310 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENEB. 



[ October 13, 1877. 



course, many trees now which were growing on the estate when 

 it belonged to Lady Isabella Blatehford, of whom Queen 

 Victoria purchased it ; tut the major part of the trees now 

 growing here were planted by Prince Albert or since his time, 

 and numbers are over 50 feet high and 6 feet in circumference. 

 Cedar of Lebanon, which we may with justice call a slow- 

 growing tree, are many of them here over 40 feet high. A 

 large number of our Californian Conifers, of which Prince 

 Albert was very fond, are also of about the same height, and 

 many of them I saw in great beauty for the first time. The 

 CupreEsus macrocarpa, for instance, here about 30 feet high, 

 forms one of the most beautiful sights that a human eye could 

 desire to look upon, and there are some very fine specimens of 

 Libocedrus decurrens, which I may say here I find, all through 

 England, " Thuja gigantea," though the error has been shown 

 over and over again in American literature, and though any- 

 one can see by the very look of the plant, if they were disposed 

 to be inquisitive, that it is not a Thuja at all. If you ask 

 them for Libocedrus decurrens they " do not know such a 

 plant." The real Thuja gigantea they ce.ll Thuja Craigiana. 



A very large number of the trees — enough to make quite an 

 arboretum by themselves — have been planted at different times 

 by celebrated or distinguished persons, as memorials of their 

 visit to Osborne, or as commemorative of the birthdays of 

 the Queen's family. The names of the plantei-3 and the oc- 

 casions are neatly painted on "labels" at the foot of each 

 tree. Some of these, like some of the planters, have had mis- 

 fortune in their career and locked unhappy ; but the majority 

 were doing very well and must be a great Eource of pleasure. 

 I envied especially the Princess Helena, who on May 25th, 

 1855, planted an Abies bracteata which was now 30 feet high. 

 The branches lay flat on the ground, and the tree made a 

 regular cone. These branches on the ground measured 55 feet 

 round. The general appearance of the tree at a little distance 

 reminded me of some of the beautiful Douglas Spruces I had 

 seen in their native places of growth, but the leaves are very 

 long, and I should judg9 a Torreya when old would look some- 

 thing like this. I wondered when I saw it whether in our own 

 country we had in cultivation so pretty a specimen of our own 

 native tree. The part where these trees are mostly growing 

 is separated from the other parts of the ground by a dense 

 hedge of Laurels and Laurustinus ; and this makes a shelter 

 from the stiff sea breeze very favourable to evergreen coni- 

 ferous trees brought from cur Pacific shorea, though the hedge 

 itself was planted to give a good landscape gardening effect to 

 the grounds. There are some pretty specimens of our Mam- 

 moth Tree, Sequoia gigantea, on the grounds, and some that 

 have suffered from the same disease which has not left U3 one 

 good specimen in the Eastern Atlantic States, indeed hardly a 

 specimen of any kind at all. Whenever I would ask the tree- 

 growers of England or France about this disease they would 

 answer that they knew nothing of it, and yet I saw traces of it 

 everywhere in both countries. It is probably a species of 

 iEcidium, a small parasitic fungus. It attacks the lowest and 

 weakest branches first, and thrives best when the weather is 

 warm. In our country with so much summer heat it pro- 

 gresses upwards rapidly enough to destroy the whole plant 

 before winter sets in ; but in these European instances it only 

 browns some of the lowest branches, though in a few cases I 

 saw half the tree destroyed. When I would call attention to 

 it I would be told it was " only something in the soil," al- 

 though a close neighbour, a little more shaded, perhaps, in the 

 same " soil" would look quite sound. 



There is a long avenue to the main road planted by Prince 

 Albert with a double row of trees. The first is of Arauearia 

 imbricata, the Chili Pine, alternating with Evergreen Oaks, 

 and the back row of Cedars of Lebanon and Evergreen Oaks. 

 There were thus three chances of Eome one doing well, so that 

 the other two could b9 cut away in time. All have done well, 

 and there has been nothing cut away yet. Our readers, of 

 whom only a few have seen the Arauearia in greenhouses, can 

 have no idea of the peculiar effect this tree has on the English 

 landscape. It is quite hardy in that country, and we meet 

 with it everywhere. Every garden has its beauty spots formed 

 by some combinations or other ; but I do not know that I saw 

 a more beautifnl piece of garden art in England than waB 

 here with an Arauearia for the chief centre. It was on a 

 mound a few feet high, and behind the Arauearia were two 

 beautiful specimens of the Californian Cupressus macrocarpa, 

 the dark and feathery edge of which, seen on each side of the 

 Arauearia, made a sort of perspective Ehadow to it, rounding 

 it off, as it were, in a most beautifnl manner. In the fore- 



ground of the mound, and in front of the Arauearia, were pieces 

 of fossil wood and rock, and in among them our Yucca gleriosa. 

 Around the base of the little evergreen-crowned mound a 

 narrow gravel walk sweeped, and on the other Bide of the walk, 

 on each side, masses of Yucca filamentosa. The Arauearia 

 itself has, as those who know it recognise, a sort of foseil-like 

 look, and the Yuccas are scarcely less geological in their ex- 

 pression. The whole made a happy union and harmony such 

 as we rarely see in landscape gardening. A seat was arranged 

 where one could sit and enjoy this very pretty feature, as I 

 did for some time. Those who know Queen Victoria tell me 

 that she has a keen relish for natural beauty Euch as this. 

 We often see trees, especially evergreens, clipped and sheared 

 into many strange if not really hideous forms ; but there is no 

 tr6e-shearing on these grounds, except where some object is to 

 be gained by it beyond the mere manufacture of a monstrosity. 

 One of these usefully sheared plants is a Myrtle against a wall. 

 This Myrtle covered the whole surface of the wall except the 

 coping, and was sheared so close and regular that one might 

 almost imagine a painter had wholly covered a board with 

 green foliage. The whole was regularly about 8 inches deep. 



In many parts of England the Pyracantha and Cotoneaster 

 are grown against walis in the same way, and when kept thus 

 neatly sheared are remarkably pretty — quite as much, if not 

 often prettier, than Ivy. On a large "heavy wall here car 

 Magnolia grandiflora is grown and neatly trained. Of cours9 

 this tree is "hardy" in England, but it misses our summer 

 heats, and this wall treatment supplies some of this. Here, 

 with its very sweet white flowers and fine evergreen leaves, it 

 was very highly prized. 



One of the matters which I have been struck everywhere in 

 England, and which I find to prevail even here in this royal 

 place, is the simplicity of the materials out of which the best 

 garden effects are made. la front of some of the Queen's 

 rooms is an extensive geometrical flower garden, made-up of 

 numerous beds for flowers in masses, with gravel walks* be- 

 tween. In many of these gardens the borders may be of Box ; 

 bnt here a narrow edge of what appeared to be costly stone 

 surrounded each bed. The effect was very pretty ; but a cicse 

 examination showed the stone to be only painted wood. Near 

 by is a very beautiful garden, made up" in the grandest style, 

 for in the centre is the celebrated Greek Slave, which, as a 

 work of art, drew so much attention at the first and great 

 World's Fair. The fountain basin is of polished granite ; bat 

 soon after we pass out into real nature under an arbour of 

 Boaes and Vines. At a little distance is an alcove made in a 

 terrace wall, and we are struck with the apparent richness of 

 the work and the general choice appearance of everything in it. 

 But as we get closer we see that the pretty flowers and foliage 

 apparently carved-ont are only sea-sireUs fastened on the wall 

 in that way, and the whole washed with stone-coloured cement, 

 and the massive ebony work is but polished coal. About these 

 very artificial garden parts are, in excellent taste, the more 

 artificial-looking plants, and the different kinds of Palm enter 

 largely into the beautiful effects. Some of these Palm3 must 

 be very valuable from their great size. Here, for instance, is 

 a Chamarop3 humilis about 10 feet high, and with numerous 

 young ones about it, so as to make a complete mass of Palm 

 leaves. Though even the Orange grows here so well that there 

 were some fruiting on the garden walls, it is thought best to 

 protect the Palm in winter a little, and it is boarded over. 



As I have said, the Queen prefers natural beauty to sheared 

 trees, except when such shearing harmonises with artificial 

 work, and in the square in which is one of the geometrical 

 gardens are four Eheared Bay trees in each of the four corners. 

 They are of huge size, and here their effect is good. Leading 

 down to the sea is also a wide gravel walk on each side of 

 which are sheared Portugal Laurels, which also have a good 

 effect. Around the palaces in Paris are huge Orange trees 

 which have been kept in large square tube for many years. 

 They are all sheared, or rather trimmed with knives, bo as to 

 be all exactly of one size. If one could look along the top of 

 a hundred of them in a line, no one would show a quarter of 

 an inch higher than the others. These, during the summer, 

 in France, are set out in their tubs alongside the walks at 

 equal distances. Bat they cannot well have Oranges at Osborne ; 

 but they have Portugal Laurels in huge tubs, looking for all 

 the world like these French Orange trees, as they are treated 

 and placed in the same manner. Bat they appear grander, 

 for the tabs in which they are growing are very much greater, 

 and the trees are larger in every respect. But the secret is 

 explained when the reader learns that the tubs are never 



