The Cacti have been more than doubled since we saw them last season, and many of the specimens are not to be equalled anywhere. Mr. Beaton has arranged his seedling Cacti on a front shelf, in sections, just to our taste; and his experience has even enabled him to follow out this plan farther than science could do. He places all his melon-shaped Cacti, which require more heat, in the hottest end of the shelf. Many of this section, in a young state, can hardly be distinguished from each other but by a practised eye. These are here planted out on his shelf, on a layer or bed of sandy compost over slabs of &&&, in rows across the bed; and, where each kind terminates, a row or two of upright seedling cereuses, which require strong heat, are placed after each kind of melon-shaped Cacti. The seedlings of those Mammillariï¾µ found in the low hot valleys of the tropics follow after the Melocacti and Echinocacti seedlings; and, at the coldest end of the shelf, they finish with such Mimmillariï¾µ as are found on the hills and high ridges, and require less heat. Altogether, this appears to as the most interesting shelf of Cacti, and the most scientifically arranged, in this country. Here is the largest plant of Euphorbia jacquiniï¾µfora that we have seen, now covered with its rich deep orange blossoms: when out of flower, it must look like a young vigorous peach tree; and, being trained after the manner of peach trees, the illusion is heightened. Nothing can exceed the splendour of Euphorbia splendens at this time, just beginning to put forth its new leaves, and literally in one mass of &&&. Several large specimens are here now in this state, one of which is perhaps the largest in the country. By the side of these stands a fine specimen of Euphorbia [j.] Brioni, a nearly alied sort, smaller than the preceding in all its parts, and none fastigiate in habit. Both these kinds seed freely, especially towards the end of the blooming season (July and August); and, notwithstanding their seeming relationship, Mr. Beaton has hitherto failed to obtain a cross between them. In another house we noticed a standard of that fine old plant the Euphorbia ph£nicea, with a head 4 or 5 feet in diameter, and just coming into bloom. There is also a good stock of mesembryanthemums, aloes, and the common epiphyllums, in another house appropriated to this section of plants. The day being very cold, we did not see much of the plants in the pits. These pits, and some of the houses, are heated by Rogers's conical boilers; and also a long shed in the farm-yard, with glass sashes in front, where rare specimens of single camellias, acacias, and suchlike plants are wintered, to be turned out in summer into the flower-garden, and other convenient places round the house. The subsoil here is so cold and damp, that it is found necessary to take up in the autumn such plants as Benthamia fragifera, Garrya elliptica, and many other half-hardy plants, which are kept in this shed conservatory all the winter.
A large number of apple and pear trees were planted here this spring. The pits for these were from 4 ft. to 5 ft. in diameter, and paved with common slates, their edges lapping over each other, as. in common roofing. Prepared compost was filled over these slates till it was 6 or 9 inches above the common level of the garden, and the trees planted on these round hillocks, and mulched all over with a compost of rotten dung, rotten tan, and about one third of sifted coal ashes. The trees were bought at Mr. Forest's nursery, Kensington; and, though Mr. Forest is an entire stranger to Mr. Beaton, the latter thinks it but justice to say, that these fruit trees were the finest he ever saw coming out of any nursery whatever. "All the paths in the houses are of Welsh slate, half an inch thick, which is found far cheaper and more durable than stone pavements; besides, there is no dust from them like that from stone paths. Many of the shelves are also of this slate; but, for this purpose, the slate ought to be ribbed, in order to carry off the drainage from the bottom of the pots more effectually, and to be drilled with small holes to let through the wet from the furrows formed by the ribbing. In one division of a range of low houses are some fine pine-apple plants, which never had any bottom heat, and nothing can exceed their vigour and healthy appearance. They are plunged in old tan, and an empty pot placed, mouth upwards, under each pine pot. The water from the pine pot passes down freely into this pot, and the worms are never found to get into the pine pot. If the lower pot were placed bottom upwards, the drainage from the pine-pot would not be complete, nor the worms kept back. When bottom heat is used for pines or other plants, this is always a safe mode to guard against too strong bottom heat. Indeed, Mr. Beaton thinks that no pot should be plunged in liny cold or hot medium, in or out of doors, without first taking the precaution to place an empty pot under each pot; and the only thing to be attended to is, to have the mouth of the lower pot a little narrower than the bottom of the pot to be placed over it. This plan was shown and first recommended to Mr. Beaton by Mr. Thomson, of the Horticultural Society's Garden, one of the most scientific gardeners with whom Mr. Beaton is acquainted."
