THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
March 25. 
31)2 
or abroad; or found by reading many boolcs publish’d on ' 
this subject, pretending to speak of nurseries and plan- I 
tations for store and variety; directions for the designing, 
(or as they term it) the skilful making, plotting, laying out, 
and disposing of a ground to the best advantage; in a 
word, for whatsoever were desirable for the furniture of such 
a ground with the most excellent and warrantable fruit (I 
say warrantable, because it is peculiarly due to their honest 
industry, and so rarely to be met with elsewhere), and other i 
accessories to gardens of all denominations, as in that vast ! 
ample collection which I have lately seen, and well con¬ 
sider’d at Brompton Park, near Kensington : the very sight 
of which alone, gives an idea of something that is greater 
than I can well express, without an enumeration of par- | 
ticulars; and of the exceeding industry, method, and 
address of those who have undertaken and cultivated it for i 
public use; I mean Mr. George London , (chief gardener to 
their Majesties,) and lus associate Mr. Henry Wise. They 
have made observations and given me a specimen of that 
long (but hitherto) wanting particular, of discriminating 
the several kinds of fruits by their characteristical notes, 
from a long and critical observation of the leaf, taste, 
colour, and other distinguishing qualities; so as one shall 
not be impos’d upon with fruits of several names when, as j 
in truth, there is but one due to them. Tor instance, in 
Pears alone, a gentleman in the country sends to the nur¬ 
series for the Liver Blanche, Pignigny de Chouille, Bat an 
Blanc, &c., the English St. Gilbert, Cranboum Pears (and 
several other names), when all the while they are no other 
than the well known Cadillac. The same also hap’ning in j 
Peaches, Apples, Plumbs, Cherries, and other fruit; for ' 
want of an accurate examination (by comparing of their ; 
taste, and those other indications I have mentioned,) for 
which gentlemen complain (and not without cause,) that j 
the mu’serymen abuse them, when ’tis their ignorance, or | 
the exotic fame of which they are so fond. ‘And as for the | 
nursery part in voucher, and to make good what I have said j 
on that particular, one needs no more than to take a walk to ; 
Brompton Park (upon a fair morning) to behold and admire 
what a magazine these industrious men have provided, fit 
for age and choice in their several classes, and all within 
one enclosure : such an assemblage, I believe, as is nowhere 
else to be met with in this kingdom, nor in any other that I 
know of.’ 
“ In the year 1714 the nursery passed into the hands of 
‘ Smith and Carpenter,’ the latter of whom was author of 
‘ The Retired Gardener,’ in six parts. 1 vol. 8vo.: London, 
1717. On these gentlemen retiring, Mr. Swinhoe became 
proprietor, and in 1756 he resigned in favour of his relative, 
Mr. Jeffreys, who, in 1788, was joined by Mr. James Gray, 
the business being then carried on under the firm of 
‘ Jeffreys and Gray.’ But Jeffreys dying only nine months 
afterwards, Mr. Gray conducted the business alone till 1700, 
when he received as a partner Mr. Wear, a nephew of 
Jeffreys, and also in a few years afterwards his brother, Mr. 
Robert Gray, the firm then being ‘ Gray, Wear, and Gray.’ 
In 1809 Mr. Wear retired, and in 1818 Mr. Robert Gray 
also retired in favour of his nephew, Mr. William Gray ; 
the establishment was then carried on till 1827, under the 
name of James Gray and Son, when they were joined by 
Mr. Robert Brown, a son of the Rev. Mr. Brown, minister 
of the parish of Eskdalemuir, Dumfries-shire, but who died 
at Florence while travelling on the continent for the benefit 
of his health. P[e was succeeded by Mr. Adams in 1837, 
the firm being ‘ Gray, Son, and Adams.’ In 1842 Mr. 
William Gray died, and was succeeded by Mr. Hogg, on 
which occasion the firm became ‘ Gray, Adams, and Hogg.’ 
Mr. Gray retired in 1847, at the advanced age of eighty- 
seven.” 
Brompton Nursery has now been sold, and will shortly be 
covered with houses, and its -whereabouts rendered a matter 
of history. Among the houses about to be removed to 
make space for others, we believe is that now inhabited by 
Earl Talbot, in what is called Brompton Park, and it merits 
this special notice, because it was at one time tenanted by 
Mr. London, and subsequently by Mr. Wise, when the latter 
succeeded him as inspector of the Royal Gardens. 
A correspondent inquires—“Why the dungs of pigeons 
and other birds are not as powerful fertilizers as 
guano ?” and the ready answer is, because other birds 
than sea-birds do not have food so abounding in am¬ 
monia. All flesh, whether of birds, quadrupeds, or fish, 
abounds in ammoniacal matters, or matters forming 
ammonia during their decomposition; and it is found, 
that just in proportion to the amount of flesh consumed 
as food by any living creature, is the fertilizing quality 
of the manure that creature produces. Thus sea-birds, 
living entirely on fish, produce guano; the human 
species, night-soil; and the dung of pigs comes next in 
power as a manure. The nearest approach to guano, 
that we know, is the dung of poultry, plentifully sprin¬ 
kled and well-mixed with the ammoniacal liquor of the 
gas-works. If our correspondent will refer to our second 
volume, he will find at pages 2—3, a very copious state¬ 
ment of the mode of using guano, and a list of some of 
the garden crops to which it has been applied, and the 
results published. Since we wrote those particulars, we 
have met with Dr. Tschudi’s Travels in Peru, published 
about four years since, and we think our readers will 
peruse with interest the following particulars he gives 
relative to this justly celebrated manure:— 
“ Opposite to Pisco and Cliinca there is a group of small 
islands, of which the largest, Saugallan, is six English miles 
distant from Pisco. These islands have of late years be¬ 
come celebrated on account of the great quantity of guano 
that has been exported from them. 
“ Guano (or according to the more correct orthography, 
Huanu),* is found on these islands in enormous layers of 
from thirty-five to forty feet thick. The upper strata are of 
a greyish-brown colour, which lower down becomes darker. 
In the lower strata the colour is a rusty-red, as if tinged by 
oxide of iron. The guano becomes progressively more and 
more solid from the surface downward, a circumstance 
naturally accounted for by the gradual deposit of the strata, 
and the evaporation of the fluid particles. Guano is found 
on all the islands, and on most of the uninhabited promon¬ 
tories of the west coast of South America, especially in those 
parts within the tropics. I have often been assured that beds 
of guano several feet high, covered with earth, are found 
inland at some distance from the sea; but I never met with 
any, and I have some doubt of the correctness of the state¬ 
ment. If, however, these inland strata really exist, I am 
inclined to believe that they can only be found on hilly 
ground; and in that case they afford strong evidence of a 
considerable elevation of the coast. 
“ Guano is formed of the excrements of different kinds 
of marine birds, as mews, divers, sheerbeaks, Ac.; but chiefly 
the Sula variegata, Tsch. 
“ The immense flocks of these birds as they fly along the 
coast appear like clouds. When their vast numbers, their 
extraordinary voracity, and the facility with which they pro¬ 
cure their food, are considered, one cannot be surprised at 
the magnitude of the beds of Guano, which have resulted 
from uninterrupted accumulations during many thousands 
of years. I kept for some days a living Sula variegata, 
which I fed abundantly with fish. The average weight of 
“ * The original word is Iluanu, which is a term in the Quichua dialect 
meaning ‘ animal dung; ’ for example, Huanacuhuanu (excrement of the 
Iluanacu). As the word is now generally used it is an abbreviation of 
Pishu Huanu — Bird-dung. The Spaniards have converted the final 
syllable nu into no, as they do in all the words adopted from the Quichua 
which have the like termination. The European orthography Guano, 
which is also followed in Spanish America, is quite erroneous, for the 
Quichua language is deficient in the letter G, as it is in several other con¬ 
sonants. The H, in the commencement of the word, is strongly aspi¬ 
rated, whence the error in the orthography of the Spaniards, who have 
sadly corrupted the language of the Autochthones of Peru.” 
