230 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, January 12, 1858. 
' campanulate, with a contracted mouth, fleshy, pu¬ 
bescent, deep crimson, bearing several glands of a 
bright yellow colour on the margin. 
Lew of the plants cultivated in our stoves can claim 
greater beauty than this one ; and it is in the bracts 
that its splendour lies. A loamy soil suits it best; 
I and it should be rich and strong. To propagate this 
lant from cuttings, is rather difficult, because, after 
eing cut from the plant, they bleed so profusely, as to 
become quite exhausted. This might be prevented by 
cutting them only partially through on the plant, a 
week or two before cutting them finally off. 
Acrophyllum venosum. JBenth. Nat. ord., Cu- 
noniacece. —Native of New Holland. A freely-branch¬ 
ing shrub, about two feet in height. Branches woody, 
stiff, reddish, smooth, with a few closely-lying hairs 
on the younger parts. Leaves opposite, sessile, ovate ; 
margins deeply-toothed; veins A^ery prominent, and 
reticulated; dark green on the upper side, lighter 
beneath, very coriaceous. Stipules in pairs, at the 
base of each leaf; lanceolate. Inflorescence in axillary 
panicles, surmounted by a tuft of small, reddish leaves, 
of similar character to those of the stem. Calyx 
j small, with the limb divided into acutely lanceolate 
| segments ; persistent. Petals larger than the calyx ; 
! each on a long attenuated claw. Stamens extended 
} beyond the corolla, on very slender filaments. 
A very handsome greenhouse plant, with free- 
1 flo\vering qualities, and easy of growth. It blooms in 
j the spring, and early summer months, and lasts well. 
It prefers a compost of rich loam, about two parts, and 
one part of peat, with a good portion of sand, over 
! a well-placed drainage. Roots pretty freely from 
I cuttings of partially ripened shoots, in sand, by the 
usual method of striking cuttings of greenhouse plants. 
—S. G-. W. 
THE GARDENER AT WENTWORTH AND 
THE GARDENS. 
The gardener and the gardens! Why not ? Jt is not the 
common jog-trot way, certainly ; but the gardenpr at Went¬ 
worth is not a common one; and, allow me to apply the 
saying said to be spoken by the late Earl of Moray, in answer 
to one of his friends, who told him that his coat Avas not so 
; good as his butler’s, “Perhaps not; —but there is this cliife- 
: rence : the coat honours him, and I honour the coat;” and, I 
dare to say, that Mr. Henderson honours Wentworth Gardens. 
I Avas fortunate in finding him at his rooms before I entered 
the garden. And though twenty-seven years had passed from 
the time I had seen him last—taking also into consideration 
that he has not had the attentions and fostering care of a 
| lady to air his pillow—I was glad to see time had made little 
j inroad on him, which is not to be wondered at; for if there 
is one that has followed the advice of CoAvper, when he says— 
“ A life all turbulence and noise may seem 
To him, Avho leads it, wise, and to be praised; 
But wisdom is a pearl, with most success 
Sought in still waters, and beneath clear skies,” 
it is Joseph Henderson; for no man has made himself more 
the harvestman of circumstances. His rooms bear undoubted 
testimony to this, and contain an interesting, select museum 
of natural history, collected by his unwearied industry; and 
I have a lively recollection of sitting down to a table covered, 
apparently, with castles of pill-boxes, Avhich, for the moment, 
took me by surprise; as I could not reconcile to my mind 
that such a healthy specimen before me could be kept up by 
such nostrums. And it was not till I had mixed and inter¬ 
mixed them, in explaining how this and that were or should 
be laid out ? that I bethought me they were full of insects, 
arranged in order according to their different genera; and 
I ought to be ashamed to say, I was cowardly enough not 
| to apologise, but leave them, un-Hendersonian—a medley 
I of confusion. lor, whether he is on his knees searching for 
the flowers of a rare Moss; potting a dear Fern; superin¬ 
tending the planting of a huge Oak, where every fibre of the | 
roots, to please, must have its place; or adjusting the down 
on the neck of a swan, or the feathers on the wing of a goose 
he has stuffed; or even the placing in its proper position the 
leg of a beetle, or the horns of a butterfly—all, all must be 
done to such a nicety, and with a patience only equalled by 
an Andrew Moray, the Scotch general of Mending Girth 
notoriety in the time of Edward III. Hence the key to his 
great success in a profession—energy is useless if not coupled J 
with patience and perseverance. 
Note this, ye youngsters, and follow his steps. This you ! 
may rely on, is the ladder where fewest rotten steps are to , 
be met with. But even if I could, this is not the place to 
enter into a lengthy description of his long and useful fife. 
Suffice it to say, lie is the last, I believe, of the race of Hender¬ 
sons, of Blair Adam, in Eifesliire, who are well-known to 
have been, for botanical lore, far in advance of their more 
aristocratic neighbours ; that he was a Avorthy predecessor, 
at Raith, in Fifes hire, of Mr. Smith, of Kew; has also had 
the honour to serve royalty; and, I believe, has now been 
upwards of forty years in the service of the noble Earls 
Fitzwilliam. In conclusion, allow me to say, that he justly 
stands decidedly at the head of the noiv numerous growers 
of the interesting tribe of Ferns. 
Wentworth gardens—alio whig the starting-point to be the 
centre of the garden-front of the house, and that you have 
only seen the park-front of it, which, as I have said, is very 
imposing — one Avould naturally suppose, or rather expect, 
something after the style of a Stoive before him; but, on the 
contrary, all that is to be seen is a forest—true, not of noble 
Oaks alone, but, Avhicli is worse, a mixture, including recently- 
introduced trees, with an irregular outline that allows the 
caprice of every succeeding generation to stick in a favourite 
tree; thereby shortening the already-too-limited distance 
between the house and them. Yet this has its advantages : and 
if it were not for knowing that the house was close behind you 
and the picture from its windows, I Avould not find fault with 
it; for, in taking the straight walk before you, which, though 
a very good one, is by far too narroiv, and on each side of 
which are row's of small circular clumps, with some half-dozen 
standard Roses in each, and well studded with scarlet Gera¬ 
niums, Calceolarias, Lobelias, &c., which, I will take the 
liberty to say, Avere pretty enough; and though in good keep¬ 
ing with a w r ell-dressed lawn, were here quite out of place. 
After walking a very little way, I observed, on the left, a very 
fine specimen of the Liquid Amber, nine inches in diameter 
at the base, and about eighteen feet in height; a tree, to the 
disgrace of landscape gardeners, too-seldom met Avith. On 
the right, a little further on, was a splendid Oak-shaped 
Mountain Ash : but, as taking notes was quite out of the 
question, I have, therefore, only to add, that a few steps 
further ushered me into what I shall call the dressed-forest 
style, a little after Mr. Frost’s, at Dropmore, A\Ith a little more 
liberty; forming a series of open glades, and irregular re¬ 
cesses, with the Ferns and other plants running in great 
profusion—carelessly, but very gracefully, from beneath the 
bushes, yet all under subjection—nothing of the wild-en¬ 
tangled ; but all, from the grass to the highest tree, in Hen¬ 
dersonian order. 
At every turn, you meet with magnificent trees and shrubs, 
many of which stand out boldly alone. I Avill give you here 
a list of the most remarkable trees in the place; the dimen¬ 
sions of AA'liich have been kindly sent me by Mr. Henderson. 
Height. 
Diameter of Base. 
Pinus Douglasii 
. 35 feet . . 
. . 1 foot 
A Scotch Fir . . 
. 80 „ . . 
. . 8 feet 
A Larch . . . 
. 87 „ . . 
. . 7 ft. 6 in. do. 
Ditto . . . 
. 85 „ . . 
. . 8 ft. do. 
A Spanish Chestnut 
. 94 „ . . 
. . 11 ft. 6 in. do. 
Ditto . . . 
. 100 „ . . 
. . 13 ft. 6 in. do. 
An Ash .... 
. 94 „ . . 
. . 7 ft. do. 
Ditto . . 
. 92 ft. 7 in. . 
. . 10 ft. do. 
A Beech . . 
. 93 „ 
. . 11 ft. do. 
An Oak . . . 
. 86 „ . . 
. . 11 ft. 4 in. do. 
Ditto . . . 
. 100 „ . . 
. , 13 ft. 7 in. do. 
Ditto ... 
. 82 ft. 9 in. . 
. . 15 ft. do. 
Evergreen Oak 
. 32 „ 
. . 7 ft. 8 in. do. 
Cedrus Deodara . 
. 25 ft. . 10 in. circumference, 4 ft 
from the ground. 
Enough as a sample ; for I see a huge old-fashioned green- 
