221 



BRITISH POLYPODIES. 



Close beside my garden-house, where 

 I enjoy an occasional quiet hour, lis- 

 tening to blackbirds, thrushes, robins, 

 nightingales, and other birds that 

 abound at Stoke Newington in the 

 several seasons of the year, when 

 they make the garden melodious, I 

 have what is ordinarily denominated 

 a rockery. This was constructed to 

 answer several purposes. It serves 

 as a screen to shut out from view the 

 houses, pits, and sheds which lie 

 beyond, and which were somewhat of 

 an eyesore previous to its construc- 

 tion, for the hard work done here 

 necessitates an occasional litter and 

 display of mats, poles, and various 

 forms of confusion and gawkiness. 

 It serves this purpose completely, for 

 it makes a distinct termination to the 

 ornamental portion of the ground, 

 and is the limit of the walk down for 

 visitors. Those who go beyond must 

 risk it. Another purpose served by 

 it is to shut in my retreat, and to in- 

 sure for it privacy, so that I can pur- 

 sue my literary labours there, and it 

 is in that nook I write most of my 

 gardening books and papers during 

 the summer, and as far into the au- 

 tumn as it is possible to sit in a 

 wigwam, open on one side to the hea- 

 venly breezes, and to the possibility 

 of rheumatics and toothache, if the 

 indulgence is carried too far during 

 ungenial weather. The third and 

 most important purpose of the struc- 

 ture is to serve as a nidus (that is, you 

 know, the classic term for "nest"), 

 for various ferns, succulents, and mis- 

 cellaneous herbaceous plants tl at need 

 to be grown in elevated positions or 

 damp, shady hollows — for plants of 

 any kind, in fact, that are appropriate 

 to a ruin. It was constructed in May 

 last, and took the place of a bank, on 

 which was planted a selection of coni- 

 ferous trees. It needs mention here, 

 because in it, or on it, I planted some 

 time in June last all the species and 

 many varieties of British Polypodies, 

 and though the summer of 1864 was 

 not favourable to newly-planted ferns, 

 all my pets in this rockery have done 

 well, and when I take a survey of 



the scene, I am inclined to be some- 

 what astonished at the luxuriance of 

 the plants, and their perfectly happy 

 state in a spot so near to the great 

 smoke cloud that perpetually en- 

 shrouds the great metropolis. I shall 

 hope some day to figure this rockery 

 in continuation of the series of 

 sketches from my garden, but in the 

 meantime will endeavour to give an 

 idea of the scheme. There is a walk 

 down the garden with grass on each 

 side ; this walk is at last interrupted 

 by a central circular bed of rhodo- 

 dendrons, and hence the walk parts 

 both ways, and forms a circle uniting 

 again beyond the bed, and there on 

 the left hand is the " summer-house," 

 where I am now sitting to prepare 

 the present number of the Flobal 

 Woeld. The short walk into the 

 summer-house has a corresponding 

 short walk on the opposite side, but 

 that walk leads into an irregular 

 rockery, consisting of a series of bays 

 and iris and outs, the view across, 

 which is interrupted by some large 

 old trunks of trees, in which various 

 suitable subjects are planted, and 

 again right opposite the entrance to 

 the wigwam, the view is bounded by 

 a privet hedge, against which the 

 higher parts of the bank, rising from 

 the bays, terminate. The main walk, 

 which has these two features on the 

 left and right of it, passes at this 

 point between two semicircular walks 

 about sis feet high, formed entirely 

 of burrs, and filled in with soil, and 

 at each end of these walls they are 

 spanned by arches. In the gap be- 

 tween the wall and the summer-house 

 are some fine tree stumps planted with 

 grasses; below these, rough banks and 

 rockeries planted with ferns ; and thus 

 it is only by means of a few peep- 

 holes in the artificial ruin that I can 

 get a view of the lower part of the 

 garden, which is thus practically 

 screened from view by the ruin, and 

 the trees, ai:d the ferns. The walls 

 are in the fashion of a bastion, and 

 present four faces for plants ; in all 

 the sunny positions there are sedums, 

 sempervivums, and mesembryanthe- 



