374 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[ Dt'.citmber, 



stock almost sure to ^row, though of any size. 

 Of course I ask myself why cannot wo have such 

 thinj::s? Why cannot a man or woman incur 

 country plant a place at once like a perfect pic- 

 ture, instead of waiting until the clay they die to 

 know the trees have grown, and these only to be 

 cut away by the next inheritor, who sees only 

 " vahiable building lots " at hand? Only because 

 nurserymen here cannot afford to treat the plants 

 suitably at ruling prices. A long avenue of Arau- 

 caria imbricata here is worth any one's going to 

 see. One which I measured was 70 feet round in 

 the spread of it^ branches, and eight feet and a half 

 in the circumference of its beautiful straight 

 trunk. If my memory is true, it is but about 13 

 years old. The large pine-applc-like cones on 

 the bearing trees, add much to their striking 

 effect. 



I was anxious to see a trade nurser}-. Be it 

 known that London is in a measure all England. 

 If a person in any part of the little island wants 

 anything whatever, the first thought is to "send 

 to London for it." And so orders for trees and 

 flowers of any kind whatever, go to London. 

 Now one cannot have nurseries or greenhouses 

 to any great extent in a crowded place like that, 

 in which there are more people than in all Penn- 

 sylvania ! So those who sell have persons in the 

 suburbs who supply their needs on short no- 

 tice. These places are called nurseries which 

 "grow stock for the London trade." One of the 

 best known of these is, pei'haps, Cutbush's of 

 Barnet. The great especial feature is the Holly, 

 of which an enormous quantity in endless 

 variety are grown. Of course I admired their 

 beauty in a general way, but as we cannot have 

 these beautiful things in our countr}', I showed 

 I fear, little interest in the " Microphylla gran- 

 dens," the " Purpurea feroxes " and the " Angu- 

 loruni foliolorums " on which my guide so fondly 

 dwelt ; and it was not till I found myself among 

 the pretty Heaths, Epacrises, Acacias and other 

 beauties of New Holland, of which hundreds of 

 thousands are here raised and sold, that I seemed 

 to regain a reputation as a person of ordinary in- 

 telligence. Most of the things grown of this char- 

 acter are still the Boronias, Dracophyllums, and 

 similar old stagers, which were popular when us 

 gray beards were 'prentice boys— Genitjdis tulipi- 

 fera being one of the few favorites grown in im- 

 mense quantity, that were not much about in the 

 olden time. To grow grapes in pots — hot-house 

 grapes as we may say — for the London trade, is 

 also a specialty here. They know how to grow 



them — ten feet of good strong wood in a season. 

 This is the way all do in this business. They 

 grow only a few articles that they have learned 

 to grow well. 



We will now miss a few days' work, and take 

 an omnibus ride from Charing Cress to what wo 

 understood everybody to say the Bulingate, 

 which translated, means "Bull and Gale." It 

 must, no doubt, have been a fearful gate in old 

 Bovine times; but it has probably been all car- 

 ried off by the relic hunters, for when the gentle- 

 manly guard informed us that we were at " the 

 gate," I failed to find a solitary splinter even of 

 its post. But I took a " tramway " from there, 

 and about noon came on the famous "show" 

 nursery of the Williams' at Upper Holloway. 

 The main feature is stove and greenhouse plants, 

 and the aim is not only to have everything new 

 to be found in the trade, but everything new and 

 good before any one else, if possible. When 

 Mr. Williams, Sen., began, he found little trade, 

 because people did not know what good things 

 were, so he determined to grow them to perfec- 

 tion, and exhibit them through the world. Hia 

 beautiful collection at our Centennial was a great 

 feat. He could not, of course, trust his best spe- 

 cimens so fiir, but it was wonderful that he did 

 so well as he did. His son had just returned 

 from Portugal as I was there, with the grand 

 medal of honor for his exhibit at their great 

 show at Oporto. Young Mr. Williams left a good 

 opinion of his gentlemanly character and busi- 

 ness intelligence behind him in America, and it 

 was a pleasure to me to find him everywhere 

 highly spoken of in his own country. Few peo- 

 ple who are ftxmiliar only with plants as seen at 

 our American exhibitions, can have any idea of 

 plants as they are when grown as Mr. Williams 

 grows them. Azaleas four to six feet high, and 

 so perfect that not a leaf is misplaced ; but in 

 these we are not so far behind, as a visit to 

 Mr. Sargent's in Brookline in March, at least will 

 show. Croton Johannis six feet high ; Ixoras with 

 flower heads six inches over; Adiantum Farley- 

 ense, solid globes, three feet through ; Draco- 

 phyllum gracile with two hundred heads of 

 flowers ; Ericas about six feet high by four wide, 

 with thousands of flowers; A Draccena rubra, 

 with fifty perfect leaves; Statice Holfordi four 

 feet' by two; an orchid Sobralia macrantha, with 

 forty open flowers; Cypripedium barbatum, in 

 an eighteen-inch pan, Avith thirty-five flowers ; 

 a Dicksonia sixteen feet high and four feet round. 

 These are but faint samples of hundreds of other 



