JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ December 4, 1884. 
/>06 
as well as at any time during the summer. I was looking at some carpet 
bedding a week ago that appeared as well as ever it did—a rare occurrence 
in this part of the country, and near the sea.” 
- Mr. C. Waking, whose experience on cutting down Chrys¬ 
anthemums we published on page 480 last week, sent a box of blooms 
which, however, did not reach our hands in time to be acknowledged in 
our last issue. They must have been very fine when in a fiesh state and 
decidedly above the average of flowers grown for decorative purposes. 
Parts 15 and 16 of The Illustrated Dictionary op 
Gardening (L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand) continue the alphabetical 
description of plants from Coleus to Cunninghamia, abundantly illus¬ 
trated with blocks from various sources. As we have previously re¬ 
marked, a considerable improvement is observable in the recent numbers 
as compared with those first issued. 
-A PARCEL of Messrs. Cassell & Co.’s Publications just 
received contains the following Part 51, “Paxton’s Flower Garden,” 
which gives coloured plates of Billbergia polystacbya, a species of Brome- 
pad with bright red bracts and green flowers, and Dielytra chrysantha, 
distinct and handsome, with abundant small bright yellow flowers. It is 
one of the Californian discoveries of Mr. Douglas, and was subsequently 
found by Mr. W. Lobb, through whom it was introduced by Messrs. 
Veitch & Sons. Woodcuts are also given of Chionanthus retusus, Elisena 
longipetala, Grevillea acanthifolia, and Araucaria Cooki. Part 69 of 
“Familiar Garden Flowers” contains the Mountain Windflower 
(Anemone apennina), and the Persian Cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum), 
the latter figure scarcely doing justice to this plant as it is now grown. 
Part 92 of “ Familiar Wild Flowers ” gives figures and descriptions of 
he Butterfly Orchis, Habenaria bifolia, and the Wood Loosestrife, 
Lysimachia nemorum. Part 10 of the “Eacyclopsedic Dictionary’’ 
continues this valuable work from bleat to bot-fly, making 640 pages 
published up to the present. 
NOTES ON ROSES. 
In reply to your correspondent “ A. F. M.,” I may be permitted to ask 
if Hybrid Perpetuals always ripen tbeir wood as well as could be desired 
in the southern parts of the country ? I have said nothing about un¬ 
ripened wood except where Rose gardens are enclosed by evergreens and 
forest trees, as too frequently is the case in private gardens. Tea varieties 
have stood here even as standards without the slightest protection, while 
H. P.’s in the same bed have been destroyed. 
Marechal Niel, where it will do well, I consider one of “ the best 
Teas,” not perhaps from an exhibitor’s point of view ; therefore, exhibitors 
are inclined to substitute some other that will flower about the time a box 
of blooms is required. The majority of Rose growers do not judge Roses 
entirely by the exhibitor’s standard, and in consequence the early-flower¬ 
ing nature of the Marechal to some extent is a recommendation in its 
favour. Few exhibitors would class the old China Rose as one of the best 
for early and late flowering, but such nevertheless is really the case, and 
a bed would be found invaluable for those who require fragrant Rose buds 
either early or late in the season. 
To return to Marechal Niel. The reason I advised it to be grown in 
favourable localities is because this district is not favourable for it. In 
how many gardens in the northern parts of the country is this Rose found 
pcceeding even on walls ? Some years ago I succeeded with it very well 
in the eastern counties, hut the very moist atmosphere of the Lincoln¬ 
shire fens during winter proved more detrimental to it than frost._ 
—A Noktherner. 
EOCKERIES. 
This mode of growing certain plants, which by experience we 
find to be the most suitable and efficient, is rapidly gaining 
ground even amongst those that have long held the opinion that 
ordinary borders were quite sufficient. In the growing season 
proper—that is, when the roots are most active, the border, or 
indeed any flat piece of ground, may suit them admirably; but 
it is the resting season that the border, perhaps damp and low- 
lying, and with an extra share of surface moisture, and which 
probably has not the advantage of the kindly influence of a wall, 
is found markedly inadequate to bring certain rock plants 
through our trying winters. 
Our object, then, is clearly not to try our hardest to change 
the natural conditions under which p’ants grow, but to try and 
imitate Natui’e as far as possible; and although we may have to 
deplore many failures unforeseen before we hit upon the exact 
exposures best suitable for the most fastidious amongst the plants, 
we must have patience and perseverance, as it is now pretty 
generally understood amongst patient cultivators that a par¬ 
ticular exposure in one locality may not suit a certain plant in 
another, and that at no great distance apart. One of the great 
advantages we in the country, and especially in the north, have 
over our town neighbours is the pure bracing atmosphere, fi ee 
from the fogs and other impurities consequent on too close a situa¬ 
tion to large smoky cities. I do not refer to the exact positions of 
plants that are of a trailing or creeping disposition; the same 
kind of position will suit them everywhere, that which wi 1 
show them off to the best advantage being the only requisite 
consideration. 
Rare plants, or those'scarce in cultivation, are when received 
too often thrust into the first position or empty space that offers 
in a walk through the rock garden; the idea of asking the locality 
whence the plant was received or the alteration in this necessary 
on a change of atmosphere never occurring. The consequence is 
generally a not surprising dead failure where a little care and 
appeal to past experience might have overcome the difficulty, by 
deliberately choosing the position regardless of a plant being 
there unless a rare one, but if a stronger-constitutioned plant so 
much the better, simply transplanting it to another place and 
making room for the new ariiva'. 
The exact style of rockery building has always been a sore 
question, resolving itself, like many other things, into a matter of 
opinion, depending in some instances on the taste of the pro- 
pi'ietor, in others on the amount of money given for such purposes, 
in nearly all our principal public resorts and in many private 
places rockeries, a few on gigantic principles, are to be found, 
and the various forms and aspects chosen in the different localities 
give a clue to the altered conditions some plants require for 
their well-being in various atmospheres. At Edinburgh the 
rockery is on rather an extensive scale, glaringly formal to the 
very walks by which it is copiously intersected. For this a bank 
is taken 4 or more feet high, and at regular intervals, say a foot 
apart, a horizontal line of regular boxes are made with thin 
slabs of stone, varied in outline only by the pi’ojections and 
recesses of the margin. Then from the first terrace you are led 
by paths to numerous round symmetrical pieces, which are in a 
few places barely covered with Ericas, Mt n desias, and other 
kindred plants. About the general plan I have little to say, 
and the position or exposure still less. The plants to all appear¬ 
ance do well, and especially where they are extra large and 
strong the formality is quite dene away with. The Fern rockery 
on the north side is a much more satisfactory production, and 
was in all probability an after thought, as was also the bulb 
rockery. The Fern rockery is everything that could be desired 
for exposure, and combines usefulness with a general rustic and 
natural appearance. 
For bulbs no attempt to form a rockery has been made, but 
the general idea is good, each species being surrounded with 
stones in a natural way both keeps them separate and also helps 
the underdrainage. 
The rockery in Messrs. Backhouse’s nursery at York is pro¬ 
bably the best imitation of Nature yet accomplished in this 
country, some of the stones used being very large and weighing 
several tons. I am afraid after seeing the above that imitation 
may, however, be overdone, and in this case I think it has, one 
reason being the large amount of ground taken up for the com¬ 
paratively small number of plants found there. The rockery at 
York is undoubtedly a rockery, and a very huge concern, but as 
a means of growing plants I prefer the free use of much smaller 
stones, and in a way combine the two. Vai-ious aspects are 
obtained, but in these Ferns seemed to be the predominant 
feature, and indeed they are quite athome, reflecting their graceful 
forms in the water below. The undulations and windings of the 
walks tend to mystify one at first, and 1 think them miserably 
narrow and uncomfortable. The rockery at Floore Weedon is on 
altogether a new principle, and I think a good one for plants. 
Huge mounds of soil are thrown up into which are embedded 
stones of various sizes, broken here and there with huge over¬ 
hanging boulders and well supplied with narrow walks, undulat¬ 
ing and winding. At Malpas the rockeries, which are not very 
extensive, rise abruptly from the smooth green lawn, very neat 
and artistic, and bear the stamp of being made to grow plants 
well. 
The rockery at Kew, which until lately was of a very insig¬ 
nificant nature for so vast an establishment, has been augmented 
by a structure of which the nation may well be proud. 
The arrangement is simple and natural, and evidently made 
with a view to the better accommodation and convenience of the 
increasing number of visitors. A broad winding walk runs 
through the entire rockery, which is arranged on each side, 
varying in height in different places with a few huge boulders of 
composition stone. 
Fortunately, for the better appearance of the whole, some 
parts are composed of roots, and these exposures, to my way of 
thinking, are the best in the whole rockery, and being composed 
