48 Transactions of the Horticultural Society. 



4. On acclimatising Plants at Biel, in East Lothian. By Mr« 



John Street, Gardener to the Honourable Mrs. Hamilton 



Nesbitt. 



During the ten years which Mr. Street has been flower- 

 gardener at Biel, he has planted out a great many green- 

 house plants, and found numbers of them stand the winter 

 much better than might be expected. After a careful perusal 

 of what he has given as his experience, in this paper and in 

 another in the Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural 

 Society, the general conclusions which we draw, are, — 1st, 

 That a poor soil kept dry, and a situation exposed on all sides 

 in summer, but sheltered on the north and east in winter, are 

 the most favourable for what is called acclimatising plants : 

 2d, That plants firmly rooted in the free soil are much less 

 liable to injury from frost than plants recently planted out, 

 or with their roots confined to pots : 3d, That what is 

 called acclimatising appears to be nothing more than increas- 

 ing the hardiness of the individual, not altering the nature of 

 the species : 4th, That it is not clear that any thing has been 

 actually gained in the way of acclimatising, by raising succes- 

 sive generations of plants from seeds. 



The following list includes the greater number of plants 

 tried by Mr. Street : — 



Ononis JVatrix, Uypericum balearicum, Teucrium fruti- 

 cosum, Convolvulus Cneorum, Mesembryanthemum unci- 

 natum, sunk in the open border in pots, their roots through 

 the bottom of the pots into the free soil, and their surface 

 covered with a little sandy gravel, stood the winter of 1825. 



iycium afrum, on a south wall covered with two mats 

 thick in winter, flowers freely, and produces seeds, 



Lavatera triloba, planted over a drain against a south wall, 

 flowers freely and produces abundance of seeds. 



Camphorosma monspeliaca thrives well and flowers freely 

 without protection. .Lychnis coronata and Gnaphalium 

 Stce'chas thrive remarkably well and flower freely. Stachys 

 coccinea and Teucrium iVfarum, in a place w T ith a dry bottom, 

 endure the winter without protection and flower freely. 

 Calla sethiopica, in the open border, has produced two ounces 

 of ripe seeds ; and a seedling from one of these seeds has en- 

 dured three winters, with only some decayed tanner's bark 

 put over its roots. [The same plant has stood several winters, 

 in a pond in the Princess Augusta's garden at Frogmore. 

 When we saw it on the 29th of July last, it was in great 

 vigour, and showing several blossoms ; and Mr. Ingram 

 (p. 13.) informed us that it flowers in that situation during 



