THE FLOKIST 



AID HORTICULTURAL JOUMAL 



Fol. IL] Philadelphia, November, 1853. [No. 11. 



VISIT TO DR. h P. KIRTLAND. 



By S. S. IIaldeman. 



Dr. Kirtland is a professor in the medical college of Cleveland, and as 

 one of the best naturalists of the country, was employed some years ago in 

 the natural history department of the Ohio Geological Survey. His resi- 

 dence is about six miles from Cleveland on the Lake shores, and during the 

 sessions of the college, he returns home every evening. 



Besides his medical and natural history pursuits, he is a most successful 

 farmer and horticulturist, and has added some fine new varieties to the list 

 of cherries. His grounds are kept in excellent order, and his experiments 

 are systematically conducted and under way at all times. 



Dr. K. has, I think, the best Madura hedges I have seen. He recom- 

 mends them strongly, and says they are objected to by those who do not 

 know how to cultivate them. They require a good soil, well dug or ploughed^ 

 and will succeed in forming an impenetrable hedge if they are forced to 

 throw out lateral shoots close to the ground by cutting down from time to 

 time to such an extent that must seem fatal to those unacquainted with the! 

 hardy nature of the plant. 



I was shown several American plant??, which, strange as it may appear 

 were imported from France with more facility and certainty than they could 

 have been procured here. 



In modern horticulture, much of the value of a nursery and orchard de- 

 pends upon the accuracy with which the plants are named, and the judicious 

 cultivator will prefer making his selections from a limited number of varie- 

 ties which he can depend upon being what they are represented to be*, to 

 supplying himself from much fuller catalogues of doubtful authenticity. 



A3 the laws which have brought forth a particular variety continue to act 

 upon it, we have no evidence of their permanency by continued propagation 



41 



