346 Notes on Gardens at Brighton, 



Brighton, and along the coast to Worthing and Tarring, with a 

 degree of vigour which we have only seen equalled in the chalk 

 pits at Greenhithe on the south bank of the Thames. The 

 columbine in all its varieties is also in great abundance and 

 vigour, the double red lychnis, and in some places the double 

 yellow marigold; while masses of red and white valerian are just 

 beginning to expand their blossoms. The prevailing colour in 

 almost every garden is red, but this is finely contrasted by the 

 rich yellows and orange of the marigolds, and relieved by the 

 different shades of purple, red, and white of the columbines, by 

 the purple and variegated stocks, and by stocks of a pure white; 

 the whole garden being harmonised by the green of the foliage, 

 or of a small plot of grass, and this again supported by the stone 

 colour of the walls and the gravel of the walks. 



In the Brighton gardens fronting the sea, the plants men- 

 tioned and various others thrive nearly as well as in the back 

 streets, provided there is a dwarf wall to protect them from the 

 direct influence of the sea breeze and spray. These gardens, 

 however, are very inferiorly kept to those on the London Road ; 

 partly because they belong to wealthy families who only reside 

 at Brighton a part of the winter, and hence their gardens during 

 spring and summer are neglected, and partly because they belong 

 to lodging-houses, the keepers of which do not in general trouble 

 themselves with flowers. The last winter was more than usually 

 severe on the tamarisk, which forms the principal shrub in all 

 the gardens and squares exposed to the sea, and hence these 

 shrubs are for the most part cut in and just beginning to shoot. 

 There are very few plants of the sea buckthorn about Brighton, 

 but there are a few ; and where the tamarisk has been cut to 

 pieces the buckthorn has not been in the slightest degree in- 

 jured. At Gosford, in East Lothian, the sea buckthorn has 

 proved the hardiest of all marine trees or shrubs. The evergreen 

 oak has not been injured at a very short distance from the sea 

 in the back streets ; and the Dutch, Scotch, and Chichester elms 

 appear to thrive just as well as the common sycamore. In short, 

 wherever there is a little shelter from the direct influence of the 

 sea breeze, every kind of tree and shrub appears to thrive quite 

 well; though, from the soil being poor, thin, and on chalk, and the 

 great want of rain in the growing season, their growth is very 

 slow, and they never can attain a large size, as may be proved 

 from the trees on similar soils in the interior of the country. 

 The Leycesterz'a formosa is a shrub which might be advan- 

 tageously introduced into the sea-side gardens, not only, as our 

 correspondent N. M. T. has shown (G. M. for 1841, p. 9.), be- 

 cause it stands the sea breeze, but because it makes the greatest 

 show late in autumn, when Brighton is fullest of company. The 

 jLycium barbarum, the common ivy and the five-leaved ivy, and 





