186 HORTICULTURAL TOUR. 



Edinburgh. We found him at his snug suburban villa, 

 on the South bank of the Schie Canal, enjoying that repose 

 (approaching, in our eyes, to apathy) in which Dutch 

 gentlemen advancing in years are said to find the sum of hu- 

 man felicity. He received us courteously ; and lost no time 

 in passing a formal but evidently sincere eulogy on the 

 Dicksons of Edinburgh, for the extent and punctuality of 

 their dealings. After wine and cake had gone round, he 

 descended with us into his little garden, which was many 

 feet below the level of the great canal. We considered it 

 as probably affording a fair specimen of the better sort of 

 the Rotterdam gardens. Besides flowers and shrubs, it 

 contained several fruit-trees, some trained as standards, and 

 some on espalier-rails. The standards were of two kinds. 

 The first, Mr Schuurmans called Arbomjns : these are 

 open in the centre like a cup, to which shape they are 

 brought by tying them to a hoop ; and they have very short 

 stems. The other he called Kroon-boomen or Crown- 

 trees : these have tall stems, 6 or 7 feet high, and a few 

 horizontal branches at top ; the horizontally of these 

 branches is induced, by tying down the young branches 

 towards the stem by means of twigs. For the small Dutch 

 gardens, apple and pear trees are almost universally graft- 

 ed on paradise stocks, and trained as Crowns or as Arbo- 

 nijns ; which last may be regarded as crowns with dwarfish 

 stems. Cherry, apricot, plum and mulberry trees are never 

 trained in these forms. It may be remarked, that on the 

 flat low grounds, with light sandy vegetable soil, fruit-trees 

 soon begin to decay ; for such situations, trees grafted on 

 paradise and creeper stocks arc therefore with propriety se- 

 lected ; they come sooner into bearing, and occupy much 

 lest space. On the slopes of the large dikes, trees graft- 

 ed on freestockfl are preferred to the former: because they 



