Regents Park Botanic Garden. 167 



they show that much has been done to bring the grounds 

 into their present state. 



The design of the garden is not to our taste ; it is cut up 

 altogether too much, and an attempt has been made to intro- 

 duce every style in too small a space ; the effect has been to 

 destroy its beauty; and in the place of broad glades of 

 lawn and groups of shrubbery ; with perhaps an arboretum, 

 forming a splendid promenade, there are rock works, Italian, 

 English and American gardens, rosariums, aquariums, me- 

 dico-botanic gardens, «fcc. &c. Each of these in themselves 

 are very well, but so eligible a spot should have been devoted to 

 higher objects. In the construction and situation of the vari- 

 ous hothouses, greenhouses, &c., no particular order has been 

 observed, and they are placed without regard to beauty of 

 arrangement or effect. It is now intended to construct a 

 great conservatory, three hundred feet long, two hundred 

 broad, and from thirty to forty feet high, divided into several 

 ranges for all kinds of plants ; the central range of the front 

 will have a large and splendid domical roof. A model of 

 this was on exhibition for inspection by the subscribers to 

 the garden, and was, we believe, to be carried into effect this 

 year. 



In passing hastily through the grounds, the principal ob- 

 jects of attraction we noticed were two fine phloxes, among 

 the herbaceous plants ; they were called exquisitifiora, a fine 

 compact white, and speciosa, red with a dark eye. In the 

 flower garden, which was planted with beds of fuchsias, cal- 

 ceolarias, petunias, verbenas, pelargoniums, &c., we noticed 

 a fine variety of the latter, called the Huntsman, being of 

 dwarf, compact habit, with splendid scarlet flowers. A 

 scarlet variety of salvia, called S. Grahamii coccinea, was 

 exceedingly brilliant. The planting of such showy flowers, 

 in beds or clumps, is one of the most striking features of 

 English gardening, and it is quite surprising to see what im- 

 mense numbers of plants are propagated for this especial 

 purpose. Fuchsia globosa was, perhaps, as beautiful as 

 any thing which we saw for this object. There is an opin- 

 ion prevalent that fuchsias in our climate do not do well in 

 the open border ; but we suspect such an idea has been pre- 

 maturely formed without experience, for we recollect seeing 



