506 LETTERS FROM ENGLAND. 



opening, like an amphitheatre, in the midst of a fine grove of trees. 

 An immense palace of glass rises before us. Its curved roof, spring- 

 ing seventy feet high, gleams in the morning sun ; and you would 

 be at a loss to conceive for what purpose this vast structure was in- 

 tended, did you not see as you approached, by the indistinct forms of 

 the foliage, that it incloses another garden. This is the great con- 

 servatory, which is three hundred feet long, and covers rather more 

 than an acre of ground. Through its midst runs a broad road, 

 over which the Duke and his guests occasionally drive in a carriage 

 and four. All the riches of the tropics are grown here, planted 

 in the soil, as if in their native climate ; and a series of hot-water 

 pipes maintain, perpetually, the temperature of Cuba in the heart of 

 Derbyshire. The surface is not entirely level, but there are rocky 

 hills and steep walks winding over them ; and lofty as the roof is, 

 some of the palms of South America have already nearly reached 

 the glass. From the branches and trunks of many of the largest, 

 hang curious air plants, brilliant, and apparently as little fixed to 

 one spot as summer butterflies. 



But I shall never bring this letter to a close, if I dwell even 

 slightly upon any interesting scene in detail. I must mention, how- 

 ever, in passing, the arboretum perhaps a mile long planted with 

 the rarest trees, and every day becoming richer and more interest- 

 ing to the botanist and the landscape gardener. The trees are 

 neither set in formal lines, nor grouped in a single scene, but are 

 scattered along a picturesque drive, with space enough for each to 

 develope its natural habit of growth. There are some very grace- 

 ful Deodar cedars here, and a great many araucarias. But the 

 two most striking and superb trees, which I nowhere else saw half 

 so large and in such perfection, were Douglass' fir (Abies Doug- 

 lassi), and the noble fir (Abies nobilis). They are two of the mag- 

 nificent evergreens of California and Oregon, discovered by Doug- 

 lass, and brought to England about eighteen years ago. These two 

 specimens are now about thirty-five feet high, extremely elegant in 

 their proportions, as well as beautiful in shape and color. I cannot 

 describe them, briefly, so well as by comparing the first to a gi- 

 gantic and superb balsam fir, with far larger leaves, a luxuriance 

 and freedom always wanting in the balsam, together with the 



