March 5, 1868. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTIOULTUKE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



187 



Althouf^b not annonnced at the Meeting, we may add that the 

 amount alrondy BubHC-ibed as special prizes for the Society's Great 

 yhow ut Leicester iu July next, akeady exccuJs £370. 



THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY AND 

 ITS GARDENS. 



I WAS at lirst somewhat taken with a measure proposed in 

 your contemporary's issue of last Saturday week (Gurdi'iu'i.t' 

 Clironiclr, page 181-2), to convert the greater portion of the 

 Chiswick establishment into a '■ utilitarian " or market garden ; 

 but I doubt if it would do. It may be asked, Why not convert 

 it into a nursery garden ? Trees, shrubs, and plants would 

 prove more remunerative than Apples, Gooseberries, and Peas, 

 and therefore " iu the naruo of common sense," as your corre- 

 spondeut says, why not go in for the most paying trade '.' This 

 shoe, however, would manifestly pinch somewhere, and the 

 Society would soon find out that it had put its foot into it ; for, 

 whilst your correspondent thinks that market gardening is a 

 perfectly legitimate aud praiseworthy occupation for it, he ob- 

 jects to the gift of a few tritliug packets of seeds to the Fellows, 

 on the ground that " it is entirely unworthy of its high cha- 

 racter that it should compete, as it were, with nurserymen for 

 the supply of the private gardens of the Fellows with common 

 seeds for the kitchen or flower garden." But surely, Mr. Editor, 

 it is equally unworthy of the Society's position that it should 

 scramble with market gardeners, either for the supply of the 

 tables of the Society's Fellows or of any other fellows 1 Aud 

 therefore I fear that the market-gardening business cannot be 

 thought of as an opening for the discharge of its " high func- 

 tion of teaching the art and science of horticulture by precept 

 and example " any more than the nursery business, though the 

 remark of your correspondent that " respectable nurserymen 

 abound," suggests that seed and plant selling must be an un- 

 commonly good trade. 



On reconsideration, then, it appears pretty clear to me that 

 the Society must neither grow Orchids nor Potatoes simply 

 with a view to sale, hut contine its energies (while giving a fair 

 field and no favour both to market gardeners and nurserymen 

 for competition with each other), to such measures as will 

 advance the highest interests of horticulture. Nobody will 

 object to the Society's disposing of such produce as the garden 

 yields in the legitimate way of its work, either to Fellows or in 

 Covent Garden Market ; and I can hardly believe that our 

 Kiverses and PaiJs, our Veitches, Lees, and Standishes, grudge 

 to the Fellows the privilege of receiving a few packets of seeds 

 annually, because a few pounds are thereby lost to the trade. 

 If these gentlemen think of the matter at all, they probably 

 regard what your correspondent terms such " excessive liber- 

 aUty " rather iu the light of au incentive to horticultural tastes, 

 and in the long run as productive of benefit to their business. 

 I like to have my seeds, I confess. I watch their growth, and 

 talk of them to my friends with far greater pleasure than of 

 those I get from Messrs. Carter ; and on the same principle I 

 prefer eating eggs laid by my own fowls, or butter made from 

 the milk of my own cow. 1 look upon Chiswick, in fact, as in 

 part my own property. I will not deny that there may be a 

 soxipran of a meaner motive — viz., the pleasure to be derived 

 from getting my money hack again ; and I am inclined to think 

 that with many of the Fellows this motive is sufficiently strong 

 to induce them forcibly to resist such a curtailment of their ' 

 privileges as he recommends. — Common Sense. 



P.S. — I have always told my friends that the Society's 

 "Journal " was very learned ; that it is edited by Mr. Berkeley, 

 who, like the Society, has a European reputation. Am I 

 right, or ought we to be ashamed of it, as the correspondent 

 of the Gai-dem-rs' Clironiclc states ? Please tell me. 



[Let us charitably suppose that the writer has failed to dis- 

 tinguish between the Society's "Journal" and the rplicmcri.:: 

 issued periodically from the office of the Society. That any 

 person should be "ashamed" of what emanates from Mr. 

 Berkeley's pen, or editorial supervision, is to acknowledge him- 

 self incompetent to form a judgment.] 



ORNAMENTAL AND FLOWERING SHRUBS. 



(Continued from page 16G.) 

 CoTONEASTEP. JncEOPHTLLA. — Leaves small, dark f^een ; procnm- 

 bent habit ; {lowers white, iu summer, succeeded bj a ])rofusiou of red 

 berries. Vci-y ornamental, suitable for eoveiing walls, rockwork, or 

 banks, aud for plantations not verj- much shaded. 



Cotoneaster bnxifolia, C. rotundifolia, and C. thymifolia are similar 

 and desirable species. 2 to .'j feet. Seeds and lityers. C. micro- 

 phylla, C. buxifolia, C. thymifolia, and C. Wheeleri form drooping 

 heads when grafted on the Cratiegns. 



CoTONEASTEB SiBrMONsi.— Leaves much larger than C. miorophylla ; 

 habit erect ; flowers white, in summer, sneceedod by a profusion of 

 lar^^e red berries. Very ornamental and desirable. 5 feet. Seeds. 



CiUTJEGUs PVRACANTHA. — Leaves entire, of a deep gi-een ; flowers 

 white, in largo corymbs, succeeded by bright red berries or fruit 

 having a fiuu effect in autumn. Very suitable for covering walls. 

 to 10 feet. Seeds and layers. 



CisTUs PURPUREUS. — Flowers largo, reddish purple, in summer • 

 shoots reddish, giving the plant a handsome appearance. It is a hardy 

 and very oniamental shmb, and so are C. popuhfolius, C. ladani- 

 ferns maeulatus, C. laurifolius, C. corbariensis, C. algarvensis and 

 C. villosus, but except in dry warm soils and situjitions ttey do not 

 succeed. Limestone soil is most suitable. Height 'i to 4 feet. Seeds 

 sown in heat in light soil, and grown on in a cold frame. Propagation 

 is likewise eii'ected by cuttings of the half-ripened wood iu sand in a 

 cold frame or under a hand-glass, with shade from bright sun ; also by 

 layers. 



Desfoxtainea spinosa.' — Leaves holly-hhe, of a bright green; 

 flowers trumpet-shaped, large, red, and very handsome. Cuttings. A 

 very desirable shrub of holly-like erect habit. 



Escallonia mackantha. — Leaves oblong, deep green, shining ; 

 flowers reddish purple. Altogether a splendid shrub, but needs a 

 warm situation or a wall. Height 6 to 8 feet. Propagated by cuttings 

 of the ripened young wood in heat. The flowers aro produced in 

 autumn. 



EscALLONLv RUBRA. — Leaves shining ; flowers red, pendulous, very 

 fine, iu autumn or late iu summer. Warm situation or wall. 6 feet. 

 Cuttings. 



EscALL0NL\ FLoniBUNDA. — Leaves oblong, shining, very onamental ; 

 flowers white aud numerous, late in summer and in autumu. In most 

 situations requires a south wall. Height 6 to 10 feet. Cuttings. 



Garrya elliptica. — Leaves shining, deep green ; flowers greenish 

 yellow, numerous, and produced iu long, drooping catkins, in winter. 

 Height t! to 8 feet. Cuttings of the haU-ripened shoots under a frame 

 or hand-glass. Requires a warm situation, or protection in winter in 

 cold situations. A very ornamental shrub. 



Hypericum cai^vcinum. — Leavas dark gi-een, ovate, large, dotted 

 here and there with transparent dots ; large yellow flowers, produced 

 in summer. Suitable for planting in shade, making a tine covering 

 under large trees. Division of tlie roots, which creep. It does not 

 exceed 1 foot in height. 



Ilex aquifolium, the common Holly, is very suitable for planting 

 in shade, and very ornamental everywhere, making the very best of 

 hedge plants, and hearing cntting well. I. angustifoha, crassifolia, 

 myrtifolia, and ciliata have small leaves ; I. balcarica, Hod>dnsiii 

 glabra, altaclarensis, maderensis, Shepherdi, and nigrescens, with broad' 

 leaves, are veiy fine sorts. I. Donuingtonensis is the best of the lone- 

 leaved kinds, and is veiy distiuct. I. tarago and I. latifolia have very 

 large leaves, nearly if not quite as large as those of the common Laurel, 

 but they are rather tender, and should have sheltered situations. The 

 Weeping Holly is very ornamental, and the Silver-variegated Weepmg 

 variety is equally desirable, forming a very handsome head. There 

 are many varieties of variegated Hollies which may have their ad- 

 mirers, but the majority of them ai-e very dull iu their markings. 

 The Gold and Silver-margined are the most distinct. Hollies are 

 very handsome ; standards or clear straight stems from 3 to G feet in 

 height, aud with well-shaped heads, are very fine, and pyramids are 

 so easily kept iu shape by cutting before growth takes place as to be 

 very desirable for architectural and terrace gardens. Grafting on the 

 common Holly. — G._ Abbey. 



(To be continued.) 



THE MISTLETOE. 



Allow me to say a few words as to the trees I have seen the 

 Mistletoe growing on, and the localities in which it is found. 



Hampshire seems to be a county in which it is met with in 

 large quantities,and the Lime tree appears to be most favour- 

 able for its growth. At Swathling Grange, near Southampton, 

 there are some noble Lime trees, and they are literally covered 

 with Mistletoe, and some bunches, I imagine, are quite 5 feet 

 in diameter. Another place where it used to be growing abun- 

 dantly was in an Apple orchard belonging to, I think, the Dean 

 of Winchester, situated at Bishopstoke, six miles frosa South- 

 ampton. Some of the Apple trees were heavily laden with it, 

 and, perhaps, are so now. At Stratton Park we had an old 

 Maple tree, on which it grew in large quantities, and I have 

 seen it growing on the Lime tree near Earsham Hall, Bungay, 

 Suffolk, but not to the same extent as at the places beforenamed. 

 When at Gillingham Hall I inserted some berries in a cut in 

 the bark of an Apple tree. The seed germinated, and the plant 

 grew about 2 inches, when, by accident it was knocked off. I 

 have also seen the Mistletoe as a standard, and a very pretty 

 standard it made. It was in the pleasure grounds a't Eagle 



