484 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1891. 



a beautiful garden, where the landscape gardener's art can be seen 

 to great advantage. Mr. Storey is the presiding genius of this 

 sylvan retreat, and well has he turned to account every natural 

 advantage. The flora of Rajputana is not very rich in ornamental 

 trees or shrubs, that is, of indigenous species ; so that everything in 

 the shape of ornamental shrubs has been imported ; and being placed 

 in conditions most suited to their wants, have developed into their 

 best forms. The globe trotter cannot do better than pay a visit to 

 Oodeypore if he wishes to see something really unique in the way 

 of landscape gardening. 



Among the native princes of Bengal one of the most enlightened 

 is the Maharaja of Durbhunga, whose rule has been marked by the 

 construction of some really useful works of public utility. Among 

 the most beautiful of these is the splendid garden, laid out and 

 stocked by Mr. Charles Maries, now at Gwalior. This gentleman 

 was for several years at Durbhunga, where he has left abundant 

 evidences of his skill as a landscape gardener. One of the finest 

 plant houses I have ever seen is that put up by Mr. Maries at Dur- 

 bhunga ; while in the matter of stocking it with rare and choice 

 plants, it will bear favourable comparison with the splendid structure 

 in the Royal Botanical Gardens at Seebpore, near Calcutta — the 

 work of Mr. Parsons, now in charge of the Anandale Gardens at 

 Simla. The style of gardening affected by Mr. Maries at Durbhunga 

 is the natural, or what may more properly be termed the " gardenes- 

 que," style. The clumping together of shrubs, according to their 

 habit of growth and size, forms a special feature of this garden; and 

 this is the style which, in my humble opinion, is the most suited to 

 Indian gardens. We out here possess a very large and varied collec- 

 tion of ornamental shrubs, well adapted for massing ; and grown in 

 this way their effect is very striking. A judicious sprinkling of 

 geometrically laid out beds cut out in Doob grass ; with borders 

 divided off into ovals and circles formed with Doob grass, seems to 

 me to be all that is necessary in this line in a garden of moderate 

 extent ; and this happy medium has been well observed at Durbhunga. 

 I am not aware if a successor has been found for Mr. Maries at this 

 place, as I was there a few years back, when he had just left. 



It is out of the province of this paper to deal with gardens not 



