490 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 80, 189S. 
easy-goiug ancestors, having more time, did this sort of thing very 
deliberately. Greorgiaii amateurs would make, in spring and 
early summer, a tour round the nurseries, buying occasionally, but 
having as a chief object the acquisition of knowledge, which was 
not then attainable through garden journals. Indeed, the numerous 
visitors obliged nurserymen, at certain times, to keep men on the 
watch lest plants or cuttings should be carried olE by any who 
were not strictly honourable. To many of the old amateurs we 
are somewhat indebted, though their names are mostly forgotten. 
Plodding workers in their garden plots, which, as a rule, were 
small, they tried to improve their Auriculas, Pelargoniums, Roses, 
and other favourites. Generous, too, were they, as Faulkner tells 
us, distributing gratis seeds and slips of their own raising. Then 
some of them, with the nurserymen, got up year by year flower 
shows of a humble kind, often held in the grounds of a roadside 
tavern, yet which helped to diffuse a taste for garden flowers, as 
they were generally open free. 
Early in the present century the stroller interested in horticul¬ 
ture might have seen a great deal at the west of London within a 
comparatively small radius. Having sharpened his appetite at the 
Apothecaries’ Garden, Chelsea, which Forsyth, then curator, kept 
in capital order, he could inspect the nurseries clustering along the 
King’s Road rich in African and American plants, and where he 
could see illustrated the Chinese and Italian styles of gardening. 
Bearing off northward he would arrive at Old Brompton with its 
long famous Park Nursery, even then reduced in size, but still 
spacious, and containing a great variety of trees and shrubs, ever¬ 
green or deciduous. Close by was Kirke’s Nursery, comprising part 
of the old Cromwell House estate, remarkable for its Yines, some 
trained along extensive walls, others planted along borders. Most 
of the ground was occupied by fruit trees ; it was said to have had 
at one time 100 varieties of the Apple. Harrison’s, adjacent and 
larger in extent, had a fine show of English and foreign trees 
suitable for parks or shrubberies. Gibbs’ establishment of six 
acres only was an experimental garden. One portion, divided into 
800 compartments, contained specimens of all cultivated plants 
used as food for man and cattle ; another division was devoted to 
varieties of cereals and grasses. Salisbury’s nursery was towards 
Queen’s Elm. It had been planned by Curtis, and most of the 
plants were arranged according to their affinities, also labelled. It 
was no great distance to the historic Kensington nursery, founded 
in the time of the Stuarts, and others in that district, while at 
Earl’s Court any respectable person might examine the numerous 
forcing houses and pineries of the famous Gunter, who had also 
many acres of orchard and garden ground. Towards Fulham and 
Hammersmith were the extensive gardens of Altwood, Bagley, 
Hutchins, and others, where all kinds of vegetables and herbs were 
cultivated. The experimental gardens of the Royal Horticultural 
Society belong to a period rather later ; they were on land to the 
west of Earl’s Terrace, and open to the public after 1818. 
Many of the older nursery gardens were laid out very irregularly, 
but about that time they began to exhibit improvements. One of 
these was having cross walks made with narrow borders, along 
which new plants could be placed for view. Several authors 
advocated laying out nurseries and gardens in squares or parallel¬ 
ograms, because the work could then be better calculated ; before 
that the circular form was most in favour. Repton, who began his 
career as landscape gardener in 1795, was largely employed by the 
nobility and gentry in laying out extensive grounds. Discarding the 
formal style that the “omnipotent” Brown had advocated, he 
introduced methods which have still some popularity, and he is 
supposed to have ©ften advised a geometric arrangement of beds. 
One of his peculiarities was that he drew designs and wrote out 
details, but seldom troubled to see how they were complied with. 
Horticultural progress south of London was shown by many 
gardens. Some private ones, such as those of Hibbert and Thornton, 
were regarded as amongst the best in England. These were at 
Clapham, and contained a choice variety of exotics, especially 
African and Australian, the latter being then a novelty. Mr. Jas. 
Knight, who was head gardener to Mr. Hibbert, acquired his 
collection of Cape plants, which was very large, when he left, and 
then he started a nursery near Stanley Bridge, Chelsea, still well 
known as Yeitch’s nursery. Here he had constructed one of the 
most singular conservatories ever erected, having the side walls 
carried higher than the glass roof, so that the effect resembled that 
of looking through a telescope. Such a house, of course, only suited 
such plants as did not require full light. But eccentricity did not 
mark his character, for he had much practical knowledge and skill, 
so that his establishment soon became of importance. He produced 
some remarkably fine specimens of Acacia pubescens, a climber that 
had been almost unknown, and raised many Camellias from seeds. 
He succeeded in getting several curious hybrids between the Azalea 
and Rhododendron, and also brought into notice a large number of 
alpine and bog plants, which he made a speciality. 
To another individual of the same name horticulture is more 
deeply indebted. He was first President of the Royal Horticultural 
Society, and a man fully acquainted with those branches of science 
which have a practical bearing upon the cultivation and improve¬ 
ment of plants. His many and excellent papers in journals or 
transactions of societies, conveyed to gardeners a vast amount of 
information of a kind that had never been published before. Mr. 
T. A. Knight was the son of a Herefordshire clergyman, a man of 
great ability, which both his sons seem to have inherited. From 
childhood Knight was an observer of plants and animals. Living, 
too, amongst orchards he was much puzzled about the varieties 
of the different fruits, and as to how they were obtained. Hence 
he came to investigate for himself, and one of his early papers was 
a protest against increasing Apples by grafting, the result being a 
gradual loss of vitality. He then made a succession of experiments, 
fertilising the blossoms of one variety with pollen from another, 
and sowed the seeds obtained by this crossing. Afterwards he 
reported the results in a little treatise on the Apple and Pear, 
published in 1797. 
One of the facts he pointed out with regard to the Apple was 
the desirability of suiting the sorts planted to the soil and climate 
of the locality, to which no attention had been previously paid. 
He produced several valuable Pears, which were of a hardy 
character, and still held in esteem ; also seedlings worth propagating 
of the Plum and Nectarine. Some Strawberries of his also 
attracted notice, and he wrote on an improved plan of cultivating 
the alpine sort. He also wrote upon the movement of the sap in 
trees, methods of forcing and pruning, the preservation of buds 
that had to be transmitted, and a host of other subjects. To the 
Pine Apple he gave much time and thought. One of his favourite 
theories was, that Pines and other exotic fruits should not have a 
high temperature during the night. Knight’s researches went on 
in all directions—for instance, he did not neglect the useful but 
humble Potato. He suggested plans for raising early crops, 
and also a mode of preventing the malady called “ curl.”— 
J. R. S. C. 
CLEMATISES. 
No eloquent description is wanted to add charms to these exceedingly 
beautiful and universally admired hardy flowering plants, for as a class 
there are, perhaps, no hardy climbers that can excel them. For climb¬ 
ing up stumps of old trees, training to trellises on walls, or planting to 
droop over amongst rock work, no plants are more suitable or will make 
a more charming display than the old C. montana, which still continues 
to holl its own amongst the many varieties of more recent introduction. 
Not only are Clematises well adapted for running up all kinds of 
supports, but their habit and character alone are suggestive of the many 
ornamental purposes to which they may be put, and there are few 
places which may not be adorned by them in some way or other. They 
are perfectly hardy and comparatively easy of cultivation, provided 
they are given a good rich soil and the necessary attention is paid to 
pruning and training. It often happens that they are required to be 
grown in situations where the soil is of inferior quality. When such is 
the case the best plan is to dig holes about 3 feet deep and 2 feet in 
diameter, and either fill in with fresh turfy loam and manure, or add 
a good proportion of the same to the soil thrown out before it is put 
back. The methods of pruning differ considerably according to the 
varieties. C. montana should be but slightly pruned, in fact merely 
cutting out the dead portions would suffice, as this variety mostly 
flowers on the old wood. Liquid manure is also a great help to free 
flowering, therefore frequent soakings should be given them from time 
to time according to the state of the weather.— Geo. Paekant. 
SCENTED-LEAF PELARGONIUMS AS DECORATIVE 
PLANTS. 
Last month, when visiting Canford Manor Gardens, Wimborne, 
where Mr. Grasp,I/ord Wimborne’s clever head gardener, has made several 
extensive improvements duiing the last few years, 1 eaw the finest as 
well as the largest batch of scented-leaf Pelargoniums I had ever 
before seen. The stage in one house was full of bushy plants, growing 
in large 60 and 48-size pots, all the varieties of this fragrant section 
being pretty well represented, to the number of 3000 plants in all. A 
thousand plants are taken up to the town house at one time. These 
large quantities of Malmaison Carnations, and other suitable decorative 
plants, are arranged in the conservatory adjoining Wimborne House, as 
well as in the house itself, and are replaced by fresh plants had from 
Canford at short intervals during the London season. Two of Mr. 
Grasp’s men are employed during the period indicated in tending these 
plants and seeing to the floral decorations, which are carried out on a 
large scale in Wimborne House, whither Mr. Grasp himself goes pretty 
frequently during the season to see that all is right and to superintend 
the arrangement of plants which are taken up at the same time. All 
the plants in the various structures at Canford, including about 3000 
admirably grown plants in various stages of growth, of Malmaison 
Carnations, were looking everything that could be desired — clean 
