334; Calls at Nurseries 



and made by Mr. Toward. This moss-house is executed with great neatness 

 and beauty, and Mr. Toward has promised to send us such drawings and de- 

 scriptions of it as will enable other gardeners, where labour is cheap, to make 

 similar erections. On the whole, we were exceedingly gratified with our visit 

 to these gardens ; and, in taking leave of them, and of Mr. Toward, we must 

 not forget to remind the young gardener of Mr. Toward' s admirable plan for 

 forming a herbarium, as described at length in IV. 436., and recommending 

 every one who is drying specimens of plants, to take it as a model for their 

 preservation. 



Addlestone Nursery. — May 20. Science, order, and neatness characterise 

 whatever comes under the direction of Mr. Cree. We found the whole of 

 his grounds in good keeping, and observed a new description of double espa- 

 lier rail, constructed for training peaches, nectarines, and other dwarf fruit 

 trees. The direction of the lines of this rail is due south and north, in order 

 that both sides may equally enjoy the direct influence of the sun; the height 

 of the rails from the ground is about 4| ft, and they are about the same dis- 

 tance apart. Each double rail consists of posts of young larch trees, between 

 2 in. and 3 in. in diameter, with the bark on, and charred at the lower end 

 where they are let into the ground ; and a top and bottom rail also of young 

 larch trees with the bark on. The stoutest description of lath used by 

 plasterers is then nailed vertically to the top and bottom rail, and on both 

 sides of it ; the rails on one side alternating with the spaces on the other. 

 These laths are not painted, but, being of foreign fir, and well seasoned, there 

 can be no doubt of their enduring a long time. Indeed, it would be much 

 cheaper to renew them every seven years, than to paint them twice or thrice 

 during that period ; unless the paint used were to be gas liquor or tar. The 

 larch posts and rails will last an unlimited length of time. Kibes specidsum 

 has here been very successfully propagated, and there is a plant of Schizanthus 

 retusus which shows some flowers double, and wholly red. 



Wobum Farm. — We entered this venerable place (now to let, in con- 

 sequence of the death of Admiral Stirling), to look at some of the fine old 

 specimens of exotic trees. This, however, is not a favourable season for such 

 a purpose. Pines, firs, ilexes, hollies, and other evergreens, it is well known, 

 look worse at this season than at any other, because they are losing their old 

 leaves ; and deciduous trees, remarkable for their autumnal foliage, such as 

 the liquidambar, of which there is here a very fine specimen nearly 70 ft. high, 

 have not yet attained a sufficiently marked hue to distinguish them from oaks 

 and acers. Other species which depend principally on their blossoms for 

 their beauty, as the tulip tree, are not yet in flower. The tree which we now 

 found in greater beauty than it will be in any other season was a large cut- 

 leaved alder in front of the house. It is a light airy tree, with deeply and 

 finely cut foliage of an intense green. The walks on the high banks overlook- 

 ing the river, Chertsey, and an immense tract of distant country, extending 

 to Windsor Castle on the one hand, and to Harrow on the Hill on the other, 

 are interesting in themselves, and recall many associations to those who, like 

 us, know the history of the place. The general impression throughout is that 

 of maturity and age. Every tree and shrub is grown up ; and only the more 

 vigorous-growing sorts of the latter have been able to withstand the effects of 

 the shade of the tall trees. All the more delicate shrubs, and almost all the 

 flowers, have died away ; and no new ones have been planted for the last 

 thirty years. The tutsan, the periwinkle, and a few of such hardy plants as 

 grow under the shade of trees, remain, to carry back the idea to what has 

 been in the way of flowers ; while decayed urns, seats, and other architectural 

 and sculptural fragments, remind us of the numerous garden ornaments which 

 it was the fashion to introduce in the times when these gardens were laid out. 

 This want of young trees, and of young plants of every kind, gives Woburn 

 Farm a decided character of artificialness, more even than of age ; for, in a 

 natural wood or neglected plantation of the same standing, for the hundreds 

 of old trees that would be there decaying, there would be tens of thousands of 

 young trees springing up from seed. This combination of trees of all ages, 



