218 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 5, 1858. 
many, planted out during summer, and produce a most 
glorious effect; either as single plants on the turf, or planted 
in beds, they form quite a feature in the generality of gardens, 
j I believe it is quite practicable to carry out tliis plan as well 
in England as here. Indeed, it has already been found to 
succeed in several instances; and there is scarcely a garden, 
however limited, in which it might not with advantage be 
tried. I will mention some of the principal plants used 
here. 
Rhubarb, so commonly planted in English gardens for 
culinary purposes, is here only used as a foliage plant; but atten- 
tion has lately been drawn to its gastronomic value by an article 
in one of the best horticultural periodicals of this country, by a 
clever young German gardener, now in England. None of 
the larger varieties appear to be here ; or, if so, the dry atmo¬ 
sphere keeps them from attaining their usual size. Gunnera 
scabra is a Rhubarb-like plant in habit (the leaf stalks are 
said to be used for a similar purpose by the natives of Chiloe). 
I have seen the hard sinuated leaves four feet across; but 
they will attain double that size. As it belongs to the natural 
order of which the Ivy is the type, the flowers cannot be 
expected to be very fine; but its foliage is very striking. The 
Egyptian Papyrus succeeds here admirably, if copiously sup¬ 
plied with water, and forms a most elegant object standing 
alone upon the turf; but, perhaps, it appears even to greater ad¬ 
vantage in its natural position by the side of a sheet of water. 
In one garden I saw it planted by the side of a walk alter¬ 
nately with Humea, elegans: —by no means a bad idea. The 
New Zealand Flax ( Phormium tenax ), looks well planted out 
where it can fully develope its gigantic flag-like leaves. Musa 
CavendisJiii does moderately well for three or four months, 
and has quite a tropical appearance. Those Palms which I 
have seen tried were generally failures—the foliage becoming 
yellow. The Castor Oil plant is already used in your gardens; 
but I never saw it in such perfection as here. It should be 
raised from seed, or cuttings, in autumn; or the old plants 
cut back, lifted, and kept in a cool place during whiter, to be 
planted out again in the spring. Several species of Canna 
arc planted out, and produce a fine effect. C. discolor , though 
it rarely flowers, is the best, from the dark brown colour of 
its stems; the leaves, too, are tinted with the same colour. 
I never saw a finer group than that produced by a large 
circle; the centre of which was occupied by the variegated 
variety of Arundo donax, surrounded by several plants of 
Indian Corn; then a circle of Canna discolor; then one of 
C. Indica , flowering freely; and the edging formed of alternate 
plants of Xanthosoma violacea and Begonia discolor. The 
Xanthosoma is a Caladium-like plant, with purplish stems. 
We have yet to learn how many tropical plants will do well 
in the open air in summer; and the sooner we begin to ex¬ 
perimentalise upon them the better. The way with these 
Cannas, Caladiums, and such like, is to keep them dry during 
winter under the stage of a greenhouse, or any convenient 
place; start them in a hotbed in spring, and then plant them 
out in a bed that has been dug out to the depth of two feet; 
some dung thrown in, just to give them a little warmth to 
start with, and the bed filled up with refuse potting soil, or 
the ordinary soil of the garden, if not too poor. Almost all 
kinds of soft-wooded stove plants might be treated in this 
way, and would be so much improved as to be scarcely re¬ 
cognisable. I noticed this as particularly the case with 
Impatiens platypetala , and its white variety. 
The Pampas Grass ( Gynerium argenteum) is, unfortunately, 
not hardy here. There is a peculiar grey, broad-leaved grass, 
called Ely nuts glcmcus , cultivated here j as also is Saccharwn 
Maddenii , which grows to about five feet in height, but is 
very much more slender and graceful than the Sugar Cane, 
its near relative. Then there is the dwarf, plume-like-flower- 
ing Panicum purpureum , and many other ornamental Grasses. 
—Karl. 
DIFFERENCES IN PRACTICE. 
Having gone through the ordinary routine of gardening 
under several head-gardeners, and each having his respective 
opinions and modes of practice, I have often wondered why 
there is not more unanimity of opinion, and more uniformity 
of practice amongst them. For instance, in the formation of 
the bottom of a vinery floor, and the outside border; and also 
the making-up of a border on the south side of a wall for the 
growing of Apricot, Nectarine, and Peach trees ; the manage¬ 
ment of Pines, Yines, &c., anything but unanimity of opinion, 
or uniformity of practice, seems to prevail. 
Again, some of the most successful competitors at the lead¬ 
ing horticultural shows advocate the necessity of concreting 
vinery floors, and the outside borders; also the borders for 
growing the tender sorts of fruit trees. Other gardeners 
condemn these practices. Let me state my own opinions and 
observations upon the subject. 
The gardener must use similar means that the farmer uses 
to dry “a wet, cold subsoil.” Hence, when a gardener is 
compelled to select a low-lying site for a garden, he must 
make the drying of the site for the house and kitchen garden, 
his object, first worthy of attention. 
Since many farms, each several hundred acres in extent, arc 
often drained at the sole expense of the tenant-farmer—each 
drain not less than three feet in depth-—no gentleman’s gar¬ 
dener, who is appointed to superintend the making of a 
garden, should allow drains to be cut (provided he has suf¬ 
ficient level to carry off the water), less than four feet in depth. 
If gardeners were to pay as much attention to the drying 
of a few acres of ground for a kitchen garden, an orchard, 
&c., as tenant-farmers do to the drying of their farms—which 
is sometimes done at the sole expense of the farmer, even 
within a few years of the expiration of the lease,—I unhesi¬ 
tatingly assert, there would be seldom any necessity for con¬ 
creting the bottom of a vinery floor, or outside borders of any 
sort. That a kitchen garden and an orchard may be trenched 
to a sufficient depth, the drains should not be less than four 
feet in depth. 
Gardeners are sometimes compelled to erect vineries in the 
lowest part of a garden which has a north aspect. 
Suppose a lean-to vinery to be fifteen feet wide within the 
walls, and the outside border also fifteen feet wide, and a 
walk to run parallel with the south side of the border. The 
ground required for the base of the floor and border should 
be staked out, and the surface soil excavated, and laid in 
some low part of the garden. 
Since the vinery is in the lowest part of the garden, the 
main dram might pass along in front of the south wall, or 
along the south side of the border, which should not be less 
than four feet and a half deep. Were the “ cold, damp sub¬ 
soil ” cut out something like a ridge-and-furrow roof at right 
angles across the border and vinery, a pipe laid in the bottom 
of each furrow, and clear rubble, or large gravel stones, laid, 
say eighteen inches above the tops of the ridges ; the supply 
of old bricks, or gravel, regulating the depth the ridges and 
furrows should be cut. 
Experienced practical gardeners consider two feet of com¬ 
post for the roots of the Yines sufficient depth for the Yines 
to grow in. The most suitable compost is said to be good 
turfy fibry loam, leaf mould, road scrapings, good rotten 
manure, lime rubbish, bone dust, and a little charcoal; but 
the number of correspondents who ask, through the medium 
of horticultural periodicals, what is the most suitable com¬ 
post, shows that every gardener has his own mode of practice. 
Were a dry-rubble wall to be built over the mam drain¬ 
pipes as high as the bottom of the gravel on the walk—which 
generally passes along the front and round the ends of the 
vineries, and the outside border and the bottom of the vinery 
floor—excavated, and filled up as described above, I ask those 
who advocate the necessity for concreting, to prevent “shank¬ 
ing,” by the roots of the Yines penetrating into the “ cold, 
damp subsoil,’’ would the above not obviate the necessity for 
gardeners having recourse to concrete as a substitute for 
efficient drainage ? 
Were a perpendicular pipe fitted into the main drain-pipe, 
and brought up above the’ground-line—which might be orna¬ 
mentally placed in a line with the Box edging —and a pipe 
also fitted into the drain-pipe, in the bottom of the furrow in 
the inside of the vinery, and the pipe brought up above the 
floor-line, the atmospheric air would circulate throughout the 
floor; and the outside border of a vineiy so constructed, some¬ 
what similarly to common air through a naturally-porous 
soil, which is admirably adapted for agricultural or horti¬ 
cultural purposes. 
Some of your readers may think the roots of the Yines 
might as well be planted in a hungry, gravelly soil. Since 
