MRS. LAAVRENCE'S GARDEN. 



As it deserves, the plant here receives every attention. It is placed near the back of the 

 house, and grows in a large tub, plunged in a bed of bark. An extra heating pipe passes 

 round the plant, within about two yards of the tub, and an open zinc gutter for contain- 

 ing water is fixed to the top of this pipe. In the front of the plant is a small basin for 

 aquatic plants; and provision is made for spreading over the plant, beneath the glass, an 

 oiled calico screen, which runs on rollers, and which, when used, at once furnishes any 

 required shade, and protects the leaves of the plant from the water that might drop fiom 

 the roof. A high temperature and a most atmosphere are preserved. 



Besides some interesting aquatics, a number of gold fish are kept in the basin opposite 

 the j^mherstia, which is, moreover, furnished with a fountain. The back wall of this 

 house is also partly clothed with ferns and orchids, and a few of the more purely tropical 

 stove plants and orchids are placed at the sides of the house; but a considerable open 

 space is wisely preserved in the middle, so as to give more consequence to the Jlmherstia, 

 and cause it to be better seen. The Barringtonia, with its noble leaves, seems quite at 

 home in this close stove; and there is a large plant of the curious Grammatophyllum, v;\th 

 a very beautiful climbing Lycopodium, which has large bluish fronds. 



One of two small orchid houses on either side of that which contains the j^mherstia, 

 is used for Mexican species, and the other for such as require a rather higher temperature. 

 The collection of both these tribes is good, and the plants well grown, but not remarka- 

 ble. By the side of the paved path, and partly under the stage, there is an open channel 

 or gutter provided for carrying off any water that may be used in syringing the plants or 

 washing the paths. 



Behind the larger group of houses there is a very nice heath house, with a western as- 

 pect, and full of the choicest specimens in admirable health. Other and smaller houses 

 are devoted to Pelargoniums, which are placed on stages, to Azaleas, to stove plants re- 

 quiring bottom heat, and to miscellaneous articles. The Azaleas stand in pots, like the 

 green-house specimens, and are most splendid examples of cultivation. As with the 

 green-house plants, (and also with the heaths,) there are successional or younger speci- 

 mens, which are preparing to supply the place of the larger ones when these Avear out or 

 become shabby. 



A small stove, which contains a bark bed, in addition to the usual heating power, is al- 

 most wholly filled with Ixoras of different kinds, plunged in the bark. They are superb 

 ■plants, and this method of treatment keeps them very luxuriant. /. javanica, which is 

 nearly new, has attained a considerable size here, and produces its pale orange flowers 

 most profusely. An extraordinary specimen of Gardenia Fortuni, some Rondeletias, &c., 

 are kept in this house likewise; and a wire trellis is beautifully covered with the charm- 

 ing Dipladenia crassinoda. Another small stove, with a similar bark bed in the center 

 and heated by a tank traversed with hot-water pipes beneath the bark bed, is occupied 

 with various kinds of ^schynanthus, Gardenias, and such other plants as flourish best 

 with bottom heat. The very best eff"ects result from this mode of plunging certain kinds 

 of stove plants in a material supplying bottom heat, as they never thrive half so well 

 under any other system of management. 



A span-roofed house has lately been built for the East Indian orchids, on the north 

 side of the area containing the plant-houses. It is heated by hot-water pipes, which pass 

 all round it in the ordinary way, and has no other heating material. The species belon"-- 

 ing to the Vanda tribe are chiefly grown here. There are some noble plants of j^erides 

 j^rgrcBcum eburncum. And the entire contents of the house are so excellent 

 are only surpassed by Mr. Rucker's collection. It is a most desirable plan th 



