The unique practice adopted by Mr. Williams, of growing in pots pines which will endure the open air (we make an exception in favour of those that will not, such as P. longifolia, leiophylla, &c.), and keeping them in a green-house both in summer and winter, cannot be recommended; because, though the plants, when taken so much care of as at Hendon Rectory, will look remarkably well for five or six years, yet, for want of room, they must ultimately become stunted and die; or, if they are turned out into the free soil, after being six or seven years in pots, even with all the care that can be bestowed in unwinding their roots from the balls, and spreading them out, their chance of living is very doubtful. If it were probable that keeping these pines and firs in pots would make them bear cones, like Dr. Diel's fruit trees, that might serve as an apology for this kind of taste; and, doubtless, if the trees can be kept alive in pots, till nearly the usual period at which they would bear cones in the free ground, this would be the case; but still, so little would be gained by it, that we cannot recommend the plan for imitation. The only plants, in our opinion, that can be legitimately grown in green-houses and hot-houses, are such as can be brought to as great a degree of perfection there, as they would attain in the open air in their native countries. Of these there are thousands of species which can be brought to greater perfection under glass in Britain, than they are ever seen to attain in their native countries, in the open air. This will apply to almost all the shrubs, and all the herbaceous plants, of warm climates. The trees of warm climates have, in general, a miserable appearance under glass, for want of room. To return to Hendon Rectory, we wish not to be understood as denying the right of Mr. Williams to indulge in his own peculiar taste: we merely state that it is one which never can become general, on account of the expense and trouble with which it is attended, in proportion to the effect produced. Mr. Williams's taste for the gardenesque in the planting of his garden, and for the highest order and keeping in its management, is beyond all praise, and is equalled nowhere, that we know of, in the neighbourhood of London, but at Mrs. Lawrence's, at Drayton Green. Since the above was written, Mr. Williams has made great alterations and additions. He has added two hot-houses at 7 7, in the situation of the hot-beds 8 8. Towards the north end of the compartment marked 3, he has constructed an elegant curvilinear house, glass on all sides, for the Coniferï¾µ; at each end of it he has placed large masses of rockwork, which are to contain collections of ferns and Saxifrageï¾µ; and the whole of the ground in front he has laid out in beds on turf, as a flower-garden.
