November 29, 1877. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



419 



daring the five and a half yeara I was in his service. — Edwakd 

 Payne, Florist, Fulwood, Preston. 



Mr. E. Payne, late gardener to Mr. Foreshaw, has made 

 several mie-etatements in reference to Mr. Douglas's notes on 

 the treatment of the above plaDt as supplied by me. Mr. 

 Payne had no acquaintance with me while I held a gardener's 

 situation ; he never to my knowledge aaw either the place nor 

 the collection of plants I had under my care, consequently he 

 did not know whether I ever grew the VenuB's Flytrap or not. 

 The "many" years he haa known me is exactly four years 

 this month. 



The notea published by Mr. Douglaa are the results of prac- 

 tical experience. Anyone who may with to grow the Venua's 

 Flytrap may have good results if the few directions given 

 in Mr. Douglas's notea are followed out. Mr. Payne haa ex- 

 hibited a pan of Dionaaa at the Preston Horticultural Exhibi- 

 tion on several occasions in good condition, being on each 

 occasion much admired. Mr. Payne haa left Mr. Foreehaw's 

 service fourteen months back. Mr. Leazel, Mr. Payne's suc- 

 cessor, has shown the Bame pan at this autumn show much 

 finer than ever it has been seen before. I question if a pan 

 of Dionaja muscipula was ever exhibited in finer condition. — 

 3j. Black, Fulwood, near Preston. 



[This subject need be discussed no further. — Eds.] 



CARNATION AND PICOTEE CULTURE IN BEDS. 

 The following notes on the method of growiDg these choice 

 varieties of florist flowers in beds have been kindly sent to me 

 through Mr. George Rudd of Bradford from Mr. E. Adams of 

 :Swalwe)l, near Gateshead : — " When the ground haa been well 

 prepared by trenching I plant in November or Deoember when 

 'Abe weather is favourable. Each plsnt must be supported by 

 a neat stick to prevent injury from high winda, which are apt 

 to snap off the plant close to the ground. The plants will 

 stand any amount of frost without injury. It is a good plan 

 "to dress the surface of the beds with decayed manure from 

 an old hotbed, which serves to steady the plants ; this also 

 serves to prevent frosts from lifting them out of the ground. 

 Much better blooma are produced from planta put out now 

 than in the spring. The planta do not require any more 

 attention except tying the spindles to a stick. When the pods 

 are nearly full I put them up on a board fixed to a post in the 

 -ground, and cover with a bell-glass. This causes the flower 

 to open well, but it must be shaded with tbin paper or muslin. 

 When the ordinary garden soil is not suitable for the planta 

 the beds should be made up with decayed turf from an old 

 pasture, mixed with some swe-et manure from an old hotbed or 

 the sweepings of a cattle market, laid-up for a year before 

 using it. Avoid pig manure, as it causes the plants to canker. 

 ^Frequently stirring the surface soil in the beds is good praotice, 

 and if the plants require water give a good soaking, and do 

 not water again until it is actually required. When the grass 

 ila layered in autumn draw some of the old soil from around 

 the plants and replace it with turfy loam in which to peg 

 down the layers ; this gives them new vigour. Sprinkle 

 daily to prevent flagging, and when the plants are well rooted 

 remove them from the parent and place them in their 

 blooming beds aa before." We do not find the Carnation do 

 well in beda in the south, but there does not seem to be any 

 reason why they should not if they are well cultivated and as 

 much care taken of them as our Newcastle friends seem to 

 take of their flowers. The following are the best sorta to 

 ■cultivate in beds: — Scarlet Bizarres : Admiral Curzbn, Lord 

 'Napier, Lord Ranclifie, John Burnett, Mercury. Crimson 

 Bizarres : Black Diamond, Rifleman, Isaac Wilkinson, William 

 Murray, John Harland, Albion's Pride. Pink Flakes: Dr. 

 Foster, Earl of Stamford, James Douglas, LordDerby. Scarlet 

 Flakes : Mr. Battersby, SportemaD, James Cheetham, Superb, 

 "William Harland. Pink and Purple Bizarres: Sarah Payne, 

 Satisfaction; also all the rose flakes and all the Piootees. — 

 J. Douglas. 



NOTES FROM CORNISH GARDENS. 



MOUNT EDGCDMBE— Paet 2. 



'True English lawns, thickly set with grass kept low and 

 •compact by frequent mowincs, stretch onwards from the Italian 

 garden along the edge of Plymouth Sound, with a boundary 

 of shrubs well back inland, winding along in graoeful curves, 

 with an occasional fine tree or shrub group standing out in 



worthy prominence upon the turf ; onwards most pleasantly 

 to wooded walks and drives, to which I must take the reader 

 by another route. Left to myself I should probably have 

 wandered on along the path by the sea, but the same sure 

 guide and friend who had accompanied me in all my Corniah 

 wanderings waa there, and he pronounced it time to make 

 for the house. Promptly following his decision came a 

 summons to the hospitable board of its noble owner, and bo 

 my demurrer was quashed and I had to acquiesce, willingly 

 and yet unwillingly. 



On our way across the paik I saw some of the turkeys, which 

 ramble at will in the woods here, and which were, I believe, 

 part of the only flock of what may be termed wild turkeys in 

 this country. Tun flesh of these wild birds is considered 

 superior both in delicacy and flavour to that of an ordinary 

 farmyard turkey. Fine trees abound here — ,?rand old Limes 

 upwards of 100 feet in height ; Beeches, Chestnuts, Oaks, 

 Cedars, and red-stemmed Pines equally fine in their way ; and 

 a huge old Poplar mu3t have been quite 8 feet in diameter at 

 4 or 5 feet from the ground. Consummate taste had evidently 

 been brought to bear upon their arrangement, for the result 

 now that they were old and hoary was satisfactory in a high 

 degree. At some points dense umbrageous masses of foliage 

 gave depth of colour and shade ; at others specimens of extra- 

 ordinary size stood out singly either alone, or in avenues, or 

 in widely dispersed clumps in all the dignity and fair propor- 

 tions which are found in timber trees that have sustained no 

 check and have attained their fullest development of form as 

 well aa of stem and branch. It is such fine trees, too, that 

 embellish a glade down which one looks from the east front of 

 the house over the water to Mount Wise, Devorport, the 

 rolling country beyond, and the far-off Dartmoor Tors — a 

 singular yet not unpicturesque combination of town and 

 country. 



Other charmingly diversified views over the Sound and 

 Plymouth open out as we proceed to the south front, where we 

 found a flower garden worthy of especial notice for its simple 

 yet chaste design and the happy way in which the planting 

 was done, the centres of the beds beirtg filled with perennials 

 such aa Heaths and Phloxes mingled with dwarf flowering 

 shrubs, with flower belts of the ordinary bedding type around 

 them, the effect being novel, light, and so pleasing as to be 

 worthy of imitation. This garden is overlooked from the 

 house and al?o from a stone summer house standing above it 

 on a higher Blope, for the grounds ascend somewhat abruptly 

 here, walks winding among shrubs enclosing various lawns, 

 out on which stand fine trees, imparting a peculiar character 

 to each enclosure. Tnke for example the Cedar lawn with ita 

 eight magnificent old Cedars of Lebanon, possessing an air of 

 dignity, repose, and striking individuality which ia never found 

 in a mixed pinetum of the ordinary type— the huge massivo 

 boles, the salver-like branches rising above each other tier 

 above tier, the wondrous depth of green relieved bo strikingly 

 bv the sunlit edges, were prominent features in every tree. 

 Wonderful trees ! worthy of the situation as it was worthy cf 

 them. My inapeotion of them was a brief one — a glance, a 

 walk past beneath their dense shade, and away ; but in those 

 brief moments I received impressions deep and lasting, and 

 learnt lessons of such value that it was only subsequently after 

 quiet thought and cloae analysis that I was able to grasp their 

 full significance. Such trees rivet the attention so thoroughly 

 that one takes little heed of their surroundings ; yet I noticed 

 that enclosing belts of trees and shrubs lent Bhelter by their 

 compact and dense arrangement, and imparted grace by the 

 flowing curves their margin described. Without noticing 

 the other lawns in detail I may state that all contained 

 peculiar features — objects of uncommon size or form. One 

 had a gigantic Lueombe Oak, another an equally fine Lime 

 with an immense bole haviog curioua indentures and rugged 

 rib-like projections ; another a fine Catalpa, a Tulip Tree, and 

 a Maple side by side on a slope, all fine trees, and which for 

 a brief period in autumn must afford a picturesque contrast, 

 the foliage of some becoming a bright yellow and the others 

 dying red ; another an extraordinary Himalayan Bamboo 

 (Tnamnocalmus Falconeri), which it may be well to note is often 

 catalogued as Arundinaria falcata, also a Desfontania spinosa 

 about 6 feet high in bloom, but I regret to say showing incipient 

 traces of deoay. A series of such enclosures connected in an 

 informal manner impart variety, exclude cold winds, and thus 

 afford shelter for many a choice exotic. It ia a plan worthy 

 of adoption wherever it is desirable to lay out gardens upon 

 high, ezgosed, or bleak eituat;ons. 



