Septemljer 23, 1875. ] 



JOUENAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



271 



up, which it is likely to be in dry seaaous. Still prettier 

 country is met with at Basingstoke, while the Ivy-clad ruins 

 of a religious edifice close to the station attract the eye of 

 the railway passenger on emerging from the station. The 

 ancient town, or rather I should say city of Winchester, is 

 surrounded by villas and residences vieing with each other in 

 taste and most likely comfort, suggestive enough of the peace- 

 able times we now live in as compared with those in which 

 Saxon and Dane fiercely contended for supremacy, very likely 

 on the spot now so highly ornamented. 



Journeying farther to the south, and passing through a dis- 

 trict not remarkable in any way beyond the fact of seeing a 

 sheet or two of water where least expected, we are at length 

 brought up to a stand at one of the outskirts of Southampton, 

 and water in great abundance is before us. The first view 

 would almost make it appear as if it were a lake, for it appears 

 to be surrounded by land ; but a closer acquaintance dispels 

 the idea, and the peculiarities of the vegetation on its shores 

 attest at once its connection with the ocean. Neither is it at 

 all inviting just at that point. The low muddy shore contrasts 

 unfavourably with some sheets of inland water where a bolder 

 coast line exists. But we have little time to take notes, and 

 with the whistle of the engine we are off again farther south, 

 but skirting this water as we go for some distance, and when 

 we leave it we are presently brought into contact with extensive 

 tracts of woodland or rather cultivated land profusely wooded, 

 which, extending some distauee, gradually brings us into that 

 tract of country which the schoolboy and historian ia more 

 likely to regard with more importance than the traveller who 

 passes through it. The New Forest, in fact, being perhaps the 

 very oldest object to which the term "now" is still applied, 

 for we are told it is fast approaching eight hundred years since 

 it was so designated ; but the term now seems more becoming, 

 perhaps, than it was some centuries ago, as large portions of it 

 have been newly planted, but to the unlettered traveller there 

 is but little to see from the windows of a railway carriage that 

 is at all interesting. Certainly the quantity of timber fit tor 

 ship-building purposes is very small indeed, while much that 

 has recently been planted is Scotch Fir, large breadths being 

 met with that appear to have been planted at various times, 

 and is more or less thriving according to soil and situation, 

 the former not always good — in fact I should say much of it 

 only indifferent. But it would appear that some years back 

 excellent roads had been formed, which being generally in 

 straight lines and of great length must be of great service in 

 traversing so wide a tract. Heathy wastes often occur with a 

 few stunted Scotch Firs, but comparatively few Hollies or 

 Birches ; and 1 do not remember noticing any Tews or Junipers, 

 but doubtless they exist there, while the marshy spots present 

 the usual herbage found in such placss, with Alder, Willow, 

 iSc . ; and probably the plant the ordinary traveller sees most 

 abundant all over the place is the common Brake, which is 

 met with almost everywhere, often contending with the Heath 

 for the possession of those waste places which more robust 

 vegetation refuses to occupy. 



Passing over the remaining intervening space we reach our 

 destination. Bournemouth, like many other fashionable water- 

 ing places, owes its importance to its dry and healthful situa- 

 tion in addition to its excellent sea-bathing quaUflcation. 

 Bold sandy cliffs of great height have been washed into nearly 

 a perpendicular condition, with sufficient sandy or gravelly 

 beech at their base, free and sate to loungers in all conditions 

 of the tide, excepting perhaps in extraordinary storms ; and 

 with a shore extending for some mOes in this way is duly made 

 use of by those who make a sojourn by the ocean a feature 

 in life. The high cliff forming the coast is broken for a short 

 distance by the narrow valley of the Bourne, a stream of no 

 greater size than what a full-grown schoolboy would regard as 

 only a good jump. It, however, has been turned to useful 

 account, as will be shown hereafter, in aiding the embellish- 

 ment of the place ; and as it necessarily runs through the 

 valley we may say that what may be called the business part 

 of the town is mostly coneantrated in or near the sides of the 

 valley, while the residences of those who seek health and 

 relaxation are mostly placed on the high table land on each 

 side ; and differing from most other places of a like kind, there 

 are rarely two dwellings found united together, each occu- 

 pying a site by itself, and in most cases I should guess from 

 one to two acres is attached to each dwelling, the greater 

 portion of that area being of course ornamental ground in the 

 shape of shrubbery, lawn, and flower beds. Furthermore, it 

 is only fair to observe that the ground originally appears to 



have been a Scotch Fir plantation with an undergrowth of 

 Heath, Brakes, &c. And as Bournemouth is the creation of 

 the last quarter of a century or so, the design for its dwellings 

 has been laid out with due care and attention to future effect 

 — long straight roads wide enough for all purposes, with spacious 

 footpaths on each side, tlie boundaries of which are sometimes 

 Holly or other fancy evergreen hedges, or it may be ornamental 

 iron railing. The dwellings, standing back all about equal 

 distances from the road and 100 feet or more from it, give 

 room for the closely shaved lawn, on the margins of which a 

 sufficiency of Scotch Fir trees has been retained when the 

 buUding was put up, and shrubs of suitable kinds introduced 

 amongst them, with not more flower beds than seom needed 

 for the duo embellishment of the whole. Neatly kept carriage 

 and back entrances of course are provided, while the residences 

 themselves, being all of modern creation, are no doubt well 

 designed for the families they contain. It is almost needless 

 to say that architectural skill has been duly exercised in 

 varying the designs, and endless are the diversities of form 

 which two or three different colours in bricks and blue slates 

 can be made to assume. 



Such is Bournemouth, the winter residence of many who 

 occupy an exalted position in the land, while to the casual 

 wayfarer the accommodation for a night or two is not so good 

 as that of many other places, and the roads leading to it do 

 not pass many villages where the benighted traveller may take 

 shelter. True the decayed old towns of Poole on the one side 

 and Christchurch on the other are not far away, and act as 

 landmarks to their fashionable neighbour rising about midway 

 between them, and from Bournemouth the Poole road and 

 Christchurch roads are important avenues, the latter in more 

 senses than one, as the trees lining it overshadow the foot- 

 path, and render it very pleasant in the hot dry weather of 

 the dog days ; but enough has been said of the general features 

 of the place. Let us now turn to the horticultural side of the 

 case and see in what way the site is made to suit the various 

 products generally required to constitute the ornamental ; and 

 although the place is still young in the sense in which towns 

 are generally regarded, it is old enough, and there have been 

 experiments enough to prove what class of plants seem to 

 thrive best on the spot ; and as it often happens that there is 

 a something or other patronised more extensively in each 

 place than in others, it may be said that Bournemouth seems 

 more cosmopolitan in this way than many other places, and 

 the anxiety which each may have to outdo his neighbours in 

 variety has doubtless led to many things being tried that 

 have been found not to answer; but on the whole shrubs of 

 most kinds are sure to do well, and I need hardly say that a 

 great preponderance seems given to evergreens, while deciduous 

 shrubs are more scarce, but a few passing notes on such as do 

 well will not be amiss here. 



We have said that the general characteristic of the neigh- 

 bourhood is sand, but sparingly intermixed with gravel, for 

 even the seashore is not wholly covered with shingle, although 

 cliffs from 100 to 200 feet high are washed down to produce 

 the gravel. Sand of a pale yellow seems to have produced an 

 herbage forming the thin tufty particles of peat on which the 

 common Heaths grow with more or less vigour, and Scotch 

 Firs when planted grow also, but not fast, and I do not hear 

 much of their self-sowing and reproducing themselves as they 

 often do in kindred situations. — J. Eobson. 



PORTRAITS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, and FRUITS. 



Draea Mawii. A'a/. oj'd., Crnciferic. Li»i!., Tetradynamia. 

 — " A native of Pancorbo in Old Castile, between Burgos and 

 Miranda, where it was discovered by Mr. Maw in 1870, and 

 introduced into his garden at Brosely and into the Royal 

 Gardens of Kew. It flowered in the spring of 1873, and the 

 fruit ripened for the first time in May, 1874. It is an excel- 

 lent rock plant, of compact habits, bright green foliage, and 

 red-brown buds, that are succeeded by crowded pearly flowers." 

 —{Bot. Marj., t. 6186. 



Crocus Boryi. Nat. oid., Iridaceas. Linn., Triandria 

 Monogynia. — " This pretty autumn-flowering Crocus is com- 

 mon in many of the islands, and on the mainland of Greece. 

 We have specimens at Kew from Corfu and Cephalonia, and 

 from Mount Parnes and Mount Corydalus, in Attica. It was 

 first brought into notice by the celebrated traveller and natu- 

 ralist. Colonel Bory de Saint Vincent, after whom it was 

 named by his friend Gay in 1832. He speaks of it as covering 

 the mountains after the rainy season, from November to 



