120 
THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
and tlie Winter Aconite runs riot over many parts. Added to the above are 
quantities of Kale in all shades of variegation, with early-flowering Heaths and 
shrubs, in borders and belts, surrounding the different flower gardens. 
There is great credit due to Mr. Ingram for gathering together and getting up 
sufficient stock of these plants for the March and April display, and it is another 
proof of the great variety of flowering plants that can be got at that season. 
Many of them are soon over, but if they are wanted for this particular season, 
each adds its share when most wanted. 
I have no wish to put myself forward as an authority, but with all 
deference to the taste of others I fear Kale will never look well in a flower 
garden. Mr. Ingram had it planted in various ways, as in rustic stone baskets, 
flower-beds, and mixed alternately among beds of dwarf shrubs. The latter is 
its best aspect, but even then, at a distance, it has a coarse unpleasing effect; its 
best form of variegation never dispels the idea that we are looking upon Scotch 
Kale, the leaves of which some one has been amusing himself by sprinkling 
with new milk. The various Saxifrages, as cordifolia, &c., have leaves suffi¬ 
ciently large to satisfy the most rabid of sub-tropical fanciers. The Castle I 
shall long remember, with its grand view over a vale rich in agriculture, and 
its pure old style and ancient means of defence carefully preserved from the 
time when neighbours of a similar class were more to be feared than they are 
now. Its terrace walls are now put to more peaceful purposes, and covered 
with creepers, among which Mr. Ingram pointed out a splendid plant of the 
Lonicera odoratissima, a plant which should be in every garden, as it blooms all 
the winter when weather will permit. It is deliciously sweet and a great favourite 
with ladies, but I fancy from previous experience that it does not bloom until 
it becomes a large plant. The kitchen garden is a magnificent affair, and the 
whole place reflects great credit upon its manager, Mr. Ingram. 
J. F. 
REMARKS ON THE OUT-DOOR CULTURE OF THE FIG. 
This celebrated fruit tree is a native of Asia and Africa, and is completely 
naturalised in the south of Europe, where its cultivation is one of the most im¬ 
portant occupations of the fruit grower. In English gardens the Fig is chiefly 
cultivated under glass ; but along the south coast it arrives at maturity on 
trees grown as standards and low bushes. In the northern parts of the country 
it requires a wall to ripen it properly ; but when grown on a wall there is no 
kind of fruit tree which bears every year with more certainty than the Fig. 
The flavour of the Fig is exceedingly sweet and luscious, so much so as not 
to be agreeable to many persons, when tasted for the first time ; but, like most 
fruit of this kind, it becomes a great favourite with all after a short trial, and 
is really one of the most agreeable, wholesome, and nutritious kind of food. 
There are two large Fig trees against the wall in the garden here, one the 
White Genoa, and the other the Brunswick, which every year bear crops of 
fine fruit. A few details of the treatment they receive may not be unaccept¬ 
able to our young readers. 
Fig trees generally thrive in all kinds of soils and in every situation, but 
they produce a greater quantity of fruit upon a strong loamy soil than on dry 
ground, for if the season proves dry during the months of May and June, those 
trees which grow upon very warm dry ground are very subject to cast their 
fruit. The soil in -which the trees here are growing, is a sandy loam resting on 
a gravelly subsoil, naturally thoroughly drained. One of the principal causes 
of Fig trees being unfruitful when growing against walls in the open air, is 
strong and highly-enriched borders, which produce over-luxuriant growth of 
