Milwaukee is somewhat noted for its Florists, having some fine private residences with green houses attached, but its market gardeners and plant houses are of no mean proportions. As prominent as any here, are Whitnell and Ellis, who have nine houses mostly for out flowers, and if the sample they bestowed upon your humble servant is a representative of their labors, the city of their adoption may be proud they are there. Then there are Dunlop and Middlemus, Thomson, Hcisler, and others, all doing a thrifty and well regulated business, showing that though we are " out West," and this in a city scarcely out of its swaddling clothes, our better natures were not all left in New England hills, and "we," the "people," do think of something else than money. Think of it! you at the East, who suppose Wisconsin is a wilderness, inhabited by Indians and wild men, that here in Milwaukee we have a city, scarce thirty years of age, equaling in business many towns on the Atlantic Coast of three times its size, a century or two old ; that during this short space of time it has been reclaimed from the Indian tribes, and which still shows the landmarks of Jernean, the then trader of the West. And here it is that now upon one of the prominent streets of the city, high, and overlooking a greater portion of the town, upon less than an acre of land, there is a large mansion for the family, and 20,000 square feet of glass for the accommodation of the conservatory - cut flowers, roses, Orchidean grapes, peaches, etc.; such in brief is the place of Alexander Mitchell, of Milwaukee.

During our visit at the State Exhibition, I accepted an invitation to visit these grounds, and a treat it was; pen cannot do justice to the pleasing emotion3 one has in walking among the choice and rare plants here found. The gardener, Mr. Pollard, assured me that " many of his choicest and rare plants, to the amount of three to four thousand dollars worth, were on the fair grounds;" but enough was left for our purpose. Passing through the hall of the dwelling house, we enter the conservatory, now full of plants. This is 100 feet long, with a serpentine walk passing the whole length. Here we have Azaleas, century plant twenty years old, Date Palms, Auracarias and Colocasia odorata, its body nearly ten inches in diameter, with its enormous leaf, measuring about sixteen square feet, said to be from Cuba; Camelias seem to be at home; but without mentioning each plant or species, we cannot refrain from noticing the very excellent use to which the common Abutilons had been used. We here find it trained upon the back wall and densely covered with bloom; a more pleasing effect we seldom see.

In the centre of this room, and yet not in the way, for the walk gets out of its way, is a fountain ; the fine, beautiful spray came jetting forth from shelving rocks, quickly filling some large imitation shells, cut from marble, these then dripping from their fullness, add their mite to beautify the scene.

A practical point here is that of the walk. Its serpentine form gives a pleasing effect, and standing at one end of the house the look through is broken, as it is partially at any point of the house. Walk is formed by first excavation, then boards are laid flatways in the bottom, then brick, on this groit, and one-half inch cement, which is finally sanded with lake-shore sand, using irregular stones for the edging, all combining to give it a lake-shore appearance, firm, tidy and good. Passing from this room we enter the green house, seventy-five feet long, stocked with tender plants. Prying around, for we like to find practical points, we espied back of the flower stage, everything tidy and neat, as a well kept kitchen as compared to the best room of the house. And instead of the usual dirt and rubbish, broken pots, etc, attendant upon similar places, I found some well adjusted mushroom boxes. A walk paved the way, and here we are under the stage, and a tidy place it is. The mushroom beds are about sixty feet long, divided into three or four compartments to obtain a succession of mushrooms; A bed is productive five or six weeks,' so that by making up a bed or section at these regular intervals, a succession of these esculents, so highly prized by epicureans, is kept up the entire season.

Mr. Pollard explained the whole manner of production, and constant care required to regulate the heat from sixty to seventy degrees, how it is communicated [through small pipes in the boxes, the care necessary in the construction of boxes, circulation of air around them to assist in maintaining an even temperature, compost used, etc.; but it is unnecessary here to allude to them in detail, and pass to the tropical house, fifty feet long, filled with the choicest plants from tropical countries. Bananas are here fruiting, apparently quite at home. Water jets forth in all parts of this house from numerous little rockeries. Here we find a beautiful hollow cone-shaped rockery, the outside supporting choice plants, but within a beautiful constant dripping was going on ; this was lined or rather sealed with the most brilliant shells. From all parts of this house are rustic hanging baskets with plants thrifty and fine.

Wo next enter the grapery where he "has grown a half ton per year," of such as are on exhibition. We partook of such as was left, and passed to the rose house for winter bloom, fifty by twenty feet, and thence to the Peach, Apricot and Nectarine rooms, 100 feet long. The fruit was all gone, but here are trees nine years old, ten feet high, and some still wider top, in pots sixteen inches square, and more thrifty and healthy trees I never saw. The average crop is 2,000 to 2,500 specimens from twelve trees. Passing through, and we are once more in the open yard. The clear, beautiful sky is our cover, a mantle of green our footstool, dotted all over with masses of choice roses, Verbenas, Geraniums and Coleuses, a few weeping trees, old native oaks, and a fine majestic golden willow. We have been thus particular, not that we think this place cannot be bettered, but in hopes to induce others of like means to go and do likewise, and bo shall your children call you blessed.

O. S. WlLLEY.