after passing into the open air from the colonnades and 
corridors of the Palace, the “right of way” into the 
gardens. When I first called there three years since, 
and opened my eyes on the front of the Palace, I 
thought 1 should never shut them again on such 
another shabby concern. The stamp of a master mind 
was obvious enough, radiating away in all directions 
from the centre of the garden front, in the original 
laying out and planting of the grounds in the true 
Dutch style; but the carelessness, or ignorance, or 
indifference of the present generation there was much 
more obvious up to the front door, where half a dozen 
of the small ends of great radiating lines planted with 
Yew met between three broad gravel walks. The Yews 
were all planted at one regular distance of tliirty-two 
feet one from the other, and about half that distance 
across under the Yews was one mass of rubbishing, 
scrubby, half-starved hushes, with patches here and 
there of more miserable “herbaceous plants” if you 
please, just sufficient to claim the name of “shrub¬ 
beries.” ' The suckers and side branches of the Yews 
mixing with these made a beautiful “ cover ” for rabbits, 
rats, and vermin ; but somehow or other one could not 
see along or across this part, the best part, of the 
grounds, where large numbers of flower-beds were well 
planted, but were entirely lost or drowned as far as 
effect goes; and thinking, or rather, knowing that 
something was better than nothing, I said in my hurry 
that if I were the first commissioner of public works I 
would order the Sappers and Miners down to Hampton 
Court to root out those Yews at once, or to clear the 
ground under them, and turf up to the old stems of the 
Yews, and trim them up to the browsing line, that the 
beauty of the garden might he seen in all directions, 
and that any one who had a turn that way might 
understand the design, which is a perfect model of its 
kind; at least, the most perfect of that class in England 
as far as I know. But, unless these Yews stood in the 
way of siege operations against an enemy of old 
England, there is not a gardener or garden patron in 
this country who could find it in his heart to pull one of 
them down in such a place. They made a beginning, 
however, of clearing under the Yews, and introducing 
flower-beds in the spaces between them, as in other parts 
of the garden ; but as the work will require to be done 
very carefully, so as to show as little as possible of the 
effects of the former had management at once, it will 
take some time before the garden can be put into proper 
order. 
The great conservatory walls, which run right and 
left from the Palace front, have also been remodelled 
since this time last year, and are a vast improvement. 
The borders under these walls are now planted in the 
mixed style, but on a regular systematic plan—the 
rarest thing to be met with in English gardening of this 
, class. Ptoom will not allow of describing the details of 
planting to-day; hut I shall give the whole some day or 
other, with many useful details, and will end to-day 
with what is more in season. All the kinds of beddiug 
Geraniums are now being propagated in the open air 
only , while hundreds of lights of cold houses and cold 
pits are lying idle—48-pots for the stronger kinds, and 
four cuttings in each pot; but such cuttings ! They are 
from eight to eighteen inches long, and the strongest 
which can he gathered from the beds : often they are 
branchy, and a few of the leaves are taken off. Very 
good light soil is used, and four holes are first made 
with a blunt dibble, a little sharp sand is put into the 
holes, then the cuttings, a little more sand, and then a 
firm pressing. After all, the pots are placed on coal 
ashes full in the sun, and in long oblong squares, quite 
close together, like so many groups of soldiers at a 
review. You uever saw a better sight even at a review. 
They hardly lose a cutting out of ten thousand. Nothing 
GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, August 25, 1857. 
more, except watering, is done to these cutting pots 
until the middle or end of February, when each plant is 
put into a separate pot, or is planted out in a bed under 
glass. By that time each plant is big enough to be put 
into the flower-bed at once, and much bigger than most 
people can buy in April. 
They have another most economical plan for striking 
the rare and more delicate kinds of variegated Gera¬ 
niums and late cuttings of all sorts—a slight hotbed in 
the open air. Every one knows by this time that The 
Cottage Gardener prefers all kinds of Geranium cut¬ 
tings to he struck in the open air, and that that was 
the “old plan” at and before Miller’s time, as he tells 
us in his Dictionary; but now we have many delicate 
kinds, which do better with a little more bottom-heat 
than our British soil can give. To meet such cases the 
gardeners at Hampton Court hit on an excellent ex¬ 
pedient, which may he followed by any one who has a 
garden. Instead of making muck pies of all the refuse 
and sweepings of the garden they collect the whole into 
one place, shake it up, and make it into the form of a 
dung Cucumber bed, only ten times longer, and two or 
three times broader, and when it gets to feel sensibly 
warm to the hand on the surface they cover it with 
short grass two or three inches to keep down the smell; 
the sun dries up the top of the grass in a short time, 
and then the bed is fit for the cutting pots. I saw hun¬ 
dreds of cutting pots thus managed doing as well as 
any cuttings I ever saw. Slight hotbeds in the open 
air have often been talked about, though they are seldom 
to be seen; hut this is a good way to begin with 
them. 
Dennis’s Alma was again the most telling Geranium 
in these gardens; but 1 can tell, from my own experi¬ 
ments, that a large bed is necessary to bring it out fully. 
It is mGst difficult to get proper cuttings of it in the 
autumn, as every inch it grows produces a flower-bud. 
It would appear to seed like a weed, but there is not a 
seed in fifty pods, and out of fifty good-looking seeds 
not more than fifteen will vegetate unless the pollen 
was applied at the right time. There is a collection of 
the best Hollyhocks from the florists in the mixed 
borders in front of the walls, and two large beds of the 
seedliugs of last year which were raised in the place. 
The curator, Mr. Donald, being, or having been, a 
fancier of that tribe for many years, his own seedlings, 
or some of them, are much better in style and shape 
than any of the bought ones. He showed me how to 
get a first-rate seedling from a third-rate plant or kind, 
and also how none but inferior sorts could be had from 
the best kind in existence. 
There is hardly a family of plants from which popular 
crosses are obtained but some one has a secret way of 
operating on it, and this is the secret in the Hollyhock 
family. These secrets are perfectly lawful and most 
useful in the long run; but the secret of “cooking” 
flowers after they come into the world, so as to make 
them look so much better than is natural to them, is 
downright cheating for the purpose of getting money 
under ialse pretences. The Hollyhock is watched from 
the opening of the first flower. Every flower which is 
not perfect of its kind is picked off as soon as it is full 
blown. Hie best kinds often come false, and common 
kinds show a first-rate flower occasionally, as if by 
chance. No matter, therefore, whether it is the best, or 
second or third best, or no best at all, which shows the 
coveted flower : that flower is marked, and every other 
flower on that spike is instantly destroyed, and the 
whole strength of the plant is reserved to seed one 
flower, or two at most if the plant is very strong. 
Gathering seeds from the best kinds indiscriminately is, 
therefore, like love’s labour lost. If a first-rate seed¬ 
ling is taken up with the Dahlias and potjted, kept 
in a cold frame, and gently forced in February for 
