270 THE FLORIST. 



weigh from two to three pounds each. In fact, everything, both in- 

 doors and out-doors, is in the best possible state, and reflects the highest 

 credit on Mr. Abbott. Every part of the place is also in the neatest 

 order and good keeping. 



Before closing this brief and imperfect notice of this beautiful place, 

 we may remark that the spot where once flourished the ' original ' 

 Ribston Pippin, is about 200 yards distant from the principal entrance to 

 the gardens. Mr. Dent has enclosed it (the spot) with a substantial wire 

 fence. A young tree, said to be a sucker from the original, is growing 

 where the parent tree stood ; it grows pretty freely, but the stem is not 

 a clean, healthy one, and some of the last season's wood is dead, so 

 that it is not likely to attain either a large size or great age. 



Beta. 



FERNS AND MOSSES. 



It has often been a source of wonder to me that man, wth all his 

 imitative powers — more especially the gardening class — has not made 

 Ferns and Mosses more subservient to the many decorative purposes 

 to which they are so appropriate, and to which a bountiful Creator has 

 set so liberal an example in the decoration of the universe — from pole 

 to pole, from the torrid to the frigid zones, on the mountain's top and 

 the cavern's shade, and from the tropics' heat to Iceland's cold, are to 

 be found those unassuming yet most beautiful of Nature's adornments. 

 Yes, most beautiful ! For instance, take a small portion of one of these 

 plants, and examine its every part. See the chasteness of its general 

 outline ; see the accuracy of its divisions and incisions ; see the won- 

 derful organisation of its fructiferous organs ; see the wonderful and 

 distinct formation of the same in thei;c every genera. In one you will 

 find its fronds studded with small circular golden forms ; in another 

 you will see a brown marginal band, encircling its every incision ; and 

 upon another, the reproductive organs are produced in broad parallel 

 stripes ; then, again, kidney-shaped, &c. Then examine its every 

 species, and see the extraordinary and distinct shape and make of each, 

 together with their elegant and very graceful appearance, and then say 

 if the class Cryptogamia is not one of the most interesting and beautiful 

 of all inanimate creation. 



Then why not bring this class more generally into use ? Is it 

 because they wiU not thrive in our shrubberies ? — or won't they do on 

 the margins of our ponds and lakes ? — or won't they grow and cover 

 with a face of green our old unsightly walls and buildings, and stumps 

 of old trees ? — or, is it even our cottage itself that Ferns and Mosses 

 win not do upon ? I answer in the affirmative ; for many of our most 

 handsome and hardy species luxuriate in such localities. Then, again, 

 for the nooks and corners of our stoves and forcing-houses, &c., where 

 can we find anything more at home thah Ferns, whether in pots, or 

 springing out from the holes and crevices that otherwise would be un- 



