AN ATTEMPT AT A SUBURBAN BRIGHTON GARDEN. 



By G. DAVIES. 



MUST preface these 

 notes by saying the 

 following has no- 

 thing new, and to 

 a botanist or horti- 

 culturist they are 

 worthless. Firstly, 

 the space of my 

 available garden 

 ground is only fifty 

 square yards. So 

 all I claim is, that 

 I have taken some 

 pains in selecting 

 suitable shrubs for 

 the soil and situa- 

 tion ; as my wish 

 is to spread among 

 dwellers in towns, 

 the culture of these 

 evergreens, and to 

 induce others to abandon the palling monotony of the 

 commonplace plants we usually see in such gardens 

 as mine. 



My conifers of the Pinus set are P. Austriaca, 

 P. cembra, P. excelsa, and P. insignis. Here P. 

 Austriaca succeeds best, then P. excelsa. Next the 

 Abies, the silver fir, A. Nordmanniana, takes more 

 kindly to this soil. A. pinsapo, the lovely little Spanish 

 plant, is rather slow in growth, as alsr, A, montana, 

 lasiocarpa. The Cypress set, Cupressus macrocarpa, 

 C. Laiusoniana, and C. Nutkaensis, developing two 

 or three feet a year. 



The allies Cryptomeria elegans and Thuiopsis dola- 

 brata both luxuriate, the latter, a young plant three 

 feet high, having both male and female flowers. 

 Next comes Retinospora obtusa, producing a few 

 young flowers the second year. The dwarf R, ericoides 

 fills up a corner gap. 



Juniperus Japonica flourishes extremely, but the 

 dwarf J. Chinensis scarcely repays the trouble. 

 Araiuaria imbricata thrives beautifully if well syringed. 

 No. 253.— January 1886. 



Biota aurea, male and female, as this is a dioicous 

 plant, and Thuja occidentalis are very popular and 

 easily grown. 



The sacred tree of China, the Maidenhair tree as it 

 is called, Ginkgo biloba or Salisburia adiantifolia, is a 

 great ornament, but very sensitive ; at the first sharp 

 autumn frost, say early October, the leaves shed. In 

 the Botanic Garden at Geneva are two trees, one 

 male, and one female, side by side, each thirty feet 

 high. That beautiful plant, the umbrella pine of 

 Japan (Sciadopitys verticillata), planted in September 

 1884, is now in beautiful condition, with forty-eight 

 new branches of leaves. 



Of the yews and allies, Saxegothaa conspicua is a 

 slow-growing plant, as are Podocarpus chilinus, 

 Prumnopitys elegans, and Cephalotaxus pedunculata, 

 the latter alone showing flower buds. These are 

 interesting as exhibiting the South American forms 

 of this family. Taxodhtm distichum is more luxuriant ; 

 of this there is a fine tree near water at Horsted 

 Keynes. Taxodium and the Ginkgo are interesting, as 

 they are said to have been found in a fossil state in 

 the coal formations in Scotland. 



The most luxuriant and easily-grown shrub in 

 Brighton is Etwnymus Japonica, reminding one of the 

 orange trees on the Riviera. Male plants are met 

 with near warm walls. Near the sea it runs up the 

 seawall 30 feet high. Next in interest is the Japanese 

 Eleagnns glaber, having more beautiful leaves. 



Skifnmia Japonica, Pittospornm Tobira, Arbutus 

 Unedo, Raphiolepis ovata, Phillyrea ilicifolia, Garrya 

 elliptica, Mabonia Japonica, Berberis Darwiniana, and 

 Olearia Haastii are more or less pleasing, but Photinia 

 sermlata, a Chinese member of the Pomaceae, with its 

 gorgeous shining leaves, is a great ornament. 



Acanthus candelabrum is a beautiful evergreen, 

 with root leaves, shining, and two feet from point to 

 the ground, the young flower stalk is approaching 

 three feet high. 



Asphodelus luteus, last year luxuriant, now some- 

 what languishes. 



In the open Ptelea trifoliata, the hop tree, or North 



B 



