1873.] POPULUS SIJIONI. 175 



make a new place look clotlied ; and aa tliere happened to be some hundreds of 

 acres of common close by, I liad recourse to the Wilderness to improve the 

 Garden, and got splendid specimens of dwarf shrubs, and by carrying a 

 body of soil along with each plant the sods contained all the elements 

 needed, and the plants flowered as well in the garden as if they had remained 

 on the moor. 



When I was at Alton Towers, I made a collection of all the hardy heaths 

 that were in the trade at the time, and grew them together in one place. The 

 edgings to the beds were made of heath, and the specimens were made of hillocks 

 of one kind, with stones so that the centre should be raised, to take off the flat 

 and tame character that plants all of one height would have. The effect in the 

 season of flowering was excellent, but judge of my surprise when I got an order 

 to have the whole of them removed, for it must be confessed that they were not 

 handsome when not in flower, as Sir Walter Scott has borne witness, when he 

 writes, " land of brown heath," and alas ! it was when my heather was brown that 

 her ladyship slighted it, and got it ordered for removal, very much against her 

 loving lord's wishes. He bade her wait till it was in bloom, and assured her 

 that she would then be delighted with it, as he himself had been. Now although 

 that argument was lost, and could not save the removal of the hardy heaths, it is 

 valuable now, to show that a nobleman who knew the plants well by that excel- 

 lent test, " liaving paid for them" admired a collection of hardy heaths, and re- 

 gretted that they should be sacrificed because they were not always in bloom. 

 Collections of Cape Heaths in-doors were at one time common, enough, and the 

 late Mr. McNab, of Edinburgh, got great credit for cultivating them in a natural 

 way with lumps of sandstone among the soil, just as he saw heaths grow on his 

 native hills. All the fine hair-rooted plants require this style of growing them, 

 and as hillocks of stones and sandy peat may be made of various shapes and sizes, 

 much may be accomplished at comparatively little cost in this way, if there be a 

 heather hill near, or a thorny brake, or a " Weary-foot " common within reach. 

 Then a goodly part of the materials will be got for little more than the fetching. 

 In the West of England the Erica austrcdis stood the winter well, and yielded cut 

 flowers in spring. I have written this in order that parties may judge for them- 

 selves of the beauties of heather, and should any one attempt a heath parterre, as 

 I did, I would take the precaution, were I in his shoes, to consult both heads of 

 the family before going to any expense or trouble in the matter. Vevbum sap. — 

 Alex. Foestth, Salford. 



POPULUS SIMONI. 



, HIS fine species of Poplar, which belongs to the balsamiferous g'roup, was 

 introduced from China to the garden of the Paris Museum, by M. Simon, 

 some ten or twelve years ago. It is described as being a vigorous hardy 

 tree, with a thin straight stem, and long spreading branches, clothed with 

 ved-brown bark, which is marked here and there with small white linear lenticels. 



