461 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Norember 23, 1893. 
There are always some plants more delicate than others and 
more impatient of variations in the heat provided, and whether 
these are grown in an Orchid house proper or in a structure con¬ 
taining other plants, they should be assigned positions where the 
conditions are more in accordance with their requirements. Obser¬ 
vation will soon acquaint a man with peculiarities of this character, 
and I have had in my own experience many striking examples of 
how much attention to this matter will contribute to success. There 
are, indeed, few plant growers who could not bear witness to the 
strange partiality displayed by some plants for particular positions 
in houses, and how they will thrive just where they are suited and 
not succeed so well in another part of the same house. In the 
winter, when all circumstances are more trying to plants and 
cultivators, these apparently simple matters become very important. 
In providing ventilation at the present time and onwards 
much caution must be exercised, as though the day may be ex¬ 
tremely bright, yet a cold cutting wind admitted direct to the 
foliage is a prolific source of injury. For winter the openings of 
the ventilators should be covered with perforated zinc or some 
woven material that will prevent a sudden inrush of cold air, and 
the method of admitting air from the outside by means of pipes 
under the paths, gratings or hot-water pipes is very convenient, as 
it can be stopped at any time and does not admit too great a body of 
air at once. In unusually severe weather it is better not to attempt 
ventilation at all; in fact, whenever the temperature is near freezing 
point it is not safe or necessary if care is exercised in regulating 
the heat as already suggested._ 
With one more hint we will close these notes on general 
management. This is in regard to the application of water, which 
should always be employed of the same temperature as the house, 
for supplies of cold water to the tender roots are even more 
dangerous than draughts of cold air on the foliage. When tanks 
are inside houses which catch the rain falling upon the house, it 
often happens after heavy autumn or winter storms that the large 
quantities of water admitted remnin of a low temperature for a 
much longer time than is supposed unless pipes pass through the 
tank. It is preferable to keep a can or two full of water standing 
near the pipes to be used only for watering the plants, the other 
being employed for damping the paths or shelves. Syringing the 
plants is better dispensed with altogether unless the weather be 
warm and bright, when one occasional dewing will refresh the foliage 
greatly. _ 
Most gladly would we give an antidote for the ill effects of-fogs 
were such a one known. Unfortunately, though, the chief diffi¬ 
culties Orchid growers have to encounter in the Metropolitan 
district in the winter are caused by the fogs, and many a promising 
Christmas display has been cut off prematurely by a day or two's 
dense fog in December, yet little can be done to prevent or nullify 
the injuries. It is advisable to keep the house as securely closed 
as possible, avoiding opening the doors unnecessarily ; and some 
advantage has even been found from pulling down the blinds 
where these are still attached. Yery little moisture should be 
distributed about the house, and none on the foliage. This is all 
that can be done, and with the greatest care it must often result in 
the loss of many flowers, and can only be regarded as in great 
degree an unavoidable evil, though it must be observed that the 
conditions of sturdy growth already advocated assist considerably 
in enabling the plants to withstand the evil influences. Selections 
of Orchids for flowering at Christmas will be given in a future 
issue.— Orchidist. 
NOTES BY THE WAY. 
Some Fine Conifers. 
Garden wanderings lose their charm to a large extent when the 
thermometer registers several degrees of frost and the snow and sleet are 
being driven wildly about by a biting wind. And even when these 
conditions are varied by thick fogs or soaking rains the conditions are 
little more tempting. It is easy enough to find inspiration when the 
spring sunshine illuminates the garden or the mellow breath of 
summer is upon it, but in autumn it is impossible, We must live now 
on memory and hope—on recollections of the past and anticipations of 
the future. 
In a retrospective survey of gardens visited during the past summer 
my thoughts rest on one where a noble collection of Conifers graces 
the surroundings of a pleasant Sussex residence. It is near East 
Grinstead, on the road running from Purley Corner through the beautiful 
valley between the Caterham hills, past Riddlesdown, Godstone, and 
Blindley Heath, and so on to Felbridge. In the years that are past the 
road was frequently traversed by gentlemen driving down from town, 
but it is left now to the holiday seekers and the cyclists. The latter 
revel in its easy gradients and smooth surface more than in its richness 
of wayside gardens and the charming views which open out from it, 
for even if they have nowhere in particular to go they are always in a 
desperate hurry to get there, and have no time to waste on trifles. 
Felbridge Place lies on the right hand, a mile or two on the London 
side of Bast Grinstead. The house commands delightful views, and gives 
one fresh impressions even after he has seen, as he may have thought, 
every variety of scenery which this beautiful corner of England 
possesses. Truly Grinstead has a charm all its own. The town itself 
presents attractions foreign to most country places of its size, and it 
would be easy for any fortunate individual who had nothing to do but 
rove during the golden days to pass more than one pleasant week in its 
gardens and byeways. _ 
Mr. Gatty, the owner of Felbridge Place, has strong scientific leanings. 
This, of course, is vague for those to whom science represents more than 
some formidable abstract thing, and who ask for details, but it is all I 
know. Let it suffice to say that his studies, whatever they may be, are 
not so absorbing as to prevent him appreciating the merits and beauties 
of the very fine collection of Conifers which surround his house. I 
understand that his knowledge of the tribe is no limited one, but that 
he is fully capable of judging whether there is anything of special value 
amongst his trees. To give general readers an opportunity of forming 
an opinion I will proceed to name some of the specimens and to indicate 
their altitudes. 
One of the first trees to be observed and admired is a noble specimen 
of the Silver Fir, about 90 feet high and 9 feet In girth. Unfortunately 
I have to give approximate figures, and cannot say with certainty how 
this specimen would compare with the one at Dropmore. In Mr. Cecil 
Bartlett’s paper on the Dropmore Conifers, published in the Journal on 
April 20th this year, he gives the height of a Silver Fir as 94 feet, 
and the girth as 8 feet 6 inches. I should say that these trees must be 
as near twin specimens as it is possible to find, and a splendid pair they 
are. Dr. Gatty’s tree is perfect in every way, and measured by the 
simple system adopted by Mr. Harding at Orton seems to excel the 
Dropmore tree in girth if not in height. 
A Wellingtonia, 70 feet high, also attracts attention. This is a source 
of special pride to the gardener, Mr. Jupp, for he planted it himself, a 
bantling inches high, in a thumb pot thirty years ago. While the 
planter has been growing grey the tree has been gaining rapidly in 
vigour and beauty. It is an almost faultless specimen as to shape,'and 
is a great ornament to the grounds. Mr. Bartlett describes one of the 
Dropmore Wellingtonias, which was planted about six years before the 
Felbridge one, as being 67 feet high and 11 feet 3 inches in girth, and a 
second, planted in 1862 or just about the same time as Mr. Gatty’s tree, 
as 62 feet high and 12 feet in girth. So far as an estimate tells us the 
Sussex tree is taller than either, and has certainly made more rapid 
growth. _ 
Another very fine tree is Taxodium sempervirens, 60 to 65 feet high, 
29 feet in girth, and it would have been more remarkable but for losing 
14 or 15 feet of its top in a gale of wind. Abies Douglasi is a handsome 
specimen, but it would appear to be but a babe beside the marvellous 
Dropmore tree, which is said to be upwards of 120 feet high, the 
branches sweeping the ground at a diameter of 64 feet. There is 
obviously no comparison here, so I must pass on to Cedrus deodara. 
The height of this is put down at 75 feet, while one at Dropmore is 
given as 72 feet high, wdiich means another wonderfully close struggle 
for supremacy. The Felbridge specimen is in every respect a note¬ 
worthy one, and it would be interesting to have its height carefully taken 
and supplied. _ 
This point of exact measurement is emphasized when w'e come to 
Tinus insignis, for in my notebook I have the altitude jotted down as 
90 feet, and on turning to Mr. Bartlett’s paper I find, curiously enough, 
that he quotes a tree as being exactly the same height at Dropmore. 
Which of the two is the finer is doubtful ; they are both splendid 
specimens. That at Felbridge Place spreads like a huge forest tree. 
Another noble giant is Abies Noidmanniana, which is 80 feet hi„h, of 
perfect shape, being even from top to bottom, and it was full of cones. 
In the notes on the Dropmore collection this is classed with others as 
“ good and healthy,” but the altitude is not stated. Other fine Pines 
are P. nobilis, 85 feet high, and Monticola, 50 to 55 feet and full of 
cones. P. cembra, P. Bentbamiana, and P. Pinsapo run from 30 to 
35 feet, P. Bentbamiana is therefore well beaten by the Dropmore 
tree, which is quoted at 56 feet, and must be a wonderful object. 
There is no such Araucaria imbricata at Felbridge as the gigantic 
70 feet tree at Dropmore, the largest hardly exceeding 40 feet, but it is 
a very beautiful specimen, its contour being perfect. Nor is Abits 
Albertiana so fine, its altitude being about 40 feet as against 60 feet in 
the case of the tree under Mr. Herrin’s charge. A. Hookeriana, though 
a small tree, is extremely beautiful, its glaucous foliage being very 
distinct and prominent. A. grandis again is not more than 40 feet, and 
A. concolor will not grow at all, but A. nobilis glauca towers up 75 feet 
or more, and is a truly noble tree. 
