24 Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 



bloom, bud, &c., and my method of training them into any 

 shape I chose, &c., I need not make many remarks on the 

 plants. [Tied into regular conical shapes with green packthread. 

 Mr. Barnes will, we trust, give us the details in a future 

 letter.] I will describe to you my own method of potting or 

 tubbing them, as the greater part of them are in tubs. Orange 

 trees and camellias are both of them rather a difficult tribe 

 of plants to get into a vigorous state after once losing their 

 roots, and after the soil has been allowed to get into a sodden 

 sour condition. I consider the orange trees to look worse than 

 any tribe of plants I have under my charge at this present time. 

 As you requested, 1 will give you the dimensions of this noble 

 house ; and then describe the state in which I found the plants. 

 It is span-roofed, 120 ft. long, 16 ft. high, and about the same 

 width. 



I found a beautiful lot of young Orange Trees when I first 

 came two years ago ; but by some means, at some time 

 or other, they had been so dreadfully treated for the want 

 of water, that they had actually lost every root, and were as 

 black as the ink with which I am now writing. I was actually 

 obliged to get a large hammer and an iron rod, and drive 

 it through the earth in the tubs to let the water pass. They 

 had been planted in a very heavy red marl, not loam, and had 

 been soured with water; then, by getting dry, the earth closed 

 together as hard as a lime-ash floor (as it is called in Devon- 

 shire), and shrunk away from the sides of the tub, so that a mouse 

 could run round between the roots and the tub. You may 

 imagine this was a curious way to see the roots of orange trees 

 in, but so it was. 1 set to work and filled up tills space as soon 

 as I could ; for what water had been given to them had run down 

 this cavity, and out at the bottom of the tub as fast as it was 

 poured in. I could do nothing more to them until the spring; 

 when I took them out of the tubs they were in and put them 

 into smaller ones, and the tubs at this time contain one mass 

 of beautiful fibres. I have been all this summer preparing 

 some beautiful loam for the purpose of shifting them early next 

 spring (if I should live) into large tubs, and I intend to char a 

 good heap or two of rubbish to mix with it, and plenty of 

 stones. 



I must here observe before going further, that I purposely 

 keep their heads from growing this season to any extent, be- 

 cause they should make themselves properly strong at the 

 bottom first of all ; for it is of no use building a house with- 

 out first laying the foundation : therefore, it would not be 

 wise of me to force a fine head upon those poor trees for 

 show, if they were so weak on their feet and toes as not 



