520 Domestic Notices : — England. 



great part of the sum expended in the case of such gardens as Liverpool and 

 Manchester was employed in building boundary walls and constructing hot- 

 houses. Where economy is an object, I would recommend a double hedge 

 instead of a wall ; an outer hedge of thorn, and an inner one of holly, the 

 ground being thoroughly trenched and manured to the depth of 6 ft. If this 

 were done, and thorn plants employed with stems as thick as a man's thumb, 

 cut down to the ground the second year (not the first, as is usually done), a 

 fence would be produced in 4 or 5 years, and which in 7 years would be alto- 

 gether impenetrable to man, or to any description of animal. In the mean 

 time, while the hedge was advancing, the interior of the garden could be drained, 

 laid out, thoroughly trenched, and manured, and all the trees and shrubs re- 

 quired, planted. If this were properly done, you would have a most interesting, 

 ornamental, and useful garden, even without hot-houses ; but it should be laid 

 out in such a manner as to provide a place for hot-houses, which might be 

 erected at any time that the state of the funds may render it convenient. As 

 both coal and glass are cheap at Newcastle, you might, at some future time, cover 

 an acre of ground with a glass roof, raised on pillars of such a height as to 

 admit of growing under it the trees of tropical climates, to such a size as would 

 give some idea of the dimensions and appearance they attain in their native 

 countries. This, I think, would be much better than growing thousands of plants 

 in small pots, which you could have nurserymen to do. It would, besides, give 

 your hot-houses a character of originality. I would not recommend uniting a 

 Zoological with a Botanical and Horticultural Garden ; and I would rather con- 

 fine the latter, in the first instance, to such plants and ti'ees, useful and orna- 

 mental, as are quite hardy, leaving the curious and the tender plants for future 

 introduction. You should have a complete collection of hardy fruit trees ; 

 another of hardy ornamental trees and shrubs ; and one of hardy herbaceous 

 plants; besides which, you should grow specimens of all the plants used in 

 British agriculture, and the hardy plants used in the arts and manufactures, 

 medicine, &c. All this you might do, to a very great extent, without any hot- 

 houses whatever ; and at an expense which, I should think, would not amount 

 to 1000/. a year. The first cost of draining, laying out, trenching, enclosing, &c., 

 you could ascertain to a certainty from any local gardener or nurseryman. 



" If you can lay your hands on the Gardener^ s Magazine, Vol. VIII., for 

 1832, and tui'n to p. 4 10., you will there find a plan for the Birmingham 

 Botanic Garden ; and, if you have leisure to peruse the article, it will give you 

 some idea of what may be accomplished both with and without hot-houses. 



" I am sorry that, at the distance I live, I can be of no manner of use in 

 suggesting ideas for laying out the garden, except in a general way ; because, 

 wherever the surface is uneven, it is absolutely necessary that the person 

 who is to make the design should see the ground. — i." 



Visum sp. (See p. 379.) — Referring to the paragraph, p. 379. of your corre- 

 spondent Thomas Brown, I beg to inform you that, in the spring of 1835, some 

 horsebeans were purchased in the adjoining market town, and amongst thera 

 were a few peas, of which notice was not taken ; but, somehow or other, they 

 got planted with the beans. In the following summer, the peas attracted my 

 notice, and, upon examining them and tasting them, I thought they were essen- 

 tially different from the ordinary field pea. They were much larger, differently 

 shaped, and much sweeter; and I therefore myself gathered a few of them 

 with the intention of sowing them with the next crop of beans to furnish 

 binders for the sheaves ; a practice in general use in Yorkshire. The stalk, or 

 haulm, of the pea is from 6 ft. to 8 ft. long, very strong, and therefore well 

 calculated for a binder. 



Last February, the beans were dibbled in the usual manner; and, just as they 

 showed themselves above ground, some peas were dibbled between the rows for 

 the purpose above stated. When the beans were in cutting, a woman was 

 employed to draw out the pea-stalks, strip the pods off, and lay the haulm in 

 order for binders. The peas were very fine, excellent to eat as scalded peas, 

 which you probably have tasted and relished ; though the labourers^here would 



