170 THE FLORIST. 



tion ; and though but little will be found throughout the volume 

 bearing upon our work as a Garden Miscellany, our readers will not 

 be displeased at our making their mouths water by the following 

 extract, which describes a garden in the Illawarra district : — 



" The property of an enterprising man who was long the master of a trading 

 vessel. Sailors always make good settlers. This garden is situate in a warm 

 hollow, and the approach to it is by means of a rustic bridge thrown over a clear 

 and rapid stream, into which droop the branches of a fine weeping willow. Pass- 

 ing the bridge, we enter an arbour covered with fuchsias, the double white moss- 

 rose, and the bignonia. The garden-hedge is of lemon, laid and trimmed like 

 a holly-hedge. On each side the middle walk, and fronting the visitor as he 

 enters, is a mass of plantain-stems (here called the banana) full thirty feet in 

 circumference, and, in the season, laden with fruit. The stems are about twelve 

 feet in height, and from them depend the beautiful purple sheaths of the 

 younger fruit. There are many plots of them about the garden ; and a bunch 

 of the fruit sells in Sydney for half-a-crown. On the sides of some of the walks 

 are orange, lemon, and shaddock trees, the citron and the flowering almond ; 

 and, on the sides of others, standard peaches, and apricots, and weeping 

 nectarines, with occasionally mulberries, and the finest varieties of pears. The 

 squares are filled with plum, apple, cherry, and medlar trees. There are two 

 very fine walnut-trees, being amongst the first that have borne in the colony. 

 Other squares between the walks, to the extent of three acres, are filled with 

 vines in full bearing. Some of the orange, lemon, and citron trees are from 

 eighteen to twenty feet in height, and have always two crops hanging on them, 

 and often three. At eight or ten years of age each of these trees produces, in 

 the course of the year, from one hundred to three hundred dozen. The pome- 

 granates are in high perfection, and the hops are said to vie with the finest from 

 Farnham. The ground is covered with melons in every variety ; whilst the as- 

 paragus-beds would bear a comparison with those of Battersea, Fulham, or 

 Putney. I must not forget to mention the loquat, raspberries, cape-goose- 

 berries and filberts. In one corner of the garden, in a damp spot, grow the osiers 

 of which they make baskets for packing the fruit. Every fruit is superior of its 

 kind ; and it appears that in this district can be grown, in the open air, all the 

 fruits of England, with all those of a tropical climate, the pine-apple excepted 

 but this succeeds, in the open air, at Moreton Bay. I must also except currants 

 and gooseberries, which do not generally succeed in the colony, except on high 

 table-land. In the stream is English watercress ; and the hawthorn is grown in 

 the garden as a memento of old England and her green lanes. The walnut 

 here bears in the tenth year, and the mulberry in the third." 



Manual of Flower- Gardening for Ladies. By J. B. Whiting. 

 London, D. Bogue. 

 This is too good a shilling's worth to be noticed upon our cover 

 only. It comes from the pen of one of our best English gardeners ; 

 and we cordially recommend it not only to our fair readers, but to 

 lovers of gardens of every degree. Truly, we have great advantages 

 in the present day, when so much good information can be obtained 

 for so small a sum. Want of space alone prevents our giving an 

 extract or two. 



ON BEDDING. OUT PELARGONIUMS. 



It has been a source of regret that the finest varieties of Pelargoniums 

 have hitherto not been found available for the decoration of our 

 flower-gardens. Who can contemplate the splendid display of this 

 beautiful tribe of plants at our metropolitan exhibitions, and not 



