540 Notices of some Gardens and Country Seats 



stone, the gardener thinks, or has been told, is to exclude the 

 air from the pith. Planted in sand well drained, without a flat 

 stone, they do not root nearly so soon, and some of them not at all. 

 We should be inclined to think that the chief use of the stone was 

 to prevent the sand from being washed through the drainage, so 

 as to leave the lower end of the cutting loose; since nothing con- 

 tributes more to the striking of a cutting, or of a newly trans- 

 planted seedling plant, than pressing the soil firmly to its lower 

 extremity. Perhaps this very pressure may operate by excluding 

 the air, and causing those exudations to granulate and form 

 spongioles, which would otherwise be dissipated in or absorbed 

 by the loose soil ; and, if so, the gardener (whose name we neg- 

 lected to take down) is right. 



T/ie Moult; Jackson, Esq. The house and grounds oc- 

 cupy a narrow sloping strip of land at the base of a steep descent, 

 on a rocky shore, 20 or 30 feet above high-water mark. The 

 climate is considered to be the mildest in England, Salcombe Bay 

 being the most southerly bay in the island. The ground is varied 

 by terraces, and enriched by numerous plants grown elsewhere 

 in greenhouses. On the rocks the samphire luxuriates, and in 

 the sandy places the sea-beet. From the steep rising ground 

 behind, a protruding rocky point on one side, the sea in front, 

 and the continual noise of the breakers against the rocks, there 

 is a peculiar mixture of solitariness and wildness about this 

 place, which we have not found any where else, and with which 

 we were much delighted. It was in good order, with abundance 

 of oranges, lemons, and peaches on the wall trees. Among the 

 plants we noted Aloysz'a 8 ft., Eucalyptus 15 ft., and Acacia deal- 

 bata 20 ft. high ; Medicago arborea, 6 ft. high ; Veronica decus- 

 sata, 3 ft. high ; a flower stem of Agave americana, 27 ft. long, the 

 remains of a plant which had flowered after being thirty years 

 in the open ground without protection. The leaves of some 

 agaves which had not yet flowered were 6 and 7 ft. long. 

 Richard/a eethiopica is here quite hardy, and ripens seeds. 



Woodville; Mrs. Walker. Similarly situated to the Moult, 

 except that the strip of pleasure-ground is broader, and 

 fronts an arm of the sea, looking across to rising grounds and 

 to Salcombe Castle, a ruined fort. There are several walls 

 10 ft. high covered with orange and lemon trees, which require 

 very little protection, and this is given by reed mats or boards, 

 without the aid of artificial heat. Here, as at the Moult, and as 

 at an adjoining place belonging to Mrs. Prideaux, it is chiefly 

 the older greenhouse plants that have been planted out, with 

 the exception of the new fuchsias. The agave flowers freely 

 every thirty years, and Medicago arborea, Coronilla glauca, Ed- 

 wards/tf macrophylla and microphylla, Pittosporum Toblra, the 

 myrtle, the olive, and similar plants, have attained a large size. 



