lib- HinU for Lnprovements. 



with profit to persons in other branches ; but, alas ! how few of us will see 

 the necessity (till too late) of profiting by the advice held out to us, 

 till sickness and poverty, and a train of other evils, come on, to render any 

 designs we might then form of no use whatever ! But, to return to my 

 subject, the forming of such a society, I think, would be productive of 

 general good to gardeners ; as to the articles, mode of subscription, the sum 

 to be subscribed, &c., I shall leave those to some of your correspondents 

 more capable of the task than myself; I am only sorry I cannot do justice 

 to the case of a very deserving class of men. I further add, that I am 

 quite disinterested, not being a gardener but an humble tradesman ; and 

 as such I subscribe myself your obedient servant, — J. Y. Wallerton, near 

 Arundel, Sept. 17. 1830. 



Cultivation of Mosses in Toivn Gardens. — If I understand you right, 

 you wish to give a living vegetable covering to the surface of your borders 

 and groups of shrubs ; if such be your object, will you allow me to send 

 you some few species of mosses, which I think will live well even in the 

 smoke of London, and form under the shade of trees and shrubs a rich 

 carpeting, which, in some cases, should probably not be removed even in 

 summer. Many species of mosses are certainly capable of cultivation : 

 and as they never grow into confusion, like the grasses, or like coverings 

 of dwarf annuals ; and as weeds do not appear to come up amongst 

 them, at least so as to requu-e much trouble to eradicate ; I think very 

 pretty borders might be made of them, pai-ticularly in small gardens. 

 Th€ choicer alpine plants, bulbs that do not stand our winters, and many 

 of the North American herbaceous plants, particularly those of Canada, 

 &c., might be preserved under such a covering, and have a good effect, as 

 they come up in succession. Some of the mosses which I have found to 

 succeed in cultivation are as under : — 



Polytrichum undulatum. Dicranum glaucum. 



hercynicum. flexuosum. 



juniperinum. scoparium. 



commune. ^ypnum, many species. 



Gnxamia pulvinata. ^ryum, many species. 

 Weis5za controversa. 



Most of these I will send you for a trial. I have made three attempts at 

 forming a selection of these interesting but neglected plants in a cultivated 

 state ; but the changes to which gardeners are so liable has almost sickened 

 me from making a fourth. However, if I remain long in the same waj' of 

 thinking that I am in at this moment, I may have a few of them to show 



you the next time you favour me with a visit at C . Very truly youi'S, — 



CM. Nov. 17. 1830. 



Mr. II. L. Howes of Middleton never communicated his method of 

 managing cockscombs, as he offered to do. (Vol. IV. p. 352.) He would 

 confer a favour by so doing. — Wm. Stowe. Buckingham, May 31. 1830. 



Fruit Trees on Walls and in Hedges. — If all the walls of a good aspect 

 were covered with fruit trees, the benefit would be great and the cost 

 small. (^Ed. Rev., Sept. 1828.) A German writer suggests the idea of having 

 all hedges of fruit shrubs, and all hedge-row trees fruit trees ; and a gar- 

 dener in the Caledonian Horticultural Society's Memoirs recommends 

 cultivating flax in flower-borders, and afterwards preparing it for spinning, 

 as another has recommended growing the sunflower for its seeds to be 

 crushed for oil. — Cond. 



Experimental Farm. — Nothing surprises me more than the want of an 

 experimental farm in England. It seems to me passing strange that this 

 question, so important to the agricultural interest, and fraught with such 

 vast advantages to our native weal, should not have been discovered long 



