March 13, lOT. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



225 



away in, nothing to put anything upon ; not a cupboard, a chair, 

 or a tahie. But this matters little to a people who can always 

 sit and sleep on the dry ground ; and who have nothing to Btow 

 away. Kverywhere I saw men, and sometimes even women, 

 sleeping out of doors, even in mid-winter. 



.\mong tlie trees of ICgypt, tlie lirst place is held by the Palm. 

 f)u landiug at Alexandria you find it around the city in ahnn- 

 dauce, and throughout the country you are never long mU of 

 sight of it. It is seen to most advantage from the river against 

 the sky. It appears must iu place when, in sutticient numbers 

 to form a grove, it overshadows some river-side \illage. \ an 

 tliere look upon it as the henelkent friend and coadjutor of the 

 poor villagers. You know that it gives them much they could 

 not get elsewhere, and which they could ill spare — shade, boxes, 

 baskets, cordage, thatch, timber, and the chief of their humble 

 luxuries, in return for the protection and water they have given 

 to it. We often hear it spoken of as the queen of the vegetable 

 world. I had rather say that it is a form of gi'ace and beauty 

 of which the eye never tires. 



The tree usually employed in forming avenues, where shade 

 is the tirst object, is the broad-podded Acacia. The distinguish- 

 ing feature iu this is the largeness and abundance of its singu- 

 larly dark green leaves. Its foliage, indeed, is so dense, that no 

 ray of suuhglit can penetrate through it. The effect of this is 

 very striking. In one of these avenues that has been well kept 

 you will tind yourself in a cool gloom, l)oth the coolness and the 

 gloom being such that you cannot hut feel them, while yon see 

 the sun bla^^ing outside. The road from Eoulak to the Pyramids 

 of (Jizeli is planted tlie whole way with these trees. For the 

 Urst two or tliree miles they are of some age, and having now 

 met overhead above the road, the slielter, even at midday, is 

 complete. For the rest of the way the trees are not older tlian 

 the Prince of Wales's visit, they having been planted along the 

 sides of the road that was on that occasion made for him. No 

 tree more easily establishes itself, or grows more rapidlj', if 

 sufficiently watered. All that is required is to cut olf a limb, 

 iiu matter how large, or from how old a tree, and to set it in the 

 ground. If it be supplied with water it grows without fail. This 

 Acacia is the Lebekli of the natives. 



Another tree used in avenues, and which gi-ows to a greater 

 height and witli larger limbs than the Lebekh, is the Egyptian 

 Sycamore. It is a species of the Indian Fig. It has large limbs, 

 which enable you to see the whole of its skeleton. The skeleton 

 of the Lebekh is concealed by the multiplicity of its branches, 

 and the density of its foliage. Tiiere is a fine siiecimen of this 

 Sycamore in the lirst Nubian village, on the way from Assouan 

 to PhiUe, and another equally good on the bank of the river just 

 opposite Phibe. Trees of this kind have more of the appear- 

 ance of age than others in Egypt. Their bark is of a whitish 

 colour, and their large branches are covered witli little leafless 

 i-ipur-like twigs, of a diug}^ black, on wliich are produced their 

 round green fruit, about as big as liantams' eggs. These spur- 

 like processes on the In-auches are, I suppose, the homologues of 

 the descending aerial roots of its congener, the Banyan tree of 

 India, of which latter also I saw one or two good specimens in 

 gardens in Kgypt. It was from the imperishable wood of the 

 Sycamore that the ancieno Egj'ptians made tlieir mummy 

 cases. The fine old avenue from Cairo to Shoobra, three miles 

 in length, is composed of generally good specimens of this tree, 

 intermingled with the Acacia Leliekh, and here and there a few 

 Tamarisks. 



The tree •which approaches nearest to the ability to support 

 itself in Egypt without man's aid is the Tamarisk. It is a tree 

 that drinks very little, and takes a great deal of killing. You 

 see it growing, as a stunted shrub, in the nitre-encrusted de- 

 pressions of the desert in the neighbourhood of Ismailia, and 

 elsewhere, where it can only very occasionally be refreshed by 

 a stray shower. Wherever it can get the little moisture with 

 which it is satisfied it becomes a gi-aceful tree. 



The thorny small-leaved Acacia gives but little shade. It 

 produces a small yellow flower, which is a complete globe, and 

 has a sweet scent. It is in flower at Christmas. If this is the 

 Acanthus of Herodotus its wood must have been largely used 

 when he was in Egypt for the construction of the river boats, 

 which were often of very great capacity. 



The Dum Palm is occassionally seen in Upper Egypt. The 

 first I fell iu with was at Minieh. That, I believe, is the most 

 northerly point at which it is found. Its peculiarity is that, 

 when the stem has reached a few feet above the ground, it 

 bifurcates. It then his two stems and two heads. When these 

 two stems have grown out to the length of a few feet they, too, 

 each of them bifurcate, following the example of the parent 

 stem. There are now four stems with heads. Another repe- 

 tition of the process gives eight, and so on. In fact, it is a 

 branching Palm, and every branch is a complete Palm tree. 

 The whole is a cluster of Palm trees on one stock. 



These are all the trees one notices in travelling through the 

 country. The list is soon run through, but I saw that au at- 

 tempt was being made to add to the list. In the neighbourhood 

 of the Viceroy's palaces I found two species of Australian 



Eucalyptus. They appeared to approve of the soil and climate, 

 and gave promise of soon becoming fine trees. They do well at 

 Nice, and will probably do better in Egypt. 



Everyone of the trees! have mentioned remains, iu Egypt, 

 in full foliage througliout the winter. 

 •Tliat hmticulture was a favourite occupation among th? 

 ancient b'.gyptians is shown abundantly by their sculptures and 

 paintings. " Representations of gardens are so common that we 

 may infer that no residence of any luetentions was considered 

 complete without one. We even see that rare and interesting 

 plants, brought from Asia and Ethioiiia, each with a ball of 

 eartli round the roots, carefully secured with matting, formed 

 at times a part of the royal tribute. 'I'he very Lotus, which 

 may be regarded as. among flowers, llie symbol of Egypt, is 

 now supposed to have been an importation from India. In this 

 matter, as in every respect, the country has sadly retrograded. 



Of course all aub-tropical and many tropical trees and plants 

 do well here, if only they be regularly supplied with water. I 

 never saw more interesting gardens on a small scale than those 

 of S. Cecolani at Alexandria, and of the American Consul at 

 Port Said. The same may be said of the garden of the ^ iceroy 

 at his Gezeer.ah palace. In them you will find the plants we 

 keep in stove h.ouses doing well in the open air, and many of 

 tlieiu in flowerat Christmas, orsoon after. In the first-mentioned 

 of these gardens I saw very beautiful specimens of the Norfolk 

 Island Pine, about :^0 feet high, growing luxuriantly. 'There 

 was also a species of Solauum, which, if I knew its Christian 

 name, I would commend to the attention of tliose who are 

 endeavouring to produce in their English gardens something of 

 a sub-tropical effect. It was about lUfeet high, and was so regu- 

 larly tilled up with hranches as to have a completely symmetri- 

 cal, a somewliat dome-like form. Its leaves were large, rougli, 

 and prickly. At the extremity of each twig, or lesser bmnih 

 was a large branching spike of purple flowers. The individual 

 flowers in the spikes of bloom were about the size of the flower 

 of its relative the common Potato, and similar in shape. It was 

 a most effective shrub. I never saw one more so. 



It is generally supposed amongst us that our English gardens 

 are quite unrivalled. They may be in the thought, care, and 

 money bestowed upon them ; but in variety of interest they are 

 very inferior to Egyptian gardens. These may contain all the 

 plants we consider most beautiful and most worthy of artificial 

 heat ; which, too, mav be grouped with Bamboos, Palms, Indian 

 Figs,' Bananas, Cactuses, Daturas, Poinsettias tl or 10 feet high, 

 and many other plants and trees one would go some way to see 

 growing with the freedom and luxuriance that is natural to 

 them in this bright, winterless climate.— (i'jrypi of the Pharaohs 

 and 0/ the Kedh-t^j 



STKATFIELDSAYE.— No. 1. 



The Seat of the Duke of Wfu.ixoiox. 



In Anglo-Saxon times one Eundi held Slradhdle, and when 

 Domesday Book was compiled it had passed to a Norman, Hugh 

 de Port. " It is variously spelt iu subsequent records, but all 

 indicating that Strj'l, a public road, and ./>/,/, pasture, are the 

 Anglo-Saxon derivatives of the name —a name justly applicable, 

 as it was by the side of one of the roads leading to the Roman 

 Silchester. This "pasture land by the public road," from 

 belonging to the family of D.- .S'lij/c, had the last syllable added 

 as a distinctive affix. In the reign of Edward III. it passed 

 by marriage to the D'Abricliecourts, Sir Nicholas of that name 

 taking to wife Sibilla, heiress of Thomas de Saye. Sir Nicholas 

 was Constable of Nottingham Castle and Keeper of Sherwood 

 Forest. After his marriage he was Sheriff of Hampshire. 

 Stratfieldsaye remained in the possession of the D'Abriche- 

 oourts until the reign of Charles I., when, again by the marriage 

 of au heiress, it passed to Sir William Pitt, Comptroller of 

 the King's Household. He made it his residence, died, and 

 was buried in its parish church in 1C3G. From his younger 

 brother descended Earl Chatham and Lord Camelford. His 

 grandson married a daughter of John Savage, Earl Rivers^ and 

 tlieir grandson was created Lord Elvers iu 177C. In 1815 tho 

 House of Commons voted i;200,000 either to build or purchase 

 a mansion and estate for the first Duke of Wellington. At first 

 there were rumours that the estate was to he iu Cheshire, but 

 at the close of 1817 it was announced that Stratfieldsaye had 

 been purchased from Lord Rivers for £203,000, the timber 

 being valued at £150,000. 



Stratfieldsaye is three and a half miles from Mortimer, a 

 station on the branch of the Great Western Railway between 

 Reading and Basingstoke. 



In early Norman times there was in the parish a Priory 

 dedicated to St. Leonards, and established iu 1170 by one of 

 tlie Stotteville family. The Priory itself was within the 

 boundary of Berkshire. Being an alien priory belonging to 

 the Benedictine Monastery of Yallemont, it was suppressed iu 



