210 Gardens qf Herefordshire. 



cumbered by large seedling fruit trees, the result of Mr. Knight's 

 hybridisations, which, consequently, cannot be removed until 

 the value of their produce has been ascertained. The hot- 

 houses, also, are not connected in a range with a view to effect, 

 but are widely scattered over the ground ; and it is in a great 

 measure owing to these circumstances that strangers, who, from 

 what they have heard and read of its productions, expect to find 

 a splendid place, generally feel disappointment at the first sight 

 of Mr. Knight's garden. But, although the absence of " hea- 

 ven's first law" is strikingly apparent, a gardener who is a true 

 lover of his art will return *' a wiser," if not " a better, man," 

 from an inspection of Downton Gardens, and a conversation with 

 its benevolent and scientific owner. 



Among many other things requiring particular notice, I ob- 

 served some beds of onions, which, in size, regularity of form, 

 and cleanness of skin, greatly surpassed all I had previously seen 

 of the same variety, the Portugal. The seeds were sown in 

 February, in shallow boxes or pans, and kept under glass till 

 April, when, after having been gradually inured to exposure, 

 the young plants were planted out in rich soil ; afterwards they 

 were treated much in the usual way. In the ZJrassica tribe, Mr. 

 Knight has procured an exceedingly hardy variety of cabbage, 

 and of a purple sprouting broccoli, by selecting, for a series of 

 years, those plants for seed that suffered least from severe wea- 

 ther. He believes the sort sold by seedsmen under the name of 

 " Knight's cabbage," although originally true, to be much in- 

 ferior to his own ; that of the seedsmen having greatly degene- 

 rated, owinff to want of care or skill in selecting seed-bearino; 

 plants, whilst Mr. Knight's has yearly improved, through atten- 

 tion to that particular. The Brussels sprouts, also, are quite 

 true to their kind, and widely different from the cow-cabbage- 

 looking articles one so often sees grown for that excellent green. 

 The soil of the plot where the Brussels sprouts grow is not 

 more than 8 or 9 inches deep, upon a stratum of rock ; yet they, 

 as well as kidneybeans and Knight's marrow peas, flourish lux- 

 uriantly : this great vigour is induced by irrigation, a channel 

 communicating with a pond having been formed, through which 

 the ground can be flooded at pleasure. This method of supplying 

 plants with moisture must he incomparably better than the usual 

 way of watering, independently of the saving of labour, and, 

 where practicable, ought always to be adopted. 



I was particularly struck with the healthy appearance of the 

 peach and nectarine trees, upon which not a single curled or 

 blistered leaf was to be seen. Mr. Knight ascribes this freedom 

 from such imperfections to the following simple process, which 

 is described at length in the Horticultural Transactions : — 

 " When the blossom-buds of my peach trees had acquired about 



