants which we have ever 

 seen; one is nearly six feet high. In 

 the same stove are several newly-im- 

 ported palms and bulbs. In the heath- 

 house a great number of species are 

 in flower; but in this nursery, as 

 every where else, the most conspicu- 

 ous "plant in flower is the Primula 

 sinensis {fig. 41.) 



Machay 's Nursery, Clapton, Feb. -2, 1826. — There are some fine plants 

 now in flower, or approaching that state in this rising nursery, Among a 

 collection of forty different sorts of Camellia may be mentioned the gloriosa, 

 ■a double red variety of the Waratah kind, raised from seed by the late 

 Mr. Ross. There are considerably above 500 species of Ericas, of which 

 about 60 are now in bloom, including E. vernix coccinea, E. scabriuscula 

 and E. biflora of Andrews. Berberis fascicularis, a very rare plant, else 

 where noticed, is planted out in a propagating pit, among Camellias, and 

 coming finely into bloom. Mr. Mackay has succeeded in rooting several 

 layers. Against the back wall of this pit, is a magnificent plant of Brachy- 

 sema latifolium, covered with flower buds. Lechinaultia formosa is in full 

 bloom, and Prostranthera violacea, an elegant plant from New Holland, 



