May 12, 1863. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



343 



late Mr. Gaines, finding he was so surrounded with new buildings 

 that specimens could not be successfully grown for exhibition, 

 turned his attention to cultivate almost entirely for market. 

 Thus we found the class of plants very different to what we 

 should have seen sixteen years since. — E. Bennett, Osberton. 



NEW BOOK. 



A Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of the Grape Vine. By 

 William Thomson, Gardener to his Grace the Duke of Buc- 

 cleuch, Dalkeith Park. Third Edition. Blackwood & Sons, 

 Edinburgh and London. 

 It is sufficient to say of this admirable work that it has 



already reached a third edition, and in this edition the author 



has made such alterations and additions as another season has 



added to his already large stock of experience. 



PORTRAITS OF PLANTS, FLOWERS, AND 

 FRUITS. 



Alocasia Lown (Mr. Low's Alocasia). — Nat. ord., Aroideae. 

 Linn., Monoacia Monandria. Introduced from Borneo by 

 Messrs. Low & Son, Clapton Nursery. Flowered in a stove 

 during January. Chiefly decorative by its strikingly white 

 ribbed leaves, rendering it " unquestionably one of the most 

 desirable of the Alocasias for cultivation." — {Botanical Mag., 

 t. 5376.) 



Saxlfbaga Foetunei (Mr. Fortune's Saxifrage) . — Introduced 

 from Japan by Mr. Fortune, and cultivated at Mr. Standish's 

 Nursery, Bagshot. Flowers white. — (Ibid., t. 5377). 



TLejianthus natalensis (Natal Heemanthus). — Nat. ord., 

 Amaryllidacese. Linn., Hexandria Monogynia. " A charming 

 greenhouse plant," discovered by the late Dr. Pappe, at Natal, 

 and blossoming in the Cape-bulb house at Kew in February. 

 Bracts rich crimson-purple ; stamens and styles bright orange, 

 sheathing scales beautifully coloured and dotted with crimson. 

 —(Ibid., t. 5378.) 



Scilla natalensis (Natal Squill). — Tsat. ord., Liliacese. 

 Linn., Hexandria Monogynia. Introduced by M. Van Houtte, 

 from Natal. Pedicels of the same soft pale blue as the corollas. 

 —(Ibid., t. 5379.) 



Hetekoteopa pabtifloba (Small-flowered Heterotrope). — 

 Nat. ord., Aristolochieoe. Linn., Gynandria Dodecandria. Sent 

 from Japan by H. E. Hoey, Esq. Flowers purple edged with 

 green. Leaves dark greeD, marbled in the centre with a lighter 

 green.— (Ibid., t. 5380.) 



Ihantophyllum miniatttit. (Orange-coloured Imantophyl- 

 lum). — Nat. ord., Amaryllidaceas. Linn., Hexandria Monogynia. 

 Sent to this country from Natal by Mr. J. Backhouse, of York. 

 Flowers orange, but white and lemon-coloured inside at the base. 

 Desirable and easily cultivated. — (Floral Magazine, pi. 145.) 



Rose, FbancOis Lachaeiie. — A French-raised flower intro- 

 duced by Mr. Turner, Slough Nursery. " One of the finest 

 flowers of last year," being " a dark Jules Margottin." — (Ibid., 

 pi. 146.) 



Camellia, Dt/cb-esse de Beeei. — " Certainly the finest of 

 the white Camellias grown." — (Ibid., pi. 14-7.) 



Pelaegoniuhs. — Seedlings raised at Clewer Manor. Improve- 

 ment, lower petals rich purple ; upper petals maroon-blotched 

 with purple margin. Censor, crimson purple. Souvenir has 

 " richly-painted crimson and black lower petals, black top and 

 bright margin." — (Ibid., pi. 148.) 



Delphinium alopecueoides. — A double variety of Larkspur, 

 raised by Mr. Wheeler, of Warminster, who " called it alo- 

 pecuroides, doubtless from the close brush-like form of the 

 principal part of the spike." It is very hardy, and propagated 

 by division, as it never produces seed. — (Florist and Nomologist, 

 ii., 57.) 



Peak, Noutelle Fultie. — " Admirably pourtrayed by Mrs. 

 Dix." It was raised by M. Gregoire, of Jodoigne. A melting, 

 finely perfumed, and richly flavoured Pear. Ripe in January 

 and February. — (Ibid., 64.) 



FOUNTAINS. 

 By H. Noel Hr/jrpHEEYS, Esq. 

 The most highly wrought effects produced in garden archi- 

 tecture have been those effected by means of fountains ; of this, 



the well-known gardenesque waterworks of Versailles and St. 

 Cloud are sufficient evidence. 



Sir Uvedale Price says : — "With respect to fountains and 

 statues, as they are among the most refined of all garden orna- 

 ments, so are they the most liable to be introduced with impro- 

 priety. The effect, however (especially that of water mixed with 

 sculpture), is ot the most brilliant kind. Some have asserted 

 that fountains are unnatural; but natural jets d'eav, though rare, 

 do exist, and are among the most surprising exhibitions of 

 nature, which, in Iceland and other volcanic regions, have struck 

 the traveller with wonder. 



But though we find natural fountains in the wildest scenes of 

 nature, it is not, however, necessary, in making artistic use of a 

 natural law that produces a jet d'eav, to surround the artificial 

 jet with the circumstances that surround it in nature, any more 

 than it is necessary that the architect, in building with stone, 

 should imitate in his work the rude form of the quarry from 

 which it was taken. On the contrary, as fountains produce 

 the best effect near buildings, and in combination with statuary, 

 architects and sculptors like Bernini, says Sir U. Price, would 

 not think of inquiring what were the precise forms of natural 

 waterspouts ; but knowing that water forced into the air must 

 necessarily assume a great variety of beautiful effects, which, 

 added to its native clearness and brilliancy, would admirably 

 accord with the forms and colours of statues and architecture, 

 would use it accordingly. 



Nature and art are more closely allied than appears at a first 

 glance ; for all art is founded upon the development of some 

 natural law, which Shakespeare perceived when he makes Po- 

 lixenes, in the " Winter's Tale," say 



" This is an art 

 "Whiih does mend nature — change it, rather : hut 

 The art is nature's self." 



Under ordinary circumstances, the scenic features that sur- 

 round garden fountains are such that the impression one receives 

 on seeing water forced into the air is, that art has been employed 

 to produce the effect : therefore, while still water finds its more 

 appropriate locality in the lower portion of the grounds, foun- 

 tains may be more properly placed in the higher levels of a 

 garden, as their evidently artificial character seems to find it3 

 appropriate situation in a position where water would be highly 

 desirable and ornamental, but where it could only be brought 

 by scientific and artistic means. Here, then, the display of art, 

 even to a degree of ostentation, becomes legitimate ; and foun- 

 tains of elaborate character and complicated architectural design 

 find their most imposing station at the extremities, or centres, 

 of elevated terraces, and places of similar character, where the 

 gardenesque and semi-architectural character of the surrounding 

 scene, is all in artistic harmony with them. 



Very few good fountains have been as yet constructed in Eng- 

 land ; the two in Trafalgar Square — which our national Charivari 

 (Punch), very aptly and cleverly compared to " two saucers sur- 

 mounted by a bottle of ginger beer " — being signal failures ; 

 and the one erected at Brighton, though on a more ambitious 

 scale, almost equally unsuccessful. Into the region of " art," in 

 the treatment of fountains, we have not yet penetrated ; but in 

 simpler forms of fountains — that of a simple jet issuing at once 

 from the level of the main water — greater success has been 

 attained, as mere " dimension " is the great quality in this un- 

 adorned natural effect. The scale is, in fact, everything ; and 

 so far, the jet at Chatsworth is highly successful — indeed, mag- 

 nificent ; but all the other attempts at fountain-work, all the 

 minor squirtings, including the two celebrated " water-trees," are 

 beneath notice; and still more worthless, in point of art, are all 

 the fantastic failures called fountains at Alton Towers. 



Modern Italy is the classic land of fountains. Long before 

 Le Notre and his cotemporaries and eollaborateurs constructed 

 the celebrated waterworks of Versailles, the magnificent fountains 

 of the Villa d'Este, and those of the Villa Aldobrandini, were 

 well known and justly celebrated works, especially the building 

 called the " Saloon of the Winds," where water is made to pro- 

 duce rushing sounds characteristic of the four winds, the per- 

 sonifying deities of which form sculptural groups, among vrhich 

 the play of waters has a very grand effect. Still more elaborate 

 is the work of Giacomo della Porta, the celebrated Mount Par- 

 nassus, with the deities playing on different musical instruments, 

 the sounds of which are imitated by the water in a manner, 

 which, if not entirely successful, is yet sufficiently approaching 

 the desired effect to be very astonishing. These wonders of the 

 villas of the Sabine Hills, in the region of Tivoli and Frascati, 



