590 Notes on Country Seats and Gardens. 



been accidentally fecundated by those of the former, but we are assured that 

 neither of these circumstances took place. 



In the remains of the old pleasure-ground which connected this garden 

 with the former mansion, are some remarkably large larches, silver firs, and 

 cedars, and an avenue of the largest lime trees which we remember to have 

 seen. Those at Syon are probably as high or higher, but at Bayfordbury one 

 tree occupies the space of at least a dozen of tiiese, either at Syon or at 

 WoUaton. Several cedar trees have been felled or blown down at different 

 times, and the boards being used for flooring, they still give out a resinous 

 odour. The branches make a delightful drawing-room fuel, where the fire- 

 places are adapted for burning logs, as they are at Bayfordbury. When cedar 

 wood is burnt in an entrance hall or staircase, its fragrance is diffused over 

 the whole house. In every case the fragrance is most felt when the atmo- 

 sphere is in a moist state, because then the radiation of the particles is checked 

 by the vapour of the water in the atmosphere. 



Keiu Gardens. — Oct. 3. We never saw these gardens in better order. Our 

 main object in visiting them at present was to view the ruins of the finest of 

 the cedars. This tree, in the course of the last ten years, had lost several 

 large branches from falls of snow and storms of wind ; but on the 4th 

 September, 1840, at 4 o'clock in a calm morning, after a shower of rain, 

 an immense branch, which had not previously been in the slightest degree 

 rent at its junction with the trunk, gave way, and fell down from the height 

 of 40 ft., with such a tremendous crash, that it awoke Mr. Smith, whose 

 house is within 200 yards. The additional weight given by the rain to 

 the branch had no doubt occasioned its fall, like the additional handful of 

 hay which broke the camel's back. This branch having been more exposed 

 to the light and air for some yeai's past, in consequence of the other branches 

 having broken down, and having also a larger proportion than before of the 

 sap thrown up by the roots, it must of course have grown more rapidly at 

 the extremities, which, by increasing the weight at the end of the lever, led 

 to the destruction of its equilibrium. We observed here, and also afterwards 

 in the Horticultural Society's Garden, that Pinus Sabinzawa and P. macro- 

 carpa, as they advance in size, become more and more different in the appear- 

 ance of their bark ; that of the young wood of P. Sabiniana being smooth, 

 with the persistent scales of the leaves adpressed and regularly imbricated, 

 while those of P. macrocarpa are furrowed, rough, more vigorous, and the 

 scales less adpressed and imbricate. The latter tree is much more robust 

 than the former, and also more glaucous. A cone has been received at 

 Kew of what is believed to be the true Pinus Coulteri (see p. 550.), from 

 which plants have been raised, and hence that species may be considered as 

 now in the country. In due time we shall give in this Magazine descriptions 

 and figures of this and all the newly introduced species of Pinus. Heimza sa- 

 licifolia, a shrub, a native of Mexico, which is now 3 ft. high, and covered with 

 fine ochre yellow flowers, is considered by Mr. Smith as quite hardy. Lepto- 

 spermum, two species, natives of Van Diemen's Land, are also found quite 

 hardy ; and a Tasmannia, from Mount Wellington, in the green-house, and a 

 Drimys Winten' (Winter's Bark), from the Straits of Magellan, now in the 

 conservatory, may be expected in a few years in nurserymen's lists of hardy 

 shrubs. It does not appear to be known at Kew what the intention of 

 government is respecting these gardens, but we do hope that, whatever 

 changes may take place, justice may be done to Mr. Smith, whose modest 

 merit is acknowledged, by every botanist and gardener, to be beyond all praise. 

 If Mr. Alton should resign, and any other person be appointed to fill his 

 place except Mr. Smith, an act of injustice, and still more of impolic}', 

 will be performed, which it is revolting to the mind to think of. With re- 

 spect to describing the new plants, Mr. Smith has proved himself, in Hooker 

 and Bauer's Genera Filicum, now publishing, as competent to do that as 

 any botanist whatever ; but it does not appear to us that government need 

 trouble itself about describing plants at all ; it has only to leave the col- 

 lection open to the examination of all botanists, and provide a clerk for 



