THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, December 1, 1857. 
126 
expended on tlie lens with which it is mounted. 
We will first of all describe an arrangement quite 
as available for the beginner as a more expensive 
instrument, and which can be manufactured by any 
of our readers possessing a tolerable amount of 
ingenuity for a sum not exceeding Jive shillings.. 
The accompanying drawing will best explain its 
construction. 
yf *-v■WT’/r : 
'If' | f iti 1 - *■ V i 
h> 
B.—A strong and light-tight box, eight inches by 
six inches, by six inches deep, forms the body of 
the camera. The whole of the inside must be 
painted a dead black. 
H. —A circular hole to admit 
T. —The lens tubes. 
F. —The prepared paper frame, whicli fixes into a 
rabbeted opening at the end of the camera 
opposite. 
L. —The lens. 
G . —A ground glass for focussing. This is hinged 
by a piece of leather to the top of the camera; 
and when not in use is drawn up into the upper 
part by 
S. —A string passing through a hole in the top, 
and looping on to a hook at the side of the 
paper frame. The hole (h) must be surrounded 
with a piece of green baize, to prevent any rays 
of light from entering the box. 
(To be continued.) 
ME, SALTER’S CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
November 16. 
As soon as I received the invitation to see the Stoke 
Newington Show, I made a hasty breakfast, got my 
boots, top-coat, a clean collar, my Sunday hat, and 
went “ as I was,” post-haste, to catch the Hampton 
omnibus, in Kingston ; saw Mr. Jackson’s show-house 
in one whole blaze from end to end; w r as with the 
Messrs. Salter, father and son, about ten o’clock, and 
spent the whole day with them, rehearsing the old story, 
seizing on the principal points of the new discoveries, 
and stowing as much under-hatches as “all hands” 
could bring on board, that I might be in a fit and 
5 roper condition to appear before the dons of the East 
md, as a “ knowing cove,” like the “ gent ” who might 
bribe the Judges. 
They have made a fresh arrangement in the “winter 
garden,” a large house thirty yards long and eighteen 
or twenty feet wide. A main serpentine walk runs 
down the whole centre of the building, which has a 
door at each end, with loop walks round, ovals and 
circles at regular distances in the centre line; these 
walks break the outlines of the banks of living beauty 
in bloom, into deep bays and bold prominent capes, 
or headlands, in a very agreeable manner; and the 
effect is heightened very considerably by the skilful 
arrangements of “heights and colours,” not a weari¬ 
some, monotonous, plain-level surface of surpassing 
beauty, as you see in England, with Pelargoniums and 
other florists’ flowers. All the new kinds of the dif¬ 
ferent sections are in one division for reafly reference ; 
behind the banks of Chrysanthemums are Orange trees 
in fruit, Camellias in blooming bud, and other green¬ 
house fine-leaved plants. And among the masses of 
continuous gorgeous blooms, are introduced the 
finer kinds of pot Conifers, as Libocedrus of sorts ; 
Araucarias, Cephalotaxus, Cupressus, and such like. 
Then the very opposite, with different hardy kinds 
of Bamboo, as Arundinariafalcata ; the very elegant 
JBambusa plicata, in bloom, the leaves a foot long, not 
two inches wide, and plaited beautifully, like some 
Curculigo leaf. It should stand among hardy orna¬ 
mental grasses ; and in good soil would grow as tall as 
wheat ; also Pampas Grass, the African Sugar Cane, 
Holcus saccharmn, JBambusa mitaJce, the native name. 
This, also, is hardy, with a leaf like that of a small- 
leaved Hedychium ; Yucca California with long 
narrow leaves ; all from a seeming bulb at the surface 
of the pot; very graceful. Then there are masses and 
fringes of the variegated Hydrangea, a fine winter 
plant; and there is a splendid new yellow variegated 
Hydrangea, which I never saw or heard about before. 
This and Farfugium grande, will run a race ; Centaurea 
candidissima, and another species, a great novelty, 
called Centaurea gymnocarpa, seemingly an improved 
edition of Cineraria maritima, the Frosted Silver plant. 
This, I think, might be grown to look very much like 
the Dusty Miller Fern, from Peru. The white 
variegated Vinca major, I was told, would make a 
beautiful edging, if well trained along. Many other 
variegated plants are placed here and there; and masses 
of the crimson Dock, JRumex sanguineus, and of our 
common Beet, but grown profusely in pots, to give 
their tints in this arrangement. 
The most generally valuable novelty I saw here, is a 
broad-leaved Myrtle, as much variegated as the old 
wavy leaf, fruiting as freely as Eugenia Ugni, and 
growing in the young state as fast as the green 
Myrtle. In the middle of a circular bed was a nice 
plant of the Elephant's Foot plant, from the Cape, 
surrounded by variegated plants, and edged with 
Isolepis gracilis and Festuca qlauca, another very 
nice edging grass ; and for fine-leaved plants, nothing 
seems now to go down so well as the dear old Acacia 
lophantha, the oldest, the cheapest, and the most hand¬ 
some of all the Mimosa-looking plants which will stand 
the open air in summer. They propagate this for the 
London trade by the thousands down at Margate 
and Ramsgate ; and no Londoner can return from 
hence without his Mimosa, “ the newest discovery.” 
After studying this way of arrangement for a while, 
a new idea suggested itself, which, I think, a good 
many people will like, instead of taking the names of 
the best new and old Chrysanthemums. Why not 
classify the colours ; and then give a few names of the 
best flowers in each colour P There are two colours 
which I cannot bear to look at, but which I shall 
never mention; and, no doubt, others have their 
favourite colours, and colours they cannot “abide.” 
Therefore, in this way, one will see at a glance the 
favourite colour, and the best kinds in that colour. 
All I can say further, is, that I felt ashamed at last 
of taking up so much of the Messrs. Salter’s valuable 
time ; for the plan was four times more difficult to do 
than I thought it could be ; and there was then a run 
