164 Gardening near Montreal.. 



pium, Justice. Lobelm fulgens and splendens, Jasminum, 

 iVerium Oleander, Pittosporum, Primula prse'nitens, and many 

 others, all of which we bloom in the windows of our houses, 

 as the heat requisite to be kept up in winter is quite sufficient 

 for the cultivation of the above exotics. Very few persons 

 have green-houses here ; the neatest is one which Mrs. Bing- 

 ham, the lady of William Bingham, Esq., has this year caused 

 to be attached to her house. It contains a very well selected 

 collection of plants, and does credit to Mrs. Bingham's taste 

 and knowledge of floriculture. 



I must now return to Henry Corse, Esq., whose garden, in 

 St. Anne's suburbs, is a perfect curiosity. It is not above 

 80 ft. deep by about ] 00 ft. broad, and contains as much as 

 many well cultivated gardens of four or five acres. Mr, Corse, 

 who is a practical gardener, is fond of budding and grafting 

 a number of species on the same tree, and from grafts re- 

 ceived by him from Messrs. Landreth of Philadelphia; from 

 the late M. Parmentier of Long Island ; and from the Lon- 

 don Horticultural Society, through one of its members ; he 

 has grafted at least tv/enty new kinds of pears, and fifty of 

 apples, all on about two dozen of trees, and all his grafts are 

 doing well. He has raised three seedling plums, one of which. 

 Corse's seedling (I think it is so called), is as fine a plum 

 as any I have ever tasted, and is of a very large size ; it is of 

 the magnum bonum kind. Mr. Corse is a great fancier of 

 florists' flowers, in the raising of which he excels. 



We have no horticultural society in operation in Montreal. 

 Some years ago there was one in existence, which had 

 been carried on for a number of years, and awarded medals 

 and silver cups as prizes for florists' flowers and for fruit ; 

 but by degrees it sunk into a kind of torpid state, in which it 

 has remained for (now) more than eight or nine years. I 

 consider it defunct; but whenever a proposition is made to 

 establish a new society, up starts a member of this (cataleptic) 

 society, and says, " Oh no ! I cannot join any such society, 

 as the Montreal Horticultural Society is still in existence:" 

 in other words " It is not dead, only in a trance ! " How- 

 ever, a number of amateurs are determined to throw off* the 

 shackles of this half dead and alive association, and form a 

 horticultural society, the prospectus of which I hope ere Jong 

 to send you. Before I close my letter, I beg to make a few 

 remarks on the prospects of gardeners coming out to Canada. 

 In Canada we have no employment for forcing-gardeners, unless 

 it be forcing raised in hot-beds in the open air. We onljj^ wish 

 for and would employ men who understand their trade, are 

 something of botanists, and well-educated men. By well- 



