Horticultural Society and Garden. 345 



or Mrs. Beaumont's conservatory at Bretton Hall, would form an easy and 

 agreeable source, for ladies to acquire a practical knowledge of botany. 

 There is nothing, indeed, more conducive to this taste, than placing the 

 names of plants upon or beside them, in conspicuous, but not obtrusive 

 labels or tallies. We regret that this is not done in the arboretum at Kew, and 

 we hope it will ultimately be adopted in every department of the Chiswick 

 garden. The mere circumstance of seeing and reading these names, by at- 

 tracting attention and exciting curiosity, gives rise to a taste for plants ; 

 it is, therefore, desirable that public bodies should use the means of 

 originating and promoting a taste so agreeable, peaceful, and useful. 



We pass over many things of interest, to notice four beautiful epiphytes, 

 Calathea veratrifolia, Eulophia gracilis, Oncidium pumilum and flexuo- 

 sum ; and two fine aquatics, Pontederia cordata,and Limnocharis Plumerii, in 

 flower in the hot-house. The plants are in their usual excellent condition, 

 being abundantly supplied with heat and moisture ; the paths were literally 

 flooded. The Australasian bees have unfortunately died during the last 

 Winter. 



In the experimental garden of the fruit department, the principal thing 

 worthy of notice is the vigour of the pine plants, of which there are some 

 new and apparently distinct varieties from Sierra Leone, selected by Mr. 

 George Don, when botanizing in that colony. In one pit, Trapa natans, 

 and Scirpus tuberosus, the water chestnut, are planted in cisterns of mud and 

 water, with a view to their cultivation as esculents ; and the fruit of Passi- 

 flora edulis has attained a considerable size on the back wall. The differ- 

 ent descriptions of pits erected in this department are well deserving of at- 

 tention, and will be particularly noticed on a future occasion. No article 

 of garden-culture seems neglected; we observed finochio planted in trenches, 

 in the manner of celery, in order to be blanched by earthing up, as prac- 

 tised in Italy. 



In the kitchen-garden, celery is already planted out. In the orchard 

 the strawberries are in bloom, and in some places beginning to suffer from 

 the dry weather. The peaches, and other wall fruit, have set well ; partly 

 by having been protected by a wooden coping, and partly in consequence 

 of the application of canvass netting. In the flower garden, some phloxes, 

 paeonies, narcissi, Muscari comosum and monstrosum, some tulips, wall- 

 flowers, and stocks, and a few border perennials, are the chief articles in 

 flower. A number of the pseony blossoms having been fecundated by art, 

 are tied up in gauze to exclude bees and other insects. In the orchard 

 some strawberries are similarly treated. 



In the arboretum nothing struck us as deserving particular remark, un- 

 less it be worth while to express our regret, that the turf is formed of a mix- 

 ture of grass seeds in which cock's foot, Dactylis glomerata, is conspicuous; 

 being a much coarser and rapider growing grass than any other species, it 

 is the very worst that can be fixed on for the purpose of a lawn. We pre- 

 sume it must have been mixed with the other grass seeds inadvertently; but, 

 whatever has been the cause of its introduction, it ought be immediately 

 rooted out. 



We cannot leave this garden, without paying a tribute of approbation to 

 the young men employed in it ; their decent appearance, their dress and 

 linen, compared with their wages, is at once an index to their morality. 

 The number of such young men is nearly forty, and we cannot help think- 

 ing that a very important addition to the horticultural establishment would 

 be a school, in which, for a small consideration, all who chose might go 

 through a regular course of education. We are convinced this would ul- 

 timately do more for horticulture than almost all the other plans for its 

 progress put together ; but in the mean time it need not supersede other 

 good plans for the same purpose. 



