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October 26, 1905. 



The Weekly Florists' Review^ 



M7\ 



liam Bobinson, to whom I had a letter 

 of introduction from Professor Sargent. 

 He kindly invited me to visit him at'' 

 Gravetye Manor, located in Surrey, about 

 thirty miles from London. Gravetye is 

 an old Saxon word meaning a house in 

 the hollow. The name, however, does not 

 designate correctly the position of Grav- 

 etye Manor, which is placed on a gently 

 sloping hillside overlooking the course 

 of a stream, which has been dammed 

 lower down, thus forming a very pretty 

 sheet of water in the valley, to which the 

 long reach of lawn slopes in pleasing 

 undulations. Wooded hills rise on the 

 opposite side of the water, while to the 

 left a pretty view of valley is obtained. 

 Behind the house the ground rises ana is 

 covered with plantations of pine. 



Mr. Robinson would have done much 

 for gardening had he written nothing 

 more than The English Garden and Wild 

 Gardening. He has, however, done much 

 more, and, what is better, has put into 

 practice at Gravetye the principles he has 

 so earnestly taught in his writings. In 

 the construction of a terrace garden old 

 weathered fla.gs were obtained with which 

 to pave the walks. The beds are ar- 

 ranged in an old-fashioned style and 

 planted with old-fashioned flowers. Eoses 

 predominate, of which Mr. Robinson has 

 a large collection. A pretty feature of 

 the garden is Tropaeoleum speciosum, 

 blooming freely in gorgeous clusters, as 

 are also wall plants, which are encour- 

 aged to colonize. Beyond the terrace gar- 

 den is a cozy ramble, the borders of 

 which abound in good shrubs, herbaceous 

 plants and bulbs. Beyond is situated 

 the walled vegetable and fruit garden. 

 The sheet of water in the valley is bord- 

 ered by a walk, along which the planting 

 of shrubs and herbaceous plants has been 

 done in a manner to give a very natural 

 effect. The same may be said of the 

 shore line* at which have been planted 

 water lilies and other aquatic and semi- 

 aquatic plants. The atmosphere of the 

 entire place is restful, quaint and beau- 

 tiful, on natural lines. The absence of 

 variegated and other abnormal forms of 

 vegetation was conspicuous, as might be 

 expected. The estate comprises about 400 

 acres, some of which is old woodland. A 

 large area has been planted by Mr. Rob- 

 inson with pines (Pinus sylvestris and 

 Piuus Laricio) which show excellent 

 growth, some of them being twenty or 

 more feet in height. Our white pine 

 (Pinus strobus) proved a failure, which 

 Mr. Robinson regretted very much. Many 

 grew well at first, then suddenly died 

 off. 



At the close of a very enjoyable day 

 my host drove with me to the station. 

 On the way h© pointed out a railroad 

 bank, on which he had scattered the seed 

 of Spanish broom a few years ago, now a 

 sheet of yellow bloom as a reward for 

 the forethought and public spirit of the 

 planter. 



The love of flowers is innate in the 

 heart of an Englishman. The same may 

 be said, only in a lesser degree, of the 

 Irishman, the Scotchman and the French- 

 man. There are few who have not a 

 garden, or at least a window-box, along 

 the roadside, or in country towns and 

 villages where the houses are often built 

 on the line of the road, a narrow strip 

 of space will be stolen from the side- 

 walk and planted with climbers to cover 

 the cottage walls. This love for flowers 

 by all classes contributes in a great de- 

 gree to the charm and beauty of Eng- 

 lish homes. In most parts of England 



Wild Asters and Golden-rod in a Gilded Bulb Basket 



trees are encouraged to grow in the 

 meadows and hedge rows. Even farmers 

 will call your attention to their trees, 

 to their fine size or appearance, and to 

 how much they add to the beauty of the 

 landscape. When such a spirit as this 

 is abroad in a land, what wonder that it 

 calls for the admiration of travelers! 



I saw a goodly number of fine trees. 

 At Lannercost Priory, Cumberland, are 

 the finest sycamore trees I ever beheld, 

 many measuring four to five feet in 

 diameter. This tree behaves badly in the 

 States and gives no intimation of its 

 qualities. The long walk at Windsor 

 Castle is shaded by handsome English 

 elms. At Ravensworth Castle, Durham, 

 are good beeches; one I measured has a 

 spread of ninety-five feet. At Naworth 

 Castle, Cumberland, are grand oaks, 

 which must have been old when belted 

 Will Howard was warden of the marches. 



At Brinkbum Priory in Northumber- 

 land a lot of silvery-leaved firs, three 

 to three and one-half feet in diameter, 

 rear their heads to a height- of ninety or 

 100 feet. A plant of Clematis montana 

 on the priory walls measures fifty-four 

 inches around the stem. It might have 

 been planted by the Cistercian monks 

 who founded the monastery. 



In Anthony Waterer's nursery I saw 

 a magnificent specimen of the weeping 

 beech, at least sixty feet in diameter of 

 spread of branches. I ought not to stop 

 at this single reference when so many 

 good things are to be found there. 



The forest of Fontainebleau, thirty 

 miles from Paris, has an area of 42,000 

 acres, in which fine oaks and beeches 

 abound. Of course, everybody knows of 

 the Burnham beeches. There are still 

 many well-shaped specimens to be found 

 back in the woods that will well repay 



the trouble of hunting them up. The old 

 pollarded and decaying trunks are mag- 

 nificent even in their ruins, and recall 

 a long distant past. 



I will close with a reference to the 

 white willows of Warwickshire, called 

 Salix regalis in the catalogues, but which 

 Professor Sargent says is the typical 

 Salix alba. How beautifully their silver 

 foliage lightens and softens the land- 

 scape! When once seen they are not apt 

 to be forgotten. 



THE CHICAGO POST-OFHCE, 



The C'liicago post-office will move into 

 its new building on Saturday of this 

 week. It is almost eleven years since 

 the old building was vacated and con- 

 siderably more than that since the 

 original plans were drawn for the new 

 structure, whicfe is without doubt the 

 handsomest post-oflBce in the United 

 States. But conditions change in a 

 dozen years and it was more than a 

 year ago recognized that the new 

 building, especially in certain features, 

 had been outgrown long before it was 

 ready for occupancy. In no respect 

 were the facilities more inadequate 

 than for handling second class (news- 

 paper) mail. Certain expensive 

 changes were made but the arrange- 

 ments are still incomplete, for the post- 

 master has announced that while, be- 

 ginning next Monday, all other mail 

 will be handled through the new build- 

 ingt a part of the outgoing newspaper 

 mail will continue to be handled 

 through the eleven-year-old "tempo- 

 rary" building on the lake front. 



What effect this will have on out- 

 going papers remains to be seen. We 

 hope it will not have any effect. But 

 if delay is occasioned the Review 



