October 17, 18B7. ) 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIO0LTDBE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. 



295 



Madame Vaucher. Mr. Stewart has arrived in bis practice at 

 the cooolnsion that nothiti); bat varieties of distinct colonrs 

 and of good constitution will do ; and I have seen many illns- 

 trations that indiscriminate cros'iing with Versicolors results in 

 splashed iiroductions, which will remain to worry and tantalise 

 for two, throe, or more years, nnd then have to ho thrown on 

 the rubbish heap. Nevertheless, some of Mr. Stewart's seed- 

 lings could well hold up their heads side by side with many, 

 very many, that I have seen shown. Varieties of Amaryllis, 

 trained exhibition plants, *c., filled up this house for temporary 

 convenience. 



Between the stove and first vinery the intermediate space is 

 nnglazed, and hero the stokehole is entered ; after examining 

 the sites of the now boilers, I went through the vineries, one 

 after another. Those who have had deep trenches cnt out at 

 the back to the full lengths of their vineries, when fruit is 

 ripe, and rows of pipes fixed iit the sides and front npon the 

 borders, need scarcely be told the state of anxiety in which Mr. 

 Stewart was, nor of the various muslin and canvas contrivances 

 which ho had in use to keep the resulting dust and dirt from 

 the Grapes. These inside borders had been made nncummonly 

 well, as where the trenches were dug out for the return-pipes, 

 the soil was of a friable, light texture, and thoroughly inter- 

 seeted by fibrous roots. This vinery, being nearest the 

 boiler, is the early house, and was occupied with Muscat of 

 Alexandria, Canon Hall Muscat, and West's St. Peter's Vines. 

 I observed that Mr. Stewart wisely advocates the outside borders 

 from their flank extremities being aired, and the inside space 

 at the same time supplied with air by means of glazed sewage- 

 pipes sunk 2 feet deep, and about 2 yards apart, rising with bent 

 elbows just within the hoiise, between the hot-water pipes and 

 the wall plates in front. The houses themselves are not very 

 modern, plenty of timber entering into their construction. 



Passing through a glass partition I entered a compartment 

 devoted to Black Hnmburghs, and then a house occupied with 

 very old Vines of the same ever-useful Grape, but these after 

 bearing next April, are to bo rooted out to make way for young 

 Vines. The next and last of the houses of this section is very 

 interesting. The roof is now covered with fine two-year-old 

 Black AUcante, Tottenham Park Muscat, and Lady Powne's 

 Vines, six in number, and the sorts placed alternately. Mr. 

 Stewart has a ver>- high opinion of the Black Alicante. He 

 has cut very fine bunches of it this season, and those which 

 I tasted were certainly bordering on first-rate, and but for the 

 improvements going on would no doubt have been quite so. 

 One of the finest symmetrically-trained Fig trees I ever saw, 

 a White Marseilles, (i3 feet in length, by 12 feet high, covers 

 the entire back wall of this late vinery. The foliage was 

 ripening off in perfect health, and the tree had carried its 

 second crop by bushels. It is generally started about the 1st 

 of December, and by about the 1st of March the Figs have 

 arrived at that stage — pay the blossoming period, when a pin 

 may be admitted down the centre of the Fig easily, and with- 

 ont injniy. Then, on their account, is the time, for a while, 

 to maintain a dry atmosphere. This house is during the 

 winter and spring principally devoted to Dwarf Kidney Beans, 

 and in the meantime the Vines are laid down horizontally along 

 the front enclosed in dry straw, and wound with dry haybands, 

 which are kept dry. Until about the 1st of March, wlien root- 

 action naturally begins, Mr. Stewart is quite contented to allow 

 the Vine rods to repose air-tight in their dry envelopes ; until 

 root-action begin, whatevermay be the atmospheric temperature, 

 the Vines do not attempt to break. I quite envy him this 

 faonse and its products. 



It was most pleasing on quitting this vinery to look upon a 

 long continuation of the south wall to the bottom of the gar- 

 den covered with Pear trees in luxuriant health, and bearing 

 fine fruit. T well remember the fine Pear wall at Frogmore, 

 but this pleased me better. The trees are chiefly trained hori- 

 zontally, occasionally with weeping cordons fas I call themi in 

 the intervals — that is to say, a stem is allowed to grow to the top 

 of the wall, clean and straight as a ramrod, then made to strike 

 off right and left like the letter T, having four pinched-in 

 branches grown equidistant at right angles downwards to the 

 bottom of the wall. I need not dwell upon the sorts : they con- 

 sist of Dnchesse d'AngouUmc, Marie Louise, and the best of 

 the early Pears. The south border here is chiefly occupied with 

 plants of Keens' Seedling and President Strawberries, which 

 were forced, and planted out merely to produce one more crop 

 next spring about ten days earlier than those in established 

 beds. The open quarters in this division of the garden are chiefly 

 cropped with exceedingly fine Celery, in rows quite 5 feet apart, 



;o as to allow of the Peas becoming the next occupants on their 

 exact sites. Espaliers and weeping pyramidal Pear trees take 

 positions alternately in parallelograms by the sides of the walks, 

 and arc this year without a crop of fruit, aa at other places 

 generally. 



The west wall for its entire length along the bottom of the 

 garden, may be said to be devoted to Plums of the best kinds, 

 and the wasps were carrying havoc amongst them, although 

 many of Mr. Fish's double garden-hand-light traps were placed 

 to decoy them to destruction. 



The north wall of this compartment is furnished with White 

 Dutch Currant, and Kaby Castle Red Currant, in cordons, and 

 bearing quantities of very large fruit. Mr. Stewart said that 

 they never thought of giving up Currant and Raspberry tartS 

 until Christmas. This north border is occupied with bedding- 

 out plants for the spring decoration of the flower garden. 

 These were here chietly seedling Polyanthuses and I'ansies, 

 white, bine, and yellow ; but the cuttings of the latter sort dis- 

 tinguished themselves by a sort of mildew-like damping-oflthis 

 year, which is puzzling. About half way up this north wall, 

 and leaning against it, is situated the Fern-house, containing 

 a good collection in perfection, the Maiden-hair Fern showing 

 most conspicuously, as it is required most for bouquets and 

 other garnishing purposes. .\ sfriiikling of orchidaceous plants 

 is also here, constituting the advanced guard of an oncoming 

 collection, when the new heating arrangements are completed. 



Running in an easterly direction and striking across towards 

 the vinery borders, is a wall forming the back of the wheel- 

 barrow shed, and against it is a tree of Calebasse Grosse Pear, 

 hearing an enormous crop of its immense fruit ; then turning 

 sharp again to the left, against a north wall I found an open 

 shed roofed with glass, where are temporarily deposited Ca- 

 mellias with the plumpest of buds. Azaleas with the hardest 

 crowns, and Heaths, Epacrises, Coronillas, Cytisuses, and 

 hardwooded plants, together with old named varieties of Cine- 

 rarias, to blossom at Christmas. There were also lights con- 

 taining numerous seedling Cinerarias. Along the edge of the 

 Vine borders I noticed a choice collection of Dahlias, a few of 

 which I will describe as being the most select. These were 

 Hercules (Fancy), a large showy flower for a bed at a distance ; 

 Mrs. Savory, a slight violet-tipped flower ; Glory, a better 

 flower than Mrs. Savory, with the ground colour of the latter, 

 without being tipped ; Hero, of a peculiar, perhaps a dingy 

 buff, with a pretty violet centre ; Prospero (F'ancy), deep peach 

 blossom, very good and pretty ; Queen of Primroses, a good 

 flower, and pleasing as its patronymic ; Epaulette, a yellowish 

 buff variety; Golden Admiration, the best of all the goldens ; 

 and a new seedling Fancy, raised by Mr. Stewart, and on which 

 I afterw.ards congratulated him when I saw it in the flower gar- 

 den, as it will, 1 think, be considered first-rate. To enter upon 

 colours without a lady at one's elbow is a desperat* venture, 

 but I will say that I consider the ground colour is a magenta 

 suffused with pink, and the petals rayed with unconfused dark 

 crimson stripes. 



Returning to the Fern-house I entered a yard, wherein, and 

 along the continuation of the north wall, were the Camellia and 

 Azalea-houses, then empty and undergoing the operations of 

 cleaning and painting. Pits and frames, also, in this yard con- 

 tained Pelargoniums, of both new and old kinds, training in 

 preparation for exhibition ; also Teiegraph Cucumber, the old 

 smooth-skinned, and the newer, rougher and better variety of 

 it. Mr. Stewart observed, that for the last nine years he had 

 been in a position to cut a Cuotm[iber every day. — Upwabds 

 .*.XD Onw-ikus. 



(To be continncd.) 



PJANTING A SMALL TOWN GAEDEN. 



I AM confined by illness to my room looking on a small 

 garden behind my house some 50 feet square. It possesses 

 a fine Almond tree, a rockery, some small Hollies, and a closed 

 tool shed, but is now an uneven croquet lawn. I have had large 

 gardens in the country-, but till now have never had a smaU 

 garden, or one in Loudon, for I live in the south-west neigh- 

 bourhood of Hyde Park ; the soil is gravel, the situation re- 

 markably open and airy, and I have not seen a single smutty 

 leaf from my garden. The few herbaceous plants in the border 

 thrive well. 



I want to make my little garden a little gem of brightness, 

 and as fragrant as bright next spring, and I want to know how 

 to begin and what [and when Jto plant. What Ferns would do 



