BUUGBS. 27 



laurustinus, and double myrtle, planted in Large ornamented 

 flower-pots and in tubs. These plants are all trained with 

 a stem three or four feet high, and with round bushy heads, 

 after the manner of pollard willows in English meadows. 

 The appearance produced by a collection of such plants is 

 inconceivably stiff, to an eye accustomed to a more natural 

 mode of training. Eight American aloes (Agave Ameri- 

 cana), also in huge Dutch flower-pots, finish the decoration 

 of the lawn, and, it must be confessed, harmonize very well 

 with the formal evergreens just described. A very good 

 collection of orange-trees in tubs was disposed along the 

 sides of the walks in the flower-garden : two of the myrtle- 

 leaved variety were excellent specimens. All of them were 

 pollarded in the style of the evergreen plants. 



The soil of the place, being a mixture of fine vegetable 

 mould, resembling surface peat-earth, with a considerable 

 proportion of white sand, seems naturally congenial to the 

 growth of American shrubs; and indeed rhododendrons, mag- 

 nolias, and azaleas thrive exceedingly. IiVthe flower-garden 

 we saw Dahlias in great vigour and beauty : they were grow- 

 ing in the open border to the height of six or seven feet, and 

 the flowers were nearly double the size to which they usual- 

 ly attain in Scotland, and some of them were of very bril- 

 liant colours. The roots are raised on the approach of 

 frost in autumn, which is quickly indicated by the shrivel- 

 ling of the leaves : they are kept over winter among sand, 

 in the store-house, and are again planted out in the spring, 

 when all risk of frost is over. The driest border and the 

 poorest soil, are accounted best for dahlias. 



Several kinds of tender plants were plunged in the open 

 border for the summer ; particularly the Peruvian heliotrope 

 (Heliotropium Peruvianum), the specimens of which were 

 uncommonly luxuriant, and, being now in full flower, spread 



