216 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



( September 7, 1876. 



tnre was kept at 65° at right. From here we pass into the 

 Peach house, the most conspicuous object being a fine tree of 

 the Yictoiia Nectarine. Here, as everywhere, this fine late 

 sort is much valued. 



We are nest attracted by large ranges of pits. A few of 

 them are span-roofed, but the greater number are lean-to's, 

 constructed for bedding plants, of which about sixty thousand 

 are required. A span-roofed house 50 feet by 12 feet wide has 

 been planted with Melons. There are beds on each side of the 

 centre path, and it is a fine sight to see the fruit hanging from 

 trellises on each side. Unfortunately a disease has taken the 

 plants in the form of canker. It is not unfrequent to see 

 Melons die off with canker at the base of the stem, but here it 

 has spread over the whole plant, and bids fair to spoil as fine a 

 crop of Melons as I ever saw. One plant that had been planted 

 in the Chat Moss peat was later than the others, but quite 

 healthy and free from canker. 



Pines are grown in lean-to houses or pits that have been 

 heated on the Polmaise system ; this, of course, has been 

 altered to the usual hot-water pipes, and it is astonishing how 

 good Pines can be manufactured in such old-fashioned struc- 

 tures. There were some good Queens and a few Jamaicas and 

 Smooth-leaved Cayennes coming on for winter use. 



Figs are also grown in this range, and fairly good frnit is 

 produced; but it is very trying for a gardener who has old- 

 fashioned houses like these to manage to compete with those 

 who have everything done according to the present system of 

 building and heating. My remarks have extended far enough 

 for the present, and a few notes made in taking a walk through 

 the grounds must be kept for another occasion. — J. Douglas. 



OENAMENTAL AND USEFUL TKEE-PLANTING. 



No. 4. 



Of trees adapted for city growth and patient of town smoke, 

 one or two, and those among the best, have been enumerated 

 in the foregoing groups. The Western Plane is familiar to 

 the eye of the most thorough Londoner in most of the squares 

 and in the very heart of the City. It retains its health and 

 grace whether in leaf or leafless. The foliage of the Horse 

 Chestnut, too, takes little hurt from smoke or drought, and as 

 the tree is content with hard soil and scanty root room, it 

 should be welcome in towns, even if it comes short of its finest 

 growth, for its racemes of bloBsom, which might be varied by 

 those of the rose and yellow-flowered species. The Lombardy 

 Poplar which keeps its health and gloss despite of drought and 

 dust, deserveB to be used for avenues and boulevards in the 

 broader streets, and the same may be said of the Quercus 

 faBtigiata, which resembles it. The weeping large-leaved Elm 

 (TJ. montana pendula) has approved its qualifications for a 

 London tree, adapted for the parks and gardens as well as 

 smaller squares. Mr. William Robinson, to whose authority 

 on such a question we attach great importance, refers us to 

 the specimen of this tree on the lawn of the Botanic Gardens. 

 In general, Elms and Limes have no business amidst the 

 smoke and dust. To judge by the same writer's experience of 

 the Robinia inermis, a round-headed variety of the Locust 

 Tree, in the cities of north Italy, it ought to do well in our 

 London parkB and gardens, where its umbelliferous top, deep 

 verdure, and gTateful Bhade, could not fail to create a favour 

 for it. A tapering variety (Robinia pseudacacia stricta) is in 

 habit very like the Lombardy Poplar, and might with advan- 

 tage find its way into our town gardens, which it would enliven 

 by its racemes of white and fragrant blossom. For this merit, 

 in addition to their ample and broad foliage, we suppose that 

 the Ailanthus, Paulownia, and the Catalpa Byringjefolia would 

 be additions to our City parks and squares. The first, if least 

 conspicuous in flower, yields to none in fresh and healthy 

 dust and drought-proof foliage. The second affords an abun- 

 dant shade from a mass of leaves larger than those of any 

 hardy tree, while its fragrant violet flowers in large terminal 

 panicles are as showy as the Foxglove, which they somewhat 

 resemble. Tender in the north, they will thrive in the climate 

 of London, and are very successful in the gardens of Paris. 

 The Catalpa too, not unlike the Paulownia in size of leaf and 

 beauty of flowers, is perfectly hardy about London. Its blossom 

 is white with yellow and purple spots. There is a fine-grown 

 Catalpa at Muswell Hill. The weeping grafted variety of the 

 Sophorajaponicais another flowering tree of graceful habit, the 

 pretty foliage of which has no objection to the heat and drought 

 of towns. Into the urban parks and gardens Mr. Robinson 

 would freely introduce the free-growing Rosacea?, Hawthorns, 



Pears, and Almonds, for their diverse spring bouquets, and 

 which is more worth consideration among trees, the Lirioden- 

 dron tulipifera, a hardy timber tree with large, light-green 

 saddle-shaped foliage, and when it has attained a fair size, a 

 display of cream-coloured Tulip-shaped flowers. It waB an 

 early introduction from North America, and has been known 

 to reach 120 feet. Before quitting this part of our subject, 

 and whilst remembering the difficult problem of unsightly 

 stems of trees in a dying or dead state to be met with in the 

 parks, we may borrow a suggestion from the " Heatherside 

 Manual" to plant at their feet such twining shrubs as the 

 Wistaria, and Aristolochia, andAkebia, by which means many 

 an indifferent trunk or group of trees might become a network 

 of mixed foliage. 



But though deciduous trees are the backbone of our native 

 timber, where would be the setting of our picture of reds and 

 yellows, where the supplement and finish to our gardens, lawns, 

 and even parks, but for such extraneous races as Pines and 

 Firs, Cypresses and Junipers ? Of these the first and second 

 constitute a threefold clan, amongst the members of which 

 none is more worthy of commemoration than the Scots Pine, 

 the sole indigenous species. Its nature is thoroughly hardy ; 

 it thrives, as indeed do many others of its race, on the poorest 

 soil and the scantiest, its roots penetrating through debris and 

 fissures of rock, and its growth assisted most by free air and 

 a sandy gravel. Some of the Pines no doubt require more 

 shelter and a lower altitude than others, but the soil they 

 appreciate most is one assimilated to that of their native 

 habitats, where at least the accidental top-dressings are accu- 

 mulations of debris and vegetable matter, and not rich manure 

 such as cultivation and solicitude might suggest for them. It 

 is probable that nothing improves the Conifers of our gardens 

 and home-precincts so much as an occasional cartload of road 

 scrapings. What the Scots Pine is in its native forests Mr. 

 Grigor tells us in his description of Glenmore Forest, one of 

 the largest trees in which was cut up and a deal from its 

 centre presented to the Dake of Gordon by the ship-builder 

 who bought it. The annual layers of wood, according to 

 Grigor's " Arboriculture," from its centre to each side number 

 235, indicating that number of years. The surface of this forest 

 is sandy peat, its subsoil a rich brown clay. The produce of 

 it built forty-seven sail of ships for the Royal Navy and the 

 East India Company. But amongst southerners it is no mean 

 tree in point of beauty or usefulness. Note its fantastic shapes, 

 its dark red stem, its warm bluish-green foliage, as in winter 

 or summer it stands out into the sky in contrast to the de- 

 ciduous trees around it. No tree for the picturesque can beat 

 a pair of Scotch Firs, or even a single one. Wordsworth, 

 Mr. Grigor tells ub, preferred it to the Oak in winter, in moon- 

 light, and at evening. Next to it in hardihood is the Austrian 

 Pine introduced by Mr. Lawson in 1835 from the Styrian 

 forests, but now thoroughly naturalised and appreciated in 

 Great Britain. It is a quick grower, of dark green glossy 

 foliage, and strong stiff leaves with a pricked point. It makes 

 an excellent shelter, and bids fair to make a noble and orna- 

 mental tree, as in its own country it reaches 150 feet. A good 

 contrast to its dark foliage might be found in the clear trans- 

 parent green of the P. pyrenaica, which waa brought about 

 the same date from the highest mountain range betwixt France 

 and Spain, and is of noble aspect, odorous bark, and quick 

 growth. There is one at Dropmore 75 feet high, and it is said 

 to grow above 80 feet. From the "Forester," however, we 

 gather that it iB more for ornament than use, and that though 

 used for the decks of Spanish ships, it is inferior to many of 

 our naturalised Pines as timber. The Coreican Pine, P. Laricio, 

 is of far greater value as one of the most sound and rapid- 

 growing of Conifers, of great hardihood, and a capacity of 

 reaching 120 feet. It has attained to upwards of 70 feet at 

 Dropmore. Nor is it less ornamental than useful, having a 

 distinct pyramidal habit from the horizontal spread of its 

 whorls of branches, and the loose wavy Bpread of its dark 

 bright-green leaves. The Calabrian Pine is not unlike it, only 

 with longer and more slender foliage. The Cluster Pine (Pinus 

 Pinaster), introduced by Gerard from the south of Europe in 

 1596, is also a rather handsome tree, rugged and massive when 

 seen alone, as at Fulham Palace, 80 feet in height and 12 in 

 girth. But its prime use ia with the Norway Maple, to screen 

 plantations on the seacoast, in which respect it has assisted 

 Norfolk to emulate the coast of Gascony in the recovery of 

 sandy tracts. As timber it is of slight account; and herein, 

 as in its deep green foliage and depth of root, it resembles 

 the Stone Pine (P. Pinea), though differing from it in being far 



