5 2 4 



Garden and Forest. 



I Number 462 



Sir William Hooker about forty years ago, and any one 

 looking at it now, with its undulating banks and mounds, 

 would find it difficult to realize that it was once perfectly 

 flat ground. The islands and banks are so designed that 

 the extent of the lake cannot be seen from any one point. 

 Its area is about five acres, and it is supplied by water 

 from the Thames, which runs close by, separating Kew 

 from its once famous neighbor, Syon Gardens, the demesne 

 of the Duke of Northumberland. 



The conifer garden extends all along the south side of 

 the lake, while placed about its margin is the collection of 

 Willows, the Alders being conspicuous on some of the 

 slopes. Large trees of Oak, Elm, Poplar, Lime and Chest- 

 nut are prominent features in the views to be seen from 

 various points. In the water itself, or fringing the margin, 

 are Irises, Sedges, Docks, Reed-maces, Water-lilies, etc. 

 There are also numerous water-fowl, which undoubtedly 

 add to the charm of the scenery, although at the expense 

 of many aquatic plants. A collection of Marliac's hardy 

 Nymphteas is being made a feature of at one end of the 

 lake. In the summer Daffodils, Poet's Narcissus, Primula 

 Japonica, Spiraeas, etc., help to give beauty to the scenery. 



About two years ago two eminent painters, Monsieur 

 and Madame de 1'Aubiniere, came to Kew, and, falling in 

 love with its lake scenery, they painted a large number of 

 pictures representing its various views. These, with the 

 permission of the authorities, have since been exhibited in 

 a small gallery in the gardens. Recently, twenty-four of 

 the most suitable of these pictures have been reproduced 

 by a photographic process, and these, with an introduction 

 from the pen of the Director, Mr. Thiselton-Dyer, are now 

 issued in the form of an album entitled The Poetry of Kew 

 Gardens. One of the pictures is reproduced on page 525. 

 The following extract is from the introduction : 



"Visitors to Kew^ who admire its stately trees, its sylvan 

 glades and its spacious lawns, probably in most cases sup- 

 pose that Nature endowed it with its charms, but this is far 

 from being the case. Kew throughout is the creation of 

 the art of the gardener, applied continuously for a century 

 and a half, and never, even at the present day, ceasing to 

 modify, develop and refine. 



" Landscape-gardening'as exemplified in such a domain 

 as Kew is peculiarly English. It originated, no doubt, 

 partly in an intelligent appreciation of the possibilities 

 afforded by the climate, which allows smooth turf to grow 

 in a manner unknown in other countries ; partly in the 

 demand for giving to country mansions harmonious and 

 sympathetic surroundings. Its evolution has been gradual, 

 and it is not without interest to notice that Kew has been 

 the scene of the earliest attempts of its successive masters. 

 . . . There seems reason to believe that in the main fea- 

 tures, which still survive, it was the work of Kent, who has 

 been termed the founder of the school of landscape-garden- 

 ing'. 'Capability Brown' was also employed by the Dow- 

 ager Princess of Wales to remodel the western half of th; 

 gardens, and Kew owes to him some beautiful features, 

 among them the beautiful Hollow Walk, now devoted to 

 Rhododendrons. " 



Kew may be taken as an excellent example of what can 

 be done to make a rich botanical collection and at the 

 same time a garden filled with picturesque scenery. In 

 the words of Mr. Dyer, it proves 'that it is possible to 

 construct a great botanic garden which shall sacrifice noth- 

 ing to its object and yet be neither arid nor ugly." 



London. "• ''■ 



Each of us is constituted with a special idiosyncrasy related 

 in some mysterious way to certain ideas of natural scenery, 

 and when we find ourselves in a scene answering to our 

 idiosyncrasy the mind feels itself at home there and rapidly 

 attaches itself by affection. The influence of scenery upon 

 happiness is far greater than is generally believed. There is 

 a nostalgia which is not exactly a longing for one's birthplace, 

 but a weary dissatisfaction with the nature that lies around us, 

 and a hopeless desire for the nature that we were born to 

 enjoy. — Philip Gilbert Hamerton. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Begonia Baumanni. — Although introduced from Bolivia 

 six years ago and described and figured as a large-flow- 

 ered, sweet-scented tuberous Begonia, this species has 

 somehow failed with us as a garden plant. It has been 

 tried every year at Kew without success until this year, 

 and then it was only by very careful treatment that it was 

 got to anything like perfection. Is there any special 

 " wrinkle " in its cultivation ? I have read that it is grown 

 well by American cultivators. Here the tubers have been 

 started at the same time and treated along with the other 

 Andean species, Boliviensis, Veitchii, etc., but they did 

 nothing. A plant planted in a bulb-house in a bed of 

 light soil near the glass grew and flowered well, and a 

 figure of it was prepared for The Botanical Magazine. It 

 has fleshy reniform leaves ; the nerves, petioles and stems 

 are colored rose-red and the scapes are a foot high, bearing 

 three or four flowers, the males with four petals and three 

 inches across, the females with five petals and two inches 

 across. They are colored rich rosy red and are very sweet- 

 scented. Has any one crossed it with other tuberous 

 species ? 



Conandron ramondioides. — We have just repotted our 

 plants of this pretty little Gesneriad from Japan, and I am 

 reminded to call the attention of American cultivators to 

 its merits as a pot-plant. It has a short, fleshy stem or 

 rhizome, clothed with long, soft brown hairs. The leaves 

 are oblong-lanceolate, not unlike those of the common 

 Primrose, and they form a cushion-like tuft suggestive of 

 the Pyrennean Ramondia, a near relation of Conandron. 

 Unlike the Ramondia, however, they are glabrous and 

 deciduous. The flowers are borne in cymes on slender 

 suberect scapes six inches long, and they are star-shaped, 

 an inch across, and colored rose-red with a darker zone" 

 round the eye-like clusters of orange-colored stamens. In 

 its regular perianth this plant is singular among Gesneriads. 

 The flowers are developed profusely in June, July and 

 August. At Kew it is grown in a cool, airy house along 

 with Cape bulbs, where, this year, it was a delightful little 

 picture when in flower. It likes an open light soil and 

 plenty of water all through the summer. It was introduced 

 by Veitch through their collector, Maries, about eighteen 

 years ago, but is still a rare plant. 



Jacobinia coccinea. — Among the numerous Acanthads 

 grown for their flowers in winter this is one of the hand- 

 somest. It has smooth cylindrical stems, glossy green 

 glabrous, ovate-lanceolate, long-stalked leaves from three 

 to nine inches long, and erect terminal spikes of bright crim- 

 son flowers springing from ovate green bracts. The flow- 

 ers are tubular, slightly curved, two inches long and divided 

 at the top into five segments, the two upper ones forming 

 a sort of hood to the stamens, the three lower spreading 

 and labellum-like. Grown from spring-struck cuttings in a 

 sunny frame or greenhouse during the summer, bushes 

 with about half a dozen stems eighteen inches high are 

 obtainable ; or the plants may be limited to a single stem 

 and thus induced to make exceptionally strong flower- 

 spikes. There is a comparatively worthless plant in culti- 

 vation under this name. The true thing is figured (poorly) 

 in The Botanical Magazine, t. 432. It is a native of Brazil. 

 We had some plants of it in flower in October. This and 

 the best form of Jacobinia magnifica, sometimes called 

 Pohliana, are two of the best Acanthads we grow. 



Crassula rubicunda. — This is a good winter-flowering 

 greenhouse plant. It has been attractive at Kew since the 

 middle of November, and it promises to continue so until 

 Christmas. It forms a compact little shrub fifteen inches 

 high, the stems erect, branching naturally from the base 

 and again near the top, where it forms a broad, loose, 

 dichotomous cyme or head of flowers which measures 

 nine inches across. The leaves, which are about four 

 inches long, are arranged closely upon the stem from the 



