Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. Ill 



Art. Ill, Bicton Gardens, their Culture and Management. In a 

 Series of Letters to the Conductor. By James Barnes, Gardener 

 to the Right Honourable Lady Rolle. 



{Continued from p. 52.) 



Letter X. The Rockery. TJie American Garden. 



I WILL now, according to my promise, give you a short descrip- 

 tion, and the circumference of a few of the finest specimens of 

 trees and shrubs in the American Garden and Rockery. The 

 Rockery is covered with a collection of plants far too great for 

 me to enumerate at present. Amongst them are fine specimens 

 of many kinds of ferns, berberis, and ribes, of Cunninghams 

 sinensis, &c. There is a constant supply of water coming out 

 of the top of a pyramid of rocks in the centre of the rockwork, 

 and trickling down the sides of it, thus forming a " weeping 

 pillar;" and there are pipes and stopcocks in various parts of 

 the Rockery, so that you have merely to' turn them, to water the 

 wliole of it at once. 



The American Garden, adjoining the Rockery, has a lovely 

 stream of clear water running through it, over a bed of the beau- 

 tiful round pebbles for which our sea-coast is celebrated. In 

 this stream you see trout of different sizes enjoying themselves 

 unmolested. This is the most delightful part of the gai'den 

 from April to July, with its rich collection of the rarest rhodo- 

 dendrons, consisting of fine plants of the following, viz. : — 



R. campanulatum, and the hybrid tig. grandiflorum 



varieties. Lee's purple 



VictoritF dauricum altaicum 



CunninghamianM7» atrovirens 



nepalense punctatum 



GXewnydniim wzyrtifolium 



venustum chrysanthum 



strictum caucasicutn 



arboreum pulchemmura 



roseum Noblea«M??j 



rubicundum VvusseWidnum 



album ^jrunifolium 



'Wehhidniiin Rollissonw 



acutifolium Smiths 



superbum raagnoWcefblium 



coccineum maximum grandiflorum 



altaclerense mirabile 



prlnceps . catawbiense 



macranthum splendens 



tigrinum fragrans, and many others. 



Clumps of the richest and handsomest Ghent and other 

 azaleas. 



Likewise clumps or beds of Andromeda, Lyonm, large plants 

 of Leuc6tho<7 floribunda ; arbutus of sorts, pernettyas, clethras ; 



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