162 Gardening near Montrealf 



cularly those residing in town, and in winter they succeed re- 

 markably well in blooming their plants, owing to the extreme 

 heat kept up in their houses by means of the stoves in use in 

 this country. It is by no means an uncommon sight, in 

 passing through the suburbs of this town in winter, to see a 

 dozen or twenty Canadian houses, in fact almost every house 

 that is inhabited by a French Canadian, with the front windows 

 decorated with roses, carnations, and pelargoniums (parti- 

 cularly the countess seedling and pine-apple pelargoniums), 

 in full bloom, and flowering in a style that would not disgrace 

 the most scientific gardener. Their gardens (each generally 

 of a small plot of ground adjoining the house, in which they 

 raise their culinary vegetables) are in summer generally 

 graced with a few showy hollyhocks and roses, particularly 

 the cabbage rose, together with the large crimson pseony, and 

 perhaps a few plants of bachelor's buttons, and a few annual 

 flowers. Two things are always found in Jean Baptiste's 

 garden, — a lilac tree in one corner of it, and the flower 

 borders full of mignonette. Latterly the Canadians are be- 

 coming more fond of fruit trees, though those who could 

 afford them always had one or two in their gardens. As to 

 the gardens of the better-conditioned order of French Cana- 

 dians, and of the English residents, they are generally very 

 well cultivated, and contain several varieties of the apple, 

 pear, cherry, plum, grape, and gooseberry, together with 

 white, black, and red raspberries, and white, red, and black 

 currants, alpine strawberries, and sometimes the pine-apple 

 strawberry ; the grapes most commonly grown seem to be the 

 Sweetwater and blue cluster. Among the larger and most 

 highly cultivated gardens are those of John Molson, sen. Esq., 

 the Hon. John Forsyth, John Molson, jun. Esq., H. Corse, 



Esq. (of whom more anon), James Leslie, Esq., Lepro- 



hon, Esq., B. Holmes, Esq., Jacob Devvitt, Esq., and many 

 others. In the garden of Mr. Molson, sen., there is a great 

 variety of fruits of such kinds as the peach, apricot, nectarine, 

 apple, pear, plum, cherry, and grape. Mr. Molson has also 

 a Canadian arboretum, and his garden is extremely well 

 attended to by a very deserving man, James M'Millan, for some 

 years gardener to J. S. M'Coul, Esq. In the various gardens 

 above mentioned are cultivated the following kinds of apples : 

 — Fameuse, Pomme grise, Bourassa, Reinette du Canada, 

 all Canadian apples (the Bourassa dying off" very fast. 

 Why ? It is said to be because the original tree lasts only 

 a certain length of time, at the termination of which period 

 even the young trees inoculated from it die off"!); Cal- 

 villes of kinds, Early harvest, Garden pippin, Nonpareil, 



