Arboricultural Notices. 637 



would be a more fitting appendage to Vauxhall or a cockney tea-garden, than 

 to the princely domain in which it is placed.* Look again at the gin-glass in 

 tea-saucer fountain in the lake near Buckingham Palace, and at the cast-metal 

 fountain in the Serpentine in Kensington Gardens. The erection and execu- 

 tion of these two abortions is a national disgrace. But, if one were disposed 

 to find fault, it is not difficult to pick out subjects for censure ; would it were 

 otherwise ! 



Your arguments at page 351., relative to having the beds in flower-gardens 

 of various sizes, are particularly clear; but it strikes me that in the two plans, 

 figs. 118. and 119., you have rather exceeded your own principles, inasmuch 

 as I think the large corner beds in fig. 1 18. are too large to group properly 

 with the smaller beds ; and the same may be said of the horseshoe-shaped 

 beds in fig. 119. Were the largest beds in the plans a little smaller, and the 

 next sizes a trifle larger, I think the whole would be more proportionate, and 

 I am certain could be more efl'ectively planted. By the same rule that you 

 very properly insist upon the beds being of various sizes, I demand to have 

 them planted with plants proportionate to their size ; and, to effect, this the 

 large beds must either be reduced in size, or the small ones become blanks in 

 the garden. 



In oflTering these remarks, 1 do not know whether I shall come under the lash 

 you have directed against " the overweening self-conceit of young gardeners, 

 especially Scotch ones ;" but, if I do, it is yourself and the West London Gar- 

 deners' Association that are to blame for having taught me to become a caviller. 

 Brooklands, Blackheath Park, October 7. 1843. 



Art. XIV. Arboricvltural Notices. 



The following are selected from the Hortiis Collinsonianus, just printed, and 

 noticed in a subsequent page. " By various memoranda it appears that Mr. 

 CoUinson frequently employed Gordon the nurseryman to raise his seeds, 

 particularly those from the warmer climates, and among his papers there is, 

 in his own handwriting, the following tribute to his abilities. ' The skill and 

 ingenuity of some men is surprising. On August 30. I was at James Gordon's, 

 gardener, at the last house on the left hand at Mile End ; there he showed 

 me a pot of seedlings of the cactus, or great melon thistle, perhaps the first 

 ever raised from seed : but what shows his great knowledge and experience in 

 vegetation is his way of raising the finest dusty seeds ; before him, I never 

 knew or heard of any man that could raise the dusty seeds of the kalmias, 

 rhododendrons, or azaleas. These charming hardy shrubs, that excel all 

 others in his care, he furnishes to every curious garden ; all the nurserymen 

 and gardeners come to him for them ; and this year, after more than twenty 

 years' trial, he showed me the loblolly bay of Carolina coming up from seed 

 in a way not to be expected ; this elegant evergreen shrub is next in beauty 

 to the magnolias : and his sagacity in raising all sorts of plants from cuttings, 

 roots, and layers surpasses all others ; by which our gardens are enriched with 

 an infinite variety, and for many years T have not been a little assistant to 

 him in procuring seeds and plants from all countries. This honourable 

 mention of Mr. Gordon, who is now in his fifty- sixth year, is an act of gra- 

 titude due to his memory from his old friend — Peter CoUinson, in my sixty- 

 eighth year. Mill Hill, Sept. 2. 1763.' The loblolly bay is the Gordon/a 

 lasianthus, and from the circumstance here mentioned, this splendid shrub 

 may probably have been selected, at the suggestion of Mr. CoUinson, to per- 

 petuate Ml-. Gordon's name." (H. C. p. 5.) 



* This water- dipping willow, as a relic of the gardens of a former age, we 

 should be sorry to see removed. — Cond. 

 3dSer.— 1843. XL tt 



