LA N DSC A PE GA It DEN ING. 
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because, as I shall probably have occasion to allude to them in my future 
letters, they will not then need to be repeated. 
Respecting the greenhouse there remains to add, that it is so con¬ 
structed as to admit of perfect ventilation, and that it is encircled by a 
gravel-walk, leading from the south side of the basin round to the north 
side of the same. Between this walk and the base of the building, on 
the west end and south side, there are borders filled with Cape bulbs, 
&c., the north side, where the stock-hole is, being hidden by a thick 
screen of evergreen shrubs. 
Notwithstanding this greenhouse is on a small scale, it is perfectly 
suitable for the well-chosen collection which it contains. The stage 
covers an area of two hundred and thirty-four square feet, exclusive of 
the shelves along the back-wall front and ends of the house. This 
space is capable of containing one or two plants of all the more curious 
or beautiful exotics usually met with in greenhouses ; and out of above 
eleven hundred genera ranked as greenhouse plants, two-thirds have 
neither beauty nor rarity to recommend them; their absence, therefore, 
is not regretted in such a house as this. 
The next object I have to mention is the ranunculus bed, which, I 
understand, is managed as follows:—the bottom is always trenched 
over pretty deeply in the month of September, and about one foot of 
the surface removed ; over the bottom of this opening about three or 
four inches of rich moist dung is laid, and made level. This is for the 
purpose of forming a reservoir of moisture, whence a stream of nutri¬ 
tious vapour will be ever rising during the growth, whether the fibres 
ever reach the dung or not. Upon this a coat of fresh maiden loam, of 
a light and rather sandy quality, is laid to the full height, the surface 
being rounded. Thus prepared, the bed remains to settle till about 
the first of November, when the roots are planted in shallow drills made 
lengthways of the bed, five inches apart, and placing the roots at about 
the same distance from each other, covering them about two inches 
deep. The bed, being thus finished, requires no further care till very 
hard frost sets in. In this case, some slight covering is necessary; and 
as the plants very soon suffer if deprived of fresh air, a covering of 
common or reed mats is supported over the bed by a light frame of 
rods, bearing the mats on the top only, about a foot or so from the 
ground, and open at the sides and ends to permit a free current of air. 
The mats are not kept on constantly, but rolled off or on as the weather 
renders necessary. 
If the winds of March parch and loosen the surface of the bed, the 
earth should be pressed firmly together among the plants; and if the 
bed gets very dry, it may occasionally receive a soaking of manured 
