THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



OCTOBER, 1826. 



PART I. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Hints for the better Cultivation of the Cape Heaths, 

 derived from Observation of their Native Soils and Situ- 

 ations. By Mr. James Bowie, Botanical Collector at the 

 Cape. 



Sir, 

 HPHE publication of the list, in your Magazine, of Professor 

 Dunbar's extensive collection of Ericae has induced me to 

 offer the following hints for the better culture of that beautiful 

 and extensive genus, and which I hope will merit your notice, 

 as they are taken from actual observations that are inaccessible 

 to most persons. I am the more anxious to press the subject 

 for your consideration, as being myself particularly interested 

 in the collecting of the Cape species ; and can receive no 

 greater pleasure than finding that the labours of the collec- 

 tors are duly appreciated by attentive individual culture; 

 while, on the other hand, nothing can be more mortifying 

 than to observe a careless inattention evinced towards those 

 objects, in the procuring of which the collector has risked his 

 life, by encountering dangers and undergoing privations which 

 but few persons can surmount. 



I do not pretend to improve the practical gardener in the 

 propagation of the genus by cuttings, as this mode of increase 

 is well understood and practised in this country ; seeds are, 

 however, much preferable, as requiring less labour, and, in 

 some species, forming flowering plants as soon as those from 

 cuttings. The most general (and, I consider, the best) time 

 that large collections of seeds of the Cape Ericae arrive in this 

 country are the months of July and August : from the begin- 

 ning of the former till the end of the latter month, or perhaps 



Vol. I. No. 4. c c 



