Calcot House, Englefield House i 611 



opinion, will depend on his being able to dispense with the use 

 of the knife, and to substitute disbudding. The great ad- 

 vantage of this operation is, that it adjusts the strength of the 

 roots to the required top or branches ; whereas, when shoots 

 are left on till it becomes necessary to cut them off with a 

 knife, they have already done mischief, by over-strengthening 

 the root. There is no man whom we know, who understands 

 this subject so well as Mr. Main; and we would very strongly 

 recommend his little work on vegetable physiology to every 

 young gardenei*. We shall be disappointed, if, when the 

 doctrine of disbudding comes to be thoroughly understood, it 

 does not effect a very considerable change in the mode of 

 managing every description of fruit tree which requires to be 

 trained in any particular form, or kept within any particular 

 dimensions less than what are natural to it. The Kerry pippin 

 is a favourite apple here, and the standards of it are laden with 

 fruit quite down to the ground. All the kitchen crops are 

 cultivated in drills ; even to lettuces and radishes. We saw 

 remarkably fine Italian celery, a variety which Mr. Green- 

 shields considers so much superior, both in flavour and 

 crispness, to all others, that he does not cultivate any of them. 

 He has sent a quantity of the seed to Mr. M' Arthur, of the 

 Connaught Square nursery, through whom we hope it will be 

 distributed all over the country. The pine-apples here appear 

 to be of a particular variety of queen, which is very prolific 

 in suckers, every plant having four or five, and some more. 

 One of the peculiarities of Mr. Greenshields's mode of growing 

 pines is, that of planting them deeff in the pot. We never 

 saw pines looking better, or a finer show of fruit. In the 

 flower-gai'den, conservatory, and stoves there was much to re- 

 mark, but we were so " taken" with Mr. Greenshields, whom 

 we found to be born in the parish adjoining that which was our 

 own birthplace, that we did not pay sufficient attention to 

 what was before us. We recollect, however, the impression 

 made on us by the good tone of colour (that of Bath stone) 

 of the hot-houses, from which a hint might be taken at Drop- 

 more and other places ; the good effects of enclosing the fines 

 in stone cases, so as to regulate the admission of heated air ; 

 a remarkably fine Pergularia ; a variety of capsicum, the true 

 Indian, very desirable for pickling, and which Mr. Green- 

 shields thinks ought to be extensively cultivated ; numerous 

 plants of ginger, here grown in large quantities for preserv- 

 ing; Cycas revoluta in remarkably large fine deep green 

 foliage, which is chiefly produced by cutting over the old 

 leaves in February, about a fortnight before the new ones 

 begin to appear ; a remarkably line plant of Lagerstroe'mm 



