Domestic Notices : -r- England. SQ9 



says, that he found that these nurseries " fitted the trees to the climate, which 

 made an indescribable difference in their growth when planted out." He also 

 found that young trees from the hill nurseries grew much faster on the low 

 grounds, than young trees which were raised in the low-ground nurseries. 

 Larch trees, 30 years planted, have attained a large size, and are used for all 

 building purposes, and for fences. Mr. Webster has removed oak trees that 

 took ten horses to draw them. The oak, he says, thrives so well in that part 

 of the country, that, if it were not for the cultivation of the fields, the whole 

 would soon become one continuous oak forest. 



The Alpine Labiirniim (Cytisiis \,aburniim var. alpiniim). — Having been ob- 

 serving tlie blossoming of the laburnums in the neighbourhood of London, 

 this season, with rather more than usual attention, in consequence of writing 

 on the subject in our Arboretiivi Britannicum, we have discovered along the 

 road sides in the front gardens of suburban villas many intermediate varieties 

 between what is commonly called the English laburnum (C Laburnum), the 

 earliest sorts of which come into flower about the middle of May, and what 

 is called the Scotch laburnum (C. Zy. alpinum), the latest varieties of which 

 will not come into fiower this season till the middle of June. In the garden 

 of the Craven Arms Inn, in Black Lion Lane, Bayswater, occupied by Mr. 

 Long, who was formerly a gardener, are several very distinct varieties both 

 of the English and Scotch laburnum ; but there is one of the latter which, 

 for the number, magnitude, and fragrance of its blossoms, deserves particular 

 notice. The tree, which is about 20 ft. high, has only been planted five or 

 six years; but it was then about 6 ft. or 8ft. high. It was now so completely 

 covered with blossoms, that scarcely a leaf can be seen ; and not even its 

 ramifications, except by walking underneath the tree, and looking up, when 

 it appears one rich mass of long, round, bright yellow tassels, supported by 

 the black branches. The flowers are now (June 8.) fully expanded, and the 

 racemes measure in length, on an average, 15 in. or 16 in. each. This plant never 

 bears seeds j but there are numbers of common laburnum trees in tlie same 

 garden which do, some of which are now completely out of bloom, and others 

 partially so, and one of them has not yet a single blossom expanded. We 

 recommend nurserymen to apply to Mr. Long for scions to bud on the com- 

 mon variety!; and, in the autumn, for all the seeds produced by the other trees, 

 in order to sow them, and select from the plants produced some distinct 

 varieties and subvarieties. 



The Cj/iisus purpiireus, ajjpearing on the Hybrid Laburnum,\\a,s been noticed 

 by Mr. Rivers (p. 224.) as having occurred about Paris, and also at Ickleton, in 

 Cambridgeshire. The same thing may now be seen on our tree at Bayswater, 

 planted in our garden in 1830 (see Vol. VI. p. 335.) ; and where it flowered for 

 the first time in England, in 1832. (See Vol. VIII. p. 473.) This tree is the pa- 

 rent of all those propagated by Mr. Rivers, and of the plants of the same kind in 

 the London Horticultural Society's Garden. It is worthy of remark, that some 

 of the blossoms produced by this hybrid in the Horticultural Society's Garden 

 were this year completely, and others partially, yellow. The circumstance of 

 both of the parents being thus produced quite distinctly on different plants of 

 this hybrid, would seem to indicate that hybrids between distinct species are 

 not likely to be permanent ; hybrids between varieties perhaps may be so. 

 Next year, it is not improbable that a part of our tree will produce yellow 

 blossoms. In the mean time, the branch of Cytisus purpureus on it, which 

 has been seen by Mr. Rivers, and many others, is about 18 in. long, with 

 twenty or thirty blossoms, now (June 8,) beginning to fade; and producing 

 numerous side shoots. Before the autumn, it will be quite a large bunch. 

 None of the laburnum-like blossoms of the tree have, as yet, produced seeds 

 with us. 



Choice Plants at Sheppy Hall, near Atherstone, Leicestershire. — Perhaps you 

 may think the following particulars worth noticing in your Magazine, as com- 

 ing from so northern a part : — 



Gladiolus natalensis Reinwardt, G. cardindlis ColviU\, and Watsonid luar- 



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