and qf Rural Improvement generally, during 1840. 627 



is a great mistake to suppose that the state of the gardens and 

 the botanical riches of a country residence depend on the taste 

 of the proprietor or his family ; it depends much more on the 

 knowledge and the tact of the head gardener. 



Floriculture. — A number of very excellent papers will be found 

 on this subject, and particularly several on the culture of cacti 

 and bulbs. The idea of grafting the finer kinds of New Hol- 

 land acacias on the hardier species is good, and might, doubt- 

 less be applied in the case of other green-house and hot-house 

 plants to a much greater extent than it is at present. The article 

 on conservative walls (p. 23.), and the account of the con- 

 servative wall at Chatsworth (p. 573.), will, we trust, induce 

 many proprietors to adopt this garden luxury, which, in our 

 opinion, is one of the greatest that can be added to a country 

 seat, next to that of an arboretum. In many places, the man- 

 sion, or, at all events, the offices, are connected with the kitchen- 

 garden by a wall ; and this wall, and also the exterior of the 

 offices, might almost always be treated as a conservative surface 

 for training half-hardy plants. But, independently of these 

 sources of conservative situations for plants, when the interest 

 which attaches to this kind of scenery and culture shall be better 

 understood, we shall doubtless have walls, and perhaps entire 

 gardens, formed on purpose foi' half-hardy articles. All the 

 borders, and also the walls, might be so arranged as to be heated 

 artificially at pleasure ; and at pleasure, also, drained or irrigated 

 artificially : for, to make the most of plants against a conservative 

 wall, they ought to be urged on by heat and moisture in the 

 early part of summer, and their wood ripened by withdrawing 

 moisture and supplying heat in the early part of autumn. 



The cultivation of annual flowers has greatly increased 

 throughout the country generally, principally through the many 

 new kinds that have been introduced by the London Horticultural 

 Society, and partly through the publication of Mrs. Loudon's 

 Flower-GardeJi qf Ornamental Amjuals, during the past year. It 

 is particularly gratifying to observe the number of these annuals 

 which are now to be found in the front gardens of street-houses. 

 The street gardens of London and Brighton, in this respect, have 

 undergone a complete revolution within the last ten years, by 

 partaking of these and other improvements, which formerly were 

 confined to the gardens of gentlemen's seats. 



Horticulture. — Two valuable communications on the culture 

 of the grape will be found in p. 89. and p. 598. ; but one more 

 especially in our notes in p. 570., in which a mode, which we 

 witnessed in May last, is described, of growing three crops of 

 grapes in one house in one year. The article on the culture and 

 preservation of potatoes, in p. 210., and that on the wild potato 

 in p. 259., are both full of instruction and interest. Frozen 



