Nove-nbsr 22, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



403 



seemed quite in the ordinary course of things to go to them 

 from Pentillie, ae I was about to do. 



Pleasant was the drive " o'er hill and dsle " to the steam- 

 boat pier at Saltash through a well-wooded country, and yet 

 so broken that choice bits of scenery kept comiDg into view; 

 and near Saltash the estuary of the Tamar, the Hamoaze and 

 the distant Sound, all brightness and life, opened out before 

 Tia. No time was there, however, to linger ; on past the quaint 

 old houses of Saltash, all jumbled together in the oddest man- 

 ner imaginable, down to the pier in the very nick of time. 

 " On board with you, cast off, go on ahead !" all in a breath, 

 and away steamed the boat past the mighty viaduct rising 

 170 feet above the water, and nearly half a mile in length, 

 down the Hamoaze, among grim war Bbips — ancient " liners " 

 and modern ironclads ; a training ship with its swarming 

 population of nine hundred boys, the huge "Enchantress" 

 at torpedo practice, the equally huge guardships apparently 



equally teeming with life. Yonder is a cupola ship sneaking 

 away up Millbrook Creek as if aBhamed to show its ugly form. 

 That red-painted vessel moored close in shore away from all 

 other ships is a powder tender ; no lights allowed on board. 

 What a dismal existence for those in charge of her at this 

 season of the year with thirteen or fourteen hours of dark- 

 ness ! Sweet be their sleep! On past the arsenal, with its 

 huge piles of shot and shell, to the pier at Devonport. On 

 land once more, but not to stay. " Boat ahoy for Mount 

 Edgcumbe!" and we are off again amongst dozens of other 

 boats shooting through the water in every direotion past more 

 ships, and in a few minutes are at our destination. 



Close by the pier are the park gates. We enter, and as wa 

 proceed to the garden entrance the house is visible at the 

 end of a wide avenue (fig. 79), which from the proximity o£ 

 numerous other trees has a good deal of the effeot of a glade. 

 Wherever trees stand out singly here they are frequently ea- 



^sm&^ 



Jag. 7it. — Mount eugcumbs. 



posed to the fury of severe gales, to which some of the trees in 

 this avenue have succumbed, and have been replaced by young 

 ones that were evidently not thriving. No process in garden- 

 ing can be more unsatisfactory than this patching an old 

 avenue ; it never answers, the young trees after the first season 

 being usually in a state of semi-starvation, for the greedy roots 

 of the old trees rush into the newly-stirred soil and rob it of 

 all nutriment. It is better, therefore, to accept the decay of 

 the old trees as a stern and undeniable fact, doing all that is 

 possible to protect them from the baneful effects of storms by 

 planting sheltering belts and clumps on the windward side. 



The pleasure grounds run down to the water's edge, and the 

 entrance leads straight into an Italian garden in exquisite keep- 

 ing with numerous walks, all converging to a central fountain, 

 each walk having an avenue of magnificent Orange trees in 

 tubs. The average height of these wonderful trees must be 

 quite 15 feet, and their heads are of a proportionate diameter. 

 The bright green hue of the glistening foliage betokened per- 

 fect health, as did also the hundreds of fruit with which every 

 tree was heavily laden. The orangery in which the trees are 

 wintered is a fine building overlooking the garden and forming 

 one of its boundaries — a semicircular belt of shrubs sweeping 

 around the other sides. The appearance of this garden is novel, 

 striking, and very pleasant, the extraordinary size and healthy 

 condition of the Orange trees altogether robbing it of that air 



of formality which is usually so offensive in less bUccesBfu^ 

 attempts at imitations of the Italian style of gardening. 



From the Italian garden a walk takes us to two other en- 

 closures, termed the French and English gardens. While 

 avoiding tedious details I may note certain objects of interest 

 which they contain. Several excellent examples of Chamserops 

 Fortunei are planted out in permanent positions, and are evi- 

 dently thriving. A Catalpa in full bloom was very attractive, 

 not only for its blossom but also for its large size, the stem, 

 measuring about 8 feet in circumference, bearing a very large 

 spreading head. Here too was a grand old Cedar of Lebanon ; a 

 Holly upwards of 50 feet high laden with berries, and quite 

 worthy of its position ; a healthy Salisburia adiantifolia about 

 20 feet high ; Osmanthus ilicifolium argenteum variegatum, 

 7 feet high, quite the finest silvery Osmanthus I have seenj 

 several magnificent old Cork trees ; fine examples of Rhodo- 

 dendron arboreum, the scarlet tree species from Nepanl and 

 others ; a huge Bamboo, which had flowered and died like 

 so many others which I saw in different parts of Cornwall. 

 All of them were dead, but I hope the deplorable fact will not 

 hinder others from being planted, for we have no substitute — 

 nothing like it in form, size, or beauty. This is the Himala- 

 layan species Bambusa falcata, exceeding in size all the 

 Chinese and Japanese species that have been tried in thia 

 country. The situation was evidently a favourable one, for the 



