644 



THE GARDENERS 



CHRONICLE 



rs 



29, 1S55. 



water be destroyed, or the recreation of the public be 

 interfered with. One would think that the intention 

 of Government was to construct a massive military 

 road, paved with granite and traversed by incessant 

 artillery wazgons ; or to form a causeway over 

 which stone was to be conveyed on its way from 

 Pad dington for the construction of the new bridge 

 at Westminster and the Houses of Parliament.^ On 

 the contrary, the bridge is to be of the lightest 

 design, to be used merely by foot passengers, horse- 

 men and carriages ; and instead of cutting the Park 

 in two it will consist of arches thrown over the 

 greensward, as the bridge itself will be over the 

 water. So that as free a communication as now 

 exists will be maintained between the two sides ; 

 nor will any real space now available by 

 the public be lost, for the roadway itself, 

 while on the level, will stand in the place 

 of so much shrubbery, which must always be 

 protected ground. 



With respect to the badness of the effect to be 

 produced by the intended alteration, much will of 

 course depend upon the design for the bridge, concern- 

 ing which there is at present no public information. 

 It is however an admitted principle in landscape 

 gardening that the effect of water is greatly improved 

 whenever it is spanned by a bridge. 



" There is one class of buildings," says Sir 

 Uvedalk Prick, "of a very distinct character from 

 any of those already mentioned, which by no means 

 deserves to remain unnoticed — that of bridges. In 

 every style of scenery they are objects of the most 

 interesting kind ; whether we consider their great 

 and obvious utility, and the almost intrinsic beauty 

 of their forms, or their connection with the most 

 pleasing scenes in nature, and the charms which 

 they add to water, and receive from it in return. '' 

 And again : " The situation of a bridge most 

 commonly confers on it such distinction that it 

 wants no ornaments to mark it, and to detach it 

 from other objects ; then the arches themselves 

 form such grand and beautiful openings, that they 

 require no artificial breaks or embellishments to 

 disguise or adorn them, for their natural arrange- 

 ment is as simple and beautiful as their form ; 

 whereas, in some of the necessary apertures in 

 other buildings, such as the windows in houses, 

 there is nothing of intrinsic beauty or grandeur ; 

 and in their arrangement the architect is frequently 

 embarrassed how to make beauty accord with 



convenience. 



Such were the opinions of one of the greatest 

 landscape gardeners, and we are not prepared to 

 believe that St. James's Park will offer an exception 

 to what Price regarded as a universal rule. On the 

 contrary, looking at the water itself, and the place 

 where it is proposed to span it with a bridge, we are 

 persuaded that when the alteration is made the most 

 vehement of those who now oppose it will feel that 

 he was in the wrong. 



It is rightly urged that the Parks are places set 

 apart for public recreation and public convenience. 

 In the present instance the former can, in no degree 

 whatever, be interfered with ; on the contrary, 

 if beautifying a place of public resort renders it 

 more enjoyable, the pleasure of the frequenters will 

 have been consulted, not neglected. As to con- 

 venience, one of its first conditions in a great city 

 is freedom of communication ; and it is impossible 

 to say with any justice, that the public interest is 

 neglected by forming a roadway between two of the 

 most crowded districts of this huge metropolis. If 

 the way in question does nothing for Belgravia, it 

 does everything for Brookes' and Whiti , the line 

 from St. James's Palace to the Regent's Park and 

 the great region of Marylebone. So far from object- 

 ing to roads formed through the Parks we hope to 

 see more ; one for instance from Charing Cross 

 through Spring Gardens, and another from Tyburnia 

 towards Kensington Gore. They are of urgent 

 necessity and it is a strange perversion of language 

 to hold that the public is wronged by measures in 

 which nothing is so much consulted as public 



convenience. 



Let the Board of Works persevere ; the recent 

 outcry will have died away before a sod is turned ; 

 and if not let them recollect that " public opinion " 

 is not exclusively represented by the ready writers 

 of a few popular newspapers. 



There is no satisfying some people. Their vanity 

 is inordinate ; and praise they regard as scanty 

 courtesy unless it is carried beyond all truth and 

 moderation. It is not enough to say "you have 

 done well and been useful ;" they expect to be told 

 that their merit transcends that of all men, and to 

 be regarded as benefactors of the human race. A 

 notable example of this has just occurred at the 

 meeting of the British Association at Glasgow. Mr. 

 N. B. Ward, after whom the well-known Wardian 

 case has been named, has laid his serrov before 



that learned body. He conceives himself ill treated 

 by the Editor of the Gardeners' Chronicle because 

 the results of his wonderful discovery that a Fern- 

 seed will grow in a glass bottle is not placed on the 

 same level as the inferences to which the fall of an 

 Apple once led. That we should not have recog- 

 nised a second Newton in Mr. N. B. \Y ard is a 



grave offence. 



Accordingly the learned gentleman has 

 plained to the British Association, as we 

 already said. He assured his hearers that 

 statements of the editor of the Gardeners thro- 



m 



corn- 

 have 

 "the 





nick were unphilosophical and untrue"; meaning 

 as he tells us in a private letter of apology for 

 the use of such language, that he only questioned 

 the accuracy of our conclusions, and not of our 

 statements. One of the statements to which he 

 referred was, as we understand him, that plants 

 will net grow in a Wardian case ; and he remarks 

 that it does not appear that we " have instituted a 

 single experiment to test the value of that hypo- 

 thesis." We should wonder if we had. It was not 

 necessary to prove experimentally the soundness of 

 an opinion we never expressed. 



The article which has so grievously disturbed the 

 equanimity of our worthy friend is we presume one 

 published in our volume for 1854. p. 252. In this 

 occur the following sentences:— iC rightly used and 

 correctly understood it is an excellent adjunct to 



horticulture." "when properly constructed the 



Wardian case answers perfectly as a means of 



transplanting plants to great distances.'' " It 



has also its value in places where the air is filled 



more than edified the Botanical section. But 



reality, one or me greatest or Horticultural questions 

 is involved in the discussion ; and if we were to 

 acquiesce in the justice of Mr. Ward's opinions 

 we should be helping to throw back the art of 

 gardening to what it was in the days of the Aito.n$ 

 and Andersons. All modern experience shows that 

 healthy vegetation, productiveness, biilliancv of 

 colour, and richness of flower among plants is in 

 direct proportion to the free circulation of air at a 

 fitting temperature, and in a due state of humidity. 

 Mr. Ward thinks the reverse to be true, and that 

 plants like to find themselves permanently in 

 "quiet media;" that is to say, in places where 

 plants " spindle" and "fog off," and u blight" and 

 " mildew, 5 ' to use our homely horticultural language. 

 When he can find a gardener of experience to 

 support such a view it will be time enough for us to 

 examine it more formally. Till then we must con- 

 tinue to warn th 



who would cultivate plants 

 well to beware of Wardian cases. Where plants 

 are to be grown under difficulties, as in sitting- 

 rooms, or sooty neighbourhoods, they may be advan- 

 tageously employed, as we have never hesitated to 

 assert; but even there the less the true Wardian 

 principle is observed the better for their inmates. 



with floating soot or dust ; or where it is naturally 

 too dry for vegetation, as sitting-rooms. There the 

 lives of certain kinds of plants may be maintained 

 for long periods of time with the appearance of 

 health J shade-loving races such as Ferns and 

 Mosses mil even thrive there; and others, like dry 

 Crocuses and Hyacinths, which have been previously 

 made ready by the tcsual 2>rocesses, may be led^ to 

 blossom in perfection for a season, or in some in- 

 stances for more." 



Does the learned gentleman mean to say that 

 these statements are u unphilosophical and untrue"? 

 We know them to be true, and we should have 

 thought them laudatory enough for any moderate 

 appetite. Nor can we see in what respect the 

 testimonials produced by Mr. Ward himself in 

 favour of his invention go beyond our own. 



If he means to say that we are wrong in con- 

 demning Wardian cases as places where good 

 cultivation is to be carried on, then we have merely 

 to repeat the observations formerly made at pages 

 252 and 317 of our volume for 1854, and more 

 recently in the Theory and Practice of Horticulture. 

 We then objected to the principle on which these 

 contrivances are constructed, and we appeal, in 

 support of that opinion, to every' gardener who has 

 tried them rationally. Mr. Ward is much mistaken 

 in supposing that we say this in the absence of 



We might point to the common 



But it so 



New Plants. 



145. Abies K^emtferi. 

 At p. 255 of our volume for 1854 we gave an 

 account of this fine tree ; we are now enabled by the 

 kindness of Mr. Glendinning, of the Chiswick Nursery, 

 who possesses a small number of plants, to add the 

 following sketch of its appearance, reduced from a 

 Chinese drawing sent home by Mr. Fortune. The 



experimental proof. 



notoriety of the case if it were necessary, 

 happens that we have used Wardian boxes for years 

 experimentally both in London and the country, in 

 the exact form proposed by their author as well as 

 in a modified state ; and the result is^ invariably 

 consistent with everything that is said in the pre- 

 ceding quotations and with all that was further 

 urged in the two articles to which we have also 



referred. . 



sily believe that gentlemen whose 





figure of a man at the foot of the trunk wiil show wha'- 

 the size was of the specimen seen by Mr. Fortune = 



We can 

 gardening is limited to a glass box in a London 

 window may be proud of the success they achieve. 

 We have no doubt that Dr. Alfred Smee has made 

 Stanhopeas and other Orchids blossom in such a 

 place, and that Dr. Youno, of Kennington, has 

 grown Ferns in them and also " kept other plants 

 alive/' although he finds, as he honestly admits, 

 that their " utility is still in its infancy." But thi* 

 is not gardening any more than growing Wheat in a 

 flower-pot is farming; nor are either Mr. Ward or 

 his witnesses gardeners. They are gentlemen who 

 amuse themselves with a very agreeable and inte- 

 resting toy, whether it really be " a Wardian," 

 properly so called, or merely a portable greenhouse, 

 as is frequently the case. 



Upon this point we must again observe that 

 a " Wardian," properly so called, is a close box 



with class sides 



draughtsman. 



.VEGETABLE PATHOLOGY.— No. 



366. CABcrNODES.-(C««IcrO-Tn the last nunib« » 

 peculiar case of canker in Apple trees was des ^^ ith ' 

 there is, however, another far more common nw . 

 the exception perhaps of the woolly aphis by wn "-" hic!l 

 often accompanied, the most formidable mala'iyi o 

 they are subject. Some varieties, as the GoWen rj vv rf 

 are so easily affected, that they are very d.mcu ^ 

 cultivation, and indeed will not succeed at all ex. Y 

 favourable localities. The original evil consists m 

 constitutional depravity, which becomes "f" 1 ™^*. 

 whenever there is any pressure of outward curcun» rf 



367. I have now before me some dead lu nc 



a Golden Pippin, which in the living port k. ns^ ^ 

 strong enough to bear very fine fruit, thongn ^ 



is evidently fast approaching the end of iU ^ , ; 

 The fruit appears on two kinds of |>*» C J?* \ itli 

 fertile, the one tall spiry twigs which have gr o ^ 

 great rapidity, the other stunted more <>*'"» s , oW . 

 branches, whose progress has been «*^ t J t0 the 

 Both are equally affected by canker, though »o 



apparently perishing 



and that when it is opened and 

 shut from day to day, it has no more right to the 

 name than a common greenhouse. If the former is 

 not what Mr. Ward claims credit for, then he can- 

 not claim it at all. He started from glass bottles con- 

 taining moist earth and carefully closed with a lid 

 or with oiled silk ; and such must continue to be 

 the condition of his case, be its materials or its 

 magnitude what they may. 



We should not have again referred to this subject, 

 had we no other object than to defend ourselves 



From a feeble attack, w! :h mi : have amused pfeee involving the superior organs. 



Mtwarf%ye at ftf«» exactly in *e »me waj^^^^ 



the ot 

 first HTSi base, in consequence of **&* 



above 



of nutriment and 



difference 



fail, 

 is 



parts 

 On 



