THE 



GARDENER'S MAGAZINE, 



MAY, 1841. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. List of Plants adapted for a Conservative Wall, xvith 

 Remarks on some of the Species. By John Scott. 



In accordance with your wish/expressed on the cover of the Gardener's Ma- 

 gazine for Dec. 1840, I have forwarded to you a list of plants calculated for 

 a flued (or otherwise heated) wall, with the means of protection, similar to 

 that at Chatsworth. I have arranged it according to the natural system ; but 

 I have omitted the sub-orders on purpose, in order to shorten the article as 

 much as possible. I am afraid you will think that it is still too voluminous, and, 

 perhaps, that I am too sanguine with regard to some of the species ; but, 

 as I have not inserted any plant upon the authority of others, but have con- 

 fined myself to my own knowledge and experience on the subject, I send it 

 with the greater confidence. As it may be asked whence I drew my ex- 

 perience, I answer, that the greater portion of my Ufe has been devoted to 

 the pursuit of botany and gardening. Eai'ly taught to range the mountain 

 steep in search of plants, I naturally imbibed a taste for them ; for, at the 

 age of 14, I had acquired, perhaps, more hard names than generally fall to 

 the lot of gardeners. At that period the names were chiefly cryptogamic ; 

 but since then a much wider sphere of botanic research and floricultural action 

 has been my hap. 



Bred in some of the best plant gardens of Europe, I have had an opportu- 

 nity of becoming acquainted with thousands of species little known to some 

 of my brethren of the spade. Amongst these gardens, that of Edinburgh 

 was a field rich with interest and instruction to me, and particularly in the 

 kind of plants composing my list ; and it was from the herbarium and notes 

 I made there, and at Biel in East Lothian, that I have principally been able 

 to compile it ; although I have pressed into my service many species from 

 other collections, indeed, wherever I may have seen them tried out. At 

 Clermont, under Mr. M'Intosh, I had facilities of testing a great many 

 kinds, both in the open borders and against the walls. Nor have I been in- 

 attentive in visiting the nurseries around London, and in gleaning what informa- 

 tion I could on this very interesting subject. But the most important collection, 

 and that which abounds in the greatest number of species, and from which 

 I have drawn liberally, is the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, numbering about 

 18,000 kinds. Here I had an opportunity of reconsidering nearly all that I 

 had known before on the subject ,- and, although I have perhaps enumerated 

 some species little known in England, yet our communication with our neigh- 

 bours is so easy, that they may soon be procured. Thus far I have endea- 

 voured to show that my list is not founded upon a theoretical, but upon a 

 practical basis ; and, should it be the means of causing even one more plant to 

 be cultivated out of doors, I shall feel more than repaid for having furnished it. 



Here I had intended to have made a few remarks upon the building, heat- 

 ing, and general management of a conservative wall, but I find that I must 

 postpone these to a future opportunity. 



Milford Nursery, Jan. 2%. 1841. 

 1841. — V. 3d Ser. b 



