196 Recollections of a Gardening Tour. 



to reduce them to the proper height. Some dry ground among 

 old shrubs was also being turfed over, a practice which we have 

 had frequent occasion to recommend as a great saving of labour 

 in keeping, and as much more consistent with the age of the 

 shrubs, to which digging is labour in vain, and consequently a 

 dead loss. 



In the flower-garden there is a greenhouse, containing an 

 excellent collection of admirably grown heaths; Mr. Turnbull, 

 the very intelligent gardener, being, in the culture of that genus, 

 second only to Mr. M'Nab of Edinburgh. Mr. Turnbull is 

 said to grow his heaths chiefly in peat, mixed with a little loam 

 and leaf mould ; so, at least, we were told some days afterwards. 



In and about the kitchen-garden there are some borders of 

 flowers of the choicest kinds, and in the very highest degree of 

 culture and keeping. Those that require tying were supported 

 by props, in a manner sufficient without being conspicuous, and 

 all the plants were in distinct tufts, round in the plan and 

 conical in the elevation ; the alpines often on cones of pebbles, 

 about 5 in. at the base and 3 in. high. Many florist's flowers, 

 such as calceolarias, lobelias, gladiolus, &c., were particularly 

 rich and beautiful ; and there were a great many choice herba- 

 ceous plants and alpines, besides a general collection of herba- 

 ceous plants in a different part of the garden. Penstemon 

 Murray anus was 10 ft. high. In the stove were some fine 

 specimens, particularly of -Nepenthes,. Mr. Turnbull is very 

 successful in propagating Statice arborea, we suppose in Mr. 

 Cunningham's manner, by cutting the stems above the joints, to 

 stimulate them to throw out shoots, to be taken off as cuttings 

 (see Sub. Hort. p. 270.). There was but a poor crop of fruit on 

 the walls and espaliers, which we attributed to the borders in 

 both cases being cropped, and to the want of protection for the 

 blossoms in spring. Gentlemen in Scotland have no idea of 

 the care and expense taken and incurred in England to pro- 

 tect the blossoms of wall fruit trees. If they have laid out a 

 kitchen-garden and built the walls, they think it quite enough, 

 just as a planter of forest trees thinks the work is finished when 

 he has filled the ground with so many thousand plants per acre. 

 By not cropping the borders, by thatching peach borders occa- 

 sionally in rainy autumns to prevent the rain from penetrating 

 them, thereby checking the growth and ripening the wood, and 

 by careful covering with canvass during the blossoming season, 

 crops of wall fruit might be rendered nearly as certain and as 

 abundant as crops of gooseberries. But very few country gen- 

 tlemen in Scotland would go to the necessary expense. 



There is an excellent gardener's cottage, in the Gothic style, 

 recently built here, with cast-iron hooded chimney-pots, to pre- 

 vent the smoke from being blown down the chimney ; the situ- 



