616 View of the Progress of Gm^dening^ 



independently of its other good effects, has a decided tendency to 

 the improvement of gardeners in the science of cukure gene- 

 rally, from the effects which they see produced by cultivation on 

 certain species, such as the heartsease ; by propagation in differ- 

 ent manners, the only essential requisite being a bud, whether in 

 a seed, an eye, or a bulb ; by hybridising, as in the case of cal- 

 ceolarias and fuchsias, respecting the latter of which some re- 

 markable facts are stated by Mr. Beaton, p. 580. ; and by the 

 discoveries made in consequence of attempts at acclimatisation, 

 that many most beautiful plants, hitherto confined to the green- 

 house, and, in some cases, even to the stove, will not only grow, 

 but arrive at far greater perfection, in the free ground in the 

 open air during summer, or against a conservatory wall through- 

 out the year. By far the most interesting improvement intro- 

 duced into floricuUure for many years is the conservatory wall, 

 by which is meant a wall, which ought to be flued if possible, 

 with a southern or other warm exposure ; against which green- 

 house shrubs or trees are trained, and fully exposed to the air 

 during summer ; being protected by a projecting coping of 

 boards, or of thatched hurdles, during winter and spring. 

 Against such a wall, with a dry warm border, almost all the 

 Austrahan trees and shrubs, most of those from Mexico and 

 South America, and many from Nepal, China, Japan, and the 

 Cape of Good Hope, arrive at a degree of vigorous growth, 

 which, under no circumstances whatever, can they attain in pots, 

 or when kept under a glass roof throughout the year. Some 

 finely clothed walls of this description have been, from time to 

 time, referred to in this Magazine ; and, as examples, we may 

 remind our readers of that of the Rev. T. Gamier, at Bishop's 

 Stoke, near Southampton ; and of that of the London Horticul- 

 tural Society, in their garden at Chiswick. The superior effect 

 produced on plants by the direct influence of the light, is 

 strikingly evinced by the beautiful and luxuriant growth of those 

 against these walls, when compared with that of the same de- 

 scription of plants under glass ; where not only a portion of the 

 light is excluded by the glass, but what passes through this 

 medium is decomposed, and deprived of a large portion of its 

 vivifying influence on the leaves. 



One of the effects produced by the great number of flower 

 shows now established throughout the country is, the great 

 demand which they have created for new plants. This has been 

 met in two ways : first, by occasioning large importations of her- 

 baceous flowers and flowering shrubs from the Continent, such 

 as the Dutch anemones, the German asters, the Ghent azaleas, 

 and French roses ; and, secondly, by inducing nurserymen and 

 gardeners to raise a great number of hybrids, in order to get 

 something more rare and beautiful than their neighbours. This 

 spirit of emulation, by exciting gardeners to think, has done 



