DOVER. 17 



can never be chilled, and they must always be comforta- 

 bly dry : the proximity of the sea must temper the severity 

 of the frost during winter ; they are, besides, well shelter- 

 ed by the rock ; and the reflected heat must be powerful 

 during summer. We may here remark, that in a much 

 better managed garden, in a low situation in the town of 

 Dover, figs never ripen. The fig-trees in this last garden 

 grow to a large size as standards, and abundance of young 

 fruit appears in the early part of summer ; but it uniformly 

 drops off in the immature state. The roots of the trees have 

 probably penetrated to a cold and retentive stratum, kept 

 wet b\» the water passing from the higher grounds *. We 

 measured the largest of these trees, and found it to be 

 no less than 3 feet 3 inches in circumference, about half a 

 foot from the surface of the earth. Here it branches off 

 into six stems, several of which are about 16 feet high. 

 The tree covers a space more than twenty feet in diameter. 

 The ground beneath was strewed with the young fruit 

 which had dropped off, and which appeared to us to be 

 the blue fig. 



Botanical Walk. 

 Along the base of the cliffs below the Castle, the na* 

 tive Cabbage, Brassica oleracea, grows in vast profusion. 

 This is a plant interesting not only to the botanist, but to 

 the horticulturist, as the parent of the long list of culti- 

 vated cabbages, kale, broccoli and cauliflower. Through- 



* The pernicious effects of water on the roots of fig-trees, have been 

 particularly mentioned by Mr James Smith, gardener at Hopetoun" House, 

 in his excellent paper on the Cultivation of Figs, printed in the " Memoirs 

 of the Caledonian Horticultural Society," vol. ii. p. 69. et seq. His conclu- 

 sion, however, that fig-trees prefer a rich friable deep loam to a light cal- 

 careous soil, does not accord with our observations at Dover. 



