HYDE PARK 47 



putting out of comparatively tender plants in the 

 summer months, when the same general effect could be 

 got with a less expenditure both of money and plants. 

 But on the other hand numbers of people come to study 

 the beds, note the combinations, and examine the use of 

 certain plants which they would not otherwise have the 

 opportunity of testing. The public who enjoy the results, 

 and often those who most severely criticise, do not know 

 the system on which the gardening is carried out. Many 

 are even ignorant enough to suppose that the whole 

 bedding out is contracted for, and few know the hidden 

 recesses of Hyde Park, which produces everything for all 

 the display, both there and in St. James's Park. The 

 old place in which all necessary plants were raised was a 

 series of greenhouses and frames in front of Kensington 

 Palace. The erection of these pits and glass houses com- 

 pletely destroyed the design of the old garden, although 

 even now the slope reveals the lines of the old terraces ; 

 and they entirely obscure the beauty of the Orangery. 

 A few years ago three acres in the centre of Hyde Park 

 were taken, on which to form fresh nurseries. Gradually 

 better ranges have been built, and soon the old unsightly 

 frames at Kensington will disappear. The new garden is 

 so completely hidden that few have discovered its where- 

 abouts. The ground selected lies to the north-west of 

 the Ranger's Lodge. There, a series of glass houses on 

 the most approved plan, and rows of frames, have been 

 erected. The unemployed have found work by excava- 

 ting the ground to the depth of some eight feet, and the 

 gravel taken out has made the wide walk across the Green 

 Park and the alterations in the "Mall." A wall and 

 bank of shrubs and trees so completely hides even the 

 highest house in which the palms — such as those outside 



