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THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OP GARDENING. 
THE EDITOR’S TOUR*. 
August 5. —Dalkeith to Edinburgh.—Dalhousie Castle is a fine, modern, 
castellated building, with most beautiful walks on the rocky banks of the 
Esk. On leaving the castle, we first traversed a fine terrace, which led 
us under a stone bridge to the kitchen-garden. The road from the bridge 
to the garden was very beautiful, the walk being bordered on one side by 
a shrubbery, cut into bays and promontories ; and on the other by a strip 
of lawn, with a winding row of variegated hollies, the tops of which had 
been shortened to make them spread out horizontally below. The hot¬ 
houses were built by the late Mr. Hay, and were in his style, with a kind 
of architectural trellis-work projecting, or rather hanging down, into the 
house. The kitchen-garden was in the usual Scotch style, half full of 
flowers ; and in front of the hothouse were some groups of Rhododendrons 
and Azaleas, with a fine plant of Viburnum lantanoides. There were 
also several very fine American thorns and Acers in the shrubberies, 
which were sent home by the late Earl of Dalhousie, when he was 
governor of Canada. There are also some American oaks, and a fine 
specimen of Pinus Banksiana, fourteen feet high. The late earl, and his 
lady, who was an excellent botanist, were both very fond of this place ; 
and the whole of the pleasure-ground bears evident marks of their taste 
in laying it out. The walks cut in the solid rock, and the rustic bridges 
across the river, leave nothing to be desired as far as regards their form¬ 
ation. In the kitchen-garden the wall-trees had suffered greatly from 
frost, for want of a movable wooden coping. We found copings of this 
kind resting on holdfasts in several of the gardens we visited; and 
wherever a coping had been used to protect the early-flowering fruit-trees 
while in blossom, the crop was excellent; while the reverse was the case 
where the blossom had been exposed without protection to the effect of per¬ 
pendicular frost. When the fruit has set, and all danger from spring frost 
is over, it is better to remove the coping, in order to give the plants the 
full advantage of the perpendicular sun and rain. We saw in this garden 
numerous specimens of Heracleum giganticum , or asperum , the Siberian 
Cow-parsnip, from ten to twelve feet high, with enormous root-leaves, 
frequently forming a circle twelve feet in diameter. The silver firs at 
this place, as in many other situations in Scotland, had been attacked by 
the mealy bug, and in many instances killed. This destructive insect 
generally makes its appearance when the trees are about thirty or forty 
feet high; and it is only found in close plantations, where thinning has 
* Continued from p. 293. 
