Argiist 27, 1874. ] 



JOUENAIi OF HOETICULTURE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEE. 



18:i 



Since then I have had it in a rockery in the open air for two 

 years, and finding that it yearly continued to improve (it has 

 never had a straight frond since the first year), I took it into 

 the house and potted it. The improvement has been annually 

 manifest, and at the present time a single piece of gold coin 

 would not purchase it. On the moor above referred to, the 

 limestone formation crops out to the surface in large boulders 

 of quaint shape, the smaller ones of which are used in rockeries 

 or as a top-dressing for garden walls. In the clefts of these rocks 

 the Scolopendrium is found in large numbers, and also in the 

 neighbouring hedges. Of course, the surrounding inhabitants 

 are not insensible to their merits, and the forked ones are 

 sought for, yet there are many still to be found. I have no 

 hesitation in saying that in a day a man would be able to 

 collect an ordinary cartload all in growing condition. Of these 

 twenty per cent, would probably be forked. Some two or 

 three years ago a friend of mine, now resident in Manchester, 

 but a native of this district, wrote to ask me if a specimen of 

 the many-cleft species could be found in its wild state here, 

 and was not a little astonished when I sent him a similar 

 frond to those I enclose to you. I also send you a specimen 

 of the Maidenhair Fern, which grows here in great profusion. 

 — Beta. 



PEACHES. 

 In conformity with Mr. Luckhurst's request, page 165,1 write 

 a line, premising that my experience is from orchard-house 

 culture only. I strongly recommend Early Alfred as one of the 

 best sorts — that is to say, at present, and I put in this proviso 

 because I have found sorts which were excellent for a few 

 years sink below old and tried varieties. This was the case 

 ■with Dr. Hogg. After it had lost its first excellence I kept it 

 on for two or three years, hoping that it would recover, but 

 with me it never did. Early Rivers and Walburton Admirable 

 I have discarded. As a late Peach take Eivers's Princess of 

 Wales, a noble fruit, and for very late purposes his seedling 

 No. 10, though far inferior to mid-season sorts. A most de- 

 sirable variety is Dymond, an Exeter seedling, sold by Veitch. 

 — G. S. ^ 



A NEW PEINCIPLE of GARDEN ARKANGEMENT. 



Tnis is the title of a little pamphlet by Mr. H. W. Cooper, 

 in which what is termed the " natural style" of gardening is 

 set forth as being altogether superior to " the present artificial 

 style," and an attempt is made to show how improvements 

 are to be effected. 



It has so long been customary for many worthy horticul- 

 turists to indulge in sweeping invectives against the so-called 

 artificial style, that some inquiry as to what this style really is 

 may perhaps serve to enlighten even those who so stoutly 

 rail against it. To quote Mr. Cooper's words, this is what it 

 is : " I?or five months we may see our grounds brilliant, in- 

 deed resplendent, with Geraniums and a host of other bedding- 

 out plants ; but what becomes of those beds for the other 

 seven months in the year ? Have we not mostly seen dull 

 gloomy-looking shapes of earth cut out of the grass or gravel, 

 and prized in winter only for their quaint or elegant designs, 

 or in remembrance of their past summer glories?" Thus it 

 is resolved into five months' splendour and seven months' 

 dullness in regular alternations. Spring gardening is indeed 

 mentioned, but it is not advocated, being merely passed over 

 as being " not very generally practised," aud the spring- 

 flowering plants are claimed as permanent fixtures under the 

 " natural style." 



Now, I have seen many of our finest gardens, and have 

 during the last four years been closely engaged in working out 

 the details of a new place, and do not hesitate to say that our 

 present style of gardening is an excellent combination of 

 nature and art; faulty it certainly may be, and susceptible of 

 improvement in some of its details, but not to the extent or 

 in the manner which theorists assert. Take, for example, a 

 terrace garden replete with such architectural embellishments 

 as noble flights of steps, balustrades, statuary, vases, and 

 fountains attached to a pile of buildings of lofty proportions 

 and stately aspect : is it not an art work of the highest order ? 

 and would not any attempt to copy or imitate Nature's wild 

 grace in the planting prove altogether incongruous and out of 

 character ? The flower garden is undoubtedly a work of art, 

 aud a glorious one it is too ; only let the design be pure, well 

 adapted to its position, and the beds well filled — not with 

 gaudy, glaring, overpowering masses of primary colours, but 



with some full rich tones skilfully interwoven with various 

 quiet tints and shades, rendering the beds objects full of beauty 

 and unceasing interest, aud we have a picture so expressive of 

 poetry, and graceful yet dignified refinement, that we.'may, and 

 do, claim by it to exemplify not " a flash of colour,", but " tho 

 real and deeper mode of Natiire herself." , ■ >, 



Nor do we by any means confine our eft'orts to the produc- 

 tion of a mere summer display, but, as has lately been shown 

 in the papers on spring and winter gardening, the preparation 

 of successive relays of plants for winter aud spring immediately 

 follows the summer planting ; so that the beds never remain 

 bare, the exhausted plants of each season being removed to 

 give place to those which are adapted to the next. Tlius we 

 have for winter Holly, green and variegated, and numerous 

 other very ornamental plants which have frequently been 

 enumerated, such as Pernettya, Cotoneaster, Gaultheria, 

 Mahonia, Berberis, Pyracantha, Symphoricarpus, Skimmia, 

 Piuscus, aud Hedera ; with such dwarf Conifers as the violet 

 red Pietinospora ericoides, the compact and symmetrical Ee- 

 tinospora leptocladon, E. obtusa nana, aud the golden form 

 E. obtusa aurea. Thuja aurea, and T. elegantissima, the very 

 symmetrical Arthrotaxus selaginoides, and the Chilian Yew, 

 Podoearpus audina, with a perfect host of other shrubs, for 

 the list affords ample materials wherewith an effect full of 

 richness and warmth may be wrought out. 



But it is in spring that the garden appears in fullest beauty ; 

 then the deep blue Scilla, the lovely Myosotis, with Saponaria, 

 Viola, and all the wealth of vernal beauty which we now possess, 

 burst upon us in such loveliuess, that it is no uncommon thing 

 to hear exclamations of genuine admiration from those who 

 at other seasons hardly seem to notice or care for flowers at all. 

 Thus we delight to keep the flower garden always bright, always 

 attractive, with our best treasures. May we not call them " art 

 treasures?" for are not most of them varieties and seedlings 

 resulting from skilful and patient hybridising by masters of 

 that art. 



Now, what does Mr. Cooper offer us as a substitute for all 

 this ? Insisting upon the use principally of hardy plants, he 

 enumerates Yucca, Tritoma, Acantlius, Ehubarb, Dielytra, 

 Asparagus, Thrift, Daisies, Ac, as worthy to form a " perma- 

 nent foundation for the ornamentation of our grounds." It is 

 true he is willing to admit a few of our usual summer flowers, 

 but he confidently asserts that " the ribbon beds, and all 

 similar preciseness of colour will soon bo reckoned with the 

 past." It is a remarkable fact that most of the really valuable 

 hardy flowers do find a plnce in very many gardens, but then 

 good taste leads us to form them into bold groups mingled 

 with shrubs ; they also most effectively fill many a niche in 

 the rockery, or render mixed borders perennial with their 

 almost continuous succession of bloom. But ornamental as 

 they undoubtedly are, we never should dream of yielding many 

 of them a place in the flower garden. That very much more 

 can and should bo done with hardy plants is undoubtedly 

 correct enough, more especially in the formation of striking 

 shrubbery groups and beds. Take for example the Yucca for 

 a bold efl'ect upon a steep bank or abrupt declivity ; the Heath 

 tribe for gentle slopes ; the Pampas Grass (Arundo), and 

 Gunuera for rocky dells or the margin of ornamental waters ; 

 and so far as Mr. Cooper's advocacy of this goes, it is iisefnl 

 and praiseworthy. Unfortunately, however, he is so ardent a 

 reformer, and his ideas wander so far out of the beaten track, 

 that his last two or three pages are devoted to showing how, 

 in his opinion, beauty and utility may be combined by associat- 

 iug the Easpberry, Currant, and Gooseberry with Hollies, Box, 

 Y'ews, &a., and by mixing Gladioli aud herbs, garnishing beds 

 of flowers with I'arsley ! and so forth. The absurdity of such 

 teaching must be so evident to all that any refutation is 

 unnecessary. 



It is altogether in vain for the advocates of hardy flowers 

 to suppose that they will ever succeed in ousting the bedding 

 system from our gardens. Depend upon it the education of 

 gardeners is progressive, and instead of the adoption of any 

 plan that is so retrogressive in its character, we shall strive 

 rather to perfect and extend the system of which the founda- 

 tion was so firmly laid by that master of the art, Donald 

 Beaton. Let not anyone suppose that real lovers of garden- 

 ing are content to remain passive in the matter. The very 

 numerous inquiries that are constantly made, and the tasteful 

 colour-arrangements sent for criticism, would alone aft'ord 

 conclusive evidence of the general prevalence of a lively and 

 growing interest; and as time rolls on, instead of clashing 

 with Nature, we shall, I doubt not, strive with increasing 



