450 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. — September ‘ii , 1850. 
very good substitute for tbe third part. The samo com¬ 
post will suit it for either pot or rock culture; but 
whether cultivated in pots or upon rook work, it must be 
so placed that, whilst freely supplied with water at the 
roots and over the foliage (which it will require during 
tho growing season), all excess of water may soon drain 
away, so that the moisture should never become stag¬ 
nant about the roots. Although the prosent species 
often grows in situations where it is subject to a consi¬ 
derable degree of dryness and exposure to the sun, yet 
it may, under cultivation, be grown to a much finer 
state of development if kept moist and shaded during 
its growing period. Young plants are the host to start 
with. Proceed with potting and propagating in the 
same manner as directed for former species, the fructifi¬ 
cation being ripe by August or September. 
It may bo grown in doors, although, like most of the 
other Lastreeas, it usually becomes long and wealc under 
confined treatment; but this may bo checked if it can be 
supplied with abundance of fresh air. 
CRYSTAL PALACE.— September 11th, 1850. 
Regretting T could not bo there on tbe 10th, I 
managed, by means of a day ticket, to get up and spend 
a few hours there on the 1 llh. Of tho Exhibition, very 
good as a whole, I will say nothing, as Air. Beaton 
would have better opportunities to do the subject jus¬ 
tice. There aro, however, many ideas naturally sug¬ 
gested at such a place worthy of consideration, and 
more especially when the floricultural arrangements 
there aro coming to be looked upon in the light of 
authority, and as patterns for imitation and adoption. 
The first sensation on getting there was one akin to 
pride that I belonged to a people that could make such 
a Palace for themselves. Our neighbours have their 
Louvre and Versailles, but all under the conLrol of the 
government. Our papers, for want of something better, 
teem with descriptions of the gorgeous pageantry, the 
emblazonry of gold, and silver, and diamonds, at the 
court of Moscow, contrasting, I fear, but too vividly 
with the serfdom and low state of civilization of the 
great masses of the people. Nations that have every¬ 
thing done for them may present a gay nnd imposing 
exterior; but ns respects the masses, they will rather be 
children in leading-strings than stalwart men asserting 
and exercising the rights of volition and action. The 
heights of intellectual inquiry, moral refinement, and 
social comfort and prosperity can only be reached by 
peoples who, animated by self-dependence, and asking 
little from their government but merely to be let alone, 
provided no man interferes with the rights of his neigh¬ 
bour, construct tor'themselves their halls of learning, 
their temples for charity and benevolence, their iron 
railways for transit, and their Crystal Palaoes for the 
improvement aud recreation of the masses. Were it for 
I nothing else than furnishing an additional proof of the 
j as yet unmeasured strength of this self-dependent prin- 
ciple, whether as referring to individuals or communi- 
| ties, Sir Joseph Paxton and the Crystal Palaco Company 
j deserve our warmest gratitude. 
J he second idea suggested was the responsibility of 
gardeners, not only in fostering, as they have done, the 
general taste lor horticulture and floriculture, but to 
strive energetically to continue to lend tbe movement, 
as the least lagging on their parts will subject them to 
the position of being led and directed by it. Upon our 
owjj onergies and a thorough acquaintance with tho 
principles of our profession, not only ns one of practical 
detail, but as one of the Fino Arts, second to nono in 
taste and refinement, will depend the fact, whether we 
aro to bo looked up to and respected, or kindly consi¬ 
dered as mere usol'ul routino labourers for carrying out 
the ideas of others. From a pretty frequent attendance 
at metropolitan and country exhibitions, I had long seen 
and rejoiced in tho growing taste for gardening and the 
increasing love of the beautiful; but I never saw it 
more exemplified than in this shilling day at Sydenham. 
Lads aud lasses, out for the holiday, so neat in their 
Sunday dresses; mechanics with their wives aud sweet¬ 
hearts, with nothing in their appearance or manners to 
prevent them being taken* for our polished gentry but 
the rough, ungloved hand, telling of honourable inter¬ 
course with tho mallet and tho plane, not only passed 
most sage remarks on the fruit and vegetables, confiden¬ 
tially, of course, but loud enough for a bystander to 
hear, but eutered minutely into the properties of flowers; 
the beauty of one, tho blemishes in another, tho harmony 
of colours iu the arrangement of one stand, the contrast 
of colours so well defined in another, and tho want of 
neither contrast nor harmony in a third ; how one set of 
plants would have shown bettor placed beneath tho eye, 
and another class would have told better if placed level 
with or above it; and how another, such as tho gorgeous 
Lilies, would have told with more effect if the pots had 
been wholly concealed; whilst ever and anon Sarah would 
whisper to Alary, and Juno point out to Robert certain 
things inferior to what they severally possessed in their 
little gardens at home—all acting as so many straws in 
a windy day pointing to the direction of the breeze, for 
telling us the current of thought and feeling iu the middle 
and lower strata of society, nnd, by implication, in the 
highor stratum likewise, to which floral beauty is not 
only a pleasure but a necessity, and thus demonstrating 
the importance of our exerting ourselves to keep in the 
van of tho movement if we have any regard for our 
honourable position. 
The long glazed entrance did not escape my attention, 
and the more especially as Air. Beaton described the 
plants last year that were expected or hoped to stand 
the winter with the protection of glass, and without any 
assistance from fire heat. A very fine plant of JDolichos 
liynosus, and several Passion-Flowers and other things, 
seemed to have stood ; but most of the soft-wooded 
climbers looked as if they had either been fresh planted 
in the spring, or sprung from the roots afresh this 
season. The most striking and flourishing of these 
wero white Maurandyas and two or three sorts of 
Lojihospermum, which covered the back wall with foliage 
and flowers. The lower part of the wall was rendered 
showy with Scarlet Geraniums, Fuchsias, &c., growing 
vigorously. 
Horo, as one proof of thankfulness for the pleasure 
derived, I would venture a suggestion. A,fair experi¬ 
ment has been made, and l rather think that most of 
the soft-wooded plants would thrive better in the main 
building; and, as the visiting public is more taken with 
results than experiments, to make this glazed entranco 
a very striking and pleasing one, I would keep as many 
climbing plants as would live, even with their stems 
taken up singly to tho top. of the back wall, and encased 
in a wooden tube in winter, so as to get shoots as from 
Passion-Flowers and Glycines, &c., to dangle from the 
roof in summer. Other fino-foliaged plants, as some of 
the Acacias, might be trained for the very top of the 
back wall; but tho great mass of tho wall I would cover 
with Tea and the Sweetest Noisette, Bourbon, and Per¬ 
petual Roses; and as there is room enough for a border 
in front about as wide as that at tho back, I would have 
Roses there also, with strongish-growing good ones to 
mount up single rods of arches, and dwarf ones between; 
and such a sight, I believe, would bo unequalled in this 
