April 4, 18G5. ] 



jouk:cal of hokxicultube and cottage gardener. 



265 



unsightly as to render covering the walls with luxuriant 

 creepers desirable, then we have no fault to find with the 

 broad border, and ribboning that border if the propiietor 

 so feels inclined. No doubt the background of the climbers 

 against the walls would shade back the colours of the flowers 

 as well as protect them. 



As a general rule, however, the fleeting beauty of bedding 

 plants is associated with different ideas ft-om those impressed 

 by the solid structure of a mansion, and for a mansion of 

 large size, we think the flower garden would have been near 

 enough ; but let every man enjoy that which gives him the 

 greatest amount of pleasure. Allow us now to pass a remark 

 or two in the same kindly spirit as that in which you write, 

 as to the principles of design in flower gardens, as exemplified 

 in the plan, page 214. 



1. " Every bed ought to make a perfect and uniform shape 

 of itself." We hardly understand this. Every single bed 

 should be so formed and planted as to make a imique whole 

 in icself. Every group of beds should be so formed as to 

 make a well-balanced whole. This we presume is difl'erent 

 from having each bed of a perfect and uniform shape of itself. 

 What constitutes perfection in shape ? We cannot beat the 

 circle, the rounded squares might pass miister ; but set out 

 any of the rest of the beds in that group solitary, alone, and 

 by what rules could we demonstrate that each and every 

 was perfect in shape, or more perfect than any other shape ? 

 Of coui'se, we are here taking no notice of the manner in 

 which the figures of the main part of the group nicely fit 

 into each other. 



2. " Walks ought to form patterns as well as the beds." 

 This will be done as a matter of course, but these patterns 

 are not confined to regular geometrical arrangements. The 

 patterns formed by the walks or open spaces in the plan at 

 page 232, would by many be more lited than those at page 

 214, just in proportion as they had a finer eye for the sweep- 

 ing artistic, than for the regular geometrical. We could I 

 not say which plan is the better. I 



3. " All points and unequal-shaped beds ought to be * 

 avoided." True, but leave out the circles and rounded squares, 

 or flattened circles, and every figure besides, in page 214, 

 has its allowance of sharp points. Judged by the absence of 

 sharp points, the plan at page 232, must carry the honours. 



4. There can be no question as to the desirability of all 

 the pathways, if grass, being so made that they can be cut 

 with the mowing-machines, and this is insured by your plan. 

 This is one reason why most scroll patterns, as at page 232, 

 should be on gravel. 



We attach but little importance to the analogy drawn 

 j&om the vertebrEE of animals, and the midrib of leaves, as 

 showing the importance of being able to divide a group of 

 beds into two equal halves. This is desirable, but there is 

 nothing undesirable in being able to divide the group into 

 four equal quarters. This your plan would not permit, but 

 the other would ; and we think your plan would be improved 

 by having the two circles (12) banded round with three 

 clumps as in 13, so as to admit of this quartering. 



We would here advance one rule in laying down a figure, 

 which is something like a necessity to the perfection of the 

 form of the group — namely, that you cannot take out a clump 

 and substitute another of a different shape without destroy- 

 ing the balance and the harmony of the whole. Apply this 

 rule to the central seventeen beds, and see how true it holds. 

 Apply it to one end, 13, 14, 15, 15, and to balance you must 

 make another end like it. Apply it to the two circles (12), 

 and the four rounded squares (16), and what becomes of 

 such a rule, if as rule it be received ? Tou might do without 

 these six figures altogether without injuring in the least 

 the balance of the main group. Tou might make them of 

 any other shape or form, and they would be equally helpless 

 to injure farther than appear as so many excrescences. Let 

 your two circles (12), stand, and put a band round them, as 

 in 13, and we believe your four quarters would be better 

 than two halves ; make the four 16' s, into circles and band 

 them in a similar way, and we question very much whether 

 the effect would not be better still. As it is, we do not see 

 why, so far as perfection in form is concerned, the 12's 

 and 16's should not be changed into each other, or even into 

 such five-sided figures as 6 and 7, &c. The subject is worth 

 ventilating. We showed how the scrolls could be more simply 

 planted. In one word, whatever our separate opinions, we 



may rest assured that those who admire graceful sweeping 

 lines, will admii-e scroll patterns ; and those who admire 

 massive, easily -managed beds of fiowers, will adopt such 

 plans as yours, at page 214. 



As to the Mushroom-bed ; if the soil is dry, and you want 

 Mushrooms soon, water with water of about 75°, and put a 

 little hay over the bed. If the bed is moderately moist 

 beneath, and you are content to wait, we have little doubt 

 you will obtain Mushrooms as the weather, and therefore 

 the cellar, becomes warmer.] . . 



NOTES ON SOME NEW PLANTS AT MR. 



W. BULL'S, CHELSEA. 

 I THOUGHT the other day, that when I noticed some of 

 the novelties in Mr. Bull's establishment I had had enough 

 of new plants to last me some time ; but having heard that 

 the importations which he had expected from abroad had 

 arrived, and that I should find some remarkable things 

 amongst them, I took the opportunity, while in town on 

 other matters, of running over to Chelsea and seeing with 

 my own eyes as far as I could the treasures he had received ; 

 and as far as my poor opinion goes, I am convinced that 

 there are many plants which will be of great interest both 

 in a botanical and horticultural point of view. Many of 

 them were in a condition in which it would be impossible to 

 form a very decided opinion, while others gave evidence of 

 their beauty and singularity. 



I have already alluded to the very interesting variegated 

 Aucubas received by Mr. Bull from the continent, where 

 they were introduced by Dr. Von Siebold ; but he has some 

 gi-een-leaved varieties which will be, I think, equally inter- 

 esting, and which have already received certificates both at 

 the Royal Horticultural and Botanic Societies. Then there 

 I was A. japonica macrophylla, with a light spinach-coloured 

 I green leaf fully 9 inches long by 4J wide ; latifolia, very 

 broad dark green leaf, quite distinct ; and masoula an- 

 gulata, very narrow leaf. The variegated varieties were 

 lancifolia variegata, margined with gold ; mascula ele- 

 gans and mascula elegantissima, broad leaf, yellow blotch ; 

 mascula bicolor, deep yellow centre to leaf; sulphurea, 

 edged with sulphur yellow, the yellow also interspersed in 

 the green ; varia, distinct deep yellow blotch ; mascula 

 picta, also yellow-blotched. These are all distinct, although 

 it may seem that in describing them as yellow-blotched and 

 green there is great sameness ; but any one can at once see 

 the great distinctness that there is in the different varieties, 

 and what a fine feature they wiU by-and-by make in our 

 gardens. 



Of new Camellias there were Prince Camille, fine shaded 

 rose, of exquisite shape, and Comtesse de Gonda, a very 

 pretty light pink flaked with deep crimson, promising to 

 be a very pretty variety. Then there was an older kind- 

 Mrs. Abbey Wilder, a beautiful white, but interesting from 

 the fact that Queen of Beauties is a fixed sport from it. 

 Some of these new varieties of Camellias are quite putting 

 the older ones into the shade. 



Perns — that ever-increasing family whose name now is 

 legion, and some of whose members are ever arriving from 

 different parts of the world — were well represented by Adi- 

 antum robustum, a splendid strong-growing kind of fine 

 foliage ; Lastrea erythrosora, a hardy and pretty species from 

 Japan ; Odontosoria teniiifolia stricta, differing from the 

 normal condition of the plant in having stiff upright foliage ; 

 Ophioglossum palmatum, a very handsome species intro- 

 duced in dried specimens, it is said by one of the best 

 authorities on the subject, two hundred years ago, but of 

 which the only living example is that which Mr. Bull has ; 

 a very beautiful Asplenium called myriophyllum, which will 

 make a companion plant to Todea superba ; and a fine 

 Aspidium, not yet named, from Para. 



Of fine-foliaged plants, suitable, perhaps, for sub-tropical 

 gardening, such as Mr. Gibson has so successfully carried 

 out at Battersea, there were some plants which will make 

 a figure I fancy by-and-by. These were two Solanums of 

 great size, and indeed of great names — one of them, at 

 least, for it was called S. pyracanthum horridum aureum J 

 deep golden-yellow spines ; and Solanum crinitum, of which 

 the leaves were 2 feet long by, in their widest part, the same 



