Calls at Suburban Gardens, 



369 



effect. The study of these two residences is well calculated to show the 

 advantages of natural features in the ground-surface; with how little art 

 an effect may be produced where good features exist ; and how far the ut- 

 most efforts of art alone, fall short of the effect of art and nature united. 



American plants thrive remarkably well here; Rhododendrons, Azaleas, 

 and Kalmks, rise up from self-sown seeds. A part of the wall of the 

 kitchen garden is built on the waving or serpentine plan, by which a height 

 of twelve feet is attained with a thickness of only nine inches. The fruit- 

 trees in this garden are remarkably well trained and pruned ; the ground 

 seems judiciously cropped, and the whole place is kept in very neat order 



Mr. Latour's Villa, Craven Hill, 

 April 25. The house has been re- 

 modelled, and now presents an ele- 

 gant exterior. It contains on the 

 ground floor seven living rooms 

 and a conservatory en suite, arranged 

 with the greatest taste, and combin- 

 ing the best features of both the 

 English and French styles of deco- 

 ration and furniture. What we no- 

 tice it for, is on account of the 

 mode of hanging the roof sashes of 

 the conservatory, which is worthy 

 of imitation. It is on the princi- 

 ple of a self-balanced chandelier. 

 A cord from each sash passes over 

 a pulley (Jig. 100 a) and is join- 

 ed under the stage (c), where a 

 weight (b) is attached to them by 

 another pulley, and may either be 

 limited in its descent by the ground 

 (d), or by the length of line. By this 

 arrangement, easily understood, 

 either or both sashes may be open- 

 ed to any extent by a very slight 

 motion of the line, and without the 

 least derangement of the plants, or 

 unsightly fastenings of the cord. 

 The immense domical hothouse 

 erected by Messrs. Bailey for Mrs. 

 Beaumont, at Bretton Hall, is venti- 

 lated on the same principle. 



In the garden there are some standard Rose Acacias, from Brussels, such 

 as have been lately imported from Paris by some of the nurserymen. 



Kensington Nursery, Messrs. Malcolm and Gray, April 7. One of our 

 objects in the Gardener's Magazine is to bring into notice plants and trees 

 of remarkable interest and beauty, more especially those of the shrubby 

 kind which endure the open air in our climate. There are a number of 

 noble Chinese and American trees and shrubs in the country, which are 

 very imperfectly known, and consequently not half so common as they 

 ought to be. Among these, may be mentioned the Magnolia conspic'ua, 

 which, when in flower (Jig. 101), is one of the finest objects in theVegetable 

 creation ; yet Messrs. Loddiges remark (Bot. Cal. Part. cxix. Gard. Mag. 

 p. 334) that it has been comparatively neglected for the last twenty years. 

 The Kensington Nursery contains one of the finest specimens of this tree 

 in the neighbourhood of London, and the plant deserves the more atten- 

 Vol. II. — No. 7. B B 



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