Before journeying northwards, we beg leave to introduce Merino, the seat of Earl Charlemont, and then to make a few general remarks. Merino has more the character of a country residence than any yet specified. Its extensive woods, comparatively speaking, closely surrounded by the trees of the adjoining villas, give it, as you approach from the south, the appearance of a dense forest. The gardens are extensive, and, we are happy to state, rapidly improving in every department, under the management of Mr. Hethrington, the president of the Irish Horticultural Society. This demesne is open to the public.

The gardens, generally speaking, around the city, have been laid down upon too large a scale; the consequences are, a falling off in the means necessary to support them in their pristine style, and a neglect of those particulars which constitute the chief beauties of gardening. With the view of having them near the mansion, a very obvious mistake has been made on the part of the proprietors, the outside walls and borders being thereby sacrificed. Independent of the economy, we know of no plan so neat and comfortable as a moderate-sized garden, from one to two Irish acres, according to the nature of the family, with a properly secured slip around, so that due advantage may be taken of both sides of the walls. This is the practice of Mr. Hay, round Edinburgh, whose designs have given such general satisfaction, and of Mr. M'Leish, throughout this country. In the formation and internal arrangement of the houses for ornamental plants, little improvement has been made on their original simplicity; and, except the conservatory in the Dublin Society's Botanical Gardens, there are none to vie with the late Mr. Angerstein's at Blackheath, or Sir Robert Liston's at Milburn Tower, in Mid-Lothian, nearer than that at Shane's Castle, in the county of Antrim. The application of steam has been confined to one or two places, and the metallic sash to a like number. We have no want of horticultural erections of this sort, attached to dwelling-houses, of every scale and form; but they are, with very few exceptions, the mere gewgaws of some city architect, in which, perhaps, a myrtle or orange-tree might struggle out a wretched existence. Until the prejudices which exist among operatives to the cultivation of exotics are removed, we cannot look for much improvement in this department. True it is, that in the production of early culinary crops, peaches, and the framing department, the Dublin gardeners are only to be excelled by those around London; they certainly exceed those of Edinburgh. In the cultivation of the pine-apple and vine, in the management of wall-trees, and in several of the more elegant branches of the art, much remains to be done. The dissemination of the

Encyclopædias of Gardening and Agriculture, followed by the Gardener's Magazine, will, it is hoped, incite among practical men a spirit of reading and inquiry into the nature and principles of matters appertaining to their profession; and while the mechanics of every rank and degree throughout the empire are zealously coming forward to form institutions for their advancement in the arts and sciences, let it not be said that a class of men so long distinguished for their intelligence and respectability remain inactive. (To be continued.)

ART. VI. Some Account of the Kitley Shaddock. By Mr. H. SAUNDERS, Gardener to E. P. Bastard, Esq. M. P. of Kitley, Devonshire.

Sir,

HAVING perused the first Number of your valuable Gardener's Magazine, and finding such an excellent channel open for noting the various daily improvements making in horticulture, I send you two fruit, and some cuttings of a seedling plant of the Shaddock family (fig. 50.) The plant which pro

duced these fruit was raised here from seed, and was kept in a confined tub for a series of years previously to my having the management of it. I was induced, about seven years since, to give it a trial in the conservatory, in a preparation of compost, which occasioned it to grow very luxuriantly; and, by gradually ringing the branches, I brought it most successfully into a bearing state. It now produces many dozen fruit annually, in clusters; three, and frequently four, in a cluster. It is considered a fine dessert fruit, and we have given it the appellation of the Kitley Shaddock, until we can obtain a more cor

rect term.

Kitley, March 7. 1826.

I am, Sir, &c.
HERMAN SAUNDERS.

Note.-We tasted the fruit, and found it something in flavour and consistency between an orange and a shaddock. The cuttings are distributed among amateurs, there being but little demand for the citrus tribe in the nurseries. One cutting we kept, and prepared in a manner which, though not original, or of recent invention, is not, we believe, generally known among gardeners. We have heard, from different sources, that it was the invention of the late Mr. Hoy, of Sion Gardens; but if any reader can claim it for himself, or refer it to the inventor, we shall be happy to give place to his communication, and pay a tribute to the memory of the author of a useful and curious piece of manipulation.

The cutting (fig. 51.) being cut across immediately below a joint, is then slit up (a), and tongued at the joint above, in the manner of laying the carnation (b); and, if necessary, the slits may be kept open by interposing a small bit of any thing, as in common practice. We planted our cutting in a pot of sandy peat, about the 18th of March; it began to push in a fortnight, and at the end of eight weeks from being put in we transplanted it, and found abundance of roots, with a shoot, in a growing state, of several joints. It was kept in a cucumber frame, and covered with a glass. Cond.

ART. VII. Description of a new Transplanting Instrument, for removing Plants when in Flower. Invented by Mr. MATTHIAS SAUL, of Lancaster, and communicated by him.

Sir,

52

•D

I SEND you a description and drawing of a transplanting apparatus, which, if you think of any interest to the readers of the Gardener's Magazine, you are extremely welcome to. It differs from the one given in your Encyclopedia of Gardening, and from every other which I have seen or heard of. When the instrument is put together, it forms a cylinder (fig. 52. a), and when separate it consists of two parts (6), which are joined together, something on the principle of a common door-hinge. In using this instrument it is best to have two of them; one to take out the earth at the spot where you wish to insert the plant, and one to remove the flower with its ball of earth. The instrument may be made of any size; mine is about six inches long, and six inches in diameter. I find no necessity

α

Ө

for any handles: in using it I place it so that the plant or flower is in the centre; I then press the apparatus into the soil, and find no difficulty in drawing the plant up with the soil, not more disturbed than if it had been originally planted in the instrument. On the 25th of April I took up a Van Thol tulip and a seedling polyanthus from my garden, and placed them on the flower-stage of the Lancashire flower-show, where they remained from ten o'clock in the morning till five in the afternoon. I then replaced them in the same place in the garden, and, after I had withdrawn the apparatus, there appeared no defect in the border, nor drooping in the flower. Thave removed several large wallflowers in full bloom this month, without the least appearance of the flower being injured. I have always been told that a plant in full flower could not be removed, but I have proved that by this apparatus it may be done with safety.

I am at present trying some other experiments, the result of which will, I hope, be of interest to the Gardener's Magazine. I remain, Sir, &c.

Sulyard Street, Lancaster, April 23. 1826

MATTHIAS SAUL.

55

Transplanters are chiefly used by florists to fill up blanks in show-beds of flowers. The French one (fig. 53.), is one of the neatest. Excepting for the purposes mentioned, a trowel or the spade will be preferred by the practical gardener. Mr. Saul has very obligingly sent us one of his implements, and proposed that we should take up a tulip, pot it, and send it by coach to the Lancashire show; but not being "high in that fancy," as the phrase is, all we could do for the credit of his ingenious invention was to send the transplanter to Weir's, Oxford-street, where it is manufactured for sale, under the name of Saul's Transplanter. — Cond.

ART. VIII.

On a Mode of keeping Apples through the Winter, as practised by Mr. ROBERT DONALD, Nurseryman, Woking.

Dear Sir,

I HAVE read with much gratification the first and second numbers of your valuable Gardener's Magazine, the longwished-for medium of communicating pleasing and useful knowledge, and much improvement to various classes of society. The nobility and gentry of fortune who have already a taste for gardening, will be more and more enlightened in that most rational amusement, so conducive to health and happiness; they will be better able to distinguish gardeners of experience from those who assume much and know but little, and to regulate their salaries in proportion to their abilities, and the extent of the gardens they may have to superintend.

To the merchants and citizens of London who have country residences, to them and their families, a good garden and pleasure-grounds are great recreations from the bustle of business, and a luxury from the smoke of London. The Gardener's Magazine will be to them a pleasing source of amusement and a profitable acquisition. To experienced gardeners it will refresh their memories and improve their minds by new dis

coveries.

On young students in the profession, who exert their powers to excel in the science of botany, and to select and improve our fruits and vegetables; on them the experiments and reports of the Horticultural Society, in conjunction with the Gardener's Magazine will have a wonderful effect.