Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 301 



innovations of this kind will be adopted, which at present will be rejected as 

 absurd ; but which it is nevertheless desirable to suggest, with a view to in- 

 duce men to examine into the possibility of departing from the beaten track. 

 The thick crust of prejudice must be broken up before it can be dispersed ; 

 and the debacle must precede the clearing of the river. 

 {To he continued.} 



Art. III. Bicton Gardens, their Cidture and Management, in a Series 

 of Letters to the Conductor. By James Barnes, Gardener to the 

 Right Honourable Lady Rolle. 



{Continued from p. 238.) 

 Letter XIV. Growing, Training, and General Management of Ericas. 



Having promised you when here a few remarks on my method 

 of groicing, training, and general management of that beautiful 

 tribe of plants the Ericas, and having this morning an hour to 

 spare, I take the opportunity of fulfilling my promise, in a plain 

 humble sort of way ; not professing to say that my system and 

 general management are superior to those of any one else. One 

 thing I have long thought, viz. that the general management of 

 this beautiful tribe of plants is very imperfectly understood : 

 that many noblemen, gentlemen, and amateurs have been 

 deterred from purchasing plants, and building houses, &c., for the 

 cultivation of them, because it has been said that they are so 

 short-lived and uncertain. It has been asserted many times in 

 my hearing, and that too by some of our best growers, that 

 there is no certainty of the life of the most healthy heath. 

 Why should that be ? I have myself thought it is through 

 mismanagement, and perhaps in time I shall not be the 

 only one that fancies the same thing. As I have before stated, 

 go to any common where our own natural heath grows, and 

 examine the surface soil where the heath is most luxuriant : 

 it will be found a loose decayed vegetable earth, gritty, sandy, 

 or stony ; firmer a distance down ; and most generally on a sub- 

 soil of stones, flints, or sand, naturally well drained : where the 

 rush thrives, the heath does not. Why should we sift soil for 

 the cultivating of those plants, and pick out all the stones? 

 Surely that must be acting in complete opposition to nature ; 

 and until such times as we think proper to try and assist nature, 

 we need not expect to perceive much progress. If the soil were 

 more generally used in a rough state, and plenty of stones thrust 

 amongst it, I am perfectly satisfied we should hear of but few 

 complaints about the unhealthiness and dying of heaths. I say, 

 if they only get proper treatment, it will be no more likely to 

 see a dead heath than it would be to see a dead donkey. There 

 would be but few complaints about mildew or blights of any 

 3d Ser.— 1843, VI. x 



