384 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ November 15, 1877. 



bloom ; conspicuous amongst them was Souvenir de la Mal- 

 maison, which is an admirable autumn Rose. We next entered 

 a email walled enclosure oblong in form, which was formerly 

 U6ed as a plunge bath, and now answers the purpose of holding 

 the supply of water for these gardens. This is a charming 

 sequestered spot. Corners and nooks are artistically filled 

 with Ferns, with juet sufficient flowering plants to brighten 

 this cheerful yet solitary spot. Here are alEO large plants of 

 Osmunda regalis close down to the water's edge. 



Leaving here " fresh scenes of beauty burEt upon the view." 

 A little westward is perhaps the prettiest of all the scenery of 

 Ravensworth, for here is a charming lake, small, irregular in 

 figure and outline, and literally clothed to the water's edge 

 with large Rhododendrons, some of them 20 feet or more in 

 diameter. TheBe have a huge background of large forest trees. 

 Truly this place must be gorgeous in the month of May. 



Near to this lake are two or three common Tews, about 20 feet 

 high, sugar-loaf in shape, and not more than 3 or 4 feet wide 

 at the base — they are most impoeing. Cryptomeria japonica 

 is 30 feet high, well furnished to the base. Retracing our 

 stepB eastward toward the Castle we come to another lake 

 which is not so imposing as the former, and from here the 

 view (fig. 76), of the Castle is obtained. Adjoining the massive 

 pile is the conservatory ; it is, like most structures of its kind, 

 not adapted to the successful culture of plants. Camellias are 

 planted-out. Against the walls were Tacsonia insignis, Lapa- 

 geria rosea, and Acacia Riceana, also Orange trees, Fuchsias, 

 and the usual summer-flowering plants, this place being 

 especially reserved for the Azaleas and Camellias during the 

 winter. There is a division in the north end, which is con- 

 nected with the picture gallery by glass doors. The gallery is 

 101 feet long, and this part of the conservatory is occupied by 



Fig. 76. — RAVENSWOBTa CASTLE. 



Ferns, with a large Dicksonia antarctica for a background, 

 having a head 21 feet through and a trunk of 12 feet high. 

 This Fern has made about twenty fronds this year. It came 

 here in a small pot about sixteen years ago, and at present its 

 fronds measure about 2 J feet across. Here is Alsophila excelsa, 

 Woodwardia radicans, Todea superba, Asplenium flaccidum, 

 and Scolopendrium crispum. These Ferns seem to revel here 

 in their solitude, and are fit appendages to a picture gallery. 

 They have a gradual slope towards the glasB doors of the gallery, 

 and from which they must have a fine appearance by gaslight. 



The Eouth terrace front is about 100 yards long and 23 yards 

 broad, with an abutment jutting-out in the centre. In the 

 abutment a little bedding-out is done, and at the end of the 

 terrace, in a small border close to the Castle, a few flowering 

 plants are employed. On the wall is Clematis Jackmani, Ivy, 

 and Roses, and at the east end is a splendid Magnolia. Leaving 

 the Castle here on the road to the Superintendent's house is a 

 little more bedding-out, just sufficient to relieve the surround- 

 ing subjects of turf and shrubs. The pleasure grounds con- 

 sist of about fifty acres. The following Pinuses are scattered 

 over them: — Pinus monticola, 30 feet high, grafted ; Taxodium 

 sempervirens, 30 feet ; Abies Albertiana, as thriving as a Larch, 

 60 feet high ; and Cedrus atlantica, 25 feet high. 



In concluding these remarks it becomes a duty to congratu- 

 ate Mr. Moult on the efficient manner in which every depart- 



ment is conducted. The local circumstances of soil and climate 

 he successfully grapples with, although not possessing many 

 of the modern improvements in the glass structures. He has 

 lived here for thirty years, and speaks in the highest terms 

 possible of the kindness he has at all times received from the 

 Earl of Ravensworth. For twenty years Mr. Moult has ex- 

 hibited at the principal north country shows with great success,. 

 and for a long time was the prinoipal support of the Newcastle 

 Horticultural and Botanical Society ; and even now that this 

 Society is on a firmer basis so as to entice some of the best 

 exhibitors from the south, Mr. Moult still honourably holds 

 his own, for in the autumn show he took first and second 

 prizes for the three best Ericas, and first for the three best 

 flowering plants, and firBt for table decoration. — J. C. A. 



TOMATO OR LOVE APPLE. 



This, Solannm lycopersicum of botanists, is thus noticed by 

 the historian of cultivated fruits : — " It is a native of South 

 America, and in all probability of Mexico, from whence it 

 appears to have been brought by the Spaniards, who, as Bar- 

 ham observes, use it in their sauces and gravies, beoause the 

 jnioe, as they say, is as good as any gravy, and so by its rich- 

 ness warms the blood. Dodoens, in his Pemptades, published 

 at Antwerp in 1583, described it as growing at that time in the 



