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JOUKNAL OF HOKTICULTUEK AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



[ October 17, 1865. 



Britons. The order Polygonaceie is one of those that present the 

 widest possible contrasts, and hence is most valuable to the stu- 

 dent. A shrub like the Atrapha>Lis is not so remote as not to 

 be readily associated ^Yith the English weeds ; it is when we look 

 at those odd Coccolobas in the greenhouse that faith is for a 

 moment shaken, yet only to be made the stronger by proper 

 scrutiny. On the one hand, tor example, is Coccoloba platy- 

 clada, made up, apparently, of innumerable bits of narrow 

 gi-een ribbon, sewn end to end, and bearing no distant resem- 

 blance to many a green seaweed ; on the other is Coccoloba 

 pubescens, a noble, single-stemmed, and erect tree, clothed all 

 the way up with great leathery leaves more than a yard across, 

 and terminating in an erect raceme 2 feet long or more, of 

 innumerable flowers of the richest scarlet ! Think of that, ye 

 whose notion of the PolygonaceiE has been formed from the 

 Sorrel of the meadows, or of the Black Bindweed of the corn- 

 fields. The fruit of this plant, like that of some other tropical 

 representatives of the order, as Triplaris and Podopterus, is 

 berry-like, and produced in bunches, whence in their native 

 countries the plants are known as " seaside Grapes." For 

 quickening the habit of observation, and teaching how to dis- 

 cern distinctions and resemblances, where without it all would 

 be confused, and more than half overlooked, there is no scie«ce 

 like botany. It is the best of eye-salves and the most success- 

 ful of opticians ; in a word, no learned treatise upon logic or 

 the " laws of the miud" ever taught a man better how to use 

 his wits than does the practical working-out of a proposition 

 in regard to plant-structure. To take half-a-dozen species of 

 as many different genera of a natural order, carefully dissect 

 their flowers and other parts, and then satisfy the mind 

 as to the nature of their resemblances and distinctions, is 

 every bit as useful as leai-niug how to demonstrate a theorem 

 in Euclid. A man who will accustom himself to such exami- 

 nations, not jumping at conclusions, but considering as he 

 goes on, and not looking to books until he has exhausted all 

 his own resources, not oniy becomes a good botanist, and there- 

 fore a better gardener, but he acijuires sharpness and accuracy 

 in other things, and proves in his own experience that for 

 mental discipline nothing yet surpasses living nature. 



In-doors the typical character of the garden is quite as well 

 sustained as in the open air. Superb Orchids, though not 

 many, expand their odorous flowers by the side of leafy Spice 

 trees ; and lovely Bromeliads and Scitamineous plants stand 

 alongside of the" Upas tree. This, though an unpretending, 

 is, from the associations that fiible and poetry have connected 

 with it, one of the most interesting plants in British collections. 

 The leaves are ovate, about 3 inches long, pointed, and hairy, 

 and exude so venomous a juice from the end of the petiole 

 when gathered, that if incautiously placed in the hat for safe 

 conveyance home, should the skin of the head be touched by 

 the juice, the roots of the hair are destroyed, and a bald place 

 is left ! It is scarcely necessary to say to any intelligent reader 

 of books now-a-days,' much less to a botanist or to a gardener, 

 that the qualities assigned to the Upas tree are in a considerable 

 degree not possessed by it. Though the sap and products are 

 deadly, the tree gives out no exhalation of a poisonous cha- 

 racter, nor does it blight or affect anything in its vicinity. 

 Death, when occasioned in the neighbourhood of the Upas, 

 came not of the tree, but of certain efliuvia that arose from the 

 ground, probably carbonic acid gas. The two things have no 

 more connection as to cause and effect than the Goodwin Sands 

 and Tenterden Steeple. Such tales do capitally, however, to 

 horrify an audience fonder of platform harangues than of facts ; 

 and the Upas tree will no doubt remain for ever a stock image 

 with soul-harrowing declaimers. Speaking of it brings to 

 recollection a deliciously comic bit I once heard at a meeting 

 held for a serious pm-pose, where one of the speakers, not 

 quite up in his botanical geography, dragged in once again the 

 story of the bulb found in the hand of the Egyptian mummy ; 

 and finished the recital by telling his audience that the said 

 bulb, ou being ])laced in tlie earth, '• kissed by the solar beams, 

 suckled by the dews of heaven," &c., eventually " bloomed and 

 blossomed into a beauteous D.ahUa ! ! !" 



But let us retm-n to Mr. Bam and his rich garden. Never 

 ccitainly was the KiUarney Fern, Trichomanes speciosum, 

 grown so magnificently as it is here. There are two or three 

 varieties m as many different boxes, with sloping lids of glass 

 that can be lifted' up at pleasure. Nothing can exceed the 

 transparent delicacy of the fronds, or the richness given by their 

 abundant fructification. Many appear to be upwards of 15 inches 

 long, with the base broad in proportion. In one of the houses 

 I noticed another plant of the Fem aUiance, the Adder's-tongue, 



Ophiog'iossum vulgatum. It was not that the plant was a 

 rarity — it is one of the " common things " of Cheshire — but 

 it was the place, and more particularly the special companion- 

 ship, fur who would expect to see the little green tongues of 

 this pretty plant shooting up under the shade of an Indian 

 Dracama, aud deriving their nourishment from the same pot of 

 soil ! Such, however, was the case, reminding us of the ac- 

 counts given by travellers of the vegetation upon some parts of 

 the Himalayas, and other sub-tropical mountain ranges, where 

 at certain elevations the flowers of Europe and of the equinoctial 

 zone come nearly in contact. The fronds were in fuU fructifi- 

 cation, showing along both margins of the spike that curious 

 row of apertures by which the spores make their escape. One 

 of his Dracicnas being too large and tall for convenient accom- 

 modation, Mr. Bain, a few years ago, in the style of old Pro- 

 crustes, but with more amiable intent than the famous Attic 

 robber, tried the experiment of shortening it by a partial cut- 

 ting through of the stem, waiting awhile till roots were pro- 

 truded from the under surface, and then completing the work 

 of the saw. The top thus severed made a capital and healthy 

 plant, which is now one of the ornaments of the greenhouse. 

 A similar experiment is being tried with a Palm, Sabal Black- 

 bui'uiana. It has been in progress for nearly six years, and 

 seems likely to prove successful. Should it do so, the experi- 

 ment will certainly be a triumph for Mr. Bain, since, so far 

 as we are aware, although roots are readily produced by the 

 cut stems of such j)lants as Dracanias and Fom-croeas, and by 

 those of the genus Fieus, it is rather contrary to the nature of 

 Palms. One of the prettiest plants in the greenhouse here is 

 Chamaibatia foliolosa. It does not often occur in collections, 

 but is weU worth growing for the extreme delicacy of its foliage. 

 The leaves are about 3 inches long, and something Uke 

 Cheilanthes tomentosa, combined, if it were possible, with 

 those of Tansy. The flowers, which though not here, I have 

 seen elsewhere, resemble those of the common Blackberry, and 

 soon fall to pieces ; in habit the plant is an undershrub. 



The general collection comprises examples of every great 

 class and section of plants, and includes abundance of Ferns 

 and of succulents. No one who has access to it need sigh for 

 Kew or any other garden, for like Glasneviu, it is botanical 

 nature brought to a focus. In conclusion should be mentioned 

 two or three things belonging to the prodigious mass of herba- 

 ceous and suffruticose plants in the open borders. Ephedra 

 monostachya is a quaint little grey bush, looking as if it had 

 existed since the time of the Bauhins, and with its tough old 

 stem crusted with Lichens. Lobelia tupa forms a superb mass, 

 the score of spikes of fiowers, of the richest crimson, rising 

 6 feet high. Androsace lanuginosa, instead of a lean and tender 

 pot plant as I have been accustomed to see it in Lancashire, 

 forms a great patch upon the flower-border, glossy in its beauti- 

 ful silver-grey, and with plenty of umbels of fairy lilac flowers 

 that seem the Primula farinosa of the Westmoreland moim- 

 tains repeated half-size — a most lovely plant for a rockery in 

 genial localities. Phytolacca decaudra, though coarse and un- 

 gainly in habit and foliage, is worth growing for the very curious 

 and noble sj)ikes of fruit that follow its insignificant gi'eeu 

 flowers. The fruit-spikes are 12 or 15 inches in length, and 

 seem as if formed of ripe Blackberries. Let no one who visits 

 Dublin for the sake of seeing Glasnevin fail to reserve a day 

 fcr the gardens of Trinity College. — Leo. 



FORM OF FRUIT-HOUSES. 



The thanks of the amateiu- gardening pubhc are justly due to 

 " Ci. H." for so kindly coming forward to explain the system 

 of growing fruits in houses, which he considers most pro- 

 fitable : for though " Vitis " may fancy that he " has taken to 

 gardening blindfold," yet, probably, few of your readers have 

 known much, if anything, about the houses " G. H." has taken 

 the trouble to describe, until he endeavoured to open their 

 eyes. Probably there are some, myself among the number, 

 who would be glad of any further infoi-mation which can be given 

 on the subject — as, for instance, the expense of building such 

 a house ; the system of ventilation used ; whether the fruit trees 

 trained from back to front, and consequently facing east and 

 west, the house being south, do as well as if they were with their 

 fronts towards the south ; whether the sun would not strike 

 more powerfully on the back wall if it were higher, and the roof a 

 lean-to, instead of a span as shown in the drawing? How 

 many bunches of Grapes would the Vines 10 feet high cany ? 

 . Eleven or twelve only appear in the drawing ; and ou a fourteen- 



