Notes on the Brighton Gardens. 499 



Convolvulus major, and mignonette, w^ere thriving with the 

 greatest luxuriance, and climbing up the walls of the house, and 

 over the surrounding fences. The convolvulus and nastur- 

 tiums made a showy appearance ; and the mignonette spread a 

 delicious fragrance. No. 21., a plot about 3 yards long, and 

 1 yard wide, contained four tall sunflowers, up the stems of 

 which, to the very summit of the flowers, a profusion of dark and 

 light nasturtiums had been trained. 



Gloucester Place. — No. 16, A plot, about 4 yards wide, by 5 

 or 6 yards in depth, contains a dug bed in the centre, and a 

 surrounding border, separated by a gravel walk, with box edg- 

 ings. In the bed and borders pelargoniums, verbenas, balsams, 

 Lobelm gracilis, Jacobse^a, China aster, clarkias, Calliopsis, zin- 

 nias, fuchsias, heartseases, sweet peas, and various other plants, 

 were all beautifully in flower. The plants in the centre bed 

 were kept quite distinct, and tied up to neat rods, painted green, 

 so as scarcely to touch each other. The plants in the sur- 

 rounding border were partly tied up in the same manner, 

 partly trained, and partly clinging naturally to the surrounding 

 fence. The luxuriance and wild gi'ace exhibited by the sweet 

 pea, the nasturtium, and the greater convolvulus, formed a 

 fine contrast to the trimness of the plants in the central bed, and 

 gave the idea of great richness and vigour of growth. Slight 

 touches of uncontrolled nature, in this way, add wonderfully to 

 the effect of extreme art. 



St. George^s Place. ■ — Almost all the gardens here were in- 

 teresting, commencing with No. 4. No. 15. contained some 

 remarkably fine petunias, with Malope, JacobaeV, stocks, pelar- 

 goniums, and other plants, in great luxuriance. 



York Place. — No. 1 4. The centre bed was surrounded by turf, 

 with a marginal border ; and the soil, both of the central bed and 

 the border, was raised at the rate of about 4 in. in a foot, so that 

 the central bed formed an oblong cone, perhaps 8 ft. by 5 ft. 

 at the base, and 2 ft. high. This was, perhaps, the richest 

 front garden that we saw in Brighton. In the central bed were 

 6'alvia coccinea, and Physostegia imbricata, most splendidly in 

 flower ; Ferbena chamaedrifolia and Tweedir/na, Fdchsm longi- 

 flora and microphylla ; 6 or 8 varieties of heartsease, pelar- 

 goniums, and various other plants. In the surrounding border 

 were Eccremocarpus (Calampelis) scaber, Potentilla atrosan- 

 guinea, chrysanthemums, and 10 or 12 distinct varieties of hearts- 

 ease. The heartseases, both in the bed and border, were of 

 most extraordinary luxuriance and beauty; all trained to single 

 green-painted rods, and forming blunt-pointed cones, covered 

 with flowers from the base to the summit ; one or two of them 

 nearly as high as 3 ft. ! Among the shrubs in the border were 



KIC 2 



