May 27, 1875. J 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GABDENEB. 



•113 



Falham and Hammersmith produce that has to be taken back 

 again to Chelsea, Brompton, or Keneington to be eaten. 



When I first commenced essay wi-iting, I remember that the 

 advice was given — advice, doubtless, well meant and not with- 

 out its value — that in commenting upon some historical subject 

 we must beware of going back too far to make a commence- 

 ment. It is seldom necessary to begin with Adam and Eve, 

 or to allude to Noah and the Ark. With this caution before 

 me still, somehow my mind reverts to the time when London 

 had no nurseries or market gardens — when the town, " if town it 

 could be called, which town was not," consisted of an irregular 

 group of huts placed on the margin of a piece of water so ex- 

 tensive as to form an ialaud lake, whence, so think authorities, 

 arose the name London, the City of the Lake. The mouth of 

 the Thames was probably near Richmond, and this lake, part 

 of which was shallow enough to be called a marsh, overspread 

 those Surrey districts contiguous to the Thames which we 

 now know as Lambeth, Battersea, Wandsworth, and South- 

 wark, behind which rose the Surrey hills mostly clothed in 

 wood. By the way of Greenwich and Plaistow, past Kentish 

 localities that are even yet marshy, the inland waters reached 

 the sea, flowing irregularly along a track several miles across 

 between the higher grounds of Kent and Essex. Finsbury 

 and Fenchurch tell us where marshes were situate to the north 

 of the Thames, but the greater part of the land in this di- 

 rection was forest. Our worthy British ancestors had little 

 idea of cultivating the soil, living mainly by the produce of 

 the fishery and by the chase. No doubt they qualified the 

 animal diet at times by eating herbs raw or rudely cooked, the 

 wholesome or injurious qualities of wild plants being dis- 

 covered by experiment. 



The Romans unquestionably were the first horticulturists of 

 London, for though long renowned as a hardy, self-denying 

 race, a people of iron-like temper and power, by the time they 

 were dominant in Britain the Roman empire was verging 

 towards the age of luxury. Having colonised London, the 

 Romans speedily set about the improvement of the town, and 

 by artificial drainage they reclaimed much fertile land and 

 brought it under cultivation. According to one list, more or 

 less correct, they introduced the " Plane, Lime, Elm, Poplar ; 

 also the Pear, Damson, Cherry, Medlar, Peach, Apricot, Quince, 

 Fig, Walnut, and Chestnut ; as well as various Roses and 

 other flowering plants and herbs." Though subsequent events 

 under Boadicea and others brought destruction to the Roman 

 residents and the fine gardens they laid out in London, stUl 

 there was from that period an onward movement in the way 

 of metropolitan flower and fruit growing. Incidentally it may 

 be noted, that as we might conjecture from the descriptions 

 given of the locality in the early centuries of Christian era, 

 the climate of London was more moist and warm than in later 

 times. 



Passing on, then, for contrast not to our own day, but to a 

 period of some sixty years ago, we read that by the best cal- 

 culations about twelve thousand acres of land in Middlesex 

 alone, not to speak of Surrey, were cultivated in order to 

 supply the metropolis with the produce of the garden and 

 orchard. It is not so ascertainable what extent of market 

 gardens lay on the Surrey side at the beginning of this century 

 — by conjecture there were two or three thousand acres at least, 

 laid out there for the same purpose — but the bulk of the 

 supply for London needs of this sort came from Middlesex. 

 Across the river, even when Her Majesty the Queen came to 

 the throne, the growth of London had been insignificant, 

 though under the Georges it had spread northward, eastward, 

 and westward. The old distinction between London and South- 

 wark was kept to with some tenacity, and residents in the 

 " Borough " scarcely considered themselves Londoners. It is 

 in Kent and Surrey that market gardens have shown a rapid 

 tendency to increase, as Middlesex became gradually, in the 

 suburban districts, less available to those cultivating land 

 with a view to large profit. One author, I may observe, makes 

 out that those who had merely market gardens did sixty years 

 since get an average profit of more than 50 per cent., and 

 nurserymen must have cleared more in spite of fluctuations. 

 The advance in the value of labour and a reduction in retail 

 prices must have tended recently to lessen profits ; but then, 

 again, wa now see a variety of improvements in cultivation 

 are pretty generally adopted. Hundreds of years ago there 

 were some sagacious enough to note how extremely suitable the 

 land near London was for horticulture, not only from the soil 

 being much of it of a loamy nature and mostly well drained, 

 but, in addition, intersected by uumerons small rivulets flowing 



towards the Thames; also, as Brewer observes, there is an 

 absence of inconvenient ridges, nor do stones crop-up too 

 profusely. 



Old Norden's comments on the Middlesex garden laud are 

 quaint. He admits that the roadways in the country, however, 

 were far from being in a desirable condition. " This so fruit- 

 ful soil," says he, " does not yield comfort to the wayfaring 

 man by reason of the clayish nature of the soil, which after it 

 hath tasted the autumn showers waxeth both dirty and deep, 

 but unto the husbandmiu it is a sweet and pleasant garden in 

 regard to his hope of future profit. For 



' The deep and dirty loathsome soil 

 Yields golden graiu to pdiufiil toil.' "' 



And there was a time when the vicinity of London had 

 many corn fields besides market gardens ; the corn coming to 

 maturity several weeks earlier than in the adjacent counties. 

 —J. R. S. C. 



GREYA SUTHEKLANDII. 



Among the many important contributions to botanical science 

 for which it must ever be indebted to the amiable and lamented 

 Dr. Harvey, his " Flora Capensis," or Plants of South Africa, 

 is not the least important. While engaged m its preparation 

 he was one day sitting in his rooms in college with some dried 

 specimens of South African plants lying before him. With 

 one of these, as Dr. Moore of Glasneven happened to call on 

 him, he just then appeared to be specially occupied. Handing 

 the specimen to him, coupled with the remark that some 

 eminent botanists with whom he had been in communication 

 with regard to it were puzzled as to the order to which it 

 should be referred, he asked Dr. Moore to look at and say 

 where he thought this interesting nondescript should be 

 domiciled. Having examined the specimen carefully, Dr. 

 Moore returned it, confessing at the same time that he was 

 a good deal puzzled, but that he thought, if not actually be- 

 longing to, it came very near Saxifragese. " Good," replied Dr. 

 Harvey, "it is exactly there I have placed it." While they 

 were speaking Dr. Moore noticed something like seed or a seed 

 capsule, we are not sure which. This was promptly laid hold 

 of, carried home to Glasnevin, sown, and the result was, rais- 

 ing in that establishment — for the first time in Europe — 

 plants of Greya Sutherlandii, than which we believe a more 

 telling or more sensational subject has not been or could be 

 taken in hand by the intelligent and high-class plant-grower. 

 For the first time in Ireland this remarkable plant has quite 

 recently flowered at Glasnevin. This and once at the Chelsea 

 Botanic Garden are the only occasions on record, we believe, 

 of its flowering in Europe. — {Irisli Fanners' Gazette.) 



[It does not belong to the natural order Saxifragacea), but 

 to the SapindacesB. A very good portrait of the specimen 

 which flowered at the Chelsea Garden is in the " Botanical 

 Magazine," t. 6040.— Ena.] 



CONIFERS FOB EXPOSED SITUATIONS. 

 Mb. Abbey should add Pinus insignis to his list of Conifers 

 for exposed situations, if near the sea or in a mild eUmate. 

 It is undoubtedly the finest and most distinct of all Conifers 

 for such locahties. Its rapidity of growth is greater than that 

 of any Fir I am acquainted with, and its bright lively green 

 colour and dense though free habit of growth render it one 

 of the finest, if not the finest, of the Pine tribe. When ones 

 estabhshed its hold of the ground is such that no wind uproots 

 it. It starts into growth very early in the season, and hence 

 is apt to be injured by severe late frosts. The climate at this 

 place is very mild, and consequently P. insignis never sufEers 

 from the above cause here. — J. Ellam, Bodorgan. 



DENDEOBIUM CABINIFEEUM, Beiclienhach. 



This nigro-hirsute Dendrobium, one of the moat beautiful 

 of the genus, is very little known. It only requires to be seen 

 to be thoroughly appreciated. It was named by Professor 

 Beichenbach in 18fi9, but he does not in his description of the 

 plant say who sent it to him. It does not appear to have been 

 sent to the herbarium at Kew until 1873, when it was sent 

 from Upper Burmah by Major Berkeley. .' .... 



It is abundant in Upper Burmah, and it is surprising that 

 so few plants of it find their way to England. It is probably 

 in consequence of the plant not being well known. When out 

 of flower it is frequently confounded with the commoner kinds 



