Kovember 13, 1S73. ] 



JOURNAL OF HOETICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



the spiral iron staircase, we have a full view of the crowns of 

 the Palm trees, and the manner of their being thrown off from 

 the main stem. The unfolding of some of the leaves may be 

 observed, showing the tender green of that portion of them 

 which has just seen the light. Some of the creepers which 

 ascend the staircase and surround the gallery show the prolific 

 nature of these plants ; and some of the llowers are magnificent 

 in colour. High, however, as we have ascended, it will ba seen 

 that the tropical trees have shot still upwards, and the flora of 

 the warm latitudes is threatening to touch the glass roof. 

 Since the introduction of glass as a protection against the 

 weather, there has been a struggle to lift it high enough to 

 keep pace with tropical growths. Like the contest between 

 guns and armour-plating, there has been an incessant struggle 

 between Art and Nature in the stove houses. At first the old 

 orangery was employed to preserve the plants and trees re- 

 <iuiring heat, but the Palms and Pines speedily shot up to its 

 comparatively-speaking low roof, and had to be cut down to 

 suit the capabilities of the house. Decimus Burton lifted this 

 roof to CU feet ; but we now see the Bamboos Ufting up their 

 verdure to the glass, and some of the Palms will shortly touch 

 it, and then — but here the contest is ended by the triumpli of 

 the trees. It may be asked. Why may not the glass roof be 

 made to lift so as to accommodate these tropic growths? 

 This, no doubt, would be easy of accomplishment by means 

 of telescopic columns that could be lilted by machinei-y ; but 

 when we remember that some of the trees now in this Palm 

 house acquire an ordinary height of from 100 to 18U feet, we 

 fear the victory must be left with Nature and the flora, inas- 

 much as Ufting the roof to anything like this height would in- 

 volve difficulties in sending heat to such altitudes. Such, at 

 at least, is the present view ; possibly a few years may enlarge 

 our ideas and our capacity for action in the matter, as it has 

 in so many o.ther cases. Meantime, we must submit to see the 

 glorious leaders of the Palms cut down and their beauty spoilt, 

 or, when they are at their greatest beauty, they must be re- 

 moved from the house and destroyed, in order to give place to 

 younger trees, which, in their turn, will be nursed at great 

 ■expense to full treehood to be in like manner degraded — a re- 

 sult, we must confess, greatly to be deplored, and most of all 

 by the learned Director of the garden, who of all men must 

 most regret to see a limit put by ai-t to the vigorous powers of 

 Mature, which his skill has done so much to foster in these 

 gardens. 



If we leave the Palm house by the middle door looking 

 towards the Sion vista or northwards, we see, radiating west 

 and east of us, two others : the vista leading past the temperate 

 house towards Sir William Chambers' pagoda, and the so- 

 ■called Cedar vista. These long avenues are not yet completed, 

 but it is sufficient to say that they are lined with Deodars and 

 with deciduous trees, those of the old world facing as a rule 

 those of the new. The Sion vista right before us was cut so 

 wide that it admits a torrent of cold air from the north, and 

 the Deodars that were planted here, for this reason or from 

 the poverty of the soil, have failed to make any growth. If 

 we follow the Pagoda vista a few hundred yards we come into 

 the pleasure-ground or new arboretum, in which the new 

 temperate house is situated. This building was built after a 

 design by Decimus Burton in 18G1. The building consists of 

 a centre 212 feet long by 137 broad. There are two octagons 

 ■50 feet in diameter, which it is intended to connect with the 

 main building by terminal wings, but as yet the plan is not 

 completed. The glass is tinted a light green by oxide of 

 copper, in order to intercept some of the heat-giving rays of 

 the sun. This arrangement is also adopted in the Palm stove. 



The planting of this house, so far away from the more culti- 

 vated part of the garden, is appropriate to the flora it contains 

 dedicated as it is mainly to .■Vustrahan forest trees, and other 

 countries in the far distant South Pacific Ocean. If we ascend 

 the staircase and look down upon the vegetation we see at a 

 glance the distinctive nature of the Australian flora, so differ- 

 ent from the vivid verdure of tlio tropics, or the deep green of 

 the vegetation of the northern latitudes, where Nature, clothed 

 in her dark Pine forests, seems to be in solemn mourning. 

 The flora of Australia, to begin with, is remarkably uniform in 

 its character. The Gum trees, including the iron and stringy- 

 bark trees, and the blue, white, swamp, and other Gums, have 

 all a uniform complexion. Wo are told that the Acacias have 

 a remarkable peculiarity in their leaves also, which aids in 

 making them colourless. " The compound, and often greatly 

 divided blade of which usually remains undeveloped, so that 

 the leaf is reduced to a stalk, which, however, to compensate 



for the want of a blade, is so much flattened as to resemble an 

 ordinary leaf. These flattened leafstalks (phyllodia) may be 

 recognised as such by their vertical direction, being attached 

 as it were edgeways to the stem." ^The accompanying figure 

 from Figuier's " Insect World " represents this description of 

 foliage. — Eds.j Near the staircase, an excellent example of 

 this curious character of the leaf, and the method of its setting- 

 on, may be observed in the Acacia melanoxylon. It can easily 

 be conceived that the vertical position of the leaves to the stem, 

 difl'ereut from the horizontal arrangement so common in trees, 

 goes a great way to produce the shadowless aspect of the flora 

 in Australian woods, which Darwin thus notices iu his " Voyage 

 of the Beagle : " — 



" The extreme uniformity of the vegetation is the most re- 

 markable feature iu the landscape of the greater part of New 

 South Wales. Everywhere we have an open woodland, the 

 ground being partially covered with a very thin pasture, with 

 little appearance of verdure. The trees nearly all beloug to one 

 family, and mostly have their leaves placed in a vertical instead 

 of, as in Europe, in an horizontal position. The foliage is scanty, 

 and of a peculiar pale gi-eeu tint, without any gloss. Hence the 

 woods appear Ughtless aud shadowless." 



One of the blue Gum trees of Australia has been planted out 

 at Kew, near the house, and is flourishing. We question, how- 

 ever, whether it will stand the severity of an English winter. 

 But in the south of France, and more especially in Portugal, 

 these Eucalypti have been introduced and cultivated with ex- 

 traordinary success. We have seen as many as two hundred 

 varieties of them iu the Botanic Garden at Coimbra, and the 

 importation of this tree is a national benefit to the Peninsula. 

 It grows very fast even iu a dry and hungry soil ; it affords ex- 

 cellent timber ; it acts as a disinfectant for unwholesome 

 places ; the bark contains an alkaloid febrifuge ; the leaves 

 may be smoked ; and its uses appear to be innumerable. 



Interspersed with these shadowless trees we have men- 

 tioned are many, however, in this house growing iu the same 

 temperate zone of a totally different character. Let us note, 

 for example, Araucaria Bidwilli — the Bunya-Bunya Pine. This 

 is really a beautiful tree with dark green glossy leaves, grow- 

 ing to from 100 to l.OO feet high, and producing large cones, 

 the seeds of which are eaten by the aborigines of Moreton Bay, 

 Australia. This Pine flowered for the first time in Europe, 

 in this house last year, aud the cone may be seen in No. 1 

 Museum, at the bottom of the ornamental water by the Palm 

 house. It is said that these trees form the only hereditary 

 property which any of the aborigines are known to possess ; 

 each tribe possessing its own group of trees, which pass on from 

 generation to generation. — (Edinhurgh lieview.) 



ERRORS IN ROSE CULTURE— SELECTIONS 

 FOR EXHIBITION AND BORDERS. 



That too much cannot be said about Roses is my excuse 

 for troubling you with this letter. It is impossible to find a 

 heavier soil than mine. It is a soil par excellence for the 

 Briar, as anyone would say who saw the way my stocks take 

 to it, and the vigorous growth they make. Out of seven hun- 

 dred last year I do not think I had twenty that did not grow 

 well and prove fit for budding ; but, with all that, I must say 

 I prefer the Manetti as a stock. The Roses I cut from the 

 maidens are as a rule finer than those cut from the maiden 

 Briar, and the second season there can be no comparison. 



I have grown Roses here for five seasons, and I now think 

 I have hit upon the secret of success. At first I lost many 

 plants in the way my friend Mr. Camm describes, aud I thought 

 my ground too rich and heavy for the Manetti and nearly 

 discarded it ; but I must own the fault was entirely owing to 

 what Mr. Peach says in his letter on pages 333 and_ 334 — I 

 over-mulched aud coddled. 



Last year I planted a bed mostly with Manetti stocks budded 

 by myself in my own soil. I put but very little manure, but 

 a very large quantity of burnt clay. I kept the soil constantly 

 pricked-up so as to admit the air, and from that bed I picked 

 all my best blooms, and had scarcely any fungus or mildew, 

 which prevailed to a great extent with the others. I believe 

 the secret of growing the Rose on the Manetti in a heavy soil 

 is to keep the ground open, and to avoid much manure when 

 the plant is not in active growth. I believe constant lifting 

 and redigging the beds imparts fresh hfo to the plants, and is 

 followed by a strong healthy growth. So satisfied am I that 

 the Manetti is the. stock, that I shall use nothing else this next 

 season for Perpetuals 



