September 28, 1871. ] 



JOUBNAL OF HORTICULTDKE AND COTTAGE GAEDENBB. 



237 



eessant heavy rain. The consequence waa that the more deli- 

 cate Tricolor and Bioolor Geraniums 'were perished, and went 

 back every day. Imperattioe Eugenie, Crown Prince, Gold- 

 finder, Bullion, Safrano, and Duke of Edinburgh grew small 

 by degrees and beautifully less, till they reached the vanishing 

 point. The only new varieties I had that did really well were 

 Waltham Bronze and Princess Louise ; these I think remark- 

 ably beautiful. So, though to a less degree, is Plntus. I never 

 saw B. G. Henderson and Her Majesty do so well. They 

 coloured most beautifully, altogether eclipsing their perform- 

 ances last summer ; Beauty of Calderdale, also, and Kentish 

 Hero were first-rate. The Tricolors were all dull with me till 

 the end of August, when they improved. I find no kinds at 

 all comparable to Lady Galium and Sophia DamareBcjue. I do 

 not think Mrs. Pollock, Louisa Smith, Sophia Cusack, or Sun- 

 set worth growing, at least not in this soil and climate. 



Now about Geraniums grown for their bloom. In such a 

 season none but those with stout petals had a chance. The 

 much-vaunted Violet Hill was nowhere ; much the same may 

 be said of the two Wilsii's, both very pretty in a good summer. 

 I had many new kinds on trial this year, and I unhesitatingly 

 endorse Mr. Thomson's award last year, and give the palm to 

 Vesuvius. It is wonderfully good. I know no bedding Gera- 

 nium which gives so much bloom on the same surface. I 

 suspect the nurserymen do not like it, because it does not give 

 them enough wood to. propagate a great stock quickly ; they 

 condemn its colour for not being intense enough. It is a light, 

 but a most glowing scarlet, and looking from some distance on 

 a bed with about twenty different kinds on trial in it, you 

 could pick out Vesuvius as the most brilliant spot by far. 

 Omega does not bloom so freely. Charley Casbon is not so 

 good a flower, and is looser in its truss, and more easily 

 knocked about. Memnon is, I think, very good indeed, and a 

 useful colour ; so is Geant des Batailles. I think very highly 

 of the colour of Claude Lorraine, a very purplish shade of 

 crimson, with a flush of vermilion on some of the petals, but 

 it goes too much to leaf and wood. In a dry season I daresay 

 it would do much better, or perhaps if sunk in its pot. Jean 

 Sisley I have not, and, I have only seen it as a very small 

 plant fresh from the nursery. It has a high character, but I 

 should fancy that it resembles Charley Casbon in the flaccidity 

 of its petals. 



Will Mr. Thomson be kind enough to give us a comfortable 

 article from Drumlanrig, and tell us his experiences of the 

 year, and whether Vesuvius is his last as well as his first love ? 



Double Geraniums are of no use whatever here as bedders, 

 and so I pass on to other things. 



In Tom Thumb Ageratum we have a treasure — an invalu- 

 able colour, low-growing, early blowing. I hope to have nest 

 year two match beds of Vesuvius edged with this. Imperial 

 Blue Pansy has not done so well with me this season as it did 

 last year. I suspect there is something in its bed that it does 

 not like. Still, as it is in fair blow now, and began its work in 

 March, it must be acknowledged as first-rate. 



I think I never saw Iresine Herbstii such a good colour all 

 through the season. Iresine Lindeni has also done well. 

 Colens Verschaffelti will not do with me; it merely exists. 

 This is curious, for I know places fifteen miles farther north, 

 where there are beautiful beds of it this year — beautiful, 

 though not equal in hue to other years. Still it has grown 

 ■luxuriantly there, while with me, in a sunny situation, it is 

 stunted and brown. 



I excessively admire Abutilon Thompsoni, but I wish some 

 one who has used it extensively and successfully would tell the 

 exact way to manage it, as it is apt to be scraggy. It has a 

 vein of delicacy in it, and requires a genial situation. 



By far the best bedding-out in this part of the country is at 

 Lougherew, the seat of Mr. Naper, where, in spite of a very 

 cold climate, the genius of Mr. Burns, the very clever gardener, 

 produces wonders. Well, there are two beds there, each with 

 a centre of Abutilon edged with Lord Palmerston Geranium. 

 These beds are not 6 yards from each other, and yet in one 

 bed, and that one, too, which received by far the strongest 

 plants at bedding-out time, the Abutilon is scarcely more than 

 half the size it attains in the other, simply because it is not 

 quite BO well sheltered from the north-east. Some other time 

 I should like, if you allow me space, to enter more into detail 

 about the gardens at Lougherew. [You shall have all the 

 space you need. — Ens.] 



I must, before I conclude, say that I find no Aster so satis- 

 factory a bedder as the Victoria. It has so strong and vigorous 

 a stem, that it resists rain and wind better than any other 



variety. I have a bed now in bloom which has been a thing of 

 beauty for six weeks, and as yet shows no sign of decrepitude, 

 while a match bed of Pjeony Asters went to smash entirely in 

 the wretched weather we had three weeks ago. I should like a 

 centre of Victoria Aster, a broad band of Abutilon, and au 

 edging of Iresine Lindeni.— Q. Q. 



HYDE PARK. 



Old George Stephenson being asked, " What is coal ? " an- 

 swered, " Just a bottled-up sunbeam." And the researches of 

 more scientific investigators, but not more practical men, have 

 confirmed the truth of the great, original-minded engineer's 

 definition — have proved that the amount of heat required for 

 a plant's growth is exactly proportioned to that which it will 

 yield on the combustion or decay of it and its products. 

 " The bottled-up sunbeam " is one of the main features of the 

 system pursued by Mr. Gibson with such grand effects when 

 he was at Battersea Park — the system of planting-out natives 

 of warmer climates than our own that they may grow and 

 flourish during our summer and autumn, and afiord a relief 

 from the excess of colour which so often renders modern flower 

 gardens painful to the eye. With the view of securing a greater 

 amount of heat in the ground, the beds intended for plants 

 from warm parts of the globe are placed in a sheltered position^ 

 and so that the sun may warm one or other of the sides through- 

 out the day. A site larger than the proposed bed is dug out 

 9 inches below the general level, and 18 inches or more of brick- 

 bats are placed at the bottom and round the sides, which are 

 made with a slope towards the sun. Over the brickbats turf 

 is laid grass-side downwards at the bottom, the compost is 

 filled in, and the outsides covered with a thin layer of soil 

 and turf. By these means it is conceived that a considerable 

 amount of jaeat is stored up in the brickbats and soil of the 

 beds during warm days, and that this accumulated heat prevents 

 the soil becoming so much cooled at night and during cold 

 weather as it would otherwise be. Good drainage is likewise 

 secured, and on the advantages of this in preventing the soil 

 becoming soured, and the roots inactive from stagnant water,, 

 it is unnecessary to dwell. Moreover, good drainage of itself 

 contributes to an increase of heat in the soil, as it enables the 

 warm rains of summer to pass downwards, as well as the heated 

 air. But apart from all this, there can be little question that 

 many plants from regions bordering on the tropics, and even 

 within them, will live out of doors in this country. 'Many 

 Australian plants, for instance, would be killed in a New 

 Holland house if the temperature fell below freezing, although 

 in their own country they are often exposed to slight frosts. 

 This may be accounted for by their growths being less per- 

 fectly ripened under artificial conditions than they are under 

 natural conditions — we all know how much more liable the 

 gross, succulent shoots of plants, even hardy in Britain, are to 

 be injured by frost, than those which are firm and well ripened, 

 especially if there be any excess of moisture. The term sub- 

 tropical, however, has acquired a wider signification than that 

 which confines it to plants from the warm parts of the earth • 

 for as now used it may be said to include plants hardy and 

 plants not hardy which recommend themselves by their beauty 

 of foliage, picturesque habit of growth, and distinctness oi 

 character. With such plants jadiciously employed fine effects 

 have been produced in the public gardens of Paris, at Battersea 

 Park, and in other places, and the system was introduced a 

 year or two ago into Hyde Park to a limited extent, this year 

 to a greater extent, and in future years, when the preparations 

 shall have been made, we may look forward to its acquiring, 

 with the increased scope, a greater development and a higher 

 degree of perfection than it has hitherto done. 



In giving an account of the most noticeable features of the 

 subtropical portion of Hyde Park — that portion which lies,, 

 between the Drive, parallel to the Great Western Eoad, and an 

 imaginary line north of Botten Bow — we shall commence at.: 

 the Albert Gate end of the Drive. Here we find on the western, 

 side of the ground, and extending towards Eotten Eow, a series 

 of circles, about 4 feet in diameter, variously filled, some of 

 them consisting of beautiful cushions of Alternanthera mag- 

 nifica, edged with the minute silvery-leaved Antennaria tomen- 

 tosa or Sempervivums, others of golden-leaved Pelargoniums 

 Crystal Palace Gem and Eobert Fish, edged with Alternanthera 

 magnifica and margined with Eoheveria secunda glauoa and 

 B. glauco-metallica, a hybrid between E. metallica andE. glauca 

 dwarfer than the former, having the glaucous colour of the 

 latter, and in many cases varying considerably in its outline, 



