till 





d£— one iu particular iormiiii; a natural 

 •T^ which voucan walk. And it wassouie 

 ■"^Ld tell how it wit ever puwhle for the 



- nwwn there, until, on looking farther, I 

 dug the SMMfnw must have onj-inally sprun 

 lod»d in the bark of some Swamp Gum thf 

 •8 the brook ; and, as it grew, it graduall 



IT 



B 



*^£i Jong the trunk until tbeyme^ferra 



ttonk ha>-ing, in the course 



. C^mmfr%A tree in the OUu puanivu *** tt«»«^** ..~ 



** it I say so much before 1 give you the 



1 ,-r I am sure the whole scene would amply 



«« W 



ill** 



100 trees 



One, 



in yards from the biggest, was 60 feet at 4 ieet 

 Aeiround, and, at 130, must have been fully 40 



• c reuniiereiice ; it was without buttresses, but 

 me solid massive column, without the least 

 j- <w»v_ A Silver Wattle was 120 feet high. 



In fact, we named it the Vale of 



| up oue sv"« 



■pgptofn of decay, 

 id 6 feet round. 



f iantei for punv indeed aia men appear muu^amc iucoo 

 135le wonders. The largest we measured was, at 

 JEfoil from the ground, 1 02 feet in circumference, 

 lid At the ground 130 feet. We had no means of 

 tfin* its height, so dense was the neighbouring 

 femt, atove which, however, it towered in majestic 

 ■"■ w "* This noble Swamp Gum is still growing, and 



of the tree, traceable by the branches on the ground, was 

 213 feet. We ascended this tree on an inclined plane 

 formed by one of its limbs and walked four abreast with 

 ease upon its trunk ! In its fall it had overturned 

 another, 108 feet high, which had brought up with its 

 roots a ball of earth 20 feet across. It was so much 

 imbedded in the earth that I could not get a string round 

 it to measure its girth. This is often the case with 

 fallen trees. On our return, I measured two Stringy 

 barks, near the houses at the Hampshire Hills, that had 

 been felled for splitting into rails, each 180 feet long. 

 Near to these, is a tree that has been felled, which is so 

 large that it could not be cut into lengths for splitting, 

 and a shed has been erected against it ; the tree serving 



for the back ! " (P. 121.) 



As we have already observed, there seems to be no 

 reason why these prodigious trees should not, at some 

 future day, decorate the scenery of Great Britain. 

 Devonshire and -Cornwall, or Cork and Kerry, would 

 certainly prove capable of bringing them to maturity. 

 Pazfon'a Flower Garden for May. 



whole garden is intersected wuh beauulul ;*\ nucsot 



lofty Apple trees trained in espalier. 



Half a mile from IN -rhoff is another garden, that of 

 Alexandria** We need only state it is one of the gayest 

 in the summer season. Masson's Report, 



mndeur. 



ibowt bo signs oi ui 



Urgwt growing tree 



Cowtliorpe, in Yorksmre, which i» <±o icei ui suvuui- 



faeuce at 3 feet from the ground. Some hollow pollard 



The largest Oak on record is the 



FOREIGN GARDEN GLEANINGS, 



(St. Petebsdcrg.) 



Pawlowski Garden.— Tins garden, the most beautiful 

 of all those of the English style, was first created in 

 1 780, in the reign of Catherine 1 1. It was designed by 

 Brown, to whom an accurate survey of the ground was 

 sent, by his countryman, Goold. Nothing whiph could 

 by any possibility have been introduced for the purpose 

 of beautifying the place has been omiti I ; there are 



rivers, 



Home Correspondence. 



Forcing Asparagus.—" T. P.V plan of forcing this 

 highly esteem td vegetable, although in many respects 

 icellent, has nevertheless one great disadvantage, viz., 

 the destruction of the roots after they have been once 

 forced. The, plan I adopt here has a decided advan- 

 tage over any other I have ever seen or heard of; and 

 it is worthy the attention of all early Asparagus growers. 

 It is this : in the first place, the beds are made in the 

 usual manner, except that they lay east and west, 

 instead of north and south, and are of the width of a 

 common Cucumber frame. The trenches or alleys 

 between them being 2 feet wide and a foot and a half 

 deep from the surface of the bed, a tile drain is laid 

 along the bottom of each trench, to carry off any water 

 that may penetrate the linings during the time of 

 forcing. The bed intended to be forced is covered 

 with hot stable manure a foot in thickness, say, in the 

 beginning of November, or earlier if desired, and the 

 trenches are filled with linings of the same material. 

 When the young heads appear above-ground, which 

 they will do in 10 or 12 days from the time of 



the manure, the latter is then carefully 

 and the bed covered over 



rger, such as the Winfarthing, in Norfolk, across streams of water, farms, and, above all cottages, 



Oaks are L_ , _ 



which is 70 feet at the ground. The second tree, also a 

 Swamp Gum, is prostrate. It measures, from the root 

 to the first branch, 220 feet, and the top measures 

 fil_in all 284 feet, without including the small top, 

 decayed and gone, which would carry it much beyond 

 300 feet. The circumference at the base is 36 feet, and 

 at the first branch 12 feet, giving an average of 24 feet. 

 This would allow for the solid bole, 10,120 feet of 

 timber, without including any of the branches. Altogether 



n timber, it must have weighed more than 400 

 tone. The Oak that gave the most timber was the 

 Gelonos Oak, in Monmouthshire, which, with its 

 branches, turned out 2426 feet, but the body alone only 

 t j0 feet. * * Believe me, yours very truly, 



" < Thomas J. Ewing.' 





u Ills Excellency the President mentioned his having 

 strongl • recommended to the Right Hon. the Secretary 

 of State for die Colonies, and to the Lords Commissioners 

 of the Admiralty, the timber of our Blue Gum 

 (Eucalyptus globulus). Plank can be obtained from it 

 id lengths surpassing those of any other timber tree ; 

 and it may be sent home and sold at 8d. per foot, while 

 Oak plank (to which it is not inferior in quality), of the 

 largest obtainable lengths, costs 2s. 6d. per foot'* 



lilar, although less striking, accounts of these Gum- 

 are given by Mr. James Backhouse in his 

 "Journal of a Visit to the Australian Colonies," as will 

 be seen by the following extracts : 



u On an old road, called the Lopham-road, a few miles 

 from the Bay, we measured some stringy bark trees 

 (Eucalyptus robusta), taking their circumference at 

 about 5 feet from the^round. One of these, which was 

 rather hollow at the bottom and broken at the top, was 

 49 feet round ; another that was solid, and supposed to 



be 200 feet Inch, was X\ feet round • and a third, snn- 



posed 



tree spread much at the base, it would be nearly 70 feet 

 in circumference at the surface of the ground. My 

 companions spoke to each other when at the opposite 

 side of this tree to myself, and their voices sounded so 

 distant, that I concluded ihey had inadvertently left me 

 to see some other object, and immediately called to them. 

 They, in answer, remarked the distant sound of my 

 roice, and inquired if I were behind the tree ! " (P. 1 15.) 

 *■ In company with J. Milligan and Henry Stephen- 

 ton, a servant of the company, from near Richmond in 

 Yorkshire, we visited a place in the forest remarkable 

 for an assemblage of gigantic stringy barks, and not far 

 the junction of the Emu River with the Loud- 

 water, the latter of which takes its name from three 

 falls over basaltic rock at short intervals, the highest of 

 which is 17 feet. Within half a mile we measured 

 standing trees as follows, at 4 feet from the ground. 

 •6everal of them had one large excrescence at the base, 

 and one or more far up the trunk : No. 1, 45 feet in . 

 circumference, supposed height 180 feet, the top was 

 broken, as is the case with most large-trunked trees ; 

 ■the trunk was a little injured by decay, but not hollow. 

 This tree had an excrescence at the base, 1 2 feet across, 

 and 6 feet high, protruding about 3 feet. No. 2, 37 ^ feet 

 in circumference ; tubercled. No. 3, 35 feet in circum- 

 ference ; distant from No. 2 about 80 yards. No. 4, 

 38 feet in circumference ; distant from No. 3 about 

 50 yards. No 5, 28 feet in circumference. No. |6, 

 30 feet in circumference. No. 7, 32 feet in circum- 

 ference. No. 8, 55 feet in circumference ; supposed to 

 be upwards of 200 feet high ; very little injured by 

 decay ; it carried up its breadth much better than the 

 large trees on the Lopham-road, and did not spread so 

 much at the base. No. 9, 40£ feet in circumference ; 

 sound and tall. No. 10, 48 feet in circumference; 

 tubercled, tall, with some cavities at the base, and much 

 of the top gone. 



which, though of a poor and unattractive exterior, 

 contain the most elegant statues, large and costly articles 

 of china — the whole being most skilfully broken by 

 means of patches of flowers, clumps of shrubs, or 

 thickets of Oak, Birch, Scotch Fir, Larch, Poplars, and 

 Aspens. That which most deserves attention is the 

 Rose pavilion ; nowhere that we know of, is such a 

 remarkably fine effect produced as in this charming 



spot. 



At a short distance from the theatre, is Catherine's 



private garden, which is entirely filled with ornamental 



plants. In form it is semicircular, and bounded on 



two sides by high walls, against which are two parallel 



lines of houses ; two large open screens permit persons 



to see at a glance all over the grounds ; the larger 



portion of the garden consists of a thick turf, with here 



and there a bed of flowers ; there are two Italian 



Poplars in the open ground, but they have been much 



injured by the severity of the climate. Planted, they 



say, in the reigu of Catherine, they are still only B feet 



high ; their base alone is large and healthy, the rest is 



withered and stunted. 



On the south side of the grounds are the greenhouses 

 and stoves, Orange houses and wooden pits, all under 

 the care of M. Weimann. This gentleman pays especial 

 attention to exotic plants, of which he has a fine col- 

 lection. The Indies, America, China, Japan, and the 

 Cape, are all represented by their peculiar plants. 

 We saw there specimens of Metrosideros glauca, Diplacus 

 aurantiacus, Erica arborea, forming pyramids more 

 than 13 yards high, Palleria Aromatica(?) and are- 



laying on 



removed and the bed covered over with a little 

 fine soil. A frame is then put on and the linings re- 

 newed, raising them up to the top of the frame and 

 covering the glass with bast mats ; or what is still 

 better, framed cove is of straw. The young heads will 

 grow faster as the bed becomes more thoroughly llfcatcd. 

 The covering is taken off every day, and a little air 

 iven. The Asparagus is ready for cutting in tour or 

 ve weeks from the time of putting the manure on, and 

 it is almost as green as it is in May, A far better suc- 

 cession is obtained by this method than by removing 

 the roots into a forcing pit, and the same beds may bo 

 forced for any number of years. Mine have been 

 regularly forced for upwards of 30 years without in- 

 jury. What we force first we give a season's rest : the 

 second is forced every year ; indeed they produce finer 

 Asparagus as the roots grow older, provided a proper 

 dressing of salt or other t nianure be given after each 

 cropping, and the sides of the beds protected at all times 

 with part of the manure which is left for the purpose. 

 J. IF., Darykulmc Hall Lancasliire. 



Kem Pleasure Gardens.— My attention has been drawn 

 to a coarse attack made upon me in your publication of 

 the 19th ult., relative to a letter, written by me, which 

 appeared in the Times of the 10th, respecting these 

 gardens. My letter to the editor of the Ti*** bore 

 precisely the same heading as the present, but the word 

 "pleasure" was omitted, either by the printer or the 

 editor, and hence the overflow of gall which induced you 

 to write the article to which I allude. It is to be re- 

 gretted that persons who undertake the management of 

 a public newspaper should be deficient of that degree of 

 courtesy which is common in civilised life, and 1 would 

 respectfully suggest, that henceforth the snappish writer 

 of the article in question should conform a little more 

 to the axioms of Lord Chesterfield. Kewcnsis. [We are 



markably fine Podocarpus. l *v «*^ -~— — . ^:u„„„„»,#. 



AmonVst other plants not less worthy of notice were 'not aware that either courtesy, civility, or any other sort 

 an immense Cyperus papyrus, a Brexia in flower and ~* — wW*W m Hue to nersons who avail themselve* 





more than 9 feet in height, an Epiphyllum Hookeri 

 2 to 3 yards high, Begonias from 5 to 6 yards, some 

 patches of Crinum, a Cecropia peltata 10 yards in 

 height, a large Pandanus odoratissimus in flower, a 

 monstrous Littcea geminiflora, some .fine Strelitzias, an 

 Amelia macropetala (?) a large Zamia, a Dracaena 

 arborea, and a Puja coarctata 4 feet high and in flower. 



Mammillarias are here too in great abundance ; in 

 summer they are merely placed in wooden sheds, which 

 are covered with planks in the very hot weather ; this 

 treatment, which is also adopted for many other Ameri- 

 can plants, is found to answer every purpose. 



Like most Germans, M. Weimann is passionately 

 fond of Pinks. Begonia discolor, so beautiful in flower, 

 and so handsome with its foliage, is also especially 

 cared for : it is sometimes eaten instead of Spinach. 

 There is, too, a very fine assortment of Geraniums ; 

 several of these form pyramids 3 yards high. 



Chateau de Peteruoff. — A fine canal leads the 





stranger to the front of this chateau. The first object 

 winch meets the eye is the famous Samson, who is 

 represented high upon a rock forcing open the jaws of 

 a lion, of which the head alone is visible ; from the 

 dying animal proceeds a large jet of water, which rises 

 far above the gigantic Epiceas which surround the group. 

 We will not speak of the rich architecture of the 

 palace, or of its charming situation above the Gulf of 

 Finland, or of its cascades. The water-works are some- 

 thing like those of Versailles. At the bottom of the 

 park, near the gulf, is the wooden house from which 

 Peter the Great used to view his fleet, and on the other 

 side the stranger admires Monplaisir, one of the most 

 charming spots in the country. 



The principal garden is behind the palace ; it is laid 

 out in squares, in the middle of each of which is a basin 

 of water surrounding a pedestal, on which is placed a 

 statue. The borders contain some old Lilacs and otl 



of the press* to propagate misrepresentations. Such 

 persons are a public nuisance, and must be treated as 

 such. The rougher the usage they receive, the nearer 

 it approaches their deserts. Had the person calling 

 himself "Kewensis," merely expressed an opinion, in- 

 stead of publishing a falsehood, he would then, indeed, 

 have been entitled to the treatment due to a gentleman. 

 If, as he says, the blame lies with the editorial office of 

 the Times, he should have had the honesty to cause the 

 editorial error to be corrected ; for which he had ample 

 time. Not having done so, " Kewensis" must be taken 

 to have fully acquiesced in the mis-statement of which 

 he was the origin.") 



Woodlice aiid Bantams.— My Cucumbers are now in- 

 full bearing ; in 48 lights of them not a wood-louse is v 

 to be seen ; my bantams picked up every one of them \ 

 during winter — making them worth at least 101. a year 

 to me. I have not a toad on the place now. Jama 

 Cuthill, Camlcrwdl. 



Migntiorf Birds. 



readers to know that 



It may interest some of your 

 swallows appeared here, for the 

 on the 16th ult. (April). The 

 and this afternoon I heard the 



A prostrate tree near to No. 1 , was 35 feet in circum- 

 ference at the base, 22 feet at 



ieet up ; there were two large branches 

 general head branched off at 150 feet : 



hardy shrubs. 



In that part of the garden which lies west of the 



palace are the gardeners' residences and houses for the 



66 feet up , 19 feet at propagation of rare plants. The front of the largest of 



these houses is covered with Rose trees and Belladonna 



maxima (?) There is a pretty hedge of Fuchsias 



first time this year, 



cuckoo on the 19 th, 



nightingale. /. R., Bridgewater. 



A few words about Plums. — Your correspondent 



* J. R." deserves our thanks for describing the manner 

 in which Reine Claude de Bavay bears its fruit, for we 

 shall now know how to train it to most advantage. ^ I 

 have just planted two, one on a west wall, the other in 

 the open quarters for a pyramidal. " J. R.° will find that 

 Chapman's Prince of Wales, treated as his Claude de 

 Bavay will produce its fruit in precisely the same 

 manner, especially if the shoots of the current year be 

 shortened in Angust A pyramidal that I budded in l<Vio, 

 on a strong stock, at about a foot from the ground, has 

 now some blossom on every shoot of last year's growth- 

 I have just examined the tree, and have not been able to 

 find a single shoot without blossom, from the leader at 

 10 feet from the ground to the lowest branch; 

 and it is abundantly furnished in the usual manner 

 with fruitful spurs on the two and three years 

 old wood. There is in the village in which 1 r »^" 

 n ™ * *i,« m «i.**a fmm which make very pro- 



