July 13, 1876. ) 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENBB. 



51 



Park was dispersed, and when Mr. John Fraser of the Lea 

 Bridge Boad Nurseries also had a collection that invariably 

 placed his name at the head of the prize list, Mr. Donald was 

 working steadily in the same direction, and his stove and 

 greenhouse flowering plants were always in a high position. 



I well remember — it must be more than a dozen years ago — 

 admiring for the first time a splendid plant of Clerodendron 

 ThomsoniiB in his collection at Regent's Park, a well-flowered 

 Stephanotis floribunda, and other masterly-trained plants, 

 which placed his name first on the list on that occasion. Mr. 

 Donald still exhibits flowering and fohage plants with great 

 success. Indeed his foliage plants were awarded first prize at 

 the last great exhibition in Regent's Park ; but he has found 

 that the claims of a large establishment which he has to supply 

 with fruit, vegetables, and flowers, besides the requirements of 

 a large flower garden (and spring and summer bedding is no 



joke now-a-days), admits of but little time for majjipulating 

 exhibition plants. It does not require much ingenuity to dis- 

 cover that the exhibition tent is not the true test of the abihty 

 of the gardener ; and the way in which the schedules have 

 been compiled to allow plants ready for exhibition to be brought 

 the day before the show, or on the same morning if you like, 

 gives a further advantage to the longest purse. However, this 

 is straying from the point, and may be the text of an article 

 some other day. 



Mr. Donald has been a servant in the family for twenty-four 

 years, and during the whole of that time he has been modelling 

 and remodelling the grounds and gardens, the whole having 

 been laid out at dift'erent times under his direction. On first 

 walking through the grounds you are reminded of the Regent's 

 Park Botanic Gardens ; not that there is much resemblance 

 between them but this — anyone not knowing the extent of the 



Fig. 8.— Knott's geeen. 



Botanic Gardens would think them much larger than they 

 really are, and the same impression is conveyed here. All 

 gardens and grounds near large cities are necessarily small, 

 and the highest art of the landscape gardener is displayed in 

 making them appear as large as he possibly can, and this is 

 no easy matter where there are but very few natural advan- 

 tages. Here there are none, the whole district being so flat 

 and uninteresting. There is a small piece of water in the 

 grounds which has been made the most of, and is a great aid 

 to the effect of the grounds ; and Mr. Donald no doubt finds 

 it useful for irrigating purposes during the summer months, as 

 the rainfall is much below the average of the United Kingdom. 

 In the grounds are some noble trees. A grand Plaae is 32 yards 

 in the spread of its branches ; Crattegus latifolia, a handsome 

 specimen of which was loaded with its clusters of white flowers 

 in June. A large specimen of a species of Mespilua is an at- 

 tractive object in front of the large conservatory. 



FLOWEE GARDEN. 



This consists of a number of plain beds on each side of the 

 principal walk in the grounds, and a series of long borders 

 running along the outside of the boundary wall of the kitchen 

 garden. One or two noticeable features in the flower garden 

 is that the summer and spring bedding work into each other. 

 In one or two beds the summer occupants had been put out 



before the others were removed. Further, very nearly all the 

 beds and borders were filled with plants that could be easily 

 propagated in the spring or wintered in cold frames. The long 

 border is very effective, and is filled-iu with the following 

 plants. The edging nearest the walk is Cerastium tomentosum, 

 the inside edging Silver-variegated Thyme. The space .3 feet 

 wide between the two edgings is of scrollwork, the following 

 plants being used : A very dwarf double yellow French Mari- 

 gold, the old Saponaria calabrica, Echeveria secunda glauca, 

 Viola cornuta var. Perfection, Golden Chickweed, Iresine Liu- 

 deni, and Pelargonium Harry Hieover. It will be observed 

 that with the exception of the last two plants all the others 

 were raised from seeds in the spring, wintered out of doors or 

 in cold frames. Two oval beds were very pretty ; they were 

 edged with Sempervivum californicum, next Alternanthera 

 ama?na, with centre of Pyrethrum and Amaranthus melan- 

 oholicus ruber dotted down the centre. Viola oornuta var. 

 Perfection is much used. 



CONSEEV.ITOKY. 



This is a very large building, and has just been erected in 

 the centre of a long corridor which used to be considered the 

 conservatory, but it was too narrow and confined for pleasant 

 exercise for tho family during inclement weather. The new 

 building forms a pleasant promenade, and a purer healthier 



