114 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ August 8, 1878. 
various reductions as time went on) there was a residence 
Park House, near Prince’s Gate, only removed in 1856, to 
which was attached a small section of the domain. In an 
ancient house on this estate was born Philip Percival in 1603, 
tthe friend of John Pym; and the Percivals owned Brompton 
Park till near the end of the reign of Charles II. Originally 
‘containing possibly 100 acres, it was divided, and the larger 
half, about 67 acres, was formed into a nursery garden in 1680 
-or $1 by a firm styling itself Lukar, Field, Cooke, & London. 
Lukar was gardener to the Queen Dowager at Somerset House 
in the Strand ; Field held a similar situation with the Earl of 
Bedford at Bedford House, also in the Strand ; Cooke was 
gardener to the Earl of Essex at Cashiobury ; and London* to 
Bishop Compton at Fulham. As the first establishment of 
any pretensions, if not actually the first London nursery, 
much interest centred in it, and it was frequently visited by 
gardeners as well as botanists. The two senior partners died 
about 1686, and in 1689 Cooke disposed of his share to Henry 
Wise, and the firm became London & Wise. Wise had chiefly 
to do with the laying-out of Hampton Court, and the partners 
were employed in the planting of Kensington Gardens. During 
“the winter for some years it was usual to remove choice plants 
from Kensington Palace to their nursery. A literary fruit of 
their association was an English version of a French book, “ The 
Complete Gardener,” which Messrs. London & Wise, published 
in 1701. 
The learned and somewhat prosy author of “Sylva,” John 
Evelyn—who did, however, undoubtedly feel a genuine satisfac- 
tion in all that tended to promote the advancement of botanical 
science—displays unwonted enthusiasm in his description of 
Brompton Park Nursery. One sentence of his, in reference to 
a visit he made to the establishment, I must quote, as a curious 
‘specimen of intricate English. His style is very different from 
the curt expressive manner that another noted man of that 
day, Samuel Pepys, adopted in putting down his jottings. He 
‘observes :—‘‘ Of all I have hitherto seen, either at home or 
abroad, or found by reading many books published on the sub- 
‘ject, pretending to speak of nurseries and plantations for store 
and variety, directions for the designing as they term it, the 
skilful making, plotting, laying-out, and disposing of a ground 
‘to the best advantage—in a word, for whatever were desirable 
for the furniture of such a ground with the most excellent and 
warrantable fruit, I say warrantable because it is peculiarly 
due to their honest industry and so rarely to be met with else- 
~where, and other accessories to gardens of all denominations as 
in that vast ample collection which I have lately seen and well 
‘considered at Brompton Park.” Then he proceeds still further 
to commend Messrs. London & Wise, who in reading their 
eulogium must surely have been amused at the confused sen- 
tence by which it was introduced; and he further adds that 
“they have a large and noble assembly of the flowering and 
‘other trees, perennial and variegated evergreens and shrubs 
fittest for our climate, and understand what best to plant the 
humbler boscage, wilderness, or taller groves with—for which 
purpose, and for walks or avenues, they have store of Elms, 
Limes, Platans, Constantinople Chestnuts, and Black Cherry 
trees!” Then in a bit of slang, which he had picked up in 
‘nis studies of French books, Evelyn further praises these 
gardeners for their management of the “ potagere, meloniere, 
‘and culinarie’’ domain. The fame of the nursery steadily 
increased, for Bowack, writing of it in 1705, remarks that the 
“proprietors sent plants and trees tonoblemen and gentlemen in 
every part of England. “It hasbeen affirmed,” sayshe, “that 
af the plants in it were valued at but ld. a piece they would 
‘amount to above £40,000.” As £1 contains 240 pennies the 
sum here stated would represent nearly ten millions of plants, 
‘evidencing the romantic character of the estimate. The 
‘plants, moreover, might well have been taken at a higher sum 
at a rough guess—say even ls. each, excluding seedlings. 
Apart from such conjectures there is abundant evidence of 
‘the large business carried on by this establishment both in the 
eighteenth and in the first half of the nineteenth century. 
‘This was not confined to Britain, for many plants were sent to 
the Continent from Brompton Park ; but as London grew other 
nurseries sprang up, and to some extent affected the older 
nursery, which was, owing to the number of persons it 
employed, not merely a plant nursery—it was also a training 
place for gardeners. An injurious influence was exercised 
upon some of the plants by the growth of the metropolis, but 
the land attached to the nursery did not undergo great diminu- 
* A fullaceount of the life of this remarkable man will be found in vol. xx. 
page 195. 
tion until after the reign of George ITI., for according to Faulk- 
ner, when he wrote in 1820, Brompton Park Nursery contained 
56 acres, at which it remained at the period when this and 
adjacent properties were purchased by the Commissioners of 
the Exhibition of 1851.—C. 
TREE-PLANTING IN WASHINGTON. 
In the American Agriculturist Mr. Peter Henderson pays a 
merited tribute to the skill, taste, and judgment of Messrs. 
William Saunders of the Experimental Garden of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, William R. Smith of the Botanic Gardens, 
and John Saul, the nurseryman and florist, who compose the 
“Parking Commission,” and whose work in planting the fine 
avenues and streets of the City of Washington with handsome 
and appropriate trees has produced, as he says, results that 
probably no other city can equal. ‘ 1 
Already 40,000 trees have been planted, some thirty kinds 
being used, the bulk, however, being of ten kinds. These, 
named in the order they are valued by the Commission, are the 
following :—Silver or White Maple (Acer dasycarpum), then 
American Linden (Tilia americana), American Elm (Ulmus 
americana), Scarlet Maple (Acer rubrum), Box Elder (Negundo 
aceroides), Sugar Maple (Acer saccharinum), American White 
Ash (Fraxinus americana), English Sycamore (Acer Pseudo- 
Platanus), English Button Ball (Platanus occidentalis), Tulip 
Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), Honey Locust (Gleditschia 
triacanthos), and Norway Maple (Acer platanoides). 
These and the other sorts are set 20 to 25 feet apart, and 
there are miles and miles of streets in which not one dead or 
diseased tree can be seen, which shows that the planting must 
have been done in the best possible manner. The trees were 
transplanted as the first necessity : and the Commissioners, fre- 
quently receiving from distant parts trees which were not in a 
satisfactory condition as to their roots, planted them out in their 
own grounds one season before risking them in the streets. 
The trees when planted averaged 1} inch in diaraeter and 
12 feet in height. The hole for the roots is dug about 5 feet 
across and 2 feet deep. When the natural soil is unsuitable 
good soil is brought fromelsewhere. Every tree when planted 
is surrounded by a plain but substantial sparred tree guard 
6 feet high, which serves the double purpose of protecting the 
tree from injury by cattle, &c., and of shading the stem from 
the sun—an important precaution, since trees grown in masses, 
either in nursery or forest, shade each other and suffer greatly 
when remoyed and exposed singly to the blazing sun. The 
great success in planting the avenues at Washington is no 
doubt due to the persistent use of this precaution, which is 
never omitted. 
When this work, which has been going on for five years, is 
complete, one may then drive for two hundred miles through 
the broad and ample shaded avenues of the American capital, 
and imagine they are passing along the rides of a great park, 
—(Journal of Forestry.) 
WORK FOR THE WEEK. 
KITCHEN GARDEN. 
Sow the principal crop of Tripoli Onions and Winter Spinach, 
sowing the latter in rows 15 inches to 18 inches apart, and about 
an inch deep. Cabbage for the main crop ought to be sown. 
Enfield Market, Hill’s Dwarf Incomparable, Nonpareil Improved, 
Wheeler’s Imperial, Heartwell Early Marrow, and Battersea or 
Fulham, are all excellent; for small gardens, or for taking up 
little space, Little Pixie and Atkins’ Matchless are of superior 
quality, and may be planted a foot apart. Red Dutch is the best 
sort for pickling. A sowing of Lettuce should be made for winter 
or early spring use. The best sorts for this sowing are Early 
Paris Market for lifting into frames in autumn; Hicks’s Hardy 
White and Brownor Black-seeded Bath Cos; Stanstead Park and 
Lee’s Immense Hardy Green in Cabbage varieties. Make a last 
sowing of Turnips. White Stone or Six-weeks, Golden Ball, and 
Chirk Castle Black Stone, are all good keepers and of excellent 
quality. Continue sowing Radishes as required, and the sorts for 
winter use—viz., Black Spanish, China Rose, and Californian 
Mammoth; they must be afforded rich light soil and an open 
situation. Carrots sown at this time are often useful in spring. 
Select Harly Nantes, which is excellent, and James’s Intermediate 
Scarlet for this sowing; sowing the first in drills about 6 inches 
apart, and the last 10 inches, choosing a sheltered situation and 
soil of a friable nature, affording a liberal dressing of soot or 
wood ashes with a view to check wireworms and grubs. ° 
Complete as soon as possible the planting of Broccoli and 
Greens of every description for spring use, also Cauliflower and 
