November 6, 1S73. ] 



JOUENAL OF HOKTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENEK. 



353 



as the nuts of a similar plant have been found abounding in 

 the tertiary formations at the mouth of the Thames ; and 

 must have floated about there in great profusion till buried 

 deep in the salt (silt ?) and sand that now form the island of 

 Sheppey. Toung Palms of different species fill up the sur- 

 rounding benches, and on the western wall the Yauilla plani- 

 foUa is trained, yielding the famous flavouring fruit. The 

 houses forming the two arms of this stove house are devoted 

 to economic plants, both tropical and temperate. Of the 

 growth of fruits and condiments we daily eat, how few of us 

 have any knowledge; of the fibres that yield us garments, not 

 one in a hundred is as familiar as it ought to be. Here we 

 may find the Coffee tree grow, the Cotton plant bearing the 

 Cotton pods, the Clove tree, the Ginger plant, the India-rubber 

 tree, the Nutmeg tree, and a score of others that we have not 

 space to mention. The teaching power of these stove houses 

 is far beyond anything the pubhc can gain from books, because 

 here they have the facts printed, as it were, du-ect from Nature 

 upon the inquiring brain, in a manner which is pleasant and 

 rarely forgotten. Here and there Nature in her economy 

 gives us products that are almost humorous in their character. 

 Let us note, for instance, the Sack tree. By merely soaking 

 and beating its trunk, the bai-k is suflicieutly loosened to turn 

 inside out, a section of the bark being left at the end to form 

 the bottom of the sack. In the museum at the end of the 

 herbaceous garden the visitor will see one of these sacks. 

 This is an example of the application of these museums in 

 giving to the pubhc a view of the ultimate use of these eco- 

 nomic trees. 



In the northern wing of this cruciform house the visitor 

 should not forget to see the Venus's Flytrap, Diona;a mus- 

 cipula, another enigma of Nature. The irritability of the 

 lobes of the fringed blades of the leaf is so great that, upon an 

 insect alighting upon them and touching any of the minute 

 bristles upon the surfaces, they close upon it like a pair of 

 sugar-tongs and imprison it — who shall say for what ultimate 

 purpose this automatic engine of destruction was devised ? 



Striking northward towards the Palm stove which gleams in 

 the sun, let us take in our way the Water-Lily house, or 

 tropical aquarium. The small tank in this house is mainly 

 occupied by the Papyrus, the first paper-making material of 

 which we have any knowledge. The flowering stems contain 

 a pith which is cut into strips with their margins overlapping ; 

 these strips are crossed by others at right angles, and by 

 means of pressure are consoUdated into the writing paper of 

 the ancients. It seems strange that after so many thousand 

 years we should have come back to a similar material for the 

 manufacture of paper. Esparto Grass now forms the broad- 

 sheet of many London daily papers. Common straw is also 

 largely used, and the woody fibre of the Norway Pine is now 

 making its way into the market for the same manufacture. 

 Among the graceful Papyrus float several beautiful species of 

 Water LiUes, the most interesting of which is the Nymphrea 

 gigautea, an Australian Lily whose flowers, of a most delicate 

 blue, measure 12 inches across. Some of the Lotus tribe have 

 red and white blossoms. A very curious plant to be seen in a 

 tub in this house is the Water Lettuce of tropical countries, in 

 which only the skeleton appears. The triangular tanks at the 

 corners of the house are filled with the Sacred Lotus of the 

 early Egyptians, and which is so often found delineated on 

 their monuments. The graceful appearance of this plant im- 

 mediately strikes the attention independently of its interesting 

 associations with the past. We can Ukon the settiug-on of its 

 leaves to nothing more nearly than to that of the Nasturtium, 

 only their colour is of a more tender green, whilst the flower is 

 a most delicate pink, with seed-pods like a top, in the flat 

 upper surface of which the seeds are set separately at equal 

 distances. No more graceful plant could find a place in 

 private tropical aquariums than the Sacred Lotus. Near at 

 hand is the very remarkable Telegraph Plant of India, so called 

 from the spontaneous jerking motion of the lateral leaflets, 

 which are tdtemately raised and depressed. This is one of the 

 curiosities of the Gardens, and seems to hold the visitors with 

 a sort of mesmeric attraction. The Caricature plant is close at 

 hand. The variegation of the colour on its leaves often 

 assumes very curious forms, hence its name ; but we confess 

 that we have rarely seen any irregularity which could be said 

 to take the character of a caricature. But from tlieso frivohties 

 of Nature, so to speak, the eye is irresistibly attracted by the 

 lovely colour of the common Rice plant, the great food-pro- 

 ducer of the teeming millions of Asia, India, and the Southern 

 States of America. From the smaU seed-plots we see flourish- 



ing here, of the colour of the heart of a Lettuce, we can 

 imagine the delicious repose vast swamps of it must give to the 

 eye in the torrid east and on the parched plains of the south. 

 — (Edinbunjlt Ueview.) 



PARIS NOTES. 



" Bravo! John Bull," I doubt not many will say when read- 

 ing my good friend Peach's letter ou French gardening, and 

 I hope, therefore, I may not seem to be out of place if I add 

 a little of my testimony on the subject, for to my inexpressible 

 delight we were for a couple of days doing Paris together. I 

 had written to him after the Manchester Show saying how 

 happy I had been in our intercourse together this year at York, 

 Leeds, Bath, and Manchester, and now I said, " Good-bye for 

 the season, and I am off to Paris next week." How I tossed 

 up my hat and shouted when, in reply, I had a brief note to 

 say, " After all we may meet in Paris. The Dr. (we all know 

 who the only doctor is that we recognise as such), has per- 

 suaded mo to go with him to Brie-Comte-Eobert." And so we 

 did meet, and a pleasant close it was to our pleasant intercourse 

 of the year. 



I am glad that he has spoken out as he has done ou the 

 excessive laudation that has been given to the French parks, 

 etc. I protest were we to believe some books that have been 

 written on the subject we might beUeve Paris was one unbroken 

 series of grand parks, &a. Now, I maintain they have nothing 

 comparable to London. The Bois de Bouloguo is extensive, 

 but you have to drive three miles from the cen re of Paris to 

 get into it, and then you have nothing in grand trees or mas- 

 sive beauty to equal Kensington Gardens (I do not mean the 

 R.H.S.) ; while, as Mr. Peach says, there is nothing — absolutely 

 nothing, to compare with B'attersea Park, the Regent's Park, 

 or Hyde Park. The Pare Moneeaux is pretty but very tiny, 

 and the Buttes Chaumont is perhaps the most original and 

 striking of all the Paris gardens. At the same time I would 

 say one or two things to take oS a Uttle of the edge of my 

 friend's pohshed rapier. In the first place, the Paris gardens 

 are not what they were when Baron Haussmann was aidile and 

 Napoleon III. Emperor. lu my notes immediately after the 

 war I noticed the employment of commoner plants and of 

 annuals, and the same cause has doubtless prevented a com- 

 plete return to the more expensive style of the Empire. This 

 will not, of course, be any excuse for the glaring mistakes 

 noticed by Mr. Peach, any more than the badness of the pen 

 for false spelhng. Then, I thiuk, it is to be remembered that 

 it was the French who first set us the example, and that, as 

 we usually do when we really take a matter up, we go to it 

 more thoroughly, and our landscape gardening is no excep- 

 tion to this. Nor can I divest myself of the notion (I hope 

 it is not insular prejudice), that there is a fuuldness about 

 French decoration which has obtruded itself into their land- 

 scape gardening. As an example of this I may mention the 

 Square Montholon, a place about the size of a quarter of Cab- 

 bages in a good garden. Not contented with planting this, 

 and then making it a pleasant place for those who Uve in the 

 neighbourhood of the I'lUe Lafayette, they have made a small 

 waterfaU, horribly suggestive of the one in the large tent at 

 Bath. Now when a good woodcut of this is made, of course 

 it looks very pretty, but I fancy good taste revolts at it. I 

 quite agree with Mr. Peach, too, as to the poverty of the 

 mixed borders, and for all these large places I thiuk there is 

 nothing so suitable as the bedding-out system. 



With regard to fruit and vegetables there is a good deal to 

 be said as to the view he has taken. It was the time of year 

 when the POches de Montreuil were fully in. These, be it 

 remembered, are out of doors just now at Chevet's, Petal's, and 

 other first-class shops. The best were a franc a-piece, while 

 at the HaUes you could obtain some very nearly equal at about 

 eight for thi-ee francs. Well, I suppose one would not pay 

 much more for out-of-door Peaches in Covent Garden in Sep- 

 tember. Moreover, I think those much lauded have a pecuUar 

 astringent flavour, or else I was unfortunate in those I bought. 

 As to Grapes I must beg to differ from him. The Grapes from 

 Montpellier were coming in ; after them come those from the 

 middle of France, and later ou those from Fontainebleau and 

 Thomory — these are mostly the Royal Muscadine, known there 

 as the Chasselas de Fontainebleau, and very sweet and good 

 they were. The bundles had evidently been thinned and cared 

 for. Tliey were, of course, not comparable to our hothouse 

 Hamburghs or Muscats, but then you could get a poimd for 

 forty or fifty centimes ; and I know for the ten days we were 



