66 
CULTURE OF AGAPANTHUS UMBELLATUS. 
(his time not being so much an object,) he will most satisfactorily attain that end 
by going to a great number of small places, in nearly every one of which he will 
glean something of that sort which will be solidly and lastingly useful. We there- 
fore repeat that to have the mind expanded, to obtain large and liberal views of 
things, and to form good notions of the treatment of plants on a grand scale, the 
princely gardens of the great must be frequented. But to be informed on minute 
particulars, to see certain plants or small groups cultivated in the best and 
cheapest way, and to get a thorough insight into the practical working of the modes 
adopted, the more circumscribed gardens of the merchant, the retired tradesman, and 
the country gentleman should be explored. 
Lest any surprise should be manifested at our declaration of these opinions, we 
may state on what they are grounded. It is an admitted principle that when the 
attention is divided among many objects, they will all be less completely fulfilled, 
than if the mind had been fixed on one or two. And it is thus with cultivators. 
Those who have comparatively few plants to attend to, and no great variety of 
them, are sure to succeed better than such as have a considerable number and 
diversity. Besides which, the shifts to which the lesser cultivator is usually driven 
for want of adequate means or proper convenience, frequently elicit improved 
methods of treatment, and always tend to the discovery of the true capabilities of 
plants. At any rate, he is, of necessity, more likely to find out the readiest plan 
of cultivating those plants for which he has a demand. 
That the foregoing observations may not appear foreign to the subject by which 
this paper is headed, we shall avow at once that we were directed to our notice of 
Agapanthus umhellatus^ by seeing some remarkably handsome specimens in a 
garden which exhibited nothing else worthy of record, and which in no other way 
whatever repaid us for the trouble of calling. 
None need be told that the species on which we are now writing is a very showy 
and free-flowering plant > since there is scarcely a collection in the country which 
has not, at least at some period, comprised specimens of it. It is mostly valued for 
the trifling tendance it requires, and the fine bold manner in which it produces its 
clusters of large blue flowers, as well as for the length of time these last. Flowering 
in the months of June and July, and continuing to do so till September or October, 
it makes a desirable feature in the greenhouse, and is largely employed for placing 
among the commoner greenhouse plants that are ranged round some styles of 
mansions, or in their recesses during summer. 
Although a fast-growing plant, and disposed to attain a considerable size, its 
wants are rarely ministered to, and it is allowed to starve in a small pot, year after 
year, no care being evinced for it so long as it goes on to bear its common quantity 
of flowers, which it generally will do in the midst of the most unpropitious influences. 
As a proof of the extent to which its roots are confined, it is quite an ordinary 
occurrence for it to burst the pot in which it is growing, by the mere force of a 
natural effort to escape from such restrictions. 
