JOUBNAL OF HOBTICULTUBE AND COTTAGE QABDENEB. 



[ October 22, 187-L 



foliage, and the result is a crimson self with plain foliage. He 

 will cross this, probably, for four or five generations before he 

 has a flower of first-class quahty. 



Mr. Jeffery, a bookseller at Falkirk, has now a very large 

 collection of the best named sorts, and, what is more, he grows 

 his plants well, and has also taken to the raising of seedling 

 varieties. 



It wU! be seen from the above remarks that Stirling, which 

 in the days of jore was the " bulwark of the north," is still 

 the stronghold of the Auricula. In olden times kindly men 

 lived at Stirling, and the race still remains in the persons of the 

 old florists. The most pleasant days I spent in Scotland this 

 year were with the florists at Stirling and Falkirk.— J. Dobglas. 



NOVELTIES IN THE ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 



In the Stove are a few plants of Reidia glaucesoens, an 

 interesting and beautiful plant of unusual habit. The stem 

 ia erect and stout, bearing what at first seem to be pinnate 

 leaves ; they are, however, horizontal branches of definite 

 growth, produced with such regularity as to favour deception ; 

 the apparent leaflets are entire leaves. In the axils of these 

 are borne the flowers ; and though small, they are produced in 

 Buch numbers that there can scarcely be anything more pretty 

 or graceful. Each one hangs by a slender hair-like stalk ; they 

 are red in colour, and have a nicely-fringed margin. It is a 

 native of Java. Cuttings can be rooted at any season under a 

 beU-glass. For potting, a mixture of peat and loam with a 

 sprinkle of sand is quite suitable. Large pots are not neces- 

 sary ; very pretty specimens can be grown in 48's. It is for- 

 tunately not liable to be infected by insects. It has been 

 distributed from Kew for Feveral years, but is not very gene- 

 raUy known. From the late demand it appears to be rising in 

 favour. At night the leaves fold to sleep face to face like the 

 leaflets of many LeguminoEfe. Begonia geranioides is a very 

 choice and distinct species of small growth. The petioles are 

 red, supporting green blades that but slightly show the obliquity 

 characteristic of the genus. The flowers are pure white and 

 very numerous, on several pale green stalks well above the 

 foliage. It has a tuberous rootstock, but is not quite so hardy 

 as the majority of that description. A native of Port Natal, 

 whence it was introduced by Messrs. Backhouse, and was 

 figured in the " Botanical Magazine" for 1866. 



The new Cypripedium Roezlii is now in flower in the Orchid 

 collection. It does not differ widely from C. longifolium. A 

 good variety of Oncidium crispum is just opening, in the same 

 condition as 0. excavatum. There is nothing prettier than a 

 small pan of Pleione Wallichi with about sixteen of its rose- 

 coloured flowers fully expanded. Among others worth atten- 

 tion are Odontoglossum Uro-Skinueri, Eodriguezia secunda, 

 Mesospinidium vulcanicum, the curious Gongora galeata, Bras- 

 savola cordata, and Masdevallia Veitchii. Besides these, 

 numerous pots of Calanthe vestita, with C. Veitchii, render 

 the house gay and attractive. 



A large plant of Coprosma lucida planted in one of the beds 

 in the Temperate house is now very ornamental from its clusters 

 of orange-red berries. They are individually about twice the 

 size of those of Nertera. The tree is of good habit, with dark 

 shining oval leaves. It will not, perhaps, fruit in a young 

 state. C. Baueriana variegata covered with berries in this 

 way would be very pretty. Cuttings strike as freely as do those 

 of that variety, which, we may remark, should be widely used 

 for beds in sammer out of doors. 



CURLED PARSLEY 



Is one of the most useful garnishing herbs or vegetables that 

 we grow in the kitchen garden, when grown to perfection. I 

 generally put in my first sowing about the middle of March, 

 digging-in some rich manure; when finished, put on the ground 

 amixture of soot and burned wood ashes, which I rake in, sow in 

 a drUl, and then cover with some old dry soil from the potting 

 bench. I grow it along the edges of the Gooseberry borders, 

 and it looks well throughout the winter and spring months. 

 The second sowing I put in about the beginning of August on 

 a south border, and the Parsley comes in very useful in the 

 early part of the spring, and keeps me supplied through the 

 summer, until the spring-sown comes in for use. I always out 

 the plants down twice during the season — May and July, and 

 sow a little soot between the rows, which promotes growth 

 very much, at the same time gives the leaves a fine green 

 colour. In September or October a plantation may be made 



from the August sowing in a frame or on a warm sheltered 

 spot, where the plants will be likely to survive the winter. It 

 is seldom that the winter affects it in this locality in the open 

 ground. The varieties I grow are Myatt's Garnishing and 

 Champion Moss Curled. — W. McPheeson, Snehton Hall Gar- 

 dens, Ashhourne. 



FINE OLD TREES AT MOOR PARK, 

 HERTFORDSHIRE. 



Fine old trees have of late years been held so much in esteem, 

 not by the mere lovers of nature only, but by the public at 

 large, that even the owners hesitate before sacrificing them, 

 lest the public should censure the act; besides which, the pro- 

 prietors feel not a little proud of their possession, and instead 

 of the reckless cutting-down of timber which took place in 

 olden times, in many instances great reluctance is felt to thin 

 them sufficiently for the welfare of those intended to stand. 

 This undoubtedly is the better of the two extremes ; and added 

 to that are the laudable efforts made by many landowners to 

 increase their extent of woodland ; and every encouragement 

 should be given to their doing so, as so many influences are at 

 work elsewhere to diminish the quantity. Having, however, 

 the subject of a well-clothed district in contradistinction to 

 one denuded of trees for consideration hereafter in respect to 

 their respective influences on rainfall and other features of 

 meteorology, I will at once turn to that of fine old trees. It is 

 at all times a pleasure to see a number of such trees, especially 

 when we take into consideration the great temptations there 

 have been at various times to cut them down for their com- 

 mercial value. The great demand for ship-building timber at 

 the end of the last and for some years of the beginning of the 

 present century, induced many proprietors to cut down what 

 otherwise might have been an ornament to their estate ; but 

 it is not likely the same demand will occur again, the many 

 countries from which our timber supply is drawn, not to speak 

 of the many purposes for which iron has now substituted 

 timber, almost rendering the national song "Hearts of Oak" 

 a thing of the past. All tends to help to preserve to us what 

 remains of the fine trees of our ancestors ; and where fine onea 

 really do exist, and the owners of such are liberal enough to 

 allow the general public under proper restrictions the privilege 

 of inspecting such trees, I hardly know of any greater treat 

 that can be accorded. All honour, therefore, to those who 

 possess such riches and share them at the same time with their 

 neighbours. I am pleased to observe that this privilege is fast 

 gaining ground, and that the parks of many of our nobility 

 are thus made accessible to all such as by their actions desire 

 to be admitted ; and what public or private feast presents a 

 more true picture of a health-giving meal than is often seen 

 partaken of by a party holding a picnic under an aged tree ? 

 The very site, its associations, not to say the purity of the air 

 breathed by all, give it a charm which is wanting in the splen- 

 dour of the formal dinner party. And how often do we see 

 such a sight under some fine old trees in some gentleman's 

 park ! and, what is equally pleasing, how seldom do we hear 

 of a privilege thus gracefully granted being abused ! Let me 

 hope the cases of the latter kind wUl get fewer and fewer. 

 Those liberal-hearted noblemen and gentlemen who thus so 

 kindly allow their fine trees to be thus inspected are certainly 

 entitled to all praise at our hands, for are not old trees 

 exempt from the suspicions that now and then cling to 

 objects said to be old, as ironwork or chinaware, or even 

 pictures ? for old trees are not to be manufactured. Their 

 hoary appearance is genuine. No " getting-up " is necessary 

 on their part ; they are perfect in themselves, and any tamper- 

 ing with them would only end in the discomfiture of the 

 meddler. 



Of the fine old Oak trees which ornament so many of the 

 parks of our nobility, and at the same time form objects of 

 historical interest, there are many examples in the kingdom ; 

 and perhaps those in the county of Hertfordshire are as im- 

 portant as any, and amongst those of the latter kind the fine 

 trees in the park of Lord Ebury at Moor Park on the south- 

 western edge of the county are especially deserving of notice. 

 An outline of this fine place is given in the volume for 1871 ; 

 and in noticing the history of the place a mournful interest is 

 elicited by the fact of its having once been in possession of 

 the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II., 

 who was attainted and executed by the successor of that 

 monarch, when, it is said, the unfortunate duchess determined 

 that the trees in the park should not be made available for the 



