THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 121 
MR. B. 8S. WILLIAMS’S NURSERIES, UPPER HOLLOWAY. 
“HE Victoria and Paradise Nurseries, Upper Holloway, have become so 
3) famous throughout the country for the extent and excellency of their 
productions, that a brief account of them wiil, we feel assured, prove 
most interesting to a large body of our readers. That they contain 
everything proper to the nursery trade is only a matter of course; but 
the collections of orchids, »zaleas, camellias, cape heaths, stove and greenhouse plants 
generally, palms, cycads, ferns, and ornamental-leaved plants of all kinds, form 
distinct and most important features, each deserving of lengthy notice did space 
permit. The collections of the several subjects are not only remarkable for their 
extent ; they cluim attention also for the matchless specimens comprised in them. 
The specimen plants are mostly quite unsurpassed in trade coilections, for Mr. B. S. 
Williams, the proprietor, exhibits largely in the course of the season, and is sellom 
elsewhere than at the head of the prize-takers in the classes in which he c »mpetes. 
At the principal metropolitan exhibitions, and at all the more important of the pro- 
vincial gatherings, such as those held at Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, 
and Nottingham, the Holloway collections may be seen occupying pro- 
minent positions, and sustaining the high reputation of the nurseries. Mr. 
Williams does not, however, confine his efforts as an exhibitor, any more 
than he does his trade, to the United Kingdom, for at Brussels, Ghent, and 
other of the great horticultural centres on the Continent, his collections of 
plants are nearly as well known as in London. Most worthily, too, did 
Mr. Williams uphold British horticulture at the International Exhibition held 
last year at Cologne, and in recognition of his efforts was presented with a 
magnificent set of ornaments in high-class Dresden china, comprising clock, 
candelabra, vases, etc., the gift of the Crown Prince of Prussia, and several silver 
and bronze medals and diplomas. We mention this merely to show the vast re- 
sources of the nurseries, and the liberal spirit which actuates the proprietor in their 
management. The introduction of new plants forms a very important brinch of 
the trade, and the novelties which Mr. Williams has been instrumental in intro- 
ancing to English gardens occupy a foremost position in the class to which they 
severally belong, and bear ample testimony to the care and discrimination di:played 
in their selection for distribution. 
The nurseries are situate at the foot of Highgate Hill, and most convenient of 
access from all parts of the metropolis, for omnibuses from the city and the west- 
end, and the cars of the North Metropolitan Tramway stop at the principal entrance, 
and in addition there is, within three minutes’ walk the Upper Holloway Station, 
on the Midland Railway, which, in connection with the Metropolitan Railway, 
Opens up direct communication with nearly, if not quite, ail the railways entering 
the metropolis. A large conservatory forms the principal entrance, and this struc- 
ture, although not fanciful in design, is remarkably neat and elegant, and suffi- 
ciently spacious to afford room for an immense assemblige of magnificent Cycads, 
Palms, Dracenas, Tree-ferns, and other ornamental-leaved plants suitable for the 
embellishment of the conservatory. Tree-ferns with magnificent stems, twelve feet 
and upwards, and surmounted with ample spreading crowns of fronds, abound ; as also 
do grandly-developed examples of the choicest conservatory palms and dracsenas, and 
these, with the miscellaneous plants, have a most picturesque appearance. It is not, 
of course, to be expected that every visitor should buy a portion of these magnificent 
speciinens, yet apart from their great beauty, they are deserving of attention, for 
they show the true character of the respective plants to be met with in other struc- 
tures in a small state, and serve as a finger-post to the amateur when making pur- 
chases. Some of the specimens in this structure are of a great age—the tree- 
ferns, for example ; but in the case of the greater proportion, the cultivator may, by 
commencing with a small plant, costing a few shillings, hope to po:sess in a few years 
hence, specimens equal in development, if not in size, to some of the finest examples 
in the structure now referred to. The conservatory is not entirely given up to 
plants remarkable for the beauty of their foliage, or nobility of aspect, for there is 
at all times a good display of flowering plants, which imparts a brighter appear- 
April, 
