Public Botanical and Horticultural Gardens. 413 



been sown in double rows, in thoroughly prepared soil, afford- 

 ing a good crop of heads the second spring. We are aware 

 that none of these practices are new, but they deserve to be 

 better known. The advantage derived from them is founded 

 on the principle that plants, on approaching to maturity, re- 

 quire a greater share of air, and to have a greater surface 

 exposed to the light, than when they are young, small, and 

 comparatively commencing their growth. 



Public Botanical and Horticidtural Gardens. — That of 

 Birmingham being only just commenced, we can say little 

 about it, farther than stating, that, we trust, when the objects 

 of the garden and the plan that we have given shall be gene- 

 rally known, the garden will be liberally supported, confident 

 as we are that it will afford much gratification, and be of 

 essential use to the town and its neighbourhood. The Man- 

 chester garden is far advanced ; and though we do not alto- 

 gether approve of the plan, and certainly by no means of the 

 manner in which it has been planted, yet we have not a doubt 

 that it will contribute materially to the spread of improved 

 varieties of culinary vegetables and fruits, and to the educa- 

 tion of a superior description of gardeners. Our objection to 

 the mode of planting is, that it produces a general sameness 

 throughout the garden ; whereas, according to our ideas, 

 there should not be one square yard of a scientific garden, 

 with the exception of the turf and the gravel, the same as 

 another ; nor should the same species of plant, with a few 

 exceptions in favour of plants of culture, such as fruit trees, 

 culinary vegetables, and florists' flowers, occur in two parts of 

 the garden. In the Manchester garden, as in every other 

 containing an arboretum, the trees which compose it must 

 necessarily be spread over a considerable extent of surface. 

 They form in this garden, as they ought to do, belts, strips j 

 and clumps throughout the whole ; and, to shelter and bring 

 up these arboretum trees, a number of others have been in- 

 troduced among them as nurses. Now, what we object to in 

 these nurses is this, that they are composed of one common 

 mixture throughout the garden. They ought, in our opinion, 

 to have been composed, in all cases, of the same genus as the 

 family to be nursed. For example, there are SO or 40 dif- 

 ferent species of oak, one plant of each ; these we would have 

 sheltered with the common oak. In like manner, all the dif- 

 ferent species of the genus Pinus we would shelter with the 

 common wild pine; the firs, with the spruce fir; robinias, 

 with the common pseudacacia ; genistas, with the common 

 broom, and so on. But, in our opinion, shelter is much less 

 wanted than is generally imagined ; and, wherever it could be 



