September 15, 1870. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



203 



lids, or they may be left to the rooks if there are plenty in 

 the neighbourhood. Fowls will also eat the grubs greedily, 

 but will not hunt for them. — I. 0. W. 



ISABELLA GRAY ROSE. 



I have a Rose called Isabella Gray ; I have had it for ten 

 years, but it has never flowered, but grows moat luxuriantly. 

 Can you tell me the reason, and give me the history of this 

 Rose ?— Gabgikth, N.B. 



[Isabella Gray was raised, I believe, in South Carolina, U.S., 

 from the Cloth of Gold ; and MarSehal Niel was raised from 

 Isabella Gray by Pradel, jun. It is curious that the parent 

 and grandchild should bloom so freely, and Isabella be so re- 

 luctant to do likewise. I have three trees of Isabella Gray 

 (5 feet in advance of my vinery, and so luxuriant that " D., 

 Deal," mistook them for six plants. They have bloomed tole- 

 rably freely this summer ; and when the buds are hard they 

 are still useful for bouquets. There is no doubt that all yellow 

 Roses prefer hot walls to any other position. It is also true 

 that some reluctant bloomers flower freely with shade to the 

 south of them. William Bull is a glorious first-class Rose in 

 this position, but as hard as a mortar ball when exposed to 

 the sun. 



I believe we puff up Roses and puff them eut much too soon. 

 A Rose miserable on one stock or in one position in the 

 garden, may be glorious on another 3tock and in another 

 position. I advise carefully takiag up Isabella Gray, and try- 

 ing a wall, first a south wall and afterwards an east wall. I 

 further advise this variety being planted on the surface, earth- 

 ing-up like a molehill, so as to allow the sun full action on the 

 roots. In this case, in such a hot summer as the last, the 

 plant should be mulched, and watered copiously twice a-week. 

 Under all circumstances it would be well to dig a deep hole 

 under the site before planting, and to sink 6tones for free 

 drainage. All Tea and Tea-aceuted Roses like high cultivation, 

 deep drainage, intense heat, and copious waterings. I am not 

 sure as to the raiser. Probably the name was given in honour 

 of one of Asa Gray's family. — W. F. Radclyffe.] 



NEW BOOK. 



The Wild Garden: or our Groves and Shrubberies made Beau- 

 tiful by Hardy Exotic Plants, with a Chapter on a Garden of 

 British Wild Flowers. By W. Robinson, Author of 'Alpine 

 Flowers," die. London : J. Murray. 



Many years ago a gentleman, an ardent lover of natural 

 beauty, wandered through the New Forest, following the route 

 pointed out by the best aketcher and analyser of landscapes, 

 the Rev. William Gilpin, in his " Remarks on Forest Scenery." 

 That volume was our friend's companion, and he saw so many 

 illustrations of one passage in •' Forest Seenery," that he re- 

 solved to accept it as a lesson and be its copyist. One illus- 

 tration especially impressed him. On a tongue of high ground 

 stood a weeping Birch, close to it were groups of Osmunda 

 regalia Fern, among and above which were pyramids of Fox- 

 gloves laden with their pink bells ; and the sloping sides, and, 

 indeed, the whole surface, were clothed with the tender green 

 Wood Sorrel, dotted here and there with tufts of low-growing 

 Ferns. 

 The passage in " Forest Scenery " referred to is this : — 

 " The larger kinds of weeds, and wild flowers have their effect in 

 filling np the smaller vacancies near the ground ; and add to the rich- 

 ness of the whole. Among these, the Heath, and Broom, with their 

 purple and yellow tints ; the Foxglove with its pale red pendent bells ; 

 the wide-spreading Dock, and many of the Thistle tribe, are very 

 beautiful. The hue of the Furze, too, is pleasant ; but in bloom its 

 luxuriant yellow is too powerful. Nothing can accompany it. 



" But among all the minuter plants, Fern is the most picturesque. 

 I do not mean where it is spread in quantities, but where it is sparingly 

 and judiciously introduced. In itself it is beautiful. We admire the 

 form of its leaf, its elegant mode of hanging, and its dark-brown 

 polished stem. As an accompaniment, alBo, nothing is better suited to 

 unite the higher plants with the ground ; while its bright-green hue in 

 summer, and its ochre tint in autumn, join each season with its 

 correspondent tinge. 



" Of all this undergrowth I know but one plant that is disagreeable, 

 and that is the Bramble. We sometimes see it with effect scrawling 

 along the fragments of a rock, or running among the rubbish of a ruin ; 

 and though it is even then a coarse appendage, I should not wish to 

 remove it from landscape. But as a pendent plant it has no beauty. 

 It does not hang carelessly, twisting round every support, like the Hop, 



and others of the creeping tribe ; but forms one stiff, unpliant curve. 

 Nor has it any foliage to recommend it. In other pendent plants, the 

 leaf is generally luxuriant, and hangs loosely in rich festoons ; but in 

 the suckers of a Bramble the leaf is harsh, shrivelled, and discoloured. 

 In 6hort, it is a plant, which should not, I think, presume in landscape 

 farther than hath just beeu allowed : it has little beauty in itself, and 

 harmonises as little with auytbing around it ; and may be characterised 

 among the most insignificant of vegetable reptiles." 



Our friend did copy and illustrate that passage, using, how- 

 ever, for garnishing his shrubbery, not only our native Ferns 

 and flowering plants, but hardy exotics, Aconites, Hepaticas, 

 Mezereon, and others now too rarely found anywhere but in 

 gardens of old people who still wear poked bonnets and blue 

 coats with gilt buttons. 



What our friend did Mr. Robinson advocates — well advocates 

 — in the volume before us. He does, however, much more, 

 and does that well also. He gives descriptive classified lists of 

 the plants suitable for ornamenting our shrubberies, and tells 

 the soils and situations those plants prefer. " My object," 

 says Mr. Robinson, 



" Is to show how we may, without losing the better features of the 

 mixed bedding or any other system, follow one infinitely superior to 

 any now practised, yet supplementing both, and exhibiting more of the 

 varied beauty of hardy flowers than the most ardent admirer of the 

 old style of garden ever dreams of. We may do this by naturalising 

 or making wild innumerable beautiful natives of many regions of the 

 earth in our woods, wild and semi-wild places, rougher parts of pleasure 

 grounds &c, and in unoccupied places in almost every kind of garden." 



" My reasons for advocating this sysrem, as I do, are as follows : — 

 First, because hundreds of the fiDest hardy flowers will thrive much 

 better in the places I recommend for them than ever they did in the 

 old-fashioned border. Even comparatively small ones, like the Ivy- 

 leaved Cyclamen, a beautiful plant that we rarely find in perfection in 

 gardens, I have seen perfectly naturalised and spread all over the 

 mossy surface of a thin wood. Secondly, because they will look 

 infinitely better than ever they did in gardens, in consequence of fine- 

 leaved plant, Fern, and flower, and climber, ornamental grass, and 

 dwarf trailing shrub, mutually relieving each other in ways innumer- 

 able as delightful. Any one of a thousand combinations, which this 

 book will suggest to the intelligent reader, will prove as far superior to 

 any aspect of the old mixed border, or the ordinary type of modern 

 flower garden, as is a lovely mountain valley to a country in which the 

 eye can see but canals and hedges. Thirdly, because, arranged as I 

 propose, no disagreeable effects result from decay. The raggedness of 

 the old mixed border after the first flush of spring and early summer 

 bloom had passed was intolerable, bundles of decayed stems tied to 

 sticks making the place look like the parade-ground of a number of 

 crossing-sweepers with their ' arms piled.' "When Lilies are sparsely 

 dotted through masses of Rhododendrons as I recommend, their 

 flowers are admired more than if they were in isolated showy masses ; 

 when they pass out of bloom tfiey are unnoticed amidst the vegetation, 

 and not eyesores, as when in rigid unrelieved tufts in borders, &c. In 

 a wild or semi-wild state, the beauty of individual species will proclaim 

 itself when at its height ; and when passed out of bloom, they will be 

 succeeded by other kinds, or lost among the numerous objects around. 

 Fourthly, because it will enable us to grow hundreds of plants that 

 have never yet obtained a place in our ' trim gardens,' nor ever will be 

 admitted therein. I allude to the multitudes of plants which, not 

 being 60 showy as those usually considered worthy of a place in gardens, 

 are never seen there. The flowers of many of these are of the highest 

 order of beauty, especially when seen in numbers. An isolated tuft of 

 one of these, seen in a formal border, may not be considered worthy of 

 a place at any time — in some wild glade, in a wood, associated with 

 other subjects, its effects may be exquisite." 



Mr. Robinson assigns other good reasons, but here we must 

 cloBe our notioe. We recommend the book, for it will help to 

 increase the beauty of all pleasure grounds, whether around a 

 small villa or encircling a princely mansion. 



WINTER-BLOOMING ORCHIDS.— No. 7. 



CCELOGYNE. 



This is an Indian genus of great interest, which comprises 

 two distinct sets of plants. Some authors separate them into 

 two genera, Ccelogyne and Pleione, whilst others consider the 

 latter only a sub-genus. I consider them, however, well de- 

 serving of generic rank, and as such I shall treat of them here. 

 The Ccelogynes are all compact-growing plants, and readily be- 

 come handsome specimens; they recommend themselves also 

 on account of many species thriving well under cool treatment. 



Ccelogyne is a somewhat extensive genus, but I must here 

 confine myself to the best of those which enliven our dull 

 months. In order to produce good flowering plants, the majority 

 of them should be potted, at the same time they must be well 

 elevated above the rim of the pot, and the pots must be well 

 drained, The soil should be good fibrous peat, a little sphagnum 



