ScJceWs Landscape-Gardening. 405 



a work, in my humble opinion, well indeed adapted to the end 

 in view, and all that the age could, by any possibility, expect, 

 you have described old tan as being prejudicial to vegetation. 

 Now this is an error: that you should fall into slight errors oc- 

 casionally, in such a work, is certainly no marvel. 



I have used old tan as pot drainage for plants for some years, 

 and find that few plants dislike it. Let me, however, speak 

 guardedly : I have not used it (neither shall I at present) for any 

 kind of plant which is to remain in a pot for years. We have, 

 nevertheless, a multitude of things which are " here to-day and 

 gone to-morrow," as far as the pot is concerned, and amongst 

 such I scarcely know an exception. 



My general mixture, as drainage for such things, is old tan, 

 riddled quite clean, rough bone, and a little powdered sphagnum, 

 which I always keep by me in a dry state. These materials, 

 placed over a crock or crocks in the bottom of the pot, I have 

 seldom known to fail ; but in the great majority of cases they 

 are highly beneficial, not only as drainage, but as food for the 

 plant. It does not follow from this that a plant will do well 

 in such materials ; altogether, the mechanical texture of soils is 

 the main point, and it so happens that texture and quality are 

 almost one and the same thing. 



Bone manure is a thing far better understood practically in the 

 country here than about the metropolis, if I may judge by what 

 the London press says about it. I have noticed much of its 

 effects for the last twelve years, both in my own hands, and 

 for miles around ; and I consider it a wonderful manure, and 

 one which will, in all probability, outlive guano. However, 

 the artificial manures, which, as Dr. Lindley justly observes, 

 " they run to the antipodes after," have had the effect of lower- 

 ing the bone market, which had previously risen far too high 

 for pockets of narrow calibre. 



The Gardens, Oulton Park, June 29. 184-2. 



Art. IX. The Landscape-Gardening of F. L. von Sckell of Munich. 

 Translated from the German for the " Gardener's Magazine." 



{Continued from p. 268.) 



XVI. On the picturesque Grouping and Union of Trees and Shrubs. 



1. It is thus (see preceding chapter) that Nature displays the 

 process by which she passes over from one sort of wood to ano- 

 ther, in her primeval forests, without suffering a distinct line of 

 separation to be visible. 



But this process of nature can only be imitated by art in 

 grounds where the woods are on a large scale and united to- 



d d 3 



