272 Nursery Gardens and Horticulture 



and the poor get twice as many of those beginning to decay. 

 A brilliant display of flowers at the flower-stalls in the Toledo, 

 consisting of roses, ranunculuses, anemones, carnations, 

 stocks, hyacinths, asphodels, &c. &c. Vegetation not farther 

 advanced than we left it at Rome. Horsechestnut trees in 

 the botanic garden with leaves one third expanded (March 6.), 

 and on the same day a few buds of the common acacias in 



the Villa Reale unfolding. 







Art. III. Some Account of the Nursery Gardens and the State of 

 Horticulture in the Neighbourhood of Philadelphia, with Remarks 

 on the Subject of the Emigration of British Gardeners to the 

 United States. By Mr. William Wynne, Foreman in Bar- 

 tram's Botanic Garden, Philadelphia. 



Sir, 



According to my promise before I left England, I proceed 

 to give you some account of the nurseries and gardens in the 

 neighbourhood of Philadelphia, after having seen all of them 

 worth looking at. 



I' shall begin with Bartram's Botanic Garden; the prece- 

 dence being due to it, both for antiquity (it having been 

 established 1 00 years), and from its containing the best col- 

 lection of American plants in the United States. There are 

 above 2000 species (natives) contained in a space of six acres, 

 not including the fruit nursery and vineyard, which comprise 

 eight acres. The handsomest and largest tree I have ever 

 seen is here ; it is a Cupressus disticha L. [Schub6rtm dis- 

 ticha of Mirbel, Taxodium distichum of Richard~\, and is 

 120 ft. high : at 18 ft. from the ground it is more than 28 ft. 

 in circumference, and it averages 28 ft.: it is 91 years old.* 

 A Gymnocladus canadensis, or Kentucky coffee tree, is here 

 80 ft. high; an Acacia Julibrissin, 35 ft.; an Andromeda 

 arborea, 75 ft. ; an Aralia spinosa, 25 ft. ; a Gordom'a pubes- 

 cens, 50 ft., this tree is now in flower ; and a Z)iospyros 

 virginiana is 80 ft., and has a fine crop of ripe fruit on it, 

 which tastes pretty well. The Americans distil an excellent 

 brandy from this fruit. There are also two trees of Magnolz'a 

 acuminata 80 ft. high, and six other American magnolias, 

 from 40 to 60 ft. in height ; with species of Qu^rcus and 

 Plnus, &c. &c, in great variety. Indeed, the most remark- 



* T have seen an oak tree in Wynnstay Park, North Wales, that had 

 a thicker trunk than the deciduous cypress described above, but was much 

 inferior in height and symmetry. 



