342 Calls at Nurseries 



Wimbledon House. — June 4. In the conservatory attached to the mansion, 

 the most beautiful of the plants in blossom were the Tacsonia pinnatistipula 

 and the Schizanthus retusus. The Tacsbnia is eminently endowed with the 

 faculty of climbing ; and its branches, now bearing flowers and fruit, have been 

 disposed over the light pillars, arches, and bars which support the roof of the 

 conservatory ; and partly enwreath them, and partly depend from them, in the 

 manner of festoons and garlands. The flowers are lovely objects. They are 

 large and pendulous, and thus well seen from below : the petals are of a deli- 

 cate rose colour, and contrasted by a central ray of violet-coloured linear 

 nectaries ; and these surround the stamina and pointal, which project beyond 

 them. The fruits, as large as a small orange, and of a pale yellow colour, 

 depend on long stalks, and are another charm in the attractions of the plant. 

 The flowers of the Tacsbnia are continuously produced from April to 

 November. Of the Schizanthus retusus there were some eight or nine 

 pots of plants, all nearly a yard in height, and crowned with masses of 

 the striking, richly-painted, gorgeous blossoms of this most attractive spe- 

 cies. Of Jcacia pube'scens (too uncommon, considering its elegance and 

 beauty), a fine plant, not now in flower, was attached to one of the interior 

 pillars; and of the Jcacia decurrens, a fine plant, trained to the back wall, 

 was interesting in its beautiful foliage. A plant of the Fuchsz'a coccinea 

 invested one of the pillars, from top to bottom, with a pyramid of thickset 

 branches, now abounding in flower-buds. In a pot was a rather tall but slen- 

 der plant of the Cuno7iia capensis, just going out of flower. The finest spe- 

 cimen of this species in Britain is probably that at Sion ; which we had the 

 pleasure to see finely in flower, under the care of Mr. Forrest, in September, 

 1830. There is also a fine specimen of that beautiful creeper Tecoma austra- 

 lis, the old Bignom'a Pandora. 



On quitting the conservatory, a lawn adjoining receives us, upon which are 

 growing a fine thriving cedar of Lebanon ; a Pavia rubra, now in flower ; a 

 Pavi« macrostachya ; a Stuartia virginica, now budded for bloom ; a fine 

 tree of the Salisbury tfdiantifolia; a large old Kalmfa latifolia, and a young 

 plant of the Callitris rhomboidea. A plant of the Bengal florida rose, here 

 tied to an upright support, forms a slender pyramid, 10 ft. high, and has 

 commenced its flowering. The flowers are unsymmetrical ; but, as they are 

 large, double, white, centred with blush, and numerously produced, and the 

 kind of a free habit of growth, it must ever be desirable in an ornamental 

 garden. The lawn of which we have spoken intervenes the conservatory and 

 a long straight walk of gravel between grass and an avenue of young trees set 

 back, and upon the grass, beside the gravel, are set, at intervals, large vases, 

 in opposite pairs, filled with soil, and planted with various species of plants 

 for display in summer. Of the kinds of plarjts adopted these are some : Clay- 

 tons sibirica, more vases than one of, and this plant is here very beautiful,' 

 Lobelia bicolor, and other species; Mesembryanthemum floribundum, spec- 

 tabile, cordifolium ; Kalosanthes odoratissima, i7elichrysum ericdides, and an- 

 other species ; Jnagallis fruticosa, Gazania uniflora, and an Alonsoa. The 

 experienced in gardening will, from these, conceive pretty accurately of the 

 remainder. At the extremity of this walk is the flower-garden, into which 

 it leads one at the south-eastward corner. 



The flower-garden contains three acres, including the enclosing boundaries. 

 These are, a tall wall to the northward and westward, and a belt of shrubs 

 and trees to the southward and the eastward. It is nearly square ; and a 

 range of houses (consisting of a stove for plants, a show green-house, a stove 

 for forcing, and a vinery) occupies part of the northward side; the aspect of 

 the houses being, of course, southward. The whole plot of the flower-garden 

 declines slightly towards the south. Its plan may be, in a passing manner, 

 described as follows : — A large lawn is interspersed and adorned with very 

 numerous beds stocked with choice and showy-flowered kinds of plants ; and 

 with shrubs of beauty and rarity, and various in stature, planted singly on 

 it, either quite alone or entwined with some climbing plant, or surrounded 



