304 Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. 



warrant that they will be preserved in health and vigour, 

 clear from mildew and every other pest. The house they 

 are growing in should be kept well washed and cleansed ; for no 

 plant that I am acquainted with enjoys cleanliness more than 

 heaths do. Fire heat they do not relish by any means, no more 

 than they do confinement. If at any time it is necessary to 

 have fire of a frosty night, I find it also necessary to give air ; if 

 it is but a small portion of a very severe night, it is better than 

 confinement, for a little frost does not punish them so much as 

 closeness and confinement. I have heard practical men observe, 

 " Why ! do you syringe your ericas ? " — " Yes, certainly. Do 

 you think they never get rain on them in their native country ? " 

 I have often seen men make quite a wonder to see ericas 

 syringed, observing that it would be the means of the young 

 wood getting the mildew, damping, and cankering. In my 

 humble opinion, it is a preventive. 



I have entu'ely given up using broken freestone, Portland stone, 

 &c., this last season ; finding that in the course of two seasons 

 the heath soil is the means of perishing it ; that it wastes and 

 crumbles away like old mortar ; and that, when exposed to the 

 atmosphere, it is very subject to get green in damp weather, and 

 the roots object to work or run about it. Although it is a great 

 improvement on the old sifting system, there is nothing to be 

 compared with common stones, pebbles, rough knobby flints, &c., 

 such as can be picked up on any common where turf, &c., have 

 been cut. 



The whole of the ericas under my care are growing amongst 

 stones, pebbles, knobby flints, charcoal, and a portion of sand, 

 with sods of fibrous tough heath, soil, merely taking the hatchet 

 and chopping off the furze, heath, bushes, &c., and giving the 

 sod a chop or two. No doubt it requires some knowledge and 

 a little taste to pot ericas. I should not exactly hke to trust 

 to any man to repot the choice kinds of heaths, although I had 

 made the preparation and given directions. It is my opinion, 

 without a man is fond of his business, and feels an interest in 

 what he is doing or about to do, it is very seldom it gets pro- 

 perly done ; for instance, I have seen and heard men, when 

 meeting a plant, fruit, &c., in any way a little superior or out 

 of the common, make enquiries respecting the soil it was 

 produced in : and it has appeared to me that some fancy the 

 only reason they cannot produce things of equal quality is the 

 difterence of soil ; that is, because they have not the very kind 

 of soil their neighbour has. It is a common complaint that the 

 fault is a bad soil, bad water, a bad situation, or a bad season. It 

 is not often that we hear that it is for the want of knowing what 

 properties the soil and water contain, or that they have been 

 made use of at an improper season without being purified; 



