November 10. 
the cottage card knee. 
101 
should be used. Tn all cases where Peaches are, in 
addition to covering the hack wall, planted out as 
standards, and cultivated in large pots, or tubs, with 
Vines on the rafters, success will chiefly depend upon 
making them so far the principal thing that the Vines 
shall not prevent plenty of light at all times reaching 
them. 
The third enquiry, having reference to associating 
Vines, Peaches, and greenhouse and bedding-plants, 
may bo said to be answered in the last remark ; and in 
the statements in reply to the first query aneijt the 
contemplated house at the Parsonage. But here, to 
prevent, according to the old adage—“ slipping down 
between two stools,” it is necessary to make one a prin¬ 
cipal object, and the other only subsidiary. I once used 
a large house for a similar purpose. Standards of 
Peaches in the centre of the house bore plentifully, and 
fine, well-flavoured fruit; but, then, tire roof of the 
house had Vines little thicker than on every alternate 
rafter. By degrees, it was found out that the Grapes 
were more valuable than the Poaches, and, consequently, 
the roof, by degrees, got covered with Vines. This soon 
told on the Standard Peaches. They first suffered in 
colour and flavour, and then began to yield imperfect 
blossoms, from not obtaining a sufficiency of light. 
After the standards in the centre of the house were 
thus crippled, those on the back wall continued for some 
time to produce fair fruit, just because there were more 
openings for the light to enter near the top of the roof; 
and what light entered at other places was reflected 
and refracted from the back wall, the plants there 
receiving the benefit. Of course, there will be no diffi¬ 
culty with greenhouse or bedding-plants if fire-heat is 
used merely to keep the house from frost. 
Many, who now contemplate building, have ambition 
enough to try many things in little space. In the case 
before us, plants, in winter and spring, and fruit, in 
summer, seem the chief objects. I have endeavoured to 
hold the balance even—neither to damp the anxious, 
industrious, and intelligent, nor to make the zealous 
sanguine over-much. P>- Fish. 
DROPMORE GARDENS. 
The progress of trees that are new, and likely to he 
useful or ornamental to our country, is always ex¬ 
ceedingly interesting; and I never had this more forcibly 
impressed upon me than when 1 had occasion, lately, to 
visit Dropmore, the residence of Lady Grenville, situ¬ 
ated about three miles from the Maidenhead Station, 
on the Great Western Railway. 
It is well-known as a place that contains a splendid 
collection of Conifer®; and as I was much delighted 
with the progress of these fine trees, I took the notes 
which I now briefly transcribe for the readers of The 
Cottage Gardener. 
It is greatly to the credit of the noble owner of these 
fine trees that the gardens may always be seen by 
respectable parties, on application to Mr. Frost, the 
intelligent gardener there. Any lady or gentleman 
wishing to ornament their grounds with these fine trees 
may there see what splendid objects they are, even when 
they attain the size they are at Dropmore ; and Mr. 
Frost is no niggard in imparting information how to 
plant them, what sort of soil they require, and any other 
point likely to be useful to the planter. That he is a 
competent guide is certain, for be planted them, and 
has had the care of them up to this day. 
On entering the grounds at the Lodge-gates, the 
visitor passes, for a short distance, through a plantation 
of lofty common forest-trees. The carriage-drive grace¬ 
fully winds round, and the view opens upon a wide 
lawn, on each side of which appears line healthy speci¬ 
mens of the commoner Conifer®, such as the Norway 
Spruce, the Weymouth 1’ine, and the Scotch 1 ir, 
acting as precursors to the more rare and finer speci¬ 
mens of the tribe. This lawn, or grassy ground, is not 
in what is called high keeping, but is considerably undu¬ 
lating, and, here and there, broken with pieces of rough 
ground, on which the common Heath, and other dwarf 
British shrubs, form a kind of foreground to the tall 
Conifers alluded to above, rendering the scene exces¬ 
sively picturesque. I think this drive, from the entrance 
gates to the mansion, must be nearly a mile in length. 
As it approaches the house, the woods again receive the 
visitor, and linally he arrives at the stables. I here the 
gardener must bo inquired for, and through a door in the 
garden wall the pleasure-ground is entered. 
Against this wall there arc several plant-houses, a 
lofty conservatory, and a beautiful aviary. . In front of 
them is a large space laid out in the ancient style of 
flower gardening, with here and there a mixture of the 
more modern bedding-out system. Passing through 
this, the visitor arrives at a large space of dressed lawn, 
on which are groups of trees, and amongst them, in 
open spaces, are the fine specimens of the Coniferous 
plants, occupying, I should think, at a rough guess, ten 
or fifteen acres. This pleasure-ground is to the right 
of the mansion, the front of which is, comparatively, 
clear of trees. The views from hence are very fine, 
embracing the ITill of Richmond, Ascot Heath, the 
Royal Castle of Windsor, and the Bedfordshire hills, 
fifty miles off. These are the general features of this 
fine seat. I shall now describe, as well as I can, the 
fine specimens of Conifer®, and, first and foremost, as 
being the most remarkable, 
Araucaria imbricata. — Of this beautiful tree there 
are three or four remarkably handsome specimens. As 
is well known, it is an evergreen, and emphatically so , 
for it is a fact, that the leaves on the trees at Dropmore 
1 are at least twenty years old. They are alive now, close 
i to the stem, down' to the ground. I know no other 
j evergreen that keeps its leaves so long. 
The finest tree stands ou a knoll exposed to the west 
and north winds, and has not suffered in the least fiom 
! the exposure, thus proving its perfect hardihood. It is 
S thirty-eight feet high, clothed with branches down to the 
j ground. The stein is four feet in circumference, and 
every tier of branches is perfect to the very top. It was 
I planted when a small plant, exactly twenty-two yeais 
1 ago, and has, consequently, grown, on an average, 
’’ rather more than eighteen inches evevy year. Ihe 
subsoil on which it stands is gravelly, and the surtace- 
i soil not more than a foot deep of common, not over 
rich, soil. All this proves the Araucaria imbricata to 
; be a very desirable tree to plant largely, in every situa¬ 
tion not actually wet. _ - 
Geclrus deoilora. —One planted in 18.b> has attained 
thirty-five feet in height; very, magnificent specimens; 
next in beauty to the Araucaria , and quite as haidy. 
Pirns insignia. —This dark, rich green tree is a veiy 
quick grower. It was planted in 1839, and is now fifty 
! feet in height, with wide-spreading branches. 
Abies Douglassii. —A noble tree, seventy feet high, 
with a stem six-and-a-half feet diameter, and branches 
that cover a space of ground sixty feet in diametei. It 
was a seedling in 1828, just twenty-five years ago, and, 
consequently, averages an annual growth of nearly 
three feet. This is, undoubtedly, the finest tree of the 
kind in Europe. 
A. carnatica. —Fifty feet high ; a rare species. 
Larix macrocarpa. — A deciduous species, with laige 
cones ; likely to become as valuable a timber tree as the 
common Larch. 
Picea nobilis, P■ grandis, and 1 ■ amabihs. I hose 
being of late introduction, are, as yet, but small, but 
they are growing rapidly, making shoots nearly two feet 
