October 23. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
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mere nothing, at last, it would be worth while to put up 
a glass lean-to at the back of a south wall, or the north 
side of a house or mansion, on purpose to grow Perns 
and Polypods, and such things as Lapageria rosea, Ca- 
navallia honariensis.miA many others of the pea-flowering 
tribes, which they sa}'^ look so splendidly in their native 
places; but, owing to the sun and red s))ider, never have 
been yet subdued into good cultivation. Por instance, 
how many Grotalarias can we grow? How many Des- 
modiums and Indigoferns f And yet all these come over 
in every parcel of seeds from travellers as of the very 
best, to say nothing of Iledysarmns, Siitherlandias, and 
Cliantlius, all of which never stand a blink of sun, if 
they are the least cramped at the roots. 
Well, the said stages are thus made :—The first rise 
along the path is three feet high, and the face of it is 
rough stones, but burnt bricks, clinkers, flints, shells, or 
anything that would not rot or crumble to pieces would 
do, and the rougher they were built the better; all 
manner of rubbish would do to fill in behind this rough 
wall, and the stones are bedded in this, leaving large 
spaces “ in and out ” between them for running Ferns to 
creep over. This is the first shelf, and is two feet wide 
across the top, the two feet is the “ all rubbish,” with 
some clean ashes on the top, but fine gravel would do. 
Prom the back of the two feet is another rise for the 
second shelf. This rise is only eighteen inches in rough 
stones, and the flat top may be thirty inches in sand, 
gravel, or ashes; then a*third rise of eighteen or twenty 
inches in rough stones also, and the top is three or four 
feet, backed by the back wall against which the house 
stands. Mr. Pish wrote about such another stage as 
this, and it must be evident that a bank of earth, 
mixed with “ all manner ” of drainage stuff, thrown up 
against a wall, and thus faced into four or five broad 
stages, would last as long as the brick wall itself, would 
drain every drop from the pots, would be always cool 
and damp, or warm and moist, according to the tempera¬ 
ture within, and be the best place in the world for most 
plants; and the expense of this stage, which would last 
for ever, need not be one-half of that for a common 
greenhouse stage; the only disadvantage is, that slovenly 
people could not make muck pies under this kind of 
stage. 
The largest Fern in this house is Zlfc/fsoma antarctiea, 
a tree Pern, with a trunk four feet high, and ten wide- 
spreading leaves at the top, begging your pardon, for 
tree Ferns must have leaves like other trees, and there 
are several other plants of this tree, but not so big; but 
when a man talks about Pern leaves it is time to drop 
the subject, until the world is either more wise or less 
pedantic; meantime, say frond, or fronds, that is all. 
Orchids. —They have never been very successful in 
the cultivation of air plants atKew, probably on account 
of the constantly opening of the doors, and letting in 
cold draughts. The Horticultural Society managed 
much better; they locked the doors on show days, and 
on all days, I believe, where rare things were in store. 
The Orchids here are now in a different house, and look 
middling. 
Large Conservatory.— The greatest progress in Eng- 
gland, or in all Europe, took place in this lai-ge house 
since lSu2. At that time the plants existed, and that 
was all. What with the want or room in the old stoves, 
which spoiled half the collection, and the new expe¬ 
rience to bo learned from the capacity of this ugly 
building, the plants in it at this time three years were 
looking as dry, and husky, and as wretched-looking as 
ever the old school could turn out from the dominions of 
the douhle-flue and tan beds; but now the whole of the 
plants are in the utmost health, and are as clean and 
free from insects as any collection I ever saw. The 
only regret is, that there are just three times as many 
plants in tiro house as ought to bo in it, and all the 
good gardening in the world can never counteract the 
bad effects of a crowded plant-house, irlant-jiit, frame, 
open border, and all, as I can testify from my own 
borders at present, and from my back experience. 
Along the paths, and around some of the beds or 
shelves, both here and at the Crystal Palace, are the 
prettiest edgings of all that have been yet attempted in 
hothouses. The plant which forms these edgings is 
Gynanotis vittata, and the literal translation of the two 
names is Blue rihhand, whatever “Nemophila” and the 
readers of the Iliad may think of it. The Gyanotis is 
a stove or half-stove Mexican trailing plant, which was 
called Tradeseantia xehrina, by the trade, before it got 
into the hands of science to name it right. Verily, the 
trade have much to answer for on account of their pre¬ 
dilection for fine names of their own making, to catch a 
penny, and then be the first to halloo out murder, on 
the proper naming of such a now plant. 
A large tree of Eugenia malaocensis, or the Malay 
Apple-tree, was in flower at the time, and it may be 
said to be the handsomest flower of any plant in the 
order (Myrtleblooras); and as it is very seldom in the 
power of any European gardener to see it, I shall tell 
what it is like. To look at it from a distance, it would 
appear to be a purplish-crimson ball, as big as a moderate 
orange, resting on, and all round, the old parts, or three- 
year-old parts, of the branches where there were no 
leaves. There were great quantities of these crimson 
balls crowded on the branches. The ball is made of 
an endless number of stamens, and the quantity is the 
produce of three, four, or five flowers, or say a cluster 
of flowers; these clusters come on very stout spurs from 
the old wood, and look like so many Orange flowers in 
the bud ; and when all the flowers on a spur open, their 
united stamens form the handsomest hall you ever saw. 
GalUandra 2'weedii was also in bloom, and extremely 
handsome; it is a far better habited plant than either 
of the older ones, which went by tlie name of Inga. It 
makes a good bush-specimen, and yields a great number 
of purple-crimson flowers, all made up of the stamens, 
like those of Malay Rose-apple. Aristoloclda ornitho- 
cephala was climbing over head, and was full of those 
dark, curiously-shaped flowers, which look as much like 
a coalheaver’s hat as anything in this world. 
At the south end is a splendid collection of those 
half Palm-like plants, called Gy cads, after our old Gycas 
revoliita, Zamias, which are so numerous in the eastern 
parts of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. The 
Gaffer bread of the same colony, Enceplialartos of sorts, 
with species of Macrozamia and Geratozamia, the Dion 
of Mexico, the Elephant’s-foot plants of the Cape, and 
Dioscorea macrostachia, which has a root-stock very 
much like the Elephant’s-foot plant, but the leaves are 
much larger. 
All these curious plants, or most of them, it may be 
observed, would live in a greenhouse just as well, if 
not better ; the keeping of them in a stove, at present, 
is but another edition of the foolishness of attempting 
to keep half-hardy bulhs from the same parts in heat, 
till we had driven them out of cultivation; but the 
tenacity of life in the rough stems of these half-hardy 
Gyeads seems proof against heat and hothouses. 
The flower-gardening hero, and wherever I visit, is 
the point to which I pay the most attention, and what¬ 
ever my descriptions may bo, whether favourable or 
otherwise, whether good, bad, or indifferent, everybody 
who reads them, and who knows less of the subject 
than the writer, ought to be instructed by the perusal, 
and if he is not so, the fault is in the writer. Por a 
writer, to he highly gratified with what he sees, or to 
have his feelings touched in any other way hy the sight, 
is not of the smallest use or interest to the reader, 
unless he is made more knowing by what he reads. 
Now, although I may not be always able to give such 
