274 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
the last twenty-six years, the mean annual value of the local rainfall 
being 31*99 inches — which may seem a large amount when compared 
with the Greenwich average of about 24} inches. 
From the above facts it will, I think, be obvious that our local 
meteorological conditions should prove very suitable for growing 
many tender plants which cannot be grown in less favoured districts. 
There is little doubt, however, that we shall sometimes have a winter 
that will either cut down or totally destroy many plants that we have 
succeeded in growing during the last few years. 
Close to the Observatory is the Heath-garden, which runs round the 
summit of the hill from which one sees in the distance Ashdown 
Forest. There is a large number of varieties of heaths in this collec- 
tion, whilst the carriage drive, is bordered by Cornish heath, which I 
understand was brought to Brockhurst about forty years ago by a 
former owner. It now forms a dense bank, and is a striking feature 
of the place in the autumn. 
The portion of our house facing west has a terrace and small rock- 
garden below it. The stone for this little rock-garden was derived 
from the excavation we had to make into the hill when space was 
cleared for building the new dining-room and terrace, and below 
the terrace wall is a rocked path in which a number of plants are 
growing. (Fig. 42.) 
The terrace wall itself is the home of many plants we put in while 
building it seven years ago, and they have thriven well ever since. On 
the steps is a fine growth of Erinus alpinus, in three colours, pink, 
mauve, and white. 
The view (fig. 43) down the lawn from the top of the steps just re- 
ferred to includes the upper pond, and a fine spring rising from here, 
flowing through the rock-garden below the lawn, keeps the water in 
the ponds thoroughly changed. The slope of the lawn has groups of 
Rhododendrons upon it, and out of the northern slope of this hill the 
new rock-garden has been made. On the lawn, our British Spiranthes 
aulumnalis, the sweet-scented Lady's Tresses Orchis, grows abun- 
dantly, being a native here. Five or six other species of Orchis are 
to be found wild on our ground. 
At the upper end of the top pond (fig. 44) many water plants 
grow behind the stepping-stones, among them Sonchus palustris, a 
fine British plant that used to be found in the reed-beds of the 
Thames about Plumstead, and also up the Medway. It is now nearly 
extinct. It attains to a height of ten or eleven feet. Near the step- 
ping-stones also grow water-lilies and Richardias. The latter have 
been in the pond for several years, and are never taken up in the 
winter. The clumps have increased and flower freely. 
Among the trees in the Wilderness is the large spring, from which 
there is a fall of twenty-five feet to the ravine we have already men- 
tioned. A little valley running into the Wilderness has a small spring 
of its own, in which some interesting Carices, Cotton-grass, &c. have 
been planted, whilst moisture-loving plants, such as Primula japonica, 
