234 THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
upon us, and turning our umbrellas into drooping fountains. How¬ 
ever, we persevered, and walked entirely round the garden, with 
as much calmness as we could, and then drove back to the railway 
station. 
Manchester, June 25.—Our ill fortune pursued us here, for the rain 
still descended in torrents. However, as we were anxious to proceed on 
our journey, so as to be in Edinburgh by the 5th of July, we drove to 
the Botanic Garden on one of the wettest days I ever chanced to venture 
out. The Botanic Garden at Manchester looked much better than the 
Leeds garden in the heavy rain ; as the large bushy shrubs and trees 
which quite filled the beds, and formed alternately promontories and 
recesses on the thick grass, seemed rather to enjoy the shower than to be 
in danger of being swept away by it. The hothouses also were very 
splendid, and the plants in them were growing with the greatest lux¬ 
uriance. The New Holland plants were superb; and Mr. Campbell, the 
curator, (whom we knew well, from his having been formerly gardener at 
the Count de Vande’s, at Bayswater,) told us that he planted them in a 
kind of bed, having a layer, near the bottom, of lumps of granite. We 
noticed Acacia decurrens in full flower, which is worth remarking, as it 
flowers so much later than the other Acacias, frequently being in full 
bloom in the middle of July. Mr. Campbell told us that Deutzia scabra 
is quite hardy in the open garden ; but that Edwardsia microphylla was 
killed last winter by frost—the branches being split and shattered, as is 
frequently the case witli Heaths. There w r ere fine specimens of Erotcea 
cynaroides and Eryandra plumosa , and of a variegated aloe, eight feet 
high, which is supposed to be ninety years old. There was also a 
weeping Melaleuca squarrosa , which was more curious than beautiful. 
The central dome is forty feet high, and it wtis filled with Bananas and 
other tropical plants, planted in the free soil, and growing with such 
luxuriance as to emulate the palm-house at Messrs. Loddiges’. Nepenthes 
distillatoria, ten feet high, was in flower; and Ficus elastica had sent out 
thick roots from half-way up its stem, as it would have done in its native 
forests. Aristolochia labiosa was so old, that its corky bark looked like 
a twisted cable. The different kinds of Cactacea were very fine; and 
Mr. Campbell told us that they were grown in a soil composed of square 
lumps of turf and brick rubbish, as rough as possible, eighteen inches 
deep. The different kinds of Anagallis were also very fine, and they 
were grown in a mixture of loam, bog earth, and sand. 
In the open garden, Mr. Loudon was very much interested in the 
forest trees; but the rain now became so violent, that I was afraid my 
little girl would take cold, and I was glad to shelter with her wherever 
