FOREIGN AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



the second, <as obstructing the action of the sun 

 on tlie border. Another gentleman insisted 

 upon robbing the dog kennel, and feeding Vines 

 upon lu)rsertesh, animal manure being more 

 potent than vegetable. Nevertheless, to our 

 astonishment, an experienced cultivator plants 

 liis Vines in his roadway, formed of clinkers, 

 brickbats, and similar rubbish, and ripens most 

 satisfactorily two crops of Grapes in a season. 

 Another gentleman, who set himself up as a 

 great authority, insisted — in fact, wrote a book 

 about it — that good grapes could only be grown 

 by having their roots cemented in a brick pillar. 

 Mystery after mystery presents itself, and not 

 the least appears when we stumble upon the 

 great Vine at Cumberland Lodge. Tliis mon- 

 ster, loaded with 2000 large bunches of Grapes, 

 as black as Damsons, must surely have had 

 some leviathan ' practical' to cook his border. 

 Let us read its history. Some 50 years ago it 

 was found in a small Cucumber pit. The plant 

 seemed to like its situation, for it soon outgrew 

 this limited abode. It became necessary to ex- 

 tend the .shelter; and this has been twice done, 

 until the pit, for it can hardly be called a house, 

 is 138 feet long, and Itt feet wide. Incredible 

 as it may appear, the stem of this Vine mea- 

 sures 2 feet 9 inches in circumference ; and when 

 we saw it about a month ago, this immense 

 crop was ripe, the bunches were large, so were 

 the berries; besides, they were black, not 

 brown, and the foliage as vigorous and green 

 as in June. The entire aspect of this house 

 presented a perfect and most instructive whole. 

 There were no brown bunches here and black 

 ones there — no missing at one end of the rafter, 

 and clustering and huddling at the other. It 

 would, in fact, have defied mechanical skill to 

 have distributed the bunches with greater re- 

 gularity. The size of the bunches, likewise, 

 was nearly uniform — not a shaggy one here and 

 a monster there ; for, as we find Stilton cheeses, 

 so these were nearly of one weight and make. 



" Now we come to the great problem which 

 is to resolve all this wonderful development — 

 the border; and, by Mr. Ingram's kindness, 

 we were permitted to dig several holes, to as- 

 certain its composition, its mechanical construc- 

 tion, and to ponder upon the wisdom and fore- 

 sight of some great royal gardener. We did 

 for a moment entertain the idea that one of 

 the craft, adorned with a blue apron, bearing 

 mysterious wisdom in his countenance, and 

 practice in his whole deportment, must have 

 been concerned in an undertaking which has 

 produced such marvellous results. We entered 

 upon our tusk, then, under the impression of 

 revealing to tlie world a grand secret, and so 

 we sliali. Without difficulty or serious ob- 

 struction we readily got through 2 feet of com- 

 mon garden soil; neither encountering a brick- 

 bat nor a clinker, a horse's leg nor a'bullock's 

 head. There was no evidence of compound 

 manures or simple quackery ; the ground was 

 as natural as if it had remained untouched 

 smce the Deluge; for immediately beneath this 



2 feet of ordinary soil we came upon blue clay 

 — with a portion of sand intermixed with it. 

 Such clay, indeed, as we should be glad to run 

 against, were we about to form a pond and in 

 want of puddle! !" 



It is 12 years since we la.«it saw this plant, 

 but it then promised to become all that it is 

 now described to be ; the circumstances under 

 which it grew are fresh in our recollection, and 

 entirely confirm our correspondent's descrip- 

 tion; a mass of the gravel and clay over which 

 it grows is before us, and is too hard to be 

 broken by the hands; a sample of its beautiful 

 fruit was exhibited at the last meeting of the 

 Horticultural Society in Regent-street, and 

 wholly answered to the character just given of 

 it. 



Here, then, a Vine, whose roots are not in a 

 sewer or any such place, but in ordinary gar- 

 den ground, resting on a coarse hard gravelly 

 clay, covers about the same space as its cele- 

 brated rival, and bears twice as many Grapes, 

 of the highest excellence. Surely we have in 

 this a striking example of the folly of spending 

 large sums in preparing vast borders out of 

 costly materials, of which the Vine has no real 

 need. No doubt the Vine border at Cumber- 

 land Lodge was prepared originally from good 

 materials, such as our predecessors thought 

 suitable to its nature; and that amount of pre- 

 paration was necessary, in order to enable it to 

 establish itself securely in the earth. But for 

 this a small quantity of materials was sufficient; 

 and, once established in soil that it likes, the 

 Vine needs little further care. Its chief desire 

 is to have a warm, light, dry, shallow bor- 

 der, and that is precisely what it gets at Cum- 

 berland Lodge. — Gardeners' Chronicle. 



Planting Roses. — The beauty and interest 

 which a garden affords depend greatly upon the 

 disposition of its individual parts, even the ar- 

 ranging and planting of a single bed require 

 experienced taste, in order to produce effective 

 display. Take, for example, a Rose bed; 

 imagine the kinds to be indiscriminately mixed, 

 and no attention to have been paid to their 

 respective heights, and the effect produced by 

 such a medley assemblage will be immediately 

 felt by any person possessing taste, and accus- 

 tomed to observation. Let us farther suppose 

 such a bed to be circular, and the effects will 

 be as bad as it well could be, unless the object 

 aimed at was to represent wild nature. The 

 taller plant ^^should have been placed in the 

 center, and the others arranged so as gradually 

 to fall to the outer rim. This arrangement 

 would advance us a step; but let us proceed 

 further, and dispose of the trees in zones or 

 circles. In tliis way we give the bed the ex- 

 pression of design. For be it clearly understood 

 that we are discussing gardening in an artificial 

 sense. Now let us go a little further still, and 

 consider whether there be not yet roor 

 improvement; suppose we i)lant one c< 

 the center circle, and so change each circle 



