January 20, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OE HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



51 



angular. This refuse stone, being all about one size, formed an 

 excellent surfacing to a walk, the wliite clean colour adding to its 

 general appearance. I believe similar broken or crushed atone 

 is to be had where mining of other kinds is going on ; and where 

 machinery exists for the purpose of crushing such stones it 

 could easily be made to perform the same office to some kind 

 that was well adapted to walk-making. The chippings of a 

 stonemason's yard are also often worked-in ; and I have more 

 than once made a tolerably good walk of what might be re- 

 garded as little else than rubbish, some of the stones being as 

 large as a man's head, intermingled with mortar sittings, chip- 

 pings of brisk, Btone, and fragments of anything else, with a 

 fair proportion of dirt, shavings, and straw. The two last- 

 named articles, however, were, in a great measure, taken out. 

 This heterogeneous mass was wheeled into a walk, the foun- 

 dation of which was deep enough to receive and bury the largest 

 stones ; and, beginning at one end, every time a couple of barrow- 

 loads were tipped against the preoeding mass, the large stones 

 were raked to the front, so that nothing was left in the depth 

 ■of the rakes' teeth but such fine matter as would pass through 

 the teeth. A good rolling, traffic, and heavy rain, consolidated 

 ■the mass into a very good walk — certainly not equal to the best- 

 made gravel walk, but good and firm. The same mode of pro- 

 ceeding may be applied to other substances as well, nothing 

 making a more compact walk than plenty of mortar rubbish 

 mixed with the other material. The walk alluded to above 

 had a little of this admixture, as well as the other things 

 mentioned. A very good and pretty walk may be formed some- 

 times of waste soft bricks crushed-up. Such as are unfit for 

 building purposes, and break easily, may be used in this way, as 

 likewise may all old or waste bricks, and, in fact, almost any- 

 thing of sufficient hardness to hold together ; slaty substances, 

 however, not being good. Stone-shatter, and stone of all kinds, 

 may be used for the bottom. Some kinds, however, are better 

 than others, as will be shown hereafter. 

 _ Walks of Gbavel. — This is unquestionably the most legi- 

 timate and best of all materials, and, being tolerably widely 

 spread, is available in most places. It differs, however, much 

 in quality ; and notwithstanding all that has been said in its 

 favour, the best kinds have their faults. The great secret in a 

 good gravel walk is plenty of traffic upon it : certainly not the 

 continual wheeling of barrows all in one place, but a well-spread 

 company of pedestrians — such, for instance, as those who use 

 and consolidate the park walks in London and elsewhere. It 

 is not fair to attribute the smoothness of these thoroughfares 

 entirely to the gravel they are made of, for it is the multitudes 

 which daily pass over them that make them so firm ; and it is 

 hopeless to expect the same appearance in a walk which, perhaps, 

 does not number more than twenty pedestrians along it per 

 day ; frequent rolling may do much to consolidate it, but it can 

 hardly be expected to compete with the other. There are also 

 different kinds of gravel; the best for ordinary purposes in 

 private places being somewhat porous, and consequently liable 

 to loosen a little in dry weather. This must not be com- 

 plained of too much, as the opposite kind, which sets almost as 

 hard as cement in summer, is also impervious to rain, and con- 

 sequently objectionable. A medium kind is of course best. 

 The difference in the two kinds named, consists in the fine 

 substance which intermixes with the stony particles ; if this 

 is a sharp sand the gravel is of course porous, and becomes 

 firmest in wet weather. If it is a loamy clay, which very often 

 prevails when the gravel is rounded like eggs and marbles, then 

 it sets very hard in dry weather ; but when small portions are 

 broken-up it sets badly again, until the mass is also broken. 

 The loamy substance also sticks to the feet after rain, until, by 

 continued rains, it becomes consolidated between the stones, 

 and the latter stick up like a miniature pavement, the sole of 

 the pedestrian only bearing on the top of the stones, much the 

 same as in the pebble-paved walks previously alluded to. It, 

 however, seldom happens that there is any choice in gravel, 

 circumstances determining beyond a question the kind to be 

 used. The best, therefore, must be made of the kind at hand ; if 

 it is too stony, part of the stones may be taken out ; if too fine, 

 some of the sand or fine loam may be sifted and removed. The 

 quantity of really good gravel required in making a walk is not 

 bo large as might be expected ; the bottom and even part of 

 the top may be of an inferior kind, the surface only being good. 

 Every one knows the colour in general estimation, but there 

 are other colours as well. Local circumstances, however, always 

 determine this. A kind of spar gravel I have seen in North 



Staffordshire and also in Derbyshire is very good ; and perhaps 

 the kind that is the least of all agreeable, especially to the feet, 

 is that found on the seashore. Where this kind is used it 

 ought not to be larger than beans or peas ; and the large kind 

 sets badly for carriage roads and similar purposes, although 

 often used for such, there being so little adhesion in the round 

 marble and egg-shaped pebbles which constitute the bulk of 

 seashore stones or gravels. 



Ashes of Vabiotjs Kinds fob Walks. — There is great 

 diversity in these. A sort of red furnace ash or cinder makes 

 perhaps a better walk than any kind of gravel, worms and weeds 

 both disliking it. Unfortunately, it is not to be had excepting 

 in a few places ; but the refuse ash and clinkers of many factory 

 works may be advantageously used for walks, the great advan- 

 tage being their porosity, and at the same time they often set 

 well, and wear as smooth as the best substance that can be had. 

 The colour may be too sombre for some places, but for secondary 

 walks they are invaluable ; and, as before stated, worms seldom 

 meddle with this description of walk. Sometimes the pernicious 

 substances with which such ashes are mixed are distasteful to 

 weeds : thus the ash from soda, copperas, different alkalies, and 

 other chemical substances manufactured in certain places are 

 more or less poisonous to vegetation, though rarely hurtful to 

 the roots of trees or shrubs that may be underneath. 



Substances Used fob Subfacing Walks. — Where the ma- 

 terial a walk is mostly composed of is not of an agreeable colour 

 or quality, it is not unusual to give it a top-dressing with some- 

 thing better. In some districts, a fine white spar gravel is to 

 be had by washing and sifting, and in others white shells from 

 the seacoast are used for this purpose ; the latter, when resting 

 on a foundation of brown gravel or sand, presenting a sort of 

 creamy grey colour, clean and agreeable-looking after rain, and 

 eaBy to walk upon. The spar gravel is also equally pretty, and 

 many other substances are likewise used at times, more especi- 

 ally to give colour, in some gardens, to the polychrome features 

 recently become so fashionable, as brickdust or chippings, both 

 buff and red, small coals, and broken-up glass or chinaware. 

 The many substances which may be worked into a walk are so 

 numerous, that it can hardly be expected of any one individual 

 to mention them ; but they will readily present themselves to 

 those who notice what is going on around them. — J. RoBSON. 

 (To be continued.) 



THE GOOD-GEACIOTJS PANSY. 



I BEG space for a short, but not unimportant, remonstrance. 

 In page 26, describing Mr. Beaton's Double Pansy, which 

 seems likely to have a great demand, you give its name as 

 "Good-Gracious," by which you "trust it will become gene- 

 rally known." Indeed, I trust it will not. To some, nay, I 

 hope to very many, of your readers, such an appellation jars 

 painfully upon the moral sense, as something excessively near 

 a transgression of the third commandment of God's holy 

 law. Is not this the appellation of the blessed God ? What is 

 the essential difference between saying, " Good gracious ! " and 

 " Good God ! " ? Are not both equally the common invo- 

 cations heard fWta 'the lips of the profane? Let us not be 

 repelled from the love of flowers by profanity. 



It does not appear that Mr. Beaton himself has invented this 

 unseemly name ; and from what I judge of his character from his 

 writings, I hope he will repudiate it, and protest against it. 



Expressing what I am sure will be the thought of hundreds, I 

 will not conceal my responsibility under a pseudonym, but 

 subscribe myself— 1 !'. H. Gosse, Torquay. 



[We coincide with our correspondent's dislike of the name, and 

 have to explain that when the words " by which appellation we 

 trust it will become generally known " were written, we had 

 received the Pansy under the name of " Princess Alexandra;" and 

 that just as the Journal of laBt Tuesday was going to press, 

 and after the sheets had passed from our hands, Messrs. Carter 

 and Co. sent requesting that the name might be changed. Messrs. 

 Carter are responsible for the change. Neither the Editors nor 

 Mr. Beaton knew of the alteration until subsequently. — Eds. 

 J. of H.] 



TOETOISES BREEDING IN ENGLAND. 



A female land tortoise was brought from the West Indies 

 and was given to the mother of Mrs. Williams upwards of fifty 

 years ago, it was then about the size of a watch. 



