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JOURNAL OF HOBT1CULTLBE AND COTTAGE GABDENER. t December 20, 1877. 



striking manner the importanoa of severe pruning and high cul- 

 ture. The plants have at some time or other apparently been 

 out down much after the manner of pruning Pelargoniums, and 

 they are now well-furnished specimens, glossy and vigorous. 

 A few — only a few — Azaleas are flowering; but many houses 

 are required to accommodate the stock of these plants, so 

 popular are they for spring embellishment. 



And now a word — not on flowers nor ornamental-foliage 

 plants, but on trees. Christmas is drawing near, and Christ- 

 mas trees are an institution. Not a word shall be said against 

 the familiar and homely Spruca Fir, for it will aid in making 

 glad homes innumerable during the festive season ; but for a 

 Christmas tree more rare and more choice, what can equal a 

 fresh, handsome, young specimen of Araucaria excelsa? Of 

 this beautiful tree it is necessary to provide largely at Chelsea, 

 and propagation of it is constantly going on. Not alone in 

 the conservatory is it handsome in the form of a large speci- 

 men, but in a small state it is excellent for vases, and it is not 

 more suitable for a Christmas tree and for decorating rooms 

 in winter than it is ornamental as a "subtropical" plunged 

 on lawns in summer. On inspecting a large collection many 

 varieties are apparent ; some light in appearance, some massive, 

 but all pleasing. One of the more sturdy and dense in the 

 leaflets is named after a noted continental nurseryman — ■ 

 Napoleon Baumann. A. Cunninghami is more slender in 

 habit than excelsa, and A. Bulei is much more robuBt, and, to 

 use a nursery phrase, it is full of '.' character." 



I have now told you, Messrs. Editors, what is going on at 

 Veitch's, and have satisfied myself that it is not dull there. — 



A C0UNTRT3IAN. 



NOTES FROM COENISH GARDENS. 



EOSEMUKDY HOUSE, ST. AGNES. 



Cobnwall abounds with odd nooks and corners of which the 

 world knows little or nothing, lying, as most of them do, away 

 from its beat6n tracks and busy haunts — unknown to fame, 

 unnoticed in guide books, and yet so beautiful with beauty of 

 a high degree and peculiar order as well rewards an explorer 

 for his pains in finding them, My readers have already been 

 made acquainted with one such nook in my description of 

 Lamorran. Let me now take them to what is literally a 

 corner — Roseniundy House, the residence of W. Naylor Carne, 

 EEq., near St. Agnes Head, a rocky promontory on the north 



coast, about as unlikely a situation for a good garden as 



well, as was the site of the beautiful grounds at Battersea Park 

 in its original form of a low flat damp piece of waste land. 



It was by an early train that we set out from Truro, for that 

 day we had three gardens to visit in the mining districts, but 

 situated at a considerable distance apart, so there was nothing 

 better than taking time by the forelock in order to get through 

 a long day's work satisfactorily. At the little station of 

 Chaeewater we found Mr. Carne had come to meet us, and 

 glad enough were we, for without his kindly assurance that 

 better things were in store for us we might have been tempted 

 to turn back from the melancholy aspect of the bare and 

 rugged surface among the tin mines through which our road 

 lay. The mines are soon passed, and we actually revel in our 

 enjoyment of a natural transformation scene so lovely as to be 

 worthy of a special journey to see it alone. A minute ago we 

 were driving through a district apparently blasted and death- 

 stricken without a vestige of vegetation, and now we are in a 

 ^flower garden brilliant with full rich summer beauty, for the 

 road iB fringed on both sides with broad margins of wild Heath 

 that are just one dense mass of blossom running outwards to 

 and clothing the face and top of raised-wall-like banks on 

 either hand — a mingled growth of various kinds, all alike laden 

 with crimson, pink, and purple bells, those on one patch especi- 

 ally being so large in size and brilliant in colour that we were 

 constrained to pause for a closer inspection. For part of the 

 way belts of treeB behind the Heath enhanced its beauty, the 

 varied greenery of foliage forming a charming foil to the 

 cushion-like clusters of gay flowers, and then the country 

 opened out into a vast level expanse — bare of trees, but with 

 a pleasant air of brightness and animation imparted by the 

 glistening waters of the Atlantic, visible on either hand, be- 

 tokening our nearness to our destination, of which we have 

 still stronger evidence in the sight of St. Agnes Beacon, a 

 conical hill having an altitude of upwards of 600 feet, and not 

 far from the foot of which lays Bosemundy in a valley running 

 from north to south, and therefore not parallel to the coast, 

 which here runs in a westerly direction to St. Agnes Head. 



Snug and cosy is Bosemundy, nestling down among the 

 trees, out of sight and sound of the sea ; but it was not so 

 naturally— the trees had been planted, banks had been thrown 

 up and planted too with hardy shrubs to screen both house 

 and garden from the south-western gales that frequently sweep 

 inland from the vast ocean which lies so near, and the flourish- 

 ing condition of the garden afforded ample proof how thoroughly 

 these simple means of shelter had been applied and how well 

 they answered. 



" Mine is not a fine garden, but it contains a few choice 

 plants," said Mr. Carne, as he led the way into it. A few 

 plants ! save the mark. It is a regular storehouse of floral 

 gems, all growing in such rude health and crowded together in 

 sush profusion as to be absolutely bewildering. To catalogue 

 them all would have been a work of two or three days, and as 

 my visit hardly extended to as many hours I could only note 

 some of the more conspicuous and such as appeared likely to 

 answer in other gardens. 



We first entered a small sunken panel lawn adjoining the 

 house, snugly enclosed by walls and banks on the other sides. 

 Many rare climbing plants clothed the walls— the glossy 

 Chilian Escallonia illinita with white flowers ; a handsome 

 evergreen Elaaagnus, which Mr. Carne called E. japonica ; 

 G-arrya elliptica fcemina, also remarkable for handsome foliage ; 

 Elaaagnus pungens variegata, very curious ; and to theEe 

 I may here add Solanum jasminoides, very lovely and 

 perfectly hardy; and Magnolia Lenne, with very handsome 

 foliage. Of other notable plants in beds and borders here 

 there were grand clumps of New Zealand Flax ; large tufts of 

 Plumbago Larpenta?, gay with pretty pale blue flowers, an old 

 but valuable perennial not often met with ; Hydrangea panicu- 

 lata grandiflora, a curious and lovely form with flowers open- 

 ing white "out quickly becoming suffused and blotched with 

 deep pink. This must take a leading position among dwarf 

 flowering shrubs as well as in the perennial border from the 

 great beauty of its flower clusters. Acanthus spinosus, bold 

 and effective, having deeply-serrated spinous leaves and tall 

 flower spikes bristling with spines. It is easily raised from 

 seed, which is not expensive. Then there was the Double 

 White Bramble (Eubus flore albo-pleno) in great beauty, and 

 also the Double Pink variety B. roaeo-pl'eno, both fine trailing 

 plants growing into large bushes, so ornamental that it is 

 matter for regret they are not more common. Cornus mascula 

 variegata, one of our best variegated shrubs, was also good 

 here, and of Pittosporum undulatum there was a wonderful 

 example 7 feet high and nearly as much in diameter, the black- 

 stemmed branches and handsome glossy foliage being even 

 more striking than the fine form of the shrub, which was in 

 excellent health, as was a still more extraordinary example of 

 the Blue Fiddle Wood — Citharexylum cyanocarpum, usually 

 regarded as a denizen of the stove, but growing freely enough 

 here in the open garden, the Myrtle-like foliage curiously 

 alternating with spines. Colletia cruciata was also growing 

 freely, and was apparently quite established. I was not sur- 

 prised at this, having heard of its answering tolerably well in 

 some other gardens. 



The shrub most used to clothe the banks of this and other 

 enclosures was the Japanese Privet — Ligustrum japonieum, a 

 handsome shrub much in favour in the public gardens of 

 London, and which Mr. Carne has found to grow vigorously in 

 exposed situations, apparently revelling in the sweeping winds 

 that prove fatal to so many other Ehrubs. Certainly nothiag 

 could be more satisfactory than the deep green glossy hue of 

 its broad handsome foliage, which forms such an admirable 

 foil to its bold white flower spikes. 



Among other enclosures we found whole banks of Cyclamen 

 and curious lawns composed of a mingled growth of grass and 

 PrimroseB of all sorts of colours. Several magnificent speci- 

 mens of Gnnnera scabra, with leaves upwards of 4 feet in 

 diameter and numerous spikes of yellow flowers and seeds. 

 Hard by there was a fernery, the Ferns being planted among 

 some rocks in large numbers, comprising, I should think, all 

 known, and perhaps many unknown, varieties — certainly un- 

 known to me. Among them I was glad to see a conspicuous 

 position given to Lastrea recurva.not very common, but one of 

 our best hardy Ferns, always beautiful, but especially so in 

 winter, when its pretty bright green fronds stand out so con- 

 spicuous while most other varieties of its species have lost all 

 beauty. A charming little Alpine plant, Mentha Corsica, was 

 clothing many of the rocks with dense cushions of tiny green 

 foliage. The Cornish Moneywort, Sibthorpia europaaa, also 

 found a suitable home among the rocks, and I must not forget 



