August 21. 
COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION. 
373 
that would be but a poor return for the pleasant and 
profitable hours spent at Luton Hoo. I will mention 
one thing more. In front of the house is a largish flower- 
garden on turf; it is separated from the kitchen-garden 
by a row of Scotch Roses, standard Roses, and Sweet 
Peas behind. These are not yet sufficient to intercept 
the view of the vegetables, and just on that account 
there has been something unsatisfactory in the view of 
this garden. A hedge of evergreens high enough would 
at once form a fine back-ground for the flowers, and prove 
a complete separating line, as we can hardly contemplate 
two kinds of objects successfully at the same time, with¬ 
out one rudely breaking in upon the other. I feel the 
want of this back-ground every day myself, and so do 
many more gardeners. Pina collections of Carnations, 
Picotees, Ranunculuses, &c., are grown on the borders, 
near the houses, and ere long few gardens will be more 
complete. R. ITsh. 
Neglect oe Art and Science. —A representation on 
the neglect of Art and Science in England has been 
sent home from the English jurors in Paris, which we 
sincerely trust will have its weight with Lord Palmerston. 
Government, it is very safe to say, has not been always 
alive to the importance of encouraging and sustaining 
those studies which utilize material wealth and place 
new powers in the hands of genius. This fact is written 
only too plainly on the walls of the Paris Exhibition. 
Our Art-manufactures, though improving, are still in¬ 
ferior to those of many continental lands. Our glass— 
our porcelain—our bronze work—our articles of fancy 
generally, are not comparable with those of Prague, 
Venice, Munich, and Paris. Even in departments 
which we once monopolized—such as scientific instru¬ 
ments—we are now distanced by foreign competitors. 
Few persons, except the jurors themselves, are aware 
how far and wide this inferiority extends:—and we are 
not surprised to find that these gentlemen, with the 
facts before their eyes, and anxious for the future, 
should have met in a body to discuss the matter; and, 
having discussed it, should have sent home a serious 
remonstrance to the Government. If the State will 
not look to the Art-education of the people, England 
must be content to see those occupations which connect 
themselves with the Beautiful pass away into other 
lands.— Athenaeum. 
THE ORANGE. 
CITRUS AURANTIA. 
The culture of the Orange tribe is, in these days, 
excepting in a few places, almost entirely neglected. 
We have now so many handsome flowering plants lately 
I introduced, and the passion for novelty is so pre¬ 
dominant, that old and really worthy plants are almost 
driven out of our greenhouses to make room for the 
extraordinary number of new plants that science, 
backed by enterprise and wealth, have introduced to 
this country within my recollection. Yet every one, 
however eager after new plants, will admit that a well- 
grown Orange, Lemon, Citron, or Shaddock tree, is, 
when in fruit, as handsome an ornament to our green¬ 
houses and conservatories as the finest exotic plant in¬ 
troduced in modem times. 
The culture of these fine fruits for the table, in this 
country, is scarcely necessary, for they are imported in 
such quantities, and in such perfection, and, besides 
that, are so cheap, that it would be, I may say, carrying 
coals to Newcastle, to grow them for the sake of their 
fruit; yet it is extremely gratifying to the amateur 
to have as part of the dessert on his table his own 
produced Oranges. That they can be grown in our 
greenhouses as good in quality as foreign fruit, I have, 
in my own experience, repeatedly proved. When I was 
gardener to the Rev. James Armitage Rhodes, at 
Horsforth Hall, there were, in a greenhouse, several 
large Orange-trees, which bore plentiful crops of large 
fruit, with skins, or rinds, as thin as possible when they 
were ripe, and with flesh quite tender, and full of the 
sweetest juice. Many a dibh have I sent in to table, and 
the guests have not been able to distinguish the fruit from 
the best imported fruit they ever tasted. It is true, to 
bring them to this state of perfection every care was 
bestowed upon them. They were grown in a house 
with the roof entirely glazed with good glass, giving 
them the benefit of heat, light, air, and moisture in 
proper pi'oportions; the whole of which care amounted 
to no more than we give to produce good Peaches or 
Nectarines. I give this, as an instance under my own 
observation and management, as a proof that good 
Orauges may be grown iu this country, and, I have no 
! doubt, many others have been equally successful; but 
independently of the pleasure of eating fruit of our 
own growth, there is no object of the fruit-tree kind 
j can be richer in appearance than a large, healthy 
Orange-tree, with its golden-coloured fruit hanging 
amongst its dark green, handsome-foliage. Ido expect 
the noble trees procured from France by Sir Joseph 
Paxton, and placed iu the Crystal Palace, will be the 
finest objects of the kind in the kingdom. 1 think 
they are the very best trees for such a magnificent 
building. In addition to the splendid fruit and fine 
foliage, the blossoms of the Orange tribe, though not 
so sliowy as the Camellia, are very pretty, and have 
the well-known property of being extremely fragrant, 
filling the air with their agreeable perfume. 
Let not the amateur, however, consider that it is 
necessary to have a Crystal Palace to cultivate the 
Orange tribe, in order to produce their fragrant flowers 
and beautiful fruit. No; they maybe grown well in 
a small greenhouse, in moderate-sized pots, for many 
years. The house in which I grew the trees alluded 
to above was only thirty feet long, sixteen feet wide, 
and twelve feet high at the back. The tallest trees 
were, of course, at the back, faced with lesser plants 
down to the path in front, and yet, in this com¬ 
paratively small house, there were twelve plants of 
various sizes, in order to form a fine bank of trees ; the 
largest had stems as thick as my arm, and had heads 
six feet across; so that with fewer or more trees, in 
proportion to the size of the house, Oranges may be 
grown in almost every greenhouse in England. It is 
true, they may be managed best if grown in a house by 
themselves, but the Camellia assorts well with them, 
and requires the same temperature; but Heaths, New 
Holland plants, and the large tribe classed under the 
name of soft-wooded plants, will not arrange well 
neither with the Orange nor the Camellia. Such plants 
should have houses apart from the Orange, though a 
few specimens in flower might be placed on the front 
platform next the front windows where the air is 
generally admitted into the house. 
The Orange tribe will live under an opaque roof, 
such as may be seen at Holland House, at Kensington, 
belonging to Lord Holland, and also at Clieveden, near 
Maidenhead, the seat of the Duchess of Sutherland; 
but Mr. Scrobie, at the first place, and Mr. John 
Fleming, at the second, both good gardeners, wish 
most earnestly they had glass-roofed houses for the noble 
trees under their care. 
Our summers are too short for trees so placed during 
our long winters to bring the fruit to perfection, even as 
an object of ornament solely. In fact, though many of 
the trees at both places are almost, if not quite, equal to 
