Mr. Pontey's Nurseries. The larger nursery which is two miles from Plymouth, at Vinstone, is of considerable extent. It contains an arboretum arranged according to the Natural System, in examining which, and in correcting the names, we spent half a day. We were agreeably surprised to find so extensive a collection of trees and shrubs, and we strongly recommended Mr. Pontey to increase it by procuring additional species from the Fulham Nursery, where the plants are all correctly named, or by getting cuttings from the Horticultural Society's garden. We also recommended him, as we would every other nurseryman and private gentleman who is an F. H. S., or has a friend who is one, whenever there is the slightest doubt about the name of a tree or shrub, to send a specimen of it in a letter to Mr. Gordon, the superintendent of the tree and shrub department in the Horticultural Society's garden. The first step towards the knowledge of things is to know their names, and nothing would contribute more to spread a taste for trees and shrubs among country gentlemen, than to have correct names put to the more choice kinds which they already possess. The mere naming of any plant creates an interest in it in the spectator, which leads him to enquire about it, to notice the plant when he meets with it elsewhere, or even when he sees something like it in other gardens. Thus, step by step, a person who would never have noticed a tree if he had not seen it named, becomes an amateur of trees and shrubs, than which no objects, scarcely even architectural ones, form more beautiful or permanent ornaments to a country residence, and to the general aspect of the land. Next to agriculture, therefore, a taste for planting and landscape-gardening is the most to be desired in a country gentleman; for, while he is improving and ornamenting his own estate, he is at the same time beautifying and enriching his country. All nurserymen who plant arboretums are aiding in infusing a taste in country gentlemen for trees and shrubs, and hence they well merit the general thanks of the public. Every nurseryman, when he sends out trees and shrubs which are not quite common, ought to send out along with them properly prepared names to be nailed to wooden pegs or stakes. This may either be done by having the names stamped with type on plates of lead as practised by Messrs. Whitley and Osborn, and for which they charge only 12s. per hundred, as mentioned in our Volume for 1841, p. 584.; or by writing the names with prepared ink, as practised by Mr. Rivers of the Sawbridgeworth Nursery. These labels, Mr. Rivers informs us, will last at least 10 years; but we shall have more to say on this subject in our next Number. At the Vinstone Nursery resides Mr. Pontey, senior, a most intelligent and intellectual gentleman, young in mind and activity, though above eighty years of age. He pointed out many things to us, and told us many anecdotes. His chief amusement is reading history. He noticed to us the intense bitter of the leaves of Viburnum prunifolium, and gave us the history of several varieties of trees which will be spoken of hereafter.
