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THE LADIES’ MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
olus in the same way; and it thus appears evident that the common 
practice of taking up the bulbs every year and replanting them singly, is 
a very bad one. The only difficulty in the new mode of culture is to 
find a bed of well-established plants, from which the cluster of bulbs can 
be taken; but probably the same effect would be produced by growing 
two or three bulbs together in a pot, and then when the roots had grown 
together so as to form a mass, turning the ball of earth unbroken out 
of the pot into the bed prepared to receive it. 
The espalier posts in the kitchen-garden at Blair-Adam were let into 
blocks of stone, bored and sunk into the ground; and thus the espalier 
railing was neater and looked better than in any other place I have seen 
in Scotland. There was, however, a bad crop of apples and pears, as is 
generally the case in Scotland, from the almost universal practice of 
cropping the borders. 
Loch Leven Castle .—We had no sooner arrived at Kinross than we 
hired a boatman to take us across the lake to the castle. The evening 
was beautiful, and the appearance of the lake, as our little boat glided over 
its smooth surface, was as fine as can be imagined. The castle itself is a 
very interesting ruin ; but the agent of its present proprietor is doing all 
he can to spoil it. The ground round the castle has been trenched and 
planted with trees, which, if they grow, will in a few years hide the 
castle; and the lake has been lowered several feet, so that the window 
from which Queen Mary descended into the boat is now separated from 
the water by a tolerably broad strip of land. In the centre of the castle 
there are two or three onion-beds, and the rest of the ground is covered 
with strong rampant weeds, so as to be unpleasant, and even dangerous to 
walk on. How different from Melrose, with its level surface and smooth 
velvet turf! The only tree now standing on the island, except the young 
ones lately planted, is a thorn, said to have been planted by Queen Mary, 
which is about twenty-five feet high, and eighteen inches in diameter, but 
which is now in a state of rapid decay. 
Kinross House , the seat of the proprietor of the castle, is seated on the 
mainland, on a promontory jutting out into the lake. It is a plain house, 
built in 1685, and constructed with the strictest regard to symmetry, 
every part having a corresponding part on the other side. This exactness 
does not, however, produce a good effect; as when the house is seen from 
one side the parts look displaced, and it is only when seen directly 
in front that its exact symmetry is discernible. There are straight 
avenues leading to this house in different directions through a fine wood, 
and two platforms on the lawn front. The garden is very much neglected, 
as the house has been long uninhabited. 
