390 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[Marcu 30, 1995, 
Mary’s with a circuit of nine miles, to mere cones 
of granite, scarcely affording room for the 
watchful cormorant to spread its dark wings. 
Brett, who loved to haunt the neighbourhood, 
seems to have greatly exaggerated the colours 
of the granite. Not even in the brightest sun- 
light could one see the rose-tinted granite 
purple-veined and coated with amber-green turf, 
which he delighted to paint. 
Five only of the islands are inhabited, St. 
Mary’s, Tresoo, Bryher, St. Martin, and St. 
Agnes. Sampson, the scene of Walter Besant’s 
Armorel of Lionnesse, is at present uninhabited ; 
the ruins of n and some remarkable stone 
cists still remain 
climate is delightful; the air full of a 
mellow golden light which casts no shadows; 
whichever way one walks even in February there 
is abundant evidence of the genial climate, 
Frost is comparatively unknown, and Potatos are 
occasionally dug in March. Many of the 
cottagers have plots of garden ground devoted 
to the growth of spring-flowers—Narcissus, 
Wallflowers, Stocks, Ixias, and other bulbous- 
wers. A marked feature of the land- 
soape is the oblong plot of ground, protected by 
the tall h of Escallonia, Veronica, and 
Tamarisk, The former is common enough in 
the South of England. It is a handsome glossy- 
leaved evergreen, bearing clusters of trumpet- 
Th 
fences serve chiefly to protect the flowers from 
storms of wind. 
What strikes one more especially in walking 
about St. Mary’s is the absence of trees. A few 
lend a friendly shelter to the churchyard of the 
old town, where lie buried the remains of the 
ill-fated fleet of Sir Cloudesly Shovel, wrecked 
close by, on their return from the capture of 
Gibraltar, 
The wayside hedgerows and walls are covered 
n abu 
colours, They ramble over the banks and stone 
walls, and by the handsome church where the 
spaces between the rocks are filled with brilliant 
masses of colour. One of the tribe, which bears 
a large canary-coloured flower, puts a dense 
carpet of foliage and flowers along the margin 
of the sag bays. 
Near to the ruins of the ancient church is the 
principal bulb-farm of the island. The Daffodil 
requires a loamy soil with a plentiful admixture 
The early flowers are raised in boxes, 
the bulbs ee very thickly in the loam and 
ee under glass. Some weeks 
The coast scenery around St, Mary’s is magnifi- 
cent, One may stand on the granite cliffs an 
bane the huge breakers roll in with thundering 
soun 
ia, year a Logan rock was discovered s several 
times larger in cubical contents than the famous 
one on the Cornish coast, may see the 
after begging permission to say a few words 
of prayer. 
Ferns are not plentiful, but the Osmunda 
who succeeded that kindly autocrat, Augustus 
Smith, of Tresco Abbey. It is to him that the 
prosperity of the Islands is chiefly due. He 
introduced a sys stem of compulsory education, 
which resulted in raising the condition of the 
Islanders from ignorance and poverty to 
comparative comfort and wealth. 
While standing on the quay of St. Mary’s, one 
sees across the Sound, about two miles distant, a 
richly-wooded island, in the midst of which 
stands a stately house. This is Tresco Abbey, 
the home of the Lord Proprietor. A smart little 
steam-launch, his property, crosses daily. Here is 
one of the most beautiful gardens in Europe, and 
at the back of it, sheltered from “all the airts,” 
is the“ Home of the Lilies.“ Acres upon acres, 
in several hundred varieties, are grown here, 
with nothing to protect them but reed or lath 
fences, or the Escallonia hedges aforesaid. 
e flowers vary greatly in shape, size, and 
colour, from the noble Sir Watkin, Emperor, 
and Empress, 5 to 6 inches across, to the tiny 
Angel’s Tears, barely half an inch, The 
colour, too, varies through all the golden 
the chastely elegant wilding of th 
meadows; probably the same that Wordsworth 
“ Beside a lake beneath the trees 
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” 
The Narcissus tribe, however, are not the 
there are acres of Wallflowers and Stocks, whioh 
arrive at Covent Garden Market some weeks i 
advance of those grown at ho 
By the “ Lily gardens” there are ten e 
glass structures, in which are grown the 
earliest flowers. The latter are followed by 
enormous crops of Tomatos, which also find a 
ready market in London and the great provincial 
towns, Most of the able-bodied men on the 
island find employment here. New varieties 
are raised yearly from seed, the flowers being 
artificially impregnated an 
interference by the bees. Several years, of 
course, must elapse before the flower appears, 
- several more before a -e stock is 
for market purposes, r a time, how- 
m; the inorease is in a e progres- 
sion, and the new varieties are purchasable at 
prices, 
It has — a fashion of late to plait 
various k kinds of Daffodi 
rms and graceful habit. If 
the bulbs are 8 and allowed to remain 
isturbed for a few years, they produce de- 
lightful masses of colour, A e near the 
museum at K 
ter of the * Coasts is the array of 
figure-heads of vessels wrecked close by. One 
of these, representing a woman, w. of a 
i i je er, only survivor 
r seaman, who clung to t 
eee e a ung to the effigy and 
Ts, although only four miles in circuit 
tai 
eds of acres of wild iy 
means of a boat kept for the purpose 
Ata point of the island opposite 10 Bryher, 
there is a circular fortress known as Oliver's 
is of enormous strength, and has 
up—such is the story, 
truth probably is, that from its position it com- 
manded the more recent forts, and it was thought 
best to destroy it. 
There are some magnificent views from the 
N by the n a especially in a storm, 
n the huge Atlantio waves are driven wit th 
terrific violence wnt the rocky islets, and the 
sea is one vast cauldron of white water. 
The Scilly Islands offer a splendid field for the 
naturalist. Bird-life and fish are abundant, and 
one may pass a fortnight very pleasantly, Crusoe- 
fashion, without tracing a single footprint onthe 
dove-coloured sands. T. V., H. 
KEW NOTES. 
STERNBERGIA Fiscaertana.—Balbs of this rare 
species of Sternbergia, received at K 
from Mr. Whittall of f Sm r 
as 
5 not so dark a shade of yellow, and with nume- 
rous thin parallel lines, almost colourless, and sug: 
gesting striation in the segments, The leaves are half 
an inch wide, decidedly glaucous, and contemporary 
with the flowers, as in S. lutea, The most marked 
difference between this and the other apecies of 
— 
a 
=] 
D 
Q 
e 
for whilst they prop in autumn, this one flowers in 
ch, There is a difference between the Kew 
by Herbert in his 
seems to have keder it only from a poor, dried 
specimen, At any rate, Mr. Whittall’s plant is & 
most useful addition to hardy spring flowering bulbs. 
A figure of it has been prepared for the Bot. Mag. 
TULIPA VIOLACEA, 
Eve rare mees e of Talip, a native 0 North 
een known to botanists, but has 
8 W been eles ie poe gardens, thank 
to Herr Max Leichtlin. Bulbs of it presented by 
btn do Kew are now in flower in a border outside, 
and also in pots in the sgh The bulbs are 
amall, with dark brown tunics, and the leaves 
5 inches long, by half an inch in width, Tae 
flowers are poe singly on d ereot 
5 inches long, a 
ments 14 inch long, coloured dark cri 
tinge of purple in the nerves and o 
plants; but as garden T 
brilliancy of colour. It isa near all 
tris, Bot. Mag., t. 1202. 
ASARUM MAXIMUM, oe 
This beautiful little plant is now flo owering for , 
first time in Europe, in the Begonia-house at 
It was yet by Mr, Hemaley in the 2 
ril, 1892, p. 422, in a paper which 
— * — genus. was not then in a 
 Hemsley’s hg ang = 9 Caan ir 
ee collected 
Dr, enry, according 5 a 28 
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