110 Provincial Nurseries : — 



The Walton Nursery Garden Library we believe to be the most exten- 

 sive in the kiiigdoni, and also the best managed. The articles of manage- 

 ment, wiiicii are now before us, appear worthy of being taken as a model for 

 similar institutions. A particular account is given of the origin of this 

 library in our Vol. II. p. 2+6. We sincerely wisii every nurseryman would 

 imitate the conduct of the late Mr. Bannerman, according to his means 

 and his situation, and establish a library of some sort in his seed-shop, if 

 only of half a dozen volumes. We are sure the result would be for the 

 benefit of nursery and seedsmen, by spreailing a knowledge of, and taste 

 for, gtu-dening, and by increasing the obligations of gardeners to them. 



Warwickshire. 



T/ie Handsworth Kitrsery, near Birmingham, JMexsrs. John Pope and 

 Sons, lias been established only a few years in its present situation ; but 

 Mr. Luke Pope, the father of the present Mr. Pope, sen., was the founder 

 of a nursery in the neighbourhood of Birmingham in the last century. The 

 extent of the Handsworth Nursery is not great, but there are several acres 

 belonging to it in other situations, where fruit and forest trees are grown 

 extensively ; Messrs. Pope being in the habit of contracting largely for 

 laying out grounds and |)lanting them. There is one hot-house, several 

 green-houses, and a number of pits. The articles grown at Handsworth 

 are chiefly of botanical and floral interest; and the list which we are en- 

 abled to present will show what a valuable assemblage of rare articles has 

 here been collected. Mr. Pope's father was long famous for his tulips, and 

 he declared on his deathbed that he had spent upwards of .SOOO/. on them. 

 The collection is now at Handsworth, and made a very splendid display in 

 the first and second weeks of May last : we were shown some sorts for 

 which 50/. a root were given by the father of the present Mr. Pope, and 

 others valued even now at •20/. a root: many of the finest sorts are beauti- 

 fully drawn by Mr. L. L. Pope, for the inspection of purchasers. Mr. Pope, 

 sen., has travelled through the greater part of the United States, and has 

 introduced a number of American plants. Among these is /^osa palustris, 

 the flowers of which are double, and the leaves scented like those of the 

 sweet briar. All the wild roses in America, Mr. Pope informed us, iiave 

 scented leaves. Every part of this nursery is brimful of interest, from the 

 number of its rarities ; but, instead of enumerating them, we refer to the 

 list below, noticing only a seedling 7/osa odorata, which flowered within 

 three months from the time it appeared above ground, when not higher 

 than t in., and with the seminal leaves still attacheil. The flower was 

 odoriferous like the parent. In the hot-house there is a large cinnamon 

 tree, ami a fine specimen of Ornithogalum caudatum. Among the hardy 

 shrubs, a tree |);i'ony, received direct from China, single-flowered, and ilif- 

 ferent from any pu-onyyet introducetl. Calceolaria Fothergf 11/7, kept through 

 the winter in the open border ; a small hand-glass i)eing first put over the 

 plant to keej) a portion cjf air round it, to prevent injury from ilamp, and 

 over the hand-glass a (piantity of moss for warmth, the whole being covered 

 by turning a flower-pot down over it to keep out the rain and snow. 

 /Rhododendron arboreuin has stood several winters in a sheltered border, 

 without any protection whatever. On the 'dh of May, last year, the young 

 shoots on the top of the plant were killed by the frost, while the young 

 shoots on the layers, and all the old leaves on the plants, esca[)ed unhurt. 

 A tree [):eony grafted on the root of a common pivony has always produced 

 flowers larger than tlujse propagated in the connnon way. The American 

 ground is laid out in winding walks, in the manner of a labyrinth. For 

 some other particulars, sec Vol. VII. |). HO. The following lists being 

 nearly a year old, Messrs. Pope could, no doubt, add to them, were they to 

 revise them up to the present time ; but one use of our article " Provincial 



