THE 



GARDENERS MAGAZINE, 



APRIL, 1837. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Suggestions for the Improvement of Kensington Gardens; 

 and zvhich are applicable, also, in a greater or less Degree, to Hyde 

 Park, the Green Park, Regent's Park, and Greenivich Park, and 

 to Parks and Pleasure-grounds generallij. By the Conductor. 



Having resided during the last twenty years in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, it will 

 not be wondered at that we feel an interest in whatever changes 

 may be going forward in these places of public recreation. For 

 upwards of a year past, we have wished to say something on the 

 alterations which have lately been making in Kensington Gardens ; 

 but we have never found time to do so ; and, though we have 

 now resolved to make the attempt, we cannot enter into the 

 subject as we could wish. We must therefore confine our- 

 selves to giving a few crude hints, which, we hope, will receive 

 the consideration of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests 

 before they commence planting; and, more especially, before 

 they commence planting in Kensington Gardens the mass of 

 common forest trees now standing in nursery lines on the 

 north-east margin. We intend to do this, because, even if our 

 hints should fail in producing all the effect we wish, we feel 

 confident that they will be useful to readers of this Magazine, 

 and to gardeners and planters generally; and this will be a 

 sufficient compensation to us for the time occupied in making 

 them, and for their printing and publication. 



We shall give the hints 6nder separate paragraphs, as they 

 occur to us, without much regard to their connexion. 



1. The Scolytus destructor is making extensive ravages on 

 the elms, and some hundreds of trees have, on that account, 

 been cut down ; besides those, amounting to above 100, which 

 were blown down by the hurricane of Nov. 29. 1836. Nine 

 tenths of the remaining elm trees in the gardens will, in all pro- 

 bability, also fall in a year or two ; considering that, relatively 



Vol. XIII. — No. 85. l 



