1852.1 THE PHILADELPHIA FLORIST. 241 



house, any of them when growing like a high temperature. It is ^ 

 P generally kept too high in winter. Unlike most plants, they delight cA 

 / more in shade when growing, and like the full light better when \ 

 their growth is nearly mature. I generally keep my orchids about 

 60° in winter, to about 90° or 100° in summer. 



Thomas Meehan. 



Foreign Horticultural Establishments. 



To convey an idea of the extent of the nursery establishments to 

 be found in the vicinity of London, and other metropolitan towns of 

 Britain, would be a difficult matter, except to those who have visited 

 some of our largest American nurseries. I think it not out of place, 

 however, to make a passing allusion to some of them, in order to in- 

 form our readers whence are obtained some of the novelties we hear 

 so much talk of at horticultural exhibitions, and about which there is 

 so much written in the pages of the "Florist." Nursery establish- 

 ments, like all other trading concerns, are subject to changes from pro- 

 sperity to adversity; from the possession of one pe;son they pass to 

 that of another, and some of those once celebrated now stand only as 

 second or third rate ; and many have quite fallen behind the time. — 

 Loddiges' was once celebrated as the great receptacle of new and rare 

 plants, Orchids, Heaths, Palms and Camellias; and the extent of glass 

 in this establishment astonished the visitor. We once spent a day 

 here in company with Dr. J. E. Planchon, and were much gratified by 

 a minute inspection of the riches of the collection of Conrad Loddiges 

 & Sons, of Hackney, London. The houses all communicate with 

 each other, and form a quadrangle, so that the visitor once entered, 

 does not pass into the open air till he has inspected the entire collec- 

 tion. The specimens of Palms were gigantic and numerous, and were 

 growing in almost wild luxuriance. But what a multitude of Orchids 

 from all parts of the Tropics, amounting to almost 20,000, plants sup- 

 posed by the owners to be distinct, and numbering 1650 in their 

 printed catalogue. We met but one individual in the entire ranges 

 of glass, and that individual was the indefatigable Loddiges himself, 

 working amongst his favorites. We requested a catalogue, and one 

 was handed us of forty pages and gilt edge ; and what treasures are 

 enumerated in that catalogue! — treasures which the enthusiastic own- 

 er often refused to part with, even if a reasonable price were offered ; 

 but the auctioneer, we believe, has had his hammer hanging over the 

 valuable plants found alone in this great depository j and we do not 

 make a mistake when we state that even Philadelphia can boast of 

 possessing her portion of them. 



l 



\ possessing ner portion oi tnem. 



M But following up the Hackney road, we arrive at another great 



'^Horticultural Emporium. The Nursery of Hugh Low &, Son is situa- 



%* m '. *&m, 



ox 



