THE FLORIST AND POMOLOGIST. 
[ April, 
56 
deep at the first. This plan, it is evident, 
admits of the strongest being selected to plant 
out together, while the weaker ones remain 
until they are more advanced in growth, and 
thus make a successional planting. This routine 
of potting and planting begins early in the 
year, and continues as long as required. Most 
advanced cultivators of potatos now advocate, 
as being promotive of early cropping and the 
avoidance of disease, that the tubers should be 
well prepared, and planted shallow, late enough 
to avoid late spring frosts ; and that the plants 
should have two or three earthings.—T. M. 
MR. TURNBULL’S IIYBBID 
HEATHS. 
8 T the presentation recently made to 
Mr. Andrew Turnbull, the veteran 
gardener at Both well Castle, as noticed 
at p. 47, that gentleman made some very 
interesting statements respecting the origin of 
many of the fine varieties of Cape Heaths he 
has been instrumental in raising and bringing 
before the public ; and we take the opportunity 
to place the following historical facts, which 
are somewhat condensed, on record in our 
pages:— 
Mr. Turnbull remarked, in reference to bis efforts 
to improve various genera of plants by hybridisa¬ 
tion, that he began with the Calceolaria, at an early 
period of its history, and raised varieties that were 
thought good in their day. Very few now know', he 
said, that the first hybridiser of the Calceolaria w r as 
my highly esteemed friend, the late Mr. William 
Morrison, gardener to Lord President Hope, at 
Granton. His first, and perhaps only, lot of hybrids 
went to Messrs. Young, of Epsom, in 1829. 
“Heaths, however,” said Mr. Turnbull, “have 
been my favourite tribe of plants, and on entering 
my present situation, my employer, Archibald, Lord 
Douglas, said that the Heaths were in an unsatis¬ 
factory state, and he wished them improved. Some 
ten years after I took charge of them, I had the 
satisfaction of being told by the late Mr. William 
MacNab, of Edinburgh, that they were the best 
house of Heaths he had ever seen. Erica retoria 
was 6 ft. in diameter, and E. elegans of the same size. 
“ I commenced the hybridisation of Heaths 
shortly after I came to Bothw’ell Castle. I was not 
then aware that Messrs. Eollisson, of Tooting, had 
practised it for twenty years before me; this I 
learned from the late Mr. Cunningham, of Comely 
Bank Nurseries ; and a short time after I saw a list 
of Heaths, said to be hybrids, raised by them, and 
w r as surprised to see amongst them some we had 
always considered distinct species from the Cape, 
and recorded as such in Loudon’s catalogue. To 
some of these I have been indebted for my best hybrids. 
From E. Irbyana, crossed with E. retorta, I raised 
E. Jacksoni. From the same female parent, crossed 
w'itli E. Hartnelli, I raised E. Marnockiana. I also 
raised some very good varieties from E. Aitoniana, 
said to be a hybrid of Messrs. Bollissou’s, and one 
so widely different from any Heath I know', that it 
would be interesting to ascertain its parentage. 
From it, crossed by E. jasminiflora alba, I raised 
E. Aitoniana Turnbullii, and E. Lady Mary Scott, 
the latter an extra fine distinct Heath. From E. 
Aitoniana, crossed with E. Macnabiana, I raised E. 
Turnbullii ; and from the latter, crossed with E. 
Marnockiana, I have raised three excellent and very 
distinct Heaths, one of which I have named E. 
Countess of Home ; the others I have not yet named. 
E. Douglasice is a good seedling, raised from E. 
Aitoniana crossed w'ith E. retorta major. I have 
raised a very good seedling from E. fer- 
ruginea, crossed with E. Massoni, which I 
selected from a batch of fifty seedlings, and 
have named E. ferruginea Bothwelliana. E. Lord 
Douglas is an extra fine Heath, raised from an 
unnamed seedling crossed with E. Macnabiana. E. 
Austiniana was also raised from an unnamed seed¬ 
ling, crossed with E. retorta. I have a fine seedling 
raised from E. Shannoni, much superior to the 
original; also a very good seedling from E. Shan¬ 
noni crossed with E. retorta. It w'ould be an endless 
affair to refer to all the seedlings I have raised, 
hundreds of which have been thrown av r ay, for every 
one I kept. At first I freely gave aw'ay such as I 
did not think worth keeping; but that is a bad 
system, for sometimes one gets back a rejected 
seedling under a grand name ; so I gave no more 
away. 
“ I think much might still be done for the im¬ 
provement of hard-wooded Heaths, though the pro¬ 
cess is tedious. I have sown seeds and had the best 
braird the second year after; and I have waited after 
that three or four years before I saw' them flower, yet 
the interest excited in watching their opening flowers 
was an ample reward. After sowing at various seasons, 
I came to the conclusion that the end of September 
was the best time to sow' the seeds of liard-wooded 
Heaths. I have no doubt that many Heaths introduced 
from the Cape as species are natural hybrids, as of 
these several varieties can be raised from the same 
pod of seed without impregnation. For example, 
E. ventricosa Bothwelliana alba is such a seedling 
obtained from E. ventricosa swperba, a very dark- 
flowered sort, w'ithout artificial impregnation. 
“ I have been credited with raising E. ventricosa 
Bothtvelliana, but I did not, nor was it raised at 
Bothwell Castle at all. Woodhall had then a col¬ 
lection of Heaths, as Bothwell Castle had, and the 
collection of plants in both cases came from Messrs. 
Lee, of Hammersmith ; there was a distinct variety 
of E. ventricosa sent to each place—the one became 
know'll as the Bothwell Castle variety, and the other 
the Woodhall; the latter was the best, and I have 
ceased to grow the former. The Heath now kuow'n 
as E. ventricosa Bothwelliana was wdiat I grew as 
E. pregnans major; I had a successful strike of it, 
and some plants got to London, where it W’as believed 
to be one of my seedlings, and was named E. 
ventricosa Bothtvelliana —a better selling name, I 
suppose, than E. pregnans major. The only one of 
that section that I have raised is E. ventricosa Both¬ 
welliana alba, and it is a very good Heath.” 
We liad the pleasure of figuring so long since 
as 1850, in tlie Gardener s Magazine of Botany , 
three beautiful Heaths raised by Mr. Turnbull, 
namely, E. Douglasice , E. Marnockiana , both 
noticed above, and E. simulata , the latter 
being a seedling of E. Aitoniana crossed with 
E. cerinthoides. Subsequently, in 1852, we 
figured, in the Garden Companion , two others 
named respectively E. Thomsoni and E. 
Mooreana, the first raised from E. aristata 
