London Nurseries. 379 



defect in our eyes, but not so, it would appear, in the eyes of florists. The 

 beds of double tulips are very showy. Here, as elsewhere, the double 

 Narcissus poeticus is apt to degenerate into semidouble and single. Our 

 readers will perhaps recollect the new or German feature in the culture of 

 ranunculuses which Mr. Groom has practised, that of planting at different 

 times so as to have a succession of bloom from May or June till October 

 or November (see Vol. V. p. 293). 



The Neiv Cross Nursery. — Messrs. Cormack and Sinclair have, we under- 

 stand, taken a part of one of the immense green-houses in the magnificent 

 new building covering Covent Garden Market, and intend keeping there a 

 succession of green-house and other plants in pots in flower for sale. They 

 also mean to combine a seed-shop, and a reading-room containing some of 

 the most useful gardening and agricultural books and models of whatever 

 is new or remarkable. This will be a feature in Covent Garden Market of 

 real utility to the public, and of great interest to the amateur. When this 

 market is completed it will be one of the finest things of the kind in the 

 world, and alike honourable to the Duke of Bedford, the architect Mr. 

 Fowler, who is also the architect of the botanic range at Syon, and of the 

 builder, to whom architecture is as much indebted as to any man, Mr. 

 William Cubitt. We are promised a plan, isometrical view, and descrip- 

 tion, which, as soon as the market is finished, we shall lay before our readers. 



Knap Hill Nursery, May 10. — We have just had an opportunity, for the 

 first time, of seeing the azaleas here in full bloom ; and certainly we never wit- 

 nessed any thing of the kind so splendid. There are masses of A. coccinea, 

 and of several of the red and orange varieties of nudiflora, pontica, and 

 calendulacea, 12 ft. high and 20 or 30 ft. in diameter, completely covered 

 with blossoms, and perfectly dazzling to the sight. What will astonish 

 many is, that these plants may be taken up in full bloom without the slightest 

 injury. The reason of this is, that the plants of the whole order of .Ericese 

 comprehending twenty-five genera of the most beautiful of our hardy shrubs, 

 have no roots but such as are small and hair-like, and require to be grown 

 in peat, which closely adheres to these roots, and rises in a mass larger or 

 smaller, as the roots have extended more or less far from the plant. So 

 small are these roots, and at the same time so numerous, that it is next to 

 impossible to separate the earth from them ; so that an azalea, a rhododen- 

 dron, a vaccinium, or an andromeda, cannot be taken up for removal at all 

 without being taken up with a ball. It is important to have this fact and 

 the reasons for it generally known and understood ; because it will show 

 three things highly favourable to the spread of this order of plants all over 

 the country. The first is, that as the roots, from being so very small, can- 

 not extend far from the plant, only a small quantity of peat earth is required ; 

 the second is, that from the great number of these small roots, no plants 

 are so easily lifted with balls ; the third is, that in consequence of these 

 balls about the roots, no plants suffer so little by packing, distant carriage, 

 and remaining for weeks or even months out of the soil. If the azaleas and 

 other .ffhodoraceae, therefore, are not common every where, it must be 

 because there is little taste for them, or because it is not generally known 

 that they are so preeminently beautiful ; it cannot be owing to price, for 

 many sorts are now as cheap as other shrubs. Whoever is building a 

 house, and wishes to produce an immediate effect in the grounds, should 

 purchase a few dozens of azaleas and rododendrons of 5 or 6 ft. in height, and 

 6 or 8 in. diameter. Had the king's flower-garden at Windsor, the scenery 

 at Virginia Water, the grounds at Buckingham Palace, and the Duke of 

 Wellington's lawn at Apsley House, had a few of these shrubs scattered 

 over them, how different would have been their effect ! But of all the 

 situations that we know of, for showing off such plants to advantage, the 

 fittest is the lawn in front of the Marquess of Hertford's villa in the Re- 

 gent's Park. There they would not only be enjoyed by the marquess and 



