t)8 HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



dared, for the Society's Experimental Garden, about a 

 dozen of apple-trees, and as many pear-trees, of such new 

 kinds as lie regarded as the best, leaving the selection 

 to himself. He has raised many seedling peach-trees ; but 

 lu* said he could boast only of one of them as possessing 

 superior merit : the fruit of this one he considers as excel- 

 ling in flavour and in size, and the wood of the tree as cal- 

 culated to afford a sure and ample crop. Of this de- 

 sirable peach-tree he promised Mr Macdonald a plant. 

 Among his seedling azaleas, he has procured one with 

 striped flowers, of which he shewed us a painting made 

 in June last, when the bush was in blossom. The spe- 

 cies is the common Azalea pontica ; but the flower is 

 very curious, being coloured yellow, pink and white, in 

 stripes or bands of unequal size : M. De Wulf therefore 

 distinguishes it as var. tricolor. A London nurseryman, 

 he told us, had offered him 850 francs, or nearly i?40 

 Sterling, for the entire possession of this plant, and of 

 the layers which had been formed from it. At Ghent, 

 this appeared a very large sum to be offered for a plant ; 

 but M. De Wulf felt so much of the zeal of an amateur, 

 that he could not deny himself the satisfaction of continuing 

 to possess a stock of such an ornamental rarity, and he 

 therefore declined the bargain. This curiosity we hope 

 s(x>n to introduce to the gardens of Edinburgh, M. De 

 Wulf having engaged to send us a living specimen during 

 the following season *. 



After leaving this interesting old gentleman, we took a 

 pretty extensive walk to a place called La Coupure, where 



• The plant has not hitherto arrived ; hut M. De Wulf has written to us, 

 mentioning that he had been much less successful than he had anticipated 

 in propagating this new variety. The price at present is two guineas a 

 plant. Xu,. I HID. 



