no 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
October 20. 
orauge. It is a large, soft-leaved, herbaceous plant, 
dying down after blooming. The circumstance ot its 
blooming in autumn recommends it to general culture. 
It flowers when in a small state, and is a beautiful 
jdant. 
Seiago nisTANs (Distant-flowered).—This is neither 
new nor rare, and is easily ^^ropagated ; yet it is not so 
much grown as it deserves to be. I am induced to 
place it liere for the sake of describing the beautiful 
plants I saw at Chiswick a few days ago. When I 
saw them at a distance, I really thought they were 
some kind of a small-leaved Fir-tree. Mr. Gordon 
manages them well. He trains young plants with a 
single stem, furnished all round with straight, horizontal 
shoots down to the rims of the pots. They then form 
handsome Cypress-like plants, and must be, when in 
flower, still more ornamental. As they flower in very 
early spring, they are then very neat ornaments in the 
greenhouse. I have seen the plant in various collec¬ 
tions, but they, generally, were straggling, unsightly 
bushes; but at Chiswick, even when not in bloom, 
they are very handsome plants. Every cultivator that 
has a plant or two should adopt the jtyramidal mode 
of training them. They will well reward him for his 
trouble. T. Appleby. 
(To he conthmed.') 
GARDEN WALKS AND THEIR FORMATION. 
It is generally admitted, that no feature in a garden 
gives more gratification than a good walk ; for, both in 
appearance aud in utility, a really good pathway is 
second to notl)ing the garden contains. Consequently, 
the amateur who wishes to excel in any portion of his 
garden produce must remember, that the value, or 
quality, of the articles in question is much enhanced by 
their being approached by a good, hard, smooth road¬ 
way, clean in all weathers. This, unfortunately, is not 
the case everywhere; the indiflferent quality of the 
materials of which walks are often made, and, not 
nnfrequently, the injudicious way in which they are 
used, tend much to render them uncomfortable to walk 
upon, as well as unsightly to look at. The article 
“ Walks” seems to want as much reformation as many 
of the other matters on which the public, at the present 
time, have been told where abuses exist; and as our 
public gardens and promenades are all more or less 
attractive, in accordance with the good, or indifferent, 
thoroughfares which intersect them, the amateur will, 
probably, learn a little by seeing what is good, and 
rejecting what is not; unfortunately for him, one of the 
best reasons for the public gardens’walks being so good, 
is their being so much used, while his own, if it be a 
private place, can hardly be expected to be so well 
occupied. This refers to such walks where gravel and 
similar substances form the top covering, and the 
surface is to be formed of them when they become 
consolidated into a smooth state. Where this can be 
done, and the walk kept so, there needs no improvement; 
for the small stones forming the gravel, fixing themselves 
into the finer matter, become a sort of miniature 
pavement, more or less hard, as the materials used may 
be; and as each successive shower of rain tends to 
wash the tops of such small stones, the dirt, or finer 
particles will wash in between. This is all very well 
in damp weather, but when a dry season sets in, and the 
binding matter incapable of keeping the small stones 
in their places, the path then becomes as uncomfortable 
as anything well can be, for it is like walking on a bed 
of marbles. This is especially the case in some sea-port 
1 towns, where walks, or i)romeuades, are formed of the 
; shingle found on the sea-shore, which, as I have just 
said, is all very well in wet weather, but is very bad in 
summer. 
Now, though of late years a vast improvement on 
our public thoroughfares has been accomplished by 
asphalting them, and the latest improvements that way 
leave little to wish for, save that it could be done at less 
expense, an item which may, no doubt, be considerably 
reduced, when practice has brought it to bear on the 
many purposes it may be applied to ; but, in the mean 
time, the amateur of humble means, who has a consider¬ 
able extent of garden walk to make, must adopt some 
less expensive system for all, except some portion near 
his premises, which his builder and he may consult 
upon; and, as walk-making materials cannot be imported 
far without great cost, we advise him to turn everything 
he has at home to the best account. Stone, in some 
shape or other, generally exists; or, where not, brick 
bats or other hard materials, as clinkers, the refuse of 
iron works, or anything that way, will do for the founda¬ 
tion of the walk, which need not exceed the depth of 
four or five inches in any case, neither ought it to be 
less, as worms are apt to work up tlirough where too 
shallow ; but it may be as deep as you like where there 
is material enough to fill it in with, which is often the 
case where buildings have been recently put up, and the 
waste matter lying about. A quantity of lime, or 
mortar rubbish, is useful, as likely to keep the worms 
out of the way; and where lime is very cheap, and the 
hard, pebbly stones of the sea-coast have to be used as 
a surface material, the best way would be, after forming 
the foundation, and making it as smooth as you can, to 
sift a quantity of the shingle so as to have the body of 
it as near one size as possible, say from a boy’s marble to 
that of a walnut. Lime being pounded dry, and mixed 
with these stones and water, it might be laid on as 
quickly as jmssible, taking care so to lay it as not to have 
to disturb it afterwards; but before it is dry, scatter 
on the top some smaller gravel and sharp sand, which, 
sinking into the space left by the lime receding, will 
give the walk a more smooth and agreeable face. This 
is “ concreting ” walks, in the garden fashion; builder’s 
concrete is somewhat different; but as this is much 
too tedious and expensive for the majority of walks, 
where much is to do, I would advise the bottom to be 
laid with such things as can be had, and the top formed 
as smooth as well can be, aud well rolled, adding some 
substance at top that will form a smooth surface, firm 
and binding. In some instances, I have been obliged 
to use a sort of loamy matter, where the other things 
were all more or less sandy; but this must not be done 
too much, otherwise the porosity of the walk is destroyed, 
Avhich it is imprudent to do, as it is better when all the 
rain which falls on a walk is allowed to percolate 
through it rather than run off, or stand on it (as I have 
seen some do) until it evaporates; therefore, it would 
not be prudent to add so much adhesive matter as would 
entirely prevent wet passing through, unless as in the 
case of concreting aljove, which can only be done in 
certain places'; for, as we all know that rain-water must 
have an exit somewhere, and it had better be allowed to 
sink into and down through a walk than stand or run 
along its surface, as mischief enough is done when the 
the latter is adopted, and heavy thunder showers occur. 
But supposing a tolerably hard surface to be formed, 
and also of the proper height for a walk to be, or very 
nearly so, the surfacing substance 1 propose to add will 
take up very little space indeed. 
It is now some time since I recommended, in The 
Cottage Gardener, the use of half-decayed cockle 
shells, as the prettiest and cleanest substance for coating 
the surface of walks, and a more lengthened experience 
has confirmed me in that opinion, where they are to be 
had reasonably, and where the best gravel is scarce. 
Observe, 1 say the best gravel, which, 1 admit, shells may 
