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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ September 13, 1864. 



happy man. Flowers required a great amount of industry in 

 their cultivation, but without industry and contentment, it 

 was impossible the country could be what it ought to be. 

 Let a man have a large or a small garden, if he cultivated 

 it, it proved that he was a neat person ; and he who had a 

 nice garden would be sure not to allow the Dockleaf or the 

 Ragweed to flourish in it. He liked the man who cultivated 

 his garden, and he only hoped that that show was the be- 

 ginning of a brighter era to many of those who knew not 

 the pleasure enioyed in the cultivation of flowers, but who 

 would yet have a neat garden to exhibit as the result of 

 their taste, their labour, and their industry. It would 

 afford contentment and pleasure, for it would place all on 

 the road to reach that happy goal. 



The choir of Kilskeery church, led by Miss Porter, sang 

 the anthem, " Thine Lord is the greatness," with sweet- 

 ness and effect. Nert followed an exquisite chorus, "The 

 Apple Tree," which was most creditably performed, and 

 then " God save the Queen." 



A vote of thanks to the Ladies' Committee, and another 

 to ilr. Fitzsimons for his exertions, were next severally pro- 

 posed and carried with acclamation, and the proceedings 

 terminated. 



In the evening refreshments were partaken of by the ex- 

 hibitors and the choir in the school-room, which was taste- 

 fully decorated for the occasion, after which the prizes 

 awarded at the show were distributed to the successful 

 competitors. 



BATTEESEA PAEK. 



Gaedexees residing in distant parts of the country who 

 only visit London once every three or four years, must be 

 struck with the altered condition of the public parks, more 

 especially if their visit should be in the gay period of the 

 flowering season ; but even in mid- winter they will perceive 

 beds of evergreen shrubs embellishing plots which formerly 

 deciduous trees or bushes failed to render cheerful before 

 spring. Certainly the difficulty in obtaining a good display 

 in the more central squares, and those portions of the parks 

 which border densely-crowded localities, is such as will pre- 

 vent their competing with more favoured spots ; but the 

 perseverance, skill, and management displayed in minister- 

 ing to the taste of the public for flowers is worthy of all 

 praise ; and that those for whom such things are prepared 

 duly appreciate them may be learned from the fact that 

 though so many thousands daily throng those places of health 

 and instruction, comparatively little damage is done to the 

 plants, or other objects they so freely enjoy. 



Of the open sjjaces devoted to public use, amusement, and 

 recreation, around the great metropolis, undoubtedly the 

 most useful are those situated in the most central positions. 

 Unfortunately such positions are not the best adapted for 

 vegetation : hence the difficulty in keeping them ornamental. 

 The suburbs, however, afford a greater display. I must con- 

 fess being agreeably surprised on a recent visit to the Vic- 

 toria and Battersea Parks to find flower gardening so well 

 and so extensively carried out. I mention both as being at 

 opposite sides of London, the former exhibiting in the for- 

 mation of its grounds an amount of taste which was rarely 

 apparent in the early works of the kind in this country; 

 while the latter, from the persevering efforts made to bring 

 novelties before the thinking public, is also worthy of the 

 highest praise, and a visit to Battersea Park will well repay 

 the gardener who lives within a convenient distance of 

 London. 



Battersea Park, as it is called, occupies a large extent of 

 flat, level land, lying on the south side of the Thames, the 

 river forming its northern boundary ; and to accommodate 

 that numerous class of travellers who avail themselves of 

 water transit, there is a landing-stage communicating with 

 the garden, by which hundreds of visitors pass in from the 

 steamboats every day. The natural flatness is in a great 

 measure broken where necessary, by the various belts and 

 clumps being, in most places, judiciously planted on mounds 

 or knolls evidently of artificial formation, but approximating 

 more closely to nature than is often the case elsewhere. 

 The ground is divided into compartments by drives or public 

 thoroughfares for Vehicles; the sides at such places being 



fenced in by suitable iron railing. Other walks cross the 

 ground in different directions to which carriages axe not ad- 

 mitted ; and yet with all these sub-divisions, and the broad 

 and irregular belts of shrubs and trees which in many places 

 take off a wide margin from them, there are, nevertheless, 

 several plots of unbroken ground of apparently six or eight 

 acres each, appropriated as cricket ground ; and excepting 

 that at the time I saw it, the turf was, like that of every 

 other place, suffering from the dry weather, it would be 

 difficult to suggest a more suitable spot, while the rising 

 boundaries of shrubs and trees gave the snug, rural ap- 

 pearance of a country district. I may add that the belts 

 which generally fringe the drives are not formal and regular, 

 but broken and diversified in many ways, as is likewise the 

 ground, a bend inwards of the mass of shrubbery in one 

 place being followed in another by a complete break through, 

 so that the traveller on the public thoroughfare may be able 

 to obtain a peep of the interior. Now and then beds of 

 flowers are introduced with good effect, the wavy outline of 

 the ground rising into a gentle swell, its summit crowned 

 with plants suitable to the place ; in other parts a piece of 

 water is fringed with plants suitable to the position, while 

 ever and anon the gay colours of the bedding plants present 

 themselves in the distance, inviting a more close acquaint- 

 ance. Often unexpectedly the visitor comes upon beds of 

 plants not usually met with, as Cannas, Hedychiums, and 

 plants remarkable for their foliage. 



A semicircular plot of considerable extent near the centre 

 of the north side was divided into a number of beds that 

 were most tastefully filled with bedding plants of the most 

 showy kinds, and all well grown. A series of wedge-shaped 

 beds forming a sort of fan, having a circle from which each 

 bed radiated was most beautifully arranged ; perhaps the 

 most telling bed being Coleus Verschaffelti and Centaurea 

 candidissima, the latter forming the margin, and one or two 

 (I forget which), broad lines of it running down the middle, 

 the Coleus being in the intermediate space. Both plants 

 were as richly coloured as could be desired by the most 

 ardent admirer of good cultivation. The other beds were 

 also good, being filled with Geraniums, Lobelias, Verbenas, 

 and the various classes of plants usually met with in such 

 places ,- but what surprised most visitors who thought them- 

 selves entitled to give a good opinion on such matters, was 

 the great number of plants which elsewhere have the charac- 

 ter of being scarce and costly. I fully believe I am speaking 

 within the mark, when I say that fully a thousand plants of 

 Geranium Mrs. Pollock were planted out, and many others 

 equally rare elsewhere seemed to be in abundance here. 

 The episodal flower gardens to be met with at the various 

 points, all differing in character from each other, had each 

 their separate charms, and as regards good arrangement, 

 good keeping, and general efficiency, were all alike good. 

 A rosarium was formed at what I believe to be the south- 

 eastern side of the Park, the beds of Roses being em- 

 bellished, as is usual at this season, with China Asters and 

 similar plants, and from the appearance of the permanent 

 occupants, had evidently been gay at an earlier period of 

 the season. 



We now come to what is by far the most important feature 

 of the place, in fact one which astonishes the most practical 

 and enterprising amongst us, for there are objects (ap- 

 parently by our previous acquaintance with them), fresh 

 from the tropics, or from some climate corresponding thereto. 

 The sub-tropical garden as it is called, forms a compart- 

 ment near the south side of the Park. A sort of broken 

 ridge, from 4 to 10 feet high, forms the outer boundary of a. 

 plot which may be termed nearly circular. This outer ridge 

 is agreeably broken by side spurs giving it a pleasing and 

 natural appearance ; and these elevations, being planted with 

 shrubs and trees of a thriving kind, form an excellent 

 shelter to the inside, which is still further sheltered from 

 cold winds, or it may be parching sun, by em in ences of a 

 like character within the outer barrier. 



These internal mounds or eminences being also clothed 

 with suitable trees and shrubs, and so arranged as to form 

 some well-sheltered vallies or corners, the place is ad- 

 mirably adapted for the purpose to which it is put — that of 

 growing some of the many stove plants we have so long re- 

 garded as impossible to keep out of doors. All these vallies 

 have the shelter of the higher ground and. surrounding 



