MODE OF CONSTRUCTION. 



261 



which are usually kept in the gi'eenhouse, and are too tender to withstand 

 our winters in the open borders. The whole erection should be put up 

 about the beginning of October, and removed by the second week in June. 



The Horticultural Society of London have to a certain extent carried 

 this idea into execution, by the erection of a verandah, or pent covering, 

 in front of a wall of great length. Against this wall has been planted all 

 such plants as it was calculated would stand the winter in such a situa- 

 tion, and also some duphcate specimens, the hardiness of which it was 

 desirable to determine. The utiUty of this plan is obvious to every one 

 interested in plant culture, and it is in our opinion one of the very few 

 realty useful experiments made by a society commanding capital and 

 opportunities which have never before fallen to the lot of any public or 

 private horticultural body, either in this country or on the continent. A 

 prepared border was formed at the bottom of this wall, rendered per- 

 fectly diy at the bottom, into which the plants are planted ; they are 

 nailed to the wall and trained in a way, however, which we are not 

 singular in disapproving of. They should, in our opinion, have been 

 allowed to grow in a more natural manner, excepting creeping plants, 

 which of course require support. In this border many valuable bulbous- 

 rooted plants were introduced, and these for some years succeeded admi- 

 rably ; but, as might have been expected, as the plants against the waU 

 extended in growth, they would rob the bulbous-rooted kinds of their 

 proper share of nourishment ; and as a consequence they are, we beheve, 

 now nearly all dead. About three feet in front of this wall is ranged a 

 row of larch poles about six feet apart, connected together at top by a 

 slip of deal about six inches broad, upon which is laid hurdles thatched 

 with straw, so as to form a roof between them and the waU, which not 

 only keeps the plants dry, but the mould into which they grow, — a most 

 important feature in the system of protecting exotic plants. These hurdles 

 are placed over the plants in autumn, and removed in spring ; the whole 

 front being left open for the admission of sun and air, excepting in the 

 case of any individuals more tender than the others, against which a mat 

 is hung in the most severe weather, and which species of covering, as 

 has been proved by Dr. Wells, in his Essay on Dew, is of much more 

 utiUty in gardening than is generally known. 



Had the Horticultural Society, instead of planting these exotics against 

 a wall, planted them at some distance from it, or even in a sheltered 

 part of the garden, and protected them in a similar manner, that collec- 

 tion of plants would at this day have assumed a very different aspect. 

 ^\ e would recommend the Society to set about planting a selection of 



