10 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 7, 1892. 
trellis. The worst seasons come and go without affecting the de sert 
supply. 
B’rom the main terrace, which is beautified by classic vases and steps, 
the lawns slope to the south, finishing at the south-west and in front 
of a sunk geometric-il flower garden, with a fountain in the centre. 
Here carpet bedding is well displayed, the whole garden being banked by 
magnificent Rhododendrons. Some fine specimen foliage and flowering 
trees and shrubs stud the lawn singly and in clumps. Another 
eometrioal flower garden lies to the east of the mansion, all being 
eautiful with its fountain, carpet bedding andmived beds. An extensive 
shrubbery behind this has been much improved. Here are some of the 
finest specimens of Conifers, amongst them being a Wellingtoniafifi feet 
high with a trunk 18 feet in girth. I think this can claim to be the 
king of the Wellingronias in England. Close by this is a Cryptomeria 
japonica, and almo.-t as high, with a fine trunk, a perfect specimen from the 
ground, notwithstanding having 15 feet blown off some ten years ago. 
About the conserva'cy and corridor a chapter could be written. It 
is extended from the east end of the mansion, having a mosaic floor. 
Tree Ferns and creepers, permanent plants, and a splendid bank of 
Camellias some 15 feet high, and about 50 feet all along the back. 
These were moved here from the old conservatory twelve years since. 
They are furnished from top to bottom. As a proof of its size it is 
almost a week’s work to re-arrange this with flowering plants. Some 
ten years ago, when writing in the Journal on the cultivation of the 
Poinsettia, I stated in this conservatory summer reigns supreme all the 
year round. That is ^till my conviction. The north front has a large 
expanse of lawu, the carriage drives curving to the east and west. 
The water supply cannot be overlooked. Various force pumps are 
fixed up for watering and syringing various trees and shrubs from any 
of the numerous stand p p-s. The pumps are fixed in cesspools from 
the mansion and farm, and some in spring water. By a simple arrange¬ 
ment two or three pum, s can be set at work, so that a solution can be 
obtained from the various cesspools and fresh water together, diluted so 
that it can be made or any strength—clear, medium, or strong all over 
the garden. What a stving of labour and slushing about on the paths 
by the usual water barrows. Equally good are the arrangements for 
warming the houses and i ffices. 
The well timbered and extensive park is seen from most points of the 
pleasure ground. To the north-west side lies the home farm. The 
buildings are very extensive, and were erected at a cost of £7000. The 
walls in several places are hung with the prizes taken for beasts at the 
several shows. Very appropriate mottoes are hung in the passages; amongst 
them I notice! ‘'Waste not, want not,” “ Cleanliness is next to godli¬ 
ness.” Properly equipped carpenters’ shops, smithies, and corn mills, 
through which run swindles for all sorts of machinery worked by a 
large windmill fixed on the building, and in fine weather by steam. 
Mr. and Mrs. N cholson take great interest in their estate and work¬ 
people and the villages around, and recently they have erected a 
arge village meeting house and reading room. 
A new Tacsonia, a cioss between two Tacsonias that are growing 
in the conservatory, is growing outside on a south wall, and has 
flowered most fre ly. It is a decided improvement on any other 
Tacsonia in the colour and beauty of the bloom, and its grand point 
is its hardiness and free flowering outside.—G. A. Bishop, Wightwich 
Manor Gardens, Wolverhampton. 
LEPACHYS COLUMNARIS. 
There are few more interesting studies connected with wild flowers 
han the geography of plants. Plants are essentially travellers. Not 
even the most steadilv disposed remains perpetually in one place. The 
bulb produces a bulblet at its side, beneath or above it, and then dies, 
leaving vacant the spot which it occupied. Sometimes the plant travels 
faster by off-ets or r unneis, and is still wider distributed by buds or 
seeds. It is only a question of time for the slowest plants to advance to 
immense distances, and we may reasonably conclude that no species of 
plant has been always in the location where we now find it. There is, 
of course, a retrogression as well as an advance, and the same ground 
may have been occupied and re-occupied a number of times. It is just 
possible that a species abundant in any one location may always have 
been there from its first appearance on the earth, but bearing in mind 
the known essential character of a plant to travel, we may reasonably 
believe the probabiiifies to be against that conclusion, and hence the 
effort to trace the plant to its original home is clothed with peculiar 
interest. There are many agencies by which plants travel, independently 
of those which are pans of their own natures. Animals carry both the 
plants themselves and their se ds, and the winds and waters are ever at 
work on the task of oistiibutiou. Rivers especially have a very impor¬ 
tant part, and the plant-geographer generally finds the range of a 
species much greater in the line of a stream than in lateral directions. 
As to where any one species first made its appearance, nothing has yet 
been discovered. Tnere is reason to believe that they did not appear 
simultaneously, some are certainly more recent than others; but 
though new species a' e continually being discovered, no one has yet been 
found that could be pronounced a modern creation in the sense the 
average mind would understand by modern times. But though this field 
of study seems hopele-srly impenetrable, the earnest student is often 
furnished with glimpses ot the interior, and which keep him in hopes of 
a better reward some day. 
Our present p'an', Lepachys culumnaris, is one of those we’come aids 
in ihcse interesting researches. It was first discoverel by Bradbu-y or 
Nuttall, most probably the former, in the lower portion of what was 
once the great Mi souri Territory, and which embraced at one time 
nearly all the land we now possess between tie Mississippi and the 
Rocky Mountains ; but since that time it has been found by almost 
every Government expedition along the lines of most of the streams 
examined. Thus one reports it as found on “tie Upper Canadian;” 
another, “prairies along the Canadian;” another, in the “Upper 
Arkansas,” and as we proceed along almost every river that runs into 
the Missouri up to its very source the Lepachys is found. And it exists 
on the high prairie ridge which divides the waters of the south from 
those flowing north, and the plant follows the Saskatchawan in its north¬ 
east course towards Hudson’s Bay. A plant which had its ancient home 
in a warm climate would be able to resist but very little cold, and its 
northward travels be limi ed by the winter temperature. It is therefore 
probable that the Lepachys sprang first into life in the Upper Missouri 
region, and then spread north and south through the river agencies 
chiefly, and, once established in new localities, spread east and west, 
meeting each colony from side to side. 
We may now say a few words on its botanical history. As already 
noted, the seeds were probably collected by Bradbury, who supplied Mr. 
Nuttall with many seeds and plants of his collecting beyond the Mis¬ 
souri, and the seeds were given by Mr. Nuttall to Mr. Frazer, an English 
nurseryman, who flowered it in England about 1813. Pursh, in his 
“ Flora of North America,” issued in 1814, refers to it, probably_ having 
seen the plant at Frazer’s, as he was then in England preparing his work. 
It was however at this time known as a Rudbeckia, and it is described in 
Nuttall’s “Genera of North American Plants” as Rudbeckia columnaris. 
In 1819 Rafinesque, who with many eccentricities, had a wonderful 
power of discrimination, made several new genera out of the old one of 
Rudbeckia, and in a French magazine, the Journal of Physic, described 
two of them, one Rutib’da and Lepachys. Botanists who succeeded him 
did not recognise his distinctions, and we find in many authors who 
succeeded him Lepachys and Rutibida given as synonyms. Torrey and 
Gray seem to have been the first to recognise the validity of the genus 
Lepachys, and it is now generally accepted. Our plant was in Rafi- 
nesque’s genus Rutibida, which is not regarded as distinct from Lepachys, 
and was Rutibida sulcata. 
The name Lepachys is derived from the Greek, lepis, a scale, and 
staehys, thick, according to Dr. Asa Gray, which the thickened apex of 
the chaffy scale ot the receptacle may be regarded as appropriate. Many 
of the genera allied to Rudbeckia have, however, hard and peculiar 
chaffy scales, and the variations in these scales are taken into material 
consideration in analysing the generic relations of this group of Compo¬ 
site. In this genus the scale almost encloses the flower in its younger 
condition. Almost all composite plants have their little flowers or 
florets, very beautiful in form when seen somewhat magnified ; but this 
one, though rather heavy in appearance, is by no means|_unworthy of 
admiration by the art critic. 
The plant varies remaikably in some localities, so much so, in 
fact, thai before the lines of variation in this species were known, some 
of these forms were thought to be good species, and have had distinct 
names. Sometimes the receptacle with the disc flowers, which in the 
illustration herewith is long and slender, is short and almost globose. In 
others the ray florets are much shortened and are of a much darker 
colour. Indeed, in some cases the flower reminds one of the common 
French Marigold of gardens, and, once thought to be a species, was 
named Lepachys Tagetes, in accordance with the resemblance. 
Torrey and Gray say the disc has the odour of anise when bruised, 
and the bruised leaves have in some slight degree the same character. 
But the plant is not known to have any use in the arts. As a hardy 
perennial border flower, it is, however, very welcome. It has the excel¬ 
lent character of taking care of itself, though with little encouragemeiit 
from the florist ; and when once it commences to bloom in July, it 
continues through the whole summer season.— {Meehan's Monthly.') 
FRUIT FORCING. 
Pines. —When it is found necessary to bring together any plants for 
the purpose of inducing them to come into fruit sooner than they other¬ 
wise would a light house or pit should be provided, where they can have 
the benefit of more heat. This being done some must be selected from 
the successional plants, choosing those which appear likely to show 
fruits quickly, which are readily distinguished by an examination of the 
centre or hearts of the plants, those likely to throw fruit having high 
centres, and are quite stout at the upper part of the plant stem. Let 
these plants be plunged in a bed which should stand constantly at a 
temperature of 90° to 95° at the base of the pots. If the plants are in 
the least dry water them copiously with liquid manure at the same 
temperature as the bed. Maintain the top heat at 65° to 70° at night, 
w'tn 5° more from fire heat by day, and 10° to 15° more from sun heat. 
Keep the atmosphere about the plants in a gen'al and invgorating 
