August 17, 1S76. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE G4BDENER. 



145 



estate. As ia the eighteenth century — at least during its early 

 part — people very absurdly called a man " black " who was 

 only of dark complexion, it is quite conceivable that Londoners 

 called a plot of land black which was purple and dark green 

 bv reason of the plants covering it. Of this land, in 1771, Mr. 

 Holland took a lease and commenced building upon it, though 

 the work proceeded slowly, and large portions of the ground 

 were still in hand at the beginning of this century ; and hence 

 the owner was but too happy to allow some six acres abutting 

 on the then newly-formed Sloane Street to be laid out as a 

 nursery garden. In fact, however, the aims of its originator, 

 as we shall see, went beyond that, and he projected a kind of 

 botanical garden, which was to afford instruction as well as 

 reoreation to the west end of London, so that he deserves 

 honourable mention as a pioneer in a direction where much 

 yet remains to be done, for the study of botany needs further 

 popularisation, and especially is it still insufficiently taught in 

 our middle-class schools. Brewer, in his account of Middle- 

 sex, credits the illustrious botanist William Curtis (well known 

 through his " Botanical Magazine" and other valuable works) 

 with the establishment of the Sloane Street Nursery ; but as 

 he was peaceably interred in Battersea church in the year 

 1799 there must have been a mistake about this, since the 

 nursery dates from 1807. Possibly the soheme may have been 

 spoken of in Mb lifetime, though circumstances postponed it. 

 He and his partner, Mr. Salisbury, had a nursery ground at 

 Brompton or " Little Chelsea," concerning which there is a 

 lack of information, and after Curtis's decease Mr. Salisbury 

 decided to remove to Sloane Street. This was the same Mr. 

 Salisbury who had at one time a fine piece of property at 

 Chapel Allerton in Yorkshire, and who subsequently became 

 possessor of a large garden at Millhill which had been formed 

 by Mr. Collinson. The Sloane Street Nursery having an extent 

 of about six aores — more than double the ground belonging to 

 the older Apothecaries' garden on the bank of the Thames — 

 was regarded as of little le9s importance by the botanists of 

 that day, and indeed it was dignified with the title of ".Bo- 

 tanical Garden." Nor was the epithet unmerited, for on the 

 original plan carried out by Mr. Salisbury the greater number 

 of the hardy and half-hardy plants were arranged in divisions 

 according to the Linnean syBtem, and therefore we may pre- 

 sume also labelled for the benefit, of those persons inspecting 

 them. Botanical lectures were given in the months of May 

 and June, and a library was commenced containing not merely 

 books on botany, but on entomology in addition, and some 

 upon general natural history ; and it does not surprise us to 

 read that entomolegical workj were placed here when we find 

 that amoEgat the frequent visitors to the gardens was A. H. 

 Haworth, the painstaking collector of British and foreign 

 insects, and who is said to have captured the first specimen 

 known of that bee parasite Stylops Melittro at Little Chelsea in 

 1797. Besides his entomological attainments he was no mean 

 botanist, and his " Observations on the Genus Mesembryanthe- 

 mum," his " Synopsis of Sucoulent Plants," his " Revision 

 of the Narcissuses," and his " Enumeration of the Saxifrages," 

 though now to an extent obsolete, bear testimony to his attain- 

 ments. 



Faulkner in his history of Chelsea dwells with much satis- 

 faction upon the delightful promenade these gardens afforded, 

 though at that time the trees must have been comparatively 

 young. One is inclined to doubt his assertion that the walks 

 were so contrived that an individual could walk nearly two 

 miles without having to re-enter a path along which he had 

 already been. The greenhouses and forcing houses were at 

 first few in number, and the practice of forcing plants by hot- 

 beds with dung placed behind walls of boards was followed, 

 though Salisbury's successor advanced beyond this very primi- 

 tive mode. This successor was a Mr. Tate, who was, however, 

 somewhat annoyed by the interference of the inhabitants, who 

 seem not to have admired the scientific element that had been 

 brought in. Greater facilities were given for the use of the 

 ground as a promenade, the name " Botanical Gardens " was 

 dropped, and the interior of the place laid out differently, the 

 Linnean arrangement being superseded. It was in 1820 that 

 Mr. Tate became the occupant of what was now called the Sloane 

 Street Nursery, and from a recent examination I conjecture 

 the disposition of the ground has not been altered muoh for 

 fifty years or so. The outer walks or shrubberies, enclosing 

 open spaces in which flowers, fruit, and vegetables were culti- 

 vated (not many of the latter, apparently, of late years) are 

 still suggestive of Salisbury and Tate. There is an overpower- 

 ing number of Lilacs, Laburnums, and Elms, while the Elder 



and Hawthorn figure here and there, and there are scarcely 

 any of those exotic shrubs and trees now so common in gardens 

 and shrnbberies. In one part I was rather amused to discover 

 a row of English Hazels, to the nut-produciDg power of which 

 London smoke has not been favourable, nor as a rule is this a 

 tree grown for the purpose of affording shade in our nurseries. 

 Of shade there must surely have been almost too much in this 

 nursery ; and though there would bo plenty of that valued 

 article leaf mould (for lack of which it is said the trees in our 

 west-end parks suffer severely), one can fancy the grumbles 

 indulged in by those who had to sweep the walks and clear the 

 beds in autumn. And when there was a rich London fog of 

 the kind the metropolis was more familiar with a score of 

 years ago than at present, thanks to improvements in drainage, 

 the shrubs must have kept it in after it had settled down in 

 the open plots towards the centre of the nursery, a result also 

 aided by the fact that the whole ground sinks below the level 

 of the surrounding thoroughfares. 



As a proof how largely Mr. Tate helped to advance horti- 

 culture by his cultivation of exotics, especially under glass, 

 Mr. Faulkner quotes the names of some of the recent additions 

 to the nursery, when he wrote in 1829. Mr. Bullock had sup- 

 plied Mr. Tate with many Mexican plants collected by himself ; 

 and Mr. Ackerman, who had travelled in South Amerioa, 

 others from that continent. Capt. Paterson contributed to 

 the collection a variety of Chinese species, including several 

 new and choice Azaleas. From Mr. Brown Caylon plants had 

 been sent in, notable amongst which was Barringtonia speciosa. 

 Mr. Staples had procured many rare plants, especially Cacti, 

 and Lady Amherst species from various countries. The col- 

 lection of Orange trees was pretty large, Faulkner says, sur- 

 passing then any other collection in the neighbourhood of 

 London. It was with a peouliar interest that I surveyed some 

 dismally ragged Azaleas now growing here that were struggling 

 against the combined hostility of the dry weather and a swarm 

 of Thistles, for I imagined them to be the descendants of those 

 referred to by Faulkner. 



This nursery, now just closed, had been for many years in 

 the hands of a family of the name of Tuck. Soon after, Eaton 

 with other Belgravian squares began to cover the land called 

 the Five Fields. Mr. Tuck oooupied one of the enclosed six 

 plots in Eaton Square as a nursery garden, at that time the 

 Square beiag far from completion. This was the central plot 

 on the right looking towards Chelsea; but as ere long, with 

 increasing houses, the residents required that the whole space 

 should be given up to their use, the nurseryman had to with- 

 draw — somewhere about the year 1812 I think ; and probably 

 Mr. Tuck's connection with the Sloane Street Nursery dates 

 from that time, though I cannot ascertain the precise period 

 of Mr. Tate's decease or his relinquishment of possession. 

 Some of the buildings would date back thirty years, perhaps 

 erected by Mr. Tuck on his entry ; others are evidently much 

 older. 



It seems a pity that, as at this moment, weeds should be 

 suffered to run riot over the ground, and since official persons 

 must move slowly in improvements, delaying the re-arrange- 

 ment of the place, it would have been as well to have given 

 away the remaining plants, instead of leaving a large per- 

 centage to die of neglect. In such cases it is always curious 

 to note what weeds grow most profusely, and besides Docks 

 and Thistles, I waB Btruck with the abundance of the Dog's 

 Mercury (Mercurialis perennis), and rather astonished to see 

 sundry specimens of one of the native St. John's Worts (Hy- 

 pericum sp.), with such flourishing young plants of Conium 

 maculatum that I thought of attempting to drive a bargain 

 with some of the chemists in the neighbourhood. I should 

 have stated before that there is a tradition to the effect that 

 the American blight was first observed in England upon an 

 Apple tree in this nursery. — C. 



LARGE ROSE FOLIAGE. 



The Bose tree from which the leaf was taken was purchased 

 by me from Mr. B. Smith of Worcester, and is a Mareohal 

 Niel grafted, I believe, on the Manetti. It was in a pot when 

 I received it, and was planted out in the border of my green- 

 house about the latter end of March. About the spot where 

 it was planted existed an old cesspool. I presume that the 

 roots in their search after food have found this out. If this 

 be so it only shows what rich food the Bose will digest. Since 

 it has been planted out in the border it has not blossomed, 

 but it has made an average growth of from 12 to 15 inches 



