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JOUBNAL OF HOBTICTJLTUEE AND COTTAGE GAEDENEB. [ September 15, 1870. 



of itself and a very compact-growing blue Lobelia. A novel 

 effect was produced by surrounding a mass of orange and 

 scarlet Tropasolum with an edging of Nierembergia gracilis ; and 

 a very neat and attractive bed contained white, orange, and 

 pink Lantanas. These pretty Lantanas are alike useful in pots 

 and beds, and, although somewhat old fashioned, yet when well 

 managed they bear favourable comparison with all other bed- 

 ding plants. A few mixed beds of Verbenas were very poor 

 indeed, nor did it appear at all difficult to understand why they 

 were so, for it was evident at a glauce that they were planted 

 in the ordinary garden soil, and hence their ragged and starved 

 appearance. This was to be regretted, for, after all, the suc- 

 cessful culture of Verbenas is a very simple matter. With a 

 deep, cool, light, rich soil, and healthy plants at the time of 

 planting, there need be no more failures with Verbenas than 

 with Pelargoniums. The only advantage which the latter 

 really possesses is that it will, under favourable circumstances, 

 continue somewhat longer in full beauty than the former. We 

 have only to afford the Verbena a sufficient quantity of that 

 rich, cool soil, in which its roots love to spread, to produce 

 beds of the most exquisite loveliness, and certainly far more 

 attractive and interesting than those of almost any other 

 denizen of the flower garden. 



The great utility and beauty of circular flower beds is here 

 fully demonstrated, and while there were several beds the 

 colours of which were tame and their arrangement faulty, yet 

 the majority of them were good in every respect and highly 

 satisfactory. 



In the hollow at the foot of the rosery slopes, on the side 

 facing the water temples, a triangular space is enclosed or 

 bounded by three walks, each of which runs parallel with one 

 side of the triangle, which is of turf, having a fine Welling- 

 tonia in its centre, and with three small triangular beds, one at 

 each angle of the triangle. Each of these beds contained a 

 mass of a light orange scarlet Pelargonium, with an edging of 

 Pelargonium Manglesii, which filled the beds well ; but the 

 result would have been very much better had a deep crimson 

 shade of colour been used in place of the orange scarlet, for 

 then a rich and dignified effeet would have been obtained ; the 

 deep colours blended together would have imparted just that 

 air of importance which the group required to be satisfactory. 



Proceeding from this part of the grounds to the terrace, I 

 noticed in full flower some fine bold masses of Hollyhock, which 

 struck me as being one of the best of plants to introduce in 

 that way in such extensive grounds. 



The beds on the terrace form no regular design, but are 

 arranged in a single row round the principal plots of turf, each 

 of which has a fountain in the centre, on the margin of which 

 a few vases are placed. The chief display on the terrace was 

 that of the two central groups, one on each side of the broad 

 walk which leads from the Palace across the centre of the 

 terrace down the various flights of steps. The form of each of 

 the central spaces of turf will be easily understood if I compare 

 it to the quarter of a huge oval, with the longest side facing the 

 front of the terrace. The line of beds here consists of alternate 

 circles and parallelograms, the formality of which is broken up 

 by specimen standard shrubs, which spring from the centre of 

 each of the circular beds. The flowers in these consisted of an 

 outer row of Golden Pyrethrum, inside which were two rows of 

 Coleus Verschaffelti, with a central mass of Pelargonium Pro- 

 vost. In every alternate circle Pelargonium Flower of the 

 Day took the place of the Pyrethrum. The long beds had a 

 broad band of Pelargonium Stella along the centre, with yellow 

 Calceolaria on each side, and with a row of Verbena Purple 

 King round the outside of the beds. The flowers and trusses 

 of the Calceolarias were alike small. This long line of bright 

 colours, softened somewhat by the mass of Provost, had a very 

 bold effect, and the proximity of the " pale-hued Palace," de- 

 prived it of all its harshness, and even added to its beauty. 



The line of beds running parallel to the walk along the other 

 sides of these central plots of turf is peculiar ; it consists of 

 circular beds containing an Araucaria imbricata in the centre, 

 alternating with very large empty vases, with high pedestals 

 standing on turf, and surrounded by abroad ring having a wide 

 band of either pink or scarlet Pelargoniums along the centre, 

 with a margin of Pelargonium Flower of the Day on each side. 

 These rings had a very good effect ; but the circular beds con- 

 taining the Araucarias appeared perfectly ridiculous, owing to 

 the absurdly narrow row of Cerastium tomentosum enclosing 

 a broad ring of blue Lobelia. 



A line of beds by the side of the walk nearest the Palace, 

 consisting of parallelograms broken occasionally by vases or 



statuary, was very good. Of these beds one containing a mass 

 of a very dwarf orange scarlet Tropasolum, bordered with an 

 equally dwarf blue Lobelia, was very good ; another had a 

 splendid mass of Pelargonium Waltham Seedling. This fine 

 variety has been very brilliant all through the past hot season. 

 In others of these beds equally fine, Pelargoniums Amy Hogg 

 and Provost, and a fine large-flowered purplish crimson Pe- 

 tunia, were noteworthy. All these beds had a uniform edging 

 of blue Lobelia. The vases, which were of large and handsome 

 proportions, contained a pleasing mixture of plants, the growth 

 of which was very uniform. These vases, and beds were among 

 the most effective of any that came under my notice, and this 

 was undoubtedly owing to the broad rich masses of colour 

 which the beds contained, for had there been much subdivision 

 of colour here the effect would not have been nearly so telling. 

 The beds in the other compartments of the terrace contained 

 nothing worthy of note; and I may very justly conclude this 

 paper by obsei ving, that while there is much in the arrange- 

 ment of the flowers here to which the greatest praise must be 

 accorded, yet there is also very much of the colouring which is 

 faulty and insipid ; it may be that there was a lack of better 

 materials at the planting season. Knowing nothing of the re- 

 sources of the Superintendent, I cannot say how this may be; 

 but I may say that a season trying even as the past hot sum- 

 mer, can form no excuse for the tame appearance presented by 

 many of the minor flower beds in these grounds. — Edwakd 

 Luckhukst, Egcrton Souse Gardens, Kent. 



THE FLOWER SERMON. 

 Collinsox, in his "History of Somersetshire " speaking of 

 Yatton, says, that "John Lane of this parish left half an acre 

 of ground to the poor for ever, reserving a quantity of grass for 

 strewing the church on Whit- Sunday." 



For many years past a sermon upon flowers has been preached 

 in Shoreditch annually on Whit-Tuesday ; an old florist, Thomas 

 Fairehild, enamoured of his floral charges, having bequeathed a 

 certain sum of money, in trust to the Boyal Society, " for the 

 providing of a clergyman to deliver that sermon." This had 

 been familiar to us, not only as a legend but as a reality, from 

 our childhood's days, for our father had often been invited to 

 preach it ; and we, a large party of boys and girls about the tea- 

 table, had been in the habit, for days before, of hazarding many 

 a guess, or even bolder suggestion, as to what the text would or 

 should be. " Consider the Lilies," was a favourite one, being 

 very apposite. Bat " Much too commonplace, my love," would 

 be the reply to that. " Bose of Sharon " came next ; but natu- 

 rally all these, patent to the minds of everyone, had year by 

 year been used up, and we had to confess, when told, perhaps, 

 that it would be such a one as " He giveth them their meat in 

 due season," and that the discourse would turn upon corn, that 

 it sounded much more " uncommon," and that there would be 

 a great deal to say about it. 



Shoreditch was a very long way off, and an out-of-the-way 

 place to take young folks to. We did not attend these annual 

 services, nor in fact were they much frequented by any. Per- 

 haps not more than a dozen persons heard the carefully 

 thought-out sermon, or profited by the lessons which the good 

 old gardener, so long since dead, would have had them taught 

 concerning the beauty and charm of God's creatures. 



Knowing all this, which by-the-by, not one in ten thousand 

 Londoners does know, we were taken by surprise when, about 

 a week before Whit-Sunday last, an announcement appeared in 

 the public papers to the effect that " The Flower Sermon, 

 usually preached at St. James's, Aldgate, would this year be 

 preached at the Church of St. Katharine Cree, Leadenhall 

 Street, on Whit-Tuesday evening, by the Bev. W. M. Whitte- 

 more, D.D., that the service would be choral, members of St. 

 Paul's Cathedral special service choir attending, that the church 

 would be crowded, and that it was the custom for all the young 

 people present to carry bouquets of flowers." 



Our first mental question was, " Is this the Flower Sermon," 

 of which, like so many others who have lived within sound of 

 Bow Bells all their lives, we have never before heard ; or has 

 our old acquaintance of poor Shoreditch prior right to the appel- 

 lation ? And then we began to wonder whether other flower 

 sermons of which we knew nothing might be preached at Whit- 

 suntide in other places ; and this led us to Collinson's notice of 

 the grass-strewing in Yatton Church on Whit-Sunday. 



The evening in question, June the 7th, was bright and balmy. 

 A long drive through streets of holiday-makers streaming to the 



