May 12. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
95 
should get too tight, the tie is loosened and fastened 
again. A few top-surfacings of earth of half-an-inch 
each is given, especially after waterings, the tying does 
something to blanch the interior, and encourages the 
young heart leaves to rise, while the whole of the rest 
of the plant is in the best position for growing. The 
blanching is completed by mounding up with earth 
or ashes three weeks before the plants are wanted, or 
from that to four weeks. 
One word to exhibition growers. Even with these 
precautions, do not strive to have much of your Celery 
very largo, if you mean to keep it any time after it is 
earthed, unless you can furnish it with an umbrella 
agaiust every shower. If not, the water will trickle 
down to the heart of the plant, and as it will not be 
able to get out, it will there cause decay, giving you 
something even more disagreeable than bolting up its 
flower-stalk. Besides, lor all purposes, except looking at, 
middle-sized Celery is best. • I- 
So certain do we feel that a great majority of Calceo¬ 
laria growers are just now ruining them with an 
excess of kindness, or, in other words, treating them 
as if much more tender than they really are, that we 
give this prominence to a note that has been obligingly 
written to Mr. Fish, by Mr. Fraser, gardener to 
Marquis Camden, at Wilderness Park. 
“ I do not think I can add anything to what is stated at 
page 09, and elsewhere ; however, here is the process, in a 
few words. I select a piece of ground, suitable for the 
number of handlights I intend to till; and on that I place 
three or four inches of clinkers, or of any other rough 
material for drainage, over which I place about two inches 
of peat and loam, mixed together, two parts of the former 
to one of the latter, and about half-an-inch of silver sand 
on the top, to insert the cuttings in. I generally put in the 
cuttings about the beginning of October, and the hand-lights 
are kept close until the cuttings are struck; and air is then 
freely given on all favourable occasions. Mats and fern are 
used in winter for protection from frost. By the beginning 
ol April, sooner or later, according to the state of the 
weather, I transplant the struck plants into a temporary 
pit, where the necessary protection can be given them, and 
thus they make nice stubby plants for turning into the beds 
with good balls, by the middle or end of May. 
“ Penstemons I treat in the same way. If I had thought 
this mode worth recording in The Cottage Gardener you 
might have had it years ago, for I always wintered these 
plants in the same way when living at Sulby Hall.’’ 
We feel much obliged by Mr. Fraser’s prompt kind¬ 
ness, but we expected nothing else from a constant sub¬ 
scriber to The Cottage Gardener. It is a pleasure to 
compare notes with such men. Three things may be 
noted by beginners. First. Do not insert Calceolaria 
cuttings too early in autumn. Secondly. After providing 
that wet does not stagnate near the roots, let the plants 
have a cool, moist atmosphere in winter. Thirdly. The 
moving the plants from the hand-light in spring is 
merely for giving each room to grow. 
Although we quite agree with our correspondent 
( Ulmus ) that more taste might very easily be adopted in 
the arrangement of St. James’s and the other Parks in 
London, yet we quite disagree from bis opinion that 
“ the wishes of the people only ought to be considered.” 
Ulmus, judging from his handwriting, is not a member 
of the royal family, and, therefore, is perhaps not aware 
that St. James’s Park is the property of the Sovereign ; 
that only certain persons have the privilege of driving 
through it, and that if the Sovereign chose to exercise 
her legitimate power she might close it up altogether, 
and prevent even foot-passengers passing through it. 
1 It is not probable that her Majesty will exhibit such a 
I freak of despotism, but if she did, we do not think her 
people would inflict upon her the penalty which Sir 
Robert Walpole told Caroline, Queen of George II., 
would follow the visitation of such a deprivation upon 
the Londoners. She wished to shut up the Park, and 
| convert it into a private garden for the Palace, and 
I asked Sir Robert what would be the expense. “ It 
, would be but a trifle, Madam,” replied the Minister. 
“ But what would it be as nearly as you can guess?” 
“ Why, 1 believe, Madam, it would cost you three 
Crowns." Her Majesty understood his meaning, and 
replied good humouredly—“Then, Sir Robert, I will 
think no more upon it.” 
The following particulars concerning the Park are 
from Jesse’s “Memorials of London,” and other 
sources:— 
“ St. James's Park was originally enclosed by Henry the 
Eighth, shortly after he purchased the hospital of St. James, 
and the held attached to it. The wall, or rather paling, of 
the Park, formerly ran where the houses on the south side 
of Pall Mall now stand. Charles the Second removed it to 
its present boundary, and, under the direction of the cele¬ 
brated French gardener, Le Notre, planted the avenues and 
disposed the trees as we now see them. The Bird-cage 
Walk was the favourite aviary of that monarch, and derives 
its name from the cages which were hung in the trees. 
Charles also formed the canal, and, in his reign, Buck 
Island took its name from being the breeding-place of the 
numerous waterfowl with which the park was stocked. The 
government of Buck Island was once enjoyed, with a small 
salary, by the celebrated St. Evremond. Pennant speaks of 
it as ‘ the first and last government,’ hut he is mistaken in 
the fact; it having previously been conferred by Charles 
the Second on Sir John Flock, a person of good family, and 
a companion of the King duiing his exile. Horace Walpole 
writes to Sir Horace Mann, on the 9th of February, 1751,— 
‘ My Lord Pomfret is made ranger of the Parks, and, by- 
consequence, my lady is queen of the Buck Island.’ This 
little island, which stood at the west end of the canal, was 
destroyed when some alterations were made in the Park 
in 1770. 
“ Another interesting feature of St. James’s Park which 
disappeared at the same time, was Rosamond’s Pond, 
situated opposite to James Street, Westminster, at the 
south-west corner of the Park. Its romantic appearance, 
the irregularity of the ground, the trees which overshadowed 
it, and the view of the venerable abbey, rendered it, we are 
told, a favourite resort of the contemplative; while its 
secluded and melancholy situation is said to have tempted 
a greater number of persons to commit suicide, especially 
unfortunate females, than any other place in London. 
“ In the pages of Pepys will be found many curious 
notices of St. James’s Park, from the time that Charles the 
Second commenced his improvements there under the di¬ 
rection of Le Notre, till the Mall became the established 
lounging-plaoe of the merry monarch and his gay court. 
We will select some scattered passages from the ‘ Diary’ of 
the gossiping chronicler:—‘1660, July 22nd. W r ent to 
walk in the inward Park, hut could not get in ; one man was 
basted by the keeper for carrying some people over on his 
hack through the water.'—‘ Sept. 16tlr. To the Park, where 
