358 



JOURNAL OF HOBTIOULTUBE AND COTTAQB GABDENEIi. 



I October 22, 1874. 



By attending to them during the enmmer months it can be 

 brought into bearing at the end of September. — W. Weather, 

 Gardener to Edward Pease, Esq., Darlington. 



NOOKS OP SUSSEX.— No. i. 



My last note related to Yapton, and in a Bummer long 

 since passed I had thence journeyed to near Goring, and in- 

 quired my road for a nook still further to the eastward. An 

 old man directed me, but he added as a warning, " Eain's 

 anewst [near] — old Mother Goring got her cap on." In other 

 words, Chanctonbury Ring, a hill belonging to the Goring 

 family, had a grey cloud covering its summit. Whether the 

 prognostic was fulfilled I remember not, but I do remember 

 that there and in the nook to which I was journeying linger 

 many old sayings which I delight to hear and record. One of 

 them says, " The old woman takes the cuckoo in her basket 

 to Heathfield Fair, and there lets him out." That Fair occurs 

 on the 14th of April, and the cuckoo is so usually first heard 

 about that day that the Fair is called "Cuckoo Fair;" but 

 who the old woman is I know not. Another bit of folk-lore 

 learned as I journeyed on is that the Houseleek is cherished 

 by cottagers on the thatched roofs of their cottages, because 

 they believe it protects them from lightning. 



Many times since that journey have I been in nooks neigh- 

 bouring Heathfield. On an adjacent hill a modern mansion 

 is erecting, from a turret of which a perfect panorama of the 

 country round within a circuit of twelve miles is seen. Good 

 taste is apparent in some portions of the garden, and it will 

 appear in other portions as planting time progresses, for all is 

 a new creation. I have been there more than once recently, 

 for there are good wines in the cellar, and the housekeeper 

 compounds superlative chicken pies. That is a mere paren- 

 thesis, for having mentioned the gardening I intended at once 

 to proceed to some of the nooks of the garden, and of these 

 I shall notice none but those devoted to Primulas. The first 

 bed noticed was 45 feet in length and 3 feet in breadth, and 

 on it were forty rows of Polyanthuses, and six plants in each 

 row. They were seedlings, and the labels by them recorded 

 the colour of their flowers and their parentage. 



Thence I walked to a border 140 feet long and 6 feet broad. 

 In it were 119 rows, each row being filled by eleven plants. 

 Each plant was named and noted as to colour and size. I will 

 only mention one, called Purity, having white flowers, which 

 it persistently produces during the winter. Two others, pro- 

 bably not in the same border, I mention because the raiser 

 seems to have applied the names waggishly. One he has called 

 Magenta on account of its flowers' colour, and the other Sol- 

 fereno, its flowers being pale magenta. The Magenta is a 

 winter- flowering variety. 



Besides the bed and border I have mentioned there were 

 Primula edgings ; another bed, CO feet long by 20 broad, con- 

 taining more than eight hundred Polyanthuses, and a border 

 of nearly six hundred seedlings unproved. 



Need I add that the proprietor of the mansion and garden 

 is " Philanthos," whose little book on " Primroses, Cowslips, 

 Polyanthuses, and Oxlips," is published at the Journal office ? 



I observed in my previous notes upon the fondness for gar- 

 dening in some of the Sussex nooks, but I should have in- 

 cluded orcharding. No nooks of any other county contain 

 more old fruit trees, and varieties are met with that are quite 

 local and unmentioned in books, though excellent. Where 

 else can be found the Wheat Plum ? and where is its superior 

 for culinary use or for making a brilliant jelly-like preserve? 

 Here I met with the Pruin Plum, a name quite local, but the 

 fruit seems identical with the Mussel Plum of other counties. 

 Of Apples the Woodcock, Hawkridge, and Ducksbill seem to 

 be confined to Sussex and the borders of its adjoining counties. 



In these nooks are to be recognised dog-irons and fireplace- 

 backs, used when fires were kindled on the hearth, and manu- 

 factured two centuries since, when iron-smelting was an ex- 

 tensive operation in Sussex. That smelting is now sought to 

 be revived, and very probably with success. Railways have 

 rendered the conveyance of coals, ore, and manufactured iron 

 cheap compared to what it cost when the manufacture had to 

 be abandoned. There seems no reason why it should not be 

 remunerative here as it is in mid-Northamptonshire, for in 

 Sussex, as there, the ore is part of the subsoil. If in addition 

 the boring now in operation reveals a seam of coal, the advan- 

 tage will be still more decisively in favour of Sussex ; and the 

 time may be near when, history repeating itself, I may have 

 a modem record like that old one now before me, giving " an 



account of the whole process of the iron work, from one of the 

 chief iron masters in Sussex, Walter Burrel of Cuckfield, Esq." 

 In other nooks are the birthplaces of some of our oldest 

 writers on gardening, but these I may be permitted to notice 

 in other communications. — G. 



THE FLOWEE BEDS AT THE CRYSTAL 

 PALACE.— No. 2. 

 TuBNiNG now to the beds themselves, I found that the long 

 Rose borders which originally stretched in an unbroken line 

 from each intersecting walk along the outside of the upper 

 walk on the rosery mound, had been broken up into a series 

 of parallelograms of Roses alternating with circular flower beds, 

 in which the enamel bedding was in fullest beauty. Elevated, 

 as these beds are, very near the top of the steep sloping sides 

 of the huge mound, with the beds of Roses acting as foils 

 between every two circles, and with a bold sweep of turf down- 

 wards from them, they form very conspicuous objects, which 

 certainly have that full share of general admiration which 

 they so richly merit. Skirting the base of the mound, on 

 the turf inside the lower encircling walk, there is another 

 chain of beds, all of circular form, and planted in the old free 

 style with Geraniums, &a. ; all well filled and in excellent con- 

 dition, but affording a striking contrast to the dwarf growth 

 and bright unbroken beauty of the upper series of beds, com- 

 pared with which they were extremely tame and insipid ; and 

 it was an instructive lesson to watch the hasty passing glance 



Fig. 104. 



4, Golden Feather Pyrethmm. 



5, Colens Verechaffelti. 



1, Sempervivum califoroicum. 



2, Lobelia Bpeciosa. 



3, Alternantbeia amo:'na. t 



bestowed on them by those who soon afterwards found them- 

 selves involuntarily pausing to admire the irresistible beauty 

 and to study the designs of the enamelled beds. Let us join 

 them, and see what else there may be to learn to enable us to 

 apply the lesson in our own practice next season ; and in doing 

 this it will be best slightly to recapitulate. 



Most of the beds have an edging of Sempervivum califor- 

 nicum, and where a brighter-coloured edging was necessary 

 Golden Feather Pyrethrum was its substitute. Colens Ver- 

 schaffelti is still a favourite for producing a deep rich central 

 mass, and it was present in several beds in the form of bold 

 central stars and other forms. A Maltese cross of it margined 

 with Golden Pyrethrum, with deep blue, carmine, and the 

 pretty maculated rosettes of Sempervivum californicum out- 

 side, as in fig. 104, was very fine. Now this bed, from the very 

 simplicity of its design, offered a striking and not unpleasant 

 contrast to the more complicated forms. " Grand simplicity " 

 is no doubt a somewhat hackneyed term, but it is none the 

 less expressive of truth and beauty. Another important 

 matter in connection with this bed is the materials. Of the 



